The setting sun gradually sank, its dim yellow light stretching the shadows of hundreds of skyscrapers into countless clawing black shapes across the city.
Night was about to fall.
Shen Mu sat silently in his apartment, carefully taking stock of the supplies he had prepared.
"Candles, matches, wood, old clothes, and all kinds of collected fuel..."
Before Shen Mu, beside the bed, lay the supplies he had gathered: mostly chopped-up furniture wood, torn clothing and bedding, or flammable items such as books that carried knowledge.
But now, they could all be classified as light and fire meant to ward off Undead Creatures.
After all, once night came, those Wraiths that resembled corpses, skeletons, and even vicious ghosts had to be resisted with these things.
"What a pity. If I could obtain a Spiritual Realm Mark, perhaps I could undergo a Job Change into a Spiritual Realm Lord and never fear those terrifying monsters crawling out of the darkness again."
There was some regret on Shen Mu's face as well.
But ever since the terrifying black tide had first descended three years ago, bringing with it quite a few Spiritual Realm Marks that had scattered across the world—
By now, finding a Spiritual Realm Mark, whether it was hero-type, skill-type, or artifact-type, was basically no different from winning the lottery.
"And there's also the countdown in my mind. I have no idea what will happen once it ends."
Shen Mu frowned slightly.
Because at that very moment, a countdown dialogue box was steadily ticking down in his mind.
Countdown: 00 hours 09 minutes 43 seconds.
And as time passed, the remaining time continued to decrease.
"What the hell is this?" Shen Mu had no idea.
He only knew that this countdown dialogue box had naturally appeared when he transmigrated here.
And Shen Mu had transmigrated only this morning.
Then, from that morning onward, he had discovered this countdown in his mind.
He had endured until now, when less than ten minutes remained.
"This is ridiculous." Shen Mu pressed his lips together.
Especially after transmigrating here and learning that this technological world, originally no different from Blue Star, had been struck by a Fantasy-side Crystal Wall System World called the Spiritual Realm three years ago, leaving it in a miserable state akin to a World-Ending Crisis, his mood had worsened even further.
"Otherwise, the previous owner of this body, who had the same name as me, wouldn't have slit his wrists and committed suicide." Shen Mu glanced at his left wrist, where a faint stain of fresh red blood still remained.
That was why he had possessed this body.
However, because of Shen Mu's transmigration, the wound had miraculously vanished, completely recovering as though it had never been injured.
Naturally, Shen Mu did not understand the exact principle behind it.
But there was one thing he understood.
Now, his countdown was about to finish loading, and he would finally learn what would appear once it ended.
Whoosh, whoosh— Wind brushed past the apartment outside, carrying a faint whimper. If one listened carefully, one could even detect the cries formed from countless strange, subtle sounds within it.
Shen Mu's expression did not change in the slightest.
He merely glanced out the window. The sun was about to vanish, and darkness was nearly claiming the entire sky.
Only on the western horizon did half the sun remain, struggling to release its final sliver of light, as if it still wished to protect this world already eroded by the Undead World.
The sky was about to darken.
"Time to light the fire." Shen Mu immediately dragged a huge iron bathtub out from beneath the bed. It had been blackened by years of fires and still contained a thick layer of ash.
But that did not affect its use as a fire basin.
Whoosh!
After Shen Mu lit several newspapers and tossed them in, then threw some flammable synthetic clothes beside them, a mass of flames burning with foul-smelling black smoke soon rose inside the basin.
Taking advantage of the flames, Shen Mu threw in bits of furniture wood, fully stabilizing the fire inside the tiny apartment—forty-three square meters on paper, but barely thirty square meters of usable space.
"Now it's safe." Shen Mu nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the fire burning in the basin before him.
But then he remembered something and hurried to the window, opening the tightly shut panes.
The smoke produced by the fire immediately seemed to find an outlet and streamed out through the window.
"Almost got carbon monoxide poisoning." Recalling the previous owner's memories, Shen Mu could not help curling his lips, left speechless by his own stupidity.
Although firearms and many original physical laws could no longer function because of the Spiritual Realm Rules' invasion—
The basic rules of daily life still worked exactly as they always had.
Fall into water, and you drowned.
Get stabbed and fail to treat the wound, and you bled to death.
Of course, one could still be choked to death by smoke or die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Same difference.
"Damn it." The lingering memories of the previous owner made Shen Mu think of the terrifying Undead Monsters that emerged every night under cover of darkness. He could not help gritting his teeth, his nerves tightening further.
Subconsciously, he turned his head and looked outside the apartment.
The city streets that should once have been bustling were now utterly silent. There was not a soul in sight.
Using the last traces of remaining light, Shen Mu pressed his lips together and looked at the wrecks of cars abandoned on the streets, unusable because of the rules and resembling grave mounds one after another. A trace of fear showed in his eyes.
It was the previous owner's lingering memories, infecting even him, a transmigrator, with fear!
Fear of the unknown was the greatest fear of all.
However.
When Shen Mu looked up at the scattered lights appearing in the windows of the surrounding apartments, skyscrapers, and office buildings, much of his fear dissipated instead.
"Although the Spiritual Realm's Undead Monsters are terrifying, at least many people and families have survived." Shen Mu comforted himself.
He turned to look west.
The sun that had struggled to protect this world finally set completely.
Buzz! The moment the final trace of light vanished, a ripple seemed to flash across the entire world in an instant.
"It's here!" Shen Mu stepped back two paces.
He knew.
This was the sign that the dead Spiritual Realm, carrying all of its rules and countless Undead Monsters—
Had begun descending upon Blue Star!
Another sign was the Gray Fog that began spreading invisibly through the air.
It took only two or three minutes for it to go from thin to dense, then so thick that one could not see one's hand before one's face.
Even Shen Mu, standing by the window and looking out of the apartment, could no longer see the street below the seventh floor!
"Woo, woo—" Waves of ghostly wails mixed with faint, miserable screams rose from the streets and city shrouded in darkness and Gray Fog.
Shen Mu stepped back two paces, away from the window, allowing only the black smoke to vent outside.
He silently sat back on the bed beside the fire basin.
What he had said earlier did not seem entirely correct.
Because Shen Mu clearly knew that after night fell, any place without light would turn into darkness occupied by the dead Spiritual Realm Rules, becoming a place of Gray Fog capable of spawning Undead Monsters.
Wherever there was darkness, Gray Fog would form.
As the concentration of Gray Fog gradually increased—
Undead Monsters would appear within it!
It was that cruel.
Unless a fire was lit and its light filled the entire room, even the room next door separated by a wall, or a bathroom sealed behind a door, could produce Gray Fog and monsters because there was no light!
For example, right now, as the black smoke in the room drifted out through the ceiling and window, the Gray Fog outside also tried to surge in.
But as long as it approached somewhere with light, the Gray Fog instantly dispersed as if it had evaporated completely.
That was why people in this world did everything they could to find a light source or light a campfire whenever night arrived!
As long as they lit a campfire, they could effectively avoid the Gray Fog.
"Wait!" Just then, Shen Mu, who had been sitting on the bed deep in thought, suddenly seemed to remember something and jerked his head up.
His gaze turned toward a separate door beside the entrance of this thirty-square-meter apartment.
That was his apartment bathroom!
"Oh no!" Shen Mu recalled the previous owner's lingering memories. Whenever night fell, even the bathroom needed a candle lit inside to drive away the darkness!
Several minutes had already passed since night had fallen. If his luck was bad, then according to the rules of the dead Spiritual Realm at night...
Perhaps...
An Undead Monster had already appeared!
"The bathroom needs a candle too!" The instant Shen Mu realized this, he grabbed the matches and candle beside him and prepared to rush toward the bathroom.
But before Shen Mu's butt had even left the bed, a faint sound came from behind the frosted glass door of the bathroom, illuminated by the flickering firelight from the basin.
"Ugh... ah..." It sounded like a pained groan, yet also like a demon's whisper.
!!!
But to Shen Mu, that sound was like an explosion inside his mind.
His entire body froze in place.
Because that sound—
Was the sound made when an Undead Monster appeared!
Countdown: 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds. The full Mount & Blade series of DLC and MOD has been successfully loaded into the runtime folder. Runtime code integration complete. The primary components are Mount & Blade: Warband and Mount & Blade: Bannerlord. Are you ready to begin the game?
Just then, the inexplicable countdown in Shen Mu's mind finally ended.
It then transformed into a dialogue box, appearing on the retinal display before his eyes, visible only to Shen Mu.
"Mount & Blade?!"
"The little cheat program I casually made before transmigration, integrating every Mount & Blade MOD and DLC!?"
Shen Mu could not help widening his eyes.
Before you continue