Chapter 1 A Person Is a Civilization
The spring breeze parted the clouds, revealing a clear sky that stretched for thousands of miles.
A perfect weather to sleep until naturally waking up.
The fluffy sunshine rushed into the room in a race, calling people to get up, but sleep is an art, and abundant sunlight cannot stop the pursuit of this art.
"Thump thump thump!" Someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Lu Yuan called out impatiently.
A sweet female voice came from outside the door, with a hint of crispness, "I've calculated with my fingers; you must be oversleeping. With such wonderful weather, shouldn't you be working overtime at the company, or going on a blind date?"
Lu Yuan rubbed his eyes and said grumpily, "I just dreamt of a fairy, what blind date?"
"What fairy, quickly show me a picture!"
Lu Yuan cleared his throat, "Seeing her in my dreams is enough, actually getting with her and discovering the gap between the third dimension and the second damps my interest immediately."
"Come on, it's like you're off to cultivate immortality, already despising the third dimension," she scoffed.
It seemed that every proper high school girl had neat ear-length black hair, black-rimmed glasses, a set of unflattering denim shirts that didn't show off her figure, and wore white short socks with pink cotton slippers.
Besides youthfulness, with her plain face, there was nothing—but it was still quite cute.
"It's ten in the morning already, I kindly bought you breakfast, so hurry up and eat it while it's hot!"
A serving of steaming xiao long bao, accompanied by two tea eggs, plus a bowl of soy milk.
The tempting aroma brought out the greedy worm in Lu Yuan's stomach.
They say that a woman who is usually very fierce turns gentle and kind for a reason.
It's either about harming or money!
Lu Yuan said warily, "Don't insult the intelligence of an office drone, state your ulterior motives!"
"Well... I want to buy a Ceylon red tea-colored dress. There's an event for a host at school..."
"Go ask Mom then, why come to me!"
"If I tell Mom, she will definitely make me study hard and say the classic lines of a parent... 300 yuan, just 300 yuan."
Good lord, breakfast alone blew away my 300 coins!
This business, it's a sure win!
But one must be grateful for the meal eaten, and her request seemed reasonable enough.
Lu Yuan even felt that a dress worth 300 yuan was a bit too cheap.
And now she was acting all cutesy, maybe I should soften up a bit?
"Ding-dong, payment of 300 yuan received."
"High school students shouldn't date," Lu Yuan said with an excited expression, "the moment you start dating, I'll tattle right away! Let Mom and Dad tie you up and scold you together, just thinking about that scene makes me a little thrilled."
"How could that happen, there are no handsome guys in my class!" She clenched her fists as if she wanted to attack Lu Yuan, but considering the 300 coins, she had to endure it, "By the way... have you reported your recent superpower awakening to the government?"
"Not yet, the government doesn't pay me a salary... why would I be in a hurry to report myself?" Lu Yuan stretched lazily.
Since ten years ago, a meteorite fell from the sky.
Earthquakes and tsunamis occurred frequently, and the world order was in chaos.
Some people even evolved weak superpowers.
No one knew what changes had occurred in the world.
Was it the revival of spiritual energy? The coming of doomsday? Alien annihilation? Gods creating a new world?
Luckily, as a superpower nation, Great Dong Country had a relatively stable social order, and civilian life was much the same as before, with not many significant changes.
"I'm off to buy clothes! You can go back to sleep and catch a few more Z's."
...
Afterward, Lu Yuan enjoyed his breakfast contentedly and started playing with his newly awakened superpower.
"Different Space!"
A layer of magical distorted light wrapped around him.
He vanished from the real world.
Lu Yuan named his newly awakened superpower—"Different Space!"
Simply put, it is the creation of a small space that can only accommodate oneself.
Inside this small space, one can observe the environment outside.
But those outside can neither see nor touch the individual within.
Maintaining the Different Space consumed spiritual power and could be sustained for only two to three hours at most. Prolonged duration could cause exhaustion leading to unconsciousness.
Well, this ability should be called Space Ability, which sounds quite awesome...
In reality... what's the use?
Is it meant to evade the crisis of a nuclear bomb triggered by a world war?
If a nuclear bomb were to explode nearby, Lu Yuan could immediately take refuge in the Different Space.
But the three-hour duration was nowhere near enough. Once he came out, he would still die from radiation.
Or perhaps... to become a thief?
Yet, since the Different Space couldn't move at will, being a thief seemed a bit too difficult.
Lu Yuan treated this unique ability as an entertainment project, occasionally playing jokes on his family. That was all.
"Still, I should find an opportunity to report it to the government; maybe I could even get a position out of it," he mused.
"Applying for a government job is the end of the universe," he quipped.
...
However, just then, from that true edge of the universe, the starting point of infinite time and space, a sentence of extreme complexity was heard.
This sentence wasn't in Chinese, but rang out from all directions like a great bell or cauldron, making his head "thud" with the noise.
Lu Yuan inexplicably understood the meaning.
[Ethereal Spirit Network has been successfully established; GS91102 universe datafication complete.]
[A total of 781,237,896 intelligent civilizations have been filtered.]
Who, who is speaking?
Lu Yuan blinked and looked around, thinking he had auditory hallucinations.
But then, the rumbling sound of an earthquake began, and the ground shook.
Flocks of birds took to the sky in swarms.
Outside came the "woowoo" of air raid sirens and a series of car brakes screeching, meaning that crowds of people were heading to nearby shelters for refuge.