Chapter 1 A Strange Beginning

A miraculous life trajectory, a miraculous method of development. Hao Ren felt he’d been running into strange things lately, from the real world to the Dream Plane, nothing was unfolding according to a normal script.

Right now, he was riding a black giant wolf that was nearly as tall as a man, racing across a mysterious prairie. Overhead were two pale, bright moons and an unfamiliar, brilliant Milky Way. In the distance was a horizon unlike anything on Earth, and unknown alien grasses swept past him. The night wind blew, the sky and earth were vast, and it all gave a sense of desolation and mysterious shock. Hao Ren, the otherworld visitor, riding on the back of a wolf across the great prairie, felt his coolness factor had risen by at least a dozen points.

If only he weren't wearing pajamas…

The cold wind roared against his face. If it had been the old Hao Ren, he would probably have been blown senseless by now, half-frozen to death. But he was not what he used to be. If not Superman, then at least a reinforced human. This bit of low temperature was nothing to him. He just subconsciously tightened the clothes in front of him with one free hand, and grabbed the black, stiff fur on the wolf king's neck with the other, shouting against the wind, "I say... how big is this prairie anyway?"

"Very big, very big!" The wolf king's voice was equally loud. "I don't know how you humans calculate it, but my pack and I have run for seven days and seven nights without seeing the edge of the prairie! I heard that there are human settlements outside the prairie, but they don't come here often."

"What is this world like... I mean, what do you know about human kingdoms?" Hao Ren's ears perked up at the words "human kingdoms." In his opinion, it was quite incredible for another human civilization to appear in this Dream Plane. He really wanted to know what the humans of this world were like. "Have you been there? Do you know how to get there?"

"Never been there, it's too dangerous," the wolf king slowed down a little, seemingly to make it easier to talk. "You humans are too cunning, and you kill and eat everything! The earth dragons have been eaten to extinction by you, I'm not going to deliver myself as meat! Speaking of which, aren't you a human too? Why are you asking about this?"

"I came from another direction," Hao Ren casually made up a story. "The world is big!"

The wolf king didn't say anything, seemingly accepting this explanation, while Hao Ren was somewhat emotional: these talking giant beasts were quite intelligent, but they didn't have as many tricks as humans. The wolf king didn't seem to consider conspiracy and deception at all, or rather, it was too lazy to consider these things—in the wolf king's worldview, anything that didn't affect its meat consumption didn't need to be considered, including where Hao Ren, this "two-legged animal," came from and what secrets he had. To it, it was meaningless. The wolf king was just asking casually, and would forget it as soon as it asked.

These strange giant beasts were quite straightforward and unrestrained. Although Hao Ren had just fought with them, after confirming that Hao Ren could not be used as food, and that this guy was stronger than them, the wolf pack seemed to immediately forget the previous battle. Even now, the wolf king was letting Hao Ren ride on its back—although the latter didn't seem very happy, and there was some fear of Hao Ren's iron fists involved, this was enough to show how straightforward these guys were: as long as it can't be eaten, don't provoke it; as long as you can't beat it, honestly listen to it. Just these two creeds.

Although it felt a bit spineless, Hao Ren had already met Lily, who was even more embarrassing for the wolf clan, so he could accept this fact and thought this wolf king was quite... cute.

When the human houses were already very close, and it looked like they would be there in a few minutes, Hao Ren suddenly remembered something: "By the way, I ran into a pack of wolves here a few days ago, were they not part of your group?"

"You were here a few days ago?" The wolf king was very surprised. "I haven't seen you. My pack and I have been living in this area, but you are the only human we've seen in the last thirty-five days and nights."

These wolves also had a concept of time and date, and they knew that humans had methods of recording dates such as years and months, but they felt these methods were awkward, so they preferred to record time by directly recording days and nights. Anyway, the wolf pack didn't need to consider seasonal farming like humans, nor did they need to consider historical inheritance. They only needed to know when winter was coming, so this way of recording days and nights was sufficient.

"You haven't seen me?" Hao Ren felt that such a straightforward guy wouldn't lie to him. "Then are there other wolf packs here?"

"There are a few wandering small packs. Our territories intersect, and there are some places in the middle that we can't take care of, so inevitably some ignorant fellows will run around occasionally," the wolf king's voice sounded a bit dissatisfied. "Those are dumbasses who can't talk. They can't even think, and they are weaker than my pack, so they can only be my vassals—it's a pity they are a bunch of unruly vassals."

As the wolf king spoke, it shook its head: "When those guys are extremely hungry, they even come to my territory to snatch food, and we can only communicate with them using primitive roars. It's really strange, we're both wolves, why are they so stupid?"

Hao Ren listened carefully, without answering, and silently noted this strange situation in his heart.

There were still many unsolved mysteries in the Dream Plane, but now he knew that there were two kinds of wolves here, one that could talk, as smart as humans, and one that seemed to be primitive wild animals—there was no difference in appearance between these two kinds of wolves.

Why was this? Hao Ren didn't think this was a normal result of evolution, but considering that this place was a strange space called the Dream Plane, perhaps nothing should be too surprising.

Moreover, there were traces of human activity on the prairie, and outside the prairie, there was said to be a huge human kingdom (the wolf king called it a human "settlement")... How many mysterious things were waiting to be revealed in this strange place?

The wolf king kept its promise and took Hao Ren to the front of the houses.

"You're here, now I'm going to lead my pack away," the wolf king put Hao Ren on the ground and stretched, "So uncomfortable, this is the first time I've carried something so heavy. If I could beat you, I would definitely make you carry me and run the same distance."

"Thanks," Hao Ren scratched his head, finding the wolf king more and more interesting. "Maybe there will be a chance to meet again. I'll be wandering around here for a while. If you need any help, just say so."

As expected, the wolf king was very practical. Upon hearing this, it immediately nodded, and then pointed with its mouth at a few unlucky fellows at the back of the pack who were covered in blood: "Yes, the teeth of these few of my subordinates are gone. They won't be able to eat anything in the future and will starve to death, but our pack won't abandon our companions, so I need to spare a few wolves to prepare food for them that they can eat. Can you help solve this problem?"

Hao Ren really didn't expect to see the black wolf's straightforward side so quickly. He thought with sweat on his forehead, and reached out to touch the data terminal: "Do you know how to fix teeth?"

"Hehe, this machine is just a PDA, not Doraemon, okay!"

"How about this, I know a veterinarian..." Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "And she would definitely be happy to treat you. If I can find a way to bring her in... I mean, bring her over, I will definitely ask her to find a way to fix the teeth of these few."

"Okay, human, I remember your promise," the wolf king nodded. "You humans don't seem to be very trustworthy, so I'll just take this as a psychological comfort. Goodbye, I hope we don't fight next time we meet."

The wolf king left these words and then led its pack quickly into the distance, disappearing into the vast prairie in an instant.

"Psychological comfort..." Hao Ren was dumbfounded, muttering to himself, "...The most ruthless is the true gentleman, the scheming king is an honest man, I've finally learned it."

The data terminal was shocked: "Wow! You're even rhyming?"

Hao Ren casually took the data terminal out of his pocket and let it continue to float beside him, while he, regardless of the latter's protests, walked towards the house in front of him.

This was where the prairie herdsmen used to live, but as far as Hao Ren knew, nomads rarely built permanent houses in one place. They moved with the water and grass, and usually built tents or similar simple houses for easy transfer, but the houses in front of him were not like that—it seemed that the people in this place had different living habits, and they also had their own ways of solving the problems they encountered in life.

When Hao Ren put his hand on the door of the house, the wind on the prairie suddenly became stronger.