Ouroboros Stele

Under the bed, Lin Ye tensed from head to toe and watched cautiously.

The shriveled arm was pitch-black and oily, its forearm alone over a meter long.

Though it looked slender, it was actually as thick as a large bowl at the elbow.

Its five fingers were long and thin, with only knuckle-like protrusions visible and no nails in sight. They resembled five crooked spikes, capable of tearing a person apart in a single swipe.

Suddenly, he thought of the chopping marks outside the room.

Those marks probably hadn't been made by a bladed weapon at all!

"Rustle... rustle..."

A faint scraping sound arose as the monster crawled toward the window.

Through the gap beneath the bed, he could see only thick blackish-gray rags partially wrapped around the monster's body.

Black feathers drooped down, concealing most of it.

The rustling by his ear was neither hurried nor slow, as though the monster was merely passing through.

Then, the rustling abruptly stopped. Lin Ye's breath caught, and he did not dare make the slightest sound.

The next second, the scraping resumed. The monster twisted its body and changed direction.

Seeing this, Lin Ye could not help letting out a breath of relief. Beads of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

"Whoosh—!"

A thick snake tail swept past his chin and shattered that drop of sweat.

In that instant, everything seemed to slow down.

The tail was black, its scales glossy as if coated in hardened grease. It left behind a thin layer of tiny white particles wherever it passed.

His body instantly stiffened. Even his breathing was forcibly halted, as though he had forgotten how to breathe.

Several minutes later, only after he heard the monster's "pat pat" as it crawled down the stairs did he slowly exhale.

After waiting a while longer, he quietly crawled out from beneath the bed, his tension easing slightly.

Where the monster had crawled, there was a trail scattered with tiny white particles.

Without touching the particles, he carefully walked to the door, pressed himself sideways against the wall, and looked toward the stairs.

At the corner of the first-floor staircase, the pitch-black monster happened to turn around and reveal its head. What met his eyes was a golden mask bearing the face of a crying woman!

Even more bizarrely, the golden face was actually breathing with its mouth slightly open!

The instant he saw the mask clearly, an instinctive shudder rose from the deepest depths of his genes.

It was as though something like tentacles had spread over and wrapped around him.

Like encountering a natural predator, his heart did not beat faster—it felt clenched tight.

For a moment, he felt his mind sway as the surrounding scene seemed to shift at incredible speed.

In his daze, he seemed to arrive on a barren plain, where black mist rose from an enormous weathered black stele covered in ancient traces.

Who knew how long passed before his awareness gradually returned.

The monster by the stairs had already turned away. Three pairs of black wings on its back twisted and folded, like the six wings of a fallen angel.

Its black snake tail swayed, leaving behind a stretch of white marks.

But he had no mind to observe such details now. His attention was fixed entirely on the black text appearing in his vision.

[Achievement triggered: First Heartbeat]

[Achievement description: This is your first time entering the Shadow Realm.]

[Unlock conditions]

1. Enter any area of the "Shadow Realm" (Completed)

2. Explore over 5% of this area (Completed)

3. Collect an item from this area (Incomplete)

4. Make first contact with the remains of a Shadow Realm monster (Incomplete)

5. A heart of awe (Completed)

[Achievement rewards]

1. Potential Point x1

2. Ability—Yin-Attracting Constitution (1/10)

Ability description: You will more easily attract certain things and gain their favor, making them hungry for you. At the same time, you will also become hungry for them.

"An achievement... was it a hallucination?"

Looking at the black text before him, he reached out and lightly touched it, his hand passing straight through.

The next moment, all the text dispersed, turning into a wisp of black smoke that drilled into the back of his right hand.

A black Ouroboros symbol in the shape of an "∞" gradually appeared on the back of his hand.

As his gaze fell upon the Ouroboros symbol, a stream of information surged into his mind, quickening his breath.

"Not a hallucination."

After checking his surroundings, he gently pulled the door shut, leaving a crack so he would not miss any sounds from outside.

Only after doing all that did he breathe easier and look at the Ouroboros symbol on the back of his hand.

"Monument."

He silently recited it in his mind.

The Ouroboros symbol glowed faintly, and a small, ancient stele appeared, hovering above the back of his hand.

The stele was entirely dark black, with many chipped gaps along its edges.

A lifelike black Ouroboros relief in the shape of an "8" coiled around it, dividing the stele's face into upper and lower sections.

The lower half bore the black text he had just seen, while several lines of information were engraved into the upper half.

[Monument owner: Lin Ye]

[Strength: 0.49]

[Agility: 0.51]

[Constitution: 0.50]

[Intelligence: 0.54]

[Abilities] (Blank)

[Potential Points: 0]

Looking at the lines of data on the Monument, Lin Ye's eyes trembled before quickly calming down.

"Then it seems the standard value for an average adult in every category should be 0.5."

"So that means my combat power is... 0.5 trash?"

He recalled the Monument with a thought, then shifted his gaze to the white trail on the floor.

The remains of a Shadow Realm monster...

He crouched down, pinched some of the tiny white particles between his fingertips, and held them beneath his nose for a sniff.

"This is... salt?"

The moment the thought arose, a string of black text appeared before his eyes.

[Make first contact with the remains of a Shadow Realm monster (Completed)]

The text vanished. Frowning, he pressed the white salt grains on his fingertips against the floorboards and gently ground them in.

He stood and looked toward the head of the bed, where a huge window was mostly covered by beige curtains.

Outside, he could see tall plants blooming with purple flowers in the courtyard. Nearly three meters tall, they resembled tulips.

Beyond the iron fence surrounding the courtyard lay dense grayish-white fog, limiting visibility to no more than three meters.

The fog churned constantly, like some living, writhing creature.

On the desk beneath the window, an old-fashioned cylindrical tungsten filament lamp cast a dim yellow glow over the brown covers of two books.

But soon, his attention was drawn again to the brightly colored oil painting above the bed.

It was an extremely vivid painting of a river and mountains at sunset.

A bright yellow sun, light-brown cliffs, emerald-green pines, and pink peach blossoms so vibrant they seemed almost plastic.

A semicircular arch bridge spanned the river, its reflection in the water making it look like an eye staring at you.

The entire world was brilliantly lit, yet it still felt strange.

Strange?

A trace of hesitation rose within him. He did not understand why he felt that way.

He stepped closer and saw it more clearly.

Suddenly, his pupils trembled, and his heart seemed to miss a beat.

Fake. Far too fake.

It was not just the colors.

The sun in the painting looked like nothing more than a decoration. It was not the light source; the light came from outside the painting, from some unseen and unknown place.

It completely defied normal lighting and shadow, violating common human sense.

The entire painting looked as though it had been prepared specifically for some creature that did not need to follow human cognition.

His pupils suddenly contracted, and he sharply turned around.

Golden-brown walls rushed into view, their vintage patterns resembling countless eyes.

They densely overlapped one another, creating the illusion that the eyes were turning whenever he moved his gaze.

Then the final unlock condition from the "achievement" surfaced in his mind.

[A heart of awe.]

He immediately closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Slowly turning back, he stopped paying attention to the oil painting and forcibly shifted his gaze away.

He sat on the bed, steadied his emotions, and looked at the two brown leather-bound books on the desk.

Their covers were made of similar material, like the leather of some animal.

One had no writing on it and was roughly half a finger thick.

The other was very thin, with several unfamiliar characters on its cover.

He picked up the book with the blank cover and flipped through it. It appeared to be a diary. On its title page was a string of unfamiliar writing that looked like some kind of symbols.

He kept flipping. Only the first dozen or so pages had writing; the rest were blank.

[Collect an item from this area (Completed)]

[Unlock achievement?]