NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 2
Chapter Two: The Death of the Future
“I’m a minute late,” Xia’er said as she locked the door behind her and pulled Li Qi toward the table, “The food is about to get cold.”
The hostility and violent conflicts from outside were dispelled by the younger sister’s gentle words and the warm atmosphere inside. The sudden change in mood left Li Qi momentarily dazed.
She allowed Xia’er to guide her to sit at the dining table. Only after Xia’er let go did she look across to Xia’er and say:
“Xia’er, don’t worry. He won’t cause any trouble. Just focus on your graduation ceremony.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Xia’er shook her head and replied, “Even if he does come, it won’t make any difference.”
“How can it not!” Li Qi clenched her fists again upon hearing this, “That bastard will definitely spread rumors loudly everywhere, ruining your reputation! It will affect your university interview!”
“It’s fine.” Xia’er nodded slightly, her chin tilting toward the stew, then continued, “Let’s eat.”
“You… sigh…” Li Qi wanted to say more but closed her mouth instead, picking up a piece of bread sullenly, dipping it into the soup before taking a bite.
Though small in stature, the younger sister was unusually sharp-witted and articulate. If Li Qi had tried to argue, she would have undoubtedly been slowly persuaded by Xia’er’s calm reasoning. Thus, Li Qi chose to remain silent.
Xia’er watched as Li Qi began devouring the dinner hungrily and gradually fell into deep thought.
Li Qi, the older sister who had raised Xia’er since childhood.
Despite having no blood relation, they were closer than real sisters. Years ago, during an accident where a freight carriage overturned, she pushed Xia’er out of the way, only to be splashed with a vial of reagent that fell from the carriage.
This resulted in severe burns to her entire face and the left side of her scalp. Her face looked grotesquely disfigured, while her hands were corroded and split open.
The damaged arms affected her dexterity, leading to her dismissal from the textile plant by its harsh owner. She eventually found herself working in a much harder and dirtier coal factory.
There was little difference; both factories caused physical damage—one filled with cotton fibers and dust, the other with dangerous coal fumes and dust. In both places, her work was brutal.
Being physically weaker than male workers, Li Qi had to spend more time completing tasks for less pay just to avoid being fired.
Most of the money she earned—including compensation for the chemical burns—went towards Xia’er’s education. Over the past three years, Xia’er hadn’t disappointed her elder sister, excelling academically and paving the way for a promising future.
Li Qi hoped Xia’er would continue studying, becoming either a lawyer or a doctor, thus breaking free from their current life entirely. This had always been Li Qi’s wish.
However, Xia’er clearly didn’t see things this way.
Xia’er had no intention of sitting for entrance exams or seeking recommendation letters. As someone with clear plans, she believed pursuing further studies wasn’t the right path for her.
Tuition fees at An Su University Academy amounted to nearly 140 Su Pounds annually.
Even if Li Qi worked tirelessly, she could barely earn around 50 Su Pounds a year without eating or drinking. And that didn’t account for the high cost of living in the capital city of An Su. For them, attending university was an unbearable burden.
Besides financial concerns, their impoverished neighborhood harbored various overt and covert dangers, including Eian, the thug who inexplicably started pestering Xia’er half a year ago.
The most effective way for Xia’er to improve their lives and social standing wasn’t spending four to five years studying law but rather securing a recommendation letter directly from Borough City Police Station after graduation. As an outstanding graduate from Borough Private Academy, Xia’er wouldn’t even need to take an exam; a single recommendation letter would secure her a clerical position within the police bureau, allowing her to move away from the dangerous neighborhood.
With such protection, those thugs wouldn’t dare bother them anymore. Once settled in a new environment, Xia’er could save enough money for university tuition and plan her next steps carefully.
“Sorry.”
A hoarse voice interrupted Xia’er’s thoughts. She looked up and met Li Qi’s gaze.
“I should do better, work harder… but I don’t know how.”
Li Qi’s words carried a hint of frustration. Working almost fourteen hours daily had drained her both physically and mentally, yet the mounting realities of life still felt overwhelming despite her scarred hands’ best efforts.
Seeing the self-reproach in Li Qi’s eyes, Xia’er felt a heavy weight in her own heart.
Wasn’t Xia’er also filled with guilt? In the three years since arriving in this world, she had tried many things… but traveling between worlds wasn’t like novels. She lacked the so-called essential knowledge common to other travelers. She knew nothing about firearms, couldn’t recite popular operatic verses here, and her legal expertise provided no insight into physics or inventions. All she could rely on was her test-taking ability honed through rote learning.
The chaotic law enforcement here was far worse than in her previous life. Legal scholars couldn’t cast spells, and all her prior knowledge seemed utterly useless.
Xia’er hadn’t neglected searching for extraordinary abilities or magic. She’d attended numerous gatherings of magical societies, psychic associations, and séances. But undeniably, these were mere tricks, easily exposed as fake.
There were also various churches of different sizes in this world, but when she visited them, they appeared to be ordinary religious institutions. Deeper secrets eluded her due to her social class.
It seemed she had truly traveled to an ordinary Other World devoid of anything extraordinary—and one that started on hard mode.
No wonder her predecessor committed suicide; this pressure wasn’t something everyone could endure.
“I’m going out.”
The dinner ended in silence. After reminding Xia’er to lock the doors and windows, Li Qi headed off to her night shift, which wouldn’t end until one o’clock in the morning.
Both Li Qi and Xia’er had their own worries, each trying to find solutions for the future.
In the living room, Xia’er sat alone on the sofa, staring at the cold fireplace while absentmindedly caressing the antique silver pocket watch in her hand, feeling the second hand tick beneath her fingertips.
Graduation was approaching… if she could enter Borough City Police Station, she’d gain basic self-protection. But how could she prevent Eian from disrupting her graduation ceremony?
“Caw!”
A loud crow startled Xia’er, causing her to instinctively grip the pocket watch tighter.
“Hiss…”
A sharp pain came from her right thumb. Looking down, she saw that the tip of her thumb, which had been tracing the second hand, had been cut by a tiny scratch. Blood seeped out, dripping onto the watch face.
Under Xia’er’s watchful eyes, the droplet of blood moved as if alive, flowing along the intricate patterns on the watch face until it soaked the entire dial.
“Tick—”
The sound of the second hand moving exploded in Xia’er’s mind, momentarily stunning her.
Could it be…?
“Blood recognition? How cliché.”
Xia’er’s vision of everything gradually blurred as she felt her consciousness sink into a black space.
Within this black consciousness space, a silver-white screen lit up, flashing Chinese characters that Xia’er hadn’t seen for who-knows-how-long.
“Binding holder in progress…”
“Fated activation successful…”
“Detecting items to bring over… None”
“Detecting Mortality Points… None”
“First simulation, system grants 30 Mortality Points. Please use them wisely, host.”
After a series of flashes, only three options remained before Xia’er.
“Future Day: 2Day (Sheng Year 741 June 19th 18:27) (Consumes 10 Mortality Points)”
“Past Day: 300Day (Year 740 August 20th 12:00) (Consumes 100 Mortality Points)”
“Old Day: *** , ***Day (Consumes 10,000 Mortality Points)”
“Note: Choosing Future Day simulates the future; choosing Past Day simulates the past; choosing Old Day allows you to experience a segment of ***. Please choose carefully… Seems like you can only select the first one though, huh^”
The strange phenomenon before Xia’er left her standing frozen in place. After a long while, she came back to her senses and re-examined the silver-white words before her.
This is… a System?
Only one option…
“Future Day?”
Xia’er softly uttered these words.
If this really was a golden finger… It had to be tested how it worked.
After Xia’er made her choice, the silver-white words before her shattered and twisted, transforming into a rapidly spinning silver pocket watch.
The pocket watch continuously enlarged in Xia’er’s view, then exploded, enveloping her in a wave of intense dizziness.
…
The blinding white light slowly dissipated, and the pleasant smell of wooden boards at her nose was replaced by the heavy odor of acid rain mixed with dust.
A beam of light appeared before Xia’er’s eyes.
“Future Day”
“Sheng Year 741 June 19th 18:28”
“Countdown -23:59:59”
The drizzle washed away the date displayed on the light screen before Xia’er.
There were no longer any houses around; she didn’t know when she had stepped outside. The fine rain soaked her dress.
Looking down through the rain, Xia’er saw herself wearing a black robe and holding a graduation certificate tied with a white ribbon.
Graduation certificate? Isn’t that something only given out during the graduation ceremony?
Xia’er’s eyes widened as she quickly opened the certificate to check it. Sure enough, her name was written there, along with her photograph.
This was indeed her graduation certificate… the graduation date being Sheng Year 741 June 19th.
“Is this… two days from now?”
Xia’er looked up and quickly recognized where she was.
She was on the road just entering Clock Tower Lane District, facing the way home.
According to her character, she must have already gotten the police station’s recommendation letter after receiving her graduation certificate, right?
Xia’er jogged under an eave and fumbled in her pocket, quickly pulling out a letter wrapped in oiled paper. Seeing the envelope, she finally exhaled in relief.
It seemed she had graduated safely and obtained the Police Station’s recommendation letter… exactly as planned.
She had to hurry and tell her sister the good news so she could quit her job, and they could rent a house near the police station.
Xia’er ran lightly toward home, not minding the mud splashing on her skirt. It rained most of the time in Bern, and after living there for three years, she had already adapted.
“Dong—Dong—”
The dinner bell rang, reminding the factories to release their workers for meals. Accompanying the sound of bells, Xia’er wandered through the streets until she turned a corner, and her pace gradually slowed.
In front of building No. 44, a crowd had gathered, discussing and commenting on the scene inside.
“Xia’er’s here!”
Someone shouted, and the crowd turned to look at Xia’er. Those blocking the way voluntarily parted to make a path.
In the center of the crowd, four or five figures lay on the ground. Blood mingled with the black gravel under the rain’s rinse.
El, lying on his back, had his white shirt soaked in blood. His throat had been slashed open by a sharp weapon, his stomach cut open, his intestines scattered everywhere, his eyes wide with fear even in death.
Next was the short man, whose throat had been precisely slit. He clutched his neck with both hands but couldn’t stop the bleeding. His body convulsed as he struggled in his final moments.
Behind these bodies, leaning against the blood-stained white steps at the entrance, sat a figure. Her hand held a dagger, and her right eye impaled by a silver-gray hilt. Her face froze in a distorted expression.
A bouquet of bloody flowers was scattered around her, and a tipped-over cream cake lay on the steps. A sugar board embedded in the cake read “Congrats Little Xia’er on your graduation~”, its red letters melting in the rain like flowing blood.
“Dong!”
Xia’er felt as if her skull had been struck by a hammer. The light-hearted mood she had earlier plummeted instantly.
Cool raindrops hit her face, but she felt her eyes burned as if by the sun.
What… happened?
“Over there… the Black Water Party members!”
“Quick, leave… little girl, you should leave too.”
The arrival of a group caused the surrounding residents to scatter.
Soon, the street that had been surrounded by curious onlookers became empty, not even daring to spectate.
“6:31 PM… Why did the ritual deviate?”
“Click—”
An old male voice came from behind Xia’er.
With the crisp sound of cocking a gun, the metallic barrel in the man’s hand was already aimed at the red-haired girl in front.
Was it a dream…
Coldness spread from Xia’er’s heart towards her feet and head. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the figure on the steps. The cold rain couldn’t wash away the image before her.
What happened? Why… did it turn out this way?
“Bang—!”
As the revolver fired, pain surged from Xia’er’s back brain. The world before her eyes was covered by a silver-white glow.
When the light faded again, the cold rain was gone, replaced by the lingering scent of an old fireplace and roasted bread. She stared at the silver-white screen before her, her limbs icy.
…
“Reality”
“Sheng Year 741 June 17th”
“Evaluation: In two days, you went for a run, honing your running skills. Considering it was your first simulation, there’s a consolation prize… Don’t look so serious, alright?”
“Bad things haven’t happened yet, right?”
“Reward: Mortality Points *1, [Agility Lv.1]”
“Mortality Points: 21”