-1- Awakening

Li You opened his eyes and the first thing he saw were the vines entwining the ceiling. They emitted a faint cyan-blue glow, spreading across most of the walls, making the room appear as if it were the interior of a colossal plant.

He sat up on the bed in a daze, scanning his surroundings. After a long moment, he recalled that he had been riding an electric scooter delivering food when, unexpectedly, a massive hundred-ton truck appeared around a corner.

Uh, does this mean he had been transported to another world?

No, it was also possible that he had fallen into a vegetative state and slept for a long time, which explained why he was here... but he needed to check his condition first!

Above him, the phosphorescent vines—whether plant or artificial—shone weakly, barely illuminating the outlines of furniture like tables, chairs, and cabinets. To check for injuries, Li You jumped off the bed. Finding no slippers, he walked barefoot to the glowing wall and began inspecting his body carefully.

But...

What he discovered was utterly absurd!

Why were his hands so small? Why were his arms and legs so thin? Had he shrunk? And what was this white dress he was wearing? Who had dressed him in such feminine clothing?

Wait, could it be...?

A chilling possibility struck him. Li You suddenly reached down and touched his lower body, then gasped sharply.

It was gone!

Completely gone!

So this was truly a transmigration—and not just any transmigration, but into the body of a little girl!

The shocking truth left Li You’s mind blank. He plopped back down on the small bed beside him. After waiting a long while and using the faint glow to look down, he noticed footprints on the floor—the ground was covered in a thick layer of dust, and stepping on it felt like walking on snow, leaving clear prints behind.

Why was it so filthy? Had no one cleaned this room for a long time?

He frowned involuntarily and tried to find something to wipe his feet on, but then his pupils contracted sharply as a thought struck him—this thick layer of dust meant no one had lived here for at least several weeks. Why, then, was the original owner still lying in such a place?

He inspected the room more closely and saw that between the open door and the bed, there were no signs of movement or disturbance. This meant the original occupant had been bedridden for weeks, perhaps even months, never having gotten up since before Li You arrived.

So...

Had he transmigrated into the body of someone already dead?

But then why was the body not decomposed? Was that also a consequence of transmigration?

Since he had not inherited the original owner’s memories, Li You could only make simple guesses. His attention soon settled on the most striking feature in the room—the vines.

He realized the vines grew inward from outside, covering the ceiling, walls, and much of the floor.

This dispelled any notion that they were merely decorative lights. Who would install ambient lighting so exaggerated and realistic? Could they actually be glowing plants?

But since he had transmigrated, anything was possible...

He took a deep breath, got off the bed, and opened the cabinet, but found nothing useful. He then stepped outside the room.

The corridor beyond was a wide, curved hallway with several narrow branches. Li You proceeded cautiously along the broad path and, after a few minutes, the space suddenly opened up before him.

What met his eyes was a vast and spacious circular hall, likely the central hall of this building’s floor. Above, a dome roof crowned the space, and tens of thousands of vines cascaded down from a central ventilation shaft, forming a luminous waterfall over twenty meters tall. Like a giant cold-light jellyfish, it enveloped the entire hall in a hauntingly beautiful and eerie atmosphere.

Stunned by this sight, Li You began to examine the hall more thoroughly.

The floor was strewn with debris—rotting cloth fibers, shattered glassware, overturned and broken sofas and tables, as well as numerous human and animal skeletal remains scattered in fragments throughout the corners.

Clearly, a great disaster had occurred here, leaving the scene in utter ruin and littered with bones.

Li You stared at the human bones on the ground, his eyelids twitching. He forced himself to take several deep breaths to calm down. This was the first time in his life he had seen human remains, and combined with the gloomy, claustrophobic, and desolate environment, it felt like a scene from a horror movie, unsettling and chilling.

After several minutes of regaining composure, a small confusion crept into his mind.

No matter what disaster, incident, or accident had happened, surely the police or military would have come to clean up by now, at least to collect the bodies.

Why was this place completely abandoned?

Had it never been discovered by the outside world?

Moreover, the entire place had no windows, entirely sealed or underground. Perhaps it was some illegal hidden facility...

Thinking this, Li You lowered his gaze and, using the relatively bright cyan glow, tried to find clues.

Unfortunately, most of the papers on the floor were badly rotted, stained deep brown. A few hardcover books, likely printed on high-quality acid-free paper, were still intact, but he could not read a single word.

This was the downside of transmigrating without memory inheritance—he had become illiterate overnight. He sighed and put the books down, then wandered around the hall, picking up a long metallic object.

It looked like a slim, sci-fi-style gun, with a white casing and intricate carvings all over the barrel and body, exquisitely crafted. The material felt solid, probably some kind of special plastic. Li You decided to treat it as a makeshift club for self-defense.

After wandering for more than ten minutes, he finally found an abandoned elevator shaft at a corner of the hall, alongside an emergency stairwell entrance.

He immediately entered.

Honestly, he should have been more cautious, at least testing for threats in the stairwell. But the eerie atmosphere—like a sealed underground tomb—made him not want to stay another second. Even with glowing vines providing light, he felt as if a monster could leap out from any adjacent floor entrance at any moment.

He chose to ascend because the lack of windows suggested this place was underground. If he was wrong, the top floor might have a rooftop or some vantage point to overlook the area.

Carefully climbing the metal stairs floor by floor, Li You tried to step lightly to minimize noise. He felt as though he was trapped in a horror film, expecting some terrifying creature to leap out and attack him at any time.

After climbing eight floors, he reached the ninth—the top floor.

Clutching his makeshift club, he cautiously stepped inside. Using the faint glow of the vines, he saw a wide corridor flanked by rooms or branching paths. At the end stood a massive metal door and beside it a smaller door, left ajar, emitting a faint light.

That was... sunlight?

Feeling the flow of fresh air, he instinctively quickened his pace, reached the small door, and pushed it open. Before him lay a stair tunnel leading upward. Looking up, the exit appeared as a bright point, golden light streaming in, making the scene look like a heavenly stairway—beautiful and sacred.

Finally, he could leave this cursed place!

His heart surged with warmth as he dashed through the light.

But the moment his eyes adjusted to the new brightness, he was stunned to find that outside was not solid ground but a small platform floating on the water.

He looked around. The platform was surrounded by deep, dark lake water, hundreds of meters deep and stretching at least two or three kilometers wide. At the far edge of the lake, no shoreline was visible. Instead, towering, seamless smooth rock walls encircled the entire lake like a colossal fortress, imprisoning it completely.

Li You froze, his mind consumed by a single thought:

How was he supposed to get out of here?