"Oh god!"
"Have you seen that?"
"The man committed suicide inside the tent!"
Around a yellow tent, dozens of people had gathered. A man from Bo City had taken his own life inside his tent, drawing everyone nearby as the authorities dealt with the body.
"He was a young man, no parents, but was doing well on his own."
"May his soul rest in peace."
The men and women prayed as the body was carried away.
'Tsk, encountering a corpse on the day of departure.' Standing far away near the end of the road, a young man in his late teens muttered. Standing at 6'3", with black hair, blue eyes, and sharp Western features—something rare, if not nonexistent, in this post-apocalyptic Bo City.
'What bad luck…' Damon thought to himself as he left the area. Compared to a week ago, his body looked entirely different.
His thin and skinny figure had undergone earth-shaking changes. Broad shoulders, the right amount of muscle, a strong torso and lower body—his physique looked miles apart from what it once was.
His facial features remained the same, yet they now appeared sharper and more refined, raising his appearance by at least two levels.
His figure alone could make heads turn, but in this grief-stricken Bo City, no one paid him any attention.
Everyone was too busy crying and trying to stabilize themselves, paying no mind to Damon at all.
"Hah… those novels lied to me," Damon thought. He was genuinely glad no one noticed him, yet at the same time, a bit disappointed.
In the novels he read, once the MC washed his bones and marrows—expelling impurities and all that nonsense—they'd immediately turn into some kind of godly figure, making even straight guys blush.
Now, looking at the lack of reaction from the public, far more realistic than those fictional scenarios, he felt disappointed.
"Whatever, I'm leaving the city anyway."
Yes, today Damon was leaving Bo City. With a new, powerful body comparable to that of monsters, Damon had decided to set out—to a place prosperous and worthy of his attention.
'Shanghai!'
Yes, Shanghai. The city where the majority of the plot would unfold. Normally, people who knew the storyline would avoid interfering with it, but Damon wasn't one of them.
He knew full well that his very presence would change the future entirely, so why bother keeping the plot intact? Better to twist it in his favor when the time came.
'Okay, I have no intention of playing villain or friend with Mo Fan right now.' Mo Fan was Mo Fan, Damon was Damon.
Mo Fan might have the fate and plot armor of this world, but that didn't mean Damon should start stalking him or licking his boots.
At the same time, he had no reason to antagonize him either. There was no enmity between them, so why bother creating one?
Yeah, these were Damon's honest thoughts as he boarded the Magic Train.
Yes, the Magic Train. This world didn't have science—it was said to be a fictional concept. Yet, modern technologies with magical twists existed here.
Recalling what he'd learned in school, Damon pondered the workings of the train. Not only the train, but other inventions too—smartphones, laptops, even the internet—existed in magical form.
He thought of all these things as he looked down at his old phone. It wasn't a smartphone, but a keypad phone.
Surviving solely on government allowance, Damon was never able to afford a smartphone, so he didn't know much about apps or the current state of the internet.
Now that he had money, he wanted to buy one, but unfortunately, Bo City was destroyed, and no shop selling smartphones remained.
'When I arrive in Shanghai, the first thing I'll do is buy a new phone,' Damon resolved, letting his mind wander as he thought of the similarities between this world and his original one.
Various ideas bloomed in Damon's mind, mostly related to successful apps that had been famous in his old world. The novel's setting was at least a decade before Damon was summoned to this one.
If those ideas hadn't taken root yet, Damon didn't mind investing in or introducing them himself and amassing a fortune in this world of magic.
Yeah, he might have earned millions before, but honestly, in this world, anyone who knew the system understood that a few million wasn't nearly enough to even reach the Advanced Mage level.
The resources and money that cultivation consumed were not something to be taken lightly—it was, without doubt, the biggest reason why 99% of mages gave up advancing halfway.
"Speaking of which, what happens if Magical Beasts appear on the train route?"
A loud voice from the seat behind him caught his attention, even making him think back to his lessons.
'Yeah, I'm curious about that too.'
"The train route is safe, there's a barrier protecting it," a girl's voice answered, explaining the defensive magic, which made Damon recall the details faster.
"Speaking of which, this should be my first time going this far from home," the boy continued.
'Yeah, mine too.'
"Yeah, I came from a world of science. The schools there didn't teach this kind of dry, bitter Magic. They taught extremely interesting scientific theories! They used science to explain everything—it was nothing like this place. Magic, for us, was just superstition!"
'Yeah, me too, it sure was wonderful wo—wait a minute.'
Damon suddenly turned his head back toward the duo sitting behind him—a boy and a girl around his age—just as their eyes met.
The girl was beautiful… the most beautiful Damon had ever seen in both his lives. Long black hair, gorgeous eyes, a perfect face. For a moment, Damon couldn't tear his gaze away from hers—until a loud shout broke the moment.
"What nonsense are you spouting? You—!" A middle-aged man began yelling at the boy, scolding him loudly.
Only then did Damon notice the boy's appearance—young, above average, with a rough but athletic figure.
Mo Fan.
The two words appeared in Damon's mind as he looked at the protagonist of this world, standing before him, getting lectured.