Sun Jack

A low sound of footsteps echoed in the pitch-black darkness. As the footsteps slowly ceased, a beam of light suddenly pierced the darkness. The source of the light was a mobile phone.

The phone's light illuminated a face that was still quite handsome. He looked tired and haggard, clearly in a bad mood.

"Recording video number four, time is 3:51 PM." Sun Jack started the screen recording.

"I still haven't found an exit. Everything here is surrounded by metal, even the floor and ceiling." Sun Jack reached out and touched the adjacent wall, his fingers feeling the peculiar texture. Cold, smooth, hard.

He then turned the phone's flashlight towards the metal wall, trying to capture as much of the distant, silvery-gray metal wall as possible.

"These metal corridors are generally square-shaped, connected to form a huge metal labyrinth. There are also many metal doors on the metal walls, most of which cannot be opened. I crawled out of a freezer in one of the rooms."

"I don't know where this is. I've never seen a place like this before, not even online. I haven't found any information here either."

"I also don't know how I was sent here. My memory is fragmented. My memory stops at the summer after the college entrance examination."

"My previous memories, my dog Da Huang, my parents, every game I played – I remember all of these clearly. But after that... everything after that is gone."

"Something must have happened later for me to be stuffed into a freezer and sent to this place, but I can't remember what happened at all!" Sun Jack's tone became anxious as he said this. He took a breath and continued, "The phone in my pocket shows the year 2030. If this time is real, it means I might have lost five years of memories."

"What happened in these five years? And where am I?"

Just then, a "ding" sounded, and a notification appeared on the phone screen: "Low battery, flashlight cannot be used."

Sun Jack knew he couldn't waste any more time. No matter what had happened before, he had to escape from here first. If he was trapped and died here, then everything that happened before would be meaningless.

Sun Jack pursed his lips, mustered his spirits, and continued speaking to the phone: "I... didn't I just say there were some metal doors on the metal walls? But strangely, some doors aren't just on the walls; there are also doors on the ceiling and floor. And from one of those doors, I heard some movement, some unusual movement. I'm going to check it out now."

He said this, touching the cold metal wall and moving to the left. After a minute, he stopped, looked up, and raised the phone to point at a dark door that was open above his head.

"Can you hear that? There's a sound from the door in the ceiling, a very faint dripping sound, like it's coming from far away."

"The phone battery is low, I'm going in." With that, Sun Jack exited the recording mode.

Estimating the height, Sun Jack slowly stepped back a few paces, jumped with all his might, and hooked the edge of the door frame tightly with his four fingers.

Finally, with all his strength, Sun Jack used his hands and feet to climb into the door.

As he stepped onto the door frame, he looked up, craning his neck, and shone his phone light into the room. He found it filled with various high-tech mechanical equipment he couldn't understand, much of which had its outer casing removed.

Bizarre mechanical arms extended from the walls on both sides like branches, resembling a metal forest. At the end of the mechanical arms above, another new door appeared directly above Sun Jack's head. The dripping sound was coming from the deepest part.

"Why is this damn place so strange? Where is this?" Sun Jack stepped on the mechanical arms and cautiously climbed upwards.

When Sun Jack climbed into this door, he finally found the source of the faint dripping sound. It was a small red dot, blinking on and off with the dripping sound, like a standby computer notification signal.

When Sun Jack shone his phone's flashlight around the red dot, he discovered the place was a semicircular arched room with nothing but a few chairs.

Sun Jack turned on the recording mode again, aiming it at the red dot. "You see, the red dot seems to have a screen on it. Everything that happens next will be recorded on my phone. If I lose my memory again for some unknown reason, these recordings will be my—"

Just as Sun Jack said this, his slightly warm phone screen suddenly went black, followed by his phone brand logo popping up. "It actually ran out of battery at a crucial moment! Damn it! What a piece of crap phone!"

Extremely annoyed, Sun Jack stuffed his phone into his left trouser pocket and looked at the red dot in front of him, taking a deep breath. He knew he had no choice.

He was afraid that touching the red dot would lead to something bad, but he was also afraid that nothing would happen after touching it.

This was his only option. He had searched everywhere else. If the red dot didn't react, he would be completely trapped in this metal labyrinth.

After closing his eyes to calm himself for a moment, Sun Jack held his breath and reached out his hand towards the red dot.

When he saw the red dot extinguish and blend completely with the surrounding darkness, Sun Jack's heart almost stopped.

But soon, everything around him began to tremble. A buzzing sound of resonance came from beneath his feet.

The sudden changes around him made Sun Jack extremely nervous. He kept staring at the pitch-black surroundings, anxiously watching for any possible changes.

However, nothing changed around him. The first change was in himself. As the red button was pressed, his feet gradually left the ground, and finally, he was flying in the air!

This peculiar change stunned Sun Jack. What kind of world was he in? "I can fly? I can fly? Magic? Special abilities?"

But before Sun Jack could be happy for even a moment, with a muffled sound, a crack suddenly appeared in the wall of the arched room where Sun Jack was. An extremely dazzling light shot in from the crack, illuminating everything inside.

As Sun Jack, squinting his eyes, barely adjusted to the strong light, he saw the arched wall slide backward to the left and right, centered on the crack.

And the moment the wall slid open with a whoosh, a giant planet occupied his entire field of vision.

Sun Jack felt his heart pounding violently, his throat felt constricted, and every breath made him feel suffocated.

A planet, a very common concept, but when it truly appeared before his eyes, he could feel the heavy weight of the word.

The light of the star illuminated one side of the planet, while the other side, hidden in the darkness, was like a gaping abyss, giving Sun Jack a chilling sensation of being stared at by a colossal celestial beast.

Sun Jack suddenly remembered something. He looked down at his floating feet, then looked up at the giant planet outside the glass.

"Holy crap! I've been in outer space the whole time?!"