Choice

"Too dangerous. I had to go back—now, immediately!"

"Just giving up like that? Did I deserve to call myself a man? Where had my courage and resolve gone? Wasn't that embarrassing?"

"Only the living could be called men. The dead were called corpses."

"A heaven-sent opportunity had fallen into my hands. If I didn't seize it, I'd regret it for the rest of my life!"

"I needed to stay alive to seize it. Besides, with the Copper Anchor in hand, I could come back after making more preparations."

"What more preparations did I have? The poor relied on mutation, the rich fought with technology. Could I mutate, or could I burn cash?"

"Being alive was better than anything."

"Yes, yes, yes. I might as well hand the Copper Anchor over to the country, hahaha!"

"Fuck off!"

Two little people were arguing inside Gao Jing's head. One desperately urged him to return, while the other mocked him as a coward.

Their incessant chatter made his head ache.

"Shut up!"

Thoroughly fed up, Gao Jing let out a low roar.

All the noise vanished in an instant.

Yet he still had to face the choice of whether to continue exploring or return to Blue Star.

Gao Jing sat down with his back against a giant tree. While resting and recovering his strength, he also gave himself time to weigh things rationally with a sufficiently calm mind.

Because his choice would determine his future, perhaps even whether he lived or died!

After resting for nearly ten minutes, Gao Jing stood up again.

At this moment, there was no longer the slightest hesitation or conflict in his eyes. There was only determination and resolve.

He had already made his choice.

He would continue exploring this new world, even if it meant risking his life!

In many people's eyes, Gao Jing was mild-tempered and easygoing. He disliked making noise or haggling over every last detail with others.

He was often treated as a soft persimmon.

But in truth, his pride and blazing passion were buried deep in his bones and blood. They rarely showed themselves, only erupting fiercely when he faced immense pressure.

With nothing to his name and utterly alone, ever since his grandfather had passed away, there had been nothing left in this world that he was attached to or reluctant to leave behind.

Now he had even quit his job.

Since there was nothing he could not afford to lose, why not give it one earth-shaking shot!

Having made up his mind, Gao Jing sorted out his backpack and continued onward.

As he ventured deeper, a magnificent and strange Great World slowly lifted one corner of its veil before Gao Jing.

The primeval forest stretched without end. Aside from countless towering trees, all kinds of exotic flowers and strange grasses grew there. From time to time, he could see clusters of mushrooms in shadowy corners and flowers poking out from vines.

Most of them were astonishingly large. Some mushrooms stood as high as a story, while some wildflowers spread wider than two meters across.

Gao Jing carefully avoided those brightly colored, beautiful-looking giants.

Because he had no idea what dangers they might hold.

The dangers he could truly see were the insects dwelling among the grass, plants, and trees, as well as arthropods like centipedes.

Mosquitoes were the most numerous of all. Blue-purple and black-and-white spotted mosquitoes swarmed through the forest, their endless buzzing unceasing.

Many insects hid beneath broad leaves and vine roots. Startled by Gao Jing's passing footsteps, they rustled as they shifted their positions.

Along the way, Gao Jing had truly had his eyes opened.

Beetles as large as millstones, ants as long as arms, caterpillars as thick as thighs...

He had even encountered a gray moth comparable in size to a hawk, fluttering overhead!

In his own world, Gao Jing could crush dozens of ants with one foot, swat a cloud of mosquitoes into paste with one slap, and drown a caterpillar with a mouthful of spit.

But here...

Faced with bugs ten times larger, he hid whenever he could and avoided them whenever possible. Though he held a sharp blade, he would never lightly provoke a fight.

It was precisely this caution, coupled with luck, that allowed Gao Jing to encounter trouble several times yet emerge unscathed each time.

The mosquito repellent sprayed over his body played an important role. Its pungent odor kept the mosquitoes from approaching, and even the insects and moths he encountered would take the initiative to avoid him.

After struggling through the great forest for two or three hours, Gao Jing was drenched in sweat, and more than half his strength had been spent.

More importantly, he had remained constantly vigilant and intensely tense. Both his mind and body were exhausted.

He stopped beside a giant tree, took off his backpack, pulled out food and drink, then sat on the ground against the trunk to rest and recover.

As he chewed on a ham sandwich, Gao Jing swept his gaze over his surroundings.

This forest was simply too vast. He had no idea how long it would take to walk out of it.

So far, Gao Jing had not encountered any animals. He had only vaguely heard the distant roars of some kind of beast.

Although that was not necessarily a bad thing, he felt deeply unsettled.

The unknown was what people feared most.

Hiss!

At that moment, Gao Jing suddenly caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of a streak of silver light shooting straight at him!

Before he could react, his right calf suddenly tightened, as if something had wrapped tightly around it.

Then it yanked hard!

Caught off guard, Gao Jing was dragged down onto the ground and began sliding forward uncontrollably.

Terrified, Gao Jing instinctively grabbed the grass vines beside him with his left hand while his right hand frantically reached for the Mountain-Cleaving Saber.

He got it!

But just as Gao Jing gripped the hilt and had no time to rejoice, the grass vines in his left hand could no longer withstand the pulling force.

They snapped tautly!

The next instant, he was violently dragged another five or six meters, scraping hard across the ground blanketed in fallen leaves.

At the critical moment, a vine lying across the ground saved Gao Jing.

He braced his left foot firmly against the vine and desperately pulled his right leg backward, using the leverage to arch up his upper body.

Then he swung the Mountain-Cleaving Saber with all his strength!

Smack!

The thing wrapped around his calf was severed in a single slash.

Breaking free of his restraints, Gao Jing sprang to his feet and at the same time saw the culprit behind the ambush!

It was a huge black spider.

It stood nearly a meter tall. The span of its eight long legs stretched at least three meters from side to side. Its round abdomen was black and glossy, while its cephalothorax was covered in dense bristles.

Six eyes hidden among those bristles stared fixedly at Gao Jing. Each one flickered with greedy, bloodthirsty light.

A long silvery-white strand of spider silk dangled from the black spider's mouthparts, which held two curved, dagger-like fangs!

Behind it was a dark burrow concealed amid the grass.

Hisss, hisss, hisss!

Clearly unwilling to let the meal at its mouth escape, the giant spider made a harsh, grating sound.

Then it lunged at Gao Jing!

From the moment Gao Jing spotted the giant spider to the moment it attacked him again, only two or three seconds had passed.

At this moment, Gao Jing did not panic and turn to flee. Instead, he gritted his teeth and charged straight at the giant spider.

When enemies met on a narrow road, the brave won!

Gao Jing knew very clearly that running was the stupidest choice. Only by fighting desperately could he carve out a path to survival.

He poured all his strength into a slash at the giant spider's ugly head!

Squelch!

The Ontario Machete carved a streak of cold light through the air and struck viciously into the giant spider's cephalothorax. It cut three or four inches deep, nearly shearing off half the spider's head.

Juice splattered everywhere.

Thud!

Struck so heavily, the black giant spider immediately fell from the air.

It twitched and struggled on the ground, its eight legs constantly opening and closing as dark green slurry poured endlessly from its wound.

Very soon, it stopped moving.

"Hah!"

Gao Jing had not expected to finish his opponent with a single blow. The nerves he had held taut immediately relaxed.

His choice had clearly been correct.

This giant spider looked terrifying, but its actual combat power was not high, nor was its defense particularly strong.

That was why he had killed it so easily.

But Gao Jing did not become carried away.

Because this giant spider, which had nearly claimed his life, was merely a crawling insect as insignificant as dust in this world.

And although the spider was dead, the trouble it had brought Gao Jing had not entirely vanished.

Gao Jing's body, arms, and even face were splattered with spider slurry, which gave off waves of foul, fishy stench.

He had no idea whether it was poisonous.

He hurriedly turned back, grabbed his backpack from the ground, and silently said, "Go back!"

In an instant, he returned to his own Main World.

The first thing Gao Jing did upon returning home was check the phone on the table.

The phone screen was still lit, displaying the time: 8:25:12.

He had not brought his phone along for this exploration of the new world. Before teleporting, he had deliberately turned on the clock and left it on the table.

Now Gao Jing could be completely certain that time in the two worlds was relatively frozen. Whatever time it was when he left, it was still that exact same moment when he returned!

This also proved his earlier conjecture.

But Gao Jing had no time to investigate its secrets. He hurriedly took off his gear and rushed to the bathroom for a shower.

First, he scrubbed himself clean inside and out. Then Gao Jing washed the Charge jacket stained with slurry several times, sprayed it with disinfectant, and finally hung it out to dry.

Only after making sure all the spider slurry had been cleaned away and there was no poison did he finally feel at ease.

.