A True High-Martial-Arts World

"Everyone at the scene, move back immediately! Get behind the cordon!!"

The crowd erupted into a commotion.

Five young martial artists in the standard combat suits of the "Sky Moon Martial University" reserve forces shouted sternly at the crowd.

They held standard-issue kinetic guns, their expressions tense and grave.

Hearing them, the onlookers hurriedly backed away, their faces full of fear and panic.

Though afraid to die, they still couldn't help wanting to know what had happened. So after taking a couple of steps back, they instinctively edged forward again.

"Another person's dead."

"How many is that now?"

"The fourth..."

"These mutated creatures are getting more and more brazen."

"What can you do? We Martial Servants don't have high-tech equipment for fighting mutated creatures, and we're not worth sending the Martial University's regular forces out for."

"That's how it is when you live in the Shanty Town. If we were in a proper residential district, those Martial University students wouldn't let mutated creatures run amok!"

"I'm moving to the residential district tonight."

"Rent in a proper residential district is too expensive. It's six thousand a month!"

"Then live somewhere farther out!"

"Even the farthest places cost four thousand!"

"Still better than losing your life!"

"What do you know? Being alive with no money is the greatest misery of all!"

This Shanty Town, built from discarded alloy panels and makeshift composite materials, was the "home" of these people.

It looked like a heap of rubbish tossed together at random.

The shacks lay scattered beside a narrow ditch filled with rubble and foul-smelling wastewater.

The space here was cramped and suffocating.

The oppressive atmosphere weighed on everyone's heart like a heavy block of lead.

The air reeked of fermenting garbage and the stench of wastewater.

Thick, lead-gray clouds hung heavily over the Shanty Town.

Occasional icy raindrops fell silently, fine as steel needles.

They landed on the backs of passersby's necks, as if a cold hand were gently teasing them from behind.

People couldn't help hunching their shoulders.

Amid the crowd,

a middle-aged man in a sleeveless shirt calmly listened to the surrounding chatter.

At one point, he reached up to touch the corner of his eye, only to find nothing there.

"I really can't get used to not having my glasses," the middle-aged man muttered to himself.

Then he shook his head, his face somewhat pale.

Three days ago, he had transmigrated.

That's right—a young guy who'd graduated from university just three years ago had ended up in the body of a middle-aged man nearing forty.

This was a high-martial-arts world.

The original owner of this body was an ordinary cargo-handling and repair worker in the logistics and maintenance unit of Tianyue Martial Arts University. He was also called Xu Feng.

He was nearly forty, had accomplished nothing, and was an utterly mediocre man.

Three years earlier,

"Xu Feng" had come with the vanguard to garrison this godforsaken place called "Dimension 13."

People like him had a general name: "Martial Servants."

In other words, they were like servants to the martial artists, the people above them.

Like the cleaning and logistics staff, they were at the very bottom of the whole unit.

His life could be summed up in one sentence:

"Don't look down on the poor young; don't look down on the poor middle-aged." The next step would probably be, "The dead are honored above all."

The reason Xu Feng had transmigrated here was that the original "Xu Feng" had been attacked by a mutated creature.

What had attacked him? How had it happened? No idea.

All he knew was that when he opened his eyes, the bachelor who'd just been eating Shantou-style hotpot beef was lying on a rusty bed frame.

All he could see was a bare, impoverished room, and beside him was a little burden who wasn't even eleven.

The contrast between before and after was like falling from heaven straight into hell.

"No one is to come near this place for the next three days!"

"If you want to die, go ahead and try! I've said my piece!"

The loud shout from the Sky Moon Martial University reserve officer snapped Xu Feng out of his thoughts.

Then the Security Team called two people over from the scene to seal off the house where the incident had taken place.

After that, they carried away a corpse.

Watching them hurry off, Xu Feng fell into thought.

"In the original owner's memories, someone died five days ago, and three more have died over the past two days.

Including me—no, including the original owner, that makes five.

Basically one a day. Damn, this world is dangerous."

According to the scraps of memory in his mind,

the area garrisoned by Sky Moon Martial University hadn't seen a mutated creature this terrifying in six months.

There had also been no word of the frontline forces collapsing.

So how had this mutated creature made it to the rear garrison area?

As the crowd dispersed, Xu Feng headed home too.

The Shanty Town was in terrible shape. It had been built independently on the outskirts of the Sky Moon Army's garrison base.

There was no planning and nobody managed it.

Garbage, excrement, the smell of engine oil, discarded transport vehicle frames, and even the skeleton of a giant mutated creature resembling an elephant stood here like a landmark.

The mix of odors and jumbled scenery made people frown.

Along the way, he kept seeing neighbors packing up to move.

"Hey, Brother Xu! You're still not moving? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Just as Xu Feng was thinking about what to do next,

a chubby little fellow with a ruddy complexion came out of the shack next door.

He was carrying a huge standard-issue smelting furnace.

When he saw Xu Feng return, he asked in surprise.

The chubby fellow was an auxiliary bioengineering student at Sky Moon Martial University—in simple terms, he made medicine.

He was very outgoing and counted as a decent neighbor.

"Not afraid." Xu Feng waved a hand in greeting.

"If you're not afraid, then—huh?" The chubby fellow froze halfway through his sentence.

??

What was going on?

How had this old coward suddenly grown a backbone today?

Could it be that he'd run out of money again?

The chubby fellow shook his head helplessly, wearing an expression that said, "You can't talk sense into someone bent on dying."

"I'm telling you, think about Xiao Dan. Stop going to that foot bath shop all the time. What's so good about those masseuses?

They're just women, right? Save up a little money and you could find someone decent."

Xu Feng stopped in his tracks, speechless.

Well, that explained it. The original owner's salary wasn't low, so why hadn't he saved a single cent? He'd been spending it all on masseuses!

He immediately racked his brains for a moment.

But he couldn't find any happy memories of spending the night with a masseuse.

Damn, he'd been spending money without getting anything out of it?

Xu Feng glanced at the chubby fellow and nodded. "Don't worry. I'm quitting from today on."

The chubby fellow first paused, then looked at Xu Feng in astonishment. "For real? Here, take this to make do with. I won't be needing it anymore."

As he spoke, he turned and pulled a somewhat battered standard-issue Battle Blade from the cart behind him, then tossed it to Xu Feng.

Then the chubby fellow hurried off toward the depths of the Shanty Town without looking back.

Xu Feng didn't refuse. He waved after him. "Thanks!"

The chubby fellow waved a hand and walked even faster.

Watching him leave, Xu Feng stepped through the door of the crude shack, deep in thought.

He casually hung the standard-issue Battle Blade on a nail behind the door.

Then,

he plopped down beside the alloy bed.

He was trying to work out how he'd survive the crisis ahead.

Starve to death with no money, or get eaten by a monster.

Don't think living on the edge of the Shanty Town meant you didn't have to pay rent.

Even if this was another world, and even if they'd built the houses themselves,

anything occupied by the Martial University Army belonged to them.

If you ate, drank, relieved yourself, and slept here, you had to pay "taxes" and "rent."

Besides, even Martial Servants who hadn't become martial artists still had to cultivate, and cultivation cost money too.

After all, ordinary people couldn't do the jobs in this place.

"Dad, dinner."

He had just sat down when,

a little girl came out of another room with a bowl and walked toward him.

Steam billowed from the bowl.

The little girl's hands were clearly hot enough to make her wince, but she still insisted on carrying the bowl over to Xu Feng.

Xu Feng froze for a moment.

Then he sprang up, snatched the bowl from her hands, and set it on the nearby table with a grimace. Only then did he blow on the little girl's hands.

"Didn't I tell you not to cook anymore? Why won't you listen?"

The little girl stared coldly at him. Her first words were both childish and shockingly foul-mouthed. "Have you gone nuts from washing feet or what?

I've been cooking ever since I was old enough to remember.

Didn't you say I had to repay you for raising me? Did a dog eat your brain?"

Her sharp words, coming from such a young-looking girl,

left Xu Feng completely at a loss.

He was stunned for a long while.

Good grief.

You're just a little girl barely ten years old.

Is it appropriate to say "damn it" every other word?

Xu Feng's expression darkened as he put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Xu Xiaodan, get this straight: I'm the head of this household!

In this family, I'm the only one qualified to cook in the kitchen!

From today on, if you so much as touch a pot, just see what I do to you!"

"Huh?"

The little girl stared at Xu Feng blankly.

"Go do your homework right now! And from today on, no swearing. If I hear you do it once, I'll smack you once!"

Xu Feng put on a stern act.

The little girl frowned at him for a moment. "You say that as if you don't usually hit me."

Then

she turned and climbed onto the small bed nearby, switched on the desk lamp, and began to read.

Xu Feng vaguely heard her mutter, "You're acting so weird. What a nutcase."

Xu Feng: "..."

[May 23, 2125]

[Someone died in the Shanty Town again today. I heard it was Xiao Juan's dad. I'm a little scared.

I don't know what's gotten into Dad. Ever since that monster bird pecked him the other night, he's changed.

He used to keep saying I was picked up, that I was an abandoned girl.

But he hasn't said that since that day. He won't let me cook, do laundry, or even go help Auntie Chen earn money.

I think Dad is sick. He must be. I hope Dad gets better soon. —Xu Xiaodan]

Inside the shack,

Xu Feng watched his daughter leaning over a simple wooden desk doing her homework.

He breathed a sigh of relief, then lay on his own bed, staring into space and thinking.

He felt conflicted after giving his daughter a talking-to.

For one thing, he felt that raising a child was far too much trouble. In his own mind, he was still a kid himself.

Second, he needed to stay alert in this dangerous environment. Ordinary people could die at any moment. It was ridiculous.

Those so-called Mutated Creatures appeared and vanished without a trace. They were far too dangerous.

He needed to plan ahead.

The moment he'd crossed over, Xu Feng had still been worrying, I haven't paid off my mortgage yet.

The next second, he'd been happy: I don't have to pay off my mortgage ever again.

But reality had quickly shown him that there were things here far more terrifying than a mortgage.

With that thought, Xu Feng got up and started rummaging around the room.

Before long,

he'd laid all his current possessions out on the bed.

A communications wristband, with a balance of "3655.89" Great Xia Currency in the account.

A steel left leg.

Apparently, it was made of Aland alloy and could fetch nearly two thousand. He'd picked it up in a pile of corpses in the Wilderness Zone.

A standard-issue Battle Blade, a gift from Fatty.

A centralized crystal-energy stove that could still run for 221 hours.

Eight books, most of them about electronic technology. Only one was about swordsmanship, and another was a Flying Blade manual. Xu Feng hadn't looked at them closely.

An electronic repair kit, secondhand.

Three damaged communications wristbands, each on its fourth owner.

He also had three days' worth of food rations.

Calling this home impoverished would have been generous.

To Xu Feng, this was a dead end.

The password.

He really wanted to drag the original owner out of his own mind and beat him senseless, then shove him into the cesspit outside and stomp on him a couple of times.

"No, whether it's training to get stronger or eating and taking care of basic needs, I'll need money.

At my age, becoming a gigolo probably isn't an option.

Let me think. What else can make money without selling my body?"

Xu Feng muttered to himself for a while.

Before long, his attention settled on the repair kit and the few old books.

"It seems the original owner used to make extra money by repairing all sorts of things.

With my expertise as a top student in electromagnetic fields, getting started this way shouldn't be hard."

Five minutes later,

Thud!

Xu Feng tossed the book onto the bed and flopped onto his back. "Why is this so hard?"

He recognized every character in the book, but when they were put together, he had no idea what they meant.

Wait, was there really such a huge gap between the technological levels of these two worlds?

What the heck was "100G communications"?

Could today's communications and modulation technology, including the basic infrastructure, support communication at such high frequencies?

Optical communications? Or quantum communications?

Xu Feng racked his brain for every scrap of knowledge he had about communications.

But it wasn't enough.

He could only search through the original owner's remaining memories for relevant knowledge.

"Dad, you're not dead, are you?"

Just then, Xiao Dan came over and asked.

Xu Feng sat bolt upright, glaring at her. "If you keep talking like that, just see if I don't tear your mouth off!"

Xiao Dan's face paled. She turned away with a sulky look and went back to the table, where she wrote in her diary:

[Daddy's sickness is better. I cured him.]

A new book begins! Let's go, let's go, let's go! Please support, collect, recommend, and keep reading!

Oh, right. I originally wanted to give the protagonist a different name in the synopsis and after he crossed over. In the end, I couldn't be bothered and decided to keep it consistent so I wouldn't confuse myself. The synopsis can only be edited once every seven days, so I'll change it later.