"How is it that even scammers are pulling this kind of stunt these days?"
Staring at the webpage that had suddenly popped up on his computer screen, Yao Lan's mouth twitched, leaving him utterly speechless. He had intended to say something, but quickly swallowed the words back down.
He had heard and seen plenty of scammers' tricks—they used all sorts of fancy gimmicks—he just never expected something so absurdly fake to happen to him, and in such a manner.
Transmigration Notice.
It looked like a totally ordinary webpage, plain black and white on a white background, extremely minimalist, but...
Was this guy too lazy to even add some styling? "What kind of hyper-competitive era is this even? If you're going to scam people, at least put some effort into it. Why on earth would I fall for this?"
Though he had only clicked on the link out of curiosity, Yao Lan still felt a deep sense of speechlessness.
The person who made this notice was truly consistent inside and out. Aside from the "Transmigration Notice" title, there was only a field for the destination world and a field to select abilities...
It literally looked like a dozen words typed onto a blank A4 sheet of paper with a few horizontal lines drawn underneath. It couldn't possibly look any faker.
"Must be a newbie, otherwise they couldn't possibly make such an unappealing webpage. I might as well play along for a bit!"
After mending his thoughts on the reason behind it, Yao Lan figured it out. Yet his hands didn't stop moving; he placed the mouse cursor on the "Transmigration World" field and typed three characters without hesitation.
Sewers! After all, he didn't believe for a second that this transmigration notice was real. Since he was just filling it out for fun, he might as well write whatever came to mind, right? Then he looked at the "Select Abilities" field. A game he had been playing recently happened to have a certain word in its title.
Rail!
"If I fill it out like this, it should be pretty interesting, right? I wonder if the amateur behind this webpage can figure out what I mean?"
Through the pure white webpage before him, Yao Lan almost seemed to picture the headache-inducing expression of the person behind it. After all, unless someone understood both terms simultaneously, there was no way they would get what Yao Lan was going for.
Just thinking about it made him feel utterly delighted! "Well, I'm just writing this for fun anyway. There's no way I'm going to pay... Huh? Why didn't a payment page pop up?"
After casually clicking confirm, something Yao Lan hadn't anticipated occurred.
Instead of the expected payment interface immediately showing up, the screen went completely black! What was going on here?
Could his computer be broken? Out of sheer habit, Yao Lan gave the computer case a traditional slap, but the scene that followed made his eyes widen in shock.
The pitch-black screen suddenly lit up, but what appeared before him was neither the previous "Transmigration Notice" interface nor his original computer desktop, but countless numbers and letters frantically surging across the display.
In the blink of an eye, Yao Lan understood what this guy's ultimate goal was.
"Crap! The goal isn't my money, it's the data on my computer!"
If he got scammed out of a little money, he would at most curse a few times, but if the contents of his computer leaked out, Yao Lan shuddered to think what kind of horrifying fate awaited him!
Photo data, game data, movie data, and so on. The mere thought of his family and friends looking at him with disgust more obvious than a frog's pee made Yao Lan's brain tremble uncontrollably.
I've never seen such a vicious scammer!
First, he acts like a clueless newbie to make me think he's weak and worthless, and then, while my guard is down, he steals my computer data?
Well, well! Using the Thirty-Six Stratagems this fluently?
Feign weakness to lower the enemy's guard, cross the sea under camouflage, and march straight for Shu Han? Yet, just as Yao Lan was cursing up a storm and getting ready to flex his muscles to wrestle back control of the computer, his hands froze mid-air because the scene unfolding before him completely defied all logic. The ordinary computer screen, which had only been displaying garbled code moments ago, suddenly rippled like disturbed water, and a semi-transparent hand shot out from within, directly grabbing Yao Lan by the collar and yanking him straight into the screen.
The entire process took less than a second. Before Yao Lan even had time to react, his whole body vanished right from the spot.
Sensing the letters and numbers flashing rapidly past him, and feeling his consciousness gradually slipping away, Yao Lan could only squeeze out one last sarcastic remark with his remaining strength...
"Don't pull a Ring on me... I'm no Sadako..."
At the same time, an utterly emotionless voice rang out—a completely gender-neutral mechanical voice, though Yao Lan could no longer hear it.
"Transmigration execution successful. Abilities granted. Enjoy your journey."
Cold, bumpy...
The moment he woke up, Yao Lan sprang straight up from the ground with a carp kip, eyeing his surroundings with sharp vigilance.
Sunshine, beaches, ocean waves... No cacti and no old sea captain. Simply put, this was a beach.
The scenes from right before he lost consciousness were still vivid in his mind. Yao Lan knew very well that whatever had happened couldn't possibly be a kidnapping, because that simply wasn't something that could ever happen in the real world!
If someone possessed the power to pull people right out of a computer screen, who would bother lowering themselves to do something as tacky as kidnapping? Moreover, on a subconscious level, Yao Lan sensed that something extra had appeared inside his body...
He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but right now, Yao Lan felt filled with boundless strength; shattering a giant boulder with a single punch didn't even seem out of the question. Combining this with the series of bizarre events that had just occurred, he quickly pieced everything together.
"Did I transmigrate?"
That was the most probable explanation. After all, transmigration web novels were a dime a dozen these days. One more didn't hurt, and one less didn't matter... It wasn't anything strange, right?
"Congratulations, host. You guessed right."
Sure enough, the moment Yao Lan figured out his current predicament, that emotionless mechanical voice echoed in his mind, confirming his theory.
"You're a system?"
Yao Lan looked around to make sure there was no one nearby before starting to communicate with the system in his head.
"If you really are a system, does that mean... that 'Transmigration Notice' was real?"
"Yes, host."
"Based on the choices filled out in the Transmigration Notice, the system has fulfilled your purpose for transmigrating and has also granted you the abilities you desired."
"And I will serve as your auxiliary system, assisting you in understanding and wielding your abilities."
It really was transmigration...
Upon confirming his situation, Yao Lan's first reaction wasn't joy, but regret.
What a loss... A total, massive loss!
If he had known beforehand that the Transmigration Notice was real, how could he possibly have filled it out so casually?
A new author with a new book! I hope everyone will give me lots of support!