Foreword: This is an urban high-martial-arts, apocalyptic-survival novel with multiple female characters and an ensemble cast. It will also feature beautiful illustrations in a variety of styles, with a focus on the story. Yanzus and Yifeis, please read carefully.
The following is a reference image of the Protagonist:
On the bus from Binhai University to Mount Tai.
Jiangnan held a red certificate in his hand, his gaze fixed on the line of bold black characters embossed on its inner page.
[Level 2 Speech Disability Certificate]
[Certificate Holder: Jiangnan]
Looking at the Little Red Book that had accompanied him for so many years, Jiangnan couldn't help the corner of his mouth twitching.
Then, expressionless, he stuffed it into the very bottom of his backpack.
This was probably the greatest misdiagnosis in the history of human medicine.
Ever since the day the orphanage director found him beside the cesspit in a Public Restroom...
He had been labeled an abandoned infant, a mute, and a loner.
The orphanage caretakers had pitied him.
His primary school teachers had looked after him.
The thugs in junior high had bullied him because he couldn't shout.
The Campus Belle in high school had lamented that such a handsome guy was mute.
For eighteen years, three months, and six days.
No one but Jiangnan knew that he wasn't mute at all.
He was just... too expensive.
Jiangnan turned his head to watch the scenery rush past outside the window, and focused his thoughts.
A pale blue screen, visible only to him, appeared before his eyes.
[Host: Jiangnan]
[Current Word Spirit Reserve: 6666 words]
[Today's Allowance: 1 word (claimed)]
[Status: Silence is Golden (Word Count Stackable)]
"Six thousand six hundred and sixty-six words."
Jiangnan silently rolled the number around in his mind.
It was the result of holding back for 6,666 days since he had transmigrated.
The damn system only let him speak one word a day.
Although the words could be accumulated without limit, for a transmigrator with the soul of an adult, it was a torture worse than prison.
But rather than waste his ammunition, he had stubbornly kept silent, communicating with this world through paper and pen for eighteen years.
Seated by the window in the third-to-last row, Jiangnan gazed outside, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
"Jiangnan, are you feeling carsick?"
"If you feel unwell, be sure to tell me. I have some oranges here; smelling one might help."
The speaker was Chen Tong, the English tutor accompanying the group.
She had a quarter European ancestry, and her wine-red hair shone especially brightly in the sunlight. Her skin was fair, too.
Now, with the bus swaying gently, her voluptuous figure leaned toward Jiangnan of its own accord.
Her soft, Surging Waves pressed firmly against his arm, squashing and shifting with the bumps in the road.
Jiangnan felt the astonishing springiness against his arm, but simply shook his head, his expression calm.
Then he took out a Memo Pad and deftly wrote two words.
[Not carsick.]
"Good. We'll be at the Mount Tai service area soon. I'll treat you to something when we get there."
Chen Tong smiled and patted Jiangnan on the head, completely unaware of how intimate their position looked.
Jiangnan quietly shifted closer to the window.
He wasn't in the mood to enjoy the Beautiful Teacher's perks; all his attention was on that damned System Panel.
Aside from the Word Count Accumulation Function, the system's core Word Spirit Skill had to be obtained by signing in at designated locations.
But this lousy system was like an Old Radio with terrible reception!
For eighteen years, no matter where he went, the panel had always displayed the same line of red text.
[The current area is outside the service range.]
To find the damn Sign-in Point, he had started working and saving money as a child!
During winter and summer breaks, he signed up for all kinds of senior tour groups and traveled across the country, taking in its magnificent scenery.
This time, when he heard the university was organizing a trip to Mount Tai, he had signed up right away.
"Ding!"
Looking at Mount Tai, now close at hand, Jiangnan tentatively tapped the [Sign In] button in his mind again.
[Error! The current area is outside the service range.]
"Damn it."
Jiangnan silently gave the system the finger.
Still nothing? Was this system broken or what?
Just as he was grumbling to himself and preparing to close his eyes for a rest, a buzzing sound suddenly filled the bus, ringing in everyone's ears.
"Bzzzz!!!"
"Ah! My ears!"
"What's that sound?!"
The bus's cheerful atmosphere exploded in an instant. The students clapped their hands over their ears in pain.
At the front, class monitor Li Xin had been singing karaoke into a microphone. Now he let out a scream, and the microphone fell to the floor.
But that was only the beginning.
The sound grew clearer, no longer static, but a chilling announcement that made their hair stand on end.
[Alert! The Future Crisis is inevitable. The will of Blue Star has activated the Emergency Plan.]
[Teleportation Program initiated.]
[One-minute countdown.]
[All humans, prepare yourselves. Bring the supplies around you: food, weapons, vehicles, and... your families.]
[You will be transported to the "Barbaric Realm," a world filled with both opportunity and death.]
[Only those who survive in this world until sunrise will be allowed to return to Blue Star and become the seeds that save the future.]
[Good luck.]
The voice faded, and silence filled the bus for two seconds.
Then laughter broke out.
"Holy crap? Who was that? Who's pulling a prank?"
Class monitor Li Xin was a tall boy. He pulled off his Headphones, stood up, and looked around with a grin.
"Who connected to the bus's Bluetooth? That radio drama voice acting was pretty professional. It sounded so real."
"Teacher Chen, was that your Surprise Program?"
"Hahahaha, the Barbaric Realm? I might as well be in Douluo Continent! Who's called Tang San?! The One-Click Instant Kill Rune on Wegame is ready to go!"
The students joked and laughed, not taking it seriously at all.
After all, in the Peaceful Era, their first thought when faced with a supernatural voice was that it had to be a prank.
Only Chen Tong frowned. She stood up.
Her sense of responsibility as a teacher demanded that she maintain Order.
"Everyone, quiet down!"
Chen Tong clapped her hands and scanned the bus with a stern gaze.
"Whoever's playing a joke, we're on the road. Don't distract the driver! Whoever connected to the Bluetooth, disconnect it now!"
But Wang Shifu, who was driving, had gone pale. His hands trembled on the steering wheel.
"Teacher Chen... it's not Bluetooth..."
Wang Shifu's voice shook. "The radio broke ages ago... And that voice sounded like it came from inside my head..."
Just then, a chorus of phone vibrations filled the bus.
Bzz, bzz, bzz!
Everyone's phone received a text at the same time.
Jiangnan lowered his head and looked at his phone screen.
A highest-level Pop-up Message from the Huaxia Country Ministry of National Defense. Its red exclamation mark was impossible to miss.
[Emergency Notice: All citizens, pay attention! The voice you just heard in your minds was not a drill! It was not a prank!]
[Immediately follow the instructions and grab whatever survival resources are around you!]
[Repeat: This is not a drill! For the sake of survival, live until sunrise!]
The air inside the bus froze.
"Th-this is real?"
Li Xin held his phone stiffly in midair. The smile crumpled from his face. "A text from the Ministry of National Defense? It's not a scam?"
"Waaah... I want to go home! I don't want to go on the school trip!"
A timid girl burst into tears on the spot.
"Skrrt!"
The bus slammed on the brakes and stopped on the highway shoulder.
Wang Shifu didn't even bother turning off the engine. With trembling hands, he frantically dialed his phone.
"Hello? Honey! Pick up! Hurry, take our daughter! Bring food! Something's really happened!"
The bus descended into chaos.
Some people screamed, some tried to jump out the windows, and others sat frozen, like wooden chickens.
"Everyone, don't panic! Don't run around!"
Though Chen Tong had gone deathly pale, she forced herself to spread her arms and tried to calm the students who were losing control.
"Stay on the bus! Wang Shifu, lock the doors! We'll be safer if we stay together!"
Amid all the chaos and terror, Jiangnan alone remained seated in the third-to-last row, completely still.
He didn't scream or make a call. His expression barely changed.
He simply gazed out the window.
The sky, once a brilliant blue, was now turning a strange, blood-red hue. The World's Curtain was being torn apart.
"The current area is outside the service range..."
Jiangnan recalled the system's failed message, then the mysterious voice's announcement about being "transported to the Barbaric Realm."
If there were no Sign-in Point here...
Could the New World they were about to enter be the map the system had been waiting for all along?
Amid the panicked cries and sobbing, Jiangnan's dark eyes held no fear. Instead, there was a hint of...
Anticipation.
[Countdown: 10...9...8...]
Jiangnan clenched his pen and gently pressed his other hand against the Memo Paper bearing the number 6666.
If this was real, then after eighteen years of silence, he might finally make himself heard today—loud enough to shake the heavens.
Before you continue