Survival on the Internet: A Bizarre Start at Sea

The night breeze, carrying the chill of early winter, swept across the artificial lake in People's Park.

Su Zhixu sat on the cold bench, holding the latest iPhone he had bought with three months' worth of internship wages. The screen's light reflected on his angular but slightly pale face, making him appear somewhat aloof.

The message was sent ten minutes ago from the HR system of a well-known domestic internet entertainment company.

Offer of Employment

Dear Mr. Su Zhisu:

Congratulations on passing all assessment processes for the 2025 "Starry Sea Program" Management Trainee program at Wenyu Internet. Please bring the relevant documents to headquarters for reporting in three days…

"Management trainee..."

Su Zhisu murmured those three words, a faint smile playing on his lips. To outsiders, this was a meteoric rise to success, a coveted job that countless graduates would fight tooth and nail for. But for him, an orphan, it felt more like a "contract of servitude."

Twenty-three years of life is like a precisely planned track. Growing up in an orphanage, I was given special attention by the school because of my excellent grades. I went on to get into a top university and was then sent into this huge machine called "society" like a qualified cog in a machine.

He raised his head, his gaze passing over the calm artificial lake and looking up at the deep night sky.

The stars tonight are so bright, so numerous, like scattered diamonds on black velvet. Su Zhisu has loved looking at the stars since she was a child, because in the face of the vast and boundless universe, human troubles, loneliness, and so-called "social rules" all seem ridiculously insignificant.

He longed for freedom.

It wasn't the kind of freedom that comes from quitting your job to travel, nor was it financial freedom. What he longed for was a true freedom deep within his soul, unburdened by any constraints. This is why, outside of his tedious academic courses, he was obsessed with all sorts of fantasy and science fiction novels. In those bizarre and fantastical worlds, he could feel that he was truly "alive."

"bite--"

My phone vibrated again; it was an app notification.

[Hot News] Tonight at midnight, a once-in-a-millennium meteor shower will descend. Are you ready to make a wish?

Su Zhisu glanced at the time; it was 11:59 PM.

He didn't have the habit of making wishes, because he knew that fate never favored the weak, and there weren't that many miracles in this world. He stood up, dusted off non-existent dust from his clothes, and prepared to return to the empty rented room he had just rented.

However, just as he turned around, the starry sky above him suddenly distorted.

It wasn't a shooting star streaking across the sky; rather, it was as if someone had taken a giant eraser and rubbed it hard across the canvas of the starry sky. Immediately afterward, all the stars began to scatter and recombine, transforming into countless flowing streams of data emitting a ghostly blue light.

An indescribable sense of grandeur, accompanied by extreme cold, instantly enveloped the entire park.

Su Zhixu stopped in his tracks. Instead of panicking and screaming like an ordinary person, his eyes narrowed and his body trembled slightly with extreme excitement.

"This isn't a shooting star...this is..."

[Multiverse Integrated Game Network Version Update]

[Current version: ver—25.1207: A Dawn for Survivors!]

[A highly compatible soul has been detected. Establishing a connection...]

Do you agree or disagree?

A cold, mechanical voice, devoid of any emotion, exploded directly in Su Zhisu's mind.

His vision was instantly engulfed by a torrent of dark blue data. Everything around him—the benches, the lake, the streetlights—felt like images thrown into a blender, distorting and shattering wildly.

The current version's limitations are:

[1. In this version, all players will receive a brand new character card to start the game. Players can choose whether to carry over their old character cards to the new version (only talents and class will be retained).]

[2. In this version, each player will survive alone in a randomly spawned post-apocalyptic world. The first major world merge will take place three months later.]

[3. In this version, a world disaster threshold setting is added for each world. As the world disaster threshold is continuously lowered, the world disaster will be continuously strengthened.]

[4. This version has no special sensitive restrictions, but cooperation is still needed to overcome natural disasters. With the team function enabled, players can team up with other players after completing their initial job advancement.]

5. The world of teams will usher in a new era of global integration.

Lines of text floated before his eyes, each word exuding a sense of technology that transcended the times.

After the initial shock, Su Zhisu's mind instantly regained an astonishing calm. He didn't question whether it was a hallucination or some kind of new AR projection.

As an orphan, he understood better than anyone what "opportunity" meant.

"The web...survival..." he muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping over the message "surviving alone in a randomly afflicted apocalyptic world." Instead of fear, his eyes blazed with a scorching flame.

As a seasoned bookworm, Su Zhisu knew all too well what this information meant. Wasn't this the freedom he craved? To break free from his current path, to go to a completely new world, and to take control of his own destiny!

Looking at the virtual screen in front of me, there are two buttons of the same size: "Yes" and "No".

"Rejection means returning to mediocrity, acceptance means facing death." Su Zhisu took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs, making him extremely clear-headed. "But only by facing death can one be worthy of the word 'freedom'."

His lips trembled as he uttered the fateful "Yes."

[Connection successful. Generating initial configuration for the new user...]

Please name your Comprehensive Network ID. Please note that it cannot be changed once it is selected.

"Su".

[Welcome to the Multiverse Integrated Game Network, Su!]

[Every new user joining the Comprehensive Network will receive one free Soul Talent Awakening and Character Card Configuration. Awakening your talent is in progress...]

In an instant, Su Zhisu felt as if his soul had been thrown into a huge furnace, or as if it had been pierced by countless fine needles at the same time!

Excruciating pain!

This is a pain that transcends the physical realm, as if someone is sanding his soul.

[Talent awakening in progress... Detected an extreme yearning deep within the soul...]

[Awakened Talent: [Yearning for True Freedom]]

With the awakening of his talent, the soul-tearing pain not only did not lessen, but became even more intense due to a new power.

Su Zhisu gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums. He didn't utter a single groan, but stared intently at the void before him that had turned into a stream of data.

He saw "himself" in countless parallel worlds.

Some are numbly repeating the same actions on the assembly line; some are groveling to their superiors in their cubicles; some are lying in hospital beds, waiting to die in despair because they can't afford treatment...

These images were like heavy hammer blows, striking his soul and causing immense mental pollution and negative emotions.

[Warning: High-intensity mental pollution (despair, numbness, fear) detected, triggering talent: Yearning for true freedom...]

[Talent Effect: Fixed +30 Resistance to Negative Effects]

[Judging... 1d100 + 30 = 98 > 80]

[Resistance successful!]

Suddenly, a warm current surged from the depths of my soul, instantly dispelling those suffocating negative emotions.

The feeling was like suddenly drinking a glass of strong liquor in the freezing cold, warming you up from head to toe.

[Resistance successful! Gained +1 Free Attribute Point]

Su Zhixu blinked sharply, and the illusions in his vision vanished instantly. In their place was a stream of dark blue data before him, and an attribute panel that only he could see.

[Talent: A yearning for true freedom]

[Description: Your soul yearns for true freedom.]

[Free Will: Your resistance to negative effects gains a fixed bonus of 30 points. Your resistance to negative effects is now calculated as 1d100. Each time you successfully resist a negative effect, you receive a random reward based on the resistance's effectiveness.]

A perceptive soul: You can notice hidden information.

"Interesting..." Su Zhisu licked his chapped lips, his eyes flashing with rationality.

This is his cheat code. It's not about giving him god-tier equipment or an invincible physique, but rather a talent for "resilient growth."

This means that the more bizarre and terrifying this new world is, the greater the pressure it brings him, and the faster he grows!

[Character card generated]

[Player]: Su Zhisu

Health Points: 100%

[Level]: 1 (0/100%)

[Occupation]: Survivor (Initial)

【Profession Characteristics】: Survival Path: When the level reaches lv10 (extreme value), a new profession will be generated based on experience.

[Professional Skill]: Survival: Increases the efficiency of gaining survival skill proficiency, and increases physical and mental attributes by 1.

[Talent]: A yearning for true freedom

[Free attribute points]: 1

[Physical Body]: 7+1 (including Strength, Constitution, and Agility; the maximum value for an average person is 10).

[Spirit]: 9+1 (The maximum value for an average person is 10, and each point of spirit grants a 0.1 negative resistance bonus)

【理智】：100/100(理智＞80，遭受的奇诡事件强度降低20%；理智＜50，遭受的奇诡事件强度提升20%；理智小于20，遭受的奇诡事件强度提升50%)

[Deployment begins, a world of calamity: a bizarre voyage. We wish you a pleasant experience in the new version ver—25.1207: Dawn of the Survivors.]

As the last line of text disappeared, Su Zhisu felt as if her body had been thrown into a high-speed paper shredder, and the space around her began to show a violent "frame skipping" and "mosaic" effect, like when an old-fashioned television signal was bad.

Multicolored light lines burst forth from his body, enveloping him in a cocoon of light.

Before his consciousness was completely swallowed by darkness, his last thought was: "I hope this world can bring me true 'freedom'."