Chapter 4: A Burst of Luck

He ate and drank his fill.

He turned on the TV.

These days there were no variety shows, and entertainment like movies and TV dramas had all been canceled.

On TV, it was mostly information and news.

Moreover, they rarely aired works from before.

Otherwise.

People in the underground city lacked food and clothing, while television and film flaunted opulence, abundant ingredients, and blue skies and white clouds with wind and rain.

This kind of gap was unbearable.

Wasn’t that disgusting?

People would have wanted to take to the streets and protest at any minute, right?

Therefore, regarding pre-Cataclysm entertainment, what the authorities broadcast was mainly songs.

There were no images.

There was no video.

They also had a positive reinforcing effect, stimulating the brain to produce pleasure and easing the psychological impact of long-term underground living.

At this moment, a news item was airing.

『Affected by meteorite impacts, the severely damaged Hang City S6 Supply Station had completed full reconstruction and was put into operation.』

On screen, the image showed.

It was a huge supply station.

The setup used a Sky-Dome Thermostatic System.

To put it plainly, it was a steel frame covered with layers of thermal-insulation membranes.

It could make the interior as warm as spring, and like in the film, there was a large pool of liquid water, so the conditions looked decent.

It was just too fragile.

When a meteorite came, it had no protective capability at all.

『Today, the United Government 2074-13 Public Welfare Act took effect, and the second-child credit-point subsidy increased by 300 per month.』

『…』

Watching the news items one after another, Chu Xuan felt it was all very novel.

So that was how it was.

They were also encouraging second children here.

That made sense.

Under pessimism, the birth rate had plummeted, and if it was not encouraged a bit, the problem would become very serious in a few decades.

To be honest.

(If he lived in The Wandering Earth world, Chu Xuan asked himself, he would not really want to have children.)

Would he have them just to suffer?

Eat earthworms?

Work 9-9-7?

Live underground?

…

Moreover, it was not just one generation; the next one hundred generations would be like this, and if any generation could not take it, the line would break.

One had to ask.

Was there a fortune to inherit, or an imperial bloodline to continue?

…

After letting the meal settle for a while, it was getting late.

“Brother Xuan, go to bed early!”

After saying goodbye, Han Duoduo went home.

Xue Ming also took his leave.

After washing up in the room, he felt ready for bed.

Chu Xuan lay on the bed with his thoughts drifting, and although he had accepted reality, so many things had happened in a single day.

His head still felt a little dizzy.

(Where should he go in the future!)

Gradually, a few thoughts formed in his mind.

First, he would play it safe and not be reckless.

He could not expose anything about the System, or else there would be nowhere to run, since outside was ice and snow and utter dead silence.

Second, he had to get through the Jupiter Crisis safely.

He would rely on his paper and hope to attract the United Government’s attention.

If that did not work… there was no ‘if’, because if Earth was finished, where would ‘if’ even come from?

It boiled down to four characters: success depended on human effort!

Third, he would work hard to improve himself.

Before Transmigration, his life had been different.

As a corporate drone, even if he had a few dreams, reality pressed them into the dirt.

He occasionally dug them up to take a look, then covered them with dirt again.

The military was one path.

Scientific research was another.

Government was the third.

In The Wandering Earth world, these three types of jobs had the highest status and the best benefits.

As for merchants?

Although a free economy existed, it was too weak, and opening a small restaurant or running a shop was already the ceiling.

Even if one had more money, it was only credit points in this world.

Yet it was not easy even to go out and drive around for fun, so what use was it?

Therefore, he decided he needed a different approach.

He would still seek a breakthrough in his career direction first.

The existence of the System gave him basic survival security.

Once he no longer worried about food and drink, what remained was to pursue something.

…

Because he had not been awake for long, he did not feel sleepy enough.

So Chu Xuan turned over and got up, went to the desk, and casually took out a book to flip through.

Although he had absorbed the memories, they were ultimately foreign.

Therefore, there was a strong sense of unfamiliarity.

Only through personal experience could it be dispelled.

Only then could some knowledge count as truly mastered.

“Huh!”

After reading for a while, Chu Xuan was slightly surprised.

He found that his memory seemed to have improved, but he quickly shook his head and figured it was an enhancement brought about by memory overlap.

Perhaps it was an illusion.

Gradually, he immersed himself in it.

“Ding! Twelve o’clock sharp!”

Suddenly, a time announcement sounded, and only then did Chu Xuan come back to himself; it was now January 17.

“sign-in!”

『Ding! Sign-in successful!』

『Congratulations, you obtained a case of century eggs!』

『Bonus reward: Level 1 Genetic Enhancement Solution!』

“What?”

In an instant, Chu Xuan almost jumped up.

First, he was happy that the 1% extra chance had been triggered, which definitely counted as lucky!

Second, he was surprised, since from the name alone he knew what it did.

His heart stirred, and a cylindrical object appeared in his hand with a metal and glass shell, and inside was a tube of pale blue liquid.

He asked the System.

Sure enough, it matched his guess.

It was a potion that could strengthen the body at the genetic level.

It was exactly what he needed.

Although this body was fine after a sleep now, it was still in a suboptimal condition.

After asking about the precautions, he proceeded.

He aligned the injector end with his wrist and pressed it on.

“Click!”

“Activated!”

Six ring-arranged injection needles pierced his wrist, the liquid kept being injected, and only after a dozen breaths was it all injected.

At once, his whole body went rigid.

He could not move!

His body gradually became hot, as if it were being roasted over a rack.

Of course, it was not truly heat but a neural illusion during the transformation.

However, there was something he could still do.

Through the only thing he could still move… his eyeballs… he could see.

His skin all over reddened slightly, and blue lines flowed through his blood vessels.

They spread like a spiderweb, seeping from the main trunks into the capillaries.

In the end, the process culminated.

His entire body turned light blue, and fortunately, because he knew the process, he did not panic.

After a little over ten minutes, the entire enhancement was completely finished.

He recovered his ability to move.

“Gasp!”

He took a deep breath.

He felt his lung capacity had been strengthened as never before, and he had never felt that breathing could have such strength and be so comfortable.

“Huff!”

When he threw a punch, it had great strength.

His skin improved.

His muscles increased.

…

There were many changes, and although he had not become extraordinarily powerful, he had definitely reached a robust standard.

At this point, he felt reassured.

He no longer had to worry about sudden death, because with this physique… not to brag… it was truly strong.

If Level 1 was this good, would Level 2 be even better?

Chu Xuan felt a fire in his heart.

But he quickly shook his head, since a 1% chance was too low and hard to trigger.

Today must have been a burst of luck.

He only hoped that after the System upgraded, the probability could be a bit higher.

According to what the System said, to upgrade to a Level 2 Sign-In System, he needed to sign-in a total of 100 times, and this was only the third time.

A little over three months was not too long.

If it were three years, that would be jaw-dropping.

…

After the enhancement, Chu Xuan continued studying.

This enhancement was truly all-around, and his memory and comprehension both stepped up a level.

Studying felt divinely assisted.

What was he waiting for, then?

Grind!

He had to digest this book completely today.

Strangely enough, that was the case.

When he was in school he never wanted to read no matter what, and only after he started working did he feel that, compared with the hardships of life, studying was not much of anything.

Anyone could betray you, but knowledge would not.

Because it did not even want to pay you any attention.