Chapter 1

Under the bright sunshine, Jiangxia City was bustling with traffic like a tidal wave sweeping in all directions. In a corner of this bustling metropolis, in a high-rise residential building, Tang Zhun sat at a computer desk by the window, staring at the computer for a long time before muttering to himself, "Try writing a novel?"

Tang Zhun had been reborn. In his previous life, he was a 21st-century Earthling, born in the 1980s, and never imagined that he would be reborn in a parallel world when he turned 30.

On a lost night, he was struck by a mysterious beam of light from the sky, which flooded his brain with a massive amount of information and memories until it exploded.

When he woke up again, he found himself reborn in a parallel world. The pre-World War II layout of this world was identical to his previous life, but after the war, when Soviet leader Stalin died, it was not Khrushchev but Beria who took over. From this point on, the butterfly effect influenced the Soviet Union, which did not disintegrate until 1999. The republics developed faster, and the United States was weaker than in his previous life. The Soviet Union did not disintegrate so quickly due to changes in national policies, which affected both the surrounding areas and the domestic situation. These small policy changes also influenced the fate of countless people, altering the trajectories of many minor characters.

Tang Zhun was reborn into his own body, but this body was different from his previous one. His height increased from 1.74 meters to 1.78 meters. In his previous life, he studied graphic design in college, but in this life, he completed a five-year undergraduate program in medicine.

The time of his rebirth was 2010. Currently, he had just graduated from medical school and was in the job-hunting period. He had been rejected after several interviews at top hospitals in Jiangxia City.

Doctor? He had never ventured into this field in his previous life.

More than ten days had passed since his rebirth, and he still hadn't fully digested these drastic changes. Although he had received the general memories of his current self, the information from the beam of light that caused his death was also largely absorbed.

But the changes were so significant that he needed time to process them.

Of course, regardless of whether he could accept them, as a person who had lived to 30 in his previous life, he still had a rational mind. The most pressing issue before him was how to survive alone in a foreign place with only a thousand yuan, and he needed to pay rent next month. Thus, finding a way to survive was the first thing he needed to solve.

This was one of the reasons why he was sitting in front of the computer, planning to try writing a book.

This world was more developed than his previous life at the same period, and many things were quite different. However, the development of the online literature industry was similar to his previous life in 2017.

When Tang Zhun considered making money to survive, he thought of this. It wasn't because he was skilled, but because the beam of light that caused his death in 2017 contained the memories of a great literary figure from a future interstellar era.

He had taken over those memories and realized how valuable this ability was.

What was the trend of literature in the future interstellar era?

A great literary figure could write an uplifting, healthy, and inspiring article, whether long or short, and integrate their insights into the cosmic order into the writing, making it easy for ordinary readers to understand and feel the essence of the universe, thus gaining strength from the article.

In the memory of the literary figure he had taken over, a single article could double the physical abilities of an ordinary person, just like eating and drinking.

Only writers with such extraordinary power could be called literary figures.

Literary figures spread the essence of the universe through their words and articles, and they also benefited greatly.

For every reader who benefited, the literary figure received one percent of their improvement.

For a standard future human, reading an article that doubled their physical abilities, the literary figure would receive one percent of the improvement. But what if there were a million or even tens of millions of readers?

The cumulative effect would be enormous and terrifying.

Knowing this from the memory, Tang Zhun decided to abandon the various fields of his previous life's work and the five years of medical knowledge he had acquired in this life. When he thought about making money, the first thing that came to mind was literature.

The problem was, as soon as he calmed down to try, he quickly became confused.

"What should I write?"

"In my previous life, I was an ordinary book lover who read a lot and enjoyed it. But if I really have to write something? I've never tried it before. If I want to make money, the online literature industry in this world is booming, and there are not many famous books from my previous life here. But this world also has a great writer like Tang Shang, who is not famous for 'Stellar Transformation' or 'Coiling Dragon,' but for some names I've never heard of."

"Should I plagiarize the famous books from my previous life? What was the main character's name in 'Stellar Transformation'? What was the story?"

"Is there no Chen Da in this world? Can I plagiarize 'Zhetian'? Drunk, what was the story of 'Zhetian' again?"

...

As a former avid reader, Tang Zhun had read many famous books in the online literature world, but when he tried to recall them, he couldn't think of a single one. He could remember the titles, but not the content or plot.

How could he plagiarize? Even if he remembered the plot, without the writing skills, techniques, and style, how could he match the level of Tang Shang? In his previous life, there were many "waste-to-hero" stories, but how many authors could match Tang Shang?

In the "ordinary-to-hero" genre, how many later authors could match Wang Yu?

He had never written a book, neither in his previous life nor in this one. Plagiarizing was also impossible!

"Depressing, that great literary figure wrote countless famous long and short stories, which are classics here, but he himself doesn't remember them all, only about 70-80%. I still can't plagiarize."

If you ask any writer if they can recite their previous book word for word, they can't. Even a few thousand words would be a challenge, let alone a few million.

He could see about 70-80% of a classic, but the missing parts were still beyond his ability to supplement. He lacked the literary talent.

After much thought and smoking half a pack of cigarettes, Tang Zhun took a deep breath and typed a line in the open document.

【I Am Not Joking】

This was the title he had thought of, a completely original urban rebirth novel. The title was silly, but it had a profound meaning. First, it reminded him that rebirth was not a joke.

Second, there were too many titles with "strongest," "best," "super," and "omnipotent," like grains of sand. A silly title might stand out and catch the reader's eye in the vast sea of books.

Third, he planned to try the literary figure's ability to spread the essence of the universe in his novel.

Tang Zhun was far from being able to write profound, deep, and easy-to-understand articles that contained the essence of the universe, and he couldn't plagiarize either, as the great literary figure's memories were incomplete.

But there was another way to spread the essence of the universe.

Every literature student, starting from high school, had to systematically train in how to write textbook-style combinations of words that carried the essence of the universe.

The advantage of these word combinations was that they were mechanical and rigid, like ordinary students on Earth, who couldn't all become writers, but could develop excellent writing skills through practice.

But each Chinese character, with enough practice, could be learned to write.

The essence of the universe could also be learned through practice, but the disadvantage was that both the literature students themselves and their readers needed talent to feel and gain strength from it.

Such talent was one in a million, and even if someone had high talent, it would only be temporarily activated, lasting only five minutes.

Publishing such combinations of the essence of the universe could also enhance oneself through feedback.

"Perhaps I can't expect to make money by writing, and I'm a failure in this area without plagiarizing. But if I write the essence of the universe and publish it online, it might activate some people's talent. If each one percent adds up, I might..."

The third reason for the title was to hint to the outside world that, no matter how poor his writing skills were, the book he wrote was a masterpiece that could turn ordinary geniuses into superhumans for a few minutes. This was not a joke.

(ps: Dear readers, click on the related works for a surprise.)

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