It felt familiar, yet also strangely unfamiliar.
After all these years in this new world, Lin Qianyi had never heard of anything like a "Main God Space."
What was going on?
Whose prank was this?
Yet the text on his phone didn't give him any time to think.
[Due to the trainee not making a selection in time, an automatic choice is being made...]
"What the hell! Damn it!"
Coldness. Trembling...
Wait, no none of that.
In a blink, Lin Qianyi noticed that his surroundings had changed.
No longer outside his apartment now, he was on a beach littered with broken wooden planks.
His clothes had changed too from neat attire to a ragged short-sleeved shirt, black shorts, and a pair of worn sneakers, making him look like a refugee.
More importantly, his body felt different. It wasn't the powerful form he remembered the one with an 80 interference index, practically superhuman. Now, he felt weak and powerless, likely operating at only a third of his original capacity.
Around him was a blue barrier, and above him floated a ten-minute countdown. Outside the barrier, vague figures could be seen, but the world around him seemed frozen like a paused scene.
"Protection time?"
As some information floated into his mind, Lin Qianyi closed his eyes slightly to absorb it:
---
[Trainee No. 154059, welcome to the Trial Space. This space is designed to nurture transcendents in the most personalized way possible. This is your first trial mission.]
Trial Code Name: Stranded Island
Trial Identity: University student studying abroad in Maruyo.
Trial Background: The Wavebreaker, a large ship from Xianghao traveling to Maruyo, encountered a sudden typhoon. Due to multiple disasters, the shipwrecked. Many perished. Only five people were washed ashore on an uninhabited island...
---
[Mission 1 (Mandatory): Survival Expert]
Goal: Survive on the island for three months.
Reward: 100 points
[Mission 2 (Optional): Explorer]
Goal: Explore over two-thirds of the island's surface.
Reward: 200 points
[Mission 3 (Optional): Everyone Lives]
Goal: Ensure the other four survivors live until the end of three months.
Reward: 300 points
---
Images flashed in Lin Qianyi's mind waves, a capsized ship, chaos. People swept away. A security guard managed to deploy an inflatable life raft, saving five people including himself. Together, they clung to the raft and drifted to this island.
Looking around, Lin Qianyi saw four others who had also washed ashore.
The missions were clear one must survive for three months. Based on the task description, help likely wouldn't arrive. Seeking rescue might even go against the purpose of the trial.
Optional missions weren't mandatory but had better rewards exploring could be doable if food was managed well. Ensuring no one dies was clearly harder: food scarcity, illness, interpersonal conflict... all risks.
Without solid confidence, he wouldn't overthink it.
Taking in the environment, it all felt real not like a hallucination. But his body... was clearly different.
"Can I ask a few questions?" he said, looking up.
Moments later, a voice appeared in his mind:
[Please ask freely.]
---
Lin Qianyi breathed a sigh of relief.
"Can I leave?"
[Yes. The Trial Space does not restrict participation. If you choose to leave, your memory will be erased, and you'll return to your original world.]
That surprised him.
He could leave at will?
"What's going on with my body? It feels totally different."
[To ensure your safety, the Trial Space creates a temporary physical vessel for trials. If the vessel dies, your real body remains unharmed.]
So it was just a "trial account." No wonder he felt so weak.
"What happens if I fail this trial?"
[If you fail your first trial, you'll be deemed unqualified. Your memories will be erased, and you'll be ejected. For later trials, you may use accumulated points to buy immunity tokens (up to 3 times per person).]
So no room for failure in this first mission, though it was essentially a beginner's stage.
Immunity existed later, but probably expensive.
"Are points just currency? What are Transcendents?"
[Points are a form of currency used to exchange for resources in the Trial Space. Transcendents are beings that exist on a conceptual level absolute entities.]
"So, basically omnipotent?"
[You can understand it that way.]
The goal of this space was... massive. Lin Qianyi felt a bit dazed.
But at least, it didn't seem hostile.
Failure didn't result in death, only memory erasure. The trial body wasn't real it all sounded manageable.
"Who are you? What should I call you?"
[I am the AI lifeform of the Trial Space. You may call me the Main God.]
"Got it. Then, Main God what happens to my real body during the trial?"
[Your real body is suspended in frozen time. When you exit the trial world, you'll return to the exact moment you left.]
Frozen time? That was something even fictional stories rarely dared to depict...
Well, maybe low-budget movies did.
Clearing his thoughts, Lin Qianyi began to realize just how powerful this Trial Space truly was.
Even the "Lords of the Realm" in the Taiyi World couldn't do this beings people called "gods." Yet clearly, this "Main God" was stronger maybe truly omnipotent.
His heart stirred with rare excitement.
Here, he might really have a chance to pursue the Great Dao, become a Realm Lord, maybe more maybe even upgrade his Farming Space.
Wait the Farming Space?!
As the thought struck him, he suddenly sensed that blank spatial area once more.
He looked up the Main God didn't react.
Did it not care? Or didn't notice?
He figured it was best to act openly the AI might see it eventually anyway.
So he tested it. He retrieved an item from his 1-cubic-meter storage space.
A peach pit appeared in his palm.
The Main God still didn't respond.
So it was allowed?
But he dared not ask. What if asking triggered a cheat detection and got his Farming Space banned?
With the Farming Space, his mission difficulty had just plummeted.
At least getting food would be easy now.
---
Ten minutes passed.
The blue protection barrier disappeared.
The sound of waves returned.
Everything resumed motion.
Cold wind swept across the beach Lin Qianyi shivered and hugged himself.
If this was his real body, this wind wouldn't matter. But this was a fresh, basic vessel basically a "newbie account."
He moved toward the other figures on the beach.
Four of them, huddled together.
Their appearances were distinctive:
1. A burly middle-aged man with a square face wearing a security uniform. About 1.85m tall, 35+ years old.
2. A blonde girl in yellow top and white shorts, around 1.6m tall, about 17–18 years old.
3. A woman with wavy wine-red hair in a black dress-like outfit, about 1.7m tall, likely 25 years old.
4. A young man with a beard, long hair, shirtless, around 1.75m tall, perhaps 27–28 years old.
Nearby lay a collapsed life raft.
They all looked exhausted. The security guard had visible wounds and lay half in the water. The young man's right arm was bloodied. The two women looked tired but uninjured.
Lin Qianyi approached the security guard and tried to help him up.
"Uncle, are you alright? Can you stand?" he asked.
From the memory flashes, this man was the one who deployed the life raft the reason any of them survived.
He noticed a pistol at the man's waist. Whether functional or not, it could be a huge deterrent.
With this man at the center, Lin Qianyi might be able to rally the others.
"I'm fine, just some scrapes," the guard replied.
With Lin Qianyi's help, he stood up, looked around, and let out a sigh.
"Looks like we'll be here for a while..."
Lin Qianyi followed his gaze out to the endless sea and felt a pang of disconnection from civilization.
His earlier excitement faded.
For the first time, it truly hit him:
He was stranded.