The Beginning of Everything

On the boundless blue sea, a luxury cruise ship sailed slowly. Through human ingenuity, the ocean was no longer unconquerable. Inside the luxurious lounge, every gentleman was so refined and courteous, and every lady elegant and poised.

Yet entirely out of place with this scene was the maintenance room directly beneath them. A young man in his early twenties sat in front of a laptop, which was playing an anime called One Piece.

From the young man's focused expression, one could tell how much he loved this anime. Until the anime finished playing, the young man stretched lazily and muttered to himself, "Ah, as expected, it's so satisfying to watch a dozen episodes all at once. We've reached Zou already. Kaido's about to be fought soon, right? With such a fierce Kaido, I wonder how Oda's going to wrap this up. Is he going to pull out Gear 5?"

Just as the young man was talking to himself, he suddenly felt a great commotion and noise break out among the crowd above. As the ship's chief engineer, Werther of course had to go up and take a look.

It would be bad if some mechanical failure was disturbing the guests. After all, the captain had treated him quite well. The moment Werther turned and stepped onto the stairs, he heard a splash, as if something had leaped out of the water, followed by a heavy thud of an object falling into the water.

Immediately after came even more chaotic noises from the guests above, mixed with a few screams from ladies.

Hearing the screams, Werther's originally unhurried pace turned directly into a run. "Something big has happened, I need to get up there fast."

He hurried onto the deck to find all the guests and the chief mate already there. Disregarding politeness, he ran straight up to the elderly chief mate and asked, "Old man John, what's going on?"

Chief Mate John was a bald white man with a white beard. His usually kind face was filled with terror and shock as he turned back and said, "A carp, Werther. I saw a golden carp, and it's bigger than our ship. My God, how could there be such a huge carp?"

Hearing the chief mate's words, Werther was also extremely shocked. His black eyes were filled with disbelief and doubt. "A carp bigger than our cruise ship? We're a cruise ship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, how is that possible?"

Just as Werther finished speaking, he heard another splash from behind him.

Turning around, Werther had his worldview refreshed by everything before his eyes. Appearing before him was a freshwater carp, golden all over with bright red gills, its massive body leaping high into the air. Even though the cruise ship was no longer a colossal behemoth in front of it, they could at least be considered on par.

Thud!

The giant carp that had leaped into the air seemed to collide with an invisible wall and bounced back down, plunging into the water with a heavy splash.

Werther only felt the entire world shaking. It wasn't the ship shaking; the entire world was shaking. He fell straight to the ground.

After a few seconds, Werther came to his senses and heard an aged, furious roar echo from the sea, "This isn't the place! Let me out! Because of my tribulation, so many living creatures have suffered death and injury. How can I face my master?"

The originally clear weather was now rolling with dark clouds, forming a huge vortex that emitted rumbling, muffled sounds of thunder!

Foreigners on the ship might not understand, but Werther, being Chinese, knew that the scene before him completely subverted his worldview. He murmured, "Is, is this undergoing a heavenly tribulation? Or a carp leaping through the dragon gate?"

Werther really didn't want to know at all; he just wanted to escape from here immediately. He picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Captain, Captain, this is Werther. Full speed ahead immediately. An unidentified colossal creature has appeared behind us. If we are attacked, there is a possibility we will sink."

The captain in the bridge heard Werther's loud roar and asked, "Werther, what's going on?" Then he shouted, "Full speed ahead, leave this sea area!"

The captain still trusted this young man who had worked alongside him for six years, and moreover, he had caught the keywords "sink" and "colossal creature."

The walkie-talkie rang with Werther's voice: "Captain, you should come out to the deck and take a look. I'm not very clear on the specifics."

Having finished notifying the captain, Werther ran to the edge of the deck and looked down into the sea. A massive dark shadow was swimming across the surface of the water. At this point, other than watching, Werther couldn't do anything else.

After watching for a while, he heard hurried footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw the captain had arrived. "Werther, what on earth is going on? Why suddenly order the ship to go full speed ahead?"

"Look at the sea, Captain. This is a creature even more colossal than the Queen Avis, probably a freshwater carp."

The captain's expression instantly became dramatic. He looked down, and sure enough, there was a massive dark shadow.

Just when everyone was at a loss for what to do, with a thud, Werther felt the ship collide with something, yet clearly nothing was in front of them. His body flew into the air, soaring a dozen meters before landing heavily, and then he lost consciousness.

A long time passed. When Werther painfully regained consciousness, he felt that his right arm had lost all sensation. He raised his head and saw a scene he would never forget in his lifetime.

The sky was a sheet of silver, forming a massive silver-blue vortex. A giant golden carp swam freely through the air, constantly changing its direction, its gaze fixed tightly on the firmament.

Before Werther could figure out what was happening, the firmament seemed to grow angry. A silver-blue lightning bolt cleaved down, striking heavily upon the carp's head. The carp's body and head were already covered in wounds and venting black smoke.

Standing far away, Werther could even smell the scent of roasted meat, and his ears could hear nothing besides a buzzing whine.

The massive vortex in the firmament began to spin until it reached a certain limit. A bolt of lightning several times thicker than the previous one crashed down. The golden carp could no longer hold out and was blasted to pieces. Yet that bolt of lightning did not disappear as a result; it plunged straight down to strike the Queen Avis below.

With his final shred of consciousness, Werther only felt his body go numb and become very light, and then everything turned pitch black. After a moment came the sensation of intense friction—he could see nothing and hear nothing. It felt as though countless insects were biting and tearing at him, and slowly, he became tattered and battered.

I don't know how much time passed. When Werther saw the light again, it was in a strange place. It was hazy here, as if mist was everywhere. He lowered his head to look at his own body. It was no longer his previous appearance, but had turned semi-transparent, and many places on his body were tattered and torn, as if he had been subjected to death by a thousand cuts.

Werther touched the missing parts. Although it didn't hurt, he felt that these losses were fatal, as if his soul were fragmented.

Just as Werther was wondering what had happened, he heard the shout of a boy ring out not far ahead. "Get out, get you out! This is mine! If you don't leave, I'll bite you!"

Werther raised his head and saw a boy of eight or nine years old looking at him with a feigned, fierce expression. Werther murmured in a low voice, "Well, I must be dead, and then my soul traveled through a very dangerous place, coincidentally arriving in this boy's consciousness or some similar place. The one in front of me should be the rightful owner of this conscious space."

Just as Werther was lost in thought, an unprecedented, sharp pain came from his hand. Unable to help it, he let out a loud cry, and then used his other hand to punch the boy who had attacked him right in the face.

The boy was sent drifting away by the punch. Werther took a look at his hand—a chunk was missing. It truly was pain that pierced straight into the soul. Looking back at the boy, he was actually eating something, and judging by his expression, it seemed quite enjoyable.

Without a second thought, he lunged straight forward, pinned the boy to the ground, and bit down directly. It felt like biting into cotton candy—very soft. After swallowing, Werther felt that his previously fragmented soul became a bit more complete, and his senses cleared up quite a bit.

"Heh, thank you for the enlightenment, friend. Also, goodbye."

Then, a terrifying scene played out in the hazy space: a young man pinned a boy to the ground, eating him bite by bite. What was even weirder was that as he ate, the young man's body grew larger and clearer, until the boy was completely eaten, leaving only a person around eight or nine years old named Werther remaining in the hazy space.