Transmigration

The gloomy sky seemed to be thick with an oppressive darkness that would not disperse. Across the desolate, ruined land, ancient tones seemed to converge into some kind of call, echoing endlessly...

"Mm..."

As his consciousness remained hazy, Zhou Xu could not help frowning when he was jolted awake from his sleep. He slowly opened his eyes.

The next second, what entered his view was a completely unfamiliar sky, and a trace of bewilderment appeared on his face.

Before he could think any further, the icy sensation against his back, combined with the cold wind howling past him, made him shudder on the spot. He instinctively curled up.

At that moment, Zhou Xu quickly discovered that he was lying completely naked on an altar built from piled stones. Strange symbols had been drawn across it, forming a circular array roughly five meters in diameter.

Looking at the circular array, Zhou Xu's expression turned complicated.

At the same time, chanting in unison kept coming from the outskirts, making him unable to stop himself from raising his head.

The next second, all he saw was a stretch of unfamiliar, barren land. Below him, an estimated twenty or thirty figures lay prostrate on the ground. They were unkempt and wrapped in animal skins, looking like primitive humans.

When they saw him stand, they all raised both hands toward the sky, knelt on the ground, and shouted in languages he could not understand at all.

The unfamiliar surroundings, incomprehensible language, naked body, and bizarre scene before him made Zhou Xu tense up at once.

His gaze instinctively fell upon that strange circular array again. His eyebrows rose...

[Good grief, with a setup like this, don't tell me I've stumbled into some kind of cult ritual?!]

Almost as soon as this thought flashed through Zhou Xu's mind, a thin-faced, deathly pale woman from among the crowd below had already bowed and walked up before him.

She then knelt on both knees and presented a piece of animal hide before him. It was probably clothing for him.

Although he felt that his current situation was far from good and had no idea where these strange people had come from, considering his present state, he obviously needed the clothes.

After glancing at the woman with her head lowered, Zhou Xu snatched up the animal hide and shook it open. After giving it a cursory inspection and confirming there was nothing wrong with it, he wrapped it around himself, immediately feeling much more at ease.

During this process, a man below also walked up, carrying something in an animal hide.

Zhou Xu instinctively lifted his eyes to look.

The sight nearly made his heart seize with a violent cramp.

What the man had brought up was actually a horribly disfigured head!

Although he had watched all kinds of terrifying and gory films before, even taking pleasure in them, he was not some mentally deranged freak.

When a real head was placed before him like this, the shock it brought could not possibly compare with anything on a video screen.

With his face held taut, Zhou Xu looked fairly calm on the surface.

As his thoughts raced, the man had already reached him. Then, just like the woman before him, he knelt on both knees, raised the head high, and presented it before Zhou Xu's eyes.

Faced with this spectacle, Zhou Xu instinctively tried to retreat, only to discover that, for some unknown reason, he had lost control of his body.

It was as though a deeper instinct were driving him to extend both hands and take the head.

The next second, their gazes met. Zhou Xu soon discovered that two flickering wisps of phosphorescent fire burned within the head's eye sockets, signaling that it was far from as simple as it appeared.

He had no time to think. Almost the instant his gaze met those two wisps of fire, they seemed to be drawn by something. Following the guidance of his eyes, they transformed into two streams of tangible energy and surged madly into his eyes.

Yet for some reason, at this moment when he should have been terrified and shaken, his emotions inexplicably sank into a strange calm.

Even his mind, which had been thrown into chaos by the successive shocks after waking from unconsciousness, gradually cleared.

Little by little, all kinds of images began flashing through his mind.

[I remember now. Our class organized a graduation trip. On the way, the bus we were riding in got into an accident. I... died?]

Almost as soon as this thought arose, the two wisps of phosphorescent fire in the head's eyes completely flooded into his own.

At that moment, he felt a string of strange characters suddenly appear in his mind. The bizarre sensation left Zhou Xu's spirit momentarily dazed.

Meanwhile, the man and woman kneeling before him seemed to have confirmed something. Their emotions became thoroughly feverish, and they once again raised their arms and shouted.

The primitive people kneeling below heard them and began cheering along as well.

The spectacle left Zhou Xu, whose mind was already dazed, even more bewildered. On top of that, the string of strange characters continued to surface in his mind.

At that moment, completely beyond his control, Zhou Xu's lips opened and closed several times. As he lifted his eyes, several harsh, ancient tones came from his mouth.

The next second, led by the man and woman kneeling before him, windows filled with all kinds of information and data appeared over the bodies of every figure present.

The windows looked exactly like the character data panels from the games he used to play.

At the same time, a voice rang out in his mind...

[Transmigrator identity confirmed. System loading. Please wait...]

[System Notification: Congratulations, 'Zhou Xu' has acquired the True Word 'Eye of Insight'.]

[System... True Word?]

Faced with the bombardment of information, Zhou Xu vigorously rubbed his brow, trying to pull his focus together.

[Wait, wait, calm down. So the situation is that I died in a car accident, then transmigrated. This seems to be a game world, there's a system, and everyone around me is a primitive human...]

While Zhou Xu struggled to organize his thoughts, a voice rang out beside his ear...

"Chief? Chief?"

"Could you stop making noise for a second? My head's a mess."

The voice constantly interrupting his thoughts irritated him somewhat, but almost as soon as he said this, Zhou Xu realized what had happened, and his expression stiffened.

His gaze immediately fell upon the terrified-looking man.

"Was that... you speaking just now?"

"Yes, yes."

"Say a few more things."

Although the other man had no idea what he meant, he still steeled himself and began speaking...

"Chief, it'll be dark soon. We need to hurry and find a place to build camp."

Hearing the other man's voice again, Zhou Xu could not help taking a deep breath.

Until just now, he had been completely unable to understand what these primitive people were saying. Yet, incredibly, he could understand them now.

Thinking about it carefully, what he had blurted out just now had definitely not been his native tongue, but the other party's language.

Yet when he spoke it, it came as naturally as his mother tongue.

[Is this also one of the system's abilities?]

Here I am, here I am—I've brought civilization with me~