Chapter 42: Chapter 41: A World without Tomorrow

Editor: Exodus Tales

The sense of weightlessness suddenly vanished.

“Thud!”

Fang Zheng flew out of the Light Gate and landed heavily on the ground, emitting a groan.

“Damn it!”

Feeling a dull ache from below, Fang Zheng gritted his teeth. He seriously began to suspect that he had some kind of grudge against teleportation. Ever since his rebirth in this world, every teleportation had ended with him in ridiculous situations: the first time, he was thrown into a horde of the living dead in the Dark World; the second time, he was teleported right in front of Magda, forcing him into an unplanned boss fight. Returning to the Main World, his first attempt at teleportation on the Path of the Stars separated him from his companions, and now this… It seemed he was inherently incompatible with teleportation!

“What rotten luck!”

Grumbling, Fang Zheng stood up and quickly scanned his surroundings. He sighed in relief seeing he wasn’t thrown into a nest of creatures this time. Instead, he found himself in a narrow, dark alleyway flanked by tall concrete walls. In the distance, he could hear the blare of horns. The scene before him was both familiar and strange; familiar because it was reminiscent of his everyday life before, and strange because… he no longer belonged to this world.

“Hey, brothers, look who it is!”

As Fang Zheng was nostalgically absorbing the scene, an unwelcome voice interrupted him. He turned towards the source of the voice to find three white-skinned, blonde-haired men in scruffy clothes grinning at him.

“Didn’t expect to find a stray cat here. How’s it going, little master?”

The lead man sneered, cracking his knuckles as he swaggered towards Fang Zheng.

“This is Kafter Brothers’ territory. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but don’t you think you owe us an apology?”

“…….”

Alright, scratch that. His past life’s neighborhood didn’t have such poor security.

“Sigh…”

Looking at the three punks, Fang Zheng sighed helplessly.

“Apologies, then…!”

Suddenly, Fang Zheng turned into a blur and appeared in front of the lead thug. He didn’t use the Sky-Cleaving Sword, but instead punched the man hard in the chest, sending him flying back about ten meters before he crashed to the ground.

“Boss!”

Seeing this, the other two followers cried out in alarm. One of them pulled out a switchblade, but Fang Zheng grabbed his head and smashed it into the ground before he could make another move. The unlucky fellow collapsed, bleeding from the nose.

“Help, help!!”

This all happened in mere moments. From knocking out the leader to taking care of his lackeys, it took less than five seconds. Finally, the last thug snapped out of it and tried to scream for help, but Fang Zheng silenced him by gripping his throat and pinning him to the wall.

“Shh… keep it down. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

Facing the trembling thug, Fang Zheng remained calm. He was no longer the newly reborn man. He had fought cultists, battled the living dead, danced with the Abyss in his dreams, and just faced the Master of Lich head on. If this was just a normal world, he had nothing to fear.

However…

“It’s definitely not a normal world.”

Emerging from the alleyway, Fang Zheng counted the money he took from the thugs and sighed. He walked to a nearby shop and looked at the TV in the window. On the screen, the host excitedly reported the latest news.

“Five years later, we have finally scored our first victory! This footage comes from Verdun…”

As the host narrated, the screen showed people cheering with excitement as armored vehicles sped down the central road. Soldiers on the vehicles stood and waved to the crowd, eliciting waves of cheers and joy.

The camera cut back to the smiling host, who continued the report.

“Remarkably, the casualties and damage have been minimal this time, making it a tremendous victory! This is largely thanks to the new power combat armor. With these armors, training soldiers into super warriors takes only a short time. They can then enter the battlefield and defeat those aliens!”

Yes, aliens.

This was a world where humanity was fighting against aliens.

From what Fang Zheng gathered from the thugs, five years ago a mysterious group of aliens arrived on Earth, launching an all-out attack. These aliens, called “mimics” by humans, caused catastrophic damage from the outset. Completely unprepared, humanity stood little chance. They nearly lost all of Europe. But just yesterday, humanity celebrated its first victory over the aliens.

At first, Fang Zheng wasn’t sure which world he was in until he saw Tom Cruise in a military uniform speaking on TV, alongside aliens that looked like bundles of wires. At that moment, Fang Zheng finally recalled the name of this world.

Edge of Tomorrow.

This was a science fiction movie with a simple plot: aliens invade Earth, pushing humanity to the brink of defeat. Tom Cruise played an officer assigned to the front lines for recording and combat. Naturally, he resisted, as he was meant for PR, not combat. However, the general wasn’t swayed, having Cruise arrested and sent to the front as a deserter.

As a rookie, Cruise was terrified but managed to hold the line, ultimately detonating a bomb to take an alien with him. To his surprise, the alien was special; its blood caused Cruise to wake up at the beginning of the same day. Everything started over!

From then on, Cruise repeatedly fought, died, and grew stronger. Eventually, he met the female lead who had experienced the same phenomenon. Together, they fought and, in true Hollywood fashion, used the knowledge gained from their loops to find the alien leader. They successfully eliminated the boss and saved Earth.

The movie was popular among game developers like Fang Zheng, who joked that it was like a player repeatedly loading saves to defeat a boss, though the forced death-to-reload mechanic was tough. Otherwise, it was considered a time-travel perk!

To be honest, Fang Zheng felt a kinship with Cruise now, reminiscing about his time in the Black Soul World… never mind, it was too painful to recall.

Who would have thought he’d travel to a movie world?

Fang Zheng had assumed he would end up in a game world, given his previous experiences. The first world he visited was game-like, and the Free Instance, Black Soul World, also appeared game-based. So, he thought the third instance would also be a fantasy game world.

But unexpectedly, it turned out to be a science fiction movie world.

So, what should he do next?

While pondering this and watching the hosts on TV, Fang Zheng mused. The plot of this world was straightforward. Fang Zheng knew exactly where the alien boss was. But what was his mission? If it involved enlisting and fighting those creatures, he didn’t want any part of it. He had just escaped constant battle in the Main World and didn’t want to jump into another fight.

“Ding.”

As Fang Zheng pondered, a soft chime sounded, and a system prompt appeared in front of him.

[Main Quest Issued]