DEATH FROM BOILING WATERDawn. Silver rays of light were peeking through the horizon. The wind that was carrying the scent of wet morning dew gently blew by a sleepy village.
The village itself seemed unable to withstand the cold morning air and whimpered. Gradually, signs of life appeared.
A farmer who had just woken up pushed his wooden door open and raised his voice to greet his neighbours. Everyone began to work on their own breakfast while preparing for the day that was about to start. This was an extremely ordinary morning at an ordinary village.
Unfortunately, a certain event interrupted this otherwise calm day.
“AH– –”
A farmer who had gone to the well to retrieve water suddenly released an alarming scream, breaking apart the quiet atmosphere. Immediately, the villagers crowded around this place.
The cause of all of this was lying on top of a boulder near the well. A teenager, one who was wearing strange and unfamiliar clothing, was curled up upon the rock, his face blue from frost.
“Who is this? Why is he sleeping here? Is he frozen to death?”
“Black hair? He probably came from outside the village.”
“Ah, what a pitiful soul. I hope he can safely return to the Light G.o.d. There is never any cold there, only warmth.”
All villagers who have gathered silently motioned a sign across their chest. Towards this strange youth who was seemingly frozen to death, they could only offer their blessings.
“Scary!” A little boy standing next to a peasant woman suddenly retreated in fright, “Mom! This big brother just moved.”
The little boy was short, that was why he was the first to notice the “dead” big brother’s nose twitching.
Ah? All the villagers were startled and simultaneously took a step back. They glanced at each other, a chill running up their spines.
Finally, an old farmer wearing a big black dome hat walked forward and leaned down to probe the young man’s breath for signs of vitality. He breathed out a sigh of relief: “This child is still breathing, he didn’t die.”
“Ha, the Light G.o.d is watching over us.”
“Praise G.o.d.”
The old farmer gently slapped the young man’s cheeks: “Child, wake up, come on, wake up…”
“Hrrmm…” The teenage boy shuddered and let out a soft grunt, his eyes slowly opening.
Maybe due to being frozen for so long, the teenage boy didn’t say a single word after waking up. He only kept staring at the surrounding with a surprised look, his body occasionally shivering.
“Could it be that that he had been frozen stupid?” a quick-mouthed housewife spoke.
Not waiting for a reply, a peaceful voice travelled across the crowd towards the people standing at the front: “What happened here?”
“Oh, good morning Father York.”
This person who was called Father York seemed to be respected by everyone, wherever he went the people parted to allow him a path. A middle-aged man carrying a lunch box appeared, his demeanor calm while friendly replying to all the greetings.
Finished listening to the old farmer’s recounting of what happened, Father York looked at the young man up and down: “Hm, it seems like he was not affected mildly by the cold, luckily he was blessed by our G.o.d.”
Father York put down his lunch box, his hands drawing a strange symbol pattern in the air. A halo of light appeared and shined down upon the youth.
The farmers were all excitedly watching this warm halo of light. No small amount of people began to draw their own signs, their mouths softly whispering praises and prayers.
The youth who was enveloped by the light was shocked, his jaw ajar. His eyes were wide opened, staring at the strange phenomenon in front of him. What is this, a portable heating lamp? And what about all these people, why are they all blonde? What kind of situation is this?
Dozens of seconds later, the halo of light disappeared. Father York smiled and said: “Young man, how are you feeling?”
“Warm…” The young man replied subconsciously.
“That is good, stand up and move a little, soon you will fully recover.” Finished speaking, Father York took out a piece of rye bread from inside his wooden box and pressed it into Tang En’s hands.
Once he was done, Father York bid farewell to the surrounding villagers and left.
“Praise G.o.d, Father York is such a kind messenger of Light.”
“That’s right, right now… He’s heading west, probably to give the elderly people who lack any support some food.”
The villagers raced each other to praise the Father’s good deeds and kind personality. Soon, they began to scatter, since there was still much to do in the morning.
The young man wearing the strange clothes pulled on the sleeves of the old farmer: “May I ask where this is? Are we in Europe?”
The old farmer gave him a strange look: “Europe? What’s that? This place is Little Stone Village of the t.i.tus Kingdom.”
“t.i.tus Kingdom?” The youth was surprised. He cautiously asked, “Is this Earth?”
“Earth? What kind of orb is that?”
“It can’t be, I really was transported?” The young man hugged his head and mumbled.
The young man was Tang En, he had just graduated from college a month ago. As a modern day college student he obviously had read web novels, and was no stranger to world travelling stories. But…
“Isn’t it just fiction? How did I really travel to another world? Wait, how DID I cross over?”
Tang En knocked on his own head and quickly immersed himself in his memories. After graduating, he had no luck at all with finding a job. Currently, the market was overflowing with new graduates and there was a serious devaluations of skills. Even the people from famous and well known colleges would have a tough time finding jobs, don’t even mention his backwater mountain college.
After a month of laboriously applying for work, Tang En had increasingly grown jaded. He sent applications to countless places, but rarely do they even get a second look. He decided to put his applications online. The chances were even slimmer there, but at least it doesn’t cost him anything to try.
On that day he got out of bed, and as always he booted up his ancient computer. He landed on a large job site. Then he searched all the keywords and sent out two hundred electronic applications without really reading the requests. Just as he clicked on the confirmation b.u.t.ton, a game ad popped up.
“Heavens, they really won’t spare any location from ads.”
As Tang En was preparing to close the advertis.e.m.e.nt, his eyes inadvertently swept across the advertising slogan “Do you have the guts to say no to your ordinary life?”
Honestly put, this was a very standard ad, with no creativity whatsoever. The common tactics of putting b.u.t.ts and b.o.o.bs everywhere on the ad really didn’t make it stand out in any way. Even though these ads didn’t cost him a dime, it had cheated him at least five clicks.
But this advertis.e.m.e.nt had successfully moved Tang En.
Ordinary huh… Tang En smiled ruefully. He had lived for over twenty years and had always questioned the purpose of his existence.
Tang En’s family wasn’t rich, nor was he from a prestigious lineage. He was born in a average family, both his parents were blue collar workers. They always did their best to provide Tang En with resources, helping him along the way, they raised him until he had matured.
At school, both his looks and accomplishments were likewise average, teachers neither excessively praised nor scolded him. No special talents, no amazing show of effort, but he had never committed any grievous mistakes. That’s how he remained just outside of the teacher’s edge of vision. At the end of each semester, his report cards always stated that he was quiet and calm, one who followed all the rules diligently and never caused any trouble. But in regards to his performance there really was more to be desired.
After that, when he tried to apply for higher education, his mediocre grades could at best net him an underachieving college.
During college, he befriended wrong people, found a girlfriend, learnt how to smoke and began to make a habit of retaking exams. When not hanging out with his girlfriend, he played games and read web novels.
When he graduated, his girlfriend departed. The girl admitted she couldn’t take being with him any longer. He was the kind of man who was insipid like stale water, without a single pa.s.sion nor notable activity. She said that just the very thought of continuing this type of life with him caused her to suffocate.
“Isn’t a normal life good?” Tang En was confused.
“A normal life is fine, but your kind of normal can let me instantly foresee the next decades of your life. This is simply too horrifying, I really can’t take it anymore.”
“Furthermore, this is a matter of love, not marriage.” She said before leaving.
At that moment, Tang En had felt true pain, and he struggled to comprehend his fault.
Thinking of the final words spoken by his ex-girlfriend before leaving, Tang En moved the mouse over the ad and clicked “Yes”.
Fine, if that’s the case, I will choose to reject this ordinary life!
Game File Loading 1%, 2%…
Awakening from his mood, Tang En looked at the slowly crawling download bar, and smiled with some pain. Oh, whatever: worst comes to worst I will relax by playing a game.
Seeing that it will be a long time before the game finished downloading, Tang En returned to the previous website and continued to push his applications out. He stood up and boiled some water.
When Tang En returned to his computer, the game had successfully downloaded to 95%.
Oh, the servers aren’t bad, that was pretty fast.
96%, 97%, 98%, 99%…
After that… There was no after that.
3 minutes later, the loading bar was still stuck at 99%…
“f.u.c.k!” Tang En angrily slapped the desk, causing it to shake and the cup of water to splash left and right.
He decided to smack the big monitor and kick the computer case, hoping to get some reaction. This habit was carried from ever since he was a child watching the old televisions. For electronics, a kick will usually solve everything.
But unfortunately, he once again realized that this surefire method of fixing electronics was no longer useful, or at least not right now. The bar was still stuck at 99%.
Tang En was completely oblivious to his actions, causing the boiling water to spill out from the cup and spread throughout the table. Currently, a small droplet of water was slowly making its way towards the power adapter.
The frustrated Tang En was still unconvinced that there was nothing he could do, and casually sent another kick towards the computer case. He missed, and instead accidentally stepped on the power adapter.
Sparks flew, and flames were born…
Tang En immediately panicked, but his head had already flown towards the big monitor, hitting it.
As his eyes dimmed, Tang En saw that the loading bar finally reached 100%. On the screen appeared “a.s.sa.s.sin System” in large letters. Standing out amongst the blood red background was a dark, shadow figure.
Before his death, he didn’t even experience the cliché “all my memories flashes before my eyes” that novelists always use, but instead his thoughts were:
“When it comes to electronics, a kick will always set them straight…”
“Are you serious? I was killed by a d.a.m.n gla.s.s of water?” Tang En said with some sadness as his memories returned fully,.
He lived thanks to water, and finally died because of water, what kind of irony is this…
“Mom and dad, this child is unfilial!” Thinking about his own death, and how his now elderly and childless parents will have to cope with it, Tang En felt incomparable frustration and pulled on his hair.
“Ding… a.s.sa.s.sin System activating.”
“Files loading…”
“Ding, some data has been corrupted, patching using host’s data…”
“Retrieving host’s data files… Loading…”
“Ding!” Loading complete.”