Chapter One: Through the Wormhole

Covetous glanced back at the distant planet Ram one last time, feeling no trace of nostalgia. With a decisive leap, he entered the unknown.

The vortex of the wormhole was nothing like the frenzied chaos he had imagined; instead, it felt eerily still. For a brief moment, his body floated in a state of perfect weightlessness.

There was no sense of direction—only darkness stretched before his eyes—yet he could intuitively perceive up, down, left, and right with unerring clarity.

It was a sensation that transcended the laws of physics, marvelous and inexplicable.

Excitement and tension intermingled within him.

Wormholes—those enigmatic and unpredictable cosmic phenomena—had been the subject of countless simulations and deductions in his research.

But standing inside one for real, he found the silence and profundity exceeded anything his imagination had conjured.

Ten minutes passed. The vacuum was beginning to press against his lungs, a natural response to such extreme conditions.

He could turn back now, immortalized in scientific lore for this brief venture.

But deep within, Covetous felt an even stronger urge to explore.

With a sigh, he let his instincts take over, moving forward—falling toward an unknown coordinate.

He had no way of knowing what this step would bring.

It was his own choice: to shatter barriers, to cast off the oppression of class. From the moment he dove into the wormhole, his resolve was set.

For the sake of knowledge and truth, he was willing to take risks.

Though he felt no force acting on him, he sensed the alternation of star systems and the shifting of space-time—motion beyond the reach of conventional physics. It was not quantum entanglement but quantum overlap, with no passage of time, yet instant arrival.

He tried to open his eyes, only to be puzzled by the very notion of “opening them again”—for within the wormhole, time’s passage and the shifting of space seemed to have lost all meaning.

Water—boundless water unfolded before him.

Covetous gauged his situation: water pressure at 5.15 megapascals, placing him about fifty meters below the surface. The pressure was still within his body’s tolerance.

This also confirmed something he had suspected: the environments at the wormhole’s entry and exit points were similar.

Relying on instinctual senses, he began scanning his surroundings, only to detect a floating object within range.

Swimming closer, he discovered a corpse—already swollen from water exposure but still lingering in the depths.

“Muscle tissue composition: water content exceeds 200%.”

“Bone strength: 97% below normal.”

“Height: one meter eighty-one, standard.”

“Gender: male.”

“Age: twenty-two.”

“Vital signs: extinguished.”

“Information wave: readable.”

Covetous pressed his hand to the body, activating his data-reading ability to extract the information wave. Fortunately, it remained intact.

Male. Identification code: Xu Yan. Orphan. Recently graduated from university. Native of Summer Nation, Blue Star. Adventure enthusiast.

Both parents died in interstellar exploration, cause unknown.

Xu Yan’s time of death was astonishing—just one minute ago, coinciding with Covetous’s own arrival in these depths.

Observing the swimming trunks, the fin-like equipment, and the breathing apparatus, Covetous deduced that this was a diving enthusiast.

As for the cause of death, he suspected some anomaly related to the wormhole, but the specifics remained unclear.

How intriguing—the wormhole had brought him to a completely unfamiliar world.

From the information wave, Covetous gathered that Blue Star was a planet where technological civilization was only just beginning to emerge.

Compared to his own world, the technological gap was not mere centuries but millennia.

Here he was, perfectly fine at a pressure of 5.15 megapascals, while Xu Yan’s body had collapsed.

He was about to leave, disappointed by his findings, when a piece of data from Xu Yan’s life caught his attention.

It turned out Xu Yan was about to join the Jinjiang Special Forces—a foundational training unit for Blue Star’s interstellar squadron.

The most exceptional recruits would have the opportunity to join the interstellar team, expanding Blue Star’s reach among the stars.

Yet, it seemed another faction on Blue Star occupied half the territory and continually sabotaged these efforts.

Covetous, who had lost interest, now felt a spark of curiosity.

If he could use this opportunity to join Blue Star’s interstellar squadron, he might learn more about the planet’s stellar location and coordinates.

With that thought, Covetous carefully examined and scanned Xu Yan, comparing the time of drowning to reconstruct the original physical state.

Meanwhile, Covetous’s own body began to transform. Within minutes, a new Xu Yan appeared fifty meters below the sea.

He dragged Xu Yan’s corpse to a coral reef, pried open its base, and placed the body within—his way of honoring and compensating the life that had ended.

From this moment, there was no longer an already-deceased Xu Yan on Blue Star, but a brand new Xu Yan.

He surfaced, donning the periscope goggles and fins. Not far away, a small boat floated quietly on the water.

With a single kick, he closed the hundreds of meters in less than ten seconds, reached out, patted the boat’s side, gripped the rail, and vaulted aboard.

The boat was empty. Judging by the distance, Xu Yan had been in the water less than ten minutes. Including the time spent dealing with the body, no more than half an hour had passed. He should not have been noticed.

Yet, he sensed an invisible ripple spreading through the air, reminiscent of phased-array radar.

Though such technology was virtually obsolete in his world, he recalled seeing it described in a museum exhibit, allowing him to recognize this outdated signal-capturing device.

Faced with the boat’s controls, Covetous summoned Xu Yan’s information wave. From the scant data, he finally understood how to operate the craft.

How primitive! It still required manual operation.

He started the engine, activated the navigation system, and set a course for the departure point from Xu Yan’s memory.

Carefully gripping the shoddily made steering handle, he worried he might accidentally crush it.

He could not help but wonder how Blue Star had managed to survive in the interstellar arena.

But to his surprise, his physical senses began to fade. All the innate abilities he had possessed since birth were now reduced to their weakest state.

This was troubling. It seemed Blue Star did not support the primal instincts of his body.

For the first time, fear crept in. He even hesitated to approach the spot where Xu Yan had entered the water.

Just then, a thought flashed through his mind: “But didn’t I die?”

“Who’s there?” Covetous shuddered involuntarily.

“And who are you?” The thought echoed again.

Instead of fear, Covetous broke into a sly, twisted smile.

So this could actually happen to me!