The blood-red sky enveloped everything in the world, and fine whispers echoed by He Ao's ears.
The mountains and dense forests that had once appeared naturally vanished, leaving the entire world with nothing but endless blood-red.
Shrill, frenzied murmurs continued to echo. Like mad insects, they swarmed around He Ao's ears, trying to burrow into them, into his brain.
He Ao felt as though his body had fallen into a bottomless abyss. Those whispers tugged at him, trying to drag him into eternal madness.
And vaguely, he sensed that there were other "shadows" in this blood-red world, very close to him.
He fell faster and faster.
Just as he was about to plunge into the deepest part of the abyss, he suddenly opened his eyes.
Bright sunlight shone on He Ao's face.
This was a room in a chain budget hotel in North City District.
When checking into most hotels in the Federation, customers were required to provide a passport number or social security card number to verify their identity.
And where there were places that required identity information, there were naturally places that did not.
Some chain hotels allowed people to stay without registering their identities, though they required a much higher deposit.
The hotel He Ao was staying in was one such place.
He rolled over and sat up from the bed, walked into the bathroom, turned on the cold tap, scooped up a handful of water, and splashed it over his face.
Cold water could no longer stimulate He Ao's current body with coldness, but because of psychological factors, splashing water on his face still briefly cleared his mind.
After entering the wilderness, he had barely closed his eyes to rest. He had either been rushing about for advancement and secret medicine, or hunting mutated beasts.
Now