Liu Hui resigned again; he simply could not stomach what his company was doing. Liu Hui’s company sold pharmaceuticals—all of them low-quality, largely ineffective, and overpriced generics from unknown brands, sustained only by aggressive television and newspaper advertising designed to con consumers out of their money.

It was only when he witnessed an elderly rural couple, clad in threadbare clothing, counting out a handful of wrinkled bills to purchase his company’s product at the pharmacy after seeing the newspaper ad, that he finally couldn't hold back and quit. Though the job paid well, and his colleagues and superiors were surprisingly cooperative, and though the entire society seemed obsessed with money, everyone else having grown numb to the reality, he could not completely extinguish the flicker of conscience within him.

Another job lost, Liu Hui was dejected. He wandered to a deserted spot by the river, lay down on the ground, and stared at the drifting clouds, contemplating his predicament. He always felt out of step with the mainstream, constantly quitting jobs because he couldn’t stand them, yet never once considering changing himself. At this rate, his future looked bleak. Unconsciously, he drifted off to sleep. It was a deep, sweet sleep, and when he awoke, it was already one past midnight. His apartment complex wasn't far—five minutes if he took the main road. If he cut through the construction site, it would only take one minute. In his foul mood, the river breeze made him feel slightly unwell, and wanting to get home quickly, Liu Hui opted for the shortcut through the construction site.

It was one in the morning; construction had ceased. Only stark, pale incandescent bulbs illuminated the site, yet strangely, tonight there wasn't even a night watchman in sight. Liu Hui carefully navigated the massive construction zone, but still failed to notice a stray piece of rebar beneath his foot. Tripping over it, he tumbled head over heels onto the ground. Unfortunately, the area ahead was a slope, and before he could react, Liu Hui rolled down it. At the bottom of the slope was a deep pit, crudely covered by a few scattered sheets of newspaper. He rolled right into it, his forehead slamming violently against a stone within the pit. Stars exploded behind his eyes, blood sprayed outwards, and the sheer force of the impact knocked Liu Hui out cold instantly.

The blood from Liu Hui’s head flowed slowly, seeping into the earth beneath. Suddenly, a strange, eerie crimson light erupted from the soil below. The light intensified, slowly engulfing Liu Hui’s entire body. At the moment it completely covered him, the blood-light sharply contracted inwards, vanishing into Liu Hui’s form. The wound on his head and all the lacerations on his body disappeared, leaving only the dried blood still clinging to his skin, as if he had never been injured at all. Liu Hui groaned, rolled over, and his right hand instinctively landed on two large suitcases beside him. The moment his hand made contact, the two suitcases vanished into thin air.

Liu Hui slowly opened his eyes, feeling groggy for a moment. He took in his surroundings, then remembered he must have fallen into that pit. He recalled hitting his forehead hard before passing out. He reached up to touch his brow, but found no injury, and his entire body felt free of pain—but what was this red substance on his hands? It certainly looked like blood, and there was plenty of it smeared on the ground. Yet, after checking himself over, he was covered in mud but completely unhurt.

Liu Hui secretly counted his blessings. Falling from such a height and being unharmed, save for this suspicious, blood-like substance... Whatever it was, he wasn't injured, right? He was frequently unemployed; couldn't he have just one stroke of good luck? As he pondered this, a sudden gust of wind swept over him, chilling him to the bone. He suddenly remembered: this large construction site used to be an ancient Taoist temple called the Sanqing Temple. Such old structures always brought to mind eerie things. Had he encountered some sort of malevolent spirit? Combined with the phenomenon of blood without wounds, even though he was a staunch atheist, the sheer strangeness of the location unsettled him. With that thought, Liu Hui scrambled out of the pit and hurried back to his home.

Upon returning, Liu Hui’s first order of business was a shower. Having fallen into the pit, even though uninjured, he was covered head-to-toe in mud and blood, a state that deeply distressed his neat nature. After cleaning up, Liu Hui made himself a packet of instant noodles. As he carried the steaming bowl to the window, he happened to glance outside.

“Huh? Why are there so many police officers downstairs?” Liu Hui noticed numerous police cars parked around the construction site he had just passed, their emergency lights flashing silently. A group of officers were busy stringing up yellow caution tape, while more were searching everywhere across the site, seemingly looking for something specific.

“The public order has been much worse lately. They must be cracking down on some criminals. But usually, the police only go after [censored] and gambling dens; when did they get so industrious? My luck held out; if I’d been a little later, I would have been stopped by the police too. Although I have a clean record and fear no investigation, in Huaxia, nobody wants to step inside a police station—easy to enter, hard to leave!” Liu Hui mused internally. Though he was curious, when the object of curiosity was the police, he preferred not to meddle and invite trouble. The massive blood loss from his injury had left him weakened, and despite just waking up, he felt exhausted and yearned only to sleep again. After finishing his noodles, Liu Hui lay down on his bed and quickly drifted back into dreams until morning.

“Ah!” Liu Hui shrieked and woke up suddenly. A deluge of information surged into his mind, so overwhelming that his head felt split with pain. After he managed to process the torrent of data, he was utterly dumbfounded. He had actually acquired a Plane Trader! This legendary, heaven-defying artifact—he actually possessed it?

Liu Hui’s blood flowing into the earth had activated and bound itself to the Plane Trader buried deep underground, making him a Plane Trader. He often read online speculative fiction and harbored dreams of his own fantastical encounters, but he was a rational man; he only allowed himself to dream and never truly expected to experience such a windfall.

Carefully reviewing the information in his mind, Liu Hui thought, and a transparent screen instantly materialized before him. This must be the Plane Trader. Beside it was a square compartment, ten meters in length, width, and height—this must be the storage space that came with the device. But why were there two large suitcases inside this space? He focused his mental energy onto the suitcases, and they immediately appeared on his bed.

Liu Hui examined the large cases closely. They were clearly high-end luggage, both fitted with combination locks that had been fumbled with; he tried the locks, but they wouldn't open. Liu Hui fetched a sturdy kitchen knife, disregarding the quality of the luggage, and started hacking at the lock. The knife was decent, and after about ten strikes, he finally managed to smash the combination lock off. Opening the suitcases and clearly seeing their contents, Liu Hui’s heart began to race: inside, tightly packed were numerous bags of white powdered substance. From the myriad of TV shows and movies he’d seen, if this wasn't some elaborate prank, this was absolutely narcotics. But how did this drug get here?

Connecting the dots—the fall at the construction site, the police barricades, and the vague memory of touching something in the deep pit—Liu Hui reached his conclusion: he had unintentionally stored the drugs in the storage space, and the police were likely searching for that exact batch. He estimated the two suitcases contained about 100 kilograms of drugs, valued at a minimum of thirty million based on street prices. This massive value tempted him. However, without a safe way to liquidate it, the goods were just useless weight in his hands; securing a legitimate sale without alerting the police was an impossibly high hurdle. Moreover, this shipment surely belonged to someone, and they would certainly be looking for it. In this light, the drugs weren't wealth; they were a scorching hot potato. He absolutely could not allow the police to trace them back to him. With that realization, he immediately returned the two suitcases to the storage space.

Liu Hui suddenly appreciated the true value of the storage space. Anything his right hand touched could instantly be placed into the compartment with a mere thought, and pulled out just as easily. Even if the Plane Trader itself had no other value, this storage space alone was miraculous. With dimensions of 10x10x10 meters, its volume was an astonishing 1,000 cubic meters—the size of a medium warehouse. With this space, transporting anything would be effortless.

Liu Hui suppressed his excitement and focused on studying the Plane Trader. Although the initial burst of information had included operating instructions, hands-on practice always left a deeper impression. Beside the main screen were two rows of coordinate keys, each row stretching over a hundred digits long. Below them was the coordinate designation for his current plane. Since he had no known coordinates, he arbitrarily entered one and initiated the connection; nothing. He tried another, still no response. An entire morning passed with zero reaction. Liu Hui grew disheartened. Upon learning he had the Trader, he had dreamed of making a grand profit, but now he faced this initial roadblock: he couldn't even find a single trading partner. And with two full rows of hundred-digit coordinates, he despaired at the thought of testing them all—it could take years.

Just as Liu Hui was about to shut down the device, a grotesque, hideous face suddenly appeared on the screen, startling him. The entity on the other side also seemed momentarily shocked, then grew animated.

“Esteemed Plane Trader, I am Zerg of the Achira race. I am pleased to establish trade with you.”

Liu Hui was equally thrilled. Truly, he had been searching everywhere for something that appeared right under his nose. He suppressed his excitement, deliberately ignoring the grotesque features, and replied calmly, “Esteemed Plane Trader, I am Liu Hui of the Human race. I am pleased to establish trade with you as well.”

“I am delighted. It took me a full century to locate a Plane Trader,” Zerg said, sounding genuinely excited. “Ever since the previous trader perished, I have gone a hundred years without contact.”

Liu Hui was inwardly shocked. It took a century to find a trader? The difficulty was staggering, considering he had planned to profit from buying low and selling high. If trading was restricted to only two active parties, and he had nothing valuable to offer, he might gain nothing at all.

“Esteemed Lord Zerg, could you perhaps explain why you have not traded for a hundred years? I must remind you, I am a newcomer who has only just begun.”

“Esteemed Lord Liu Hui, I am the Sovereign of the Achira race. The Achira is a powerful genetic civilization; other civilizations refer to us as the Zerg—you may call us the Zerg as well. My race has existed in the interstellar sphere for ten million years. I obtained this Plane Trader by chance while engaged in a transaction with another trader. Regrettably, my trader died a hundred years ago during an internal conflict within his own race. His Trader was shut down, and I lost all contact with his plane. For the past century, I have tirelessly searched for a new counterpart, but I am fortunate to have finally made contact with you today.”

“Are Plane Traders truly that difficult to contact?” Liu Hui asked, curious.

“Do you see the plane coordinates? Those two rows of digits, each stretching a hundred places long? They represent countless planes. Within those infinite planes, some might be prehistoric and uninhabited, while others might be post-apocalyptic ruins—there are countless possibilities. Most Traders fail to find an owner and remain shut down. And even among the active Traders, finding each other across the infinite expanse is incredibly challenging. The fact that I located you within a mere century is quite fortunate,” Zerg explained happily.

Liu Hui let out a long breath. Finding a trading partner immediately after acquiring the device, without spending a century or more searching, meant his luck had genuinely turned around. He almost asked how he could understand Zerg’s speech, but then realized that translation must be a simple function of such a magical device.

“Esteemed Lord Zerg, thank you for the explanation. What items would you wish to trade for?”

“Esteemed Lord Liu Hui, our Achira race has numerous adversaries across the universe. To counter other civilizations, I require vast amounts of energy, various high-grade genes, or any other items that can enhance the strength of our race.”

Liu Hui considered this for a moment before replying slowly, “Lord Zerg, my race has not yet advanced to the interstellar stage, so providing large quantities of energy suitable for interstellar warfare is impossible. I am unsure what your requirements for ‘high-grade genes’ entail, but I can offer you the complete genomic data of my current plane. As for other items that could boost our racial strength, I would need to search for those.”

“Hmm, not yet interstellar, then your civilization is quite primitive. Energy is likely out of the question. Provide me with the genetic profile of your plane, then. As for other items, you may offer them; if they prove useful for enhancing our strength, I will offer a satisfactory price. Now, esteemed Lord Liu Hui, tell me what you require.”

Liu Hui thought carefully. “To protect my life, I hope to acquire something that can ensure my safety.”

Zerg nodded. “Protecting one’s safety is the primary concern for us Traders. Unfortunately, the Trader cannot exchange living entities, otherwise, I could offer you several protective warrior types. But do not worry; my race has researched genetics for millennia, and our understanding has reached an exceedingly high level. Trade me a sample of your blood; we will research methods to enhance your physical capabilities. For the initial stages of our trade, I can offer this service free of charge, as your continued safety is also tied to my interests.”

Liu Hui considered this. A genetic civilization obtaining his blood sample would likely clone a human body to research how to unlock human potential. Given the existence of the plane barrier—and the fact that nothing but the Trader could cross it, plus the restriction against trading living things—the Zerg could not reach his plane, posing no threat to him. He took out a disposable syringe, drew 10 ml of blood, and was about to initiate the trade when a sudden thought struck him—the drugs he had inexplicably acquired.

“Esteemed Lord Zerg, thank you for your generosity. Here is my blood, and I hope you can research methods to enhance my abilities. But before that, I would like you to examine this.”

Liu Hui held up a bag of the narcotics. He placed his blood sample and the drugs onto the trading window and clicked the transaction button. The window flashed, and the items were instantly in Zerg's possession.

“I will have my researchers begin immediately. First, record my plane coordinates. I will contact you as soon as there is any update,” Zerg seemed to be a decisive individual.

Liu Hui recorded Zerg’s coordinates beneath the Trader interface, labeling them: Genetic Plane, Zerg, Zerg.

After exchanging farewells, Liu Hui concluded his very first cross-plane transaction.