The vast ocean surged, its waters stretching boundlessly.
Amid the seawater, a lone island let the waves wash over it.
Someone clearly lived on the island.
Two houses rising above its average elevation stood out like cranes among chickens on the flat ground, visible from far out at sea.
A flash of light sparked inside the larger house, and Zhang Tianyuan suddenly appeared. The pitch-black Spacetime Tunnel rapidly contracted behind him, vanishing without a trace in less than a second.
"Ptooey!"
The moment he appeared, the stuffy, fishy stench inside the house made Zhang Tianyuan gag, and he hurried to open the windows for ventilation.
Instead, the sea breeze carried in the putrid stink of rotting fish and shrimp. It shot straight through the crown of his head, a sensation so excruciatingly intense it nearly killed him.
"What a lousy place!"
Facing the sea breeze, Zhang Tianyuan covered his nose and mouth, looking forlorn.
"Unless it's the end of the world, who would willingly come here to suffer with me?"
Looking out the window, he could see a broad beach less than a kilometer away.
Strangely, many already-rotting fish and shrimp lay on the beach. They were the source of the stench.
Beyond the beach lay the boundless ocean.
The island was barren and primitive. Apart from the two thoroughly futuristic houses, there was almost no trace of human activity.
Zhang Tianyuan did not know where he was, either.
All he knew was that he had woken up in a parallel spacetime and then joined a Lord Game run by a supercivilization.
It was just like those civilization-conquest games common on Earth.
Start with three peasants...
He could not remember the rest of the advertisement.
In short, it was a game combining farming, development, and conquest.
Only, other people played on computers, while some supercivilization had dragged him into this strange artificial plane to play a real-life version of lordly conquest.
"Open panel."
Having stepped outside the base for fresh air, Zhang Tianyuan gave the command with practiced ease. A panel visible only to him immediately unfolded before his eyes:
[Lord]: Zhang Tianyuan (cannot be changed) [Faction name]: Not set [Base level]: Level 1 (360 days of newbie protection remaining) [Base energy] [Territory buildings]: Main base · 1, Wish machine · 1, Cloning laboratory · 1, School blueprint · 1 [Resident count]: 0 (each resident automatically recharges the base by 1 point per day) [Mutated module]: Spacetime Tunnel (consumes base energy points per second while active; world-channel search complete; current channel count: 2) [Administrative management]: Unlocks after acquiring residents [Resident management]: Unlocks after acquiring residents [Supply management]: 1 tonne of grain, 10 tonnes of purified water, 100 kilograms of seasonings, Basic toolbox · 1, Basic furniture · 1
The panel was not complicated.
But Zhang Tianyuan's feelings were complicated. He opened the [Cloning laboratory] module.
This was a basic building that came with the base. It stood beside the main base-the other house on the island.
As its name suggested, the building's only purpose was to make people.
The three starting peasants came from here.
Unlike everyone else's, however, Zhang Tianyuan's laboratory had suffered a little accident...
When he entered the game, a typhoon had happened to be sweeping over the island.
The low-lying island had been completely submerged, and seawater had flooded even the main base and laboratory.
That was where the fishy stench in the main base and the rotting fish and shrimp on the beach had come from-all debts left behind by the typhoon's wild affair.
In short, Zhang Tianyuan had spent a particularly miserable night.
Hunger, cold, howling winds, and raging waves had left him, freshly transmigrated and still unable to make sense of his situation, especially uneasy. He feared he might drown at any moment.
That night, he had hugged his arms tightly around himself and crouched on the base's highest control console until morning...
Only after the typhoon departed and the seawater receded at dawn had Zhang Tianyuan been able to jump down from the control console and inspect the situation.
Then he had discovered something utterly ridiculous.
The [Cloning laboratory], one of his basic buildings, had...
It had actually been ruined by seawater!!!
[Cloning laboratory]: Level 0 (completely destroyed; cannot be repaired)
Zhang Tianyuan had never expected it.
Something this high-tech was not waterproof!
It could clone people, yet it was not waterproof!
This was a supercivilization, yet the thing was not waterproof!
The game's designers must have had something seriously wrong with their heads!
As usual, he frantically tapped the grayed-out repair button on the panel. Still getting no response, Zhang Tianyuan paid the game designers the customary round of foul-mouthed respects before exiting the menu.
For a Lord Game player, being unable to make people was undoubtedly a fatal flaw.
It meant there was no hope of developing his territory.
At the time, Zhang Tianyuan had thought his future would consist of farming alone on the island, fishing, watching the sea, farming, fishing, watching the sea, watching the sea, and watching the sea.
Fortunately, heaven never barred every path. Perhaps it was compensation, or perhaps the main base had also developed a fault after being soaked in seawater.
Before long, Zhang Tianyuan discovered that the hard drive he had brought along when he transmigrated had actually fused with the base, producing a [Mutated module].
That was the Spacetime Tunnel.
Through this Spacetime Tunnel, he could spend base energy to search for movie worlds. Every world he found could be entered through a spacetime gate.
The system had given him one hundred thousand energy to start with. He had spent twenty thousand searching and found two worlds-
"2012"
"I Am Legend"
Both were movies he had previously stored on his hard drive.
Most importantly, according to the base's certification, the people in these worlds were unassimilated "wild people" who could become his residents by signing an assimilation treaty.
In other words-
He did not need clones. These two worlds were his population warehouses!
However many people he could get to sign assimilation treaties, that was how many residents he could have!
As it happened, fewer than a million people remained on Earth after the apocalypse in the world of "2012."
If he could evacuate all seven billion people in "2012" who were about to die in the disaster...
Wouldn't he be able to steamroll this Lord Game outright?
What other lord could mass-produce seven billion troops like him?
Even the most basic clone cost energy points!
And he also had the modern industrial systems that came with those two worlds.
Aircraft carriers, stealth fighters, mushroom bombs...
Using cheats like these and equipment like that against lords still farming and fishing-wasn't that a little inhuman?
But-
So what if he was inhuman!
He had stopped wanting to be human long ago!
Zhang Tianyuan was instantly tempted.
Then he spent ten thousand energy points to open the spacetime gate for one second and entered the world of "2012."
After that, he realized he had been screwed...
The spacetime gate was real, and so was the world of "2012," but it was also true that the apocalypse had not arrived yet.
That round trip wasted twenty thousand energy.
It added frost to the snow already blanketing his impoverished base.
"It's fine. I've planted a seed in '2012' now. If I go back after a while, I should be able to get off to a good start. Once the apocalypse arrives, even if I can't save seven billion people worldwide, saving 1.3 billion should at least be doable..."
Having comforted himself, Zhang Tianyuan turned his eyes toward the other world-
"I Am Legend"
The movie told the story of what happened after the KV Virus devastated the world and the protagonist spent three years living alone in New York.
Its most distinctive feature was undoubtedly the Darkseekers, which combined the traits of "zombies" and "vampires." They had lost their reason, were extremely aggressive, and were terrified of ultraviolet light.
This was not a safe world.
In a sense, the airborne KV Virus and the Darkseekers infesting the cities were even more dangerous than "2012."
That was why Zhang Tianyuan had not chosen this world for his newbie start.
Now, however, it seemed he had no other option unless he went there.
He had no spare energy to search for other worlds.
But this world was truly dangerous. He would be better off waiting a while and returning to "2012" to turtle up.
Thinking over his next plans, Zhang Tianyuan picked up the bucket from the basic toolbox and headed to the beach to forage.
This beach had never been developed. Every couple of steps brought him to another crab, and he even had to watch out for the army of crabs scuttling everywhere so they would not pinch his toes.
After being pinched twice, Zhang Tianyuan had no attention left for strategies to tackle the new world and concentrated on catching crabs.
The base's grain supply consisted solely of rice. He had eaten so much of it these past few days that he could throw up. He was counting on these crabs to sacrifice themselves and give him a change of flavor.
Suddenly, Zhang Tianyuan stopped in his tracks and straightened, his gaze turning solemn as he looked out over the sea ahead.
In the distance, he could faintly make out an enormous wooden ship sailing along!
"Holy shit..."
Zhang Tianyuan stared blankly as the ship sailed away.
He did not know whether the other party had spotted him. In any case, the ship did not head toward him, instead sailing farther and farther away until it vanished from sight.
"Was that another player's ship?"
"Doesn't that mean the other players might have started earlier than me?"
If they had started five days ago like him, they could not possibly have built a large, seaworthy ship so quickly.
Even with cheats, he was not that fast!
Zhang Tianyuan's mood suddenly soured.
He turned his gaze to the panel before him. It still showed 360 days of newbie protection.
During that time, nobody else could land on his island without his permission.
It counted as a safeguard.
But it was not enough.
Zhang Tianyuan lowered his head to look at his feet. Two crabs were crawling curiously over them, their prickly legs hurting quite a bit.
With two clacks, he tossed the crabs that had offended their lord into the bucket, then looked at the half bucket of crabs he had already caught.
Zhang Tianyuan's mood suddenly improved again.
Especially after he steamed all those crabs.
Their fresh, savory flavor swept away all the pressure that enormous ship had brought.
It was only a wooden ship. How many RPG rounds could it withstand?
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhang Tianyuan rubbed his belly, took out paper and a pen, and began making new plans.
Now it was certain: he was not on some remote island far from the mainland that nobody could reach.
Once his newbie protection expired, he might have to face players who had arrived much earlier than him.
Time was limited. Given that, he could scrap his previous cautious plan.
He had to make the most of his advantages.
Namely, those two movie worlds.
Zhang Tianyuan's gaze settled on "2012," which he had only just left. Then he glanced at "I Am Legend" and recalled its plot. A new idea had already formed in his mind.
Wait, wait, wait-wait my ass!
No more waiting!
Three days later.
Having grown sick of crab, Zhang Tianyuan stood before the base's main control console.
He selected the world of "2012," with the imperial capital as his destination.
"Open spacetime gate."
The next second, the pitch-black Spacetime Tunnel flashed into being and swallowed Zhang Tianyuan.
The world of "2012."
The owner of the Reunion Farmhouse Restaurant looked curiously at the customer emerging from his restroom.
He did not remember anyone entering the restroom, and this customer looked very unfamiliar.
When had he entered the restaurant?
Ignoring the owner's gaze, Zhang Tianyuan went straight to a dining table, picked up the menu, and called out:
"Boss, I'd like to order!"
"Coming!"
Whatever time he had arrived, business was business.
"Bring out a round of all your specialties. There might be quite a few people coming later, because I have a friend, and he has lots of friends too. Even several tables might not be enough."
"Also, could I borrow a phone?"
Zhang Tianyuan asked the owner as he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket.