Chapter 1: I Can See Health Bars
“Creak!”
“Woooof...”
The fluffy golden retriever pulling the small cart stepped on and broke a wooden plank in the courtyard. Now, it was whining pitifully at the young man following behind.
“You’re already over a year old, how come you’re still acting like a puppy?”
Watching the dog being spoiled, Lu Wenwu focused his attention slightly, and two lines of small text appeared above the golden retriever’s head.
[Growing Golden Retriever Hunting Dog Maomao (E)]: 400/400
[Current Status]: Happy
Lu Wenwu glanced at the paw that had stepped on the plank, then slapped Maomao’s head with a scowl.
“Fake again.”
Maomao didn’t care at all; its tail wagged wildly, flashing a bright, heartwarming smile, then happily pulled the cart forward with energetic hops.
The golden retriever was remarkably intelligent, seemingly able to fully understand human speech.
“Xiaobao, watch the house well. We’ll be back soon.”
Lu Wenwu called out toward the house, then locked the door and slowly strolled out with Maomao along the neighborhood road.
Inside, a blue cat named Xiaobao twitched its ears but didn’t lift its head, curling into a ball and continuing to snore soundly, seemingly oblivious.
Lu Wenwu was a twenty-two-year-old male who had transmigrated.
His hobby was cooking, especially making egg-stuffed pancakes, and occasionally, he worked as a breakfast stall owner.
It depended on his mood how many he made and whether he could even get out of bed.
After all, selling breakfast was a tough job, and it was only his hobby, not his work.
Leaning on the cart, Lu Wenwu hummed a little tune as he walked forward.
Suddenly, a magnificent voice echoed across the entire world.
[Preparation for Player Selection Begins]
This blue planet originally had a development trajectory almost identical to Earth’s.
But fifty years ago, the “Polluted Zones” descended upon Blue Star, each containing countless “Instance Worlds.”
On the first day of every month, countless people are selected as reserve players.
Entering an instance and completing tasks gives survivors the chance to obtain terrifying powers, like flying through the skies or grasping the stars and moon.
However, many instance worlds within the Polluted Zones gradually erode and merge with the real world over time.
Only when the final evaluation of an instance attains “Excellent” or higher can the instance disappear completely.
If left unresolved, the instance world will fully merge with Blue Star, bringing its monsters along.
Even more terrifyingly, if a selected reserve player fails to obtain player status in the initial instance, the instance world will descend directly without any transition.
This is a dreadful fate.
During the early disaster period, many small countries perished, and even the social order of great powers continuously collapsed.
Only after countless transcendent beings gained formidable powers, rebuilt order, and established safe zones, dividing the “Polluted Zones” and “Forbidden Zones,” was the disaster barely contained.
Originally, China was one of the countries to restore order the fastest after the catastrophe. Numerous Polluted Zones were swiftly suppressed, and it was among the first to establish safe zones.
Yet, inexplicably, shortly after regaining order, progress faltered again, with countless transcendent beings lost without a trace.
This gap almost caused the newly recovering nation to collapse a second time, only barely stabilizing in recent years.
At this moment, countless people prayed.
Prayed that this damned game wouldn’t select them, or if it did, that it would select elite talents from their own country.
Lu Wenwu suddenly felt a shock in his mind as a translucent panel appeared before his eyes.
[You have been selected and will enter the instance world in thirty seconds.]
[Successfully survive and achieve a “Pass” rating or above to obtain the “Player” status.]
[Countdown begins]
“Finally arrived, later than I expected.”
Lu Wenwu wasn’t surprised to be chosen by this system; in fact, he was somewhat excited, giving Maomao a casual rub on the head.
The Polluted Zones gave humanity immense power but also brought countless suffering.
This was simply due to the extremely high mortality rate of instances and the many bizarre monsters within Polluted Zones.
It was hard to say whether this was good or bad.
At least for Lu Wenwu, who had long possessed the ability to see “health bars,” he had been looking forward to this day for a long time.
Before officially becoming a transcendent, he could only access very limited basic information, which was torture for someone eager to realize self-worth and who craved excitement.
As the thirty-second countdown ended, Lu Wenwu felt his vision go dark, then found himself in a special, pure white room.
Maomao followed him inside, curiously looking around.
The small cart he had been pulling earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Lu Wenwu sensed that if he concentrated, he could summon it from somewhere.
Before him remained the translucent panel.
[Scan complete. Personal panel and inventory unlocked. Internal talent is being materialized.]
[Congratulations, your talent is: Insightful Eye]
[Insightful Eye: You can acquire certain information through observation.]
“Insightful Eye? Isn’t that just my special ability to see health bars?” Lu Wenwu muttered, trying to summon his personal panel.
[ID]: Not activated
[Level]: Not activated
[Strength]: 6
[Speed]: 3
[Stamina]: 5
[Soul]: 7
[Health]: 500
[Talent]: Insightful Eye
[Technique]: None
[Skill]: Egg-stuffed Pancake Cooking [Mastery]
[Free Attribute Points]: 0
[Spirit Coins]: 0
[Note: Proficiency levels from lowest to highest are: Shallow Cognition, Initial Insight, Skilled, Proficient, Accomplished, Grandmaster, Mastery, Universal Sage]
...
Lu Wenwu examined his stats and was reasonably satisfied.
Before becoming transcendent, an average adult male’s single attribute score was typically five.
Except for speed, which was a bit low, everything else was decent.
After all, you can’t expect a 1.9-meter tall guy to be very fast; in all these years, only Usain Bolt has been an exception.
Worth mentioning was the [Mastery] level of his egg-stuffed pancake cooking.
If he were in the neighboring island country, he’d be regarded as a pancake master.
His years of study had not been in vain.
As for some martial arts moves he had learned in the past, it seemed they hadn’t reached the standard to be recognized as “skills.”
[Detected non-system items: Egg-stuffed pancake cart, smartphone. Judged not to affect task difficulty.]
[Detected pet: Maomao. Do you wish to bind?]
[Binding will greatly increase task difficulty, but you will receive 100% of the pet’s benefits (pet benefits will not be diminished), and final evaluation ratings will receive additional bonuses.]
“What? The newbie guide didn’t mention this?” Puzzled, Lu Wenwu weighed the pros and cons. “Bind it. Starting with a dog, all gear depends on drops!”
[Binding successful. You can now view and use Maomao’s pet panel.]
[You can now sense Maomao’s thoughts and communicate with it to some extent through the system.]
[Instance world initialization complete. Preparing to enter.]
Before Lu Wenwu could check Maomao’s detailed stats, he felt a wave of dizziness.
He had not fully entered the instance world, but the global live broadcast had already begun.
The selected reserve players’ [initial instance] and the [world instance] featuring countless transcendent beings were special.
Both allowed non-participants to spectate, and achieving good results could weaken the already manifested and merged Polluted Zones.
At this moment, many comments flooded the Chinese live broadcast room.
“Can some tough players show up this time? At this rate, we’re doomed.”
“No inside traitors, bring in some urban soldiers.”
“Where’s the big brother? Come save us!”
“The last batch of newbies was terrible; the Polluted Zone was pushed right to Mouse’s neighborhood gate. Mouse is just a D-level scrub, now sent to the rally point to wait. Those high-level players who didn’t enter the instance are also mobilizing.”
“Seriously, just quit and get some rest, I’m restarting the game.”
“I’m rooting for you this time, must rise up!”
“Come on!”
The chat was filled with all kinds of sentiments.
Some pessimistic, some praying, others mocking after emigrating abroad.
“Thanks for the invite, just landed in the United States, breathing the safe and free fresh air.”
“Foolish dog, no hacks, what are you pretending for?”
“Meal time again, brothers! (IP: United States)”
“Donuts are delicious, hahaha, do you who live in danger envy us? (IP: United States)”
“I’m rare!”
“I’m peeing yellow, I’ll get you some high-proof liquor.”
“When will you ‘fake foreign devils’ die?”
...
China has only just stopped its downward spiral in recent years, but conditions remain bleak.
Thus, whenever there are global live broadcasts, many emigrants come to flaunt their superiority.
The excited masses with millions of keyboards collectively stir up endless flame wars.
...
...
...
[PS: This novel is meant to be cheerful. Just have fun. Updates every day at noon.]
[PS2: Not a live-stream novel!!! Only certain instances are broadcast!!!]