Headache, dizziness, nausea, limb weakness, palpitations.
Jian Jing had just woken up from unconsciousness and found herself in the above five terrible states. There was a lot of water in her ears, muffled, her head dizzy and unable to think clearly. She instinctively wanted to struggle to sit up, but her limbs did not have any strength.
What's wrong with me? No, didn't I die?
She clearly remembered the moment when the knife cut through the flesh, the human body did not feel pain, only an enormous fear pressed down like Mount Tai, the chest full of panic and despair.
How did this happen? Did I die or was I saved?
[Warning, warning, indoor carbon monoxide content exceeds standard, host mildly poisoned, expected to lose consciousness in 2 minutes. After testing, the situation matches the activation conditions, now issuing an emergency task]
Such a voice rang in Jian Jing's mind. In the urgent need for survival, she was too busy to be surprised and was completely attracted by the content.
Soon, a panel jumped into her mind.
[Task Name: Escape Suicide Chamber]
[Task Description: Leave this enclosed room with too high carbon monoxide concentration]
[Task Reward and Punishment: Successful reward courage value 10 points, failure and you die]
In an instant, a lot of words poured in. Under normal circumstances, it would take a few seconds to understand and digest. But the system appeared directly in her mind, she understood all the content instantly without needing to read and analyze.
Jian Jing almost instantly realized that she had carbon monoxide poisoning!
The threat of death caused adrenaline to secrete rapidly. Her soft legs, even though unable to stand upright, barely supported her body.
Jian Jing crawled and kneeled, stumbled to the door.
She forced the door handle down and pulled inward, but the door just wouldn't open. After feeling it carefully, she realized that transparent tape had been pasted all over the door gap and bottom.
This was a sealed room.
Her vision spun and flipped, stars flashing before her eyes, her head muddled and about to plunge into darkness at any time.
She held her breath, gritted her teeth, and desperately scratched the edges of the tape with her fingernails.
The action was too violent. Her fingernails split and the nerve endings felt tremendous pain, but she showed no sign of stopping or reducing. On the contrary, the pain made her even more awake.
Jian Jing knew she had to tear off the tape at all costs, otherwise not only her hands, even her life would be lost here.
She frantically tore and finally tore off the tape at the bottom.
But this little fresh air was negligible, and the intense exercise just now made her inhale more air containing carbon monoxide, the weakness in her limbs further intensified.
Her fingers disobeyed orders, she even felt blurred about where her hands and feet were.
Give up. It's too late.
No.
Jian Jing bit her tongue, desperately telling herself not to give up. She had died once already, she didn't want to experience the despair of death again.
With the strong will to survive, she recovered some ability to think. She lay at the bottom of the door gap and took a deep breath of fresh air outside, then held her breath tightly.
She hooked both hands on the door handle, barely crawled up, braced her feet against the door frame, and pulled the door inward with all her might.
The adhesive strength of the tape was limited. Under such crazy pulling, it inevitably peeled off partially.
Unable to see exactly where the tape was, she scraped randomly. More fingernails split and her fingertips oozed blood, but the effect was gratifying, with several more sections of tape torn off.
She leaned close to the weak airflow at the door gap, inhaled, held her breath, and repeated the process.
[System warning: 30 seconds left before losing consciousness, countdown 29, 28, 27...]
Jian Jing erupted with unprecedented power. Her five fingers firmly gripped the handle, her leg muscles exerted force, and she kicked the door with all her might.
Snap.
The tape was pulled open.
The door revealed a gap, but she fell to the ground.
[15, 14, 13...]
She couldn't see anything, couldn't feel the existence of her limbs at all, didn't know how to exert effort. She just crawled out awkwardly on instinct.
Jian Jing thought she must have crawled more than ten meters, but she could not escape the gloom, because she had barely moved, at most half a meter.
[10, 9, 8...]
Just a little more, please, please.
She struggled like a fish flung ashore, futilely trying to get back into the water.
[5, 4, 3...]
Her face seemed to feel a little cool breeze. The light was within sight.
[2, 1——]
A pallid face squeezed out of the narrow door gap.
Half of her body was still in the room, but the critical head was now completely exposed outside.
[Task completed, system settlement in progress]
At the same time, hurried footsteps came up the stairs. Someone ran up quickly, rushed to her side, and slapped her body: "Jian Jing? Jian Jing?"
No response. He reached out and tested her breathing, relieved, and immediately made a call: "120? There is someone with carbon monoxide poisoning here, please send an ambulance over immediately."
Five minutes later, an ambulance with a siren stopped downstairs.
*
"According to an insider, 20-year-old genius novelist Jian Jing recently committed suicide by gas at home, suspected to be under too much pressure and chose to escape this world... Jian Jing, at the age of 15, wrote the hugely popular "White Cat Detective", winning the New Writer Award that year, but in recent years, there have been no outstanding works. Could she have already exhausted her talents?"
Jian Jing put down her phone, weakly propped up her forehead.
Half a day after regaining consciousness from coma, she used the memories in her mind and the large amount of information stored in her phone to basically figure out the situation.
She, Jian Jing, had been reborn into the body of her parallel world self.
This "self" was much more awesome than her, a nationally renowned young novelist who published a mystery called "White Cat Detective" at the age of 15, selling 100,000 copies and winning the New Writer Award that year.
It is worth mentioning that the parallel world is different from the original world, web literature did not appear, but physical literature developed very prosperously. People still mainly read physical books. Even if there were e-books, they were sold simultaneously after publication, unlike web novels that are read while serializing.
Therefore, the fields of publishing houses, book companies and literary awards were already very mature. The New Writer Award can be said to be the highest praise for new authors.
The report described Jian Jing as a "genius novelist", not an exaggeration at all.
But her next published work, "The Hiding Child", did not achieve dazzling results.
Some critics said: "The narrative is dull, the tricks are boring, just a work barely above the passing line, completely different from the unrestrained imagination of White Cat." This aroused some conspiracy theorists' suspicions, thinking that "White Cat" might not be her work.
However, there were still many critics who praised "The Hiding Child", believing it exceeded her age level and was worthy of recognition. This view did not gain much acceptance.
Half a month ago, her third work "Demon Doctor" was published.
The reviews were devastating.
The more mild critics said: "Jian Jing demonstrated a teenage girl's lightness and fantasy in White Cat, but serious mystery works are not suitable for someone as young as her..."
The more biting simply gave her four words: "Talent exhausted."
Even more vicious: "White Cat must have been ghostwritten. Just a hyped up writer."
Or: "Immature writing, undue complaining, like a primary school student seeking depth."
It should be known that after "The Hiding Child", this world's Jian Jing had been under considerable pressure, hoping to shut up those people with "Demon Doctor".
But what she got was a tidal wave of bad reviews, and even groundless vicious speculation.
Ghostwriting and plagiarism were unforgivable sins.
She was devastated.
When Jian Jing was reborn, it was the scene of her parallel world self's suicide.
After seeing these reports, she naturally had some doubts - the her in the other world was mediocre, and the web novels she wrote were always lukewarm at best. Could the her in this world really have become a genius?
She went to check "White Cat Detective".
It was a light fantasy story about a girl who saved an alien white cat and accidentally obtained the cat's abilities. Her agility became extremely flexible, she could climb trees and freerun effortlessly, and her sense of smell also became very keen, able to smell odors ordinary humans could not detect.
With these skills, she became a super awesome detective and cracked many complex cases.
The familiar writing style, the familiar brain holes, no one knew herself better than she did. Jian Jing was certain that White Cat was her own work, and the her in the other world had written this story too.
But she was in junior high at the time, and her parents did not want her to be distracted writing these things, so she gave up.
Destiny forked here. The her in the other world did not give up, but completed the story and polished it before submitting it to the publisher.
The publisher had keen insight, and accepted this manuscript.
Thus a new star rose.
Of course, the success here was not only Jian Jing's personal reason, but also closely related to the different developmental context of the two worlds.
But in any case, Jian Jing could confirm that White Cat was her own work, and ghostwriting was fabricated out of thin air.
This was a tragedy.
Unfortunately, what's done cannot be undone.
Jian Jing timely adjusted her low mood and began to consider another important matter.
What was that system ringing in her mind?
[Hello host, welcome to use this system. The system defaults to smart mode, concentrate and you can activate it]
[Emergency task completed, please collect your reward as soon as possible]
As expected of a smart system, it came when called, neither silly nor aloof, super beginner-friendly.
Jian Jing thought for a moment, and tried to convey information: "Where are you from, why did you choose me, what price do I need to pay to bind you, can I unbind?"
[Detection shows that the host's ability to survive in this world is weak. This system will provide guidance to the host and help the host have a healthy life.]
[No price needs to be paid to bind the system. When the system detects that the host has the ability to live independently, it will automatically unbind.]
Jian Jing couldn't help but wonder: "I'm fully able-bodied with a normal mind. How do I not have the ability to live independently?"
[System review in progress, system detection accurate.]
[Emergency task completed, please collect reward as soon as possible.]
Jian Jing thought about it and followed its intention: "Collect reward."
A settlement panel jumped up in her mind.
[Emergency Task: Escape Suicide Chamber (Completed)]
[Task Reward: Courage Value 10 points, additional 50% newbie task bonus, 10 * 1.5 = 15 points]
[Note: Courage value can be used to draw cards (ordinary), consuming 5 points each time]
[Start drawing cards?]
A gacha system... won't there be in-app purchases later? Jian Jing instinctively wanted to go wash her hands, but endured.
She was still on IVs, best not to make trouble: "Yes."
[Drawing cards...]