Transmigrated Outside Chaos City

Outside the magnificent city gates.

A young man with black hair, dressed in a dark blue combat suit, stumbled forward. Each step he took seemed to grow more arduous than the last.

He looked up at the city gates, only a few dozen miles away. His eyes were filled with despair.

A distance of a few dozen miles—in any ordinary place, he would have covered it in two flashes. Yet, at this moment, this short distance felt more remote than the edge of the universe.

Finally, the young man collapsed. His consciousness gradually faded away.

At the very instant his consciousness was about to be extinguished, Li Dui jolted awake.

He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids refused to respond; his limbs were even more disobedient.

Before this, Li Dui had seen a massive, iridescent Ring swirling in the sky, flying toward him. The closer it got, the smaller the Ring became. Yet, he felt as if he had been frozen in place by something, unable to take a single step.

In the end, just as the Ring was about to smash into his head, he woke up. But even awake, he couldn't move. Was this a nightmare?

Just as he was wondering, a massive surge of memories suddenly flooded into his mind, leaving him completely stunned.

It took at least several hours for the impact to finally subside. Li Dui, who had been feeling terribly suppressed by that vast influx of memories, finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Earth, martial artist, human race, Luo Feng, Genius Competition, Giant Axe Martial Arena, Virtual Universe Company, Initial Universe Chaos City..."

"This isn't a dream. This is Swallowed Star!"

Li Dui's eyes widened abruptly.

He had just been sleeping peacefully at home. He had just had a dream. And somehow, he had been tossed into the world of Swallowed Star.

This world was truly spectacular.

Li Dui began to laugh, carefree and reckless.

He was nothing more than a corporate slave who had graduated only a few years ago. Every day was just work, commute, and the occasional entertainment. His life had been dull and unremarkable.

When he had time, he would read novels. Swallowed Star was one of his favorites. Occasionally, before falling asleep, he would fantasize about what it would be like if he lived in those exciting stories.

"I never expected that I would actually come here."

He forced himself to push these thoughts out of his mind. Now was not the time for sentimentality.

While the world of Swallowed Star was incredibly magnificent, it was simultaneously an extremely dangerous place.

Lying outside Chaos City for several hours was a high-risk endeavor. If a Chaos Beast were to wander by...

Fortunately, he was not far from the city gates now.

Perhaps due to the hours of integration, Li Dui felt he could control his body slightly. His eyes could open, and his fingers could move a little.

He had to find a way; lying here was not a solution.

Recalling the distress signals the original owner had sent while being besieged by Chaos Beasts, which had received absolutely no response, Li Dui couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

Should I try sending a message to someone else? After all, the situation was different now. It was normal that no one cared when he was in extreme danger before. But now, he was close to the city; someone just needed to come and bring him back.

If all else fails, I'll promise some benefits. Just as he was pondering who to email, he heard a woman's voice from behind him.

"Hmm? This kid isn't dead yet. Consider yourself lucky to have run into me, Luliduo."

Following that, Li Dui's body was wrapped in something and lifted into the air. Then, he saw the ground receding rapidly. Soon, they arrived at the city gate.

After entering the city and turning a corner, they didn't go far before entering a building.

He heard Luliduo say, "My Lord, I found someone severely injured at the city gate. Please, treat him."

"Oh? Heh heh. Very well, hand him over to me, little girl," a slow, muffled voice replied.

"Then I shall take my leave," Luliduo said with a smile.

Hey, hey, don't leave so soon! Li Dui couldn't speak. He had been lying face down the whole time and hadn't even seen what this Luliduo looked like. Come to think of it, this woman's voice was quite pleasant.

No one cared whether Li Dui was willing or not. An invisible force took him over and placed him into a large vat with transparent walls, filled with a pale purple liquid. His entire body submerged into the fluid.

He couldn't struggle at all, watching helplessly as he was drowned.

Strangely, sinking into the water didn't make him suffocate; instead, his whole body felt numb and warm, a very comfortable sensation.

After a long while, there was no more sound in his ears. Li Dui finally didn't have to tense up anymore. He could settle his mind and think about his current situation.

According to the memories he had inherited:

The original owner of this body shared his name, also called Li Dui.

This Li Dui was also an Earthling.

And the current time was ten thousand years after the Genius Competition that Luo Feng and the others had participated in.

Li Dui had also entered through the most recent Peak Genius Competition that had just concluded.

However, his results were far inferior to Luo Feng's. He belonged to the nine hundred people who didn't qualify for the final arena and were directly assigned to the last of the four secret realms.

There was no such person in the original story, Li Dui thought with great certainty.

Although it had been some years since he read Swallowed Star, this person shared his name. If the original work had mentioned this name, he would definitely have an impression of it.

Of course, it was more likely that such a person did exist. But look at it: first, his strength and aptitude were limited. Then, he died just one year after arriving in Chaos City.

Therefore, it was no surprise that the original story didn't mention such an insignificant character.

This identity is perfectly fine. One could even say the starting point is quite high.

Do not be fooled by the fact that it is only a peripheral secret realm. This is still one of the top one thousand geniuses selected from the entire human race in every iteration of the Genius Tournament.

Li Dui is slightly worried about whether Chaos City Lord knows that he has occupied the original Li Dui's body.

After all, this is the Initial Universe, where Chaos City Lord is invincible. If he were to find out, what would his attitude be?

However, for the time being, it seems he does not know. He simply does not care about such trivial matters as a minor genius from a peripheral secret realm dying outside the city. As long as it was not murder, every batch of one thousand geniuses arriving in Chaos City sees over a hundred or two hundred die within thirty years.

Since he does not care, he will not investigate too closely. Perhaps, he will just muddle through.

There is another possibility: even if Chaos City Lord were to investigate thoroughly, he would not be able to see anything.

Because no matter what power or method was used to bring him from that Earth to the Swallowed Star world, this matter cannot be simple. Even an invincible Universe Master would likely be nothing in the face of such mysterious power.

Once he figured this out, Li Dui stopped agonizing over it. In any case, the matter is beyond his control. If he were truly discovered and Chaos City Lord came to deal with him personally, could he even resist?

Forget it, let it be. He decided to rest for a while; he was tired. He stopped thinking and let his mind go blank.

He had not even rested for twenty seconds when Li Dui's eyes widened again.

"Holy crap. A hula hoop!"

Fortunately, Li Dui still could not control his body, or he would have screamed that out loud.

It turned out that just after he cleared his mind, he inexplicably "saw" the ring from his dream, shimmering with colorful light, appearing in his mind.

He closed his eyes again to confirm it, but he could not find it. Li Dui guessed that he might need to be completely free of distracting thoughts.

This time, it took several minutes to settle down. Sure enough, it appeared again.

At this moment, Li Dui felt a sense of realization. He likely transmigrated here because of this thing. And honestly, if the flashy, gaudy light on this thing were to stop moving, it would really look just like a hula hoop.

So, what is this thing? A supreme treasure? Or something else? What is its purpose?

Based on Li Dui's understanding of this world, it is unlikely to be a supreme treasure. Supreme treasures require soul-binding. He had never heard of one belonging to someone just because it hit them on the head.

He cleared his mind once more and sank his consciousness into his brain. Sure enough, after only a minute or two, Li Dui "saw" it again. Staring closely at the light on the ring, he discovered that these colorful rays seemed to be layered. Their colors, flow range, speed, and even direction were not uniform.

Li Dui discovered that when he focused on a certain layer of flowing light, a string in his heart seemed to be plucked, giving him a very familiar feeling.

What exactly is it? Li Dui did not even notice that this time, he was not kicked out of the state of being able to "see" the ring despite his wandering thoughts.

"It's so familiar, what is this? Where on earth have I seen something similar?"

"Ah~" Li Dui pondered for a long time before finally remembering something. It was the Giant Axe Chaos Stele, which the original Li Dui had contemplated for seven days when he first arrived in Chaos City a year ago.

The first diagram of the Giant Axe Chaos Stele contained only a single axe mark. That axe mark had given Li Dui a feeling similar to this one—the feeling of being guided along the path of the laws.

A Chaos Stele! There are only 52 of them in the entire human race.

Every batch of geniuses only gets one free opportunity to contemplate a Chaos Stele.

Even among the 52 Chaos Steles, the most powerful Giant Axe Chaos Stele only gave him a feeling similar to just one layer of the flowing light on the "ring." And he could currently see at least five layers.

Furthermore, based on his brief experience with the "ring," the guidance the flowing light provided for understanding the laws was at least better than the effect of the first diagram of the Giant Axe Chaos Stele.

Of course, the Giant Axe Chaos Stele has 12 diagrams. Unfortunately, the original Li Dui only had a slight comprehension of the first one. The ones that followed were like reading a heavenly book; he understood nothing. Perhaps the diagrams drawn later by the Giant Axe were even better than the flowing light on the "ring."

The Giant Axe... is still very impressive.

But regardless, with the guidance of the hula hoop, Li Dui could almost be certain right now that his future achievements would be no less than Immortal.

Immortals do not die of old age. Barring any accidents, he could live for a very, very long time. If he were of another race, he could only live for three reincarnation eras at most. But he, Li Dui, is human. In the future, the human race will have at least two holy land universes: the one belonging to Yuan Zu and the one belonging to Luo Feng.

If he finds a way to sneak into Luo Feng's miniature universe, he can achieve eternal life.

As he was fantasizing about the future, a strong sense of weariness washed over Li Dui before he knew it.

He was, after all, just an ordinary person.

An ordinary person's soul had taken over a Star Rank body. Although it had merged with most of the "corpse" of the original Li Dui's soul, which had suffered heavy trauma, if not for the timely treatment he received, he might have followed in the original Li Dui's footsteps.

Li Dui fell into a peaceful sleep inside the healing pod. Only occasionally did bubbles rise from within the pod.