Chapter 1

Where am I? My body hurts so much.

Lin Xuan opened his eyes and found himself in a hall, standing among a crowd of people.

But the people around him did not dare to speak loudly, only whispering to each other.

Strangely, everyone had a collar around their neck.

Outside the crowd, a muscular man was patrolling with two henchmen, staring coldly at everyone.

"Are these people all enthusiasts of the letter circle...?"

At this moment, he felt some discomfort around his neck, looked down, and found that he also had a collar, "Oh, I am too, so it's fine."

Then he noticed that his body seemed to have shrunk, no longer the well-built, muscular body with eight-pack abs, but rather a bit emaciated and malnourished.

He looked ahead and saw three glowing doors.

At this moment, Lin Xuan's head ached, and a flood of memories surged in. He realized he had been transported to another world.

This world was similar to Earth, until the beginning of the new century when global digitalization arrived, allowing everyone to see their physical, strength, agility, and mental attributes on a personal panel.

Along with global digitalization, various sized glowing doors appeared, connecting to different secret realms. The larger the door, the more dangerous the secret realm it connected to.

A large number of monsters poured out of the glowing doors, slaughtering humans and ravaging the Earth. Humans were powerless against these powerful monsters, retreating step by step, and the population sharply decreased.

After more than ten years, people discovered that killing these monsters could grant tangible experience, and enemies could drop universal coins, equipment, materials, and skill books. Thus, the first batch of warriors emerged, leading humans to gradually counterattack and enter some of the secret realms.

Some powerful organizations could even completely occupy some secret realms with low monster strength, treating them as private property to cultivate their warriors and obtain various treasures.

After many years of exploration, humans discovered that some secret realms only had zero-level monsters up to level nine, and they called these zero-level secret realms, suitable for zero-level warriors to explore.

Some secret realms only had first-level monsters up to level nine, suitable for first-level warriors to explore.

After growing up in these zero-level, first-level, and second-level secret realms, warriors would then explore more dangerous and chaotic secret realms, which became a consensus among many warriors.

However, even so, monsters still frequently burst out of the secret realms, slaughtering civilians. Many places around the world were still dominated by monsters, chaotic and dangerous, leaving countless people homeless.

Lin Xuan's predecessor was a victim of the monster disaster, with his entire family devoured by monsters, leaving only him to escape.

But he was just a insignificant zero-level level one warrior, not even considered a formal warrior, and it was hard for him to earn a living anywhere.

The city he was in, Donghu City, was soon occupied and controlled by an organization called "Sprout." To go to the nearest big city, one had to cross a vast wilderness area filled with monsters, which was almost certain death.

He had three choices: either enter the secret realm alone, penniless and clueless; or hide in a corner of the city, never improving his strength, and one day be eaten by a wandering monster; or sign a three-year indenture with the Sprout organization, wear a collar, and become the lowest-level pioneer.

Lin Xuan's predecessor ultimately chose to become a pioneer, as the Sprout organization had deep roots and could provide a large amount of secret realm data and adventure techniques, which was better than being a lone wolf.

During these three years, he had to serve the Sprout organization, constantly hunting various treasures in the secret realms controlled by the organization. The Sprout organization would provide basic safety and distribute a certain amount of universal coins and experience points weekly.

The collar around his neck would record everything in the pioneer's storage, so pioneers could not hide items. The Sprout organization had the right to "prioritize" the purchase of high-quality items from the secret realms. Of course, "prioritize" meant "compulsory."

The muscular man beside him was the supervisor of Lin Xuan's group, responsible for supervising them to complete their tasks.

If they exceeded their tasks, they would receive rewards, such as skill books, equipment, or a higher status within the Sprout organization.

If they failed to complete their tasks, they would have a bad record in their collar. After three bad records, the Sprout organization could unilaterally terminate the contract, take away all the pioneer's property, and drive them out to fend for themselves.

Yesterday, Lin Xuan's predecessor failed to complete his task and was severely injured. His supervisor did not provide any medicine, as there were plenty of homeless people outside who would be eager to sign the indenture if he died.

In the end, he died in his sleep.

Lin Xuan just happened to be transported into this body.

His mood sank to the bottom.

Just this start after being transported?

At this moment, the supervisor shouted through a loudspeaker.

"Zero-level pioneers in Area B, immediately pass through the portal to the zero-level secret realm, Giant Rock Cave! You have three days, and each person must bring back at least ten zero-level items from the Giant Rock Cave!"

The crowd in front rushed into the portal, their figures quickly disappearing, afraid of falling behind even a bit.

The supervisor saw that Lin Xuan was still at the back and immediately scolded him.

"Why are you still dawdling! You didn't complete your task last time! If you don't want to do it, there are plenty of people outside who are willing to sign the indenture!"

Lin Xuan quickly stepped into the portal.

The supervisor coldly snorted, "If you fail to complete the task again, just wait and see what I'll do to you."

The process of passing through the portal was not pleasant.

Lin Xuan felt like he was a dough being kneaded at will, his stomach churning, and his senses spinning.

But this feeling came and went quickly.

Soon, he was standing on solid ground.

Lin Xuan opened his eyes and saw a vast desert. Not far ahead was a large pit, with an estimated radius of over 500 meters, like a super monster's open mouth.

This was the Giant Rock Cave, one of the secret realms controlled by the Sprout organization.

Many pioneers emerged from the portal, forming groups of three or five to delve deeper into the Giant Rock Cave.

This scene was quite shocking to Lin Xuan.

He also noticed that most of the pioneers wore collars, with only a few without collars. They were lone wolves who insisted on their independence, had to pay to pass through the portal, and could easily die in some corner of the secret realm.

Lin Xuan sighed lightly and mixed into the crowd, preparing to delve deeper into the Giant Rock Cave.

At the same time, he opened his data panel.

——

Name: Lin Xuan

Level: Zero-level Level 1

Experience: 820/1000

Attributes: Constitution 8, Strength 7, Spirit 8, Agility 3 (average adult values are 10)

Skills: Slippery, Ambush, Mining

Equipment: Pioneer Collar, Iron Dagger, Buffalo Skin Chest Armor

Items: 15 Universal Coins, 2 Old Dry Mom Flavor Compressed Cookies, 1 bottle of mineral water

——

Lin Xuan smiled helplessly, feeling quite down.

After global digitalization, everyone was born with a storage slot. The 15 Universal Coins, 2 compressed cookies, and the bottle of water were stored in the slot.

Then, memories of the Giant Rock Cave began to surface in his mind.

The Giant Rock Cave was 1,000 meters deep, with each 100 meters being one level.

Level 1: Zero-level Level 1 monsters

Level 2: Zero-level Level 2 monsters, and so on.

Level 10: "Secret Realm King," although also zero-level Level 9, it was much stronger than ordinary zero-level Level 9 monsters. Zero-level Level 9 warriors had to form a team to challenge it.

"This body's level is too low, entering the secret realm is very dangerous. This isn't a game; if you die, you're really dead."

At this moment, he suddenly heard a commotion ahead.

"There's a dead Gold Swallow Lizard here? What bad luck!"

Then, a lizard over half a meter long was thrown far away.

Lin Xuan glanced at it and saw that the lizard was green all over, with blood flowing from its seven orifices, and it looked quite miserable.

"Gold Swallow Lizard?"

Memories of the Gold Swallow Lizard immediately surfaced in Lin Xuan's mind.

The Gold Swallow Lizard liked to eat various metals, hence it had a very durable scale armor. Although it was a zero-level monster, many higher-level monsters couldn't do anything to it. Even if they could kill it, they couldn't tear its armor, so they didn't waste time on it.

Warriors also disliked this monster because the Gold Swallow Lizard had tough skin and was particularly aggressive, earning it the nickname "Flathead Brother" in the Giant Rock Cave.

When warriors encountered it, they would quickly avoid it.

The pioneers who saw the dead Gold Swallow Lizard naturally had no good expression.

Lin Xuan also prepared to avoid it, but at this moment, a voice sounded in his mind.

[Detected a dead target, analyzing...]

[Gold Swallow Lizard, Zero-level Level 1 monster, Attributes: Constitution 15, Strength 13, Agility 5, Spirit 1, Skills: Digging, Gold Swallowing, Hard Armor.]

[Cause of death: Poisoning.]

[Currently have one available avatar slot, do you want to possess the Gold Swallow Lizard as a training avatar?]

[Note: The dead target will immediately be fully revived.]

Lin Xuan was taken aback. Other warriors didn't have training avatars, so this must be his golden finger.

His face immediately lit up with joy, and he silently said "Yes."

Instantly, he felt a connection with the Gold Swallow Lizard.

The Gold Swallow Lizard suddenly flipped over and got up, its eyes rolling around.

"What the heck?!"

The nearby pioneers were startled and instinctively punched and kicked it.

The Gold Swallow Lizard clumsily crawled around, and the pioneers' attacks did not hurt it at all.

Soon, the Gold Swallow Lizard used its skill to dig into the rock and quickly disappeared from the warriors' sight.

"What's going on? The poison has spread throughout its body, but it's still so lively?"

"I don't know, maybe it wasn't dead enough."

After a brief surprise, the pioneers no longer cared about this and continued to delve deeper into the Giant Rock Cave.

Lin Xuan, however, was pleasantly surprised.

He now had two perspectives in front of him.

One was the main perspective of his original body, and the other was the secondary perspective of the Gold Swallow Lizard.

Then, Lin Xuan discovered that there were training options in the secondary perspective, including balanced attack and defense, active attack, and passive defense.

"Balanced attack and defense." Lin Xuan randomly chose one.

[You have set the training strategy, do you want to start training?]

Lin Xuan, somewhat understanding, silently said "Yes."

Then he saw two lines of text appear at the bottom right of the Gold Swallow Lizard's secondary perspective.

[Current area: Giant Rock Cave Level 1 (1 Universal Coin/minute, 5 Experience Points/minute)]

[Gold Swallow Lizard has trained for 1 minute, gained 1 Universal Coin, 5 Experience Points, do you want to harvest?]