Creation

Huang Si lived a very regular life: he went to bed early and rose early, slacked off at work, and went straight home after his shift. He ate his three meals a day at the company cafeteria, or else he bought some groceries to cook for himself at home.

Aside from his relatives and a few very close friends, Huang Si did not interact much with others. Therefore, the only anomaly he could think of was the white notebook he had picked up today.

Where did he put the notebook?

He recalled for a moment; it should have been on the living room table, right?

Thinking of this, Huang Si stood up, walked into the living room, and reached out to grope for the leather-bound notebook on the table.

Where is it?

Oh, here.

The moment Huang Si's fingers touched the soft leather cover of the book, a sudden burst of radiance erupted across his entire field of vision.

Blinding light flooded his entire view. Having spent too long in the darkness, Huang Si's eyes were completely unaccustomed to such brightness, and he was instantly rendered unable to see anything.

He closed his eyes by reflex, but he could still feel the light shining against his eyelids, making them ache so much that he had to shield them with his hand.

Right in the midst of this brilliance, Huang Si's body trembled slightly, and then he froze like a clay statue or a wooden carving.

Information rushed into Huang Si's brain like a lightning bolt.

Huang Si felt as if his entire head was about to explode. A terrifyingly massive amount of information occupied all his thoughts in an instant, and then, like force-feeding a duck, it compelled him to memorize it.

That wave of information vibrated repeatedly within Huang Si's mind, as if trying to solidify the memories. This process made Huang Si so miserable that cold sweat poured down his face, and he nearly fainted again.

Seemingly sensing that Huang Si's spirit was on the verge of collapse, the transmission of information ceased.

After a long while, once his eyes had gradually adapted to the brightness, Huang Si finally opened them.

Appearing before him was a book emitting light.

This light radiated evenly from the entire body of the book. It was so bright that it even gave one the illusion of light pressure.

The reason he knew this was a book, rather than the notebook he had previously assumed, was because the book had just told Huang Si in its own way.

Thus, Huang Si now "knew" that this was a book.

The name of the book was "Creation."

Beyond that, Huang Si had also obtained another piece of knowledge.

He could create things.

What did it mean to create things?

Huang Si only felt that the memories which had just rolled through his brain like a steamroller were now sinking slowly, as if submerging into water.

An intuition told him he should do something to evoke those memories.

Since he didn't know what else to do, Huang Si began to fiddle with the only glowing object at hand: the "Creation" book.

Now, two embossed characters had appeared on the cover of the book: Creation.

After flipping open the leather cover, Huang Si discovered that there was already text on the previously pristine white pages.

He lifted the book, and on the first page, a few words were written in regular script:

Owner: Huang Si.

Huang Si flipped to the second page.

As it turned out, the second page was still blank; there was nothing there.

He continued to flip backward, but every page was blank. However, as he flipped through it, Huang Si discovered a bizarre fact: it seemed impossible to reach the end of the book. He flipped page by page, yet after a long time, the thickness on the left and right sides had barely changed. If he inserted his fingers randomly to flip through the thickness, he could turn the pages, but the book was filled with nothing but white paper and had no page numbers. No matter how much he flipped back and forth, the thickness remained unchanged.

Huang Si flipped to the back cover; it was white paper, connected to the leather cover on the side.

This book truly didn't contain a single shred of superfluous information.

However, the room was quite bright now, and he no longer needed to keep his phone flashlight on. The Creation book provided natural light, illuminating the entire living room; he could even see into the kitchen and the balcony.

Huang Si placed his phone on the table and sat by the table, touching the book with his hand.

Finding no answers on the Creation book itself, Huang Si had to try hard to recall what exactly had been stuffed into his brain just moments ago.

Create things?

Manufacture objects?

How to manufacture them?

Once he thought this, Huang Si felt the relevant information in his memory emerge naturally.

What should he create? Let's go with a loaf of bread.

As if by instinct, Huang Si focused his attention slightly, and then, he stared directly at his right hand resting by the table.

In that instant, Huang Si clearly felt that he was grasping a certain power with his consciousness.

Then, he used that power to condense slightly in the space above his right hand.

A yellow-and-white loaf of bread suddenly appeared in the air, and then, it was caught steadily by Huang Si's right hand.

He had actually created bread!

At the same time the bread appeared, Huang Si also sensed that the power he had clearly experienced had weakened, as if it had been consumed.

Huang Si hurriedly held the bread up to his eyes to observe it, wanting to see how it differed from ordinary bread.

Upon closer inspection, Huang Si was left speechless; the difference was far too great!

Although at first glance it looked yellow and white like a regular slice of bread and the shape was similar, this slice of bread, which Huang Si had conjured out of thin air, possessed an unreal quality, much like an image from a 2D animation.

Yes, the color of the bread was extremely monotonous, with sharp, distinct boundaries and no transitions whatsoever. Furthermore, the entire slice was rock hard, lacking any soft, airy pores; he couldn't even dent it by squeezing.

Huang Si held the slice up to his nose and sniffed. Hmm, absolutely no scent.

This bread was so crudely made that it looked as if it had traveled through from a cartoon, or perhaps resembled a resin model; it looked incredibly fake.

Failure.

However, this was the first time Huang Si had created something on his own.

Huang Si closed his eyes, sensing the changes within his body.

A power had been born inside him, a power that possessed the ability to create. Beyond that, Huang Si was still unclear as to what use this power had.

But if creating a piece of bread resulted in something so fake, was this power even useful?

Could it be that because he hadn't planned it out properly and had created it haphazardly, he ended up with a fake slice of bread?

Huang Si set the slice aside, and the fake bread actually made a crisp, clinking sound as it hit the table.

This left Huang Si utterly speechless. Who would believe that a slice of bread could clink? It was truly fake to the core.

Next, Huang Si intended to create a second object. He recalled what he was more familiar with; perhaps he should start with something simpler? No, it still needed to be something easy to verify.

After a moment of thought, Huang Si decided to find a reference object nearby.

He opened the Book of Creation, touched its smooth, white pages, and then focused his consciousness on the empty tabletop.

Paper.

Huang Si first outlined the form, color, material, and texture of a sheet of paper in his mind, then used his consciousness to guide the power within his body, condensing it onto the tabletop in an instant.

A sheet of white paper appeared out of thin air above the table and then drifted down onto it.

The incredibly natural way the white paper drifted down filled Huang Si with joy; it seemed he had succeeded this time!

He hurriedly picked up the paper.

"Ouch!"

Huang Si dropped the paper back onto the table and put his finger into his mouth to suck on it.

The moment he picked up the paper, his finger had been inexplicably cut by the edge.

It was fortunate he had let go quickly, otherwise, it might have been a deep gash.

What was going on now? Huang Si frowned as he observed the white paper on the table. There was a bead of blood on the edge of the paper, which made Huang Si wince in pain.

With the bright light emitted by the Book of Creation, Huang Si finally saw it clearly—this white paper was extraordinarily thin.

He reached over and grabbed a tissue from the box on the table, wiped the saliva and blood from his finger, and then gently pressed the tissue against the edge of the white paper on the table.

The tissue tore.

Huang Si was dumbfounded. The white paper was both thin and hard, its edge like a blade, cutting through whatever it touched.

He ran to get a clothes drying rod, wanting to see if this white paper could truly cut through metal like mud.

As it turned out, the rod successfully poked a wrinkle into the paper; the paper failed to cut the metal.

It seemed that although the edge of the paper was sharp enough to cut skin, its hardness was ultimately inferior to metal.

Looking at the two bizarre objects he had created one after another, Huang Si was speechless.

What kind of things were these? Moreover, he didn't dare pick up this dangerous piece of paper even though it was wrinkled, and even if he used a metal object to move it later, he wouldn't dare throw it away casually. What if it sliced through the trash can?

What else could he create? Let's try something even simpler.

Huang Si went to the kitchen to look around and picked up a glass.

In truth, Huang Si vaguely felt that he wasn't relying on the book to manufacture objects, but rather that the book had bestowed this ability upon him, and he was using the power generated within his own body to create.

Would consuming this power be harmful to his body? Huang Si was not yet sure. However, there was nothing better to do for now, so he could only take it one step at a time.

He turned the faucet by the sink in the kitchen, and as expected, no water came out.

However, there were some water droplets remaining in the sink.

Huang Si touched the droplets in the sink; there were too few.

He opened the thermos and poured some water into the glass.

This boiled water had been heated last night and was long since cold. Huang Si returned to the living room carrying the glass with a shallow layer of water.

He placed the glass on the table and stared into it.

Water—this should be the easiest thing to create and the hardest to get wrong.

Besides, there was ready-made water in the glass right now! Surely he couldn't go wrong by copying the water?

Huang Si stared intently at the water in the glass, thinking to himself, I must remember this structure, this appearance. Right, water is composed of water molecules, and water molecules are...

Suddenly, Huang Si realized the world around him was receding at high speed.

No, it was everything before his eyes that was rapidly magnifying!

The glass became infinitely huge in an instant, then vanished completely.

When Huang Si regained his senses, he discovered a series of bubble-like objects appearing before his eyes.

Directly in front of Huang Si, a truly miraculous scene was unfolding.

There were spherical objects floating and moving about, grouped in threes.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but these spheres, stretching out almost boundlessly.

Within these spheres, the groups of three were tightly connected, yet there was a slight gap between each group, allowing them to move freely.

Huang Si tried to see them clearly, but the edges of those spheres were inexplicably blurred.

However, he could still vaguely make out that within these trios, two were slightly smaller and carried a faint cyan hue, while the one in the middle was larger and carried a faint yellow tint.

The spheres floated, moved, and rotated before him.

"These are water molecules!"

As someone with a background in science and engineering, Huang Si hadn't completely forgotten what he learned in high school and university, and he quickly realized what he was looking at.