Lin Chen could not remember when he had appeared amid the ice and snow, nor how he had arrived.
His last memory was of being matched into an Instance called No. 33 Middle School. A female teacher had summoned him into her office, where he saw another version of himself in the vanity mirror on the desk.
That person wore black and called himself "Lin Crow." He told Lin Chen many things about the future, then pressed a pristine white card into his hand.
[Identity Card: Undead Shepherd] [Effect: You will be able to control any undead or ghost within an Instance] [Note: They are the flock, and you are the one who tends them. Where will you lead them? Will you protect them, redeem them, or... slaughter them?]
On the card, a figure in a white cloak stood amid a flock of sheep, scepter in hand. Huge white wings spread behind him, feathers drifting through the air—holy and sorrowful.
Lin Chen stared blankly at one of the feathers, watching a golden bead of blood slowly drip from its quill, and inexplicably thought of the word "ending."
It was a strange feeling. People spent their lives bustling about in the world, following rules and abandoning thought most of the time. Yet there were always a few moments—like a fallen leaf swept by a current into a pool—when they stopped and stared blankly at some sight or scene, feeling as though they had seen it in a dream, or hearing a voice in their hearts say, This is how I will die. And so, another person in the world came to understand fate.
Lin Chen thought of death and of the past. When he came back to himself, he was no longer in the No. 33 Middle School Instance,