A World That Could Break at Any Moment

When the introduction to the Instance World ended, Fang Li felt as though he had suddenly been flung into the air, his vision spinning and warping.

Before he even had time to be surprised, dizziness overwhelmed Fang Li, tossing him about mercilessly.

The feeling was truly unpleasant, as if he had spun around in place a hundred times, leaving his mind muddled.

When the sensation finally faded, Fang Li felt as though he had landed back on the ground, his feet solid beneath him. Only then did his spinning, distorted vision gradually return to normal.

Only then did Fang Li discover where he was: an extremely old house.

The house appeared to be Japanese in style. Though there were no tatami mats, wooden planks covered the floor.

In the middle of those planks was a small coal brazier.

Flames burned slowly in the brazier, with an iron pot hanging above it. Water boiled within the pot, filling the place with the atmosphere of life in the Edo period.

Unfortunately, Fang Li could not feel that sense of everyday life at all.

It was not that Fang Li had some sort of perceptual deficiency when it came to life.

There was only one reason for this.

Everything in Fang Li's field of vision was divided by crooked, twisted lines.

Lines like cracks, like a child's scribbles.

They were on the walls.

They were on the floor.

They were on the ceiling.

Even the burning brazier and the iron pot filled with boiling water had them.

"Ugh..."

Fang Li immediately let out a muffled groan, as though nausea had risen in his throat.

At that moment, in Fang Li's vision, the entire world seemed like a defective product crudely pieced together from scattered fragments, as though it could break apart at any moment.

How would an ordinary person feel in such circumstances?

Very simply.

Just imagine being inside an elevator hanging hundreds of meters in the air, watching it gradually collapse before your eyes. The place beneath your feet shrinks bit by bit, and you could fall at any time. Then magnify that situation thousands, tens of thousands of times.

The feeling that the world could break down at any moment, that all things would end before one's eyes, and that one might crumble alongside the world's collapse in the very next second—merely imagining it was enough to drive someone mad.

And Fang Li was now "living" in such a ragged world, as though a single light touch upon those lines would cause it to break.

"No wonder Ryougi Shiki and Tohno Shiki couldn't stand this."

After all, who would want to live in a dilapidated world that could break with a single touch?

Even standing at the edge of a cliff could evoke immense fear, let alone standing in a world that could break at any moment.

That illusion alone was enough to torment a normal person into madness.

"The interesting thing is that I don't feel anything at all."

A world that could collapse anytime, anywhere?

It did not matter.

Because if such a thing truly happened, it would merely mean that the world itself had reached its end—death.

—"Death."

Fang Li could not produce any emotion toward that concept alone.

Even if it was the world that died, it was no different.

Still, looking at a broken world that seemed stitched together from scattered pieces was undeniably uncomfortable.

"Since it's an Innate Skill, I should be able to do it, right?"

With that thought in mind, Fang Li closed his eyes slightly, leaving only one thought in his mind.

"Close these eyes."

The only people who possessed the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were Ryougi Shiki and Tohno Shiki.

However, their circumstances were entirely different.

After adapting for a period of time and receiving guidance from others, Ryougi Shiki could open the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception at will through sheer willpower.

Tohno Shiki, however, could not. He could only rely on an item called Mystic Eye Killers to suppress the activation of his Magic Eyes.

What Fang Li was doing now was the same as Ryougi Shiki.

The result was gratifying.

When Fang Li opened his eyes again, the world before him had returned to normal.

Without even looking, Fang Li knew that the pair of Ice-Blue Demon Eyes symbolizing "death" had disappeared, and his eyes had returned to their original dark black.

"Looks like my Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are more similar in nature to Ryougi Shiki's than Tohno Shiki's."

Just as this thought arose in Fang Li's heart, the door was suddenly pushed open.

"You outsider, what are you still doing here?"

Two men dressed in samurai clothing, swords hanging at their waists, entered from outside.

"—!"

Fang Li immediately tensed his body.

Yet the two samurai acted as though they had seen nothing and simply glared at Fang Li.

"Who would've thought you still had time to loaf around here?"

"Hurry up and guard the city gate. Do you not want to eat?"

To ensure that Main God Envoys would not appear too abruptly when entering an Instance World, the Main God Space would prepare a basic identity for them upon entry.

Of course, it was only the most basic kind of identity, something along the lines of a resident of a certain city or an employee of a certain company.

This time, the identity the Main God Space had prepared for Fang Li was that of an outsider who had wandered here. Unable to guarantee his own food and shelter, he had been requisitioned by the samurai, exchanging labor for three meals a day.

And apparently, today's work was guarding the city gate.

"Guard the city gate?" Fang Li raised an eyebrow slightly. After a moment of silence, he said, "Does that mean we might run into Kabane?"

That single sentence changed the atmosphere around them.

The expressions of both samurai stiffened slightly. Then, the way they glared at Fang Li became somewhat vicious.

That appearance could only bring one situation to mind.

It was the hysteria displayed only by people backed to the edge of a cliff and facing utter despair.

One could imagine just how much stimulation the word "Kabane" brought these samurai.

Thus, Fang Li began to search through the memories of this world in his mind.

—Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

This was a world set in an island nation after the 1760s of the eighteenth century.

In this era, the Industrial Revolution had already begun and was gradually affecting the world, pushing nations everywhere toward modernity amid its tides.

However, at that time, a type of monster appeared.

—Kabane.

Bloodthirsty monsters formed when humans who should have already died suddenly revived and became violent.

Simply put, they were the so-called zombies, the living dead.

However, these monsters differed from ordinary zombies and the living dead.

Their physical abilities were extraordinarily powerful, and their regenerative ability was exceptional. As long as their hearts were not pierced through, they basically would not die.

Yet their hearts were protected by a membrane.

That membrane was as hard as steel and was not something that could be pierced easily.

Under such circumstances, these nearly immortal monsters followed their craving for blood and attacked the entire human world with astonishing savagery.

Once bitten by them, a person would be infected and gradually turn into the same kind of monster.

Humanity called these monsters—Kabane.

To resist the threat of the Kabane, the Shogunate that ruled the island nation constructed steel Fortresses known as "stations" in various places, protecting the remaining humans.

The place Fang Li was currently in was Aragane Station, mentioned in Main Mission Two, and also the Fortress that appeared at the beginning of the original story.

But this did not make Fang Li feel relaxed in the slightest.

Because anyone who had seen the original story knew that not long after the plot began, Aragane Station would be invaded by the Kabane and fall.

When that time came, Fang Li would also have to face a horde of man-eating monsters and fight them.

At this thought, Fang Li touched the dagger at his waist. A glimmer of ice-blue light flashed through his dark eyes.

"Immortal monsters...?"

Against monsters like these, trying to fight them with an utterly ordinary dagger was nothing more than a fool's dream, wasn't it?

But...

"Whether you're truly immortal or not, let me confirm it with these eyes..."

(Please click! Please bookmark! Please recommend! Please support!)