Chapter One: Sun Meng

My head hurts so much! Where am I?” Sun Meng pressed his hand to his aching head and sat up from the ground, his muscles sore all over and his head throbbing unbearably.

“He’s awake! The streamer is awake!” Suddenly, a voice echoed inside Sun Meng’s mind.

Startled, Sun Meng looked around quickly. He was in a forest, with no one else in sight.

“It’s great that the streamer is awake, otherwise who knows what disaster would have befallen us!” Another voice chimed in.

“Yes, our Earth started out at a disadvantage; every chosen candidate so far has been an unbearably weak ordinary person. We worried that Earth would be destroyed by disaster before even reaching the first trial,” a third voice said.

Sun Meng was utterly confused. Could it be that I’ve transmigrated, and landed in the body of a streamer?

Originally, Sun Meng was a recent university graduate on Earth, fond of web novels and familiar with all their genres. He had read a few of the “live broadcast” style novels when they were popular.

Although he had no idea why the previous host died, or how he’d transmigrated here, getting another chance at life was still an opportunity—perhaps even to gain extraordinary powers.

Recalling scenes from novels he’d read, Sun Meng felt that, even if he fared poorly, he could still do better than a lifetime as an ordinary person. However, his current state seemed far from ideal; although he found no wounds, his whole body was sore.

He shifted his body to lean against a tree behind him. Suddenly, information flooded his mind.

“So that’s how it is. This really is a wondrous game,” Sun Meng understood, after absorbing the memories of his predecessor, what the former host’s role had been.

The previous Sun Meng was a citizen of Hua Nation on a parallel Earth, in early 2018, when Earth was chosen by a mysterious, cosmic-level game system. The system randomly selected one person from Earth to participate in the competition, and everyone on the planet could watch the contestant’s live broadcast via electronic devices.

Apart from Earth, many other intelligent species from different planets joined the game, but Earthlings still had no idea how many civilizations were involved.

According to the game’s rules, every time the participant completed a mission, rewards would be granted—split between individual rewards and planetary rewards. The two types overlapped somewhat, since only abilities, technologies, and power limits that existed on Earth could be obtained by Sun Meng. Any individual abilities Sun Meng gained would appear randomly on Earth, but only as unique, singular existences apart from himself.

Each year after the game began, every participating planet would face a trial. Passing the trial meant continuing the game; failure meant civilization’s destruction, and the contestant’s death. So once the reality of the game was confirmed, every nation on Earth focused its efforts on helping the contestant complete missions.

Yet, four months into the competition, the contestant had already changed three times. By consciousness, Sun Meng was now the fourth.

Whenever a contestant died, the system would randomly trigger a disaster on Earth. The first two disasters were: three days of worldwide blizzards, with global temperatures plunging to minus fifty degrees; and, secondly, biological mutations—every animal and plant on Earth doubled in size.

With the predecessor’s death, another disaster should have struck, but Sun Meng had transmigrated, so catastrophe was averted—hence the comments from those watching.

Reflecting on the heavy responsibility now upon him, Sun Meng decided he must first understand the nature of his current mission.

He searched the memories left by his predecessor: the system would send the contestant to another world, assign them a local identity, and issue a main quest plus randomly triggered side quests. Completing the main quest would earn rewards and allow departure.

“In this world, my name is Lin Pingzhi!” Sun Meng discovered his identity for this mission, which surprised him. His main quest read: “Revenge—Lin Pingzhi’s entire family, aside from himself, was slaughtered by the Qingcheng Sect. The contestant must complete his vengeance within a year. Completion criteria: Qingcheng Sect’s leader Yu Canghai must die, and the truth behind the Lin family massacre must be made public. Side quest: None.”

With this information, Sun Meng realized which world he was in. “But why did my predecessor seem unaware of the plot of ‘The Smiling, Proud Wanderer’? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ended up so miserably.”

Sun Meng was puzzled. Guided by Earth’s experts, he had unmasked the scouts from the Huashan Sect, escaped alone after his family’s slaughter, and even tricked the Huashan people once. Yet, his luck failed—exhausted, he was attacked by a tiger, fell off a cliff, and drowned. Clearly, ignorance of the plot led to such a tragic end.

As Sun Meng pondered, the viewers on the live broadcast grew lively.

They had expected Sun Meng to die and were preparing for the next disaster, but since he survived, they continued to watch him, as his fate was intimately tied to theirs.

Since Sun Meng was a Hua Nation citizen, comments from other countries appeared in Hua Nation language, but with their national flag displayed at the start, making them easy to identify.

At this moment, the comment stream was once again ablaze with activity.

“Streamer, don’t give up!”

“Yes, you have to keep going, you’re the best!” Two charming female voices spoke up.

“It’s Feifei and Mimi!” Someone recognized the speakers—two famous female stars from Hua Nation.

Posting comments during the broadcast was cheap, but sending voice messages was expensive.

Though he knew they mostly wanted to safeguard their own well-being, Sun Meng was still touched; at this moment, he felt he had not only taken over this body but also inherited its link to Earth.

“Rest assured, everyone! This time I’ll definitely complete the mission and bring glory to Earth!”

“Well done, streamer!” A wave of praise washed across the screen.

Sun Meng took out his last bit of rations, ate quickly, and began meditating to recover. By sunrise, his physical condition was mostly restored.

When viewers saw Sun Meng stand up, a line of red text appeared on the broadcast: “Contestant, follow the stream out of the mountains, then head toward Taiyuan. According to your identity, the Wang family in Taiyuan can offer you some assistance.”

Red text—exclusive to Hua Nation’s official channel—was the only place where he was addressed as “contestant” rather than “streamer.”

Sun Meng felt irritated for reasons he couldn’t explain. He pursed his lips: The previous host died because of your misguided instructions. If I knew nothing, maybe I’d follow you, but in this situation, relying on your orders is a death sentence! Sun Meng now ignored the national guidance, knowing he understood the plot better than they did.

He snapped a branch to use as a makeshift weapon and started walking out of the mountains. As he walked, Sun Meng took stock of his resources: aside from wilderness survival skills and an ordinary athlete’s physique gained via system points, he had only Lin Pingzhi’s basic internal energy and swordsmanship.

This was Sun Meng’s first mission. The items left behind by the first contestant were useless, as they already existed on Earth. The second participant had left a complete collection of basic Maoshan talisman formulas, but without cultivation methods, they were of no use.

He felt Earth was rather unlucky—the first two worlds were low-martial “Wong Fei Hung” and “Mr. Vampire,” and both contestants were foreigners. Even though those worlds lacked their original movies, relevant culture still existed. If a Hua Nation citizen had participated, perhaps they’d have survived. The main comment stream always matched the contestant’s nationality; foreign viewers loved to stir things up, which led to both previous deaths.

“Sigh! Looks like I really have to rely on myself.” Sun Meng thought, according to the game’s rules, each mission would be harder than the last. If he didn’t gain enough strength this time, even a familiar world would be hard to survive next time.

The previous two mission worlds and this one were all familiar from movies and TV shows, but who knew if the next would be unknown? Without sufficient skill, even knowing the plot wouldn’t guarantee benefits.

“In that case, I’ll have to use some extraordinary methods!” Sun Meng made up his mind, and by now had exited the mountains. He found a shop in a small town, spent a considerable sum on a good meal, changed into fresh clothes, and after confirming his current location, headed toward the Lin family’s old estate.