(Brain storage area!)
(New book, setting sail.)
By morning, the sun had risen, bringing a little warmth and light to the earth. But the factory's racket had not let up in the slightest. The roar of enormous machines echoed incessantly through the air.
Liu Bing crouched beside a pile of freshly injection-molded products, his eyes bloodshot and his face exhausted. Even so, he kept his full attention on the logbook in his hands, carefully checking whether products randomly picked from the basket met quality standards.
Now and then, he found a defect. When that happened, he set the defective products aside and marked them down in his book.
"Bing, time to hand over!" A shout interrupted Liu Bing's concentration. He looked over to see another quality inspector from his team walking toward him. The other man had evidently finished checking his assigned area and was heading back to the workshop office to clock out.
"Got it! Give me a minute—I've still got a few baskets left to check." Liu Bing called back, without pausing his work.
After checking the batch, he confirmed that apart from a few flaws within the acceptable quality standards, there were no major problems. He nodded with satisfaction and wrote a detailed summary of the inspection in his logbook. Then he slowly straightened up, intending to head to the workshop office and clock out.
But just as he tried to stand, a wave of dizziness suddenly hit him, and his vision went black. This wasn't unusual for Liu Bing; plenty of people got dizzy when they stood up after crouching for a long time. After waiting for a moment until he felt better, he headed straight for the workshop office.
Once he'd clocked out, Liu Bing dragged his exhausted body home after pulling an all-night shift. As soon as he got back to his rented studio apartment, he stumbled into bed, ready to sleep.
Just then, a voice sounded in his mind.
[Ding! The Myriad Worlds Traversal System has activated. Host, would you like to travel to another world?]
Liu Bing perked up a little. Was this a system? He wasn't a transmigrator, so why had it chosen him? He stared blankly for a moment, then tried asking in his mind, "System?"
[Host, I'm here.]
He sucked in a breath. So there really was a system? He hadn't just been so tired he was hallucinating? Liu Bing pinched himself to check whether he was so exhausted from work that he'd died suddenly.
After confirming that he was alive and had genuinely gained a system, Liu Bing grew excited. "System, what worlds can you take me to?" he asked curiously.
[Host, the destination is random. It all depends on luck. Would you like to travel?]
"Random?" Liu Bing immediately felt uneasy. He asked again, "System, do you have a system space? If you do, can I make thorough preparations before I start traveling?"
[The system space has been activated. The host has twelve hours of free time to make preparations.]
At that news, Liu Bing instantly snapped out of his drowsiness and became full of energy, as if he'd been injected with stimulants.
He sprang out of bed, quickly washed up, then rushed out of his apartment to buy supplies.
He had no idea what kind of unknown world he was about to be transported to, so it couldn't hurt to be prepared!
Besides, someone like Liu Bing, with no wilderness survival experience, would probably starve to death if he ended up in some uncivilized world or ancient era. Even if he didn't starve, he could run into a wild predator and end up as its takeaway.
So, apart from stocking up on enough everyday necessities, it was also vital to pick out a few weapons he could handle for self-defense. He'd need pepper spray, a stun baton, personal-defense spray, bear spray, and every other kind of spray he could find.
Unfortunately, regulations in the country were extremely strict, so firearms were out of the question. He couldn't even get his hands on a decent compound bow at short notice, so he had to forget about ranged weapons.
It was a shame he was so pressed for time. If he'd had more time to prepare, he would've bought a whole suit of armor online!
But things were as they were. For now, he could only focus on weapons, equipment, food, and drinking water.
Liu Bing raced to a large shopping center nearby and went on a wild shopping spree. He even made a trip to a workwear shop in the west of the city and bought a full set of construction gear. A crowbar was a true divine weapon.
In the end, he returned with a huge haul. Items of all sizes filled the system space, and the shopping spree had eaten up most of his savings.
He'd bought everything he thought might come in handy, from little things like tissues and bottled water to bigger items like sleeping bags and tents. Before he knew it, the afternoon had arrived.
Once he felt he'd prepared enough, he nervously said to the system, "System, let's go."
[Ding! The spacetime tunnel is opening. Initiating traversal.]
Liu Bing felt as if a stone had been dropped into the space before him, sending ripples across it. His mind went hazy in an instant. His senses seemed to stop working completely, and everything around him twisted out of shape.
This traveling business is awful! Liu Bing thought.
Suddenly, he heard a bang, followed by a clear, feminine shout: "Self-draw! Pure one suit!"
The shout brought Liu Bing back to his senses. Confused, he looked around and found himself on a flat, endless plain. The ground was so flat it seemed unreal, like an enormous tabletop. But everywhere he looked, he couldn't see a thing.
Liu Bing asked in his mind, "System, where is this?"
After a long while, the system still didn't respond. Something felt wrong. He hurriedly tried to open the system space, but the system seemed to have vanished. There was nothing there. Not only were the things he'd prepared gone, but the system space itself was gone too.
For no apparent reason, Liu Bing started to panic. How had the system disappeared? Had he run into a kidnapper from the system world?
As Liu Bing panicked, he heard a voice.
"Hm? Who has no manners and shoved this piece of trash in here?"
"Hey, Sister Nuwa, that's a system, right? There are systems this weak?"
"Right, it's a system. It's been tens of thousands of years since one showed up. And now that one finally has, it's this weak? How boring."
"Empress Nuwa, take a look and see what's inside this system! Crack it open, crack it open!"
"Tch, this system's just an empty shell. There's nothing in it... Well, not nothing. There are a few little things in its space."
"Uh, aside from some snacks, the rest of it is all junk."
"Why does this look like supplies prepared by some kid who's just bound to a system?"
At that, Liu Bing understood what had happened. The useless system had brought him to the Primordial World! And it had crashed right in front of Empress Nuwa, who'd caught it and cracked it open.
And his supplies—they seemed to have been pulled out, too. What was he supposed to do now? Did someone like him, a transmigrator, count as an Outer Realm Demon? Would he be killed?
The system was dead right at the start. What was he supposed to do? Asking online—this was urgent!
Before you continue