Countdown

Jiang Ran straddled his bicycle and rode toward home.

The night breeze brushed his cheeks, cool against his skin.

The heightened self-awareness granted by his psychology skill let him clearly sense the changes deep within himself.

A long-forgotten excitement.

Just like when he'd first seen the Profession Panel appear before him two years ago.

He was a post-90s kid who'd grown up reading all kinds of novels and playing role-playing games.

After obtaining the Profession Panel, the first thing he'd thought of, naturally, was the supernatural.

For that reason, he'd tried all sorts of professions that might bring him into contact with the paranormal.

He'd spent a short time as a lay Buddhist at a temple, chanting scriptures and meditating every day. The skill panel had indeed shown [Meditation Lv.1], but after he'd maxed it out, the only change was that he could concentrate better. Nothing else had happened.

He'd signed up for a so-called qigong training course run by a private group. Once he'd maxed out [Basic Breathing Lv.2], all he'd gained was a slightly greater lung capacity.

He'd even tried something more obscure.

He contacted a folk practitioner who claimed to understand witchcraft and poison arts, then spent half a month learning to identify herbs and perform simple rituals. After he'd maxed out [Folk Knowledge Lv.3], he'd only come away with a clearer understanding that those so-called spells were a combination of psychological suggestion and rudimentary herbalism.

Six months later, Jiang Ran had no choice but to accept reality.

This world seemed to have no supernatural powers like the ones he'd imagined.

At least, none that he could access through ordinary means.

So he adjusted his strategy.

If there were no obvious supernatural professions, then he would focus on making himself stronger.

He chose three paths and pursued them in parallel.

His psychological insight broadened his thinking, while the physical conditioning and combat instincts he gained from fighting, in turn, bolstered his confidence and presence.

And a steady income gave him the freedom to explore.

The three complemented one another.

For more than a year, the system had worked well.

Until those voices appeared in his mind today.

Jiang Ran stopped at a red light and looked up at the night sky.

On an autumn night in Feng City, the sky was a deep purple, and a few stars struggled to shine amid the city's neon lights.

If those voices weren't a hallucination...

If something unconventional really did exist in this world...

The light turned green.

Jiang Ran pedaled forward and raced through the intersection.

By the time he returned to the apartment he rented, it was almost eleven at night.

It was a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, less than eighty square meters in size.

The decor was simple, but the place was spotless.

The most eye-catching feature in the living room was a bookshelf that covered an entire wall. The books were neatly arranged by category: psychology textbooks, illustrated guides to fighting techniques, catalogs of cultural relics, and even a few books on mythology and folklore.

Jiang Ran took a hot shower, then sat down at his desk, wiping his damp hair with a towel.

He opened his laptop and first searched for the term Abyssal Void.

He already knew what it meant without looking it up.

Anyone who had read the Classic of Mountains and Seas would recognize the term.

"East of the Bohai Sea, countless millions of li away, there is a great abyss. It is truly a bottomless valley, with no bottom beneath it, and is called the Abyssal Void."

Ancient texts contained plenty of records about the Abyssal Void.

Most described it as the end of the world, or the final resting place of all things.

Jiang Ran scrolled through the information on the webpage.

In Daoist texts, the Abyssal Void was sometimes said to be a Secret Realm where immortal islands lay.

In folk legends, it became a chasm where the dead went.

There was no consensus.

But one thing was certain.

A place like that could never be safe.

Jiang Ran closed the webpage and leaned back in his chair.

He glanced at the time on his phone.

23:07

Less than an hour remained until midnight.

Jiang Ran got up and went to the bed. He bent down and pulled a metal box out from underneath it.

Click.

The box opened.

There were no gold or silver treasures inside, just a pile of items that would look baffling to an ordinary person.

Three tactical folding knives of different sizes.

A fifty-meter coil of paracord, two high-powered flashlights, and a basic first-aid kit.

There were also waterproof matches, several packs of compressed biscuits, purified water, and other supplies.

He didn't know why he'd prepared all this.

He just instinctively felt that someone with no way back ought to leave himself a few escape routes.

Now those routes might come in handy.

Jiang Ran took the items out of the box one by one and laid them on the bed, then thought it over for several minutes.

In the end, he settled on a basic set of gear.

A medium tactical knife, paracord, a tactical flashlight, a first-aid kit, and some food and water.

But these were only basic supplies.

His real trump card was the Profession Panel before his eyes.

[Profession: Mixed Martial Artist Lv.6 (488/600)]

[Profession Skills: Freestyle Fighting Lv.8 (752/800)]

[Jiu-Jitsu Lv.5 (310/500)]

[Taekwondo Lv.5 (250/500)]

[Blade Arts Lv.7 (410/700)]

[Profession Core Skill: Combat Intuition Lv.4 (295/400)]

A year ago, he'd walked into a fighting gym for the first time.

Back then, after years of studying at a desk, his physical condition had been terrible. He couldn't even make the lightest punching bag move.

Seeing how thin he was, the coach had tactfully suggested that he start by working out.

But Jiang Ran hadn't.

He'd signed up for the fighting classes right away.

On the first day, he couldn't even hold the most basic stance for more than a few minutes.

On the second, during sparring, a beginner who'd been training for three months had beaten him without giving him a chance to fight back.

On the third, his entire body ached so badly that he could barely get out of bed.

But the skill experience on his panel was rising.

Jiang Ran discovered that as long as he stayed focused and worked hard enough, his skill experience would accumulate quickly.

So he began training like a man possessed.

Four hours of basic drills, two hours of sparring, and two hours of studying theory every day.

When others rested, he trained. When they chatted, he watched fight footage. When they complained about how hard it was, he studied the principles behind generating force.

A month later, he beat the beginner who had once defeated him with ease.

Three months later, he was the fastest-improving student at the gym.

Six months later, the old gym owner approached him and asked if he'd be willing to work part-time as a coach.

Now, a year had passed.

Jiang Ran still wasn't sure how strong he was.

But in the lightweight division, he felt he could hold his own even against world-famous fighters.

At last, Jiang Ran picked up his phone.

He opened his notes app and typed out a short message.

Then he connected the phone to his computer and scheduled an email to be sent.

The recipient: Jiang Xiaoyu, his younger sister.

The email was simple: where his bank card was kept, and the password.

It was set to send five days later at noon.

If he returned safely within five days, he would cancel it, of course.

If he didn't come back...

Jiang Ran shook his head and cleared his mind.

He went into the living room, sat down on the sofa, and looked at the clock on the wall.

23:42.

The second hand ticked forward one mark at a time, its sound unnaturally clear in the silent room.

Jiang Ran closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.

His heartbeat gradually settled.

23:58.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes and stood up.

He walked to the middle of the living room, making sure there was no furniture nearby that could easily tip over.

00:00:00.

His consciousness wavered for an instant.

It was brief, like the sudden blackout and immediate return that came when he was overwhelmingly tired late at night.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes and found himself still standing in the middle of the living room.

Nothing in the room had changed.

Everything remained as it had a few seconds earlier.

But soon, Jiang Ran noticed something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

There was no sound of cars passing, no hum from the air conditioner's outdoor unit, not even the chirping of insects outside the window.

Just then, the voice rang out in his mind again.

[Abyssal Void has opened]

[Return countdown: 23:59:57]

Seeing this, Jiang Ran quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Twenty-four hours.

That meant he still had a chance to return.

But he only let half that breath out.

He had to survive the next twenty-four hours.

Jiang Ran quickly surveyed his surroundings.

All the gear he'd prepared was still with him.

Not just the gear. Everything in the apartment remained as it had been.

Even his computer screen was still on, displaying the webpage about the Abyssal Void that he'd just browsed.

Everything was exactly the same as in the real world.

"A parallel world?"

The thought flashed through Jiang Ran's mind.

But he quickly set the theory aside for now.

He knew too little to draw any firm conclusions.

He crept to the window and carefully lifted one corner of the curtain, leaving a narrow gap.

Outside was the familiar street.

The streetlights were still on, their dim yellow glow looking somewhat hazy in the thin autumn fog.

Everything looked just as it had when he came home last night.

But there was no one around.

The street was empty, and not a single car passed by.

Suddenly, an angry roar erupted from the apartment building across the street.

"You motherfuckers!"

Jiang Ran quickly pinpointed the source of the voice.

Across the street stood an old six-story apartment building. A window on the fourth floor was shoved open.

A man leaned halfway out. His hair stuck up in a wild mess, and his face was flushed as if he were hungover.

"Where is everyone!? Where the hell did you all go!?"

The man bellowed at the empty street.

He looked around, apparently unable to believe what he was seeing.

Jiang Ran furrowed his brows.

From the man's state, it seemed he'd only just realized he was trapped in this eerie environment.

"Damn it! You screwing with me or what!?"

The man continued shouting at the street.

"Did some dumbass TV crew pick me for a show!? Where are the hidden cameras!? Get out here, damn it!"

Cursing as he went, he picked up whatever was at hand and hurled it downstairs.

"Do you know who I run with!? Huh!? You think you can mess with me!?"

The man grabbed his phone again and angrily swiped across the screen, seeming to be trying to call someone.

Jiang Ran stood by the window.

He watched the man's outburst with a calm expression.

He analyzed the man's state of mind.

From confusion at first, to anger, and then to growing fear.

Such an uncontrolled emotional reaction was common in unfamiliar surroundings.

But Jiang Ran's gaze didn't stay on the man for long.

Because after the man threw down the beer bottle,

something moved in the shadows along the street.

Jiang Ran instinctively held his breath and stared.

Then another shadow darted through the darkness.

This time, Jiang Ran saw it more clearly.

The shadow was moving along the wall of a building, rapidly approaching the one where the man was.

Then came a second, a third...

Their target was clear.

And the man seemed completely unaware.

He was still trying to make a call, cursing at the deserted street. "Just wait till I get out of here. I'll find out which bastard..."

His voice cut off abruptly.

A shadow climbed straight up the building's outer wall.

By the light of the streetlamps, Jiang Ran finally got a clear look at the monster.

It was about the size of an adult dog, but its body was twisted in an unnatural way.

Its head resembled a lizard's, and its mouth split almost all the way back to its ears. Its skin was gray-green and covered in scales.

But this thing clearly wasn't a lizard.

It looked like the features of several different creatures had been forcibly stitched together.

The first monster climbed to the level of the fourth-floor windowsill and, without pausing, leaped straight from the outer wall through the window at the man.

"Holy crap...!!!"

The man only had time to let out a brief cry of alarm before the creature knocked him to the ground, vanishing from Jiang Ran's sight.

Screams.

They lasted only two seconds.

Then everything fell silent.

Jiang Ran slowly drew the curtains and tightened his grip on the knife.

It seemed he wasn't the only one who had come to this world.

And this place... wasn't inhabited by humans alone.