Isn't This the Eighteenth Floor?

Blue Star, 11:59 p.m.

Xunzhou City, inside a residential complex.

Jiang Bai lay sprawled across the soft bed, limbs splayed wide.

His fingers flew as his blazing gaze remained fixed on the phone screen. He looked even more focused than he did during final exams.

"Ten-year anniversary! Old Wang's tenth anniversary! Once midnight hits, I get thirty free Point Draw vouchers, plus a thousand limited-time vouchers! I refuse to believe I still won't pull that damn Glory Crystal this time!"

Time ticked away in the countdown.

Midnight sharp!

Jiang Bai's fingers flashed as he fiercely tapped the game icon.

Then... there was no then.

The spinning circle on the screen mercilessly mocked his impatience.

The pop-up reading [Server Busy, Please Try Again Later] was like a bucket of cold water poured over his burning heart.

"Damn it! The server crashed again! Old Wang, can you do anything right?!"

And you old farmers, didn't you say you were quitting the game?!

Why the hell is the server packed again?!

He howled miserably, unwilling to give up as he exited and re-entered the game over and over.

A few minutes later, just as he was about to give up, the loading screen finally passed, and the familiar canyon background music began to play.

He let out a long breath. His fingers trembled slightly as he accurately opened the event page.

Tenth Anniversary Celebration: Log in to receive 30 Point Draw vouchers and 1,000 limited-time vouchers!

Claim! Confirm!

Seeing the extra draw vouchers and vouchers in his inventory, Jiang Bai grinned.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately rushed into the store and went all in with all 1,800 limited-time vouchers, exchanging them for another thirty Point Draw vouchers.

Sixty pulls!

A full sixty chances!

"I refuse to believe I can't pull a crystal with this many tries!"

He muttered to himself, carrying the devotion and madness of a gambler as he opened the Point Draw screen glowing with alluring purple light.

"Single pulls? No, this time I'm going big—five pulls at once!"

His fingertip descended. The screen spun wildly, streams of light flashing one after another before finally settling—

Honor Battle Pass 100 EXP Gift Pack x15, Diamonds x50, Skin Fragments x5, Battle Pass Coins x30, Skin Fragments x5...

A string of consolation prizes. There was not even a skin.

Jiang Bai's mouth twitched. It was fine—this was only the beginning. He was just padding the pool!

He tapped five pulls again... and got another pile of junk.

His luck value rose slowly but steadily: 330... 335... 340...

His mood gradually shifted from excitement to irritation, then eventually to numbness.

The draw vouchers in his inventory dwindled rapidly, yet the golden light on the screen never once favored him.

Finally, when the glow from the last five-pull faded, his luck value stopped at a number that made his heart nearly stop.

359/361.

Only two more pulls! Just two pulls!

The Glory Crystal would be his!

But his inventory was already completely empty.

Draw vouchers, vouchers... everything that could have been traded for another chance to draw had been consumed in his earlier frenzy.

A rush of heat surged to his head, and Jiang Bai felt his temples throb violently.

Three hundred and fifty-nine pulls! A full three hundred and fifty-nine pulls!

This trash game seemed to be taunting him in the most malicious way possible, dangling him at the threshold of success before ruthlessly slamming the door shut—and conveniently catching his head in it too.

"Fuck you...!"

A string of exquisite Chinese curses too obscene to write rolled from his throat.

Overwhelming rage robbed him of his senses.

He abruptly sat up from the bed, grabbed the phone that had accompanied him through countless canyon battles, and hurled it with all his strength toward the window!

"To hell with your pity system!"

The phone carved a grief-stricken arc through the air.

And at that exact moment, something strange happened!

With an earth-shattering CRASH—!!!, the heavy tempered-glass window in his room shattered like paper!

Countless shards of glass reflected a cold gleam beneath the moonlight, falling like a crystalline and deadly rain.

And through that shattered window, a massive vehicle front smashed in with brutal force, in a manner that completely defied the laws of physics!

"This... this is the eighteenth floor, damn it!!!"

That was the final absurd and despairing thought that flashed through Jiang Bai's mind.

He did not even have time to dodge. That massive vehicle front had already filled his entire field of vision.

"Bang—!"

A dull collision echoed through the room.

Pain!

Indescribable pain swept through his body in an instant, as though every bone had been crushed and every cell was screaming.

His consciousness, like a candle flame in the wind, rapidly dimmed.

Before he completely lost all feeling, he seemed to hear a car door open, followed by hurried footsteps approaching.

Then, a hushed phone conversation drifted intermittently into his nearly vanished hearing:

"...Hello!... Yes! The target has been successfully delivered... Mm!... All right... Don't forget my hundred-yuan commission!"

"...What? Costs went up, so you can only give me fifty?... Fine, fine! Fifty works too! Remember to transfer it!"

Jiang Bai: "???"

Douluo Planet, Douluo Continent.

The Balak Kingdom, southern border of the Heaven Dou Empire.

At this moment, across the vast land known as the Lima Plain, emerald grasslands stretched as far as the eye could see. The breeze swept through them, raising rolling waves of grass and carrying the gasps of approaching death.

Two figures were running with all their strength, every step kicking up soil, every step filled with despair.

The man in front looked around thirty-seven or thirty-eight. His features had once been considered handsome, but they were now filled with exhaustion and panic.

His name was Ning Fengping. Several parts of his clothes were already torn, his hair was disheveled, and he breathed as heavily as a bellows.

He gripped the hand of the woman behind him tightly.

The woman he was pulling along was named Jiang Ning. She was slightly younger and was his wife.

Her once delicate and beautiful face was now pale as paper, utterly bloodless. Strands of disheveled hair clung to her forehead and cheeks with sweat, while her cracked lips trembled faintly from her ragged breathing.

Most heartbreaking of all, she held a baby tightly in her arms, wrapped in thick swaddling clothes.

Their son, Jiang Bai, who had only just been born.

Jiang Ning had yet to recover from the toll of childbirth, and after enduring this desperate flight, her body had long since reached the brink of collapse. She was only holding on through maternal instinct.

About a hundred meters behind them, more than a dozen dark figures were rapidly closing in at an astonishing speed.

They were not human.

They possessed humanoid upright bodies, but thick blue-gray fur covered them. Their heads were savage wolf heads, their protruding fangs gleaming with bloodthirsty coldness.

They growled lowly, scarlet eyes filled with a thirst for slaughter and greed for the "blood food" ahead.

Wolf Bandits!

Forbidden creatures born from the union of humans and a soul beast known as the Gale Demon Wolf.

They inherited the Gale Demon Wolf's powerful physique and swift speed, while also possessing a measure of human intelligence.

Yet their twisted existence left them accepted by neither soul beast packs nor human society. They could only roam the fringes of civilization, surviving through plunder and slaughter.

Ning Fengping glanced back, and his heart instantly sank to the bottom.

The Wolf Bandits were far faster than he had expected, and the distance between them was rapidly shrinking.

He looked again at his wife beside him. Jiang Ning's steps had already become unsteady; he was practically dragging her along. Those eyes that had once shone brightly were now clouded with gray.

A profound sense of helplessness clenched his heart.