Wang Wu had transmigrated.
Wang Wu was an ordinary college student. One day, while playing video games at home, he inexplicably transmigrated.
Wang Wu had merely yawned. He closed and opened his eyes, and went from his bedroom to another world.
Wang Wu stood there blankly. In an instant, he had gone from his bedroom to an unfamiliar place, leaving him at a loss.
All around him stood a group of burly men in ragged clothes, holding dilapidated weapons. In the distance were tall, sturdy walls packed with spectators. Waves of shouting filled his ears—cheers and screams from the audience, along with the roars and agonized cries of the burly men around him.
The scene was far too surreal for Wang Wu to comprehend.
Wang Wu blinked. Just as he habitually raised a hand to scratch his head, he noticed that he was holding a battered shield and a broken one-handed sword. Looking closer, he realized that his body was no longer the familiar one he knew.
Wang Wu's mind could barely process it. He muttered to himself.
"Th-this, what's going on?"
Before Wang Wu could figure out what had happened or understand his surroundings, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted beside him.
The sound was overwhelmingly terrifying, several times more frightening than the roar of a ferocious beast like a tiger or lion.
For a moment, Wang Wu felt as though his heart had stopped beating.
Before he could even turn around, an enormous force struck him.
Bang!
Wang Wu's vision went black. A burst of agonizing pain shot through his back, and his entire body was sent flying through the air. A relentless buzzing rang in his ears.
"Aaaahhh!"
Having suffered the most painful blow of his life, Wang Wu screamed in agony. He felt as though he had flown a great distance before crashing onto the ground.
After landing, Wang Wu rolled several times before stopping. His face twisted with pain, while blood seeped from his mouth, ears, nose, and eyes.
"What happened?"
"Did I get hit by a car?"
"I can't open my eyes. Why won't my body move?"
Wang Wu lay on the ground, struggling frantically to get up, but he could not move at all.
Lying there motionless, Wang Wu finally managed to open his eyes with great difficulty. Unfortunately, his vision was far too blurry for him to see anything.
"Call an ambulance! I was in a car accident!"
"Where am I? Wasn't I playing games at home?"
"I'll be fine. I'll definitely be fine!"
Unable to move his body or see clearly, Wang Wu could only let his thoughts run wild in an attempt to distract himself and ease the pain.
As time passed, signs of life gradually faded from Wang Wu's body.
At first, Wang Wu could still feel the intense pain coming from his body and hear the shouting around him. Slowly, he no longer felt pain. No—it was more accurate to say that he had completely lost sensation.
The sounds in his ears grew fainter and fainter. His consciousness gradually blurred, while scenes from his life began flashing before his eyes like a slideshow.
"I don't want to die!"
"I don't want to die!"
"What kind of joke is this? How can I die just like this?"
He had inexplicably arrived in an unfamiliar place, only to die just as inexplicably. Wang Wu roared furiously in his heart, unable to accept it.
"I haven't even gotten a girlfriend yet."
"What kind of joke is this?"
"I haven't repaid my parents."
"I don't want to die!"
Wang Wu kept screaming inwardly. He was unwilling to accept this!
His inner cries had no effect. The slideshow reached its end, his vision finally turned completely black, and he could no longer hear anything.
He could do nothing but think. Nothing existed but his thoughts, and even those gradually slowed.
"Is this death? It's so quiet. Does reincarnation really exist? Are there really heavens and hells?"
In the absolute silence, Wang Wu finally understood that he was about to die. No, perhaps he was already dead. Maybe his consciousness would only linger for a little while longer.
"Even hell would be fine. Even being reincarnated as an ant would be fine. Just don't let my soul completely dissipate! I don't want to disappear!"
Wang Wu believed in atheism and had no religious faith at all, yet at this moment, he desperately hoped that things like the cycle of reincarnation, heaven, and hell truly existed.
Completely vanishing from this world was such a terrifying thing. Wang Wu became even more aware of the fear of death.
Slowly, Wang Wu found thinking more and more difficult. Just as his thoughts were about to stop completely—
"x#@￥."
Through the haze, he heard a shout.
"X#^?"
"*￥%@!"
Several more cries followed.
"I can't understand you. What are you saying?"
He did not know where the voice came from or who was shouting words he could not understand, but he could feel the deep unwillingness in that person's voice.
"Who is he? Why is he screaming so heartbreakingly? Forget it. It doesn't matter."
At this point, even thinking felt incomparably difficult for Wang Wu. He had accepted his fate of death and begun praying for the possibility of reincarnation.
"￥*@#*%!!!"
The incomprehensible shouting kept echoing in his mind, preventing Wang Wu's thoughts from settling.
"#￥%...@!"
The unfamiliar voice continued shouting without pause.
"￥%...*!"
"I already said I can't understand you! Someone's about to die here—can't you be quiet? You're so noisy!"
Finally, Wang Wu could no longer endure it. He wanted the voice to quiet down.
Ding, system activated!
In an instant, Wang Wu's thoughts became active again. His brain began functioning once more, and his vision brightened again.
The northern front of the Kingdom of Qiat had been breached by orcs. Vast territories were occupied, and displaced refugees could only flee their homes.
On the road leading from the Kingdom of Qiat to the border of the Kingdom of Lucanir.
A strong middle-aged man walked through the wilderness with a frail child on his back, followed by a boy who appeared to be under ten years old.
The three wore tattered clothes, and the strong man had quite a bit of blood on him.
The child lying on the man's back had his eyes closed. His breathing was rapid, and his cheeks were flushed red. He appeared to be ill.
The older child seemed too exhausted and actually stumbled on the flat ground.
"Dad, I'm so tired... sob... I... I really can't walk anymore!"
The boy lay on the ground, crying as he complained. He was simply too exhausted to endure it any longer.
The strong man turned around, sorrow on his face. He himself was exhausted, let alone a child. But his younger son's illness could no longer be delayed. They could not stop to rest.
The strong man crouched down and comforted him gently. "Harrot, hold on a little longer. We'll reach the Kingdom of Lucanir soon. Once we get there, we won't have to keep walking. Hang in there!"
With one hand, the strong man supported his younger son on his back. With the other, he stroked his elder son's head.
Harrot wiped away his tears and asked in a trembling voice, "Dad, when we get to the Kingdom of Lucanir, we won't have to go hungry anymore, right?"
"Will Mom be waiting for us there?"
The strong man froze for a moment. Tears slid from the corners of his eyes as he forced a smile and answered his son, "Yes. Your mother has already cooked and is waiting for us."
"Once we get there, everything will get better. We won't go hungry or freeze anymore. Everything will get better, definitely! So try a little harder. Don't stop here."
"Yes, I understand."
After hearing his father's words, the boy struggled to his feet and followed behind him again.
He did not notice his father's tears. His mother was already gone forever. Perhaps the boy would only understand once he was older.
Although the strong man and Harrot hurried onward with all their might, they still could not outrun death.
Two hours before reaching the village at the very edge of the Kingdom of Lucanir, the child on his back took his last breath.
With tears in his eyes, the father could only bury his younger son beneath a small mound of earth, then continue onward with Harrot, his other son who was sobbing uncontrollably.
There was little meaning in burying his younger son. A hasty burial beneath a mound of dirt could not hide the scent from wild beasts. Before long, scavengers would dig up and devour the child's corpse.
The father and Harrot finally reached a village. Although the villagers sympathized with the pair and the village chief was willing to help them, the village lord did not welcome refugees from other countries.
Seeing their filthy appearance, the lord frowned in disgust and waved a hand, intending to drive them away.
The strong man knelt and kowtowed, begging the lord to take them in. Yet the lord remained unmoved. Instead, he impatiently summoned guards, had the man beaten, and drove them away.
After that, the father and Harrot wandered throughout the Kingdom of Lucanir for several years.
Eventually, they seized an opportunity to join a newly opened territory that lacked manpower.
Having finally found a stable place to live, the father and Harrot worked extremely hard to reclaim land and build the village. In the end, they successfully obtained the right to use a sizable plot of land from the lord.
After planting it all with crops, the harvest was quite good. What remained after handing over their share was enough for the father and son to live on.
During the farming off-season, the father took Harrot hunting as well. Selling their prey earned them quite a bit of money, and over several years, they gradually accumulated some savings.
Life finally began to improve.
"In a few more years, I'll save enough money to find Harrot a beautiful, capable wife!"
The father happily imagined the future. After enduring so much pain, he had finally begun to hope for happiness.
Unfortunately, good times did not last. Not long after Harrot came of age, the village was destroyed.
The lord of the newly opened territory was a newly established minor noble with insufficient armed forces, and the surrounding area was unsafe. A magical beast invasion destroyed the entire territory, and even the lord's castle was breached.
The father was bitten to death by a magical beast, while Harrot luckily escaped alongside the lord and the guards.
The lord was no good person. Along the way, he sold Harrot to a slave trader.
Harrot was illiterate, could not do housework, was slow-witted, and was rather dull. However, he was extremely sturdy. When it came to heavy manual labor that required little skill, he was even more capable than his father.
Harrot stood over two meters tall and weighed two or three hundred pounds. Years of grueling labor had built him a body full of muscle. He looked more like an incredibly powerful warrior than an ordinary farmer.
No matter how strong a farmer was, how much could he sell for? An incredibly powerful warrior was worth at least dozens of times more!
After giving it some thought, the slave trader decided that selling Harrot merely as a laborer would be too wasteful. He decided to sell Harrot to the Gladiatorial Arena.
The Gladiatorial Arena had people dying every day anyway. Even if Harrot died in battle, the arena would probably assume that the opponent who killed him was simply too strong, rather than blame the slave trader.
Still, Harrot needed some packaging. The Gladiatorial Arena could not be allowed to see through his impressive appearance and lack of real ability too easily.
As for how he packaged him, he cut all kinds of wounds across Harrot's body. The wounds were shallow, but after applying a special medicine, they quickly healed into many frightening-looking scars.
Sure enough, with that bit of packaging combined with Harrot's impressive physique, the Gladiatorial Arena truly believed Harrot was some fierce man who had been captured somewhere. They paid fifty gold coins for him and even felt that they had gotten a bargain.
After that, Harrot became a rookie gladiator in the Gladiatorial Arena. But for some reason, he inexplicably died during his very first match in the gladiatorial ring, and Wang Wu's soul then transmigrated into his body.
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