Night was black as ink, and a biting rain fell relentlessly from the sky.
A fierce wind howled through the desolate land, tearing at everything in its path.
Twisted trees bent beneath the storm, their branches bearing only a few withered leaves.
A bolt of lightning tore across the heavens.
Within the curtain of rain, a battered figure slowly pushed himself up from the ground.
“I… who am I?”
The figure gradually came to his senses, opening his eyes with difficulty.
What greeted him looked like the remnants of a battlefield.
Broken weapons and shattered armor lay scattered across the ground.
The bones of fallen warriors had been piled in a corner, while the blood that had once soaked the earth had long since dried, staining the soil an ominous dark crimson.
The lone figure standing amid the devastation seemed utterly out of place.
“I… where am I?”
The ragged man murmured as he slowly raised his hands.
He stared at his palms, which were clearly different from those in his memories, and fell into deep thought.
“Did I… transmigrate?”
After a brief moment of contemplation, his gradually clearing mind arrived at that conclusion.
He then began recalling his previous life.
Mo Hong.
Ordinary appearance.
An ordinary family.
Ordinary grades.
An ordinary job.
After decades of mediocrity, he had finally died in an accident.
The exact details were somewhat hazy, but from what he could remember, it had been a rather…
liberating death.
Hmm.
Certified as a good death.
While Mo Hong was lost in his memories, a sharp scream suddenly pierced the air from somewhere nearby.
Startled out of his thoughts, Mo Hong slowly turned his head.
A girl stood some distance away.
She looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old.
She had brown hair, wore thick clothing, and, most notably, had a pair of furry ears on top of her head that resembled bear ears.
“Hmm… still pretty cute…!”
Mo Hong stared at her.
Then his expression changed.
“Wait, what the hell? Bear ears?”
This couldn’t be real, could it?
They moved!
Her ears had definitely just moved!
Good heavens, just where had he ended up?
Those ears…
Those ears…
So fluffy…
They must feel amazing to touch.
Hehehehehe…
Panic and novelty surged through Mo Hong’s heart as he confronted the unfamiliar world.
His chaotic mental state was so overwhelming that it even temporarily eclipsed his fear of the unknown.
Unfortunately, the child standing opposite him wasn’t nearly as carefree.
Mo Hong’s body had apparently been neglected for a long time.
His joints were stiff, and while thinking, he had subconsciously stopped moving altogether.
As a result, his head remained fixed in an extremely bizarre position, staring directly at the girl.
A battered body.
A blurred silhouette.
Rust-covered armor.
An unnatural posture.
And a pair of crimson eyes flickering with bloody light.
Combined with the hellish battlefield surrounding him, the sight was enough to terrify anyone.
The Ursus girl’s breathing nearly stopped.
A wave of terror surged through her heart.
Her body trembled uncontrollably, and the sudden shock left her completely frozen in place.
A moment later, the girl fainted from fright and collapsed limply onto the ground.
The sound of her falling finally brought Mo Hong back to his senses.
“Huh?”
He looked over and noticed that she had fainted.
Mo Hong dragged his heavy body over and examined her for a moment.
He confirmed two things.
First, those fluffy ears were real.
Second…
His current appearance was genuinely terrifying.
After thinking for a while and making sure there were no immediate dangers nearby, Mo Hong propped the girl against a nearby rock before heading toward a small pool of water.
The surface of the water reflected his current appearance.
A pair of antler-like horns sprouted from his head.
His eyes were crimson, seemingly stained with blood.
A layer of ferocious bone structure covered his head, giving him an inhuman appearance.
He was tall and clad in severely damaged, broken armor.
Mo Hong stared at his reflection for a long time.
“Startling at first glance, doubly startling at the second. I feel a little sorry for that kid.”
He touched his forehead, feeling the strange texture of the bone there, then stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“But why does this look more and more familiar the longer I stare at it?”
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
“Oh ho! I know where I am now…”
Mo Hong’s mouth twitched.
“Emperor preserve us… initiate the sacred orbital strike…”
He began babbling nonsense.
“Hehehehehehehe…”
This was going to be interesting.
After giggling foolishly for quite a while, Mo Hong finally calmed down and carefully examined his reflection again.
“Isn’t this just a Wendigo?”
He sighed.
“Ah, horns. You’ve done me a great disservice.”
Wendigos were a special race in the world of Arknights, one of the most ancient bloodlines of the Sarkaz.
They were renowned for their overwhelming combat prowess and were extremely rare.
Their fierce and brutal nature made them a race feared by many.
“Oh, crap.”
Mo Hong’s expression became serious.
“If this really is the world of Arknights, then judging by this little girl’s appearance, she’s definitely an Ursus.”
“An Ursus…”
His expression gradually turned solemn.
“If this is the Ursus Empire and I get caught by an Imperial Guard, that won’t be fun at all.”
He looked toward the darkening sky.
“Oh ho. The wind’s picking up.”
“Time to make a run for it.”
With that, Mo Hong began adapting to his unfamiliar body while moving away from the area at his fastest possible speed.
It was true that Wendigos were powerful.
But Mo Hong didn’t possess the battle-hardened experience or skills of an actual Wendigo.
His previous life hadn’t been that of some special-forces king or urban Asura, either.
Apart from the most basic principle of “brute force solves everything,” he currently knew nothing about fighting.
In his present condition, if he encountered a truly powerful enemy, who could he possibly defeat with this dilapidated body?
Moreover, as far as he knew, Ursus was not lacking in high-level combatants.
If he encountered someone like an Imperial Guard…
He’d be done for.
Hmm.
This wasn’t cowardice.
It was a choice from the heart.
As he ran, Mo Hong began recalling everything he knew about the world he had found himself in.
Arknights had been one of the few games he had consistently played in his previous life.
It had brought some joy to his otherwise dull existence.
However, Mo Hong had been a complete meta-player.
His big head and little head had often been controlled by…
Rabbit heads.
In other words, he prioritized powerful Operators regardless of their lore or aesthetics.
In short, he had largely ignored the story and focused almost entirely on gameplay strategy and Operator strength.
At this moment, Mo Hong had never hated his past self more.
Now that he was actually in Terra, without any knowledge of the story to guide him, simply surviving in this unfamiliar world was already a problem.
Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat was the best one.
For now, hiding was clearly the wisest choice.
He needed to figure out what era this land was currently in and, more importantly, what was happening around him.
Mo Hong glanced back at the unconscious Ursus girl.
Then, without making another sound, he slipped into the nearby woods.