Chosen: Beyond Fate

Chapter 4: Skyrail

Ever since he had nearly been sent flying by a massive truck the day before, Ji Jue had been dazed and absent‑minded. After finishing his examinations at the hospital, he returned home and passed out the moment he closed his eyes.

Only after waking did he finally feel the relief of having survived the ordeal, along with a faint trace of joy.

Sure, there was no isekai reincarnation, and he didn’t shatter a crystal ball during a magic aptitude test, nor did he get a heaven-shaking physique while collecting a harem, like in all those crowd‑pleasing plotlines. However, he was alive, at least.

Being alive was good. Being alive was very good. Being alive was fucking amazing.

Since he was nine, Ji Jue hadn’t really lived life to the fullest. He figured he might still have forty, fifty, sixty, maybe even seventy or eighty years ahead of him.

So what if his luck wasn’t great? So what if he was poor? Life wasn’t impossible to get through. Being alive was the best!

Even his scar looked a little lighter, didn’t it?

The old house left behind by his ancestors had weathered countless years, and the wooden floor creaked with every step. Even with Ji Jue’s careful maintenance over the past few years, it was hard to hide how the passage of time had affected the house. While washing up in front of the mirror, Ji Jue could not help lifting his head and inspecting the scar that stretched from below his neck all the way to his face like a snake that coiled along his back. The burn mark had once been so ugly and grotesque, yet now it showed faint signs of fading.

More importantly, Ji Jue himself seemed different. To be precise, everything seemed different. The entire world felt subtly altered.

If he had to make a comparison, it was like an amputee suddenly experiencing phantom limb sensation again. All of a sudden, it was as though he had gained an extra eye, an extra hand, or some brand‑new sense.

However, the more he tried to really feel it, the more everything slipped into a haze. The harder he focused, the more elusive the feeling became, making his head spin. It was like something was stuck halfway, heading neither up nor down, and it was just unbearably uncomfortable.

After washing his face, he slumped onto the sofa and reached out to grab the remote, wanting to watch something, anything, to distract himself. However, the television screen only flickered with the image cutting in and out.

“Broken again?”

Ji Jue scratched his head and bent down to press the switch, but nothing changed.

After all, it was an old TV, even older than Ji Jue, with a curved screen to boot. Over the years, he’d patched it up and fixed it a million times, but this time, it didn’t seem like the usual problem.

Just as he was feeling lost, he heard a voice that seemed almost like a hallucination. “Bro, stop turning me on. My ass hurts.”

“Huh?”

Ji Jue reflexively pressed the button again and heard a groan. Stunned, he froze on the spot, and he slowly and stiffly lifted his head to look in the direction of the noise.

It was the television.

“My ass hurts,” the TV said.

“Holy shit—” Ji Jue was so shocked he fell backward onto the floor.

It’s a ghost... No, wait, the TV can talk?!

Then the TV went silent, as if Ji Jue had nearly killed it, leaving him even more panicked and confused. Only when he finally mustered the courage to go around to the back of the TV did realization dawn on him.

Of course its ass hurt. The power cord in the back had aged and cracked, and it was leaking electricity.

After rummaging through the cabinet for a long while, he finally found electrical tape and pliers, and fixed the power cord. It was not as complicated as he had expected. If anything, it was surprisingly simple.

Then he heard a sigh of relief.

“Much better. The voltage has been unstable lately. Don’t turn me on so often. The picture tube’s about done for too...” the TV said.

The voice grew softer and softer, gradually becoming impossible to hear.

Ji Jue, meanwhile, was growing dizzier and dizzier.

When he studied the television, it was as if his invisible pair of eyes had opened once more, allowing him to see its internal structure and operation. When he listened, it was like he was hearing hallucinated voices giving a status report on the subject.

When he touched the TV, it felt like invisible hands were working inside it. He could sense how worn each component was, how much life it had left, and could even interfere with how it operated.

But power had a cost.

The moment he used that power, he could feel his energy draining away at an alarming speed. In just a few minutes, it felt like he had gone days and nights without sleep, and he was so exhausted that he was on the verge of dropping dead.

He had no doubt that if he did not stop, dropping dead would no longer just be a joke. It would be for real.

In the silent room, Ji Jue lowered his head and looked at his wrist. That clear, ever present pulsing and awareness was still there even when he was utterly exhausted. It required no extra effort at all, as though it had already become part of his body.

This strange wristwatch.

What left Ji Jue stunned was that the number on the dial had already fallen back from near full to its initial value, even lower than at the beginning: 01.

Aside from that, what caught his eyes even more was the dial itself. The marking that had originally been at zero had now turned mostly gold, as if it were stuck at some kind of progress point.

He once again poured the little energy he had left into it, and information cascaded before his eyes like a waterfall.

[Chosen Rite initiation complete. Welcome to your employment with Skyrail Corporation. Error report attempt #1,789,989 failed to send. Temporary employee detected in life-threatening danger... Contacting nearby stations. No signal response. Contacting headquarters support center. No signal response... Error. Error. Error.] freёwebnovel.com

[Temporary employee emergency survival protocol activated. While the protocol is in effect, the talent will be activated as an ability. Reserve spirit essence exhausted. Protocol terminated. Duration: 0.4 seconds.]

[Unknown error detected. Error. Error. Error. Signal response lost. Upload failed. HR system reminder: Please become a Chosen One as soon as possible and head to the Central Station to complete your official onboarding.]

Ji Jue’s vision went dark. Not from exhaustion, but from sheer confusion.

There were far too many new terms being dumped on him at once for him to process. Chosen Rite, Skyrail Corporation, temporary employee, protocol, error, Chosen One, Central Station, onboarding...

He was able to piece together what all that meant. Sort of. It seemed that he had, through some kind of Chosen Rite, inexplicably been bound to this watch, and had even submitted a resume to a company he had never heard of. Then he had been automatically hired.

But this lousy company seemed like a total mess. It had nothing to offer Ji Jue, not a single employee had ever contacted him, and who knew if it even still existed. When his life had been in danger, it had activated something called a temporary employee survival protocol, forcibly awakening his “talent” and turning it into a superpower, only to burn through all the fuel.

In the end, it seemed to be telling him to hurry up and become a Chosen One, then go to a place called the Central Station and officially become a corporate slave.

Ji Jue cautiously raised his wrist and asked, “Hello? You there?”

There was no response.

Even the watch hands could not be bothered to make a sound as they moved. It was like it did not want to deal with him.

“Hey, don’t just go quiet on me.” Curious, Ji Jue asked, “So how’s the pay at your company? What’s the scale like? What kind of business do you mainly do? How are the salary and benefits? Do I get annual leave and a year-end bonus?”

The watch remained silent.

Ji Jue gradually felt more at ease. “By the way, when exactly did I become your temporary employee? Did you get my consent? Was there anything I signed to confirm it?”

He flopped down on the beat-up couch and got comfortable. “I’ve been a temp worker for so many years. Even if I didn’t do any actual work, that’s not a reason for you not to pay me. Can you make up for it? What about my social insurance and housing fund? You didn’t dodge taxes, did you? Be careful, or I’ll call and report you...”

The silence persisted. Ji Jue was talking to himself, like a clown. Being a clown was fine, though. At least it proved that there was no ten-thousand-year-old ghost or other freakish thing hiding inside this watch.

Fine. If it could not talk, then he would just ignore it.

It made him a temporary employee without paying him, but he also used the watch without paying a dime. Both sides were basically freeloading off each other. Everyone benefited from this win-win situation, and everybody came out on top.

At least for now, there was no need to worry about someone suddenly appearing, smacking him dead, and reclaiming the company assets.

Besides, Skyrail, Central Station... He had never heard of any of these things. The federation had so many major cities, and the railways running back and forth were limited in number, all managed and operated by municipal governments. He had never heard of any Skyrail Corporation.

That watch had never left his family since his grandfather’s generation. After so many years without anyone coming for it, that lousy company might, maybe, possibly, most likely... already be gone.

Ji Jue let out a breath and finally relaxed.

When he closed his eyes and carefully sensed inward, he could feel something slowly welling up inside him. It was thin and wispy like mist, yet when gathered, it flowed like a river. It gradually filled him, dispelling some of his fatigue.

And from within, a nearly negligible trace flowed toward the watch, storing itself inside the device, and causing the number on the dial to rise once more. 03.

So this is spirit matter?

All those years he’d been building it up, only to reach just over ninety, and the survival protocol had burned it all away in less than a second. After his talent had been forcibly activated once, the recovery speed of his spirit essence now seemed much higher than before, though the exact extent remained unknown.

He was probably just one final push away from formally turning it into an ability.

So that meant... he was about to become a superhuman?

Ji Jue’s eyes lit up. freёwebnoѵel.com

Long ago, he had read a comic said to have survived from before the Cataclysm Era. It featured a group of heroic figures, and every single one of them was absurdly powerful and dominant.

The first had immense strength, was impervious to blades and bullets, and could shoot lasers from his eyes. The second was loaded, and he, dressed in black with a mask, would take his godchildren to punish the wicked and protect the innocent. The third was a dangerously alluring woman wielding a sword and a rope. The fourth wore red, ate fast, and ran fast. Everything about him was fast, including the way he died each time...

And then there was the eighth, or was it the ninth? His power was especially unusual. He could talk to fish, and the fish would talk back.

Ji Jue felt just like that hero. When he talked to a phone, it talked back. It even told him the balance on his line was zero.

Incredible.

The thought was a bit punch worthy, but it did not stop Ji Jue from feeling genuinely happy. He really did seem different from before. Maybe he would not have to grind so hard anymore, or live under so much pressure. Maybe he could lead a simple, easygoing life, and still be happy.

How great was that?

If he failed an exam, there was no need to be afraid. If his thesis got rejected, there was no need to panic. Even if he could not secure his Level Two Engineer certification before graduation, it would not be a big deal. He did not need to worry about not being able to repay student loans, starving, or ending up on the streets.

After all, I’m superhum—

Boom!

Like divine retribution, a thunderous roar erupted from downstairs.

Ji Jue poked his head out from the stairwell in confusion and saw the door flung open by a raging wind. Sparse rainwater blew in from outside, and a trail of muddy footprints wound their way deep into the living room.

An uninvited guest had arrived.