LongFei stepped out of the one-room apartment. Since he was the last one leaving for school, he made sure to lock the door.
Walking through the silent corridor of the apartment complex, his footsteps echoed across the space.
He quietly soliloquized about his life. For a doctor who had caused his own death, there was nothing more painful than to see his research fail—the research he had thought would end the suffering of genes.
"Time sure flies."
It had been one week since he transmigrated into this world. LongFei had come to understand everything about it through the memories of the body his soul inhabited.
It was surprising, a twenty-five-year-old scientist who had earned the prominent degree of Doctor of Plant Medicine at a very young age.
He had revolutionized many things in his previous world, like creating pills and drugs with zero chemical compounds, only by extracting medicinal essence from plants and animals.
In the modern day of his world, he was even revered as the pill god in some regions. Now, he was transmigrated into the body of an eighteen-year-old high school graduate.
LongFei smiled as he thought about this on his way to school.
"But, transmigrating into a post-apocalyptic world full of mutation... did the Life Gene Seed cause a resonance?"
LongFei saw the Life Gene Seed floating gently in his sea of consciousness. Fully determined, he vowed to cultivate it with all his past-life knowledge.
"Through my formidable knowledge of genetic engineering, I created the Life Gene Seed.
The Divine embryonic plant, a cross between a thousand species of superplants, finally germinated. And then, I ate its fruit, the Life Gene Fruit."
"Only to end up here! Damn, just because I used myself as the test subject, who would have known there was a 0.0009% genetic error in the creation!"
As LongFei reached outside, the rays of the sun bathed him in golden light. In this world, he had a little sister who was in middle school, and all the memories of this body were painful ones.
During the alien invasion, they had lost their parents, and the brother always did part-time jobs after school for them to survive.
"He didn't even have anything in his bank account, and there are all these bills that keep piling up. Shit."
"Transmigrating as a poor person... I will need to use my knowledge to rise. Well, knowledge is power; money will eventually follow. I thank my stars that my knowledge followed me to this world."
Just last week, this body's owner had collapsed from stress, and LongFei was able to transmigrate into the body.
"From time to time, the Evil Drallocks wouldn't fail to launch fierce attacks, and even their parents died through these means... what a pity."
"And there are also the Gate Breaks. Whenever a monster breaks out of a Gateway, it would turn the surroundings to rubble. This world is indeed tumultuous."
LongFei looked at the ruined street with narrowed gaze. All around the vicinity, there were buildings always under construction due to being caught up in a Gate Break.
Almost every street had at least a couple of buildings with cranes looming over them.
More than two hundred years ago, the Evil Drallocks performed experiments on this world, and they descended to dominate.
But they met resistance, since the mutation had caused a positive evolution in humans, and the two races had been in a fierce war ever since that time.
However, the experiment that had blessed the humans came with a terrible price. It appeared the very fabric of the planet's spacetime had become twisted, as Gateways started appearing in different regions.
In the distance, LongFei could see the Gateway being guarded by soldiers. It was a massive hole of different colors, and each color determined the level of the creatures on the other side.
These spatial tunnels connected the human world to a mysterious world somewhere in the vast universe.
The bright side was that the monsters never trespassed into the human world, making for a safe situation. Instead, humanity, as an ever inquisitive life form, ventured into these spatial tunnels.
"Well, it is good to be inquisitive. If we were not, we wouldn't have reached this level in the field of science and technology."
They wanted to know what was at the other end of the tunnel, but what they met was horror.
At the other end, these Gateways all led into a single mysterious world called God's Horizon, a massive world as big as a galaxy. And inside lived many monsters and terrifying creatures.
Humans couldn't adapt to the law of this world, which was survival of the fittest. And in a short interval of time, humans fell to the bottom of the food chain.
Eventually, there was a ray of hope: humanity discovered the secret of these creatures, and it appeared they held the very keys to human evolution.
However, only a selected group of people were allowed to venture inside—people whom the world government alliance had deemed would adapt to the survival of the fittest and evolve from it.
They were now being recruited into the Universal League of Explorers, a global elite organization shaping humanity into warriors to counter any alien threat.
Since the dead LongFei had applied through the school, the reason he was going today—even though he had graduated a week ago—was because they would announce admitted aspirants today.
LongFei was filled with anticipation, just like every other human who had applied.
"At least, there is a promise of evolution in this world. It is up to me not to be left behind."
LongFei's eyes lit with determination.
When he reached the class, he saw many of his classmates; they were chatting and playing around.
LongFei looked around. The previous LongFei had no friends, and it was because after school he would leave immediately for his part-time work, and during school, he slept most of the time due to stress.
As a result, his grades ended up falling below average, and he couldn't make any friends.
LongFei sat at a corner while watching the students.
Suddenly, the class quieted when a tall figure entered.
The sound of heels clattered on the marble floor of the class as Sui Lan gracefully stepped to the podium.
LongFei looked up at her figure. The homeroom teacher was about his age in his past life.
And also...
"She is my type."
Her red dress hugged her curvaceous body tightly, accentuating every gift.
Surprisingly, the first person Sui Lan gazed at was LongFei. However, she had a twisted expression on her face, as if his face was repulsive. LongFei felt his heart shatter into pieces at once.
"I will start calling names. Anyone that hears their name should step out to receive their explorer license."
She slowly looked around and swept a cold gaze over the students.
"Twilight."
A girl walked to the podium and received a small card. Although everyone was filled with apprehension, and the feeling of receiving something like this would make someone jump for joy, she didn't react aside from thanking Sui Lan and walking back to her seat.
"The class rep. She is an academic prowess and very strong—but arrogant, so filled with pride."
LongFei wrinkled his brow, watching as Twilight sat down. All the boys in the class were fawning over her.
"Max Guy."
A tall guy about six feet stood. His presence alone was enough to suffocate the people around him.
LongFei knew about Max Guy. He was a battle prowess who had inherited powerful evolved genes from his ancestors.
"Golden Finger."
After Sui Lan called three names, she paused and looked around the class. LongFei could have sworn he noticed her lingering gaze on him.
The whole class fell into turmoil when they saw that the homeroom teacher stopped calling names. In fact, their voices were starting to fill with panic.
"Is that all the people that get recruited?"
"I know it is always competitive, only the three prominent students had been called, I never guessed it would reach this level."
LongFei bit his lips. Among the whole class, it hit him the most.
"I guess I got my hopes up. I knew it was competitive but got so excited. Now I'm feeling bitter." LongFei felt like a student who had lost admission to his chosen college.
After a moment of noise, and even though Sui Lan didn't bother to silence the students, she finally spoke the last name.
"LongFei."
When he heard his name, his eyes widened, his heart started beating wildly, and a very hot flame sparked in him.
LongFei stood frenziedly, almost knocking some desks down. He walked to Sui Lan and looked up at her with a look of expectation.
Sui Lan handed the license to him hesitantly. LongFei couldn't care less; he hurried to his seat and checked out the Explorer license.
"Eh? LongFei? Let's wait. If they called this guy, then they will surely call us."
"Perhaps it is alphabetically. My name is the next letter after L."
"Hey! What about mine? My name starts with letter A. I think they are calling it randomly."
Other students' hopes immediately returned, their excitement building up at a fast pace. But then...
Sui Lan walked out of the class. The announcement had obviously ended.
Every other student entered a brief state of shock. When LongFei realized this, he quickly rushed out of the class and left for home. There were some bullies that would cause him trouble in the class.
"It is time for my first trip into God's Horizon."