1: Chapter 1 A Stormy Summer Night

Chen Wu's fingertips pressed five white marks onto the glass of the convenience store freezer. The fluorescent light tubes overhead hummed with an electric buzz, reflecting off the oily packaging of the braised beef instant noodles on the shelf. He stared at the price tag that read "Promotion Price 4.5 Yuan," his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed his saliva. His plastic sandals crunched over potato chip crumbs someone had spilled on the floor, making a faint cracking sound.

His tie was a synthetic fiber piece bought from Pinduoduo for 9.9 yuan with free shipping; at this moment, it felt like a venomous snake coiled around his neck, scraping against his Adam's apple with every swallow. The July air was so thick it could be wrung for water. Sweat slid down the groove of his spine into his underwear, soaking his cheap shirt until it was semi-transparent, faintly revealing a light brown birthmark on the back of his neck shaped like a crumpled maple leaf.

"Ding-ling—"

Amidst the chime of the glass door opening and closing, Chen Wu looped the plastic bag over his wrist. Three cups of instant noodles, two bags of yogurt, and some near-expiry ham on special—together, they exactly used up the last thirty yuan of his phone balance. As he fished out his keychain, the metal ring dug into his palm painfully. That set of keys included his rental room, the bicycle shed, and his office drawer; every single one had been worn smooth, much like his own featureless life over the past twenty-eight years.

Three streetlights at the corner were broken, and mold climbed from the base of the walls to the ceiling, appearing greenish-gray in the dim yellow halo of the streetlamps. Chen Wu walked forward, counting the cracks in the floor tiles. The seventh tile was missing a corner, and there was a dead cockroach under the nineteenth—these details formed his fixed trajectory every day after work, like a repeatedly crushed rut deeply mired in the swamp of life.

"Bottom of the performance rankings again this month..." he muttered to himself toward the peeling hallway door, his voice carrying the characteristic rasp of a middle-aged man. The moment he inserted the key into the lock, a crisp sound of shattering glass suddenly came from behind him. It startled him so much his fingers trembled, and the keychain dropped to the ground, triggering a string of echoes in the silent night.

The figures of five men blocked the end of the alley, the streetlights stretching their shadows long and twisting them into hideous monsters on the ground. The yellow-haired youth at the front flicked a butterfly knife, the blade glinting coldly in the shadows of the surveillance blind spot. The handle was wrapped in black tape, revealing half of a faded skull sticker. Opposite him was a girl in a blue and white school uniform. One strap of her backpack was broken, and she was using her trembling hands to protect the student ID on her chest. As she backed away, her heel hit a beer bottle by the wall, causing the shattering sound from earlier.

"Little sister, not home yet this late?" The yellow-haired youth spat out his cigarette butt, Mars splashing on the girl's snow-white socks. "We brothers know a shortcut; we guarantee it's faster than a taxi." The green-haired and red-haired youths behind him burst into laughter. A fat man fished a can of beer from his pocket, the sound of the pull-tab opening being exceptionally piercing in the night.

Chen Wu instinctively took half a step back, and the yogurt bottles in his plastic bag suddenly tilted, causing the metal shelf to creak. The yellow-haired youth's knife tip instantly turned toward him, the whistle of the blade cutting through the air making the hair on the back of his neck stand up: "What are you looking at? You want to die!"

Right then, Chen Wu heard that voice.

It wasn't the yellow-haired youth's threat, nor the girl's suppressed sobbing, but a kind of buzzing from within his skull, like the static sound of an old television tuning, followed by a synthesized mechanical voice exploding in his mind: [Global Livestream Room has been activated, current viewers: 1]

His vision was suddenly partitioned into six sections, like six high-definition screens unfolding across his retina. The top-left was a high-altitude overhead view, showing the layout of the entire alley; the top-right was infrared thermal imaging, where the body temperatures of the five thugs appeared orange-red, while the girl was a trembling light-blue dot; the middle four were respectively muscle dynamic capture, heart rate monitoring, environmental analysis, and a barrage interface—at this moment, the barrage area was still blank, with only a few scattered pixels flickering.

"This... this is..." A dry sound escaped Chen Wu's throat. The yellow-haired youth's knife tip had already approached within thirty centimeters, and he could see the dried dark-red stains on the blade. The System notification sounded again: [Potential danger detected, activating combat assistance mode]

Time suddenly became viscous, like honey poured into warm water. Chen Wu saw the muscles in the yellow-haired youth's wrist begin to contract as the butterfly knife traced an arc, the tip aiming for his throat. In the muscle dynamic capture screen, all of this was decomposed into slow motion: the flexor carpi ulnaris tensed, the radial artery's pulse frequency increased, and the rotator cuff muscles drove the arm to complete a 0.7-second knife-swing trajectory.

Images of his grandfather before his death suddenly surfaced. It was an attic filled with Chinese medicinal herbs, where the gaunt old man pressed his hand against the birthmark on the back of his neck, coughing as he said: "Wu-wa, remember this form... Surging Wave Hands, waves divide into three layers, Qi flows through the three Yin..." The blood droplets the old man coughed up fell onto the yellowed manual, the ink blurring into a dark red patch, much like the number of viewers currently jumping on his retina: 832,457.

His right arm suddenly rose uncontrollably, twisting into a bizarre spiral as if driven by muscle memory. Chen Wu saw his own palm complete three changes of direction within 0.03 seconds, his fingertips first touching the base of the blade, then sliding along the spine of the knife toward the tip, and finally exerting sudden force at the handle—this series of movements was like a pre-installed program, transmitting rapidly between neural synapses.

"Bang!"

The butterfly knife, carrying the sound of breaking air, nailed into a trash can three meters away, the handle vibrating with a hum. The yellow-haired youth stared wide-eyed at his empty right hand, a small bloody gash opening at the webbing of his thumb. In the next second, his entire person was flipped by a massive force. The dull thud of his back hitting the ground startled the stray cats by the wall. He slid seven meters across the ground, finally stopping under an extinguished streetlight, his heels plowing two shallow furrows into the asphalt road.

[First Martial Dao actual combat detected, Baji Fist (Incomplete) supplementing... Supplementation failed, deducing new Move name: Breaking Wave Power]

The barrage area suddenly exploded with a riot of colors.

Chen Wu panted as he looked at his right hand, the coolness of the metal blade still lingering in his palm. The remaining four thugs had already surrounded him in a fan shape. The green-haired one brandished a piece of rebar, rust falling off in flakes; the red-haired one pulled a switchblade from his waist, the click of the blade popping out making the girl let out a suppressed scream; the fat man smashed a beer bottle against his knee, revealing a jagged rim; finally, the thin youth with purple hair fished out a stun baton from somewhere, the crackling electric arcs illuminating his bruised and swollen face.

"Kill this kid!" The green-haired youth was the first to rush up, the rebar whistling as it swung toward Chen Wu's head.

A red warning box suddenly popped up in his vision, and the muscle dynamic capture screen automatically marked the opponent's attack trajectory. Chen Wu felt his body react faster than his consciousness, his knees slightly bending to lower his center of gravity while he slid and turned his body to the left, the movement possessing a beast-like fluidity. The rebar grazed his shoulder and smashed into the ground, throwing off a few sparks.

"Heh!"

The moment he shouted, Chen Wu felt a surge of heat welled up in his Dantian. The breathing technique his grandfather had taught him activated automatically; his tongue pressed against his upper palate, and his nose let out short puffs of air, making a sound similar to waves crashing against rocks. His right arm bent at the elbow, and the elbow smashed toward the green-haired youth's ribs like a battering ram. This strike carried the momentum of his body leaning forward, the muscles at his shoulder blade bulging high and appearing as a fierce orange-red in the infrared screen.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of ribs breaking was transmitted globally through the livestream microphone, and the barrage area was instantly flooded with "Holy shit." The green-haired youth collapsed to the ground like a doll whose bones had been removed. The rebar rolled far away, hitting the drainage ditch at the corner. Chen Wu could even hear his own violent heartbeat; in the six partitioned screens, the heart rate monitoring curve soared to 180 beats per minute, but the muscle fatigue display showed only 12%.

The red-haired youth's switchblade had already stabbed toward his waist. Chen Wu's waist suddenly exerted force, his body rotating 90 degrees to the right. The knife tip grazed his belt buckle, leaving a long, thin slit in his shirt. He took the opportunity to raise his leg, the pattern on the sole of his sneaker clearly reflected in the livestream screen. His instep tensed straight like a sharp blade, booming toward the utility pole behind the red-haired youth as it grazed his ear.

"Thud!"

Cement fragments fell like raindrops, and a three-centimeter-deep footprint clearly appeared on the utility pole, with cracks spreading from the point of impact. The red-haired youth stood frozen on the spot, his left hand unconsciously reaching for his ear. His fingertips touched a trace of blood—it had been cut by the airflow kicked up.

The fat man's broken beer bottle was already before his eyes. Chen Wu suddenly ducked, slipping under the other's armpit, and gave a light push at the fat man's kidney area. This seemingly gentle movement produced an astonishing effect; the fat man's massive frame lost balance and pitched forward. The dull sound of broken glass piercing his palm made someone in the barrage area start spamming "High energy warning."

The last remaining purple-haired youth held the stun baton, knocking over a trash can at the corner as he backed away. Chen Wu turned to look at him and found that his breathing had calmed down at some unknown point. The number of viewers on his retina had a Breakthrough of 5 million, and the System notification sounded again: [Popularity value Breakthrough 5 million, obtained passive buff: Muscle Strength +3%]

"Are... are you human or a ghost?" The purple-haired youth's stun baton dropped to the ground, and urine seeped down his trouser leg into his leather shoes. Only then did Chen Wu notice that his calf muscles were glowing with a strange flush, appearing under the streetlights as if covered in a layer of pale gold scales that flickered with his breathing.

"Scram." He heard his own voice become deep, carrying a kind of majesty that did not belong to a human. The four thugs scrambled to flee, the red-haired youth dragging the green-haired one by the arm, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. The girl curled up in the corner, her backpack dropped by her feet, revealing the high school mock exam papers inside. On the latest page of the math problems, a large "59 points" was written in red ink.

As the sound of sirens approached from a distance, Chen Wu finally felt his legs go weak, staggering against the wall and sliding down to sit on the ground. The plastic bag was still perfectly hanging from his wrist, the cartoon beef chunks on the instant noodle cups grinning under the streetlights as if mocking this surreal battle.

"Comrade, please come back to the station with us to make a statement."

Two beams of flashlight light shone over. Chen Wu squinted his eyes and saw two police officers holding tasers. The younger officer's finger was tight on the trigger, his eyes full of vigilance. As they approached, Chen Wu noticed the older officer's badge read "Zhang Jianjun," the stars on his epaulettes worn shiny, while the younger officer's boot had a piece of gum stuck to it that had already been stepped black.

"Okay." When Chen Wu stood up, the back hem of his shirt lifted a corner, revealing a pale gold wave-like pattern on his right shoulder blade, like the marks left on a beach after the tide recedes, rising and falling gently with his breathing. Zhang Jianjun's pupils suddenly contracted, and his hand unconsciously reached for the sidearm at his waist.

A blood-red notification suddenly popped up on the System interface: [First livestream achievement reached]

• Peak concurrent viewers: 12,345,221 people

• Tips converted to points: 47 points

• Law enforcement agency intervention detected, livestream forced to close

The six partitioned screens disappeared simultaneously, and Chen Wu's vision returned to normal, with only a few pixels remaining and flickering at the corners of his eyes. He reached into his pocket and found the keychain had been picked up at some point; the metal ring dug into the callouses on his palm, giving him a sense of tangible reality.

The police car stopped at the alley entrance, red and blue police lights illuminating the entire area. As Chen Wu was led into the car, he happened to look up and saw a dark figure flash across the opposite rooftop. It was a man in a black trench coat putting down night-vision binoculars, with an electronic synthesized voice coming from his headset: "Target confirmed, Ancient Martial Arts Revival probability 87.3%, suggest initiating the 'Era Break' plan." The man fished a syringe from his inner coat pocket; the pale gold liquid inside glowed under the moonlight, the needle reflecting a cold light.

Inside the police car, the younger officer turned on the recorder, the blue light of the screen reflecting on Chen Wu's face. Zhang Jianjun handed over a bottle of mineral water, the cap already twisted open: "Young man, those Moves you just made... who did you learn them from?"

Chen Wu unscrewed the cap, the water making a gulping sound as it flowed down his throat. He looked at the streetlights receding outside the car window and thought of the yellowed paper his grandfather had stuffed into his hand before dying, which had eight characters written in cinnabar: "Baji Surging Waves, severed for a century." The birthmark on the back of his neck suddenly grew hot, as if a small flame were burning under his skin.

"I don't know either," he heard himself say, his voice carrying a calmness that was unfamiliar even to himself. "Maybe... it's natural."

Outside the car window, the July night wind swept up a fallen leaf, passing the surveillance camera under the traffic light. In some unknown server, 12 million livestream recordings were being deleted in batches, leaving only a few scattered encrypted files flickering like ghost fires in the depths of the dark web. On Chen Wu's retina, a certain pixel never disappeared, like a seed waiting to sprout, quietly lying dormant in the depths of his consciousness.

This night was destined to become the turning point of his life. Like a surging tide brewing beneath a calm sea, at this moment, the first spray of waves had already splashed up.