A Call in the Darkness

"Hammer, get some rest early."

"Got it. Drive carefully on the way home. See you tomorrow." Shi Jingchui waved goodbye and watched his colleague's car vanish from sight before turning to head upstairs.

The evening gathering had been a blast. He had drunk quite a bit and spent ages hogging the microphone at the KTV. His steps were a little unsteady now, and he was half-drunk.

After getting home, washing up, and lying down in bed, Shi Jingchui habitually picked up his phone and started playing with it.

It was a new phone he had bought not long ago. Though it had a few minor flaws, the user experience was excellent, and its performance in every aspect surpassed those big-name foreign brands.

His finger swiped across the screen. One moment he browsed a book, the next he read the news, then he tapped on a few stupid videos and let out a few foolish chuckles, occasionally rolling over in bed like a salted fish.

Before he knew it, the alcohol and drowsiness swept over him, and Shi Jingchui fell asleep with his phone in hand.

In his dream, Shi Jingchui's whole body jerked. He reached out and grabbed nothing, then rolled over with the sensation of falling. Fuck, I'm falling off the bed!

Splash...

The next second, Shi Jingchui felt himself plunge into water. Water rushed into his nostrils and choked him. The moment he opened his mouth, more water flooded down his throat.

The pain of suffocation instantly snapped him out of his hazy state. He flailed desperately, but his head throbbed as if someone had smashed it with a brick. Every part of his body hurt, as though he had rolled down several flights of stairs.

"What the hell? I live on the twenty-third floor. How could I fall into water?"

Boundless terror surged through him. Fortunately, Shi Jingchui knew how to swim, and he was quite good at it.

His desire to survive drove him to force his eyes open. Everything beneath the water was pitch-black, and he could not see a thing. He thrashed his limbs with all his strength, swimming upward by instinct with agonizing difficulty.

With a splash, Shi Jingchui broke the surface and discovered that the shore was not too far away.

He swam desperately toward the bank and used his last shred of strength to crawl ashore. With his lower body still in the water, he lay on his back and spat out a mouthful of filthy water, greedily gulping in air. He did not even have the strength to stand.

"Being alive feels so good!"

That was the only thought in Shi Jingchui's mind. Only now did he have the energy to consider what had happened to him.

The surroundings were utterly silent, and the night was deep. Only a crescent moon hung in the sky.

Moonlight pierced through the clouds, allowing him to make out that he had crawled from a broad river onto a weed-covered riverbank.

Looking into the distance, he could vaguely see a city with scattered lights flickering within it.

"Fuck, where is this?"

Shi Jingchui's mind was in chaos, and his eyes were blank. He thought he was still dreaming.

A cool river breeze blew past, followed by another stabbing pain at the back of his head. He raised a hand to touch it, staining it with crimson blood. He grimaced in pain. His head was injured—no wonder it hurt so badly.

Suddenly, Shi Jingchui froze as he stared at his right hand.

As a single man over thirty, Shi Jingchui would never mistake his own "wife." The calluses on his hand, the winding palm lines, and the scar on his index finger from an old injury were all gone.

Under the dim moonlight, although the hand before him looked long and well-proportioned and bore calluses from gripping something over long periods, Shi Jingchui made his judgment at a glance.

"This isn't my hand!"

He frantically felt around his soaking-wet body and immediately discovered that not only were the hands not his, even the body was not his.

"I went to sleep, so how did I end up switching accounts?"

Before Shi Jingchui could figure out what was going on, a burst of excruciating pain erupted in his head, as if someone had split it open with an axe and violently stuffed in a mass of foreign objects.

Those foreign objects were extremely chaotic, seemingly another person's life experiences intertwined with his own memories. His mind was like a boiling pot, trying to forcibly stir two utterly different things together.

"Ah..."

The terrible pain made him clutch his head and cry out. He soon could not hold on any longer and fainted.

In the darkness, Shi Jingchui vaguely heard a low, slick murmur. He did not know where it came from. It seemed to whisper beside his ear, like the most disgusting and filthy thing in the world, nauseating to hear; yet it also sounded like sharp metal scraping back and forth across glass, producing a shrill, trembling screech that drove one mad and stirred up the deepest malice and insanity within.

That indescribable whisper was like a call from the Abyss.

He tried to cover his ears, but could not find where his ears were. The sound penetrated straight into the depths of his soul. Though he could not understand it, after hearing only a few words, he was deeply drawn in.

His mind sank into a painful abyss, seeking the source of that call.

Then, with a sudden tremor, both Shi Jingchui's reason and intuition told him that he could not listen any longer.

"Ha ha ha ha..."

The low voice suddenly amplified countless times, becoming a burst of maniacal laughter. The entire world shook violently, tormenting Shi Jingchui until he nearly went mad and broke down.

Terrifying gaping mouths emerged in the darkness. The laughter came from those mouths.

Every evil mouth was filled with serrated fangs, and viscous black fluid dripped from the gaps between them. The fluid quickly writhed and expanded, forming hundreds upon hundreds of greasy tentacles that surged toward him like an overwhelming tide.

Just as this terrible nightmare was about to end in tragedy, a red glow suddenly shone from nowhere. Eight petal-like streaks of red light darted about, forming a spherical space around Shi Jingchui.

The shelter formed by the petals looked fragile, yet it was indestructible. It instantly blocked every incoming black tentacle, like a reef amid enormous black waves—seemingly tiny, yet impossible to shake.

That layer of red light not only protected Shi Jingchui, but also shut out the corrupting murmurs, easing the pain and frenzied thoughts.

Countless tentacles lashed about for who knew how long, producing wave after wave of crazed sounds before finally retreating unwillingly into the darkness.

The eight petals shrank back into a ball of light. Looking closely, there was a blooming Little Red Flower within it, made up of eight petals of varying sizes. Golden light lay hidden at its core, making it resemble a shining sun, utterly abstract in appearance.

"Why does this symbol look a little familiar..."

As Shi Jingchui was wondering, the darkness suddenly receded like a tide. Light bloomed, waking him from that long, oppressive nightmare. He abruptly sat upright with a scream.

"Ah!"

Dazzling light stabbed into his eyes. Shi Jingchui raised a hand to shield them, then lowered it after adjusting and saw a golden sun rising over the distant horizon, sunlight glittering upon the river's surface.

"It's dawn."

He murmured it, then froze.

He had spoken those words in a language that was both familiar and strange. He had never learned it, yet he could use it naturally. He even knew it was the Aurelian Language, the official language of the Aurelian Empire, and that he had a slight Grand Duchy of Longsand accent.

A great many memories surfaced in his mind. They seemed to have been smashed apart, chaotic and fragmented, though thankfully they were no longer as agonizing as before he had fainted.

Several minutes later, Shi Jingchui let out a long breath.

By now, he understood. For some inexplicable reason, he had transmigrated into another world. This was no longer Earth!

He had no idea why he had transmigrated. He was just an ordinary office worker at the provincial library. His salary was not high, but it had never been delayed. He got along well with his colleagues and kept out of worldly disputes. He had remained unmarried into his thirties and become an older bachelor, but that had been his own choice.

He did not want to get married at all. What girlfriend could possibly be more fun than games?

After work, he usually immersed himself in games and all sorts of hobbies, living a happy little life. So how the hell had he transmigrated?

Shi Jingchui truly had no desire to transmigrate, much less transmigrate into a dangerous world.

From the messy information in those incomplete memories, he learned that this world's civilization had a long and complex history. Its level of productivity was highly developed. In some respects, it resembled Earth and even surpassed it.

But there were far more differences between the two.

The greatest difference was that this world contained numerous supernatural phenomena and powerful individuals. They determined the development and direction of civilization and were known as Transcendents.

As the name implied, Transcendents possessed power beyond that of ordinary people. They were also the ruling class of the entire world.

Only a small number of people could become Transcendents. Ordinary people who wanted to rise above their class could pay to enter a Supernatural Academy, where they had some chance of advancing into Transcendents. However, the odds were very low, and tuition was exorbitant.

This body was named Rayne. He came from a small place called Eagle Marsh Town and had previously been a student at a Supernatural Academy.

For the past three years, Rayne had achieved nothing at the academy and remained an ordinary person.

Because the tuition was expensive, his father Bard had been unwilling to continue supporting his studies. He had hoped his son would return to their hometown and inherit the family business, running their grain mill. Rayne had flatly refused. After a huge argument with his father, Rayne had returned alone to Longshande City and rented a cheap apartment outside the academy. He wanted to find a respectable job and save enough tuition himself, but something had happened just half a month after he moved in.

Among Rayne's memories, the largest portion concerned his life in Longshande.

What horrified Shi Jingchui most was that the gods of this world truly existed!

The gods each had their own Churches among mortals. Whether in the past or present, the Churches had played an immensely important role, advancing the course of history. They influenced not only the upper classes of every nation, but also penetrated deeply into the lives of common people.

Almost everyone had to believe in one god, or several gods. Unbelievers were evil beings despised by all.

As an atheist, Shi Jingchui did not know how to face this for the moment.

He wanted to return to Earth, but had no clue where to begin. He did not even know how he had arrived here.

"Sigh..."

Shi Jingchui sighed, then thought of something else. He had transmigrated here and occupied someone else's body, so was his body on Earth dead now?

"Tomorrow morning, when everyone finds that I didn't show up for work and can't be reached, they'll probably soon come to my home and discover my corpse. At least I won't be found only after I start rotting."

He thought of his parents, and sorrow immediately filled his heart. His eyes reddened as he comforted himself. "Luckily, I'm not an only child. My older sister and younger brother will still be there for Mom and Dad."

After a long while, Shi Jingchui's emotions finally settled.

The sunlight grew stronger, and his throat was extremely dry. His body still hurt, but it was much better than before. Only the back of his head continued to ache faintly. Gritting his teeth, he got up and found a shallower stretch of river. He bent down, scooped up some water with both hands, and drank a few mouthfuls. His thirst was finally eased. He washed his face as well, and his spirits lifted at once.

As he wiped the water from his face, the clear river reflected an unfamiliar face, making Shi Jingchui abruptly stop moving.

"Fuck!"

The moment he saw the face clearly, Shi Jingchui could not help blurting out a curse.

Judging by his appearance, the owner of this face was probably under twenty. Youthfulness still lingered on it. He had short black hair, and his complexion was slightly pale from blood loss. He had thick brows, large eyes, a straight nose, well-proportioned features, and a handsome face with a touch of delicacy. Its only flaw was his unfocused gaze and listless appearance.

"He's way too handsome!"

Out of a man's envy, jealousy, and resentment, Shi Jingchui muttered that instinctively. Then his eyes lit up, and he straightened his back. "So I'm this handsome now. Hehe!"

Using the river as a mirror, he struck several poses and carefully examined this face, which was even more handsome than his old one. He nodded in satisfaction.

Though he had transmigrated against his will, ending up in the body of a handsome man was already a blessing amid misfortune. It was far better than transmigrating into a woman or some other bizarre nonhuman race.

Humans were not the only race in this world. In Rayne's memories, there were at least dozens of nonhuman races.

"From now on, I'm Rayne."

"If I went back to Earth now, I could make a living off my face in the future. Hehe."

"I could probably easily get more than a dozen rich women's happy balls... If I didn't want to lose my integrity, I could at worst become a cross-dressing streamer or make makeover videos for Bilibili. That would have a promising future too..."

"I look a little like that foreign actor called Lee Pace, except I'm thinner and not as tall. But that guy seems to be bi—ptui, forget it."

Rayne was letting his thoughts run wild to amuse himself amid hardship when red light suddenly flashed before his eyes. His reflection's eyes had turned red, and an abstract symbol appeared within both pupils.

The symbol consisted of eight red petals, resembling a blooming flower. At its core was a cluster of golden light, within which faint characters could be seen.

Rayne's mind went hazy for a moment. "Isn't that the thing from the nightmare earlier? Was it more than just a dream?"

The symbol in his pupils appeared for only a few seconds before disappearing.

Immediately afterward, a translucent interface appeared in Rayne's field of vision. It looked illusory and startled him badly. He thought he was hallucinating from excessive exhaustion.

He waved his hand before his face several times and turned his head from side to side, only to discover that the interface seemed rooted in his mind or fixed upon his retinas. He could neither turn it off nor shake it away. It remained even when he closed his eyes.

Most importantly, he could not have been more familiar with this interface.

"Isn't this my phone's startup screen?!"