Ye Jin: Awakening

The moment Ye Jin woke up,

social media across the world seemed to awaken in an instant as well.

The trending topic "The first person has woken up" shot straight to the top of the charts.

Countless people had set alarms just so they could wake up early and see them awaken the moment it happened. Some had gone even further, staying up all night in front of their televisions.

Countless trending topics flooded online media:

"The first person to wake up was actually from the Nine Domains Nation."

"Who will be the second person to wake up?"

"What do you think he'll do after he wakes up? If it were you, do you think you'd go crazy?"

On Bluebird, the global social media platform,

comments piled up in thread after thread.

People from every country were posting their thoughts.

"Fuck, why was the first person to wake up from the Nine Domains Nation? Did they give him too small a dose of sedative?"

"Yellow monkeys are the sick men of East Asia. How could one possibly wake up first? He's the weakest physically. Our Sea Eagle Country's Andrew is the strongest."

"No, I absolutely don't believe it. There must have been a mistake. Our Night Cherry Country is the strongest."

"Everyone above, shut up! Once our Iron Bear Country's observer wakes up, he'll punch you all to death. I'm certain our Iron Bear Country will definitely be the next to wake up."

"So what if he woke up first? I bet the first thing he does will be to loot everywhere and vent his urges. Just wait and see him make a disgrace of himself!"

"The one above, you're talking out of your fucking ass. Don't project yourself onto others. Only people from your Iris Country would do something like that."

Countless people from the Nine Domains Nation watched the screen anxiously.

Although it had nothing to do with them,

as his fellow countrymen, they still hoped he would perform well.

Even if his performance wasn't particularly outstanding, he should at least remain at the average level.

They didn't ask him to earn merit, only to avoid mistakes.

Ye Jin opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. His memories still ended during his trip to inspect a building.

Then he had gone to the bathroom.

But...

Where was this?

A hotel?

My head... hurts a little.

He simply couldn't remember what had happened afterward.

He looked around again. Wasn't I supposed to be in John Country? Why does it feel like I'm back home?

Could I have been unconscious for a long time and sent back home for treatment?

But... something still feels off.

He shook his aching head, rubbed his eyes, and slipped on his slippers, ready to get up.

He noticed that his clothes had simply been placed beside him. Everything was still there: his watch, jade pendant, clothes, and a few odds and ends, all untouched at his side.

He lightly brushed a hand over them. There was no dust.

That meant not much time had passed.

He breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that although he had been unconscious, it hadn't been for long. Otherwise, his belongings should have gathered quite a bit of dust.

"Is anyone there... Qiangzi... Xiaoyao... Dalang..."

He shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping someone would answer.

They had all been his college roommates and his best friends at college.

But all that answered him was an empty silence.

"Is anyone there?"

He called out again, but still no one answered.

Unbeknownst to him, hundreds of densely packed nanocameras had been set up, transmitting his every move to the entire world in high definition.

"Strange. Where is everyone?"

He walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap, but cold water came out. He turned the heat all the way up, but the water was still cold.

"This hotel's service is terrible. Even the shower water is cold."

After a few complaints, he went in and closed the door.

He planned to take a shower to wake himself up a little.

The camera faced the bathroom door as the sound of rushing water came from inside.

"Fuck, why aren't they showing the footage from inside?"

"Forget it. If they showed that, they'd get 404ed."

"I bet he's gone in for a shower so he can rub one out."

"Fuck off, the one above. You think everyone's as perverted as you Night Cherry Country people, fantasizing about teachers every day?"

The production team seemed to have decided not to broadcast the bathroom footage out of consideration for that last bit of privacy.

Otherwise, if footage of bathing and using the toilet were broadcast, it would really make people's eyes pop out.

Five minutes later, Ye Jin came out bare-chested and put on his clothes.

His just-right muscles gave him a perfect physique, neither fat nor thin, with eight clearly defined abs.

Eyes turned into hearts in the comments.

"Holy shit, what a great body."

"Can a guy from our country really have a body that good?"

"Is the one above a fucking idiot? Is it fun to spend all day singing foreigners' praises here? If you like them so much, can't you fuck off abroad?"

"He's out. What do you think they should do now?"

"What else? Everyone from the Nine Domains Nation is addicted to games. I bet he'll take out his phone and play."

"He picked it up. Look, I'll bet my head he'll lie on the bed and start playing a mobile game."

"I hear those Nine Domains Nation people are all addicted to stuff like Honor of Kings, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and Hearthstone. They're far behind us. We in Peacock Country never play."

"The one above is saying the grapes are sour because you can't reach them. Don't you have a fucking clue how technologically developed your country is? How many people there can even afford a phone?"

They silently prayed that he wouldn't pick up his phone and immediately open Honor of Kings to grind ranked!

This was in front of the whole world. He absolutely couldn't lose face.

As it turned out, Ye Jin only picked up his phone to check the time.

6:15.

It was still early.

It wasn't even light outside yet.

His phone suddenly warned him that the battery was low, so he found a charger in the room and plugged it in.

He walked through the hotel and went downstairs to the first floor. The entire hotel building was utterly quiet, with only the wind and him there. It was quiet enough to be a little frightening.

In the Bluebird comments:

"See that? We Nine Domains Nation people would never be addicted to games and stay cooped up like you Japanese."

"Way to go!"

He came to the hotel's self-service area, which was deserted too.

But there was still some food laid out there.

"Strange. Why are there so few people? Where did they all go? They couldn't have all suddenly disappeared, could they?"

He shook his head, tossing that Arabian Nights idea out of his mind.

He got himself some fried dough sticks, steamed buns, and soy milk.

The dough sticks and buns had gone hard, and the soy milk was cold.

He frowned. He was starving, so he had no choice but to make do.

He spent a little over ten minutes hastily finishing breakfast.

He had planned to go out for a walk.

But when he turned his head, he saw a fitness area on the hotel's first floor. After thinking it over, he went straight in.

As soon as he went in, the outside world erupted.

"Holy shit, why isn't he going outside? If he went out, wouldn't he discover that there's nobody out there?"

"Why does the hotel have a gym? I request that all the other gyms be destroyed to force them outside and make them discover what happened."

"I'm waiting to see the expressions on their faces when they go outside and find nobody there, and this is what you show me?"

"Production team, hurry up and send him a message!"

The production team seemed to realize it too and sent a targeted, customized news notification directly to his phone.

His phone had already been tampered with.

All the times and content had been frozen.

A lot of news had also been stored on it.

But he hadn't opened any of it, leaving them worked up for nothing.

They could only use push notifications to catch his attention and make him realize something was wrong.

But he was so absorbed in working out that he didn't return to his room and had no time to look.

That left the production team feeling rather helpless.

Just look at it already!

"The second person has woken up. It's our Iron Bear Country's Yige'er. Tremble!"

"The third person has woken up too. It's our Sea Eagle Country's Andrew. Tremble! Just look at the genetic quality of our Sea Eagle Country. It's definitely the best on Blue Water Planet."

"The one above, shut up already. Still bragging? Bragging about your fucking mother!"