"Well, I traveled through time? This is where it is?"
Ever since Li Ming opened his eyes, the feeling of suffocation has not stopped for a moment.
In the gloomy and moist underwater prison, dim green light emerged one after another outside the transparent walls, and the sparkling water color distorted everything outside the water prison.
A long-dried skeleton was nailed to the surrounding wall, mixed with a strong rotten smell. He and another seemingly lifeless old man became Li Ming's only inmates.
Several fish were wandering outside the water prison, but the next moment, a nearly five-meter-long fish monster guard suddenly attacked. It showed its sharp teeth and swallowed the group of weak fish into its belly.
Then, the fish monster glanced at Li Ming's position, its eyes were red and deep, hiding terror and cruelty.
Just looking at him made Li Ming shiver in horror.
"It's okay to travel through time, but what the hell kind of start is this?"
A few minutes ago, he was a mythology researcher.
Today, he originally ordered a Latin mythology book online, but he didn't expect that on the way to pick up the goods, he was hit by a dump truck and flew more than ten meters.
When he woke up again, he was already trapped in this strange water prison.
What the hell is this?
Being under the deep sea, the accompanying sense of suffocation made Li Ming feel weak all over. The almost suffocating pain instantly hit his brain, as if millions of ants were gnawing at his brain nerves.
As the headache gradually worsened, memories that did not belong to him came one after another.
A few minutes later, Li Ming, who was suffering from a headache, finally figured out the whole story.
"So that's it, I'm still Li Ming... This body I have now is my counterpart in different time and space in this world."
"But why do you feel that the history of this world is a little bit outrageous?"
According to his own memories in this world, this planet is called Blue Star, and its historical trajectory is roughly the same as that of his previous life.
The only difference is that about two hundred years ago, a powerful consciousness merged with this world, and the history of this world was deflected.
In the first hundred years or so, many mysterious realms appeared all over the world, inhabited by many vicious and evil creatures.
With the gradual exploration of the secret realm, people discovered that if they defeated the evil objects in the secret realm, they could obtain a card containing energy, which was later called the material card.
By integrating material cards into the sea of consciousness, compiling stories, drawing card faces, and filling in settings, a variety of cards can be created. This profession was later collectively called a "card maker."
In modern society, cards have long been integrated into every aspect of human civilization. Cards are everywhere in travel, work, and daily life.
It is precisely for this reason that card makers have a very high social status.
But card makers are not without barriers. To make a card, you need mental strength and imagination far beyond ordinary people, as well as enough material cards.
Then formulate rules for your own cards, set the background story, integrate materials, determine the system, add settings, draw the card surface, and finally get the approval of the "world consciousness" before you can successfully create the card.
Therefore, "world consciousness" is also nicknamed "card examiner" by many people.
In this world, Li Ming is a senior high school student with a talent as a card maker. However, due to his poor family and limited money, he has a story in mind but no material cards to use, so he has no choice but to try his luck in the underground black market of Xingzhu City.
As a result, the material card was not retrieved, but instead the mind was taken over by the cult lurking in Xingzhu City and used as a sacrifice.
The day of sacrifice is tomorrow!
After reading the memories of his predecessor, Li Ming felt that his CPU was a little hard to accept for a while.
He would rather be caught and sent to the north of Burma for his waist than to be sacrificed to some evil god tomorrow!!
At this time, he was in an underwater prison. Not to mention that he couldn't swim at all. Even if he could escape, the fish monsters outside could tear him to pieces in an instant.
The word "mail" is written all over his body.
"Little brother, take care of yourself now that you've come. There's still one day left anyway, why don't we have a chat before we die?"
Beside, the old man covered in bruises suddenly opened his eyes and spoke, which really shocked Li Ming.
Good guy, it’s a scam!
Just now I saw that the old man was covered in wounds, and even the blood scabs had solidified. I thought he was already dead.
Unexpectedly, he is still alive?
Li Ming seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and quickly asked: "Old sir, do you know how to get out of here?"
"If I knew, would I still be here?"
The old man smiled and shook his head. His leg bones seemed to have been broken, and his whole person simply showed a look of indifference to life and death.
"Don't even think about escaping. Our cards have all been taken away. You don't want to fight those cult members who have cards with just the card maker's body, do you?"
As he spoke, he also revealed the injuries on his chest. What was revealed were broken chips deep into the bones and lacerations that had not yet healed. You could even clearly see every movement of the internal organs.
Just looking at the terrifying crack in the old man's chest made Li Ming feel as if his heart had stopped beating for a moment.
"Did you see that I, a professional card maker, have been beaten like this? Judging from your appearance, you are probably not even a trainee card maker."
"Don't even think about escaping anyway, why don't you come and chat with me."
Li Ming really couldn't learn that kind of attitude of having no desires and seeking nothing, and taking things indifferently.
How funny!!!
Li Ming still refused to give up and asked: "What about the investigators from Xingzhu City? The cultists are offering sacrifices here. They should send someone to rescue us, right?"
"Oh, I'm that investigator." The old man grinned.
Li Ming: "..."
What a fool!!
What's the start of this special horse!!
Damn it, I’ve only been in this world for a few minutes, and you’re telling me that a time-traveler only has one day left to live??
What a joke!!
He forcibly suppressed the uneasiness in his heart, sat cross-legged on the ground, sorted out the memories in his mind, and thought about ways to break the situation.
The problem of the water prison is easy to solve. The key is the few fish monsters outside and the cards in the hands of the cultists.
The card maker's combat power comes from cards. If he wants to escape from here, he can only make cards.
Li Ming is a trainee card maker (less than full). Although he has never made cards, he is quite familiar with the card making process.
He was just making up a story. Originally, Li Ming thought that since he had read so many novels and understood so many myths, he could still more or less stitch together a worldview, or even just copy it randomly.
But after confirming the card production rules, this road was basically blocked immediately.
Those myths and stories that already exist in the human world cannot be used for card making, so for card makers, the most difficult thing is to make up stories.
As a card auditor, "Consciousness" is extremely strict in card review. If you want to make those original mythical characters, you will simply fail the review!
Even the people in this world originally made most of the cards that they only dared to use those myths as the big background to weave some small stories into them.
For example, some people will use folk tales as the background and make up some of their own stories to make cards.
This is a bit difficult.
Li Ming didn't want to put aside his knowledge of mythology in his previous life and make up those little stories on his own.
Since the histories are different over two hundred years, there must be cultural deviations!
Although humans have no longer been interested in fantasy worlds since the Industrial Revolution, there may be options available to Li Ming!
Fortunately, in order to avoid being found guilty of plagiarism and also to draw inspiration from, my predecessor had a good understanding of various mythological systems.
All you need to do is compare it to a world view that does not exist in the memory of your predecessor...
"First of all, the combat power should not be too weak. It should at least be able to defeat the fish monsters outside. It is best if the ceiling combat power should be exaggerated..."
"The Nahuatl myth... no... it's gone..."
"Andean mythology... No, there is one too..."
At this time, Li Ming's brain was running rapidly, and one fairy tale after another passed through his mind.
When human civilization was still ignorant, many earth-shaking myths were created.
But as human beings understand the truth about the starry sky more and more, their imagination seems to have become scarce, and there are fewer and fewer earth-shattering mythical stories.
But this does not mean that human imagination has dried up.
Finally, after nearly half an hour of thinking, a mythological system born in the "Roaring Twenties" emerged in Li Ming's mind.