Space Ring

Linjiang Market, Fengming Road 97.

Lin An walked steadily through the empty street and kicked the front door of a roadside shop.

As Lin Jiang City's entertainment district, this place was almost deserted during the day.

But at night, once the bars and karaoke halls opened, it became extremely lively.

Bang!

His hard leather boot struck the Roller Shutter Door with a harsh, jarring sound.

He showed no restraint.

The flimsy sheet-metal door was merely symbolic to begin with. A few kicks forced it open, leaving a gap half a person's height tall.

As a "teahouse" used for gambling and deals at night, even the inner door had been left unlocked by the guards.

After all, this was a Gathering Place for quite a few criminal gangs. No one dared come here to steal.

"Who the fuck kicked the door? Tired of living?"

Inside the teahouse, a middle-aged man with tattoos covering both arms ran over while cursing, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

The slippers hanging halfway off his feet slapped against the floor.

The shop was dim, though the decor was fairly nice.

Lin An bent down and entered, comparing the surroundings to the location on his phone.

The route overlapped with the marked red dot.

"I'm fucking talking to you. You pretending you can't hear me?"

"You fucking deaf or something?"

"This should be the place."

Lin An muttered to himself, completely ignoring the tattooed man's incoming punch.

He casually put away his phone, shifted slightly, and easily dodged the fierce blow.

A sidestep, then an elbow strike!

As though he had predicted it, Lin An, who had extensive combat experience from his Previous Life, shifted behind the tattooed man.

Bang!

His elbow shot out, the hard joint smashing viciously into a point three inches from the man's spine.

The man cried out in pain.

"Shut up."

Lin An's right fist tore through the air.

With a casual blow, he knocked the man to the ground.

The tattooed man cursed repeatedly as he fell. His jaw had struck the floor, leaving it covered in blood. He looked utterly pathetic.

"You're courting death!"

Filled with resentment and fury,

the tattooed man struggled to prop himself up, reaching toward his waist with his right hand.

Lin An's gaze turned icy as he brought his foot down.

Courting death.

His hard sole stomped down on the man's temple. Unable to resist at all, the tattooed man passed out in an instant, and the short knife he had just drawn slipped from his palm onto the floor.

Lin An kicked the body out of his way and casually surveyed the teahouse.

In his Previous Life, there had been signs before the apocalypse arrived.

Some nodes where reality overlapped with the Different Dimension had already appeared on the eve of the apocalypse.

According to his memories, an exceptionally rare piece of equipment would appear here.

It was a ring fused with a fragment of space!

Though Space Rings were practically essential items in films and novels, they were extraordinarily rare in the apocalypse.

Not only that, equipment itself was exceedingly scarce.

Unlike ordinary games, where every monster dropped gear.

In the Doomsday Game, most awakened ones, whose strength far surpassed that of ordinary people, might not possess even a single piece of equipment before they died, much less a Space Ring.

In his Previous Life, this precious Space Ring had been obtained by a small-time thug.

Not only had he awakened a talent through the equipment, but he had also established a Safe Zone with the ring's storage ability.

A Space Ring could store supplies, keeping them safe and insulated.

It was practically the ultimate tool for murder and arson while out and about!

Lin An searched around with some anticipation.

Half an hour later.

Splash.

With a helpless expression, he poured a bucket of ice water over the tattooed man's head.

He could not find it.

Shocked by the cold water, the man shuddered all over and instinctively opened his mouth to curse.

"You—"

A kick flew out.

Before the tattooed man could finish speaking, Lin An kicked his teeth to pieces.

Blood mixed with broken teeth scattered across the floor.

"I ask. You answer."

"If your mouth stays dirty, you die."

Lin An had no idea where this guy got so many filthy words.

He planted one foot on the man's neck, his eyes cold.

Gulp.

"Don't kill me!"

The tattooed man swallowed, seeming to finally understand the situation. He looked at Lin An with fear in his eyes.

Usually, he relied on his ties to the underworld to throw his weight around and act like a tyrant.

But when he encountered a truly ruthless person, he could not help but be afraid.

"Where's the ring?"

"Or where are things like jewelry kept?"

The tattooed man froze. He had thought Lin An had come specifically to cause trouble.

Was this stealing?

No.

It was robbery, right?

You should've said so earlier!

The tattooed man felt wronged.

He had merely played cards too late last night and slept here.

If he had known Lin An was here to take something, he never would have attacked right away.

"I don't know. I'm not the owner here."

After hesitating for a moment, the tattooed man shrank back and answered cautiously, though his speech was slurred.

When he saw the look in Lin An's eyes and realized that he seemed ready to kill him, he hurriedly added,

"There seems to be a lot of stuff in the office upstairs, but it's locked!"

Bang!

A leather boot smashed into his face.

After getting his answer, Lin An kicked the tattooed man unconscious again.

Picking a lock?

Easy.

Having come from the military, he had practiced lockpicking too.

Time passed. The man on the floor remained unconscious, a dirty shoeprint stamped across his face.

Half an hour later.

Lin An used a Fire Axe to smash his way through the door.

The anti-theft lock on the expensive wooden door remained intact, but the center of the door was covered in smashed-open marks.

Click.

He entered and switched on the light beside the wall.

Lin An carefully examined the room, and something unusual caught his attention.

"This is a spatial... fluctuation?"

It seemed that no one had entered this room for quite some time. A faint smell of mildew hung in the air.

In the corner of the room,

a fist-sized, strange black mass floated in midair.

The blackness seemed to have occupied a patch of empty space.

Lin An took a deep breath, staring fixedly at the flash of silver-white within the darkness.

He was overjoyed.

That was... a Space Ring!

This ring had caused quite a stir in his Previous Life.

Everyone in Lin Jiang City knew that the thug had made his fortune here.

He had gone from an ordinary person to an extremely powerful awakened one.

Only afterward had he established a Safe Zone outside the city.

The legendary equipment was right before him!

Lin An decisively reached for the ring, only for the sensation in his fingertips to vanish.

Ignoring the abnormality, his expression hardened. He thrust half his hand inside and snatched the ring out.

**Buzz! Buzz!**

Continuous ripples spread instantly, and a heart-palpitating aura emerged from the Black Hole.

Roar!!

A roar suddenly came from the Black Hole as dense deathly energy desperately spread outward.

Run!

Lin An grabbed the ring and bolted!

Though he had no idea what it was, it looked like he had provoked something terrifying.

Hadn't there been no mention of anything like this in his Previous Life?

He did not know whether it was because he had taken the ring ahead of time.

Lin An had no time to think. With a burst of speed, he rushed out the door.

The silver-white ring was clenched tightly in his palm.

Beep.

Doomsday Game player detected.

Beep. Detection failed. No datafied body detected.

Warning!

Warning!

The piercing alarms echoed in his mind, filling him with inexplicable unease.

Behind him, the dense deathly energy extended wildly outward like living vines from an abyss.

There was nowhere to run!

Lin An's expression hardened. He simply smashed through the glass and jumped from the second-floor window.

The instant he hit the ground, extreme weakness and darkness filled his entire vision.

His consciousness vanished, and he passed out immediately.

The ring in his palm slowly faded away, merging with his body.