After ending the call with his parents, the takeout Luke had ordered arrived.
He calmed his mind, feeling the need to do something—he couldn’t just sit here and let pain and anxiety gnaw away at him.
Even while recovering from his injuries, he couldn’t afford to waste time.
He dragged over the squeaky chair, sat down at the peeling desk, and turned on the old, humming laptop that had been with him for seven years.
The screen lit up, reflecting his bruised face and the unusually clear eyes set within it.
His objective was clear: rewatch *Game of Thrones*.
Not for entertainment, but to study and research.
He needed to become more familiar with the details of that world—its geography, key figures, factions, events, and even the easily overlooked customs and common sense.
This might help him avoid future traps or seize more opportunities.
He opened his torrent downloader, located his saved files, and started from Season 1, Episode 1.
The familiar intro music swelled as the grand map and unfolding clockwork gears spread across the screen.
At first, he habitually glanced down at the Chinese subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
But soon, he realized he didn’t…
seem to need them?
The dialogue of the characters, spoken in various English accents…
Ned Stark’s steady Northern brogue, Littlefinger’s slick, hushed murmurs, Daenerys’s initially timid tone that gradually grew resolute, even the roaring commands of the Dothraki…
Every word, every phrase entered his ears with crystal clarity, instantly translating into precise meaning inside his brain.
He initially assumed he was just overly familiar with the show—after all, he had rewatched it twice already, so he could guess most of it.
But gradually, he felt something was wrong.
Fast dialogues laced with archaic English terms or specific slang—things he hadn’t even paid attention to when reading subtitles before—were now completely effortless to comprehend!
His heart skipped a beat.
He paused the video, randomly opened another Western movie he had barely watched, and turned off the subtitles.
Crystal clear.
Flawlessly fluent.
Whether it was rapid American slang or side characters speaking with heavy regional accents, he understood every single word!
It wasn’t wild guessing; it was total, unambiguous comprehension, as natural as listening to Chinese.
“This…”
Luke froze, forgetting to chew the rice in his mouth.
He tossed his chopsticks aside, grabbed his phone, and opened Douyin.
He searched for “English pronunciation,” “London accent,” “American accent,” “Modern RP”…
He scrolled through a dozen related videos in a row.
No subtitles, no hints.
All those diverse, even deliberately goofy English pronunciations and dialogues—he understood every last one!
Not only could he understand, but when he tried replying in English in the comment section, the speed of his fingers typing on the screen and the precision of his vocabulary surprised even himself.
It was as if those words and grammatical rules had long been branded into the depths of his mind, flowing naturally at his fingertips.
“This is ridiculous…” he muttered to himself, his heart beginning to race.
that beating?
Did the near-fatal beatdown in Westeros, the intense pain, and the thrill of teetering on the edge of life and death accidentally unblock his meridian channels for language?
The explanation sounded absurd, but the facts before his eyes were undeniable.
An overwhelming wave of pleasant shock crested in his heart!
The language barrier—his single biggest weakness that had troubled him and restricted his actions in another world—had actually been solved in such a mind-boggling way!
What did this mean?
It meant he could communicate more freely, gather intelligence, engage in more complex transactions, and even…
blend in under disguise!
He couldn’t help pumping his fist, which pulled at his injured ribs and made him grimace in pain, but the smile on his face was impossible to suppress.
However, before the wave of pleasant shock could subside, an even larger, earth-shattering breaker slammed toward him out of nowhere.
The very second after his mind reeled over his newfound language ability, the air right in front of his eyes undulated without warning, forming tiny, water-like ripples.
Immediately following that, a semi-transparent glowing light-blue digital screen full of sci-fi aesthetics hovered out of thin air right before his eyes!
The design was clean and sleek, clearly displaying lines of glowing text:
[Name]: Luke [Gender]: Male [Age]: 25 [Strength]: 3 [Constitution]: 4 [Intelligence]: 1 [Spirit]: 1 [Ice Enhancement]: 0 [Fire Enhancement]: 0 [Light Enhancement]: 0 [Dark Enhancement]: 0 [Ice Resistance]: 0 [Fire Resistance]: 0 [Light Resistance]: 0 [Dark Resistance]: 0 [Free Attribute Points]: 3
Luke’s breathing stopped dead in that instant.
Time seemed to stretch and freeze.
His eyes went wide as he stared intently at the floating interface.
His brain went completely blank, leaving only those simple yet immensely significant numbers burning into his retinas.
A system…
This was the fucking legendary…
“System” interface?!
It wasn’t a hallucination.
“System Bro, it really is you!
Don’t say a word, hit me with it already.”
“Without a system, I really wasn’t gonna survive this.”
It hovered steadily in place, shifting synchronously with the slight movements of his gaze, exuding an undeniable presence.
Strength 3?
Constitution 4?
Intelligence 1?
Spirit 1?
Were those base values, or did they mean something else?
And those elemental intensities and resistances—ice, fire, light, and dark…
were they pointing toward extraordinary power?
Three free attribute points… This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Could he allocate them?
A massive, earth-shattering flood of information demolished all levees of logic.
“Haha…
Hahaha…”
A low, disbelieving laugh trickled from his throat at first, quickly escalating into a wild, raspy roar of pure, indescribable madness and release!
“The fate of the world rests in my hands!
If I command it today, who dares disobey?!
Hahaha!!”
He lunged up from his chair, completely ignoring the pain across his body, and waved his arms wildly inside his cramped rental room.
He was imitating Dong Zhuo’s domineering pose and line from the classic *Three Kingdoms* TV series, his voice warping with excitement.
The next instant, he abruptly snapped his smile back, straightened his posture, and grimaced as he pulled his wounds again.
Adopting a solemn yet mocking expression, he put on a deep, dramatic tone as if delivering dialogue to an imaginary opponent:
“Hmph!
The affairs of the realm rest with the Emperor and his loyal ministers!
As for you…
you are nothing but a traitorous usurper!
What can you possibly do…”
Reciting the classic scene between Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo by heart!
He was completely lost in a state of ultimate, near-hysterical ecstasy and catharsis.
Breaking through the language barrier had already been a pleasant surprise, but this sudden arrival of the system completely set fire to all his suppressed fears of an uncertain future—and his most burning desire to rewrite his own destiny!
This was no longer just an opportunity to flip goods and scrape by!
This was…
a true transmigrator’s golden finger!
The key to transcending the ordinary!
The starting point to mastering his own fate and influencing the entire world!
He paced around the room like a madman—laughing hysterically toward the ceiling one moment, gesturing wildly at the walls the next, then crouching down with his hands over his face, his shoulders quivering violently under the weight of his surging emotions.
Only after a long while did this sudden bout of mania gradually subside.
Panting heavily, he sat back down in the squeaky chair.
Yet his eyes shone brighter than ever before, locked onto the semi-transparent panel still hovering in front of him.
The bruises and pain on his body remained, but an unprecedented confidence burned inside his eyes like a roaring flame.
Westeros…
King’s Landing…
Blue Star…
Dragon Country…
Fuck it, it’s my turn to be a Celestial Dragon!