**Chapter 1: The Ruins of Jiangnan City**
The smell hit them first.
Not the rotting stench of death—Luo Feng and Luo Yan were used to that—but something sharper. Ozone mixed with rust and charred concrete. The acrid reminder that the wilderness areas didn't just contain ruins; they contained *living* danger.
August 2056. Jiangnan City Base, wilderness area perimeter.
Two teenagers sat on the crumbling edge of what had once been a residential building in the old world. Now it was a skeletal monument to the Grand Nirvana period—that catastrophic transformation forty-three years ago when the RR virus had erupted from the depths of the ocean, infected Earth's creatures, and birthed the monster age. The concrete was fractured and pitted, metal reinforcements corroded to rust. The afternoon sky above was clear—clearer than it had been in the old civilization, actually, since the collapse of industry during the Grand Nirvana. It was one of the few improvements the apocalypse had brought.
Luo Feng sat with his arms resting on his knees, dark eyes scanning the desolate landscape below with quiet intensity. His body language was contemplative, almost melancholic. Beside him, Luo Yan maintained a more composed posture, his gaze analytical as he surveyed the wilderness that separated them from the base city's protective walls in the distance.
They were eighteen. Twins, though Luo Yan had arrived five minutes earlier—a fact he found privately amusing in ways his brother would never understand.
Both wore black training suits—the standard-issue combat gear for prospective warriors. Practical, durable, designed for mobility. On their backs hung tactical alloy shields, and at their sides rested combat knives. These weren't the specialized weapons that true warriors carried, but they were real enough. Sharp enough. Deadly enough if you knew how to use them.
They'd both trained for this moment their entire lives.
"Tomorrow," Luo Feng said quietly, breaking the silence. His voice carried weight beyond its volume. "The Prospective Fighter Combat Examination. Pass, and we become official warriors. Fail..." He didn't finish the sentence. Both brothers knew what failure meant. Labor in the base city. Factory work. A slow descent into the grinding poverty that had nearly killed their parents.
Luo Yan turned to study his twin. That expression—the mixture of determination and anxiety—was achingly familiar. He'd seen it described in the novel, read about this exact moment in Luo Feng's journey. The day before everything changed.
"We'll pass," Luo Yan replied, and it was the first absolute truth he'd spoken since awakening in this world with memories that shouldn't exist. A truth backed by foreknowledge that transcended mere confidence.
Luo Feng glanced at his brother, something in that tone making him pause. There was certainty there—not arrogance, but certainty. Like Luo Yan had already seen tomorrow's results.
"You sound awfully sure about that."
Before Luo Yan could respond, the wind shifted. That particular change in air pressure that every wilderness explorer learned to recognize—the displacement caused by something large moving through the ruins below.
A low, resonant growl echoed from the skeletal buildings in the distance.
Monster. High-level beast soldier rank, if Luo Yan's recognition was correct. Probably a mutated wolf or tiger-type creature. The wilderness areas surrounding every base city on Earth were saturated with such creatures—monsters that had evolved from ordinary animals, transformed by the RR virus into beings of terrifying power.
Neither brother flinched. They'd grown up on the edge of Jiang-Nan city's residential areas, close enough to the outer sectors that monster howls were part of the ambient noise of life. The city's HR Alliance guards and military kept them at bay, but the creatures were always there, always testing the perimeter, always hunting.
"They're more active today," Luo Feng observed, hand unconsciously moving to the combat knife at his waist. "Fourth one in the last hour."
"The patrol schedule changed," Luo Yan said, recalling details from the novel. "They're rotating guard posts every six hours instead of four. Leaves gaps in coverage. The monsters sense it."
Luo Feng looked at his brother with slight surprise. "How did you know about the patrol changes?"
Luo Yan shrugged. "Overheard some guards talking at the Dojo."
It was a plausible lie. The Extreme Martial Arts Dojo was where both brothers trained, where thousands of prospective warriors honed their bodies and genetic energy in pursuit of official fighter status. Information flowed freely there.
"Tomorrow," Luo Feng repeated, returning his gaze to the ruins. "If we both pass, we can finally help Mom and Dad properly. Get them out of the resettlement area. Maybe even afford an apartment in the third ring district."
The unspoken weight hung between them: *If we pass.* The Prospective Fighter Combat Examination wasn't just difficult—it was brutal. Physical fitness test, reaction speed evaluation, and most importantly, the actual combat trial against a low-level monster in controlled conditions. Fail any component, and you remained a civilian. Succeed, and you gained official warrior status, along with all the benefits that came with it.
Their family desperately needed those benefits.
Their father, Luo Honguo, had been injured years ago in a wilderness accident while working as a civilian laborer. The wounds had never fully healed, leaving him unable to work consistently. Their mother, Gong Xinlan, supplemented the family's basic subsidy by doing odd jobs—sewing, small trades, whatever she could manage. They survived, but barely.
Both sons had spent years training specifically to change that reality.
"We'll both pass," Luo Yan said again, and this time his body trembled—not from fear or uncertainty, but from something else entirely. Something that started deep in his core and radiated outward through meridians that shouldn't exist in the Swallowed Star universe but somehow did.
His genetic energy stirred. The Five Hearts Toward the Sky cultivation method—the basic genetic training technique that all prospective warriors practiced—was circulating through his body with unusual intensity. But beneath it, something else was awakening. Something that had been dormant until this exact moment.
Luo Feng noticed immediately. "You alright? Your face just went pale."
Luo Yan forced himself to breathe normally, to keep his expression neutral despite the cosmic storm erupting in his consciousness. Because floating before his eyes, visible only to him, were three translucent blue panels that defied every law of reality he understood.
**[SUPREME HAREM SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]**
**[ALL HEAVEN CHAT GROUP ACCESS GRANTED]**
**[GROUP AUTHORITY: CONFIRMED - GROUP LEADER]**
His pupils dilated involuntarily. His heart hammered against his ribs.
"I'm fine," he managed, voice carefully controlled. "Just... felt my genetic energy spike for a second. Probably nerves about tomorrow."
It was another plausible lie. Genetic energy fluctuations happened to trainees all the time, especially under stress.
Below them, another growl echoed through the ruins—closer this time, more aggressive. The monster was moving in their direction, perhaps drawn by their voices or simply following its own hunting patterns.
"We should head back," Luo Feng said, standing and brushing dust from his training suit. "Before we attract anything more dangerous. Mom's probably already worrying."
Luo Yan nodded and rose as well, grateful for the excuse to end the conversation before his brother noticed anything else unusual. They descended from the ruined building carefully, navigating broken stairs and unstable floors with the practiced ease of people who'd explored these ruins dozens of times.
As they walked back toward the base city—visible in the distance as a massive wall of steel and alloy that rose over a hundred meters high—Luo Yan's consciousness was only partially present. Most of his awareness was focused inward, on the impossible interfaces hovering at the edge of his perception.
The game had truly begun.
---
## The Walk Home
The journey from the wilderness perimeter back to their residential sector took thirty minutes. They passed through the outer checkpoint—a fortified gate manned by HR Alliance guards in standardized combat armor, carrying firearms and blade weapons. The guards barely glanced at them. Two prospective fighters returning from wilderness observation wasn't unusual.
Inside the base city walls, the environment shifted dramatically. Paved streets, functional buildings, electric lighting. This was the Jiang-Nan base city proper—one of the 023 base cities that humanity had constructed after the Grand Nirvana, each one a fortress designed to protect millions of survivors from the monster-infested wilderness that now covered most of Earth's surface.
But even within the walls, there were hierarchies. Luo Feng and Luo Yan lived in the eastern residential district—one of the less affluent sectors, where basic subsidy recipients and low-income families clustered in government-provided housing. The buildings here were functional but cramped, the streets narrow, the amenities minimal.
"Did you practice the Five Hearts Toward the Sky method properly today?" Luo Feng asked as they walked. It was ritual at this point—the same question their mother asked every evening.
"Every morning and evening, like always," Luo Yan replied honestly. "We're ready."
When they reached their apartment building—a six-story structure that housed forty families—they climbed to the third floor and pushed open the door to apartment 301.
The smell of congee hit them immediately. Simple, thin rice porridge—the staple meal for families on basic subsidy. But beneath it was something else: raised voices.
"—completely unfair! Those merchants are exploiting people who can't afford anything better!"
Their youngest brother, Luo Hua, stood in the center of the small living room, face flushed with indignation. At twelve years old, he was already showing signs of the height he'd eventually reach, all gangly limbs and burning passion. There was a fresh bruise forming on his left cheek.
Their mother stood near the kitchen entrance, hands on her hips. Gong Xinlan was a thin woman, worn down by years of struggle but still possessed of quiet strength. Her expression was equal parts exasperation and worry.
Their father sat at the small dining table, methodically eating his congee without comment. Luo Honguo was a man who'd learned that some battles weren't worth fighting. His scarred chest was visible where his shirt hung open—permanent reminder of the wilderness accident that had ended his working life.
"Luo Hua, enough," their mother said tiredly. "You got into another fight at the market, didn't you?"
"He deserved it!" Luo Hua protested. "He was charging triple the normal price for—"
"We don't care if he deserved it," Luo Feng interrupted gently, placing a hand on his youngest brother's shoulder. "You're going to get our family flagged by security if you keep this up."
Luo Hua deflated slightly under Luo Feng's touch. Of the three brothers, he listened most closely to Luo Feng. There was something about their middle brother's calm authority that even passionate Luo Hua couldn't fully resist.
"Big brothers!" Luo Hua's face brightened as he noticed both twins. "Tell them I'm right! The merchants are exploiting—"
"How does the other guy look?" Luo Yan asked, examining the bruise.
Despite himself, Luo Hua grinned. "Worse."
"That's my boy," their father said quietly, a hint of pride in his voice.
"Dinner," their mother commanded, already ladling congee into bowls. "All of you. You need your strength for tomorrow."
The family gathered around the small table. The congee was thin—barely more than rice-flavored water—but their mother had managed to add some vegetables and a small amount of synthesized protein. It was a feast by their standards.
As they ate, the ritual question came: "Did you practice your cultivation method properly?"
"Yes, Mom," both twins replied in unison.
After dinner, the family dispersed to evening routines. Their mother prepared goods for tomorrow's small trading ventures. Their father retreated to rest, his injuries always worse in the evening. Luo Feng reviewed his training notes one final time, while Luo Hua sprawled on his bed reading a magazine about famous warlords—those legendary fighters who'd reached the pinnacle of human achievement.
Hours passed. One by one, the family settled into sleep.
Only when the entire apartment had fallen silent—when even Luo Hua's restless movements had stilled—did Luo Yan finally allow himself to focus fully on what had awakened within him.
He closed his eyes and thought: *System interface.*
The translucent panels materialized instantly, glowing with ethereal blue light visible only to his consciousness.
**[SUPREME HAREM SYSTEM]**
**[HOST: LUO YAN]**
**[CULTIVATION BASE: BODY FITNESS LEVEL - PROSPECTIVE FIGHTER]**
**[GENETIC ENERGY: 1.2 (THRESHOLD: 1.0 PASSED)]**
**[STATUS: AWAKENED]**
His heart pounded silently in the darkness.
Everything was about to change.
To Be Continue.