Chapter Two: Truly Transcended

Waves crashed upon the shore with a ceaseless, splashing sound. A few crustaceans, swept in by the tide, scurried anxiously back towards the water. From the boundless forest lining the coast came the echoing calls of creatures, eerily reminiscent of monkeys.

Golden hair, a frail frame, unfamiliar clothing—Jia Zhengjin stared at a body wholly unlike anything he remembered. Only then did he realize, in a daze, that the grim reaper from before had been real. He had truly been resurrected in a stranger’s body, and that stranger was a blond youth.

Thankfully, he was still a man—and, more importantly, still human.

Just moments ago, he’d been sitting in an internet café. Then, struck by a blinding light, he lost consciousness and awoke upon this desolate beach. Broken planks and shattered masts floated in the shallows, while the sand was littered with motionless corpses.

It seemed he’d revived in the body of a stranger from another world—a victim of a shipwreck, cast ashore by the waves. Yet aside from borrowing this body, he had nothing of its owner’s memories, and thus knew nothing of this world.

One thing was certain: this was not Earth. Among the corpses on the beach lay a bizarre, fur-covered creature. It wore clothing, possessed hands and feet, and bore a strange resemblance to humanity—except its head was that of a fearsome lion. A true lion, not a delicacy. A beastman. Jia Zhengjin had examined the body to confirm it was a real creature, not an artificial mockery. He could only conclude he’d crossed into a world where beastfolk truly existed.

All the ship’s provisions had sunk to the ocean floor, but he’d been fortunate enough to retrieve a crudely made iron dagger from one of the bodies. For a novice, it was a decent starting weapon.

As for the clothing on the corpses, while some seemed better than his own, Jia Zhengjin didn’t dare take them. The garments of the dead were too ominous; he had no desire to wear them.

Before his eyes floated a translucent status screen, displaying his body’s condition as in a game:

[Health] 43/100 (You need immediate treatment! Resting after eating and drinking will slowly recover health.)
[Stamina] 51/100 (You’re a bit tired. Resting will restore stamina!)
[Satiety] 30/100 (You’re hungry. Find something to eat!)
[Hydration] 40/100 (You’re thirsty. Find something to drink!)
[Body Temperature] 27°C (You’re cold. Dry your clothes by a fire!)
[Level] LV1 (Experience needed for next level: 0/100)

It was all real! What he’d once joked about had truly come to pass—he’d crossed into another world and even gained a user interface with functions straight out of a game. In fact, the immersion was far greater than any game he’d played on a computer, for now Jia Zhengjin himself was the protagonist.

His stomach growled hungrily, and his throat felt parched.

There was no time to celebrate his dream come true. Dizzied, he began searching desperately for food and drinkable water.

Sea water, of course, was out of the question unless he’d grown tired of living. And without any tools, distilling saltwater into fresh water was impossible.

Whenever he passed a body on the shore, a prompt appeared before his eyes: [Harvest]—using the dagger, he could collect raw meat. This applied to both human and beastman corpses. But Jia Zhengjin had no intention of eating human flesh. The thought alone filled him with disgust.

Thankfully, the beach was rich in resources. After a few minutes of searching, he found a coconut tree standing seven or eight meters tall.

“A coconut tree in another world, of all things,” he muttered, though inside he was quietly delighted. Coconut water would quench his thirst and the flesh would stave off hunger.

But the tree was so tall—there was no way he could climb it.

How could he get the coconuts down?

He stared up, pondering for several minutes, before a flash of inspiration struck. He now possessed the powers of a game character; he shouldn’t think like an ordinary person, but as a player. In a game, you never need to climb trees! Didn’t he just find a dagger? Why not simply chop down the tree? In reality it might be nonsense, but in a game, it made perfect sense.

Acting on the thought, Jia Zhengjin swung the dagger with all his might against the trunk.

Sure enough, though the dagger was dull, it carved a deep gash into the coconut tree.

“It actually works!” he exclaimed, excitement rising. Using the last of his strength, he hacked at the tree again and again. With each blow, the wound at the base grew wider, and after more than twenty strikes, the entire coconut tree crashed to the ground.

[Notification]: You have felled a coconut tree! You have obtained: Coconuts x3, Logs x4!

Opening the virtual backpack, he saw the coconuts quietly resting inside.

His hunger and thirst near unbearable, Jia Zhengjin took out a coconut, split it with the dagger, and greedily drank the juice. Then he scooped out the flesh, savoring every bite.

His satiety and hydration improved a little, and even his health ticked up by one point.

He quickly consumed the remaining two coconuts, raising his satiety to 71% and quenching his thirst completely.

How fascinating! This was the life he’d dreamed of. Ever since discovering sandbox survival games, he’d fantasized about becoming a character in one—gathering and crafting at will, building his own world in reality.

Had he not been so obsessed, he might not have played himself to death without realizing, lingering in the internet café as a ghost, unwilling to leave the game. In a sense, he was a lost cause.

This world was undeniably not Earth. The sun in the sky was blue, beastfolk existed, and those crustaceans scuttling across the beach were long extinct on Earth—creatures from the age of dinosaurs.

Though the forest near the coast contained familiar coconut trees, more than eighty percent of its plants were utterly unknown.

No matter what, Jia Zhengjin was more than satisfied with his current circumstances.

He’d died of gaming back on Earth, missing his chance at reincarnation because he’d missed the bus. Now, resurrected in another world, and granted the very powers he’d always dreamed of, it would be a crime not to make use of them.

He was determined to survive and thrive in this new world, making full use of his “golden finger.” Not everyone got the chance to cross into another world with such an advantage; to waste it would be unforgivable.

To survive here, he needed to build a shelter as quickly as possible and gather enough food and water.

Conveniently, the coconut trees along the beach were the perfect resource—providing both wood for building and coconuts for sustenance. This starting location was nothing short of a paradise.