Chapter 3: How to Do It? Rely on Luck!

"Solar power bank, stab-proof vest, wilderness survival kit, sleeping bag, tent, compressed biscuits, salt, small hand-crank generator, six small drones, anti-wolf spray, flower water, anti-inflammatory pills, two sets of spring clothing, two sets of winter clothing, one spare pair of thick-soled boots, one box of socks, iron water bottle..."

Checking the inventory once more, confirming everything was in order, Feng Xue then tucked a waterproof pouch containing the first-aid kit, anti-inflammatory pills, and waterproof matches snugly against his body, and finally slung the heavy pack onto his back as he stepped out of his home again.

"Accident insurance OK, medical assistance contract OK, yesterday's payment has cleared, automatic payments are all set..."

As he walked, Feng Xue scrolled through various apps on his phone to confirm everything was correct, then began his planned operation.

At three a. m. in winter, it was the darkest hour; even the city's flickering lights had dimmed, yet walking alone down such a dim street, Feng Xue felt not the slightest fear.

He unlocked a shared bicycle and headed toward his meticulously researched target.

The highway at dawn was eerily silent; the sound of his bicycle beneath him was monotonous.

Feng Xue silently calculated the time, gazing at the distant horizon where a faint green light began to flicker, and a slow smile spread across his lips.

At the intersection, the green light flickered, then turned red, and Feng Xue gradually came to a stop.

Seconds ticked by; the red and green lights cycled several times, yet Feng Xue remained perfectly still by the roadside.

"Buzzzzz..."

His phone emitted a low vibration; Feng Xue knew the moment had arrived, silently silenced the alarm, mounted his bicycle again, and began circling the intersection.

Before the final check of the number above his head, he confirmed the golden lock above it remained closed, then swiftly adjusted his mindset.

Suddenly, the ground seemed to tremble slightly, and a beam of light appeared to shine from far down the road.

"Five, four, three, two..."

Seeing the red light now illuminated, Feng Xue spun his bike around and shot straight across the intersection.

The next instant, a massive hundred-ton semi-truck burst into his field of vision; accompanied by a feedback that was hard to classify as either pain or not, Feng Xue's world began spinning wildly.

Darkness and dim yellow flickered alternately; Feng Xue felt a dizzying whirl, then suddenly his vision cleared—he lay sprawled on an entirely unfamiliar wasteland.

"Hahahaha! I did it!"

Feng Xue didn't even bother checking his location before bursting into wild laughter, startling a chorus of harsh bird calls; only then did he realize this was not the time to celebrate.

He quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, stifling the nearly uncontrollable joy; though the number above his head was still 3285 (had slept a day), he knew—his fate had changed from this moment onward!

Wait, something feels off?

Feng Xue suddenly frowned, then noticed—beneath the locked lifespan in his over-the-shoulder view—there was an additional line of small text.

【Succeed on First Try】

As his consciousness focused, a stream of information entered his mind:

【When subjected to a direct collision by a vehicle exceeding 100 tons, transcend to another world.】

"Damn! I'm speechless!"

Seeing the same lock present before 【Succeed on First Try】, Feng Xue immediately realized this 【over-the-shoulder view】 was far more complex than he'd thought.

He tried locking 【Succeed on First Try】; the lock before his lifespan instantly popped open, just as it had when he previously tested locking someone else's lifespan.

"Looks like 【Succeed on First Try】 can be locked too? But if locked, does it become guaranteed to trigger—or guaranteed not to? And earlier I thought only one item could be locked at a time; now it seems maybe only one item total can be locked, no matter how many? Though honestly, it doesn't matter much."

Feng Xue squinted, hesitating; after all, he had only ever locked lifespan before, and locking lifespan meant it wouldn't be affected by external factors. The exact effect of this lock still needed more testing.

He disabled the over-the-shoulder view, squinted, and as he concentrated, tiny numbers unfolded across his vision—the grass, the ancient trees, even the birds hidden in the canopy—all revealed their lifespans.

But...

There was no 【Succeed on First Try】.

"Come to think of it, the guy in the hospital I saw—crushed into a vegetative state by a full-insurance semi-truck, his lifespan constantly climbing—didn't have this term above his head either? Or is it only visible to me? Or must I witness it directly?"

Yes, the reason Feng Xue had dared to attempt crossing via a hundred-ton semi was precisely because of two examples he'd found right after his initial transit:

One was the "lucky" man he'd seen in the ward, crushed into a vegetative state by a full-insurance semi-truck—the only human Feng Xue had ever encountered with a lifespan exceeding six digits.

By the time Feng Xue saw him the second time, the number above his head had tripled again.

If the existence of this man merely made Feng Xue suspect he was a soul-transmigrated individual, then the corpse he later found while reviewing accident videos—half its body gone, yet still bearing a five-digit lifespan—completely confirmed the hypothesis.

As for why he hadn't immediately chosen 【Succeed on First Try】 once he realized this—well, the reason was simple:

Transcendence is not guaranteed.

He'd reviewed tens of thousands of horrific accident videos, yet fewer than a handful showed signs of transcendence; such a low probability made it impossible for Feng Xue to risk his life until the very last moment.

Fortunately, the lifespan-locking feature of his golden finger had given him inspiration—just as with his ant experiments: as long as lifespan was locked, illness or injury would not affect its increase or decrease.

Though non-fatal injuries would still occur, would a situation that was inevitably fatal trigger immunity?

To this end, Feng Xue specifically researched information on nearby large construction sites, tracked the routes of dump trucks and transport vehicles, and devised this plan.

And as for playing mahjong...

Because Feng Xue wasn't certain he could succeed on the first try.

After all, the ants he threw into fire crawled out unharmed; conversely, he might survive an inevitably fatal situation unscathed.

And if that happened, aside from the possibility of failed transcendence, he'd most likely be treated as a suicide attempter and subjected to counseling—wasting at least several, maybe ten or more days; with only sixty days of lifespan, he couldn't afford many attempts.

More importantly, even if he succeeded in transcending, his lifespan wouldn't necessarily increase immediately; finding a way to extend life within just one or two months after transit might not be easier than in this world where supernatural forces were already confirmed.

"But I succeeded on the first try... unless I'm just incredibly lucky... could it be that in that world, the probability of surviving a hundred-ton semi collision unharmed is lower than the probability of transcendence?"

Regarding lifespan definition, it can be simply understood as living until the corresponding time.

For example, an ant lives three days; if you pull off its legs, it might still live past three days, but if you throw it into fire, it certainly won't—so the damage from fire is immune. But pulling off legs won't kill it within three days, so it's permissible to pull off legs, because losing legs isn't a fatal cause.

As for claims that throwing an ant into fire is a gradual process from outside to inside—that's clearly from someone who never used a magnifying glass to burn ants as a child; an ant's body structure instantly chars into a ball the moment heated, and "gradual" is negligible for an ant's size.

The golden finger's judgment isn't whether you're "dead," but whether you "will die." It locks the ant, so it cannot affect the fire—only the ant. Once the ant is thrown in, regardless of when it dies, under the premise that the fire cannot be extinguished, its death is certain, so this fatal cause is nullified.

A fatal cause is a whole; don't try to break it apart. It's like asking how a person died—the answer must be "laceration," "exsanguination," "asphyxiation," etc., not "because he lost the xccth blood," "because the wound depth exceeded x cm," or "because he didn't inhale the xth breath."

There's no logic in splitting a fatal cause, right?

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(End of this chapter)