My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's

"Aunt Panhua, the usual! A bowl of Hand-Pulled Noodles, extra numbing and extra spicy!"

On the way, Lu Li learned that Chixia's ancestors had migrated from the Central Plains Plateau to Jinzhou, where their family line had branched out considerably.

They loved spicy food and could handle serious heat.

Lu Li wasn't much of a spice eater. To him, chili peppers were for seasoning. Mildly spicy food was fine now and then, but heavy spice was more than he could take.

After all, chili peppers burned at both ends!

"Chixia, do you have any recommendations?"

Having only just arrived, Lu Li was overwhelmed by the dazzling variety on the menu.

"How about Jinzhou Stew? It's the locals' favorite regional dish and one of Jinzhou's specialties."

The two chatted while they waited for their food.

"Lu Li, where exactly are you from?"

"Actually, I really am not from this world."

"Then how did you get here?"

"I closed my eyes, opened them, and here I was, body and all."

"...So that's what happened. How amazing! Why don't I tell you about Solaris and Jinzhou?"

Just then, the Hand-Pulled Noodles and Jinzhou Stew arrived.

Jinzhou Stew was a dish made by stewing meat and vegetables together.

The ingredients were flexible and the preparation simple, preserving as much of the meat and vegetables' original flavor as possible.

It came with a bowl of rice.

It certainly looked, smelled, and tasted good.

Chixia's bowl of Hand-Pulled Noodles was bright red. Just looking at it made his teeth chatter.

She ate with relish, though. That amount of spice seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever.

Over their meal, Lu Li learned more about this world from Chixia.

The planet was called Solaris, the third planet in the Solar System.

Solaris hadn't always been like this.

From the first "Wail," new phenomena had emerged, the old laws had ceased to function, and unprecedented anomalous disasters had ravaged the land.

In this new world where destruction and rebirth coexisted, people kept civilization's indomitable spark alive, resisting wave after wave of unknown crises.

"Wail" was the collective term for all the catastrophic phenomena on Solaris.

People remembered the moment everything had changed: it had begun with the first Wail, and the Wail had never ended.

The waves kept coming, and the Wail never ceased.

Under the Wail, waves of destruction had eroded the world of Solaris.

Manifestations of that erosion, such as the "Tacet Fields" he had seen earlier, were collectively known as "Lamentation."

The Remnant Lu Li had subdued earlier was a life-like entity born from Lamentation, composed of lingering, chaotic frequency energy.

Their forms varied, and they possessed a special structure called a "sound core." Scholars also called them "echo bodies."

As a major frontier city of Huanglong, Jinzhou's northern region lay in the heart of the area exposed to Tacet Discord tide disasters, serving as Huanglong's frontline stronghold against Remnants.

Huanglong's territory was vast, comprising one court and six provinces.

As the youngest of its provincial cities, Jinzhou City had shouldered the duty of guarding the frontier from the moment it was founded. The Midnight Rangers had held the north without ever wavering.

"In short, this is a world with monsters, and our job is to fight them off and protect our home!"

"Now I get it!"

All those complicated terms had left Lu Li's head spinning. Did scholars in this world all love coming up with such tongue-twisting vocabulary?

"That explanation wore me out, too."

Given Chixia's level of education, delivering such a long explanation in one go really had been an exceptional performance.

"This meal's on me!" Lu Li declared generously.

"You? You only just got here. Where would you get any money?" Chixia eyed him skeptically.

Lu Li gave a crooked grin. "You never know!"

Three hours had passed since he acquired the talent "never underestimate a poor youth," and he now had just over ten thousand Shell Credits.

How could ten thousand Shell Credits not cover a meal? What a joke! I'm a man with a five-figure fortune!

Lu Li slapped the table. "Check, please!"

Aunt Panhua came over. "Hello! Your total comes to nine thousand Shell Credits."

Lu Li's hand froze as he reached for his money. "How much?!"

"Three thousand Shell Credits for the Hand-Pulled Noodles and six thousand for the Jinzhou Stew. Nine thousand altogether." Aunt Panhua smiled at him.

"Well, uh... it's only nine thousand Shell Credits. Ahahaha..." Lu Li painfully parted with nine thousand Shell Credits and paid the bill.

He hadn't expected prices in this world to be so high.

He could earn 86,400 Shell Credits a day. In other words, twenty-four hours of hard-earned income would only buy him fourteen servings of Jinzhou Stew!?

Hiss-

Lu Li sucked in a sharp breath. Putting it that way, it actually wasn't too bad.

Chixia laughed. "Why do you look like that hurt? This is already really cheap."

Lu Li sighed. He couldn't help marveling at how wealthy the people of Jinzhou were.

It looked like he would have to find some way to make money. After all, he was already here. If he couldn't return to Earth, he would have to live on this planet from now on.

If even food costs this much, how expensive must a house be?!

He hadn't been able to afford a house in his previous life. Was he still going to be unable to afford one in this world?

No! My fate is mine, not Heaven's!

I have to find a way to earn money.

As he thought this, Lu Li wiped the chili oil from the corner of Chixia's mouth with a tissue.

He also took the opportunity to ruffle her red hair.

Chixia had already grown used to Lu Li's little gestures.

"Let me think... where should I take you for some fun next?"

Just then, Chixia's communicator suddenly rang.

"Oh, hold on. Someone's calling me."

Chixia answered the call. "Mm-hmm! Huh? When did they go missing? It's okay, it's okay. Don't panic. I'll be right there."

She put down her communicator and said apologetically to Lu Li, "Ahh-it's time for my shift! I almost forgot. I'm going to be late!"

"Sorry, sorry, Lu Li! I have to go on duty. I'll come find you as soon as I'm done!"

"How about I come with you?"

"Huh? You want to come on duty with me?"

Lu Li nodded. "If I can't go back, I'll need to make a living here eventually. I'll be counting on you to look after me then, Chixia."

Chixia looked excited. "Sure, sure! Once my shift's over, we can go find A Piao and the others!"

She grabbed Lu Li's hand and hurried off toward the mission location.

On the way, Chixia suddenly asked Lu Li, "By the way, does your Terminal have any functional modules? Like a grappling hook or object manipulation?"

Lu Li checked and, sure enough, found the modules she had mentioned.

Chixia pointed at something shaped like a four-leaf clover in the distance. "See that? That's something you can latch onto with your grappling hook. You can use the hook to move around quickly!"

"That's amazing!" Lu Li exclaimed.

[Option 1: Race Chixia and reach the destination first. Reward: Talent "Language Proficiency"]

[Option 2: Race Chixia and lose. Reward: 50,000 Shell Credits]

[Option 3: Race Chixia and tie. Reward: One bowl of Jinzhou Stew]

"All right!" Lu Li suddenly shouted. "Chixia, let's race!"

He rattled the words off, then launched himself away with his grappling hook.

"Hey, hey! I haven't told you where we're going yet!"