Li He

Early autumn.

The afternoon sun was mild, and the air carried a refreshing crispness.

This was the central plaza of Qinghe No. 1 High School.

Today was graduation day.

The plaza was filled with students in groups of three or five, laughing and playfully fooling around. Some crowded around their teachers for commemorative photos, while others took the opportunity to present flowers to the girls they loved and confess their feelings. Shutters clicked one after another, capturing smiling faces full of youthful energy.

Li He stood alone beneath a tall camphor tree at the edge of the plaza.

Leaning against the trunk, he ate a plain white bread roll he had just bought from the school supermarket.

"Li He!"

A clear, pleasant female voice rang out.

At the sound, Li He kept chewing. He merely raised his head and calmly turned his gaze toward the speaker.

It was Su Yutong.

A blush colored the girl's cheeks.

"Sorry to bother you. The graduation ceremony's over, and everyone's taking commemorative photos... Could I take one with you? Just as a keepsake. Please?"

Li He's mouth was stuffed with bread, his cheeks slightly puffed out.

He didn't answer right away. He just looked at Su Yutong and continued chewing.

Once, twice, three times...

His movements were slow but methodical.

Su Yutong kept smiling, but beneath Li He's calm gaze, she grew a little uncomfortable. She exchanged a helpless, slightly amused look with her best friend, as if to say, "That's so like him."

At last.

Li He's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the bread. His cheeks stopped moving.

"Sure."

The answer was crisp and direct, without a trace of extra emotion.

"Wonderful, thanks!" Su Yutong breathed a sigh of relief. She immediately took out a camera that looked incredibly expensive and handed it to her friend. Then she stood beside Li He and made a heart sign toward the camera.

Li He raised his right hand in response, curling four fingers into a fist and extending his thumb.

A thumbs-up.

His expression was impassive, and his gaze was fixed on the camera.

A flash of light, and the image was captured.

In the background were the sun-dappled camphor tree and the noisy crowd in the distance. In the foreground stood a beautiful girl with a bright smile and flushed cheeks, making a heart sign. Beside her was a man with an expression as still as an ancient well, giving a thumbs-up.

"Thanks!" Su Yutong took back the camera and glanced at the image. She shook her head with a smile. "Happy graduation!"

Li He nodded. "Mm. Happy graduation."

"We'll get going, then. Aren't you going to take photos with your other classmates?" Su Yutong pointed toward the crowd beginning to gather in the distance.

"No."

After the two girls left, Li He lowered his head and focused on eating his bread.

He quickly finished it, carefully ate every last crumb, brushed off his hands, shouldered his bag, and turned to walk out of the school, against the flow of people laughing, fooling around, and taking photos on the lawn.

There were no embraces, no tears, and no lingering glances at the lawn that had been the backdrop to his martial arts school years. His shadow stretched long beneath the sun. Soon, he disappeared into the flood of people pouring through the school gates.

Traffic flowed past the school entrance.

Some time later.

A sleek black Phantom hovercar glided to the roadside.

Su Yutong sat in the comfortable back seat, the luxurious leather upholstery cool against her skin.

She turned to look out the window.

Outside, the pedestrian overpass was crowded and noisy, and graduates hurried along. Her smile slowly faded.

"What a unique person. What a shame..." She paused slightly, her gaze following the crowd as she searched for the figure carrying an old backpack.

"With your fifth-grade aptitude, the moment you leave school, the distance between us will become impossible to cross."

The Black Phantom started silently and headed toward the bustling city center.

In the opposite direction, Li He stood at the end of a long line at a crowded commuter hover-bus stop, waiting to board.

Dusk.

The narrow alley was squeezed between towering skyscrapers, leaving only a strip of dim sky overhead.

The air was thick with the smell of cooking oil, cheap tobacco, and old concrete mixed with dampness. A torn remnant of a slogan that read "Strengthen the Nation Through Martial Arts" still clung to the crumbling wall.

Bang!

A muffled thud shattered the alley's silence.

A straight punch struck the gnarled trunk of a plane tree, clean and forceful.

[Proficiency +1]

[Martial Arts Proficiency System: Federation Body Forging Fist: Proficient (98%) → (99%)]

A status panel appeared automatically before his eyes.

Only then did Li He pull back his hand. A dull ache and warmth throbbed through his bandaged knuckles.

He slowly exhaled, his breath long and steady. In the cool air, it formed a cloud of white mist before quickly dispersing.

With a thought, more information appeared on the floating panel before his eyes.

[Name: Li He]

[Age: 18]

[Vitality: 5.9]

[Skill: Federation Body Forging Fist: Proficient (99%)]

"Just a little more."

The thought crossed his mind, and Li He clenched his fist slightly.

The final barrier of strength lay just before him, like a boulder blocking the entrance to a new world.

Bound by fifth-grade aptitude, this body found every breakthrough especially difficult.

Fortunately, half a month ago, just after he had transmigrated and the world's college entrance exams had ended, he had awakened the Martial Arts Proficiency System.

Sweat and effort would never let him down. As long as he pressed forward with determination, every achievement would become permanent. One day, he would reach the pinnacle of martial arts.

Bang!

Another straight punch slammed into the trunk.

The bark of the plane tree before him had long since splintered and fallen away. The exposed wood was riddled with dents of varying depths, fresh white impact marks layered over old, dark stains.

Grrrrumble!

Li He rubbed his stomach and looked up at the deepening orange-red light suspended between the skyscrapers.

His tired body, his hungry stomach, the afterglow of the setting sun.

They made him feel alive.

Half a month ago, he had been an ordinary wage worker on Earth, living a life whose future he could see at a glance.

Then, in a single moment, he had transmigrated.

He had arrived in a parallel world much like Earth.

Its history had been broadly similar to Earth's until the early twenty-second century, when the Abyss descended and brought extraordinary power to the world. Martial arts pushed past their limits, genes were modified, and biological mechs were developed... The greatest among them had earned names like those of immortals and Buddhas.

This was an era reshaped by the Abyss, an era where strength reigned supreme, and an era in which everyone practiced martial arts.

The idea of separate nations no longer existed here. There was only the unified Alliance.

His predecessor had shared his name and had just failed the college entrance exams. He came from an ordinary family, with both parents alive and no siblings.

The young man had longed to restore his family's fortunes. Unable to accept his deficient talent, and crushed by the failure of his exams, he had died one night, allowing Li He to take his place.

Thinking of this, Li He rubbed his growling stomach.

"I should head home."

Li He soon arrived home and opened the door. The familiar smell of home mixed with the aroma of food washed over him, but today, another strange, savory scent seemed to hang in the air.

"...Nowadays, young people hear that they need to train in martial arts and push past their limits, and all they do is complain that it's hard, that it's exhausting, that there's no end in sight. They go on and on about how difficult martial arts are, how risky genetic modification is, and how they can't afford biological mechs..."

The expert's voice from the television rang clearly through the living room.

Li He didn't slow down at all as he headed straight for the bathroom.

"...Do young people really expect the Alliance to hand them resources, safety, and ready-made power on a silver platter? Surely not..."

The voice from the living room continued.

Li He turned on the tap.

In his previous life and in this world, he had heard plenty of smug experts sitting high above everyone else and pontificating about the world. They weren't enough to stir his emotions.

The rush of water drowned out the television's racket.

Click!

A button clicked, louder than the television.

The expert's irritating face disappeared into the dark screen.

His mother, Zhang Xiujuan, held the remote in her hand. "Just listen to that nonsense. Easy for him to say! Does he know the hazard pay for working outside the Safe Zone is paid for with people's lives? Does he know how much a single Source-Drawing Needle costs, when it can improve someone's aptitude..."

Her voice cut off when she saw her son turn from the sink, drying his hands.

The anger vanished from her face, replaced by a gentle smile. "Hehe, you're home, Li He? You must be exhausted. Go wash up and come eat."

The table was laden with food.

There was a huge bowl of braised beef brisket, a bowl of snow-white fish soup, a plate of bright green water spinach stir-fried with pork cracklings, another plate of stir-fried shredded potatoes, and a dish of pickles.

But what drew Li He's gaze most was the small plate placed right in front of his bowl.

There was only one piece of meat on it.

It was about the size of his palm and an inch thick. Its flesh had a dark-red, lava-like pattern, and a layer of fat gleamed across its surface.

The strange fragrance he'd smelled when he came in had come from this piece of meat.

Exotic Beast Meat!

The thought flashed through Li He's mind.

In this era when everyone practiced martial arts, ordinary meat had become cheap and readily available thanks to the highly developed livestock industry. People could eat as much meat as they wanted.

But ordinary meat only provided basic protein and calories. It was useless to martial artists.

Exotic Beast Meat could nourish one's vital energy and blood and strengthen the meridians. Some legendary varieties could even improve a person's aptitude and grant them strange abilities.

It was a precious resource indispensable to martial artists, and its price was far beyond what an ordinary family could easily afford.

"Mom, this meat...?"

Zhang Xiujuan smiled as she set a large bowl of rice in front of Li He.

"Oh, this? Your Auntie Wang's son next door is on the Safe Zone patrol team. He came home to visit today and brought some of the meat his team got as a benefit. He gave me a little piece."

"I thought you'd need some good food to build yourself up before your martial arts school exam next month. Go on, give it a try."

Li He didn't believe her.

Exotic Beast Meat was incredibly precious.

The people living in this residential neighborhood weren't wealthy. How could anyone spare some to give away?

Just then, Li He noticed that one place at the table was empty. "Mom, where's Dad?"

"Your dad? It's nothing. He's just away on a work trip. He said he was... going to Star Iron Gorge." Zhang Xiujuan lowered her head and absently prodded the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks.

"There's a mine in the Safe Zone that needs people to repair its wiring. Your Uncle Zhuzi had connections and managed to get a short-term contract. The pay's pretty good, so your dad went."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter.

"I can't help feeling a little uneasy, but it's in the Safe Zone, after all. The security is pretty good. And Uncle Zhuzi is a pulse surveyor, while Old Uncle Zhao knows how to use the instruments. Your dad's just doing a little of the work he used to do, lending them a hand."

A mine in the Safe Zone? Repairing its wiring?

Li He's heart sank.

The place wasn't as safe as it sounded. What was his father, an ordinary technician, doing there?

The answer came to him at once: for the money.

For this piece of Exotic Beast Meat.

For his martial arts school exam.

The martial arts school exams were held one month after the college entrance exams. Students who had failed the college entrance exams and wanted to continue down the path of martial arts had to find a martial arts school certified by the Alliance and take its exam to become martial artists outside the formal education system.

Anyone who passed before turning thirty could keep progressing. Otherwise, they would spend the rest of their life as an ordinary person.

He looked at his mother's bowed head, the white hairs at her temples, and the subtle way her fingers unconsciously twisted her apron.

Li He set down his bowl and chopsticks.

He reached out and covered Zhang Xiujuan's cool hand with his own. His rough calluses brushed against the skin marked by the hardships of her life.

"It's okay, Mom. I'm not that worried, and you don't need to worry either. It's the Safe Zone, after all. Uncle Zhuzi and Old Uncle Zhao are Dad's old comrades, and they have experience. He'll be fine."

Zhang Xiujuan looked up at Li He's calm face and felt the warmth of his hand. Her nose stung, but she smiled and scolded him. "You brat. What storm haven't I weathered? You don't need to comfort me. Just focus on preparing for your exam. Don't worry about the money. We have enough."

Li He said nothing more. He picked up his bowl again and looked at the Exotic Beast Meat on the plate.

Worry was useless.

If he was strong enough, he could face any difficulty and overcome it.

He picked up the Exotic Beast Meat and put it in his mouth.