Chapter 1: Interview

“Are you there?”

“Don’t be nervous. Your grades are so good, you’ll definitely pass.”

“Don’t worry about the surgery fees. Mom found a new part-time job; I’ll definitely scrape it together for you. Just focus on your interview with peace of mind.”

Looking at the message from his mother on the screen, Zhang Yu silently put away his phone, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and waited quietly.

After a long while, a call number echoed from the front.

“Candidate number 989, Zhang Yu.”

Zhang Yu stood up and walked into the interview room.

He looked at the three interviewers and offered the polite smile he had practiced for a long time: “Hello, everyone. I am Zhang Yu from Dongyang Junior High School.”

The interviewer in the middle looked at him and said indifferently, “Why did you apply to our school?”

Zhang Yu: “Your school’s long history, profound heritage, and rich teaching resources have always cultivated many outstanding talents for society…”

The interviewer frowned and interrupted, “Spare me the pleasantries.”

Zhang Yu said honestly, “I want to get into a prestigious university. Songyang High School has the highest university admission rate among all the schools I am eligible to apply to.”

The interviewer smiled slightly, looked at the documents in his hand, and said, “Hmm, perfect scores in all subjects, first in your school? No wonder you were recommended.”

“Your grades are fine, but to get into Songyang High School, relying solely on school exam scores is far from enough.”

He thought for a moment and asked casually, “How long do you sleep every day?”

Zhang Yu: “Five hours.”

The interviewer said with surprise, “Five hours?”

“Students at our school have averaged less than two hours of sleep a day since elementary school. As for our top graduates, they basically don’t sleep at all.”

“You actually sleep five hours a day? That means you study three hours less than others every day. Over nine years, that’s a difference of nearly ten thousand hours…”

Zhang Yu was slightly stunned. He hadn’t expected that he, who thought he had already worked so hard, still had such a huge gap in effort compared to others. He knew that students in Songyang City started elementary school at age 9 and entered high school at 18, but he hadn’t expected that in those same nine years, the gap between people would be so vast.

Zhang Yu quickly said, “I will work hard to catch up with them.”

The interviewer on the left asked, “How much of the high school curriculum have you learned?”

Zhang Yu calmed down slightly and said confidently, “I have already self-studied the first year of high school curriculum.”

The other party frowned slightly: “Only the first year? Don’t you know that our classes assume students have already finished the entire high school curriculum?”

Zhang Yu was stunned upon hearing this. This was another piece of information he hadn’t known; what he thought was an advantage had turned into a disadvantage in the blink of an eye.

Just as he was at a loss, the interviewer in the middle asked the next question.

“To improve learning efficiency and prevent puppy love, our school requires all students to undergo sterilization surgery to remove relevant organs before enrollment, so they can focus on cultivation from then on.”

“Do you know about this?”

Finally hearing something he knew, he quickly replied, “My family is already preparing for it. I will definitely complete the sterilization surgery before school starts to keep my hormone levels at the most suitable level for studying.”

The interviewer nodded noncommittally: “Alright, today’s interview is over. You may leave.”

Zhang Yu walked out of the classroom feeling uneasy; he felt his interview time seemed shorter than that of other students.

After he left, the interviewer in the middle shook his head: “Not even sterilized by middle school; this child’s heart for the Dao is not firm enough.”

The female interviewer on the side smiled: “I think he came here without knowing anything. He doesn’t have the required test reports or extracurricular exam scores. I can only say that the quality of recommended students from these ordinary middle schools gets worse every year. If it weren’t for the support policies, they wouldn’t even be qualified to see us.”

The interviewer in the middle nodded: “Sigh, I thought the poor would be a bit more diligent. Perhaps my expectations for them were too high.”

“Let’s put this one on the waitlist for now.”

With that, he threw Zhang Yu’s resume into the wastebasket beside him, where it was squeezed in with hundreds of other waitlisted resumes.

Although Zhang Yu felt his interview hadn’t gone very well, he had no extra time to dwell on it. He had already begun preparing for one interview after another, visiting different high schools.

“Student Zhang Yu, we understand that your family situation is likely insufficient to cover the tuition here. However, we offer favorable loan services for impoverished students; as long as you are willing to mortgage some non-essential organs…”

“Don’t worry, you’re in the right place. We know you’re a boy, but while our school is a girls’ school, we never discriminate against men. As long as you complete the gender reassignment surgery, not only will you be admitted, but you will also be considered a seed student with a firm Dao heart, with the opportunity to enter the key class to learn the Art of Primordial Yin Qi Refining…”

“It’s a pity, you are still a little short of our admission standards. However, this year, to accommodate impoverished students, we have launched a special talent policy. If you are willing to give up your physical body, you can study in the principal’s Ten Thousand Soul Banner as a soul-cultivation talent…”

“Classmate, you’ve come to the right place. We are the high school most suitable for a civilian genius like you.”

“Let me introduce you to the benefits here. We add intelligence boosters to the drinking water to ensure students stay in a level-five focus state at all times.”

“Every day, the head teacher will distribute over 900 grams of supplements specifically for ox-demons to ensure your cultivation results are ten times higher than before.”

“Even the air circulation system is filled with nerve stimulants, so you never need to sleep again, and all of this is free.”

“Of course, to withstand these performance-enhancing supplements, you must complete the modifications at our designated hospital.”

“Don’t worry, as long as you implant a few small magical artifacts to boost your metabolic capacity—here is the specific price list…”

Interview after interview, question after question.

Either the threshold was impossibly high, leaving him with no hope, or it was a trap-filled contract that made him feel like he would be swallowed whole.

All of this made Zhang Yu feel like he was being crushed, unable to breathe.

At this moment, he suddenly realized that with his top-of-the-school grades at an ordinary suburban middle school, he was already worlds apart from the students in the city center.

Even now, he only knew the tip of the iceberg regarding the true gap between them.

His hard work over the past few years seemed to have become a joke.

In the end, he was no different from those classmates who didn’t study; he, too, couldn’t get into high school.

Returning home, Zhang Yu sat silently like a stone statue.

The phone on the table vibrated repeatedly.

Mother: How did the interview go?

Mother: I have to work overtime today. Remember to heat up the food in the fridge yourself.

A moment later, the phone vibrated again.

Mother: Son, don’t worry. Whether you choose sterilization or gender reassignment, Mom will definitely scrape together the money for the surgery for you.

But Zhang Yu didn’t look at the vibrating phone. He just stared blankly at the ceiling, trying to think about the future, but felt as if his head was empty, unable to squeeze out a single thought.

Just then, the phone vibrated violently again.

Zhang Yu didn’t want to pay attention to it, but after the phone vibrated for a full minute, he finally couldn’t help but pick it up, only to find that the other party had already hung up.

Then he received a message from them: Your reserve fund of 5,000 has been prepared and will arrive in ten seconds…

“A micro-loan ad?”

“Hmph.”

Zhang Yu thought his interview information must have been sold by some school.

But after putting the phone down for a moment, he picked it up again and clicked on the message.

…

That night, after his mother returned from overtime, she found that Zhang Yu, who had looked ashen, seemed to have recovered and was sitting at the table reading.

“Mom, don’t worry. I won’t be defeated so easily.”

“If I can’t do it this year, I’ll take the exam again next year. I will definitely cultivate immortality.”

“I’ll go find a tutoring center tomorrow. I’m going to make up for everything I’m missing, one by one.”

Early the next morning, Zhang Yu rushed out, and when he returned that night, his face was full of joy.

“Mom, I found an Immortal Dao tutoring center. The teachers there are all invited from key high schools. If I study with them, I’ll definitely be able to get into high school.”

“Don’t worry about the tuition. They think I’ve had good grades since I was a child and know my family isn’t wealthy, so they’ve temporarily waived the tuition. As long as I can get into Songyang High School next year, I won’t have to pay it back; it’ll just be considered advertising for them.”

“Don’t worry, they are a big company; they won’t lie.”

His mother watched as Zhang Yu left before dawn every day to go to the tutoring center and studied until two or three in the morning after returning home late at night.

Watching him constantly bring back textbooks for the second and third years of high school—Chinese, Math, Physics, and so on—and seeing that he intended to finish all the general education courses in high school besides the Immortal Dao, she felt comforted by her son’s ambition.

But when she saw the boxes of medicine he brought back, a trace of doubt welled up in her heart.

Zhang Yu explained with a smile: “Mom, since I was a child, I’ve already studied ten thousand hours less than those top students. If I don’t work hard, they’ll just pull further and further away from me.”

“These nerve stimulants allow me to only need half an hour of sleep a day, improving my learning efficiency so I won’t be left behind by the students in the city.”

“Don’t worry, these medicines don’t cost money.”

“The principal of our tutoring center thinks highly of me, and these medicines were a gift from him.”

Hearing that they were gifts from the principal, his mother was even happier that her son was being appreciated.

Soon, Zhang Yu brought back even more things.

Besides various high school textbooks and nerve stimulants, there were capsules to regulate hormone levels, supplements specifically for demonic beasts, and bottles of unpackaged medicinal powder.

Zhang Yu had many explanations: sometimes he said they were cheap goods he bought while working, sometimes he said they were gifts from classmates, and sometimes he said they were rewards from the tutoring center…

His mother was happy for her son’s diligence and even happier for his good relationships and excellent performance at the tutoring center.

She transferred 1,000 yuan to Zhang Yu, telling him to remember to thank his classmates and teachers.

But gradually, she noticed that Zhang Yu’s mood began to change. Sometimes he would be happy before leaving in the morning, but would return at night without saying a word and go straight to sleep.

Sometimes he would be happily eating, only to frown and lose his appetite after receiving a phone call.

She knew it must be the pressure of cultivating immortality that was keeping Zhang Yu’s nerves taut.

She could only buy more of the things he liked and save more tuition money, hoping to help him relieve some of the pressure.

Gradually, she also noticed that Zhang Yu was particularly protective of his phone. Not only did he almost never leave it behind, but he also forbade anyone from touching it, and he always went into the bathroom and closed the door to answer calls.

Once, she saw the phone was out of power and took it to charge, only to be scolded angrily by Zhang Yu.

Understanding that he was under a lot of pressure, she never dared to touch his phone again, fearing it would affect his cultivation.

Suddenly one day, Zhang Yu asked her for tutoring fees, saying the center had invited a senior who had been admitted to a top university to give a lecture, and this was money for the senior.

Then came the recommendation fee for the high school admissions teacher.

The spiritual root testing fee for the hospital.

And the need to buy a civilian-grade children’s flying sword with his classmates at the tutoring center.

From two or three thousand to seven or eight thousand… the last time, he asked her to transfer twenty thousand yuan, which Zhang Yu said was the fee to rent a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

But the good news finally arrived: Zhang Yu had successfully been admitted to Songyang High School.

His mother was overjoyed. She was proud of her son’s hard work and talent, and she readily agreed to all the tuition, miscellaneous fees, and medicine costs that Zhang Yu mentioned next.

But after school started, the money Zhang Yu asked for became more and more, and the family’s income gradually couldn’t keep up with the expenses.

Finally, one afternoon, listening to the voice on the other end of the phone, his mother’s heart trembled.

“Hello? Is this Zhang Yu’s mother?”

“Do you know that your son’s loan is already 30 days overdue…”

That night, Zhang Yu confessed everything to his mother.

All the expenses during his studies over the past period were not the free gifts, appreciation, or donations he had claimed… the money had all come from loans he took out on various platforms.

“Mom, I’m sorry.”

“But I really want to cultivate immortality.”

“Even if I’m in debt for the rest of my life and can’t pay it back, I still want to cultivate immortality…”

After hearing all this, his mother silently sold everything valuable in the house and then borrowed more money to pay off Zhang Yu’s debts.

She thought her son would be able to cultivate immortality with peace of mind from then on.

But she soon discovered her son had new overdue loans.

Repaying… borrowing… repaying… borrowing…

His mother finally couldn’t help but urge Zhang Yu to spend less money.

“Mom, this medicine can’t be stopped. If I stop, my Dao heart will regress, and all my previous efforts will be wasted…”

“The Heavenly Spiritual Root must be rented. Without it, my mana won’t keep up…”

“This VIP card for the tutoring center needs to be topped up, otherwise I won’t understand the techniques the school teachers are teaching…”

Advanced Immortal Dao technology allowed mortals without spiritual roots to embark on the path of immortality, but the cost was that one had to undergo the most expensive learning and maintenance regularly to continue.

In the blink of an eye, three months of school passed. Seeing the debts piling up, to the point where they couldn’t even afford the rent, water, and electricity… all of this seemed like an endless nightmare, and his mother finally couldn’t take it anymore.

So, when he came home from school one day, Zhang Yu never saw his mother’s figure again.

After reading the note his mother left behind, he sat blankly for a long time, then finally picked up his phone and walked out.

…

On the rooftop of the rented apartment.

A sharp pain came from the man’s mind, gradually awakening his chaotic consciousness from the darkness.

He opened his eyes and looked forward, seeing a street not far away with people coming and going and sewage flowing everywhere.

On both sides of the street, neon signs of various colors flickered. Looking up, dark buildings were squeezed together, as if to block out the entire sky.

The building under his feet was a dilapidated apartment, and the mottled red brick wall was still projecting a video of a financial advertisement. In the ad, immortals flying through the sky and burrowing into the ground were recommending a new user thirty-day interest-free Immortal Cultivation Loan.

“I wasn’t playing Black Myth: Wukong?”

“Where is this?”

Just as he was wondering what was going on, he turned his head and found the rooftop covered in candles.

Rows of candles flickering with scarlet flames surrounded him and a tattered doll.

It was a cloth doll with yellowed, faded fabric and crooked stitching, looking as if it could fall apart at any moment.

The eerie scene seemed to stimulate his brain, causing fragments of memories to roll and jump back and forth in his mind.

“This isn’t China… Did I get sent to another world?”

He found it hard to accept the fact of transmigrating.

But the real memories in his head about Immortal Dao technology kept impacting his consciousness, reminding him that he was already in another world while he gradually merged with the original body.

This was Kunxu, a super-structure standing on the earth in a pyramid shape, with thirty-six floors above ground and eighteen floors below.

Starting from the first floor, which was the largest and resembled a continent, each floor was a new world.

As for what the world outside Kunxu looked like, there was no answer in Zhang Yu’s head.

He only knew that within Kunxu, it was a world where the major sects of the Immortal Dao were supreme.

The major sects were high and mighty, almost monopolizing food, energy, transportation, education, scientific research, medical care, finance, the internet, and all other industries. The government and military were more like security guards in front of the sect’s law enforcement teams.

But ordinary people had no luck enjoying most of the benefits brought by Immortal Dao technology and were instead busy making a living every day.

And he was a high school student named Zhang Yu living on the first floor of Kunxu, who had just been admitted to Songyang High School and had recently been obsessed with some strange ritual…

“The current me has become Zhang Yu of another world.”

Just then, a sharp pain came from his palm, waking Zhang Yu, who was immersed in the impact of the memories.

He looked down and saw a transparent symbol appearing in his palm, gradually turning black at an extremely slow speed.

“What is this thing?”

As the night wind blew, the scarlet candlelight all around flickered.

And the tattered doll on the ground stared at him with empty eyes made of black buttons.

He wanted to recall what was going on, but the more he thought, the more his head hurt and the dizzier he felt.

The atmosphere in the air became increasingly eerie and strange. Zhang Yu clutched his dizzy head, feeling the world spinning around him.

When he came to his senses, he found that he had wandered off the rooftop and returned to his front door step by step.

Glancing at the rent collection notice, he stepped through the door. All that met Zhang Yu’s eyes were a bed and a table.

“Is this my home?”

Feeling his sticky skin soaked in sweat and the incredibly stuffy environment, Zhang Yu wanted to find the air conditioner remote, only to remember that there was no air conditioner in this house.

He wanted to take a shower, but found the water had been cut off.

Zhang Yu sat down on the bed, feeling helpless.

“What a dump.”

“So what if there are immortals? This life is worse than a world without immortals.”

Zhang Yu’s gaze swept across the wall, and he found that the wall behind the table was covered with awards from childhood to the present.

First grade, second grade, third grade… all the way to the third year of middle school, the original Zhang Yu was almost the top of his grade every year.

Looking at these awards, various memories of receiving them flooded into Zhang Yu’s mind: “The original Zhang Yu was a diligent and hardworking student who had excellent grades since he was a child.”

“The Songyang High School he is currently attending is also a key high school in the city.”

“I’m a top student.”

Recalling the knowledge in his mind, Zhang Yu’s eyes gradually brightened: “Getting into a prestigious university means Foundation Establishment, joining a major sect means Golden Core, and I can climb higher in Kunxu, leave this slum, and enjoy more benefits of Immortal Dao technology. Living a few hundred more years won’t be a problem then.”

Thinking of this, Zhang Yu suddenly felt that coming to this world seemed like a good thing.

Just as he was thinking this, his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Zhang Yu. Your loan on our platform is already 3 days overdue…”

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yu flipped through the text messages on his phone and found a dense list of payment reminders—all overdue collection notices from various platforms the original body had borrowed from.

At the same time, relevant memories in his mind flooded out.

“This guy started borrowing money for tutoring before entering high school. After entering Songyang High School, in order to keep up with everyone’s grades, he had a flash of inspiration and started borrowing from one platform to pay off another, borrowing money everywhere to buy medicine and tutoring, forcibly stimulating his potential. In the end, not only did he borrow more and more money, but his potential was also gradually squeezed dry.”

“This bastard is an Immortal Cultivation genius disguised by platform loans.”

“Even his mother couldn’t stand him and finally left.”

Calculating the total overdue loans, cold sweat immediately broke out on Zhang Yu’s forehead.

He discovered that with compound interest, Zhang Yu already owed over 700,000 yuan to various platforms.

And looking at his account, there was only fifty-something yuan left.

“Owe 700,000… Damn it!”

Zhang Yu punched the bed hard and said angrily: “In this world… even for a heaven-sent genius who graduated from high school, this is a huge debt.”

“No wonder this guy was obsessed with some messy rituals… He’s just a loan-dog with no hope in life.”

“He had his fun, and now I have to pay his debts?”

At the same time, the lights in the room suddenly went out.

After pressing the switch repeatedly and observing the situation of other neighbors, Zhang Yu confirmed one thing… his power had been cut off.

“This dump…”

“If only I could wake up tomorrow morning and be back…”

With all sorts of messy thoughts swirling in his mind, Zhang Yu finally fell into a drowsy sleep on the bed.

And on his palm, the originally transparent symbol had been filled with black by one-tenth.

(End of chapter)