Darkness

Absolute darkness, thick as something solid. It swallowed not only light, but also sound, warmth, and even the sense of direction. Time itself seemed to have lost its flow here.

And so, nothing existed, yet everything did.

Su Luo had been standing in place for three minutes, grimacing as he scanned the cold system interface, trying to find an "appeal" or "customer service" button.

But the only response was a cold line of text on his personal panel:

[Description: Unknown error fixed. Survivors, please rely on yourselves and do your best to stay alive.]

"Fixed? I'll fix your..." He swallowed the curse, as if speaking even a little louder might alert some unknown presence in the darkness.

Su Luo didn't know what dangers lurked there, but being in the darkness was itself a tremendous threat.

After feeling around for a while, Su Luo crouched on the ground without a word.

Good news: the Sanctuary was still there.

Bad news: it was back home.

"Fuck!"

Su Luo grabbed at his hair in frustration and sent a message in the chat channel.

[Su Luo: I have a friend... who wants to ask, what do you do if you lose your Sanctuary? Waiting online. Pretty urgent.]

[?]

[?]

[?]

[Pick it up.]

[You're screwed.]

[You can't even use the trading function outside your Sanctuary. You have to find it before your light source goes out!]

"Light source?"

Su Luo felt around his person without much hope. In the end, all he pulled from his pockets were a multifunction folding knife he'd swiped from a hardware store, a bottle of AD calcium milk he'd taken one sip from, and a ham sausage.

An overwhelming sense of absurdity and helplessness hit him. He slowly slid down to sit on the ground, having lost all desire to live.

"I fucking... thought I'd found a bug..."

[Time is up. Survivors who have not used a Shelter Voucher have lost their survivor status.]

That grand voice rang out again, and the number of people in the upper-left corner of the chat channel instantly dropped by twelve.

"Could be worse. At least I still have my survivor status..." Su Luo hugged his legs.

[Basic skills will now be distributed.]

As soon as the voice fell silent, two books appeared in Su Luo's arms.

He felt their covers, and a panel flashed before his eyes.

[Learn "Gathering"?]

[Learn "Appraisal"?]

What use are these two things right now?

Su Luo continued feeling around and even opened one of the books on instinct. The rustle of its pages was especially harsh in the dead silence. He froze at once and held his breath, his heart pounding, terrified that even that little noise might draw something unknown.

"Maybe I can use Appraisal to appraise my surroundings?"

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Su Luo saw the chat channel scrolling.

[What use is this Appraisal skill? I've got a broken bowl in my hand. I stared at it for ten seconds, and all Appraisal told me was: a broken bowl.]

[You can't appraise anything you can't see, and when you can see it, my eyes tell me more than the skill does!]

[Gathering is crap too!]

[Maybe it's because they're level one... Maybe they'll get better when they level up.]

The chat channel was full of impassioned cursing, but none of it was as foul as what Su Luo was cursing in his heart.

Expressionless, he pulled his clothes halfway off, wedged one book over his heart, and strapped the other to his back. Books this thick should offer at least a little protection.

Still crouching in place, Su Luo happened to glimpse a barely noticeable red dot at the edge of his system mailbox.

He opened it. It was an unsigned message.

[Compensation]

[Story Instance Scroll]

[Use to enter a random story instance. Complete the mission to receive rewards. Time required: 24 hours.]

[Note: (blank)]

Before Su Luo could click on anything after reading the message, he felt a weight in his hand. A scroll of paper had appeared.

"What's this supposed to be? Hush money?"

This Survival System didn't even have a system space...

Still, at least he could use the Story Instance Scroll immediately if he ran into danger... Maybe he could die a little later.

Su Luo put his pants on backward, greatly reducing the chance of things falling out of his pockets.

Though all he had was a ham sausage and a bottle of milk...

He held the knife in his hand. Even though he couldn't see a thing, it gave him some peace of mind.

Time passed in absolute silence and cold. Fear, like an icy vine, crept up his spine toward the back of his head.

After a while in silence, Su Luo began to hear his own heart thumping.

Though he didn't want to admit it, he was already afraid. Darkness was humanity's most primal fear, buried deep in its bones.

A disastrous start: no light source, no safe period provided by a Sanctuary, and no trading function...

He just sat helplessly somewhere he couldn't identify, waiting for either a miracle or some unknown monster to come and carry him away.

After sitting for half an hour, Su Luo stopped scrolling through the channel and noticed an extremely faint, barely discernible speck of white in the far distance. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, then even turned his head away—the white speck stubbornly remained in that direction. It wasn't an illusion!

"There's something there!"

According to the channel, most survivors' light sources were oil lamps, and a small number had Talents that could provide light. But the light reached only a few meters at most before the darkness swallowed it.

Then what's that speck of light?

Su Luo pondered for a while, then slowly got down on all fours, preparing to go take a look.

Things couldn't get any worse than they were now anyway. He'd go see if there was an opportunity, and if all else failed, he'd use the Story Instance Scroll.

He couldn't see anything, so walking upright would make it easy to fall.

So Su Luo decided to return to his childhood—crawl!

He tucked the knife into his sleeve, held the scroll in his mouth, and began crawling sideways toward the speck of light. Crawling straight ahead made it easy to bump his head, so he crawled sideways.

Time slowly passed in the silent darkness. Su Luo couldn't sense how much time had gone by, and could only tell from the chat channel that half an hour had passed.

But he didn't seem to have covered even a fifth of the distance.

Su Luo sat down and caught his breath. Suddenly, someone tagged him in the Regional Channel.

[Wang Ming: @Su Luo, bro, did you find your shelter?]

[Su Luo: No.]

[Wang Ming: I can't find mine either! I went out and picked up a treasure chest, and after I crouched down to open it, I stood up and couldn't find my way back!]

[Wang Ming: I accidentally dropped my oil lamp just now, and all the oil leaked out! It looks like it can only burn for a few more minutes!]

[Su Luo: Welcome.]

A bunch of people enjoying the spectacle replied, gloating over their misfortune. Neither of them paid any attention.

[Wang Ming: At least you still have light! I'm about to lose mine...]

[Su Luo: I didn't bring a lamp out with me.]

[Wang Ming: ? Then what are you doing?]

[Su Luo: I can't see anything, so I'm crawling on the ground.]

[?]

[?]

The channel was flooded with messages again.

Su Luo said no more and set off, dividing his attention between crawling and scrolling through the channel and forum.

The forum was no longer empty. Posts had begun to appear.

[Quick exploration guide for the area within 50 meters of your shelter]

[Attribute panel speculation and Talents]

[Early survival resource trading reference and information sharing]

All of this was useful. They had been in this world for only two hours, yet some people had already discovered patterns and were actively adapting.

Su Luo read through the posts carefully, one by one, until his attention was drawn to the most popular one.

[Land of Darkness monster compendium (continuously updated)]