ABT Chapter 0002 X.APP

Li Fanyu returned to his dormitory in a daze.

The first thing he did upon entering the room was to connect his phone to the WIFI and search for car brands on the internet.

Li Fanyu had just turned twenty-two this year. He barely made it into Tiancheng Industrial University with almost disastrous grades. He considered himself of average intelligence, with average aptitude, and not particularly handsome.

In fact, that was the case. So being admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University was a stroke of luck for him. Since then, he had adhered to the principle of "the slow bird gets the worm." He attended all classes, whether mandatory or elective, as long as they were helpful to his major.

Today's class was unrelated to his major, but Li Fanyu went because he liked cars. Since childhood, he had been particularly interested in mechanical and electronic things.

Since he could remember, Li Fanyu had been filled with curiosity and a knack for tinkering, and had begun to study various household appliances at home.

Of course, by "study," he actually meant "take apart."

The most memorable incident for Li Fanyu was when his father had just bought a popular VCD player at that time. The naive young Li Fanyu was fascinated by this magical machine and was curious why putting a round disc in it could play movies. So, while his parents were at work, the naive 8-year-old Li Fanyu violently disassembled the VCD player with a screwdriver and pliers. He dismantled the whole machine into dozens of parts, but couldn't put it back together in the end.

Why was it the most memorable? Because... his father punished Li Fanyu for two weeks!

After this incident, Li Fanyu dared not study household appliances anymore. But he immediately transferred his curiosity to a new field—his uncle's repair shop.

It was a shop where everything from household appliances to motorcycles and cars could be repaired. There was only his uncle, the owner, and no other employees in the shop.

But Li Fanyu found a new world here, with all kinds of oily and cold machinery, making his small eyes sparkle with excitement.

It was here that he became obsessed with cars. Every weekend and summer vacation, Li Fanyu would hang out in the repair shop and become an unofficial and unpaid employee.

His uncle, Jianguo, was a very interesting person, and he liked Li Fanyu's cleverness a lot. He was also a car enthusiast, so cars became a common topic for the two of them.

He told stories well, explaining the stories and technical features behind the famous cars in magazines to Li Fanyu. During car repairs, he also taught him the working principles of some components.

From the old 212 Jeep to later models like the Lada and then to the Toyota Corolla and Audi 100, Li Fanyu became completely immersed in the ocean of cars there.

It was just a pity that most of the cars he saw were broken, and most of them were domestically made. Li Fanyu harbored deep resentment towards domestic car brands, which was why he attended today's class.

Regarding the situation in today's class, Li Fanyu felt an inexplicable sense of indignation. How could it be like this? When it came to cars, few people of the same age could be more familiar than himself. He could recite the development history and generations of car products of these brands without even thinking.

But why did the classmates and the professor react like that?

After Li Fanyu connected to WIFI, he quickly searched again.

Sure enough, all those familiar brands couldn't be found. Japanese and Korean car brands were still mostly there. But German, American, and even those supercar brands were all gone.

Just as the old professor said, BMW had become a German aircraft engine manufacturer, and Audi had become a lamp factory—literally a lamp factory!

As for brands like Lamborghini and Aston Martin, they couldn't be found at all. Land Rover was even more irritating, with search results showing a news headline—"Tiger (Red) Injures People in Huan Cheng Road (Red) Park."

Time travel, that was Li Fanyu's first reaction.

He hurriedly opened the Autohome app, eager to confirm the correctness of his memory.

But he was surprised to find that the familiar app had changed its appearance.

The blue-and-white app had turned black, with only an X logo on it. The name of the app below had disappeared, replaced by an inexplicable blank.

"What the hell is this?"

Several guys in the dormitory had gone out to have fun. In the cold and messy dormitory, Li Fanyu looked at the dark app and suddenly felt a bad premonition.

"Oh my god, don't tell me I've really time-traveled!"

Thinking of this, Li Fanyu felt a chill in his heart. Please, although in YY novels, after time-traveling, various beauties and martial arts techniques stick to you for free, but if you accidentally travel to another world, who will take care of my parents in their old age? According to the corresponding policy, the Li family had only this single descendant.

He quickly opened his contact list and dialed the top number.

After a few busy tones, the phone connected. A familiar and somewhat grumpy voice came through: "Hello? Didn't I just send you living expenses a few days ago? You're out of money again?"

Nervous, Li Fanyu startled and hastily replied, "No, no, no, Mom, I still have money."

"Then why are you calling me? Hey hey hey, don't move, don't touch the tiles!"

Complaints came from the other end of the phone, obviously his mother was playing mahjong. Faint sounds of pots boiling could be heard, presumably his father was cooking.

Li Fanyu felt a little relieved. It seems like my mom is still my mom and my dad is still my dad. He sighed and said, "Hey hey, just wanted to check in with you. Is dad cooking?"

"Yeah, you little brat, are you trying to annoy your mother? If you're homesick, just come back on vacation. I don't have time to deal with you. Don't move! The winning hand is almost ready!"

With that, the call was hung up.

Li Fanyu's eye twitched a couple of times, awkwardly hanging up the phone. All's well that ends well, nothing has changed, it seems like I was just overthinking it. How could something as bizarre as time travel happen to me?

Looking at the black app on the screen, he chuckled self-deprecatingly and tapped on it.

In the moment the program started, Li Fanyu's mind exploded with the roar of a car engine.

From the phone, a series of cold mechanical sounds came.

"X program initiated..."

"Initialization successful, identity verification in progress..."

"System identification complete, identity verification complete. Congratulations on becoming the sole test user of the X program. Prior to program launch, the history of world automobile development has been randomly modified. This program will focus on the development of current-space mechanical vehicles and the enhancement of user abilities. Upon opening the program, align your eyes with the phone, and you will enter the program's virtual space."

Li Fanyu suppressed the urge to vomit, steadying his mind as he glanced at the phone. At first glance, everything seemed fine, but he nearly passed out from shock.

As soon as his eyes met the dark screen of the phone, it was as if he had entered a pitch-black room, where nothing could be seen except for the screen that appeared out of thin air.

The screen had a futuristic feel, like something out of Tony Stark's workshop in "Iron Man." There was only one option on it—enter the program.

Trembling, Li Fanyu clicked it. A row of grid-shaped virtual icons appeared in front of him.

[Technical Class][Tool Class][Production Class][Special Class][User Options]

One by one, Li Fanyu opened them and found that each category had many options inside. Unfortunately, except for the first option in each category, the rest were grayed out, presumably following the principle of a skill tree in games, needing to be unlocked with upgrades.

However, the X program obviously didn't want to provide users with a better user experience. The grayed-out options only showed blurry icons, with no additional introduction or explanation. Below the icons was a string of numbers 0, followed by [points].

"What's this? Is it currency?"

Curious, Li Fanyu clicked on it, and the screen immediately changed, scrolling a series of introductions.

Li Fanyu carefully read through them; users entering the space for the first time, startup help instructions, these instructions only appear once, please read carefully.

The system's functions are divided into five major categories. Options within each category are unlocked based on user levels or point usage. Once unlocked, specific usage methods can be viewed.

Points are obtained based on the mileage of the driving vehicle using the technology in this system for repair, modification, and manufacturing. The specific algorithm is: mileage of the vehicle after applying X technology / 10. That is: driving 100 kilometers earns 10 points.

After accumulating a certain number of points, user levels can be upgraded. With each level up, users can choose to draw random rewards in the special class options.

For more functions, please experience them when using the X program. Exit the space after closing your eyes for three seconds, good luck.

Li Fanyu looked at the completed scrolling instructions, taking a long time to calm down his shock. This was too futuristic, so futuristic it felt like a dream.

After pinching himself repeatedly, Li Fanyu finally confirmed that this was not a dream. Then he remembered the words in the instructions; developing mechanical driving vehicles and enhancing personal abilities?

So, does that mean I can use this program to make cars?

Thinking of this, he felt a hint of excitement.

But looking at the pitiful 0 in the points position, he shook his head helplessly. He thought they could at least give a newbie package or something, starting with a million or so points to try it out.

Just as he was about to click on the technical class to see what was inside, he heard noisy voices outside, indicating that someone had returned to the dormitory.


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