1 Chapter 1: Transmigrated into a Book, and Then Snatched Away by the Main God.
The spring rain is continuous.
The so-called spring rain is as precious as oil. On the vast grasslands that stretch endlessly, a spring rain brings forth a vigorous vitality and fierce competition among all things.
The coolness brought by the rain seeps into the warm valley with the wind.
Deep in the valley, various buildings stand tall or short, spacious and bright, or old and narrow.
On the edge of this densely packed group of buildings, in an unremarkable little house, a candle flickers as a young man sits in a wooden barrel filled with water, his eyes half-closed as if asleep.
If one were to look closely at the water in the barrel, it is clearly transparent but reflects a shimmering green color like amber.
However, as time passed, the green color gradually faded and disappeared.
After about ten minutes, the green color in the water became invisible, and the young man, who had closed his eyes, slowly opened them.
"The Water Jade Gu can still be used two more times. But to reach the peak of the first level... seems like a distant dream."
"There's only a little over a month left until the clan's major competition. It's simply impossible to turn the tables in such a short amount of time."
"Sigh, Zhou Lin, Zhou Tong, and a few others with B level aptitudes have already advanced to the second level several months ago. The gap between us only seems to widen by the day."
"Unexpectedly, sixteen years have passed since I traveled through. I thought I could turn the tide with my knowledge of the world's plot. Instead, I'm stuck with the same aptitude issue."
In his wildest dreams, Zhou Ming never imagined that he would travel through time—and, even more surprisingly, to the world of a novel he had read in his past life!
In this world, known as the "Gu Zhen Ren," [1] the entire civilization and all extraordinary abilities are built upon the raising, using, and refining of Gu insects.
To control Gu creatures, one must first become a Gu Master. Just like the cultivators in cultivation novels, there are different levels of aptitude for Gu Masters, ranging from the highest to the lowest: A, B, C, and D.
Zhou Ming's aptitude for cultivation is not good, only a C level. The primeval essence in his aperture is only fifty percent, which is better than the protagonist's initial aptitude in the original novel, but still barely better than nothing.
His qualifications are not high, his cultivation is slow, and Zhou Ming has only reached the upper stage of rank 1 after a year since he opened his aperture at the age of fifteen.
Even though Zhou Ming is familiar with many secrets of this world, but his strength is insufficient, it can only be a futile effort to face the treasure mountain with nothing to do [2].
"My aptitude is not enough, my resources are insufficient, and continuing like this, there is simply no hope."
"Two years later, the Northern Plains will be hit by the great blizzard that comes once every ten years, With my aptitude, how far can I improve my cultivation? Rank three? Rank four? Heh, I'm afraid I'm still struggling at rank two!"
"By that time, my fate will probably be like the flowers and grasses that can be seen everywhere in the North, withering away without knowing when."
Thinking of this Zhou Ming, the tantalizing sorrow between his eyebrows turned into a bitter laugh.
He stood up, wanting to take the towel aside and dry his body and go to sleep.
No matter what, he will never give up his efforts. Before he dies, who knows what will happen tomorrow?
Just then, Zhou Ming, who had just stood up, lost all consciousness with a fierce blackness in front of his eyes.
"What's the situation?"
Just then, Zhou Ming, who had just stood up, lost all consciousness with a fierce blackness in front of his eyes.
What came into view were the sun, the beach, and the swimsuit beauty.
Zhou Ming dumbly raised his head and looked into the distance—the hotel, the highway, the cars, all kinds of modern buildings and facilities—making him wonder a little if he was in a dream.
dreaming about his past life that was completely different from the Gu world, or crossing over to another world again? Which of these two possibilities was more likely?
"Hey, there's a naked man here, the brother is playing quite perverted, ah."
A teasing female voice came, pulling Zhou Ming's mind back to reality and making him realize his current situation.
His body was still that of a sixteen-year-old boy in the compulsion world and was in a state of nudity because he had taken a bath earlier.
Despite the embarrassing situation he was facing, Zhou Ming didn't show much shame or discomfort. The first thing he did was actually to take the opportunity to observe the person speaking.
What caught the eye was a tall and curvy woman with big wavy hair and flaming red lips; although her hair was golden, it was clearly of Eastern features, with yellow skin and black eyes. She was as beautiful as a rose, her eyes burning like flames and full of aggression.
Standing next to her was another person, also of Eastern descent, with a buzz cut, a tall stature, and a resolute and strong face. However, there was no expression on his face, and he stood there like a robot, motionless, as if the young Governor Arnold had once again taken on the role of the T800.
On Zhou Ming's side, there were two men and one woman, all in their twenties. At this moment, their consciousness seemed somewhat unclear, and their reactions were slow.
What made Zhou Ming feel strange was a sense of alienation that seemed to envelop them like an invisible veil, making them feel disconnected from the rest of the world.
A familiar feeling of déjà vu arose in Zhou Ming's mind. At the same time, he responded to the woman's teasing.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I was just taking a shower....."
Zhou Ming quickly covered his private parts with his hands, his cheeks turning red, and his actions perfectly displaying a teenager's embarrassment and panic.
Having traveled for more than a decade, Zhou Ming deeply understood the principle of keeping a low profile and didn't reveal anything different from an ordinary person. For over a decade, he had acted like an ordinary teenager every day. With such frequent performances, his acting skills had already become perfect, and he could perform effortlessly.
At this moment, he seemed to suddenly react and said, in a daze, "Oh, right. Where is this place? Why did I suddenly...?"
"Hehe, little boy, don't worry. Sister will tell you everything later," said the big wavy blonde woman with a provocative look in her eyes, scanning Zhou Ming's body for sensitive areas, and laughing while patting the man next to her.
"You still have spare clothes, right?"
"Looking for them," said the tall man who looked like a Terminator. As he spoke, his hands performed a magic trick and suddenly produced several pieces of clothing.
Seeing this, Zhou Ming's face immediately showed a suitable expression of surprise.
"He is using some kind of mysterious illusion technique? Or is it a spatial item?" he guessed in his mind.
At this time, the tall man also handed over the clothes, and he hastily took them with a grateful face tinged with shyness, and put them on his body with the fastest speed.
Obviously, although Zhou Ming's figure is tall and well-proportioned with distinct muscular lines, compared to the tall and burly man, who is over 1.9 meters tall and looks like a bear, he still appears "thin and weak".
Therefore, the clothes the tall man prepared for himself were loose on Zhou Ming's body, giving a somewhat comical feeling.
Zhou Ming naturally didn't mind this and was just happy to have something to wear.
Even if he had lived two lives, the shame of running around naked was still unbearable.
"Alright, everyone, look at me. I will now explain the current situation to you," said the woman with big, wavy hair as she clapped her hands, gathering everyone's attention.
Surprisingly, nobody panicked or shouted, including the three men and one woman who calmly gathered around her, including Zhou Ming, even though he was still feeling embarrassed about running around naked just moments ago.
"Your mental resilience is pretty good, young people have better acceptance abilities; unlike my batch, several middle-aged women and uncles screaming and stubbornly refusing to believe, almost got themselves killed..." The big, wavy-haired woman murmured, then glanced at everyone.
"Well, you're all young people. You should be familiar with words like Infinite Flow, Main God, and Transmigrators, right?"
"Judging from your looks, you should have some guesses about the current situation, right?"
Sure enough!
With one sentence from the big wave woman, it confirmed that the familiar feeling that Zhou Ming had before was not unfounded.
For young people who had experienced the colorful world of the large internet environment in their previous lives in the 21st century, most of them were not unfamiliar with it.
Although Zhou Ming didn't know if the other newcomers were from the same world as him in his previous life.
While listening to the big wave woman dutifully explaining the "Main God Space", "Tasks", "Exchange" and other content, Zhou Ming divided his attention and explored his consciousness into his body.
"The aperture is still there, and the Gu worm is still there."
After introspecting, he confirmed that he had crossed over from the Gu world with his physical body and still possessed extraordinary powers. Zhou Ming felt much more at ease.
Inside his body, roughly located between his belly button and the kidneys, there was a space called the "Aperture" that had a subtle and mysterious quality.
Inside the aperture was the primeval essence condensed by the essence, energy, and spirit of Zhou Ming, converging into a vast and calm sea, shimmering with a bronze and dark green hue.
In his aperture, there were several Gu worms floating, each with a different form and quite mystical.
In the world of Gu, humans who have opened their apertures and condensed Primeval Essence at the age of fifteen can be called Gu Masters, with the ability to refine and control Gu worms.
Currently, there were a total of six Gu worms present in Zhou Ming's aperture.
Rank 1 Attack Gu - Leaf Blade Gu, Rank 1 Movement Gu - Grass Shoe Gu, Rank 1 Healing Gu - Grass Root Gu, Rank 1 Consumable Gu - Water Jade Gu, Rank 2 Attack Gu - Sword Qi Gu, Rank 2 Defense Gu - Water Armor Gu.
With these Gu in hand, Zhou Ming felt more confident, although there were still many issues related to Gu that needed to be verified. However, this was not urgent at the moment.
The most important thing now was to understand his current situation, namely, what kind of mission the main god had given him after throwing him into this world.
As the explanation from the beautiful lady came to an end, she said calmly, "That's the basic information. You can learn more later."
At this moment, she introduced herself, saying, "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yu Man, and this is my partner, Yang Zhisheng. Compared to you, we are the old-timers and have a different mission from yours... So, let's talk about your mission now."
As she finished her sentence, a piece of information suddenly flooded into Zhou Ming's mind.
[Mission mode: Team cooperation. Reincarnators are prohibited from attacking each other.]
[Mission 1: Survive for ten days. After ten days, return to the main god space and receive a basic reward of 1,000 points.]
[Mission 2: Protect Adele Bronzes[3]. If Adele survives after ten days, receive a reward of 1,000 points. If Adele dies within ten days, deduct 1,000 points from the reward.]
[Special Novice Period buff: Fist level 1, Cold Weapon level 1, Firearms level 1, limited to this mission only.]
[Special Novice Period Reward: For each assassin killed, the player will receive a portion of their combat experience, limited to this mission only.]
[Identity information for this world has been embedded! Mission begins!]
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[1]-Gu Zhen Ren, author kept the title of the original novel, "蛊真人" meaning "Gu Zhen Ren," but since it has a different English name, I decided to stick with what the author intended, "Gu Zhen Ren." Please let me know in the comments if you prefer it changed to "Reverend Insanity" or "Gu Zhen Ren."
[2]- it can only be a futile effort to face the treasure mountain with nothing to do, this is a Chinese proverb which means that one is faced with an opportunity or valuable resource but lacks the ability or means to take advantage of it, resulting in a sense of helplessness or frustration. It emphasizes the importance of developing one's abilities and seizing opportunities.
[3]- Adele Bronzes, can be written as Adele Bronzes or Adele Bronses, will probably go with Adele Bronzes since it is the most accurate to original.
