Industry began in 1937

Chen Yuan woke up, literally frozen awake.

This coldness is a bit strange; it's not the dry, stifling coolness of an air conditioner at home, nor is it the gentle breeze that seeps in through the window cracks in winter.

It was wet and heavy, with a smell of earth and rotten leaves that seeped into his very bones.

He subconsciously reached for the blanket in a daze, but after groping around for a while, he couldn't find the corner of the blanket. Instead, he felt a few hard objects under him.

Consciousness was suddenly activated.

He then opened his eyes completely.

The ceiling is gone.

The little green light for the air conditioner is also gone.

Above was a patch of ink-black sky, but on that black background, countless stars were scattered, so bright they were dazzling.

A hazy, indistinct band of light, like churned milk, hung diagonally in the sky—that was the Milky Way.

He hadn't seen so many, so bright stars in years.

Before he could express his feelings, the wind howled past, stinging his face.

He jolted awake to find himself lying on the ground, wearing only a thin cotton nightgown, his bare feet resting on a cold, rough surface.

The thing that had been poking my hand was, when I brought it closer to my eyes, a few small pebbles.

"Where am I?" he muttered, his voice so hoarse it sounded unfamiliar to him, and the words were blown away by the wind as soon as they left his mouth.

He sat up and looked around.

It's so dark, really dark.

Only under the starlight could one barely make out a few dark shadows nearby, which looked like trees or large rocks.

Further away, the dark, undulating shadows of mountains lie silently on the horizon.

It looks a bit like a monster.

Wild mountains and ridges.

Absolutely.

This immediately filled him with fear.

Chen Yuan felt a little uneasy and subconsciously reached for the bedside table—where his phone usually charged.

But all his hands touched were the cold, sharp edges of the stones and a few withered grass stalks.

This is where?

Chen Yuan had no clue whatsoever.

But he looked around and couldn't find a destination.

How did he get here?

He was clearly asleep, so was he kidnapped?

The last thing I remember was watching that incredibly cool holographic presentation of the "future dark factory" in my south-facing bedroom. As I lay down, I was still thinking about what would have happened if there had been such a thing back then.

And then... that was it.

The moment I opened my eyes, I was here.

Sleepwalking?

No way, he lives on the seventeenth floor.

Kidnapping?

What's the point of kidnapping him in this desolate wilderness?

The main problem is that he doesn't have any money, and none of his relatives have savings exceeding six figures.

mischief?

But there wasn't a soul in sight.

Speaking of ghosts, Chen Yuan was genuinely a little scared, but there didn't seem to be any here.

In my heart, I quickly started singing "Ode to the Motherland," raised the banner of materialism, and silently prayed that there were no ghosts in the world.

That dispelled the fear in my heart.

The wind made his teeth chatter.

We can't just sit here; we have to get moving and figure out what's going on.

He pushed himself up, his soles scratching painfully on the gravel and dead branches. He hugged his arms, trembling, and shuffled towards a place that seemed a little flatter and had fewer trees.

I don't know how long it took, maybe ten minutes or more.

There were only mountains and trees, and not a single flat spot underfoot. There were no roads, no lights, no human voices, not even the chirping of insects, only the endless sound of the wind, occasionally mixed with the howling of some unknown creature from afar, which made one's heart clench.

Just when he felt that continuing like this was not a solution and his confidence was growing, a flash of light suddenly appeared not far ahead.

It was a deep, dark blue, very small, but it didn't look like starlight or will-o'-the-wisp. The light looked very "real," with a kind of electronic device feel that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Chen Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Could there be anyone there?

Ignoring the pain in his feet, he quickened his pace, almost groping his way towards the light with both hands and feet.

After bypassing a clump of low trees blocking the way, a relatively flat small valley comes into view.

That light was coming from something in the middle of the valley.

It was something... he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Shaped like an elongated rectangular box, streamlined, it is about ten meters long, seven or eight meters wide, and three or four meters high. The whole body is a matte dark gray, perfectly fitted, without even a screw in sight, lying there quietly.

That faint blue light, in an inconspicuous spot on its side, flickered slowly, like a snoring metal monster.

Chen Yuan was stunned and blinked several times.

A factory in the dark?

The futuristic factory demonstration model in the bedtime video and this thing in front of me are not only very similar in design, but they are practically identical.

Is this the one in front of me, even smaller and more...refined? How did it get here? And how did I get here?

A feeling of utter absurdity welled up inside me, but beneath that absurdity, something else seemed to be stirring within me.

He cautiously moved closer.

The closer you get, the more you realize that this thing is completely out of place with its surroundings.

He reached out and touched the outer shell; it was cool, smooth, and completely still.

He pressed it again, tapped it, and felt around along the edges, but there was still no response.

"Could it just be a strangely shaped rock?" he wondered to himself, his finger accidentally brushing against the area emitting blue light.

"drop--"

A faint, almost imperceptible electronic notification tone.

The blue light suddenly brightened, stabilized, and then "flowed" out like water, instantly spreading out a large, smooth, softly white rectangular area on the metal casing in front of him, like a screen.

At first, several lines of winding symbols that he couldn't understand at all popped up on the screen, but those symbols immediately twisted and changed, transforming into Chinese characters that he recognized:

[Unit Identifier]: Suihuo-I type adaptive mobile manufacturing platform.

[Status]: Deep hibernation/severe energy deficiency.

[Authorized administrator biometrics detected... Confirmed. Administrator: Chen Yuan (Temporary Permissions)]

[Energy Level]: 0.7% (just enough to maintain the core at the minimum level)

[WARNING]: Available energy is below the safety threshold. Basic platform functions are disabled. Environmental life support systems are disabled. Material reserves: empty. Manufacturing queue: empty.

[Primary Directive]: Obtain sustainable energy and activate core functions.

[Recommendation]: Administrators should access the main interaction panel to obtain detailed information and initialization guidance.

Below the characters, there is a slightly glowing, palm-shaped groove.

Chen Yuan stared at the line "Administrator: Chen Yuan", then looked at "October 28, 1937" and "Taihang Mountains" displayed in the corner of the screen, feeling a bit bewildered.

1937? Taihang Mountains?

Did I really go back to 1937? Could I really fight the Japanese now?

Any normal Chinese person today would be furious upon seeing the remnants of the Japanese atrocities.

I wish I could kill all those bastards who call themselves militarists right now.

Let them go to hell to repent.

Something burning hot was igniting in my chest.

If that's true, that would be wonderful.

He went through history in his mind, and the sense of absurdity he felt was suddenly diluted by a stronger emotion, which he couldn't quite describe as excitement or something else.

What if... what if it were true?

He licked his slightly dry lips, then, without thinking further, placed his palm on the glowing groove.