[Brain storage area. This is a new author's first novel. The protagonist isn't invincible, and the abilities follow the rules of the Jujutsu world (I used all the information I could find to write the outline). Please stop saying things like awakening a Cursed Technique would let him crush Gojo and Sukuna. The author doesn't write brainless power fantasies.]
[Important things bear repeating three times. Please keep the following in mind while reading this book.]
[Don't drag the manga world into the real world. Anyone who can't understand that should leave.]
[Don't drag the manga world into the real world. Anyone who can't understand that should leave.]
[Don't drag the manga world into the real world. Anyone who can't understand that should leave.]
[Let's make this clear first: please don't bring ethnic issues into a fictional world. The author firmly loves his country, and the protagonist firmly follows the path of a shared future for humanity. He cares only about right and wrong, not race, and doesn't engage in racial discrimination.]
[The protagonist isn't a rational person. This entire book promotes positive values. This is the author's first attempt, so the writing might be poor early on, but it should improve later. Feel free to keep an eye on my progress~]
Today was a day worth celebrating.
The outcome of Satoru Gojo versus Sukuna-the battle of the strongest-in the popular manga Jujutsu Kaisen was about to be revealed.
With the end of the year approaching, Qin Hong had been working overtime like crazy. It was already past ten at night when he got home. Exhausted all over, the first thing he did was turn on his computer and find the manga Jujutsu Kaisen.
Seeing the [Updated] label at the bottom right of the manga's cover warmed Qin Hong's heart. He felt as though all his exhaustion had vanished.
Brimming with excitement, Qin Hong clicked on the manga.
"Huh?!"
Inside his plain little rental, Qin Hong stared blankly at the black-and-white image on his screen. Satoru Gojo, who had been beating Sukuna down in the previous chapter, suddenly had nothing but his lower half left standing there.
In the manga.
Sukuna: "You were magnificent, Satoru Gojo-I'll probably never forget you as long as I live."
Those words kept echoing through Qin Hong's brain.
"Buh."
Qin Hong felt like his CPU was about to burn out. With the last of his willpower, he grabbed the "Couch Potato Energy Supplement-Special Chilled Edition" from his desk.
Only after chugging several mouthfuls with a "glug, glug, glug" did he rub his aching head and slowly sit down.
After a moment of silence, he abandoned reason, dragged his keyboard over, and began venting in the comments.
Nearly an hour later, a calmer Qin Hong looked at the rows of "battle achievements" he had typed onto the screen and suddenly felt mentally exhausted.
All he wanted now was sleep. He didn't even feel hungry.
He slowly climbed into bed, pulled his thick quilt over himself, switched on the electric blanket he had just bought from Pinxixi, and peacefully closed his eyes.
"With no time to mourn Satoru Gojo's death, the next to enter the battlefield was: a lost ordinary person, Qin Hong."
"Huh?" Half asleep, Qin Hong thought he heard someone calling him and answered instinctively.
As his awareness gradually returned, Qin Hong rubbed his eyes and slowly opened them, taking in the unbelievable scene before him.
The ground was relatively level, with the wreckage of buildings scattered all around. Looking farther out, he could still see some intact buildings. Only the few hundred meters surrounding him looked as though they had undergone demolition, without a single whole building in sight.
Qin Hong looked beside him and noticed that some of the more intact pieces of wreckage had strange shapes. Their outlines and cross sections looked smooth, unlike damage caused by an earthquake or explosion.
"What a realistic dream... I used to wake up quickly once I realized I was dreaming. How long will it take this time...?"
Qin Hong thought he was simply having one of those dreams he hadn't experienced in ages, the kind he would forget once he woke up. He didn't pay it much mind and only wanted to explore a little more before waking.
Qin Hong shook his head, wanting to wander around while the dream lasted.
Suddenly.
A voice came from the distance, tinged with mockery and curiosity. "Kid, where did you come from?"
Qin Hong hadn't understood what the voice said. He turned his head to see who had spoken.
Once he turned around.
He saw a shirtless man with spiky black hair standing there. Symmetrical black markings covered his upper body and face. Looking closer, he saw an arrogant, unrestrained face with two pairs of eyes.
Qin Hong felt a little bewildered.
Whoa-the more you use your brain, the stronger it really gets. Look at that processing speed. I only just finished reading, and it's already put Sukuna into my dream.
Just as Qin Hong stood there marveling at how overtime had evolved his brain, he heard a whoosh.
Qin Hong suddenly felt his body go numb. He couldn't draw a breath, and his vision tipped backward uncontrollably. In his upside-down view, he saw the ground behind him and hazily made out half a body still standing there...
This feeling... it's exactly like when I nearly drowned as a kid. At the end, you don't feel any pain. You only see things from your memories that you regret.
Qin Hong felt his vision go completely dark.
At the very end, he heard something that sounded like an object hitting the ground...
His life flashed rapidly through his mind, scene after scene from the orphanage to graduating high school and going out to work. He felt no pain, only utter peace...
A dream couldn't go this far! Did I... die?!
After an unknown amount of time spent half asleep and half awake, Qin Hong felt his awareness begin to clear.
He tried opening his eyes.
Before him was a pure white space, with what seemed to be something in the distance.
Then he saw an entirely white, glowing humanoid creature with no hair leaning its hard-boiled-egg-like head toward him.
"So calm? Looks like you've got a decent temperament." Facing Qin Hong with a face whose features were impossible to make out, the glowing humanoid spoke without preamble.
First I got home from work, then I read the manga and left comments, went to bed, started fighting Sukuna, and had my head sliced off by him.
Qin Hong summed up everything that had happened between leaving work and dying.
Then he began inspecting his body and discovered that he, too, had become a white, glowing form.
I have limbs and can touch myself. My hearing and vision are normal, and I have some sense of touch, but no pain. My body doesn't feel like flesh. It's an indescribable sensation. If this isn't a dream, is it something supernatural? The world after death?
No longer able to distinguish dreams from reality, Qin Hong couldn't be certain of the situation before him. He decided to ask the white humanoid.
"Sorry, I have quite a few questions, so I'll ask them all at once. Who are you? Where is this? Am I already dead? What happens to me next?"
Qin Hong felt very calm, as though he were in that state of post-release clarity. His emotions were steady, though he didn't know whether that had anything to do with his current form.
The glowing humanoid slowly raised his head and said to Qin Hong, "First, you can call me the Administrator. This is the transfer ground, also known as the reincarnation ground. You died from oxygen deprivation, and next, you'll be reincarnated into another world."
"Could you tell me more about my death?" Qin Hong was still curious about how he had died. He figured he might lose his memories after reincarnating, so this could be his final question.
The Administrator fell silent for a moment before saying, "Are you sure?"
"I really want to know."
The Administrator was silent again, seemingly choosing his words. After a while, he said, "You died from bodily paralysis and oxygen deprivation."
"To be specific, you buried your head under the quilt while sleeping, then entered a deep dream and slept very soundly. Just as the lack of oxygen became unbearable and you were about to wake up, your electric blanket suddenly leaked current. It briefly paralyzed your body, leaving you unable to move. In the end, you suffocated under your quilt."
You really ought to listen to warnings. When someone asks, 'Are you sure?' there has to be something behind it... Electric blankets... stop thinking about it! Forget this happened!
"Look on the bright side. Whatever happened, this life of yours is over. Once you reincarnate, nobody will know how bizarre your death was."
Seemingly sensing the silent Qin Hong's embarrassment, the Administrator volunteered some comfort.
"Actually, your body was discovered on the third day after your death. Your landlord found you when he came to fix your faucet."
"Your landlord thought you weren't home at first. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed a smell. Worried, he opened your bedroom door and found you under the quilt, nearly three days dead."
"You went viral online. The most common headline about you was: 'Unscrupulous merchant's homemade electric blanket causes death.'"
"In the end, a consumer watchdog blogger found where the electric blankets were being made and worked with the police to get the unscrupulous merchant arrested."
"Because of your death, inspections of electric blankets are pretty strict now."
Now that the Administrator had opened the floodgates, he couldn't stop. He kept talking.
"You're pretty conscientious about telling a story. You give it a beginning and an ending," Qin Hong said dryly.
The Administrator patted Qin Hong's head, ignored his remark, and continued on his own. "I'll take you to reincarnate. You'll soon forget the troubles of your previous life. Come with me."
"A new world? What kind of world? Could you pick one without electric blankets? Will I still have my memories from my previous life? If possible, I'd like to forget just the electric blanket incident!" Qin Hong had grown rather talkative. Perhaps out of shame, he had rediscovered his humanity after drifting for so long.
The Administrator paused.
He was so calm just a moment ago.
The Administrator thought for a moment, said nothing, and continued leading Qin Hong through the pure white space.
Doors stood scattered throughout the boundless white space, in various colors, shapes, and sizes. At last, the Administrator stopped before a black door.
"We're here. Your soul is most compatible with this door. You can reincarnate in this world," the Administrator told Qin Hong as he stopped before it.
Qin Hong carefully examined the door before him. Irregular black patterns crawled all over it, giving it an eerie look. Only a streak of white at one corner seemed normal. Qin Hong's subconscious told him this world definitely wasn't safe.
"This door doesn't look very clean. I'm a bit of a clean freak. Could we switch to another one?" Qin Hong made his request to the Administrator half jokingly, half seriously.
The Administrator didn't look at Qin Hong. He simply stared at the door and slowly said, "In my experience, without an outside force, this world will soon disappear." After saying that, the Administrator stopped looking at the door and turned to regard Qin Hong seriously.
"And a soul like yours, one that managed to slip out of its world by accident, is the best outside force."
The Administrator watched Qin Hong silently. Looking at the Administrator, who kept staring at him, Qin Hong vaguely seemed to sense something.
Am I about to reincarnate into another world? Saving the world and all that... awesome! I'll never have to go to work again!
Qin Hong felt his soul boil with excitement. He slapped the Administrator's shoulder. "Saving the world! You've got the right guy!"
The Administrator pulled Qin Hong's hand off.
"There's only one chance to turn back the timeline. I'll send you to the beginning of the story, and I hope you'll do your best. Even if you fail, all that happens is this world gets destroyed."
"I can retrieve you using your recorded soul data and send you back to your own world. However, in your original world, there's an 83 percent chance you won't be human in your next reincarnation."
I'm a little afraid to ask what animal...
Qin Hong decided to learn from his mistake and ask no more questions.
"I've always wanted to save the world!" Qin Hong felt he wasn't that sort of shallow person.
Fail to save it and become some random animal, huh.
"From here on, all I can guarantee is that you'll enter that world safely and integrate into it completely. You'll gain that world's most fundamental power, but you'll have to explore and learn the details yourself. It'll depend on your own talent," the Administrator instructed Qin Hong after taking hold of the doorknob.
"Got it! I'm ready!" Looking excited, Qin Hong waved his hands, unsure what else to do with them.
With a creeeeak, the door opened. What lay beyond it was impossible to make out. Qin Hong slowly approached the doorway, his face full of excitement. Suddenly remembering something, he asked the Administrator beside him, "Oh, right. What story is this world from?"
The Administrator didn't answer. He merely gave Qin Hong a shove, sending him tumbling straight inside, then slowly closed the door.
"Hopefully, we'll meet again."
Before you continue