Sandy Rock City, Gray Rock Forest

After finishing his conversation about Gene Warriors with Franming, the evening slipped away before Lu Yuan noticed. He said his goodbyes and headed back to his small room.

He sat on the bed and turned to look out the window. Under a silent night sky, neon lights flickered in the distance, tracing the warm glow of Xili City.

Twenty-odd minutes passed. The world around him went quiet.

His consciousness sank into the Gene Battle Mark.

In his mind, white mist churned and swirled. There, at the edge of his Gene Chain, a gate of light had taken shape.

Lu Yuan pressed his lips together and let his awareness drift toward it. He had never passed through before, but something in him knew: that gate led to the Land of Origin.

The golden patterns on his Gene Battle Mark pulsed with a faint glow.

He drew a slow breath, cleared the tension from his chest, and closed his eyes.

*Begin.*

Darkness swallowed his consciousness.

When Lu Yuan opened his eyes, a blazing crimson sun filled the sky. Heat slammed into him immediately — scorching, arid, absolute.

He looked around. He was standing in a vast plaza. Earth-yellow buildings lined the perimeter, and the air was thick with grit.

Scorching heat. Yellow sand underfoot. Murky air that scraped the throat. One glance was enough.

*Desert country.*

He already knew which city this was.

The moment Sandy Rock City crossed his mind, he pulled up everything he'd read beforehand. Sandy Rock City occupied a desert region — yellow sand and gobi stretched in every direction, and most of the monsters were rock-type, poison-type, or wind-type. Among the four starting cities for the Human Race on Great Qi Star, Sandy Rock City was the only one planted in the desert gobi.

Each of the four cities had its own brutal environment. Stormwind City, for instance, was ringed by permanent storms — one wrong step and you'd be blown straight into the sky. Sandy Rock City's particular misery was its air: the pollution was so severe that half of every breath was sand.

Lu Yuan covered his nose. Not pleasant.

Streets paved with yellow sand stretched out from the plaza, flanked on both sides by buildings of yellow rock. Colossal stone giants lumbered along those streets — *crunch, crunch* — apparently munching on something with tremendous satisfaction.

These were Sandy Rock City's Constructs, built to maintain public order. The city walls were yellow rock as well, standing roughly thirty meters high, fitted with enormous cannons of unknown make, and more Constructs patrolled the battlements. Every starting city came with a set of Land of Origin–issued Constructs to keep basic operations running.

No fighting was permitted within city limits.

It was said that every intelligent race throughout the entire universe could enter the Land of Origin — which meant the Land of Origin connected the whole of the cosmos. No one knew where in the universe it actually existed, or why it could bridge every intelligent species. The mystery remained unsolved.

This starting city was home to four races.

The plaza was loud and packed. Beings of every kind clustered together, shouting for party members.

*"Human Race newbie looking for a Human Race party — any veterans willing to show a newbie the ropes~~"*

*"Recruiting a Guardian type warrior for a yellow sand worm nest run! Elves only!"*

*"Elite-gene element-type warrior leading a sand scorpion hunt in the gobi — all races welcome, gnolls excluded!"*

*"Hahaha, we're heading out to hunt gray rock beetles — want to join? Loot split by contribution."*

*Sounds exactly like a wet market,* Lu Yuan thought, expression strained.

He noticed that humans weren't the only ones here.

When he spotted a figure with a lovely face, a pair of cat ears perched atop her head, and a tail swishing back and forth behind her — his eyes went wide.

*What man alive could keep a straight face around cat ears and a wagging tail?!*

*Did a cat seriously come to pay its debt?!*

The noise of the plaza pulled him back to himself.

In this square, he could make out exactly four races: humans, elves, gnolls, and cat-kin. Elves — exactly as they appeared in Earth's fantasy stories — tall and slender, sharp-pointed ears, strikingly handsome faces. And gnolls, with their broad dog-like heads and muzzles.

*This world really is something.*

He was still mentally cataloging the environment and its creatures when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned. A handsome elf in yellow leather armor stood there, smiling pleasantly.

"Human friend — going solo?"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Something I can help you with?"

"Haha, we're heading out to hunt some gray rock beetles," the elf said, gesturing over his shoulder. Three figures stood not far behind him — a lean, tall elf, a gnoll, and a human. "Want to tag along? Earnings split by contribution."

Lu Yuan glanced at them and shook his head. "No thanks."

He turned to go. The elf stepped in front of him.

"Hey, don't rush off — adventuring alone out there is dangerous. Come with us?"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Who said I'm alone? My friends are already waiting outside."

The elf's smile froze.

The three figures behind him walked over, their faces falling.

The gnoll let out a laugh. "Guy's got friends outside already."

The elf sighed. "Newcomers these days are getting harder and harder to fool. Maybe it's time we changed our approach."

"Changing approaches is too much work. How about we schedule a meeting sometime and upgrade our scamming techniques?"

"Sure, that works. If nothing comes of today, we can always just go kill some beetles ourselves."

"What rotten luck," the elf muttered.

"Switch targets."

Lu Yuan quietly made himself scarce.

He left the plaza and got his bearings, then set off toward the right side of Sandy Rock City.

Having no contracted beast from the Land of Origin to serve as a mount, he had no choice but to go on foot. Sandy Rock City was large. Despite jogging the whole way, it still took two full hours before the city wall finally came into view.

He reached the gate. Two Constructs stood guard, but no one was checked — Gene Warriors simply walked in and out of Sandy Rock City as they pleased.

Lu Yuan stepped through.

Before him: a desolate gobi, wind screaming, yellow sand swirling to the horizon.

He kept running, bearing right, toward the Gray Rock Forest.

The area's main dangerous beast was the gray rock beetle — considered weak even by Trainee Rank standards. The drop rate for Gene Armaments or Transcendent Genes from gray rock beetles was essentially zero. But their stone shells were a forging material used in crafting Gene Armaments, which meant they had salvage value.

The Gray Rock Forest covered nearly a hundred kilometers of territory — an absurd expanse. Forum posts mentioned that bored Gene Warriors had apparently taken the trouble to measure it. There were no valuable resources in this region, so anyone with real strength had no reason to come here. Most who did were freshly Awakened Gene Warriors, too weak yet to push into other zones.

For Lu Yuan right now, it was the sensible call.

He ran the whole way. Under that blazing red sun, he felt like he was being slowly baked into jerky.

Two hours later — four hours since entering the Land of Origin — a stretch of gobi finally appeared ahead, bristling with gray rock pillars as far as the eye could see.

*This is the Gray Rock Forest.*

The sky overhead was a murky yellow, thick with drifting sand. Lu Yuan exhaled, pulled out a jug of water and took a long drink, then ate a few energy bars. After resting long enough to recover, he pressed on into the forest.

He hadn't gone far when he heard the sounds of combat ahead.

He frowned slightly and looked.

Two cat-kin were fighting a gray beetle roughly the size of a small dog — one wielding a longsword, the other a bow. Five or six gray rock beetle corpses were already scattered across the ground.

The archer was remarkably skilled. She drew back, loosed — the arrow became a streak of light and punched straight through the beetle's eye socket.

Instant kill.

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted involuntarily.

*I probably can't beat that archer one-on-one right now.*

*I've got a long way to go.*

Caution guiding his steps, he moved deliberately in directions where no sounds of fighting could be heard.

Just then, he spotted something at the base of a stone pillar ahead. A gray rock beetle crouched there, its enormous mandibles rhythmically gnawing at the rock.

*Crunch. Crunch.* It looked entirely absorbed in its meal.

A lone one. He hadn't expected that.

*Perfect.*

Joy surged through Lu Yuan.

*Go.*

…

*Begin.*