Chapter 1 Retirement! Retirement is a must!
[Brain storage site~]
"The weather is so sunny today, the scenery is beautiful everywhere..."
Zhou Jue hummed a song as he swept the weeds in the yard, feeling very happy!
At a young age of 26, without relying on his parents, his family's wealth, or anyone else, he saved enough for retirement with just a lottery ticket he bought casually after work. I ask you: Who else can do that?!
So, he decisively resigned, returned to his village, and settled down!
Zhou Jue picked up his hoe and continued weeding.
"Bang"
The hoe struck a hard object. After a few more digs, a box was completely unearthed. The wood was dark, its surface covered with scratches and wormholes, and the edges were eroded beyond recognition by time, exuding an aura of decay and impending death.
There was no lock, only two brass clasps, so rusted they were almost unrecognizable, loosely fastened. The gap between the lid and the body of the box was filled with dark brown sludge.
"A treasure left by our ancestors?" A faint, almost comical expectation flashed through Zhou Jue's mind.
"What valuable things could this dilapidated house possibly have?" She laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Maybe it's a few copper coins that Great-Grandpa hid away? Or maybe it's just a few broken tiles kept at the bottom of a chest?"
She knelt on the edge of the pit, her fingers gripping the protrusion on the edge of the box lid, and forcefully lifted it up!
“Clatter.”
The faint sound of the clasp snapping was almost imperceptible. Just as the lid was slightly ajar...
—Buzz!
An indescribable, massive flow of information suddenly and violently pierced her temples!
Excruciating pain!
Zhou Jue's vision suddenly went black, all his senses were instantly stripped away, leaving only the frantic, tearing roar that exploded in his mind.
Countless fragments of light and shadow, distorted lines, and meaningless symbols surged in like a burst dam, violently washing over her consciousness.
Before she could even utter a cry of pain, her body was gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand and slammed forward! She was then completely swallowed up by a suction force.
~~/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~
An extremely strong, never-before-smelled odor forcefully entered my nostrils and rushed straight to my head.
"ah!!!"
Zhou Jue suddenly opened his eyes, instinctively covering his head to relieve the dizziness and pain. His gaze swept across his eyes and froze instantly.
A purple grassland.
Their leaves are an eerie, almost translucent deep purple, with serrated edges. Deep within the veins of each leaf, an extremely faint, shimmering blue-purple light emanates.
Zhou Jue didn't dare to touch it. Looking into the distance, he saw an endless purple grassland stretching to the horizon, where it met the deep blue sky.
Strangely, countless such lights converged, making the entire "grassland" seem to breathe, pulsating with an unpredictable flicker.
There was no wind, yet this purple "sea of light" seemed to sway on its own, creating a dynamic backdrop that sent chills down one's spine.
The sky was cloudless. The entire dome was an extremely deep, almost inky dark blue, so thick it seemed impenetrable, like a vast, cold sapphire dome. And hanging above this deep blue curtain was—
Three suns!
One adult and two children!
The enormous one in the center emitted a dazzling, pure white light, with an eerie pale purple halo around its edge.
The other two smaller suns were, respectively, a fiery orange-red and a cold, sickly pale green.
They form an irregular triangle, their rays intertwining and colliding in the air, casting several beams of light with chaotic directions and bizarre colors. The air, scorched by these triple rays, subtly distorts.
Zhou Jue felt a burning pain in the exposed part of her skin. She subconsciously looked down at her arm and saw that it was indeed burned, but she couldn't find the cause of the burn.
His heart was pounding wildly in his chest, Zhou Jue felt ice-cold all over, and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably.
This is not a dream!
The excruciating pain in my head, the purple grassland, the three suns hanging in the sky, the strong, pungent odor in the air, the burning pain on my skin from the strange light... it all felt terrifyingly real!
"The box...where's the box?" She suddenly remembered the culprit and turned around in horror.
The rotten black wooden box lay quietly on the grass not far from her feet.
The lid of the box was open, and it was empty inside.
"Carbon-based intelligent life form detected... Binding successful..."
A monotone, genderless, and indistinguishable mechanical voice suddenly rang out from the depths of her mind.
"Who?!" Zhou Jue jumped up suddenly, his voice filled with fear.
She staggered back a few steps, her back instantly soaked with cold sweat, and warily looked around. There was nothing there except the shimmering purple sea of light and the three eerie suns in the sky.
"Host's vital signs are stable and meet the minimum carrying capacity threshold. Universal Coordinate Anchoring System activated."
[Current Coordinates: Unnamed World - Serial Number Unknown (Energy Level: Low)]
[Mission: Survival]
[Time Limit: 24 hours]
Energy reserves: 3%
"Please replenish your energy or obtain basic information about this world as soon as possible to increase your chances of survival."
"System? Transmigration? Survival mission?" Zhou Jue stared at the mission panel in front of her, her mind a complete mess, and a huge fear overwhelmed her like an icy tide.
She forced herself to take a deep breath, the thick, strange air making her cough, but it also loosened her mind, which had been frozen by fear, a little bit.
"System, send it back to me! I don't want to bind!"
"Sorry, host, you are already bound. You can only unbind the system after the mission is completed." The system voice sounded.
"But I didn't agree! This is kidnapping!" Zhou Jue said angrily, raising his voice unconsciously.
"Sorry, host, system binding has been triggered. Open the [Starlight Secret Box] to complete the binding." The system's flat voice sounded.
"This is an unfair contract clause!"
"Sorry, host, system binding has been triggered. Open the [Starlight Secret Box] to complete the binding." The system's flat voice sounded again.
Zhou Jue gradually calmed down and looked at the location of the black box again, only to find that the black box had disappeared. He looked around but couldn't find it anywhere.
"System, where's the black box?"
"The Starry Sky Box has been stored in the host's sea of consciousness. The host can open the Starry Sky Box to view it via command, or sink their consciousness into the sea of consciousness to view it themselves."
"Open the [Starlight Secret Box]"
Zhou Jue's consciousness saw that the previously tattered black box was still tattered, but it had been enlarged a lot and turned purple, with three suns imprinted around it.
Looking at the changes in the black box, then at the purple grassland, and the sun in the sky, even if she were stupid, she could figure out the connection between them.
"System, this black... Starry Sky Box, why did it turn purple? Are there humans on this planet? How far is it from Blue Star? And... why did the burning sensation disappear? What is your purpose in bringing me across this world?"
Zhou Jue felt like he had turned into a walking encyclopedia of questions.
"The system will provide the host with an energy shield to protect the host's safety in the myriad worlds. Currently, the system's energy is too low and can only cover the host's entire body."
"The Universal Coordinate Anchoring System only collects information from all realms."
"Other questions cannot be answered due to insufficient host privileges."
"Warning! Energy reserves: 3%. Coordinates cannot be locked below 5%. Time remaining until crossing is 19:54:37. Please replenish energy or acquire basic information about this world as soon as possible to increase your chances of survival."
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