Year 202X, a certain month and day, Jubail, Saudi Arabia, at a certain port.
Zhurong, twenty-six years old this year, was serving as a Norinco divisional representative, conducting a handover with the Saudi side.
Don't ask why he was named Zhurong; his parents gave it to him, so there was nothing he could do.
"Your Royal Highness, how about we conduct the combined arms brigade equipment handover in two days? We can continue discussing subsequent personnel training and equipment debugging this afternoon."
"My dear Mr. Zhurong, that couldn't be better. As you know, the surrounding situation here has always been rather tense." His Royal Highness spread his arms and looked around.
Just as the prince opened his mouth to speak his next sentence, the air raid siren sounded!
"Wuuuuuuu—!!"
"Whoosh—!"
Immediately afterward, a massive roaring sound filled the air!
"Everyone! Get down!" Zhurong shouted as he hit the dirt.
"Clang! Boom! Crash!"
Several man-sized aerial bombs slammed down around them.
"GBU-12..."
"Boom!"
The aerial bombs had a delay of only one second, and the violent explosion instantly leveled the buildings within a hundred meters.
Zhurong's consciousness froze at the very instant of the bomb's detonation...
..........
"What is this..."
On a deserted beach, Zhurong painfully climbed to his feet, standing blankly in place with a bewildered expression.
"That's not right. At such close range from a GBU-12, there's just no way..."
He checked the items on his person. His phone and watch were still there, his wallet was still there, his knife was still there, and his service pistol was still there, not a single magazine missing. There wasn't even a hole in his clothes.
"This is way too bizarre..."
After thinking for a moment, Zhurong decided to give up puzzling over it, flipped his watch over, and used the compass on the back to determine the sun's position.
It was already dusk, and the sun was about to sink below the horizon. However, he wasn't panicked at all. His gun was there, his ammunition was there, and his rifle was equipped with a solar-powered flashlight.
"Oh right, let me try the satellite distress signal first."
He took out his phone and searched for a satellite signal...
Well... absolutely no signal.
"Great, I'm screwed! This isn't even Earth."
"I better figure out my surroundings first, lest I end up dead without even knowing how..."
He pulled out a rectangular black box from his inner jacket pocket, grasped the handle, pressed the button, and flicked it downward. An FMG-9 submachine gun was fully assembled.
He turned on the flashlight, switched the safety to semi-automatic, and chambered a round.
Rolling up the cuffs of his suit trousers and sleeves, Zhurong walked forward along the coastline, praying all the while that this wasn't an uninhabited islet...
More than half an hour later...
"This really is an uninhabited island! Are you kidding me?"
Though it was an uninhabited island, the resources on it were quite abundant. As he walked along, he spotted quite a few breadfruit trees, along with a massive number of coconut trees—they were practically running wild.
"Judging by the density of these fruit trees, dying of hunger or thirst probably isn't going to happen. Am I really going to spend the rest of my life on this deserted island..."
Because he couldn't pick up a satellite signal, nor even a decent electromagnetic wave, Zhurong had already concluded that the inhabitants of this planet likely lacked deep-sea navigation capabilities, making civilization all but impossible to see again.
"Heh... Heh heh heh... Hahahahaha!"
"Damn it!"
"First I had to grind through twelve years of school, then grind through university, and then grind through foreign affairs, finally making it to divisional representative with the good life right in front of me! And you're telling me I transmigrated?! And transmigrated to a deserted island, of all places?! Why couldn't you have made me transmigrate right after I finished high school?! Damn it!"
"Ahhhhh!"
If he had to transmigrate, so be it; he accepted it. But what about the promised cheat system? What about the promised perks? Oh right, this was just a novel, never mind.
Could he at least have been transmigrated to somewhere civilized? What was this tiny island supposed to be?!
One man, one gun, one Swiss Army knife, one phone, and one watch. The phone was definitely dead; without an information infrastructure to support it, a phone was just a brick. His wallet was ruined too—ID card, passport, credit cards, all completely invalidated.
"Sigh, since I'm already here, I might as well make the best of it."
Considering that the sun had already set, Zhurong first found a relatively sturdy tree of an unknown species, intending to make do for the night.
The tree fork was fairly wide, so lying down on it shouldn't be too much of a problem, and it wasn't very high off the ground—about two meters or so. The main point was to avoid being bitten by snakes, insects, and mice while sleeping on the ground. As for large carnivores, based on what he knew, it was extremely rare to find even one or two on an island like this.
"Goodnight..."
......
"Mmm...... Hmm? Huh???"
Zhurong woke up, waking with a completely bewildered expression.
He raised his hand and checked his watch.
"Well... 4:00 AM, and a young girl is straddling my stomach. Must be a dream."
He pinched the back of his hand.
"......"
It wasn't a dream.
The girl's facial features could only be described as flawless, and her skin gave off an unreal perfection. As an economics major who was terrible at writing prose, he had no idea how to describe this otherworldly sense of beauty.
She wore a primitive garment made entirely of animal hide, which only covered her vital areas, and around her neck was locked a somewhat rusted metal collar—resembling something like the slave collars from the triangular trade era...
Wait, a slave collar?
From the shape and texture of the collar, it was unmistakably a product of the post-Industrial Revolution era.
He was certain of it now: this planet was currently dominated by humans and hovered somewhere around Industrial 1.0.
"I'm sorry, may I beg for your mercy to allow me to leave this branch?"
Looking into the girl's deep blue pupils and the cascade of smooth blonde hair over her shoulders, Zhurong guessed she might understand English.
The girl tilted her head, seemingly not understanding a single word."Um... could you please let me down?"
Still no response.
"Sumimasen, watashi no ue kara orite kudasai..."
Still no response...
Zhurong pointed at the ground and made a walking motion with his hand.
The girl finally understood, pushed herself up with both hands, and hopped down from the tree branch.
"Looks like we have to communicate through actions... Could she have a hearing impairment?"
Zhurong climbed down from the branch, intending to find a coconut to quench his thirst.
As everyone knows, a coconut's outer shell can generally be divided into two layers. The outer fibrous layer acts as a cushion upon hitting the ground, thereby protecting the integrity of the inner hard shell. At the same time, to travel across the oceans, this outer fibrous layer also serves to increase buoyancy.
This results in the coconut's fibrous layer being extremely thick, making it even harder to deal with than the inner hard shell...
Zhurong spent ages picking at it with his pathetic Swiss Army knife, barely managing to pry open a small part...
"This coconut is too difficult to deal with. Looks like I need to find a sharp stone to pry it open."
Just as he was muttering to himself, a snap came from beside him.
Then, he was stunned...
That blonde girl had actually... torn off the coconut's fibrous layer with her bare hands! With her bare hands!
And she made it look effortless!
The girl handed the peeled coconut kernel to Zhurong.
Dazed, Zhurong took the coconut from the girl and used the screwdriver on his Swiss Army knife to puncture the weakest spot.
Meeting the girl's curious gaze, Zhurong handed the opened coconut to her and made a drinking gesture. Then he went back to picking at the coconut in his own hands.
After more than ten minutes of hard work, Zhurong finally managed to get his coconut open.
"Glug glug glug, ah! So refreshing!"
After finishing his coconut, Zhurong was about to go pick a breadfruit to fill his stomach when he turned around and saw several peeled coconuts piled behind him... along with the girl, who was staring fixedly at him...
And so...
It turned into one big figure and one small figure squatting together by the beach, drinking and gnawing on coconuts.
Being able to eat the coconut flesh was entirely thanks to the girl, since Zhurong certainly couldn't smash a coconut in half with his bare hands...
Well-fed and watered, Zhurong began to consider the issue of a shelter.
Where to live was a major problem on the island.
Building a house from scratch would take a long time, and he had no real construction experience. As for whipping up a casual shelter, rain, hail, and mosquitoes would all become major issues.
He stood up, deciding to scout toward the interior of the island first to see if there were any naturally formed caves or the like.
After all, many islands are formed by submarine volcanoes or coral reefs. He could at least hold out some hope.
......
"This... is a bit absurd, isn't it?"
In the center of the island stood a small hill, and halfway up the hill was a small cave. The cave entrance was about two meters in diameter, and the interior was roughly one hundred square meters—a disc-shaped hollow about three meters high, with two smaller circular openings about a meter in diameter on either side...
Judging by the residue inside, this cavity had originally been a salt mine that was pushed up above ground and gradually eroded away by rainwater, eventually turning into this hollow space.
"Alright, I've decided to make our home right here!"
Zhurong turned around, and then he froze in shock.A young girl stood at the cave entrance, looking at him with a coconut tree hoisted on her shoulder...
Roughly speaking, that coconut tree weighed half a ton.
Carrying a half-ton object for such a long distance was no joke.
"Wait a minute... superhuman strength, a deserted island, a super beautiful girl, blonde hair, deep blue eyes..."
"Is this *School-Live!*? Bah! This is fucking *Violet Evergarden*, hey!"
Zhurong was feeling shocked right now—fucking shocked.
Magic existed in the worldview of Violet, and the level of technological development was at the stage of World War I. Moreover, they were indeed fighting a world war...
"This is going to be tricky..."
He was just an ordinary person. Even with a gun in his hand, surviving in such a magical world embroiled in war was simply too difficult.
Right now, the only thing he could think of was to tie himself and Violet to the same boat in the future, which might just save his skin. After all, Violet's combat power was quite terrifying.
"Vulcan system initiating."
"Who's there?!" Zhurong raised his gun, only to find that besides himself and the girl, there was no one else.
The girl tilted her head in confusion and set the coconut tree down at the entrance of the cave.
"Distributing beginner's gift pack..."
"System boun—"
"Huh? Why did it stop?"
Clatter...
Several items dropped onto the ground in front of him.
A lighter, two boxes of medicine, a bag of compressed biscuits, a can of SPAM, and a can of dace with fermented black beans.
"Oh well, better than nothing."
Zhurong picked up the items from the ground and stuffed them all into his pockets.
"Let's go find some—whoa!"
The moment he raised his head, he saw the girl's pretty face less than ten centimeters away from his.
He was so startled that he fell flat on his backside.
"Scared the living daylights out of me... walking without making a single sound."
This scare actually calmed him down a lot, and he began to recall the plot of Violet.
According to what he knew, Violet would be discovered by soldiers on a shipwrecked vessel and then taken back to her country.
However, he had forgotten the exact timeframe, and he wasn't sure when this was. It could be tomorrow, or it could be a year from now. In any case, it wouldn't be too long, otherwise Violet in the story would be an old hag. (Laughs)
As for the butterfly effect... as long as he didn't pull out a ballistic missile to blast the outside world, the butterfly effect could be completely ignored in the short term.
After mentally preparing himself, Zhurong carried the coconuts from outside into the cave, and the girl also helped him lug that coconut tree inside.
He figured that with a little processing, this coconut tree could be turned into window frames and a sturdy door.
After tidying up the cave, Zhurong decided to familiarize himself with the entire island, lest he end up like Robinson Crusoe, who holed up for ages despite better resources being all around.
As for whether there was anyone else on this island... judging by the way Violet couldn't even speak yet, it was probably out of the question.
Regarding calling her Violet... he couldn't just keep calling her "little one," could he? Besides, Zhurong was notoriously bad at coming up with names; making up one himself would be far worse than just using her original name from the source material. Much less hassle. (Laughs)