"A growing lad will eat his father out of house and home."
After finishing two bowls of noodles, Lin Mo added an order of spare ribs and cured meat rice.
Under the watchful gaze of the auntie running the shop, he polished off two full bowls.
"Burp~~~" A long, satisfying belch escaped him.
Lin Mo patted his not-quite-distended stomach—this feeling of fullness was pure comfort.
The effects of the Body-Strengthening Pill seemed to linger.
His entire body felt warm and cozy, and despite the summer heat, not a single drop of sweat trickled down.
Bill paid, he headed out.
Walking down the street, he suddenly remembered that in his past life, he’d returned home on this very day, dropped his things, and immediately gone out to buy a mountain of snacks.
Then he’d gamed on his computer while munching away.
Thinking back, that didn’t sound half bad.
So Lin Mo bought some snacks too, though not as much—just enough to indulge in a bit of nostalgia.
Back home, he booted up his computer, still running on Windows 7.
Lin Mo had been fond of computers since childhood, so he’d taught himself how to install operating systems and download games to play.
Thanks to that, his family had gotten an internet connection early, allowing him to search for information online.
Now, reborn, Lin Mo had no intention of gaming. What he sought were clues about cultivation.
But the moment he searched...
"A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality" was still ongoing.
"Immortality’s Favor" had already concluded.
There were plenty of cultivation novels, but not a single scrap of real information about cultivators.
"Hey, System, did you bring me to the wrong world?" Lin Mo couldn’t help but grumble.
[Impossible! Absolutely impossible. Besides, this system is bound to you, Host. If anyone’s in the wrong place, it’s you.]
"Oh. Well, in that case, I guess we’re not lost."
Still unable to confirm whether cultivators existed in this world, Lin Mo decided to keep observing.
In simpler terms: lay low.
Anyone who’d read The Three-Body Problem knew how terrifying the Dark Forest theory was.
...
Early the next morning.
[Daily Mission: Run 10 kilometers.]
"System, you’ve gotten colder."
[Not really. "Holding the sun and moon, plucking the stars—no system in this world compares to me."]
This system was anything but serious.
Lin Mo got up, checked the route, and decided to take the bus to his landlady’s place first, then run back.
He headed out, stopping at the local eatery downstairs for a serving of rice noodle rolls with minced meat.
After eating, he walked to the subway.
The apartment he was renting was on the outskirts of the urban village, a place he’d found just before summer break.
It had previously been shared by two young migrant workers, but they’d apparently changed jobs and moved out, leaving it vacant.
The location was ideal—transport and amenities were all within easy reach.
Guangba Middle School, where Lin Mo studied, was only about ten minutes away.
Practically next door.
Lin Mo walked downstairs with practiced ease.
After all, he’d lived here for three years. The place felt both familiar and strangely distant.
Standing at the foot of the stairs, he dialed the landlady’s number.
"Hello, Auntie? I’m downstairs."
"Oh, you’re here already? I’ll have my daughter come down to let you in. Just wait a moment."
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. Just like last time.
Soon, the slap of slippers echoed from the stairwell.
A girl came down and unlocked the metal gate at the bottom.
She stood around 165 cm tall—quite tall for a girl—with a ponytail swaying behind her. A black T-shirt and black pants suggested she’d just rolled out of bed.
Her outfit was plain, but her face was strikingly pretty.
If Lin Mo remembered right, she was the class belle from the parallel class—Xie Yuling.
In his past life, he’d thought their meeting was fate.
Turned out, she couldn’t have cared less.
Probably sensing his intentions, she’d kept her distance from the start.
Eventually, he’d gotten the hint and moved on.
Remembering those cringe-worthy days, Lin Mo shook his head with a wry smile.
"You’re here to rent the apartment, right?"
The girl scrutinized him with a measuring gaze.
"Yeah. Your mom asked you to let me in, right? I’ll move in a few days—just here to pick up the keys today."
Lin Mo didn’t return her once-over. Instead, he gestured upstairs. "Shall we head up?"
He took the lead, climbing the steps.
The landlady’s family lived on the sixth floor—the top.
In a walk-up like this, the highest floors were the hardest to rent out, so they’d kept it for themselves.
By the time they reached the top, the door was already open.
The landlady greeted him warmly.
"Ah, Lin Mo! Didn’t expect you so early!"
"Got back from my grandma’s yesterday, and I’ve got nothing else to do today, so I figured I’d come get the keys now."
The landlady handed over the contract and keys.
Goat City, as a provincial capital, had long-established rental regulations due to its large migrant population.
"Want to go down and check the place again? No rush."
The landlady smiled kindly.
Lin Mo returned the smile and signed the contract without hesitation.
"Already checked it last time. It’s perfect. Just here for the keys today."
He pulled out a stack of cash—electronic payments weren’t mainstream yet.
First month’s rent plus deposit came to 800 yuan.
400 for rent wasn’t bad, especially with appliances included. He hadn’t haggled before, and there was no need to start now.
Xie Yuling, who’d let him in earlier, had already retreated to her room, clearly uninterested in further interaction.
Lin Mo didn’t mind. In his memory, this was exactly how she’d treated him the first time around.
Keys and access card in hand, he headed down to the fourth-floor apartment.
It had a kitchen, private bathroom, one bedroom, and decent lighting.
Air conditioning, washing machine, water heater—all the essentials were there.
The location was great, and with little time left to find another place, this was ideal.
After inspecting the clean, freshly tidied apartment (the previous tenants had moved out, and the landlady had given it a thorough scrub), Lin Mo prepared to run home.
On his way downstairs, he ran into Xie Yuling again—now changed into a blue outfit.
Still sporting a ponytail, but the shift from black to blue gave her a more youthful vibe.
Her expression, however, remained as frosty as ever.
She barely glanced at Lin Mo before walking off on her own.
Lin Mo didn’t dwell on it and continued downstairs.
By the time he reached the ground floor, Xie Yuling was already out of sight.
Every time he saw her, Lin Mo was reminded of his past foolishness.
The cringe was unbearable.
Now that they’d crossed paths again in this life, he figured it was best not to bother her.
No need to become the butt of jokes in future gossip.
With that thought, Lin Mo checked the street signs and started running.
No Google Maps on his phone in this era, after all.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
