Chapter 2

Lei En calmed his mind and finally realized what the eight-petaled flower symbol was—it was the logo of a domestic mobile phone company, but not exactly the same.

The original logo had petals all on one side, forming only half a flower, blooming upwards in a semicircle. However, the symbol in front of him was a complete flower, encircled, with a mysterious golden core in the middle, making it look very three-dimensional.

It might have mutated due to the穿越 (穿越 means "穿越" in Chinese, which can be translated as "transmigration" or "穿越" in this context, but it's better to use a more natural English term), which is why he didn't recognize it in his dreams before.

Lei En was both surprised and frightened, scratching his head in confusion. How did the phone come through with him, and how did it end up inside his head?

"Is the phone possessed, or have I become possessed by the phone?"

He looked at the red flower logo on the interface, which was slowly rotating, clearly still booting up.

"Booting up so slowly."

Lei En muttered, and soon noticed that as the phone booted up, it seemed to be consuming his own energy, making him feel increasingly tired and weak.

He quickly found a dry spot to sit down. After a few minutes, the phone finally booted up and entered the operating interface.

"The interface is different too."

Lei En was very surprised. The original interface was rectangular like the screen, but the one in front of him was circular, like a large wheel. In the center was the eight-petaled flower, surrounded by dozens of icons, arranged in concentric circles, resembling a deformed eye as a whole.

Some of these icons were familiar, while others were very strange.

"How do I operate it?"

Lei En was thinking about how to use it without touching it when he noticed that when he focused on a particular icon, it would slightly enlarge and become brighter, standing out prominently.

He didn't rush to open the icons but first scanned through them.

It was unclear whether the mutation was random or due to some other reason, but each icon was a bizarre pattern, both like a picture and a character, more abstract than the next, and unlike normal phone apps, they had no names, making them very difficult to identify.

For example, one icon resembled a camera, square like a camera, but instead of a lens in the middle, there was a strange eye, glowing mysteriously.

Another icon looked like a microphone, but at the top of the microphone was a deformed pointed ear, surrounded by several curved wavy lines, the meaning of which was unclear.

Lei En could only guess that each icon represented a function or an app.

And these functions and apps could be used without the internet.

The ones that originally required the internet, such as WeChat, browsers, email, and news apps, were all gone.

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, hoping that he could use this magical phone to contact Earth, but now it seemed like a mere wish.

What frustrated Lei En the most was that most of the icons were grayed out, and focusing his mind on them made no difference, clearly indicating they couldn't be activated.

"Why are some of them unusable? Is it because of low battery?"

Lei En speculated. In the center of the small red flower—this was the name he just gave it—there was a circle around it, divided into uniform small segments. He counted them, and there were exactly one hundred segments.

At the moment, only seven segments were lit up from the 12 o'clock position, and next to it was a battery icon showing a striking red number, 7%.

"This must be the phone's battery level, with each segment representing 1% of the battery."

Lei En looked at the mere seven segments of battery, suddenly feeling very insecure.

For modern people, the phone's battery is like a second life. A battery level below 20% can make one anxious, and below 10% is like being on the brink of death.

Moreover, this mutated phone was in his head, seemingly bound to him. Lei En didn't dare to imagine what would happen if the battery dropped to zero!

Would it shut down? Or would I die too?

"Whatever, let's see what this thing can do first."

Currently, only a few icons could be activated, such as the camera, calculator, and clock. Lei En focused his mind on the camera icon, thinking about opening it.

The camera icon with the strange eye immediately enlarged in front of him.

In the next instant, Lei En's world changed dramatically.

Everything became much clearer, as if a layer of mist had been wiped away from a glass, or a thin layer of mosaic had been removed. Everything in his sight was crystal clear, colors more vibrant, as if they had come to life.

It was early morning, and sunlight was pouring down from the sky. He could see countless tiny water droplets rising from the river surface, like dust dancing; beneath the river, many fish and shrimp were swimming among the swaying aquatic plants, and he could see every scale on their bodies clearly.

Turning his head, Lei En found he could see very far.

On the opposite bank, a tree about 200 to 300 meters away was magnified a hundred times in his sight, as if it were right in front of him. He could see every branch on the tree clearly.

"My God!"

Lei En was startled by this exaggerated vision. He knew the phone originally used the most advanced camera, but he didn't expect that after the mutation, the camera had replaced his eyes and enhanced the effect by an unknown multiple.

Moreover, his eyes had a distance-measuring function.

For example, the precise distance to that tree was 267 meters, and it could be accurate to three decimal places. As his gaze moved, the numbers kept changing.

Additionally, his eyes could zoom in. When he focused his mind, he could even observe the veins and patterns on the leaves of the tree on the opposite bank!

And this seemed to be not the limit.

Lei En scanned around with curiosity and soon discovered another function: adjusting brightness. Even in dark corners, he could see clearly, as if he had a night vision device. His field of vision was black and white, but very clear.

He was quite disappointed that the X-ray vision he had often fantasized about was not there.

He wanted to continue exploring, but suddenly heard a "beep" in his head, and immediately came back to his senses, noticing that the battery had dropped by one segment, to 6%.

"How fast it drains, how long has it been?"

Lei En was looking for a button to close the camera when he realized that just having the thought had already exited the super vision mode.

He tried a few other functions that could be activated, but after a long time, he found no changes, probably because he hadn't found the correct usage or needed a suitable environment. The battery continued to drop, so he had to turn them off.

As the battery level decreased, Lei En felt even more exhausted and stopped trying.

When his attention shifted for a few seconds, the phone interface shrank into a small red flower and moved to the upper left corner, at the edge of his peripheral vision, not affecting his normal sight.

"This is the standby mode, quite smart."

With this mutated phone, Lei En felt a bit more at ease, understanding that this was his greatest reliance for survival in this world.

After resting by the river for more than half an hour, his energy recovered somewhat, but his stomach was rumbling. Lei En knew he couldn't stay here any longer.

Looking at the distant city with a foreign style, it was the Lonsand City in his memory.

He straightened his half-wet, half-dry clothes, took a deep breath, and walked away from the river, leaving a trail of shallow footprints behind.