01: All Humanity Turns to Stone

“Warning, abnormality detected in host’s body. Host is advised to immediately stop all sewing activities.”

A mechanical voice echoed in Qin Xiaofan’s mind.

“Damn it, you even have to butt in on this kind of thing…”

Embarrassed, Qin Xiaofan’s face flushed red as he hastily pulled up his pants. Then, mortified and indignant, he snapped, “How can you call this sewing? If you can’t speak properly, just shut up, you stupid system.”

System: “Apologies, host. I simply couldn’t find a more accurate term to describe it.”

Qin Xiaofan trembled with fury. “You… Are you trying to enrage the last human alive, so the human race can go extinct?”

The system fell silent.

Yes…

Qin Xiaofan was the last human left in the world.

In the midst of the lush jungle, he slumped in despair at the foot of a human-shaped stone statue.

Here, through the green foliage, one could faintly glimpse the ruins of modern buildings, overgrown with vines and moss, transforming what had once been a bustling city into a primordial forest.

The scene reminded Qin Xiaofan of a game called “NieR: Automata.”

But unlike that game, there were no machines in this world—only countless human-shaped stone statues…

“My name is Qin Xiaofan, twenty-one years old, a shut-in obsessed with video games.”

“Yesterday, I woke up to find weeds and plants all around me. I was stunned. I slapped myself hard—it hurt. I wasn’t dreaming.”

“I wanted to find someone and ask what was going on, but to my horror, everyone had disappeared.”

“The whole city was eerily quiet, as if it hadn’t been touched for a thousand years. The city and the jungle had become one, and I even wondered if I’d been transported to another world.”

“Then I discovered there were human-shaped stone statues everywhere—countless of them. It was bizarre.”

“What if everyone had turned into stone statues? The thought suddenly crossed my mind, terrifying me.”

“Ding—”

“At that moment, I awakened a system, which gave me a mission: [Revive All Humanity].”

“I was dumbfounded!”

“The system told me that the humans turned into statues were still alive, and that I had a special kind of liquid in my body that could restore them.”

“To keep me from losing hope, the system graciously lowered the difficulty. The first mission changed from [Revive All Humanity] to [Revive One Human].”

“I decided to give it a try.”

“I collected all sorts of liquids and applied them to the stone statues: saliva, sweat, tears, then snot, urine, blood—everything I could think of. None of it worked.”

“In despair, I decided to try the most precious liquid in my body.”

“I meditated for ages, and finally made some progress. Just as I was about to use my ancestral skills, the stupid system mocked me for ‘sewing’…”

“I was chilled to the bone with rage and despair.”

At the foot of the stone statue, Qin Xiaofan said helplessly, “System, you’re not lying to me, are you? My body’s liquids are useless…”

The system was silent for a moment.

Then a string of notifications sounded—

“Ding: System switching to intelligent mode. Intelligent mode activated!”

“Attribute panel activated!”

“Hint panel activated!”

Qin Xiaofan was stunned.

Then, a panel appeared in his mind—

Host: Qin Xiaofan
Level: Unknown
Skills: None
Equipment: None
Points: 0
Mission: Revive one human.

Beneath the attribute panel, a hint panel was linked—

Hint 1: The host’s blood can revive human statues.
Hint 2: Statues have marks on the back of their heads. In this area, the minimum is one mark, the maximum is four. The host’s blood currently only works on one-mark statues.

Qin Xiaofan’s eyes widened.

So that’s how it is…

“If the system had just shown me the panel at the start, I wouldn’t have had to go through all that nonsense!”

Then, Qin Xiaofan felt a sense of injustice.

He didn’t doubt the system’s words; the marks on the backs of the statues’ heads were real.

But…

Why?

What happened to equality? Even after everyone’s turned into statues, you still have to divide us into ranks!

Qin Xiaofan shivered with indignation.

Then he began searching for a statue with a single mark on the back of its head.

The one-mark statues were noticeably rare.

As the sun was about to set, he finally found one by a small stream.

At a glance, it was a young girl.

Short hair.

She wore a tight-fitting cheongsam, her figure slender.

Bandages were wrapped around her legs.

For a moment, Qin Xiaofan was reminded of Sakura Haruno from Naruto.

Clearly, this girl was a Naruto fan, or she wouldn’t be dressed like that.

Though the stone statue was too rough to make out her features, anyone who did cosplay was always quirky, playful, and charming.

Qin Xiaofan tidied his hair, put on a confident smile, and dripped blood from his finger onto the stone statue.

Whoosh—

The statue burst into dazzling light.

When the glow faded, the stone statue was gone.

In its place stood a girl, her face full of confusion and disbelief…

“Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the first mission. You have received a starter gift pack, now stored in the virtual inventory.”

“Bonus mission reward: 100 points and a forty-meter broadsword.”

Qin Xiaofan was stunned.

A forty-meter broadsword???

“Um… can you tell me what’s going on?”

At that moment, the girl in front of him spoke.

However…

The sound of her voice made Qin Xiaofan feel something was off, as if…

BOOM!

Suddenly, the ground shook violently.

By the stream, the earth churned, and a massive, black creature burst out of the ground—like an earthworm, but thousands of times larger!

Its mouth was lined with countless razor-sharp teeth.

“Hiss—”

Qin Xiaofan gasped, grabbed the girl, and ran.

The giant earthworm chased them relentlessly, toppling trees along the way. From its mouth full of fangs came a strange hissing cry—

“Hela! Hela!”

There was no way to outrun it.

At last, Qin Xiaofan gritted his teeth and stopped.

“System, where’s my forty-meter broadsword?” he shouted inwardly.

A butcher’s knife appeared in his hand.

Qin Xiaofan was dumbfounded.

Where’s the promised forty meters?

“Did you measure this with a liar’s ruler? This butcher’s knife isn’t even forty centimeters long!”

System: “For ease of carrying, the broadsword has been technically modified. Please shout the phrase ‘I am a pig’ to activate the forty-meter broadsword.”

Qin Xiaofan was shaking with fury.

Is the system trying to kill me with rage?

The giant earthworm barreled closer.

Gritting his teeth, Qin Xiaofan clutched the butcher’s knife, and under the incredulous gaze of the girl, shouted, “I am a pig!”

Whoosh—

The butcher’s knife instantly transformed.

An energy blade forty meters long materialized around the knife!

It was unbelievably heavy!

But suddenly, a mysterious strength surged through Qin Xiaofan, allowing him to lift the forty-meter blade like a pillar reaching the sky.

The girl stared in awe.

Boom!

With a single slash, trees were sent flying and a deep scar was carved into the ground. The rampaging giant earthworm was sliced clean in two.

“Amazing!” Qin Xiaofan’s spirits soared.

By now, the forty-meter broadsword had reverted to a butcher’s knife. Qin Xiaofan put it away, and when he turned around, he saw the girl staring at him in utter shock.

“You’re an ability user too?”

The girl spoke, leaving Qin Xiaofan dumbstruck.

Not because of the mention of ability users, but because…

Her voice was unmistakably male!

Yes!

Clear and gentle.

Qin Xiaofan couldn’t possibly mistake it—this was definitely a man’s voice.

Looking at the Sakura Haruno cosplayer in front of him, Qin Xiaofan suddenly realized something.

Of course… It’s not just cute girls who like cosplay—there are also guys who enjoy crossdressing!

Bravo!

The first human he revived turned out to be a crossdressing pro. Damn.

“Um…”

The guy seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Actually, I’m a perfectly normal man. I only dressed like this because I lost a bet with friends and had to attend a convention in costume… This was my first time crossdressing, and before I could change back, the petrification crisis struck.”

He took off the pink wig and wiped away his makeup.

It was a delicate, scholarly face—clearly a young man with a studious air.

“Hello, my name is Xiao Yan. I’m also an ability user.”

As Qin Xiaofan stared blankly, Xiao Yan pulled two big apples from his chest.

Gazing at the apples, he sighed, “Who would have thought petrification would turn not only an ability user’s clothes but everything they carried to stone as well?”

Qin Xiaofan was thoroughly confused.

“Ability user? Why do I feel like you’re not from my world?”

Xiao Yan looked puzzled. “Aren’t you an ability user yourself? That forty-meter broadsword isn’t your ability? Though… needing to shout ‘I am a pig’ to activate your power is pretty rare…”

Qin Xiaofan was left speechless.

He mumbled, “Yes… that’s my ability! But I’ve forgotten a lot. Can you explain things to me?”

Xiao Yan gave Qin Xiaofan a strange look.

“In the early twenty-first century, a virus swept across the globe, causing all life to mutate. Some humans began to awaken all kinds of abilities.”

“People called it the Age of Abilities.”

“By the early twenty-fourth century, which is my era, ability users began to turn to stone.”

“The cause of petrification is unknown—science can’t solve it.”

“But one thing is certain: only human ability users are affected…”

Qin Xiaofan’s mind was a swirl of confusion.

The Age of Abilities?

From the early twenty-first century to the early twenty-fourth?

What was all this…

He distinctly remembered living in the early twenty-first century too. There were viruses, sure, but he’d never heard of ability users.

Had he crossed into another world?

…

ps: Please add to your library and recommend to others.