The First Thing: Survive at All Costs

His consciousness slowly rose from boundless darkness.

With his senses cut off, even the concept of time had become blurred.

He had no idea whether an instant had passed or a century.

A faint ray of light pierced the black curtain, awakening Cui Ciyou's slumbering senses as well.

Cui Ciyou's eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

He exhausted what remained of his willpower before barely managing to crack them open.

A strong, unfamiliar, slightly pungent scent instantly flooded his nostrils:

The damp, fishy smell of soil after rain, the faint sourness of rotting leaves, the sweet fragrance of strange plants, and the wild scent of vegetation and earth from primordial nature.

A cold, damp breeze brushed across his cheeks, stirring his sweat-soaked black hair and bringing a faint tickle.

Subtle sounds gradually emerged beside his ears:

The constant rustling came from dense leaves high above rubbing and swaying in the wind;

It was occasionally mixed with several sharp, brief birdcalls with strange pitches.

Cui Ciyou finally opened his eyes, his vision gradually shifting from blurry double images to clarity.

The first thing that entered his sight was a dense, oppressive canopy of dark green overhead that nearly blotted out the sky.

Sunlight struggled through the gaps between branches and leaves, fragmented into countless tiny, dancing specks of light.

They scattered sparsely across the dark, wet, slippery ground beneath him, creating a strange scene of interwoven light and shadow.

Cui Ciyou stiffly turned his aching neck, warily and blankly surveying his surroundings.

As far as the eye could see, there were towering trees so massive that several people would have needed to link arms to encircle them, their trunks covered in thick moss.

Countless bizarre, giant-python-thick vines tightly wound and clung to the massive trees and branches, their roots and tendrils tangled together.

[Where... the hell is this place?... Wasn't I... supposed to be dead?]

[So the world after death is... a forest?]

An intense sense of dissonance and unfamiliarity instantly swept through him.

Cui Ciyou abruptly sat up, but that simple movement made him feel something unprecedentedly strange:

There was none of the agony or weakness he had expected after a car accident.

Instead, he felt an indescribable lightness, as though he had broken free of heavy shackles;

As well as a powerful sense of strength lurking deep within his muscles and bones, ready to erupt at any moment.

[Where the hell did they send me? Is this even still China?]

[Is there a primeval forest like this in China?... Shennongjia? Or the Greater Khingan Range?]

Cui Ciyou warily looked around this unknown primeval forest, his heart pounding violently from the bizarre circumstances.

This was a vast, boundless primeval forest.

It exuded a mystery and natural aura utterly different from modern civilization.

When he calmed down and listened closely, he could even faintly hear running water in the distance.

"Something's wrong... Everything is very wrong." Cui Ciyou immediately lowered his head and examined his hands.

His fingers were still long and well-defined, while the light calluses on his palms from years of holding pens and occasional physical work remained clearly visible.

He viciously pinched the tender flesh of his inner thigh, and a sharp, distinct pain immediately shot through him:

"This isn't a dream. This pain... definitely isn't a dream."

"But... the final fragment of my memory was so vivid, so real."

"I should have... died in that car accident, shouldn't I?"

Cui Ciyou's mind repeatedly replayed the moment before he had crossed over:

A rainy night, a slick road, an out-of-control truck, a little girl, a bow, and... himself being sent flying...

"I should already be dead," Cui Ciyou muttered, his voice filled with incredulous confusion.

"Hit head-on by a truck that size... yet now I..."

Cui Ciyou examined himself once more:

Then he looked from his completely uninjured body, which felt better than ever, to the utterly unfamiliar primeval forest around him.

He tried to consider every possibility:

"Where exactly is this? A hallucination? Brain damage caused by the car accident? Or... some incredibly realistic near-death experience?"

"Or perhaps... like in the web novels... I've crossed over... and physically crossed over at that!"

[Forget it. Thinking about it is giving me a headache... I won't figure anything out anyway. I should get up and observe my surroundings first.]

Cui Ciyou tried to stand.

The instant his feet touched the ground and his body straightened, he suddenly felt unbelievably light.

It was as if he had escaped Earth's gravity; he even had the illusion that, with just a little force, he could leap several meters into the air.

To verify it further, Cui Ciyou cautiously made a tentative, light jump in place.

The result stirred up the emotions he had only just managed to settle:

With merely a light tap of his toes against the ground, his entire body shot nearly two meters upward without resistance, like a feather that had lost all weight.

Then, relying on what seemed like innate core strength and balance, he lightly adjusted his posture and slowly landed back on the ground.

When his feet touched down, the impact that should have been enough to make an ordinary person's ankles go numb—

Was so weak it was almost negligible, as though he had stepped on thick, springy cotton.

The entire process was effortless, accompanied by an indescribable sense of comfort.

"This... This is absolutely not normal. What the hell happened to my body?!"

Cui Ciyou stared at his feet in disbelief.

He felt the surging strength within him, like a rushing river;

And that strange sensation of a body so light it was nearly weightless, his heart filled with immense shock and confusion.

"Either the laws of gravity here are completely different from Earth's, making gravity extremely weak."

"Or... my body changed somehow without my knowing—a... world-shaking, utterly unbelievable transformation!"

This change could not possibly be described with a mere "I'm in good condition."

It was a complete strengthening from the inside out, as though he had been utterly reborn.

It was as if every one of Cui Ciyou's cells, every muscle fiber, and every nerve ending had been thoroughly reconstructed and optimized by some unknown means.

At this moment, his body brimmed with explosive power and unimaginable agility.

Strength, speed, endurance, reactions, balance, even the sharpness of his five senses... all had reached an inhuman level Cui Ciyou had previously only dared to imagine in fantasy novels or films!

"What exactly is going on? Am I... still me?"

Cui Ciyou clenched his fists, feeling the immense power that seemed capable of crushing steel with ease.

His heart was filled with immense confusion, shock, and a faint thrill and anticipation hidden beneath his fear of the unknown.

[Congratulations, host, on successfully becoming Superman... Are you happy? Surprised? —From the voice of some nonexistent system that enjoyed making malicious snarky remarks.]

Cui Ciyou blankly mocked himself in his mind.

Then he took a deep breath and forced his chaotic thoughts to settle.

No matter how bizarre the changes in his body had been.

No matter what kind of unknown hellhole he currently found himself in.

There was only one thing that mattered right now—

He had to survive!

He had to use every possible means and pay any price to survive in this place first!