"How strange… Griffin & Kryuger Security Company hasn't appeared yet, and there's no related data on T-Dolls either, what era is this exactly? Could it be that I really didn't arrive in the Girls' Frontline world?"
Comparing the data he obtained, Li Lin leaned back in his chair, squinted, and rubbed his eyes, a growing sense of unease intensifying in his heart.
Li Lin, before transmigrating, was a Commander.
Oh, or rather, a Girls' Frontline player who called himself a Commander.
As a player of a once-hot and still popular ACG mobile game, it would be nonsense to say you haven't fantasized about such a world.
Everyone likes being surrounded by beautiful girls, likes commanding strategically and being invincible. Even if things don't go well, wouldn't just living a daily life with beautiful girls be quite nice?
And being struck by lightning while grinding 0-2 and not feeding M16A1, no matter how you look at it, it's a very common transmigration method, right? So naturally, arriving in the Girls' Frontline world after transmigrating should also be very normal, right? Isn't that how all the books write it?
Although the world view of Girls' Frontline looks dangerous, essentially, if you stay obediently in the human zones, the risk isn't as great as imagined. If, through your own efforts, you enter the affluent districts, then you'd be living the high life, without much excessive risk—this refers relative to other worlds. Generally speaking, it's quite friendly to humans.
After all, worst comes to worst, I just won't join some damn security company, I can just muddle along freeloading and find some work, can't I?
Heaven never seals off all paths; I remember a lot of the plot myself, that's a treasure trove.
After the initial panic of transmigration, Li Lin felt he could still survive.
He had a little confidence that he could survive in the Girls' Frontline world.
But clearly, this was a mistaken perception.
No one stipulated that whatever game you play, you must transmigrate into that game's world.
Looking through all the materials he asked for from this girl he was lodging with, who worked in the express logistics industry, flipping from beginning to end, there was no Sangvis Ferri, no Kryuger, not even Collapse Fluid. Things that had been memes on Tieba for years were nonexistent. Except for a long-haired beautiful girl living with him who looked suspiciously like WA2000. There was simply nothing related.
No major events, only continuous natural disasters. No world war, only Oripathy and ore radiation. Everything was completely different from the Girls' Frontline he thought he knew.
Even that girl who looked suspiciously like WA2000 but called herself Exusiai, honestly, was also very strange.
He still couldn't figure out why that girl had saved him.
Li Lin knew very well, his appearance at that time was basically repulsive to humans and ghosts alike; when hugging the beautiful girl's thigh, he basically had the mentality of 'even if I die, I'll die under a beautiful girl's gun'—anyone who starved in the wilderness for a month would be in that state. But when he shouted 'God! Take me away!', that girl's expression became very strange.
Then, after asking some very simple religious questions, such as 'you shall not believe in other gods', the sins and punishments in Revelation, stuff you could know just by reading some web novels, that girl somehow happily took him in. After tentatively telling some religious stories, the girl believed him even more firmly. Clearly an angel with a halo above her head, yet faced with his very clumsy amnesia excuse, she treated it as real.
How should I put it, there's always a feeling of bullying someone intellectually disabled.
This inexplicable sense of guilt made Li Lin increasingly want to find some work himself to get away from this kind-hearted girl.
Other people's kindness and goodwill are not excuses for you to freeload. Especially since a beauty's favor is the hardest to repay; precisely because she is such an extremely beautiful girl, the sense of guilt in his heart grew heavier. Li Lin, after all, was a normal person; freeloading still made him feel a bit ashamed.
But, how should I say it, this world was really very uncomfortable for him.
"Lungmen, Penguin Logistics, Mobile Cities… What is all this stuff? And there's no global internet; a city that clearly presents an industrial era is very ancient in many places, and there are Originium Arts and Oripathy… What kind of worldview is this exactly? Tiberian Sun? Does Tiberian Sun have this many beautiful girls? Is Originium Tiberium?"
No, one can't say Tiberian Sun has no beautiful girls, after all, he hasn't seen it.
Looking at the various materials Exusiai very kindly provided him, Li Lin pasted them on the wall, squinting at the trends of the situation and advertisements on them, hoping to find even a tiny clue for a job he could be competent at.
Regrettably, however, there was no such job.
If it were a world like Girls' Frontline with decent technology, for Li Lin, who had been an online professional worker for a period, he still had the confidence to survive. If it were the Middle Ages, the materials he found when writing novels as an online author could also allow him, if not to live well, at least to live comfortably and peacefully. But this current world was chaotic to the point of being outrageous.
Identity proof is needed, internet functionality is weak, other jobs that don't require identity proof need formal combat skills, and this world even has the existence of mages.
The Industrial Revolution isn't an Industrial Revolution but an Originium Revolution, and it seems the relationship between workers and the government is extremely poor, like a powder keg filled with high pressure and the smell of gunpowder. If there was a spark, it would be ghostly if there wasn't a rebellion.
They have the ability, they have the reason, all that's missing is a leader, okay? Li Lin would absolutely not get involved in those Originium zones; judging from related data, going in would most likely mean death.
And in those safe areas, even becoming a cleaner requires identity proof, which he doesn't have.
Could it be that he really had to become a test subject like in those rumors?
But who would want a deadbeat otaku as a test subject?
Besides, although being a test subject pays well, how many successful test subjects have you seen jumping off the operating table alive and kicking? Although his own little life wasn't worth much, he didn't want to just throw it away.
Even writing novels wouldn't work. He wrote a huge pile of settings, the manuscript paper stacked thick, but asking Exusiai, he was told that without identity proof, it couldn't be published. Moreover, the settings he was good at, those fantasy genres, might very well not be popular in this world, which was also a serious problem.
Damn it, what's wrong with this world? Is it forcing me to freeload?
Li Lin looked at the various data points and social events he had connected and posted on the wall, feeling like his head was about to explode.
"...Let's continue making the apple pie."
Today is another meaningless day.
Looking at the messy manuscripts written on his desk and wall, he could only helplessly shake his head, stand up, and walk towards the kitchen.
This short-term rental apartment wasn't large, just over forty square meters. Besides the shower room and the bedroom with a bunk bed, the rest was the kitchen. Pushing the door open, you could see the refrigerator and stove directly opposite the main entrance. The oven was placed separately in one spot, looking unusually conspicuous.
The already-made apple pie, after being left to air dry, could be brushed with egg wash and baked in the oven directly. After taking out the egg wash and flour from the refrigerator and processing them slightly, he sent the apple pie directly into the preheated oven. Before long, a pleasant aroma began to linger in this small rental apartment, suffusing the less-than-fifty-square-meter space with a hazy scent.
"Still not as good as Exusiai makes it…"
Although what he made was already pretty good.
Sniffing the diffusing fragrance, Li Lin judged it himself and still felt that his housemate's skill was a bit better.
But speaking of which, it was strange; clearly Exusiai made it much better than others, but she was unwilling to show her skills often. Was it some strange fetish or some hidden difficulty? With these random thoughts in his mind, Li Lin casually grabbed a book from the table that Exusiai had bought a long time ago and sat down.
But before he could flip through a few pages, he heard the sound of a key turning in the lock at the door. The cheerful voice of his housemate girl came from the doorway less than a second later.
"Yahoo~ What a nice smell~ Prophet, have you finished making the apple pie?"
"It's done, I was planning to put it in the fridge."
"As expected of the Prophet, did you know what I wanted to eat and made it in advance? Love you~"
"No, I just happened to feel I should do it…"
And can you please stop calling me Prophet? I'm really not a prophet, can you call me Li Lin?
Closing the book in his hand, Li Lin looked up in the direction the voice came from. A girl with long purple hair tied in a side ponytail threw her shoes off directly and cheered as she rushed to the side of the table. But looking at the figure behind Exusiai, Li Lin was slightly stunned.
"Miss Texas? Why are you here?"
"Just having a meal with a colleague."
Taking the black chocolate stick resembling a cigarette from her lips and crushing it, the tall, beast-eared woman behind Exusiai stepped forward.
This girl with smooth fur looked unkindly at Li Lin, who was sitting on the chair, looking at a pink book titled "How to Quickly Become Friends with People" yet wearing an innocent expression.
"Rather, Li Lin."
Glancing at the very strange book, Texas's expression turned even colder as she looked at him.
"You still being here is really beyond my expectations. And you're reading this kind of book… You still haven't found a job?"