The First Chapter of Technical Otaku

  On a sweltering summer day, a heat wave swept through the city. In a rented apartment in the suburbs, a TV in the living room was playing the news. The news seemed to be broadcasting an extraordinary astronomical phenomenon of nine stars aligning, but the person in the small room next door didn't seem to notice.

  Xue Zheng held a screwdriver in his hand, narrowed his eyes to stare at the component in his hand, and the long ash of the half cigarette stuck in his mouth fell like snow, but he didn't care about these things because it was a critical moment. He saw him frowning slightly after a moment of contemplation, and then put down the screwdriver in his hand.

  "Oh, I've got the feeling, hehehe." Xue Zheng's pale face twisted into a lewd grin as he rubbed his hands together, his smile so obscene that it seemed like he was staring at a naked beauty instead of just a small piece of circuit board.

  In an instant, the man who seemed like a nerd suddenly picked up the screwdriver he had put down and swung it back and forth on the circuit board with lightning speed, just like a skilled surgeon. After a moment, he nodded in satisfaction and stopped his movements.

  "Hey, how's Xue Lao Da doing? Can I imitate him?" From behind the tightly closed door of Xue Zheng's room, a gap was opened and a chubby head poked in to take a look around. Originally wanting to come in, but seeing the various machine parts piled up in the room, he hesitated for a moment, feeling there was no place to stand, so he stood at the door and shouted out a few times.

  "Oh, little fatty, okay, you take a look." Xue Zhengtou said to the person behind him, while he himself threw the extinguished cigarette butt into the dirty paper cup on the cluttered table and lifted his leg up, shaking it happily.

  "Ah, Xue Lao Da, I knew you could do it!" Little Pang cheered and rushed in, bouncing around the cluttered room with clumsy movements that were comical.

  "Watch out for my thermos, watch out for my toolbox, you fatso stepped on my clothes~~~." Xue Zheng couldn't help but frown and shout in dissatisfaction as he listened to the various noises caused by Xiao Pangzi in his own room. If it weren't for the fact that this dead fatty was his sworn brother since childhood, he wouldn't have taken on this task.

  "Let me take a look, duck pear machine." Little fatty smiled and picked up a mobile phone from Xue Zheng's cluttered work desk, flipping it over and over with great interest.

  "Be careful, you've wasted so many of my brain cells." Xue Zheng lit a cigarette and held it between his left fingers, pointing at Xiao Pangzi, thinking to himself that this dead fatty didn't know which ignorant girl he was going to cheat next. With such a rich family, he still used this crappy world-renowned fake phone, the "Duck Pear" phone, and didn't even spend any money on picking up girls, only knowing how to take advantage of me.

  "Thanks, boss! Haha, indeed a master of Mountain Banditry, using a crappy phone that costs only a few hundred bucks and turning it into a Duck Pear phone. This skill is truly unmatched, no wonder among so many classmates who graduated, you're the only one with the guts to venture out on your own."

  "Get out! If I had a rich old man like yours, I wouldn't be suffering like this." Xue Zheng said impatiently.

  "Hey, my old man keeps mentioning you in front of me, saying that you're a talented person. How about it? Are you interested in coming to work with me?"

  "Get out, let me be your subordinate, dream on. You'd better find a good wife to make your old man worry less, that Huanhuan last time was not bad, pretty and good figure." Xue Zheng said with a sour tone, putting his hands behind his head, lying in his swivel chair.

  "What's with this 'Wan Wan' stuff? It's so old-fashioned and lacks passion." Little fatty said disdainfully, curling his lip.

  "Damn it, you're a beast who doesn't know the good fortune that's right in front of you. Take your stuff and get out of here quickly, I still have work to do and don't have time to waste on you." Xue Zheng didn't know why he felt a wave of annoyance in his heart, so he waved his hand at the dead fat guy in front of him and turned around without paying any more attention to him.

  "Hey, boss, I'll take off then. I'll pay you back later, got a date with Little Sister. Hehe." The fat pervert smiled lecherously and respectfully turned around to leave the dirty and messy room.

  Xue Zheng heard the sound of the door closing with a bang, and suddenly everything became quiet except for the TV commercial in the living room. He picked up a book from a pile on the left table, "Kao Gong Ji", which was a book introducing various ancient Chinese technologies. It was a book he bought when he was studying history in college, and it was also the only textbook he liked.

  Anyone who knows Xue Zheng would think he's a weirdo. Apart from being a hardcore otaku, he's also a tech enthusiast. Anything related to manufacturing would spark his intense curiosity. Xue's parents still vividly remember how 5-year-old Xue Zheng dismantled the few small appliances at home into tiny components.

  This matter once made Mr. and Mrs. Xue very excited, thinking that their son was a genius in science and engineering, but unexpectedly, as Xue Zheng grew up, he liked math and physics quite a bit, but had absolutely no interest in English. In a country where talent is measured by proficiency in foreign languages, this also doomed Xue Zheng to have nothing to do with the science and engineering jobs that were easy to find after graduation. Helplessly, he could only sign up for a certain university's history department.

  But today, even his favorite technical scripture couldn't arouse Xue Zheng's interest. He read for a while but felt more and more annoyed, so he put down the book in his hand and took out a watch from the drawer. However, unlike ordinary watches, it could pull out a data cable from the side. When Xue Zheng connected the line to his dusty computer, a figure appeared on the screen and gradually became clear. A beautiful and elegant girl appeared on the screen.

  "Yuan Yuan, are you okay?" Xue Zheng was somewhat excitedly rubbing his hands together, a flush appearing on his pale face. He felt a pang of bitterness in his heart, having unexpectedly developed feelings for the girlfriend of Dead Fatty, no, his ex-girlfriend.

  But love is really unspeakable, when Xue Zheng was dragged by Dai Huazi to eat together, the girl in white long dress with long hair flying caught his heart, but his mouth which was far less agile than his fingers couldn't say a word, and could only stare at Dai Huazi and the goddess intimately.

  However, it just so happened that he was helping someone assemble a surveillance watch at the time, and thus managed to save the goddess's image. As he stared blankly at the computer screen, a strong wind began to blow outside the window on this summer day, a sign of an impending thunderstorm. What would normally be considered normal weather had become extremely unusual today, with dark clouds quickly gathering above the city, lightning flashing across the sky like golden snakes slithering about.

  "My god, such a strong wind and lightning? I'm in trouble, the receiver that someone else was testing on the rooftop has been left out." Xue Zheng woke up from the rolling thunder, he hastily put on his slippers and rushed out of the house door towards the rooftop. If the receiver got struck by lightning, half a month's worth of hard work would be wasted.

  Xue Zheng rushed to the rooftop and saw that the receiver's long antenna was swaying violently in the strong wind, on the verge of breaking. He hastily ran forward, disregarding the gale-force winds, and grabbed hold of the antenna, attempting to pull it back. Just then, a bolt of golden lightning suddenly struck down from the sky, hitting the antenna squarely.

  "Oh no, someone's been struck by lightning~~~~." As Xue Zheng's consciousness faded away, this was the last voice that appeared in his ears, and in his heart he was lamenting, indeed friends' wives are not to be trifled with, it's really a case of being struck down for no reason.

  In Xue Zhengzu's living room, the TV was playing a blonde-haired, blue-eyed European girl posing in front of an abandoned medieval castle, seemingly introducing a German central historic castle to tourists.

  After the lightning struck the receiver antenna, the TV screen flickered violently for a few seconds. What's even more bizarre is that on the flickering screen, a person's face suddenly appeared. If Xiaopang had seen it, he would have been shocked. It was clearly Xue Zheng's pale face, but on the TV screen, it was stretched and jumped up and down several times. Then, the entire TV emitted a burning smell, and the screen turned completely black.

  A splitting headache came on, and when he opened his eyes again, everything was no longer familiar to him. He moved his fingers and made a rustling sound, feeling something like dry grass under him. A groan escaped from his mouth, the voice was extremely strange.

  "Where am I? What happened?" Xue Zheng struggled to prop himself up with his palms, slowly getting up. He felt stars spinning in his eyes, his head heavy as if it was carrying a lead ball, and his two legs seemed not to belong to him. He thought to himself that he hadn't been struck by lightning, had he? Was this a hospital?

  His dizziness made him disoriented, his intuition told him that this was a dimly lit room. He stumbled around and bumped into some wooden tables and chairs inside the room, making them creak loudly. However, he finally managed to feel his way to the door, which turned out to be a wooden one. As soon as his fingers touched the door handle, he came back to himself. From the tactile sensation, it seemed that this door was very simple, but the materials used were solid. He thought to himself as he pushed the door open with great effort. The dazzling sunlight suddenly shone on his face, and he instinctively raised his right hand to shield his eyes.

  "My god, this is too ridiculous." When his eyes got used to the outside environment, Xue Zheng finally managed to see, but when he saw the situation outside, his mouth was wide open in shock.

  Under the vast, cloudless blue sky, patches of fields surrounded the area, a muddy little road ran through in front, and a winding creek flowed with cool water. A windmill typical of Holland stood beside the stone bridge over the creek. Several Europeans dressed in strange attire herded sheep while laughing and chatting as they walked. Occasionally, the sound of barking dogs filled the air, and several spotted hunting dogs darted out from the forest, followed by several horseback riders shouting and galloping wildly, with their servants running closely behind them.