Wang Fengwu lived a peaceful life in Fangcao Town.

He didn't smoke, didn't drink, never indulged in binge eating, was single, led a restrained life, with the face of an ordinary man in his thirties.

As a barber, his business in town wasn't particularly good, but it wasn't bad either.

Because of his low prices and stable skills, both men and women liked to come here to get trendy haircuts.

The barbershop was only open five days a week, with two days of mandatory rest.

Many customers would ask him, "Barber, can you really make money doing business like this?"

Wang Fengwu would just smile and say, "Just making enough to get by."

Someone else would say, "Do you want a wife? I can introduce you to someone."

"No need."

Wang Fengwu said, "It's quite good living alone, just like this."

Sometimes he would suddenly say his stomach hurt, hang a "Out" sign on his homemade shop, and rush to the large toilet in the back of the house for an hour.

Everyone knew that the barber had a troublesome bottom.

Wang Fengwu didn't care about other people's opinions of him.

Just making enough to get by.

Whether as a barber or as a substitute, it didn't make a difference.

The whole world was just a big Fangcao Town.

Wang Fengwu hung the "Closed" sign on the door, then walked to the backyard and started tending to the plants.

Many years ago, when he was still a child, he liked flowers and plants, often sitting alone in a field, daydreaming and napping, while other boys fought with wooden swords and bamboo spears. He was often laughed at for being cowardly and was given the nickname "Scarecrow."

Being a scarecrow wasn't bad.

That's what Wang Fengwu thought back then. He didn't have a strong competitive spirit; most things had no strong purpose and were not necessary for him to do.

Just getting by.

He originally thought that someone like him would lead an ordinary life, with the most excitement being robbed and killed by thieves, or tragically dying of illness and poverty.

But fate played a game with him that he could never have guessed.

How did he become a substitute?

The more he was unfit for something, the more a certain force seemed to make him do it.

Wang Fengwu was pruning the chrysanthemums with scissors.

Although it was winter, Fangcao Town wasn't cold at all.

According to the classification of the old humans, this place belonged to the Arusha Region of Tanzania, with an average temperature between 13-25°C. Only the extremely high-altitude mountain peaks — like nearby Mount Kilimanjaro — would have snowfall. The temperatures elsewhere remained mild throughout the year.

An old man passing by greeted him, "Hey barber boy, I have some freshly roasted coffee beans for you. Remember to store them properly and don't let them get damp."

The man placed a small package wrapped in banana leaves, smilingly saying, "Last time you styled my granddaughter's hair, she loved it."

Wang Fengwu waved to show his thanks.

And then he continued tending to the plants.

He was busy for a while.

Wang Fengwu suddenly stopped working and looked up.

In the clear sky, rays of light slowly appeared, forming two trident structures among the clouds.

The immense pressure enveloped the place like an airwave.

Wang Fengwu watched in confusion.

Why had the Supervisors come here?

They should be on the outer orbit.

What happened?

Could it be that the Heavenly People were going to descend again?

No.

There was no warning.

Or did some life form on the ground emerge, deemed highly compatible with the cells of the Heavenly People, thus prompting the Supervisors to capture directly?

In the high sky, the Supervisors' large beams of light locked the entire sky, forming a trident-like woven network.

Their target was Fangcao Town.

Wang Fengwu thought for a moment, but there was no one particularly special in the town.

He had lived here for over a hundred and sixty years, but because of his [non-existence] trait, the townsfolk were completely unaware of it.

The old man who had just given him the coffee beans had been watched by Wang Fengwu since he was a baby. From being a reddish infant to learning to walk, then running everywhere, growing up, getting married, having kids, aging...

The people in town grew up under his watch, each one having been helped by him to some degree.

They couldn't remember Wang Fengwu's past, but they felt a peculiar familiarity toward him for this reason.

Brain memories could be closed off, but muscle memories didn't lie.

Wang Fengwu pondered.

Was it the chicken farmer A-Dou?

He always raised incredibly large and delicious chickens; Wang couldn't see through his talent. Could it be him?

Or the barmaid?

She never got drunk no matter how much she drank and she never gave off any foul alcohol smell, which made Wang Fengwu very curious.

Or the gravedigger Xiao Gao?

Though called Xiao Gao, he was a sixty-nine-year-old man, a deaf person who couldn't hear other people's secrets. He liked talking to corpses since childhood, whether he was truly able to converse with them or had just conjured up ghosts in his mind.

Wang Fengwu couldn't be sure.

Even in an inconspicuous small town like this, among ordinary people, there were some inexplicable things, though just small matters that even Light Core Bodies couldn't unravel.

But it didn't matter.

It had nothing to do with him anyway.

The appearance of the Supervisors in the sky made the townsfolk tilt their heads up, discussing it among themselves.

They hadn't seen such a sight before.

"These bolts of lightning look pretty; there's even a grid pattern."

"Too bad we don't have a Light Seal Camera, otherwise, we could've captured it."

"Is it going to rain? Should we collect the clothes?"

"It's just dry lightning; the sky isn't dark, it won't rain."

The townspeople watched the sky's anomaly with great interest.

Wang Fengwu glanced over them.

Who was it that attracted the Supervisors' attention?

The Supervisors, like grid-like lightning, vibrated widely, and the clouds in the sky were evaporated by high temperatures as if in anger.

What was happening now?

A malfunction? Or was it feeling unwell?

Wang Fengwu was baffled.

The substitute and the Supervisors were two independent systems.

The Supervisors monitored the Earth World, while the substitutes carried out missions bestowed by the Heavenly People, with no overlaps between them.

The most troublesome part was that the Supervisors couldn't be communicated with; they were like emotionless machines, hard to fathom, yet they were of Transmutator Level, like huge mountains overshadowing the substitutes.

As various thoughts flitted through Wang Fengwu's mind, the Supervisors resumed their steady illumination, giving him a slight sense of relief.

Looks like nothing's wrong.

The last thing a person making a humble living wants is a major change in the current situation.

He suddenly felt something abnormal.

He couldn't move.

The Supervisors seemed to be... coming for him?

They turned completely azure, entering a high-energy state, and dazzling lightning descended from the sky, erasing Wang Fengwu along with his garden from the ground.

A smoking pit was all that remained.

The townspeople ran over one by one, trying to find possible survivors through the smoke.

"Oh no... the barber was struck by lightning to death!"

"He's burned to nothing!"

"The barber was struck by lightning!!"

The crowd gathered, talking about this unexpected incident, and most people expressed great regret.

"The barber was a good person... How could a good person be struck by lightning..."

"Alas, heaven is so unfair..."

"In this world, good people always suffer, while bad people live long lives."

"He hadn't even drunk my coffee yet, what a shame."

The townsfolk sighed deeply.

...

Wang Fengwu came to his senses and found himself in a world full of craters.

Sand and stone wastelands stretched as far as the eye could see, with barren mountains devoid of any plants or life.

There were no blue skies or white clouds overhead, only endless darkness, as if the sky had been thoroughly torn apart and dismantled.

Had the world been destroyed?

Wang Fengwu quickly realized that this was not the case.

This seemed to be another world.

Because he couldn't sense the presence of any living people here, and the energy density was more than eighty times higher than before, there was hardly any air, it was dry and extremely cold.

Due to his Gemstone Organ modification, Wang Fengwu could quickly discern these differences.

The Supervisors hovered in the sky, covering the area like a glowing net.

Wang Fengwu couldn't leave the light prison they created.

Why?

Why did the Supervisors capture him and bring him to this world?

Wang Fengwu couldn't understand.

Was it because of his laziness? Offering them the minimum number of mutants each year?

No.

That shouldn't be the reason. The Supervisors didn't monitor the substitutes' work; they supervised the Earth itself and the health of its life forms. These weren't their concern or within their duties.

Then there was only one possibility left.

They had found a new replacement and were going to dismiss him from his substitute role.

Did an even more talented mutant appear?

Or had a mutant surpassed him in strength, reaching Light Core Body Level 4?

Wang Fengwu didn't feel fear or pain; instead, he felt a sense of relief.

It was finally going to end.

Every substitute had to pass this stage.

He sat down on the ground, waiting for death to come.

A strange stone nearby caught Wang Fengwu's attention.

The stone spun like a top, but each time it soon fell to the ground as if exhausted.

After a while, it stubbornly propped itself up again, fiercely spinning, trying to leave but forever revolving in place.

It was a life form.

Wang Fengwu thought to himself, sorry, you've been captured by the Supervisors too because of me.

Suddenly.

He heard a voice.

"Do you know why you were captured?"

Wang Fengwu was stunned, looking up at the enormous entity overhead.

The Supervisors could talk.

"I do."

"I am unfit to continue as a substitute."

Resigned to his fate, Wang Fengwu said, "I never wanted to be a substitute in the first place; you forced me into it. I truly lack the ability and don't enjoy the job. Go ahead and destroy me."

The entity was silent for a moment.

"Want to die? It's not that easy."

"Confess honestly. Name the violations you've committed over the years."

The Supervisor was holding him accountable.

Wang Fengwu was indignant.

Damn them.

Even among substitutes, they bullied the honest ones!

I just avoided trouble where I could, didn't want to stir up any mess, while those guys were causing chaos unchecked, and they're picking on me!

Wang Fengwu grew angrier the more he thought about it.

Looking at the spinning stone top, it felt like looking at himself.

If they wouldn't let him live in peace, then no one would!

"I want to report! Number Three has committed severe violations for many years!"

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