He Comes From China

"He is searching for a place called China. Based on numerous details, we have reason to suspect this is an unknown divine kingdom, much like the legendary R'lyeh."

The conference room was thick with smoke, the projector's beam cutting through the darkness to illuminate faces furrowed in deep, solemn concern.

"China? R'lyeh?"

"What is the team's recommendation?"

"Given that the target has not yet displayed active aggression, we suggest dispatching a negotiation expert to attempt communication without provoking the target, in order to provide more precise intelligence for the next phase of operations."

"From the surveillance, we have noted that the target shows a certain affinity for Asian individuals, so we suggest the negotiation expert should preferably be an Asian member."

"Asian, you say? The site seems to have an intern psychology specialist."

Ning Xiuyuan sat blankly on a street bench, inhaling the familiar scent of car exhaust. His face was as pale as gold leaf, looking for all the world like an ancient living corpse that had just crawled out of a coffin.

The news he had just learned had completely shattered his psychological defenses.

--In this world, there is nothing more desperate than being given hope, only to have it cruelly snatched away.

He was not from this world.

Several months ago, he had still been living on Earth. After walking through a Science and Technology Park plunged into darkness by a power outage during a night shift, he had inexplicably wandered into a new world where industry was only just beginning to dawn.

He had transmigrated.

Compared to the romance of transmigrators in literature and novels, his experience was simply soul-crushing.

The differences in appearance, the language barrier, and the bizarre clothing made him look like a freak detested by ghosts and gods alike, forcing him to endure gazes of rejection and suspicion.

He didn't even know how he had survived those first few hours after his arrival.

He had only managed to stay alive thanks to being taken in by a priest of the Church of Dawn.

They made him a Lamp Keeper for the cathedral.

To put it in layman's terms, he was a handyman responsible for ensuring the cathedral's candles never went out.

This inconspicuous job, much like the work itself, illuminated his situation as he plummeted into the abyss.

He began to study the local language and script diligently, attempting to integrate while searching for the cause of his transmigration to see if he could return to Earth.

Unexpectedly, on a night as dark as ink, he was carrying a storm lantern toward the Grand Cathedral, preparing to inspect and replace the candles, when he walked into the darkness once more.

The candlelight, filtering through the Crystal Lampshade, barely illuminated the three-foot world around him.

When the scene before his eyes suddenly brightened, he found himself in this world of bustling traffic.

The towering skyscrapers, the flashing neon, the piercing roar of tires, and the rolling tide of humanity stimulated his heart to beat like a drum, leaving his mind a complete blank!

After a brief moment of disorientation, he dropped the storm lantern and rushed excitedly into the city, searching for Asian faces, attempting to seek help from the Chinese embassy to return to his motherland, to his home.

But the bizarre had entangled him once again.

The Asian people he found could understand Chinese, yet they had no knowledge of China's existence whatsoever.

--This is not Earth!!!

"Hello, may I sit here?"

A sweet greeting interrupted Ning Xiuyuan's despair.

He looked up blankly to see an Asian girl, appearing to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with a sweet face and wearing a white dress, pointing with a charming smile at the empty seat beside him.

Ning Xiuyuan nodded in a daze and looked away.

"My name is Ji Zijun. What about you? What should I call you?" After sitting down, the girl rested her chin on one hand, tilted her head, and asked in a relaxed tone.

Ning Xiuyuan seemed not to hear, his gaze fixed distractedly on the distant skyscrapers.

"You look very sad. Did something happen?"

"If you trust me, you can tell me about it! Maybe I can help you!"

Ji Zijun tried hard to keep her tone calm and relaxed.

However, the sweat-soaked back of her dress betrayed the fact that she was under immense tension and fear.

Heaven have mercy; as a newly graduated Master of Applied Psychology, no matter how excellent her grades or the number of her papers, they were as fragile as bubbles when faced with a humanoid entity capable of creating terrifying anomalies.

No one knew what kind of horrific independent space the Crystal Lampshade he had casually discarded had created.

Furthermore, due to its anomalous properties, it had been tentatively classified as Keter class.

Seeing the hesitant expression of the veteran staff member who had briefed her on the situation, Ji Zijun deeply suspected that "Keter class" might just be a label used to comfort her.

She had come to negotiate now not only to appease this Mysterious Person before her, but also to use his hand to retrieve the Crystal Lampshade.

"You cannot help me."

Ning Xiuyuan shook his head, his eyes gray and lifeless.

"I..."

The words reached her lips, but a sudden realization dawned on Ji Zijun; if she said the wrong thing and extinguished the last flicker of hope in this mysterious entity, he would likely spiral into total loss of control.

A single lantern was already this terrifying.

As the Lord of the Lantern, if he were to lose control, wouldn't he reach Thaumiel class?

Therefore, she had to weigh every single word!

Her professional training told her that what she needed to do now was to offer him hope, even if it were a hopeless hope.

"We know of many places..."

[What are you doing, Ji Zijun?]

[Do not leak anomalous information!]

[Don't disturb her. She is on the front line and has the authority to make judgments and choices based on the actual situation.]

The micro-earpiece hidden in Ji Zijun's ear canal was filled with clamor—the sound of the Command Center arguing.

At this moment, Ji Zijun acted as if she heard nothing. Carefully weighing every vocabulary choice, she spoke slowly:

"We know of many places: Hell, R'lyeh, the Mirror Fog Capital, and even the past and the future. We are constantly discovering new worlds. Give us a little time, and perhaps we can help you find China. Could you wait patiently for a while?"

"?"

Ning Xiuyuan, whose heart had nearly plummeted into the abyss, felt his pupils constrict. He suddenly turned his head to look at the girl beside him.

Hell? R'lyeh? The Mirror Fog Capital?

What, what on earth is all this?

Is she insane?

No, wait. Since I can traverse three worlds, what absurdity in this world is impossible to accept?

In an instant, Ning Xiuyuan's eyes lit up.

"Okay."

Ning Xiuyuan replied in a hoarse voice, his soul, which had been falling into the abyss, suddenly being pulled back.

"Thank you for your trust!"

That one word, "Okay," made Ji Zijun so emotional she almost cried. Her choice had been correct.

She had successfully pacified a potential Thaumiel class humanoid.

"I still don't know how to address you, sir?"

"My name is..."

Wait, how does she know I'm looking for my homeland?

She is monitoring me!

"Arthur."

With his mind slightly eased and his reason fully returning, Ning Xiuyuan cautiously spoke the name given to him by the priest of the Church of Dawn.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Arthur." Ji Zijun's large eyes crinkled into a smile.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well," Ning Xiuyuan replied.

"By the way, could you please put away your lantern?" Ji Zijun requested cautiously, her fragile heart instantly leaping into her throat.

"Hm?"

"It, it is currently destroying our world."

[Note: Containment classes from low to high are standardized into four categories: Safe, Euclid, Keter, and Thaumiel. Containment class only represents the difficulty of containment and the level of resources consumed; please do not view them as traditional xianxia power levels.]

[Finally, the world-building of this book is derived from *** + Cthulhu, with a large amount of original content added. Please do not hold onto preconceived notions; everything follows my settings. I hope you will enjoy it!]