At dawn, a centipede, over ten meters long and as thick as a water bucket, slithered through the mountains, radiating a silvery glow. Its body resembled cast silver, each segment shining fiercely and jaggedly, sparking as it scraped against the rocks.

It seemed to notice something and looked back briefly, but it paid no attention and continued to move toward the distance.

Li Yi crouched atop a towering tree, dozens of meters high, his pale face watching the centipede retreat. His breathing was hurried, carefully suppressing the sound. He waited until the centipede was out of sight, then felt a coldness spreading down his back. He touched it—his back was already soaked with sweat.

"That was damn terrifying," he muttered softly, carefully holding onto the branches to sit himself down. He never expected something so bizarre would happen in his twenty years of life. He only remembered seeing an ancient yellowed book page in his bed.

When he picked up the page, a tremendous force pulled at him, and soon after, he found himself in this place. He saw the ten-meter-long silver centipede no more than twenty meters in front of him.

His instinct was to run—to run as far as possible and climb higher into the tree. He didn't know if the centipede could climb trees, but based on the situation, it definitely could. Yet, his mind instinctively urged him to act. It was as though his body was reacting for him in an instant.

Although he hadn’t brought the page with him while running, and hadn’t thought about it after arriving, the page was still safely tucked in his chest. He pulled it out.

Current World: ?????

Identity (Neutral): A traveling merchant who entered the Great Wilderness, carrying many rare and exotic items.

Identity Mission: None.

Identity Items: A small cart used by the traveling merchant.

Identity Reward: Based on the total money earned from transactions upon mission completion.

The paper only contained these words, and nothing else. Moreover, the material of the paper was remarkably sturdy. He couldn’t break it with his bare hands for now.

Li Yi had a feeling that if he wanted, he could summon the cart at any time. However, he didn’t do it yet, since he was still in the tree and wasn’t sure where to place it.

Looking down, he was at least ten meters off the ground. The tree was already incredibly tall, and there were even bigger trees around. The vast mountains surrounded him, stretching endlessly, exuding a desolate air.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Li Yi didn’t know what the situation was or what to do. With the day beginning to brighten, he decided to climb down slowly, not having climbed a tree in years.

He had somehow ended up this high when he reacted instinctively to the centipede earlier. Once on the ground, Li Yi thought about it and, with a mental push, a small cart’s shadow gradually appeared and then solidified into reality.

The cart wasn’t big, just the right size for one person to push, similar to the wheelbarrows used on construction sites to carry sand and gravel. The cart’s material was wood, and it had a lid, so he couldn’t see what was inside.

There was a small door on the side, and when he pulled it, the cart revealed some items:

Remaining Energy Points: 100

Salt (1 kilogram): 5 points

Refined Iron (10 kilograms): 3 points

Books (one, randomly generated according to the current world situation): 30 points

These were the only items displayed. The top left corner also showed a refresh time, indicating that everything in the cart would refresh in 22 hours. These items didn’t appear in front of him directly but materialized when he squatted down and looked into the cart.

Li Yi tapped the cart lightly, and the sensation was just like wood. With a thought, a jar of salt appeared inside the cart. The salt was white and granular, resembling fine sand, and it seemed valuable.

He assumed the value of items depended on their rarity. For example, books were valuable in this world, but something like Coca-Cola would be even rarer. Since books were hard to come by, producing such pure salt must be quite a laborious task, so the price of the salt should be high.

Li Yi tasted the salt—it was very salty. According to the page, although he didn’t know what world he was in, it seemed he needed to find someone to trade.

He returned the salt to the cart and closed the door.

"Now the most important question is where to find someone," Li Yi muttered, looking out at the endless mountains.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and the surrounding animals became restless. From a distance, a loud scream echoed, shaking the earth and making the trees around him tremble.

At that moment, he saw something unusual. A wild boar, black in color, appeared on the tree. If he wasn’t mistaken, the pig was climbing the tree. It moved quickly and smoothly, as if it were entirely at ease in the branches.

The boar was clearly fleeing from something, but just as it moved, an arrow shot out from the distance and pierced its eye. Blood sprayed everywhere. Even with such a fatal injury, the boar struggled for a few seconds before falling from the tree, crashing to the ground with a cloud of dust.

Twenty or so strong men, some wearing animal hides and others in coarse cloth, emerged from the trees.

“Lin Hu, your shot is really accurate!” one man praised.

Another one laughed, “Alright, let’s drag the prey over. We got lucky this time, thanks to the battle yesterday. Many of the dangerous beasts in the mountains were wounded or killed, or else we wouldn’t have gotten such a good deal.”

As they laughed and talked, they suddenly fell silent, noticing Li Yi standing there.

Both sides were silent, the air tense.