A transmigrator in Fusang City who wasn't an international student

(Note 1: The pre-transmigration background included the author's hopes for a better future, but it was entirely fictional. Please don't turn it into a political issue.)

(Note 2: People in 2000 couldn't imagine how powerful our country would be twenty-five years later, and we in 2025 can't imagine the future of 2050 either. The author's abilities are limited, so although the protagonist is supposed to transmigrate in 2050, you can treat him as a modern-day transmigrator. Mostly, I just thought the idea of a transmigrator in Fusang City who wasn't an international student was cool.)

(Note 3: Since I don't know how to write original fiction, I'm trying my hand at fanfiction. Given my limited writing skills, this novel's main storyline will broadly follow the original plot. Thank you for your understanding.)

(Note 4: The anime is already up to season four. If you've watched it but haven't read the novels, give this a try: since it follows the original storyline, I'll write all the way to the ending. If you've read the entire original novel series, you can try it too, because this is fanfiction-a story similar to the original protagonist's, yet entirely different. If you haven't seen either-you're welcome to read it as well! Since it follows the original plot, I'll explain both the relevant background and the fanfiction's background again, so newcomers will understand everything too!!)

(In short, come read, bring prosperity, and that's that. End of notes-and now, following Tomato's tradition, please leave your brains here →)

On September X, 202X, banners snapped in the wind over Tiananmen Square, and armored vehicles stood in formation along Chang'an Street. China held a grand military parade to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

New domestically produced frontline equipment appeared in succession. From torrents of steel to intelligent vanguards, they demonstrated the formidable strength behind the people's armed forces' modernization, showing the world Huaxia's confidence and resolve as a great and powerful nation.

During the parade, torrents of steel for ground combat, deep-blue blades for naval warfare, sky-net barriers for air and missile defense, invisible swords for information warfare, intelligent vanguards for unmanned combat, steadfast support for logistics and equipment, and mighty national weapons for strategic strikes appeared one after another. It was exhilarating!

This display of military might was meant to safeguard peace, and to declare to the world:

Justice will prevail! Peace will prevail! The people will prevail!

When Dongying witnessed Huaxia's military might, it couldn't help recalling the history it had desperately tried to bury. An unprecedented panic spread throughout the country, and local media and scholars began reexamining that history, fearing that the time of reckoning might be approaching.

Faced with the steadily advancing reckoning of justice, the Lighthouse Country chose to stay out of its path and left Dongying to fend for itself.

Resentment took root, and with encouragement from the extreme right, they secretly began brewing a dangerous plan.

On an overcast day in 2030, they secretly dispatched troops disguised as Huaxia naval forces to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, hoping to provoke a conflict between China and America.

What exactly they were thinking remained unclear. Perhaps the plan had even borrowed from a historical precedent?

But perhaps precisely because the move was so unexpected, although every country knew something was fishy, none initially suspected Dongying of being the culprit. Surely those Japanese weren't so tired of living that they would dare bomb their own daddy's territory a second time?

For a while, tensions between the two great powers grew increasingly explosive, as though war were about to break out... But the little country's conspiracy couldn't withstand scrutiny, and the Lighthouse Country's intelligence agencies soon exposed it.

Confronted with conclusive evidence, the Lighthouse Country immediately-one might even say eagerly-cleared up the misunderstanding, identifying the attack as Dongying's attempt to frame Huaxia. It also stated that it had its hands full and sincerely hoped Huaxia would lend a hand in teaching its disobedient "little brother" a lesson.

Huaxia intervened decisively and launched a comprehensive reckoning against Dongying. In just three days, all of Dongying was liberated. The Dongying archipelago was renamed "Fusang" and officially incorporated into Huaxia's territory. The campaign was named the "Eastern Isles Liberation War."

In this war, the awakened lion truly revealed its strength and mercy for the first time. Although it now possessed the national power to sweep away a country in three days, it did not let old national grievances drive it to exterminate everyone.

This was a righteous war of liberation.

Despite its overwhelming military superiority and deep-seated national hatred, the great nation displayed its magnanimity. Rather than committing the atrocities of annihilating a country and its people, it repaid wrongdoing with justice-

It purged only the descendants of the evildoers who had once set foot on its soil, while also rooting out the entrenched elites who parasitized the land. It likewise liberated the innocent people of the little country, who had suffered under rigid class divisions and oppression by the powerful, living in misery... and unable even to afford rice.

Afterward, the government thoroughly reformed the existing educational institutions, removing the falsified history textbooks produced by the former Dongying government, revising them to restore historical truth, and requiring all liberated people to study and understand that truth anew.

At the same time, some mainland residents were resettled in Fusang to promote cultural and ethnic integration.

After 2030, that island country no longer existed. There was only the directly administered municipality of Fusang.

In 2050, Chuan Wenwu, eighteen years old and 1.82 meters tall, embarked on his journey to study in Fusang City.

Both his grandfather and father had been soldiers. Under his parents' influence, Chuan Wenwu had developed a keen interest in military affairs and history from childhood. He had resolved to become a soldier who protected his country and worked toward that goal. He also thoroughly understood the military principles of "seriousness, liveliness, alertness, and unity," and put them into practice in everyday life.

For example-

After seriously finishing his schoolwork, he would demonstrate unity and loyalty by spending his allowance to invite his friends to a gaming café, where they would alertly play games with great liveliness. If his friends faced danger, he would step forward and stand up for them. He had been the leader of the neighborhood kids since childhood and could get along with everyone around him. His elders called him Little Chuan, while some of his more spirited friends his own age occasionally called him Brother Chuan... Ahem, that was getting off topic.

In short, his family environment and upbringing had planted a seed in Chuan Wenwu's heart: to join the armed forces, become an honorable soldier who defended his country, and find comrades who shared his passion.

That was why, after graduating from high school, he had resolutely applied to the Huaxia National Defense University Fusang Branch and been accepted with excellent grades. To him, this wasn't merely an opportunity to study. It was a chance to follow in his forebears' footsteps and personally experience his country's history.

During the summer after his final year of high school, he arrived early to familiarize himself with the place where he would live and study. Accompanying him was an unusually perceptive big yellow dog, Bruce Dahuang.

Bruce was a mixed-breed Chinese Rural Dog. His father was a retired military dog-a Kunming Wolfdog-and his mother was a purebred Chinese Rural Dog. Shortly after birth, Bruce had been given to Chuan Wenwu, who was then just eleven and still in elementary school. They had grown up together, and the bond between boy and dog ran deep.

His name had originally been Dahuang, but after his young owner entered middle school and developed a case of adolescent delusions of grandeur, Chuan Wenwu had insisted on adding the foreign name "Bruce." Over the years, he had gotten used to it. Whether called Dahuang or Bruce, he knew someone was calling him.

Bruce Dahuang was now seven years old, a genuine old geezer among dogs. Having inherited the best traits of both parents, he was remarkably intelligent and understood people well.

Over those seven years, under Chuan Wenwu's "attentive" care, Bruce had not only grown sturdy and plump, with a sleek, glossy coat, but also learned quite a few astonishing skills: riding an electric scooter, performing simple controls to join team fights in online games, playing basketball, playing volleyball... He could even use his paw to change channels with the remote. He particularly enjoyed watching Animal World and military documentaries, often spending an entire afternoon watching with narrowed eyes and an air of serene composure.

They had arrived in Fusang City a week earlier and settled into a rented temporary apartment near what had formerly been Tokyo and was now the Tokyo Basin, planning to report to the university when registration opened.

As for the Tokyo Basin... that was a result of the campaign. There was no need to say more.

Now, looking relaxed, Chuan Wenwu was walking Bruce through the square built inside the basin, marveling at the tremendous power of his country's weapons while admiring its outstanding construction capabilities.

According to his dad, Tokyo had been a truly horrific sight just after the war-far worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima had been after being hit by Little Boy and Fat Man. Technology advanced, after all, and destructive power naturally increased with it.

The weapons used in this campaign had been quite clean, however. Not only had they cleansed Fusang Island of its evil forces, but they had also left little residual radiation. Reconstruction plans had therefore appeared soon after the war, and within just a few years, the prosperity of old Tokyo had returned... Only the ground was much lower.

High-rises towered all around, neon lights flashed, and pedestrians streamed past. Mandarin was the main language, though the occasional phrase in the Fusang dialect could still be heard. The entire city possessed a distinctive atmosphere blending old and new.

"Woof! Woof, woof!!"

While he was taking it all in, Bruce seemed to discover something. He strained against the leash and lunged hard in one direction, nearly wrenching it from Chuan Wenwu's hand.

"Hey, hey, Bruce, where are your manners? Keep it down."

Plenty of people had come to stroll around the square, so Chuan Wenwu couldn't simply let Bruce run wild. He warned him in a low voice.

Still, this was his "real brother," who had grown up alongside him, and a veteran dog of seven years at that. Chuan Wenwu couldn't bear to keep him on too tight a leash.

After looking around and confirming there weren't many people nearby, Chuan Wenwu quietly gave the leash some slack, letting Bruce run while he jogged along behind him.

Today, he was going to see exactly what had gotten Bruce so excited. If Bruce had found another pile of shit, he would beat the shit out of him!

"Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!!"

Bruce stopped at a grassy patch of undeveloped land. Barking joyfully, he lowered his head and alternated his front paws in a flurry of digging. Dirt flew everywhere, along with leaves, grass stems, and roots... And, yes, the fellow's drool.

"What, are you demolishing the place?"

At the sight, Chuan Wenwu gave the leash an exasperated tug, but couldn't budge him. He had no choice but to let the silly dog dig until he tired himself out, then fill the hole afterward... There was no one nearby anyway, so he might as well let him blow off some steam.

"Woof, woof!!"

In no more time than it took Chuan Wenwu to stretch, Bruce stopped the work at "hand." Wagging his tail happily, he lowered his head, picked something out of the hole, and carried it over to Chuan Wenwu.

"Holy shit! What the hell did you dig up? A book?" Chuan Wenwu exclaimed at the object Bruce presented like a treasure.

It was a black-bound book with a thick cover, looking quite old. The cover was slightly damaged, its corners curled and smeared with dirt, but the original intricate embossing remained visible. The title appeared to read "Four Holy Weapons Book" in Japanese. (Japanese was classified as a minority language, similar to Uyghur, and people who came to live or study in Fusang generally knew at least a little.)

Judging by the title alone, was it some kind of weapons reference book?

Who had buried it here?

Surely it wasn't some unlucky kid's buried record of their embarrassing teenage fantasies?

Having gone through something similar himself, and knowing that such things had always been common in Fusang City, Chuan Wenwu couldn't help privately entertaining the idea.

Taking their chance encounter as a sign of fate, he opened the book to see what was written in the volume Bruce had dug up.

Rustle... Rustle...

As the pages turned, the smell of aged paper wafted toward him. Chuan Wenwu quickly skimmed the contents, his brows drawing together slightly.

How to put it... This wasn't a weapons reference book, nor a collection of embarrassing teenage fantasies, but a fairly conventional Japanese-style fantasy novel about heroes.

The gist was that another world had been prophesied to approach its end. Successive waves of calamity would eventually destroy it, so to prevent disaster, its inhabitants summoned warriors from another world-in other words, Fusang City, formerly Dongying-and begged for their help. The heroes then adventured, leveled up, and ultimately saved the world.

People in the industry called this a classic formula, but Chuan Wenwu called it stale. It was all the same stuff, nothing but worn-out clichés without a shred of originality. He could see the ending coming a mile away.

Chuan Wenwu wasn't particularly interested in novels like this, but since he'd already started, he continued quickly skimming through the book.

There were four summoned heroes, each wielding a different weapon: a sword, a spear, a bow, and a shield...

"Oh, four protagonists right out of the gate, huh? An ensemble cast... Is that supposed to keep it from falling into the usual clichés? I've heard that without enough writing skill, this sort of thing can flop spectacularly... And a shield is defensive equipment no matter how you look at it, right? Calling a shield a weapon is one bizarre premise!"

The corner of Chuan Wenwu's mouth twitched. He kept reading, mercilessly commenting as he went.

The heroes set out on journeys to grow stronger, repeatedly slaying monsters to hone themselves in preparation for the waves of calamity. Then, from four different viewpoints, the story provided separate accounts of the Sword Hero, Spear Hero, and Bow Hero-

"So this book's idea of an ensemble cast is to take the same character, change his name, move him somewhere else, and write the whole thing again?" Chuan Wenwu's eye twitched, and he couldn't help rolling his eyes.

After skimming through the accounts of these so-called sword, spear, and bow heroes, Chuan Wenwu could only conclude that they were far too alike. They were exactly like the stereotypical protagonists of Japanese light novels, utterly devoid of individuality. He couldn't even remember their names now.

"What a boring novel. Your taste isn't much better, Bruce. Why'd you dig up something like this?" Chuan Wenwu vigorously rubbed the head of the dog responsible with one hand, while idly using the other to flip to what should have been the equally formulaic Shield Hero's section...

"Hm?"

Chuan Wenwu gave a soft sound of surprise. The next page was actually blank.

"A printing error?"

With that thought, Chuan Wenwu flipped farther back, only to find blank pages with nothing on them.

"Well, would you look at that!" He snapped the Four Holy Weapons Book shut with one hand and said irritably, "It's an unfinished novel, too. No wonder it flopped so hard it got buried underground... Huh?"

For some reason, the book began glowing gold, looking utterly otherworldly.

Rustle... Rustle...

The book's pages turned on their own to the blank section that should have described the Shield Hero. The golden light intensified, and a faint, low hum even began to sound.

Although Chuan Wenwu had no idea what was happening, his training since childhood had equipped him to react to emergencies. He immediately dropped the strange book, turned, and ran with Bruce's leash in hand.

Faced with something unknown, he wasn't stupid enough to stand around!

But the summoning ritual from another world had already taken effect. How could Chuan Wenwu, an ordinary person, possibly resist?

The open book followed him like a shadow and slapped against the back of his head. Golden light burst out in an instant, engulfing him and Bruce completely.

Chuan Wenwu felt the world spin around him, as though he had fallen into some warped spatial transit. The scenery rushed past, and Bruce's startled barking grew increasingly indistinct until it vanished entirely...