The important thing was that after the instant coffee machine rolled down, it somehow hit a switch, and coffee began gurgling out of the spout. Seeing this, Fang Linyan remembered the prompt telling him to have a cup of coffee here. Without a second thought, he jumped down the stairs, hurried to the basement's second level, and used the paper cup to catch some coffee.
He'd barely filled half the cup when the spout stopped flowing. But Fang Linyan didn't care. At least he'd gotten some.
Just then, he suddenly felt that something was off. After looking around, he realized he was on the basement's first level. The stairs leading back up were now covered in a thin layer of mist. Through it, everything above seemed as though viewed through frosted glass, with both images and sounds feeling distorted.
What was more, the entrance to the stairs leading down to the basement's second level looked especially dark and deep, even giving off a faint red glow. Although it was broad daylight, the sight left him feeling uneasy. So he simply lifted the cup in his hand and drained it, then prepared to return to the ruins above.
But perhaps by coincidence, just as Fang Linyan raised the coffee cup and drank it down, another muffled explosion sounded from somewhere. The powerful shock wave even left his chest feeling constricted.
What was more, as the explosion rang out, Fang Linyan felt the floor beneath him give way. He lost his balance, and then the floor collapsed outright. He flailed as he fell into the dark, deep hole below, losing consciousness almost immediately.
As Fang Linyan fell into the black-red light below, his body underwent an extremely bizarre transformation beneath its radiance! The wrinkles on his skin multiplied, his hair turned gray, his back began to hunch, and his muscles grew slack.
In just a few seconds, time seemed to race forward by decades for him. He changed from a young man into an old man on the verge of death. If this continued, he would inevitably become a pile of rotting bones, then crumble into dust!
But just then, the Black Old-Fashioned Phone Fang Linyan carried with him began to vibrate strangely. What's more, something else vibrated at the same time: Fang's keepsake, the S.K.M. Black Iron Medal. The two had clearly resonated with each other.
Then the S.K.M. Black Iron Medal turned into light and gathered around the Black Old-Fashioned Phone. The phone underwent a subtle change, forming a shield of light that protected the unconscious Fang Linyan.
Within the shield of light, Fang Linyan began to return to his original appearance.
Next, a series of messages began to appear on the retina of the unconscious Fang Linyan—even though his brain was in no state to process them.
"Receiving information..." "Beginning data comparison..." "Beginning analysis of time node lock..." "World confirmed!" "Beginning assimilation of character with this world..." "Data conflict detected. Beginning definitional repairs according to the third underlying rule and the seventh modularization rule." "Contractor No. 72AFS (Fang), you have experienced seven adventure worlds. Your strength has been judged capable of overwhelming the other Contractors in this world." "Therefore, if you choose to continue entering this world, you will explore it in Arrival Mode. Do you wish to continue? Yes/No?" "Beginning countdown: 10, 9, 8, 1." "Time's up. You made no choice, so it will default to exploring this world in Arrival Mode." "In this mode, your base attributes, abilities, equipment, and so on will all be cleared. Your own cells will be used to clone a new body, which will then replace a character from this world for the exploration. You will inherit that character's personal attributes, abilities, equipment, and even social connections." "Warning: if you die in this mode, you will die as well." "Leaving this world will automatically count as exiting Arrival Mode. Any rewards you obtain in Arrival Mode will be brought back to your original body." "You have been granted knowledge of the relevant mainstream languages. You will forget them upon leaving." "In Arrival Mode, you will be unable to obtain information related to this world." "Beginning world entry..." "The Iron Curtain over Siberia slowly falls, and the Western Bald Eagle now rules the world." "An illusory peace appears to have arrived, but conspiracies are gathering like storm clouds." "Giant flying iron birds will bring terrible death. The sky will be covered with dust and clouds, and innocent people will weep and cry out in anguish." "As one of the X-factors, you appear in the world at this moment."
***
It seemed as though a long time had passed,
and yet perhaps it had only been a moment.
Fang Linyan gradually regained consciousness. His eyelids twitched twice before slowly opening. At first, his eyes were blank and unfocused, but little by little, they came to life and found their focus.
"Damn it, my head... My head hurts so much. Where... where am I?"
He looked around. First he saw smooth gray partitions, then the stainless-steel door latch in front of him. Finally, he lowered his head and saw a yellowed toilet seat. Only then did Fang Linyan realize he was in a men's restroom stall.
That wasn't all. The air carried the faint scent of cheap perfume mixed with mothballs, and the floor tiles were quite clean. Faint pop-rap music reached his ears, and the signs nearby were all in English.
After taking all this in, Fang Linyan pressed his fingers against his temples and rubbed them firmly. Frowning, he quickly came to a conclusion:
"Hmm, looks like I'm in a restroom at some kind of large shopping mall. Strange. I was unconscious in that basement on Baisheng Road. How did I suddenly end up here?"
As Fang Linyan puzzled over this, he felt something vibrating in his pocket. It was none other than the old-fashioned phone from earlier. He instinctively reached for it, and the moment he touched its surface, a stream of information appeared in his mind. It was the same series of prompts that had appeared while he was unconscious.
"..."
After reading through the prompts for a while, Fang Linyan's mind quickly began working, rapidly processing the new information he had received:
"So the people with incredible abilities, like Fang, are called Contractors? And each of them has a corresponding number."
"Does that mean I entered this world under Fang's identity to carry out some kind of mission? Damn it! How could my strength possibly compare to that lunatic's? Wait, Arrival Mode? What the hell is that? I get it. That S.K.M. Black Iron Medal belonging to Fang could serve as his proof of identity, and the old-fashioned phone used it to make me impersonate him."
Before you continue