Mysterious Space

There were four beds in the employee dormitory where Feng Jun lived. One was empty, and he had only two roommates: Zhao Qi and Qin Tao.

Both were low-level attendants at the club. Zhao Qi's relationship with Feng Jun was somewhat tense, while Qin Tao was the sort who couldn't be coaxed into farting with three sticks. Other than work, he liked to hole up in internet cafés playing games—a complete shut-in.

But although Qin Tao liked hanging around internet cafés, he never stayed out overnight. He just came back very late.

He was a local from Yang City, and his relationship with Feng Jun was fairly ordinary as well.

Feng Jun looked at the empty farm, then glanced at the two sleeping men and curled his lips unhappily. Both were highly suspicious, but... there were two of them. He had no way of knowing which one was more suspicious.

That was simply how it was at the bottom of society. All kinds of filthy thoughts, ugly faces, and despicable deeds were laid bare without the slightest concealment.

Hurting others without benefiting oneself? That was perfectly normal.

Feng Jun sighed silently. There was nothing he could do—who told him not to set a password on his screensaver?

But in the next moment, his eyes lit up. Since pulling weeds was exhausting, clearing out the pasture grass was also a good option.

For a moment, he forgot that he might be able to harvest the pasture grass with his right hand.

In any case, it did not affect his mood much. After leaving the dormitory, he deliberately went to gorge himself on breakfast, eating until the fried dough sticks were practically piled up in his throat before setting down his bowl and chopsticks in satisfaction.

Entering the farm to figure out its rules was truly hard physical labor.

Ignoring the breakfast stall owner's astonished stare, he bought Little Li a breakfast as well and leisurely headed to the club.

He had not come in last night, but the area under his responsibility had been cleaned thoroughly. Feng Jun wandered around once, saw that Little Li had not arrived yet, and strolled over to the employee changing room.

Liu Shuming was already there. The moment he saw Feng Jun enter, his face darkened. After a while, he finally asked with a grim expression, "Did you break my charger?"

Feng Jun rolled his eyes at him without saying anything, took out his phone, and began scrolling on his own.

Liu Shuming's face turned green with anger, but he did not dare ask again. He could only spit fiercely. "Pretty boy, do you really think you're some decent man?"

That was clearly a jab at Feng Jun's relationship with Red Sister, but Liu Shuming had not named anyone directly. Besides, Feng Jun's complexion was not especially fair—just not dark. Being called a pretty boy was probably related to his relatively high level of education.

Feng Jun did not bother responding to the insinuation. He placed his left hand on the table, his fingers unconsciously tapping against the surface. Then he set his phone down and used a finger on his left hand to tap a blank spot on the screen.

He knew his left hand could not tap Liaoliao Farm, and he did not even dare tap other icons. But... tapping an empty spot on the screen could not possibly cause any problems, could it?

This was the sort of thing someone did when they had too much time on their hands, and as the old saying went—idleness breeds trouble!

Thus, in the next moment, Feng Jun met with disaster. To his astonishment, he found himself inside a strange space.

It was a stretch of wasteland. Everywhere he looked was gravel, as if he had been dropped into the Gobi Desert.

He looked up. There was a sun in the sky, but it was extraordinarily large, more than twice the size of a normal sun. Looking farther away, he could see mountain peaks and faint traces of green.

But where he stood was utterly barren. There were no plants, no animals, not even insects. There was only endless gravel and wave after wave of biting cold wind.

Feng Jun stood there dumbfounded for quite a while before muttering softly, "Damn it... I really am too damn handsy."

If he wanted to leave now, he should be able to exit easily. But since he was already here, he decided to walk around and see what this place was all about.

As for the fact that he had entered his phone right under Liu Shuming's nose, it did not matter. Regret was useless now. Besides, once he entered this place, time outside should have stopped.

He looked around again and discovered that in what seemed to be the east, there were not only distant mountains and faint greenery, but if he strained his eyes, there even seemed to be some fairly orderly buildings.

Then he would go take a look. Feng Jun lifted a foot and headed east. He had eaten enough for breakfast, so he did not need to worry about his stamina for the time being.

But the saying that mountains looked close yet could run a horse to death was no lie. He walked for nearly three hours before closing the distance even slightly. By then, he could vaguely make out that the rows of buildings seemed to be houses.

Would there be people in those houses? Feng Jun frowned. According to the usual webnovel script, this was when he ought to conceal himself and guard against all sorts of villains lurking around the houses.

He looked up at the sun. It had already begun to sink westward, and both its light and heat were fading. The Gobi was getting cold, and the wind was picking up. Only after stopping did he realize that he was starting to feel chilled.

So he pulled up his collar to block the cold wind.

But in the next moment, he practically jumped into the air. "Holy crap... I brought my clothes in with me?"

This discovery excited him tremendously. Outside the phone, Yang City was in early autumn. Feng Jun was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and trousers, the standard summer uniform of Hongjie Club.

He reached into his trouser pocket and, sure enough, found cigarettes and a lighter.

The lighter was not windproof. Feng Jun had to struggle for quite some time before lighting a cigarette. He took two blissful drags and could not help grinning. "I'm rich. I'm rich. This ability to turn things into cash... is just too powerful."

Having a storage space like this already fulfilled all his expectations for a miraculous encounter.

After thinking it over, he decided to quietly approach those rows of houses anyway. For no other reason than that entering the phone space consumed far too much battery power. Before he could get his hands on some cash, he needed to conserve his limited funds as much as possible.

Another two hours passed before he finally sneaked to within about half a kilometer of the houses.

By then, the sun had moved even farther west, and the wind had become even more biting.

Yet Feng Jun could only stare wide-eyed at the houses. "So they're... ruins?"

This was clearly some kind of village. There were not many houses, perhaps seventy or eighty. Every roof had been destroyed, and the walls were mostly damaged as well, leaving behind nothing but broken walls and crumbling ruins.

It was only because the houses had been laid out rather neatly that they looked like orderly buildings from afar.

To the west of the village was even a large threshing ground, along with a stone mill.

The mill's wooden axle was still there, but its frame had vanished who knew where. The entire village looked even more broken and desolate.

Feng Jun's brow was tightly furrowed as he kept calculating inwardly. Could there... still be people in this village?

His instincts told him that no one had lived here for a long time, but... when one was out in the world, one always had to beware of people killing for treasure.

Oh, no. Killing for a miraculous encounter.

But if he left just like this, who knew when he would save up enough energy to come in again?

Feng Jun hesitated for a long time before finally gritting his teeth. Forget it. At worst, he could buy some electricity later.

The key was... it was fucking way, way, way too cold here right now!

In the next moment, he reappeared in Hongjie's employee changing room.

Immediately afterward, a loud bang came from nearby. Feng Jun turned his head and saw Liu Shuming slamming his locker shut.

Looks like that bastard didn't notice anything strange about me! Feng Jun let out a quiet breath, but then he raised his hand and slammed it hard against his thigh. Damn it, I'm such an idiot.

Only now did he realize that since time outside stopped after he entered the phone, no matter what strange changes happened to his body outside, they would only last for an instant too brief to notice.

Even if his body entered the phone as well, others might not notice... time had stopped at that moment.

If I'd known that, why would I need a bicycle... no, why would I need to borrow a phone?

He put away his phone, locked his clothes in the locker, and pushed open the shower room door. In just that short time, another greasy layer of sweat had formed on his body.

He turned the hot water all the way up. Feeling the scalding stream strike his chilled skin, he let out a contented sigh. That felt so good. I almost froze to death just now.

As he washed, he began staring at the mark on his arm again, pondering it. With its color faded to this extent, he could probably enter the space at most one more time, right?

After coming out of the shower room and getting dressed, he left the changing room and found that Little Li had arrived. Not only had Little Li finished breakfast, he was standing at the front desk enthusiastically explaining something to two young men.

Feng Jun thought about it and felt there was no need to borrow a phone anymore. In that instant when time stopped, who would notice what state he was in?

What he really needed was to make the necessary preparations and take another trip into that wilderness. First, to confirm the space's storage ability, and second... preferably to find out exactly what that wilderness was.

Of course, he still needed to carefully consider the specifics. He could not waste energy so casually.

The rest of the morning passed without incident. At noon, he still did not go to the cafeteria. Instead, for the third consecutive day, he went to a cheap little restaurant.

This time, he did not eat as much as he had the previous two times, but the owner did not mind. When it was time to pay, though, he suddenly said, "Have you gotten taller lately?"

"Gotten taller?" Feng Jun turned to look at him and nodded with a smile. "Twenty-three, still growing... maybe."

In fact, he had felt something similar himself. He felt as though he had gotten a little taller.

"You definitely got taller," the owner said with a nod, sounding utterly certain. "We used to be about the same height, but now... you're a little taller than me."

People with similar builds could most directly notice changes in each other's height.

"Really?" Feng Jun grew interested when he heard that. Among Chinese people, his height of 1.73 meters was not particularly short.

However, everyone valued height nowadays. Just two days ago, Wang Haifeng had said that even 1.75 meters counted as third-rate disability.

That guy was 1.81 meters tall, so of course he had no pressure saying something like that.