BOOM!

The sound of thunder in the summer afternoon broke the stifling heat in the depths of everyone’s heart. Large clusters of dark clouds condensed in the sky. Just a moment ago, the sky was clear and boundless, and the sun was shining brilliantly. But at this moment, the heavens and the earth suddenly turned dark. It was as if a faint black veil covered everyone’s eyes.

Was it his imagination, or was it because of the brightness? Li Yao suddenly felt that the color of the entire world was a bit dimmer than a moment ago—it was insignificant, almost indistinguishable.

This kind of feeling had also appeared once in the Comic Con that day. It was when he heard the news of the death of a famous fantasy novelist and cartoonist. However, it was only for a fleeting moment, and in the blink of an eye, he could no longer feel it—a person’s habitual ability, or rather, self-hypnosis ability, was very strong in the first place.

Holding his phone, Li Yao was dazed for a long time.

Dozens of posts were refreshed on the forum. Many fans of ‘Star Ring’ confirmed the death of ‘Father of the Star Ring’ through different channels. Some of them even commented in a corny tone, ‘A generation of youth has passed.’

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao stood up and walked to the window.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled outside the window, as if a ferocious beast from outer space was roaring. In the blink of an eye, torrential rain poured down like a waterfall. Floods raged between heaven and earth, transforming the world into a boundless swamp.

Li Yao could not go back without an umbrella.

He did not want to go back, either.

What had happened yesterday, what had happened today, what had happened in the Comic Con a few days ago, and maybe what had happened in the dream a long time ago… Little by little, they turned into a raging meteoroid shower and bombarded the place that had been sealed in the deepest part of his heart, leaving an irreparable gap.

“Do you want to be muddleheaded and mediocre for the rest of your life and enter the next reincarnation in a fuzzy and lackluster way, or do you want to follow your dream and find your true self—even if it means paying the price of destruction, even if it is only for one second?”

Deep inside his brain, a voice seemed to be asking him.

Countless thoughts spurted out of his brain like bubbles. Li Yao felt that he was becoming more and more ‘smart’ and ‘cleaner’ to a certain extent. He could think of many things that he had never thought of before, and he could face the weirdness that ordinary people could never understand calmly.

He sat back in front of his beef noodles.

At first, he wanted to find a notebook to record the weirdness and questions he had encountered recently.

However, his instincts rejected the idea instantly. There was no need to leave any notes—even his ‘dream notebook’ had better be burnt before the ashes were flushed into the sewer.

In that case, he would just meditate and record in his mind. After all, his memory was getting better and better.

Firstly, regardless of whether or not there was a scientific and reasonable explanation for everything, at the very least, eating over a hundred buns and a dozen bowls of noodles during a meal was absolutely abnormal. It was beyond all the known laws of physics. From this, it was inferred that the so-called “superpowers” were not illusions. They existed in this world, and he himself possessed… Of course, he could not say that he had the ability of a “big eater”, but rather, he had the ability to “quickly transform matter into energy and store it in an inconceivable way”. Moreover, his own body seemed to be being transformed efficiently by energy, becoming stronger and more agile. This point had yet to be verified, so he put it aside for now.

Secondly, was the ‘Mysterious Racer God’ who was racing on the elevated ring last night really him?

Logically speaking, it was impossible for him to do such a thing. But if there were really ‘superpowers’ in the world, it would not be surprising at all.

Considering that his memory of racing was quite clear, and that he was extremely hungry when he woke up today, it was evident that he had consumed a lot of energy. It would be terrible if he assumed that he was really the God of Racing.

Although Yu Xin, Zhao Kai, and the posts on the campus network all stated that the mysterious Racer God did not leave any traces that could prove his identity, Li Yao knew that it was impossible for him to hide himself 100% of the time. Wherever he went, he would definitely leave traces behind. Anyone’s actions would be exchanged with the surrounding environment. Even the smallest exchange of materials could be found out. The key was how much energy, resources, price, and time it would take to investigate.

So, would he be found out?

Li Yao estimated that it was unlikely on the official level, because there were no major casualties.

However, what followed was ‘third’.

Thirdly, let’s say that ‘superpowers’ did exist in the world, and he was not necessarily the first superpowered person. Then, would the superpowered people be organized? Was a superpowered person ‘kind’ or ‘malicious’ to other superpowered people? What was the attitude of the superpowered organizations toward the new superpowered people? Were they recruited as members, or were they going to be experimented on and dissected?

Would the super-powered organizations be interested in the videos of the high-rising rings and investigate further?

Li Yao disliked neither the members nor the subjects.

He was free and did not want to be controlled by any form or force.

Besides, he had a vague feeling that there was a scheme that was even more terrifying than ‘superpowers’ and ‘superpower organizations’. He knew what the scheme was, but he had forgotten it later.

He had to find the answer without too much interference.

Fourthly, from the looks of it, no matter how many strange dreams he had, the mutations that had happened to him over the past few days were all triggered by the novel ‘Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation’.

Why was he so familiar with the scenes and characters in 40,000 Years of Cultivation? Li Yao was now certain that he had never read the novel before. Definitely not.

Who was ‘Master Lie Niu’, the author of the novel? What did he know? What was his purpose in writing the novel?

It seemed that these questions could only be found in the world of fiction.

Fifth, it was a question mark.

Was it his intuition or his imagination? It seemed that every time… the creator of a fantasy world, be it a novel, a comic author, or a game producer, unfortunately passed away, the entire world would suddenly become a bit lackluster.

A master of fantasy novels, a mangaka who was used to procrastinating, and a gold-medal game producer. Right, maybe there should be a web novelist, too. They should be four completely unrelated creators. Was their deaths within a week a coincidence, or was there a deeper reason?

Was it possible that more similar creators would be killed in the near future, or that they were just the more successful and well-known creators in the circle? Their deaths would be the news, and outside of the public’s attention, countless unknown creators would be killed a long time ago, and nobody would care about them?

Li Yao thought everything through with half a bowl of noodles. He was quite surprised himself.

His thoughts were clearer and more agile. Besides, now that he was faced with such a complicated problem, not only was he no longer scared or hesitant, he was also more and more excited.

In a month’s time, if he still didn’t find anything in a month’s time, it wouldn’t be too late for him to find a job and return to the right path of life.

Li Yao thought to himself, Come to think of it, what exactly is the ‘right track of life’?

The summer afternoon storm came and went quickly.

Outside the window, the torrential rain turned into a light drizzle. Sunlight tore through the dark clouds, and a rarely-seen rainbow appeared.

Li Yao drank the boiling hot noodles and strode into the drizzle and sunlight.

…

Li Yao once again fell into the world of .

However, this time, he had come prepared, not just to read novels for fun, but also to do an experiment on himself.

He chose to use the computer to read the webpage of the novel. Then, he placed his phone to the side to take a picture of himself reading the novel. His left hand tightly clutched a sharp fountain pen. When he felt that he was about to be completely lost, he ruthlessly stabbed his thigh to regain consciousness.

Fortunately, he was about to enter June. Most of the students of the graduating class had found their next home. Yu Xin, Zhao Kai, and the others were all out all day. They hardly returned to school unless there was something important. He was the only one left in the dormitory. It was quiet and comfortable, and he was not afraid of being disturbed.

Li Yao was self-taught. He bought a lot of high-energy food such as compressed biscuits and chocolate from the supermarket, locked the door, and installed a simple ‘alarm device’ with a basin and a stool. He then closed the curtains tightly.

He read each chapter carefully and recorded his psychological and physiological reactions in his mind.

“It’s really strange. It’s not an illusion. My body has indeed become stronger. I can do a hundred push-ups in one breath.”

“Just a moment ago, he continuously raised his leg and jumped for 15 minutes without even breaking a sweat. If he was outside in the playground, he would definitely be able to run with an astonishing result… What kind of terrifying physical strength is this!?”

“My ability to draw a map of buildings and streets has also increased. I seem to be able to draw all the streets that I have walked on in my life.

“I understand it now. There’s a pattern here… It seems that the more chapters I read in , the stronger the ‘Cultivator Li Yao’ in the novel becomes. In reality, I am also known as ‘Earth’s Li Yao’, and my strength is getting stronger and stronger. Of course, my strength is no match for the characters in the novel, but the speed of my improvement is the same. What is going on?

“I understand why Zhao Kai said that he wanted to skip the first 400-500 chapters. It’s true that the style of the chapters before and after is extremely different. It’s not that the writing style and the depiction of characters have improved by much, but rather, the things that the author wants to write are completely different. They are simply two novels with the same name. They are written by two completely different people… Has the author been changed? Or has the studio been possessed by the author? Or… does the author himself not realize this?”

Another three days passed. Not only was Li Yao’s mystery not solved, it was getting bigger and bigger.

However, he had a vague feeling—as long as he could finish reading the novel , all his questions would be answered. He would clearly understand who he was.

However…

The more he read, the more excited he became, and the more he was surprised by the books and himself. The story came to an abrupt end.

“That’s all?”

Li Yao stared at the in a daze.

This was the end of the fourth volume. The protagonist, ‘Cultivator Li Yao’, had just finished his adventure in the Ancient Saint World and was preparing to return with a bunch of ancient saint-level experts for the ultimate confrontation between the federation and the imperium. It was the most exciting moment of all, and the result was gone?

Looking at the author’s last update, it was seven days ago.

This was not good. It was very rare for a web novel to not have a chapter updated every two to three days. It was a different matter if it was a finely-carved, gem-like masterpiece, but followed the path of quantity, quantity, and satiety. The author had to update at least two chapters a day. Under these circumstances, if the author did not update for a week, it was very likely that he would… stop updating?