Chen Shu had a dream, but he forgot what happened in it. All he remembered was that he kept looking for a bathroom.
As everyone knows, using the bathroom in a dream can lead to big trouble, and he was well aware of this.
Even in the dream, he vaguely felt that he wasn't dreaming.
Finally, at the critical moment, he woke up, but not completely.
He was awakened by the urge to urinate, leaving him still groggy, unable to open his eyes.
As he prepared to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, he realized he wasn't lying on a bed at all. His body slid for a while, unable to find the edge of the bed, and he wasn't on a bed.
What was going on? He was ready to relieve himself, but why couldn't he get off the bed?
Chen Shu struggled to open his eyes, and the glaring sunlight made him instinctively raise his hand to shield them.
Through the gaps between his fingers, he saw a forest and dense foliage.
The sunlight was so nice! Trees were growing inside the house, growing, growing...
Wait, where's my home?
His drowsiness was instantly dispelled, and Chen Shu sat up abruptly. His vision cleared from blurry to sharp, but the scene before him left him stunned.
Home was gone.
In its place was a vast forest, lush with towering ancient trees.
But this forest was unlike any he had ever known.
Huge! Unimaginably huge!
These towering ancient trees were absurdly tall, at least a hundred meters high by his estimation.
The first thing he saw were the roots, right beside him, gnarled and twisted like giant pythons, breaking through the dark brown soil, undulating and stretching in all directions.
These roots were covered in thick moss, sprawling across the ground, and even the parts exposed above the surface formed a rugged and complex terrain.
His gaze followed these roots upward, and he was utterly shocked.
The trunk!
Calling it a sky-piercing pillar wouldn't be an exaggeration.
As far as his eyes could see, the trunk's thickness made him lose all sense of distance.
How wide was the diameter?
Two meters?
No, at least three meters or more.
A tree with a one-meter diameter was already thick; the ones he usually saw were only twenty or thirty centimeters. The sight before him made him forget about going to the bathroom.
The urgency seemed less pressing.
The bark was a greenish-blue, with deep grooves, each line telling tales of hundreds or even thousands of years of history.
He looked up, gazing skyward, where the giant tree's branches and leaves spread out in the unreachable heights, layer upon layer, weaving into a massive canopy.
Chen Shu looked around and found that more than half of the trees were of this scale, both thick and tall.
"Damn, where the hell have I ended up?"
Wasn't he sleeping at home?
Where was this place?
Chen Shu was a bit confused. Was he still dreaming?
Slap!
A slap landed on his face. Chen Shu looked at his hand and then touched his cheek.
"Hiss—"
It hurt a little.
What was going on?
Was this a dream or not?
Why did it feel so real?
Even the urge to pee was...
No, he couldn't hold it any longer; he needed to find a place to relieve himself.
Chen Shu looked around, chose a large tree to hide behind, and was about to undo his pants when he suddenly remembered: if this was still a dream, wouldn't he wet the bed?
However, his bladder was more urgent than his thoughts, and he couldn't care about that anymore.
Ahh...
Relief!
It wasn't that he wanted to urinate anywhere; there was simply nowhere else to go. A person couldn't be strangled by their own bladder.
It didn't seem to have that wet feeling; could this not be a dream?
Chen Shu touched the towering ancient tree beside him; everything felt so real.
Just as he was puzzled and bewildered, a voice without emotion echoed in his mind.
[Welcome to Dragonspine World!]
[Your goal is to survive!]
[The environment is both a resource and a hunting ground.]
[Here are the novice guidelines and precautions:
1. All people from Earth have successfully traversed. Those under 18 are temporarily stored, and the injured or disabled have been restored to health.
2. Survivors can view personal information and related situations through the Data Panel.
3. Within a hundred-kilometer radius, there will only be one survivor.
4. Many special creatures and fierce beasts live here. Be careful; the first seven days are the Novice Protection Period, during which fierce beasts will not appear (except at night).
5. Everyone can bind a tree as a shelter. Choose carefully and upgrade your shelter. The shelter is absolutely safe and can resist fierce beasts.
6. Pay attention to the tide each month, as it may bring disaster.
7. Life here is only once; if you die, it's real death. Be cautious.
8. Each survivor can randomly draw a skill or talent. The Starter Pack has been distributed.]
[Game start!]
Survivor, traversal, survival...
Had he really come to another world?
Damn, is this for real?
Chen Shu was still somewhat incredulous. How could he have traversed just like that, without any mental preparation?
The house he had just bought in full, how could it be gone just like that?
Calming down, he could only accept it reluctantly. No wonder he felt this world was so real; it turned out to be real.
Recalling his experiences, Chen Shu felt he had been toyed with.
Starting as a tragic orphan, he had worked hard with his own hands to finally get into his dream university.
In the new semester of his sophomore year, the four roommates gathered again to go out for skewers. After eating and drinking, they were attracted by a nearby lottery shop. Encouraged by his three roommates, he reluctantly bought a scratch-off ticket to play with, unexpectedly winning the top prize of 1.5 million.
After the joy, he chose the safest option: buying a house.
In recent years, the real estate economy had been poor, with house prices falling repeatedly, reaching their lowest point. In his city, a square meter was less than 7,000 yuan.
It was also because his roommates kept saying that the house prices had dropped again, and his family had bought another one for him as a wedding house.
After making up his mind, he bought a 120-square-meter house in full, spending over 800,000 yuan, which was considered his own "hard-earned" achievement.
Unexpectedly, the day after moving in, this happened. Fate really played tricks on him.
His new house and the remaining hundreds of thousands were all gone now.
Sigh!
Everything had become a thing of the past, but he still had to continue living.
Chen Shu sighed deeply, then focused his thoughts on the current environment.
After all, he was an orphan before, alone, so it didn't matter where he was.
This place looked like a forest, with towering trees and lush vegetation everywhere. It looked pretty good; if this were on Earth, it would definitely be a 5A-level scenic spot.
Right, there seemed to be something about a Data Panel earlier. Where was it?
Chen Shu looked around, and at that moment, a green virtual button appeared in front of him.
He instinctively pressed it, and a virtual screen appeared before him.
[Announcements], [World Channel], [Shelter Information], [Weather], [Friends], [Exchange], [Backpack], [Map]...
Seeing this, Chen Shu was slightly stunned, then after trying several times, he confirmed that as long as he silently thought of this button, it would automatically appear.
Opening the Announcements, it contained the words he had just heard.
Looking at the World Channel, it was quite lively.
"Where is this? Does anyone know?"
"Didn't they tell you at the start? Dragonspine World, stop asking."
"Did we traverse? Does anyone know how to go back? I don't want to die here..."
"Perfect start, this happened while I was having breakfast. Luckily, the steamed bun in my mouth wasn't swallowed yet, so I'm one steamed bun ahead."
"Ugh... you're really something."
"Just accept it honestly. I think it's pretty good. Anyway, I'm alone, so it doesn't matter where I am!"
"I was about to be executed, didn't expect such a good thing to happen."
"By the way, what abilities did you guys draw?"
"I must say, this Starter Pack is trash, but how come the abilities and talents inside are also so trashy? They gave me a Tree-Climbing Talent."
"Tree climbing? You're in luck! There are so many trees here, enough for you to climb for a lifetime. Unlike me, I only got Swordsmanship Mastery, hehe."
"Stop idling, get moving. If you want to get rich, start climbing trees."
"..."