All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

At 4:10 a.m., Liu Ming woke up before the alarm clock went off.

It's not that I've had enough sleep, it's that my biological clock has woken up my body.

He stared at the crack in the ceiling, counted to three, then threw off the covers and sat up.

The temperature in the dungeon at dawn is always the same—neither too hot nor too cold, just right so you can't fall asleep or wake up.

There was a faint musty smell in the air, mixed with the smell of engine oil from next door and the burnt smell of synthetic proteins wafting from the communal kitchen.

Liu Ming put on his faded work clothes, slipped on his boots, and pushed open the door.

People were already walking around in the corridor.

An elderly man with a hunched back walked by carrying a lunchbox and nodded to him; two young men in the same work clothes came out of the dormitory next door and whispered to each other; the vendors selling dried earthworms downstairs had already set up their stalls, and their shouts floated up the stairs.

"Freshly dried earthworms! Just came in today!"

Liu Ming ignored him and went straight to the communal kitchen. He got a standard breakfast—a bowl of synthetic protein porridge, two compressed biscuits, and a small dish of pickled vegetables—and ate it while squatting in a corner.

The porridge was warm, the biscuits were hard, and the pickled vegetables were overly salty.

The parking garage is on the third basement level, a fifteen-minute walk away. The passageway is bustling with people, all like him, rushing to work.

No one spoke, only the sound of footsteps; hundreds of feet pounded on the metal floor, creating a dull echo.

Liu Ming's car was parked in the corner, number 0713.

The car body was covered in rust, the tires were almost worn flat, and there was a lingering smell of engine oil in the cab.

He got in, did his routine checks, and then started the car.

The engine shook three times before finally catching its breath.

The car radio turned on automatically, and the female anchor's voice drifted out:

"Today is March 16, 2075 in the United Government calendar. The temperature in the underground city remains at 18°C, while the surface temperature is -84°C. The planetary engines are operating normally, and Unit 3 is currently under maintenance, expected to be operational tonight. We urge all citizens to continue working with peace of mind and contribute to the human survival plan..."

Focus on your work.

Liu Ming's lips twitched slightly as he stepped on the gas.

The car entered the tunnel leading to the surface. The tunnel was very long, and the lights on both sides receded one after another.

He gripped the steering wheel, staring at the hazy entrance to the passageway ahead, his mind blank.

In the years since he transmigrated here, he has heard the radio every day and has become numb to the mechanical AI voice on the radio.

As one of the lucky ones to enter the underground city, Liu Ming recalled how he looked when he first transmigrated three years ago, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips.

He was so excited back then.

Time travel! A real time travel! Although I didn't become some big shot or get any system cheat codes, being able to live another life, isn't that lucky enough?

He remembered that on his first day in the dungeon, he wandered around like an idiot.

Look at the sky simulated on that huge display screen, look at the people crammed into the narrow space, look at the coalition government personnel hurrying by in uniform.

"This is The Wandering Earth!" he shouted in his heart. "I'm here! I'm really here!"

and then?

Then he was assigned a job.

Truck driver. He gets up at four in the morning every day, hauls stones every day, and listens to that AI female anchor saying "Work with peace of mind." One day, two days, one month, one year, three years.

At first, he would look at the display screen during his breaks to see the simulated "stars".

I stopped going because it was too far; it would take half an hour to walk there.

At first, he would chat with his coworkers, listen to their daily lives, and talk about his ideals and aspirations.

At first, he thought that maybe a miracle would happen. Maybe he would encounter an opportunity, like a movie protagonist, and change something.

Later, I stopped thinking about it because the miracle didn't happen, and life went on.

Three years.

He survived. He didn't freeze to death, he didn't starve to death, he wasn't accidentally injured in the conflict, and he wasn't conscripted to do more dangerous work.

He survived, like millions of others in the underground city, living like a cog in a machine.

Then, a month ago, that chat group appeared.

Liu Ming remembers that night, he dragged his tired body back to the dormitory as usual, ready to fall asleep immediately. Then a semi-transparent panel suddenly appeared in front of him.

[A matching life form detected... Connecting...]

Welcome to the Multiverse Chat Group!

He thought he was hallucinating. He rubbed his eyes, but they were still there. He pinched his thigh; it hurt. He looked again, and they were still there.

People were already talking in the group. One was named Ao Qing, another Peter Parker, another Kara, and another You Lingfeng. They were talking about terms that Liu Ming was very familiar with from his previous life—cultivation, superpowers, Krypton, and a world of high-level martial arts.

Liu Ming was stunned for a long time.

Then he did what a time traveler should do: he sent the first message after joining the group.

Liu Ming: Is anyone there? Is this real?

Ao Qing was the first to reply: "Really! Are you new here? Which world are you from?"

Liu Ming hesitated for a long time before typing: "The Wandering Earth".

There was a few seconds of silence in the group chat.

You Lingfeng: "The Wandering Earth? The Three-Body Problem movie?"

Liu Ming: "Yes."

Ao Qing: "What kind of world is that? Can you cultivate immortality there?"

Liu Ming: "No."

Silence again.

You Lingfeng posted a message: "Welcome. This world is full of dangers; just being alive is good enough."

As he reminisced, the transport vehicle arrived on the frozen ground, and the sudden drop in temperature pulled Liu Ming back to reality.

A thin layer of frost had formed on the car window, through which one could see the vast white ice field outside.

Liu Ming raised his hand and turned on the heating and defogging function, his movements as mechanical as they had been for the past three years.

The car radio was still playing, the female anchor's voice rambling on and on, talking about today's engine operating data, the supply distribution in the dungeon, and those unchanging "work with peace of mind" messages.

Liu Ming had gotten so used to it that he could completely ignore its existence.

He parked the truck in the loading area and waited for the robotic arm to load stones into the truck bed.

Boom, boom, boom.

He was used to the sound of stones falling into the truck bed.

Liu Ming leaned back in his seat and habitually opened the chat group.

Then he paused for a moment.

[Group message notification: Lin Yan has listed 5 new items]

[7. Jackie Chan Adventures: The Snake Talisman] - Listed by: Lin Yan

Description: One of the twelve talismans, its core principle is "visual concealment." Once activated, it makes the user or object invisible, covering both the user and objects they touch. It requires no spiritual energy or internal force; it is activated solely by willpower.

Price: 900 Source Points

Inventory: 5

"Snake Talisman??? It can only achieve visual invisibility, so it's not very effective. There are too many ways to detect invisibility." Ao Qing was bored in the Dragon Palace, so he browsed the chat group.

"Wait, wait, wait... Chicken talisman 500, Ox talisman 700, Snake talisman 900... Brother Lin, is there some kind of pattern to your pricing?"

Peter Parker has a knack for numbers.

"It should be that the base price increases by 200 for each new talisman listed. Brother Lin, is that right?" You Lingfeng guessed.

"The restrictions in the chat group are indeed there. I don't know if it's due to the special nature of the talisman or some other reason." Lin Yan simply listed it at the lowest price in the chat group.

"No matter the price, Brother Lin, you're too fast! It's only been a few days, and you've already got the third talisman!" Ao Qing began to praise him as always.

"If I collect all 12 charms, will I be able to fight Superman?"

Kara was also idle in the cage, unaware of how far the plot had progressed, and was simply being studied and analyzed every day.

Liu Ming stared at the string of numbers, his mind racing with calculations.

Chicken talisman 500, Ox talisman 700, Snake talisman 900.

The next talisman should be 1100, the next one 1300...

Then he saw Lin Yan's next message.

"By the way, the dog charm is probably almost ready too. Do you want to release the dog charm next or follow the order?"

Liu Ming's heart skipped a beat.

Dog charm!

Those who have watched Jackie Chan Adventures should know that the Dog Talisman has no other function than to keep the holder alive.

In this world where temperatures drop to minus eighty degrees Celsius, where one could be drafted at any moment and die in conflict at any instant, the allure of those four words was too great. So great that he instantly forgot he only had a little over three hundred source points.

But he quickly regained his senses.

The dog talisman costs at least 1100 source points. He only has... Liu Ming glanced at his balance: 340.

Not enough. Far from it.

Moreover, he wouldn't leave the source point for that long.

Because he had a more pressing need—a one-time human enhancement drug, 500 source points.

That was his guarantee of survival.

"The dog charm... I really want it. But I haven't even gotten the enhancement potion yet." Liu Ming decided to stick to his plan.

"Liu Ming, don't rush, save up slowly. I'm the one who's really in a bad situation, burning through my family fortune every day to stay alive, and I don't even have enough Source Points right now," Ao Qing continued to complain about being poor.

"Brother Lin, can the Dog Talisman's immortality withstand Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet?" Peter Parker felt that he needed too many of the 12 talismans, each of which could greatly enhance his abilities.

Lin Yan stood on that young planet, the boiling ocean of magma beneath his feet had cooled, and continuous raindrops fell from the hazy sky.

He glanced at the chat group, thought for a moment, and then answered the question.

"Yes. No."

Peter Parker sent a string of question marks: "??? Brother Lin, your answer is a bit mystical."

"The 'immortality' of the talisman is 'immunity to death' at the rule level," Lin Yan explained. "As long as the talisman is on you, you are immune to fatal wounds."

"Wouldn't that make us invincible?" Ao Qing interjected.

"But the prerequisite is—the talisman is on you."

Lin Yan paused for a moment, then continued typing.

"You need to understand one thing: the talisman is just a node. When you hold it, you are only borrowing its rules, not truly mastering them."

"What do you mean?" Ao Qing was a little confused.

"This means that the talisman can be stolen, shaken, or bypassed."

"Although the Holy Lord did not die, he was sealed into a statue. Others also obtained the Dog Talisman, but they were all beaten and had the Dog Talisman taken away."

Because a talisman is just a talisman.

"Like Thanos."

Lin Yan continued, "He has the Infinity Gauntlet and the Reality Stone. If he didn't kill you directly, but instead altered reality to make you hand over the Dog Talisman—would you still be alive?"

Peter Parker fell silent.

"Or he might use hypnosis to make you throw away the talisman yourself; or he might have spatial abilities to teleport the talisman away from you; or he might simply not kill you, but instead imprison you somewhere for ten thousand years."

A scene flashed through Liu Ming's mind: he held the dog talisman, thinking he was invincible, and then someone locked him in an abandoned warehouse in the underground city, locked the door, and he could never get out.

Immortality? That's worse than death.

"Talismans are external objects," Lin Yan said. "External objects are susceptible to being taken away."

Ao Qing suddenly asked, "What if we truly master the rules? Not through talismans or spells?"

Lin Yan's lips curled up slightly.

"That's different. The rules are written into your very existence. No one can take them away unless they erase your existence—but that's a million times harder than taking away a spell."

He withdrew his gaze, no longer paying attention to the chat group, a thought flickering in his mind.

Consciousness pierced through the planet's atmosphere, penetrated the void of space, and landed on a distant asteroid belt.

Countless meteorites of varying sizes floated there.

Lin Yan chose one of them.

It's not too big, not too small, just big enough for the planet to see it at night, but not big enough to cause a tidal disaster.

He raised his hand.

Starlight burst forth from fingertips, traversing endless void, and coiling around the meteorite. With a gentle pull—the meteorite moved.

It broke away from the asteroid belt and slowly moved along the trajectory drawn by starlight.

It traversed the dark void of space, passed through the planet's newly formed atmosphere, and finally hovered in orbit 300,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

Lin Yan looked at the meteorite.

It's so ugly. It's bumpy and jagged, like a stone that's been carelessly discarded.

He frowned, then raised his hand and gently wiped it away.

Starlight surged toward the meteorite, enveloped it, and began to reshape it.

The sharp edges were smoothed, the pits were filled, and the surface gradually became smooth. After the starlight faded, a silvery-white sphere hung there quietly.

moon.

Lin Yan looked at it for a few seconds, then felt that something was missing.

He thought for a moment, then stretched out his finger and gently touched the surface of the moon.

The starlight imprints itself, leaving a faint mark.

No one will see it.

But that's not enough.

This planet has satellites, but it still drifts alone in the void.

No star shines upon it, and no brothers or sisters accompany it.

It is just a wandering planet—like humans wandering on Earth, traveling alone in the darkness.

Lin Yan's mind stirred slightly.

His consciousness pierced through the void, traversed countless light-years, and landed at the edge of this universe. There, countless newborn stars were burning, and countless young galaxies were taking shape.

He chose one.

Not too big, not too small, just right, enough to illuminate a planet for billions of years, enough for life to appear, to evolve, and to look up at the stars.

Lin Yan raised his hand and gently pulled.

The star moved.

It broke away from its original star cluster and moved slowly along the trajectory drawn by starlight.

A journey of billions of years was compressed into a single moment, traversing countless light-years of space, and finally hovering at the center of this star field.

The light instantly illuminated everything.

The young planet was enveloped in the light of the stars, and for the first time, the hazy sky gained color.

The clouds were illuminated, and raindrops carrying various elements gathered into an ocean as lightning tore through them.

Looking at the planet that was gradually becoming somewhat familiar, Lin Yan remained silent for a long time.

Then he continued placing the planets.

The first planet—Lin Yan pushed it into the innermost orbit. This planet was too small and too hot to be a cradle of life.

The second one, the third one...

He rearranged the planets one by one, like arranging chess pieces on a chessboard.

Some were pushed closer, some were pulled further away, until they formed a perfect line, slowly rotating around the central star.

The young planet was placed in the third orbit.

Not too far, not too close, just right. It's neither too hot to boil the water nor too cold to freeze it.

Lin Yan looked at this galaxy that was almost too familiar, and looked forward to its future.