Countdown

Jiang Ran mounted his bicycle and pedaled toward home.

The night breeze brushed against his cheeks, cool and crisp.

The heightened self-awareness brought about by his Psychology skill allowed him to clearly perceive the changes deep within his heart.

A long-lost sense of excitement.

It was just like two years ago, the first time he saw the profession panel manifest before his eyes.

As someone born in the 90s who grew up reading all sorts of novels and playing role-playing games.

Upon obtaining the profession panel, the first thing he naturally thought of was the supernatural.

To that end, he had tried every profession that might possibly lead to the extraordinary.

He had spent time as a short-term lay practitioner at a temple, chanting sutras and meditating every day; while [Meditation Lv.1] did appear on his skill panel, once it reached max level, it offered nothing special beyond a more focused mind.

He had signed up for a civilian Qigong training class, but after maxing out [Basic Breathing Technique Lv.2], all he gained was slightly better lung capacity.

He even tried more obscure paths.

He contacted a folk performer who claimed to understand witchcraft, following him for half a month to learn herb identification and simple ritual procedures; after maxing out [Folklore Knowledge Lv.3], it only made him realize more clearly that those so-called spells were merely a combination of psychological suggestion and rudimentary herbalism.

Half a year later, Jiang Ran had to accept reality.

This world did not seem to have the supernatural powers he had imagined.

At least, not through any conventional means.

So, he adjusted his strategy.

Since there were no clear supernatural professions, he would first strengthen himself.

He chose three paths to advance simultaneously.

The insight from Psychology expanded his thinking, while the physical conditioning and combat instincts brought by fighting in turn bolstered his confidence and presence.

And a sufficient income ensured the freedom to explore.

These three complemented each other perfectly.

For over a year, this system had functioned well.

Until those voices appeared in his mind today.

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

On this autumn night in Feng City, the sky was a deep purple, with a few stars struggling to twinkle amidst the city's neon lights.

If the voices weren't a hallucination...

If there really existed something unconventional in this world...

The green light turned on.

Jiang Ran pushed the pedals and surged across the intersection.

It was nearly eleven o'clock at night by the time he returned to his rented apartment.

It was a two-bedroom, one-living-room unit of less than eighty square meters.

The decor was simple, but it was kept very clean.

The most eye-catching feature in the living room was a bookshelf covering an entire wall, where psychology textbooks, combat technique diagrams, various artifact catalogs, and even books on mythology and folklore were neatly arranged by category.

Jiang Ran took a hot shower and sat down at his desk, drying his damp hair.

Opening his laptop, he first searched for the term Abyssal Void.

Actually, he didn't need to search to know what it was.

Anyone who had read the Classic of Mountains and Seas would not be unfamiliar with the term.

"To the east of the Bohai Sea, at an unknown distance of hundreds of millions of miles, lies a great abyss, a bottomless valley known as the Abyssal Void."

There were many records of the Abyssal Void in ancient texts.

Most pointed toward concepts like the end of the world or the final resting place of all things.

Jiang Ran dragged his mouse, browsing through the information on the web pages.

In Taoist scriptures, the Abyssal Void was sometimes considered a secret realm where overseas immortal mountains were located.

In folklore, it became an abyss where the spirits of the dead returned.

There was no consensus.

But one thing was certain.

A place like that could never be safe.

Jiang Ran closed the browser 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 stood up, walked to the bedside, and leaned down to drag a metal box out from under the bed.

Click.

The box opened.

Inside were no gold or silver treasures, only a pile of items that would seem inexplicable to an ordinary person.

Three tactical folding knives of different sizes.

A fifty-meter roll of paracord, two high-intensity flashlights, and a simple medical kit.

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

He did not know why he had prepared these things.

He only felt instinctively that a person with no way out should leave a few paths of retreat for themselves.

Now, these paths of retreat might finally come in handy.

Jiang Ran took the items out of the box one by one, laid them on the bed, and pondered for a few minutes.

He ultimately selected a basic combination.

A medium-sized tactical knife, paracord, tactical flashlight, medical kit, and water and food.

However, these were merely basic equipment.

His true trump card was actually the profession panel before his eyes.

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

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

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

[Taekwondo Lv.5 (250/500)]

[Knife Skills Lv.7 (410/700)]

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

A year ago, when he first walked into the fighting gym.

At that time, due to long periods of studying at a desk, his physical fitness was extremely poor; he couldn't even move the lightest sandbag.

The coach saw his frail appearance and tactfully suggested he start with fitness training.

But Jiang Ran did not.

He signed up for fighting classes directly.

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

On the second day, he was beaten without any ability to fight back by a novice who had been training for three months during sparring.

On the third day, his whole body was so sore he could barely get out of bed.

But the skill experience on the panel was growing.

Jiang Ran discovered that as long as he was focused enough and worked hard enough, the skill experience points would accumulate rapidly.

Thus, he began to train frantically.

Four hours of basic practice every day, two hours of sparring, and two hours of theoretical study.

When others rested, he was training; when others chatted, he was watching match recordings; when others complained about the hardship, he was studying the principles of force generation.

One month later, he defeated the novice who had once easily beaten him.

Three months later, he became the fastest-improving student in the gym.

Half a year later, the old gym owner found him and asked if he was willing to be a part-time coach.

Now, a year had passed.

Jiang Ran did not know exactly how strong he was at the moment.

But in the lightweight division, even against world-renowned fighters, Jiang Ran felt he could put up a fight.

Finally, Jiang Ran picked up his phone.

He opened his notes and wrote a paragraph of text.

Then, he connected the phone to his computer and set up a scheduled email.

Recipient: Jiang Xiaoyu, his younger sister.

The content of the email was simple: the location of his bank card and the password.

The sending time was set for five days later, at twelve noon.

If he could return safely within five days, he would naturally cancel the sending.

If he could not return...

Jiang Ran shook his head, clearing his mind of distracting thoughts.

He walked to the living room, sat on the sofa, and looked at the clock on the wall.

23:42.

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

Jiang Ran closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing.

His heartbeat gradually steadied.

23:58.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes and stood up.

He walked to the center of the living room, ensuring there was no furniture nearby that could easily tip over.

00:00:00.

His consciousness flickered for a split second.

It was fleeting, like that sudden sensation of dropping offline and immediately reconnecting when one is extremely drowsy in the dead of night.

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

The room had not changed at all.

Everything remained exactly as it had been a few seconds ago.

But soon, Jiang Ran noticed something amiss.

It was too quiet.

There was no sound of passing vehicles, no hum of air conditioning units, and he couldn't even hear the chirping of insects outside the window.

Just then, that voice resonated in his mind once more.

[Abyssal Void has been activated]

[Countdown to return: 23:59:57]

Seeing this, Jiang Ran let out a quiet sigh of relief.

24 hours.

This meant he still had a chance to go back.

But that relief was only half-complete.

He had to survive the next 24 hours.

Jiang Ran quickly scanned his surroundings.

The gear he had prepared earlier was still on him.

Not just the gear, but everything in the room remained exactly as it was.

Even the computer screen was still lit, displaying the page he had just been browsing regarding the Abyssal Void.

Everything was identical to the real world.

"A parallel world?"

The thought flashed through Jiang Ran's mind.

However, he quickly pushed this speculation aside for the time being.

The information he currently possessed was too scarce to draw any definitive conclusions.

He walked on tiptoe to the window, carefully lifting a corner of the curtain to reveal a sliver of a gap.

Outside the window was the street he knew so well.

The streetlights were still on, their dim, yellow halos appearing somewhat hazy in the thin mist of the autumn night.

Everything was the same as when he had returned home last night.

But there was no one.

The street was completely empty; not even a single car passed by.

Suddenly, a roar erupted from the building across the street.

"What the f***!"

Jiang Ran quickly locked onto the source of the sound.

Across the street was an old six-story residential building, and a window on the fourth floor was flung open violently.

A man leaned halfway out, his hair standing up in a messy tangle, his face flushed with a hangover-like redness.

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

The man bellowed at the empty street.

He looked left and right, seemingly unable to believe the scene before him.

Jiang Ran frowned slightly.

Judging by the man's state, it seemed he had just suddenly discovered himself in this eerie environment.

"Damn it! Are you messing with me!?"

The man continued to shout at the street.

"Which moronic production crew picked me!? Where are the hidden cameras!? Get out here right now!"

He cursed while grabbing whatever was at hand and throwing it down toward the street.

"Do you know who I run with!? Huh!? You dare to mess with me!?"

The man picked up his phone again, swiping at the screen in a rage, seemingly trying to call someone.

Jiang Ran stood by the window.

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

He was analyzing the other party's psychological state.

From the initial confusion to anger, and then to the gradually mounting fear.

This kind of uncontrolled emotional reaction was common in unfamiliar environments.

However, Jiang Ran's gaze did not linger on the man for long.

Because after the man threw a beer bottle down.

Something moved in the shadows of the street.

Jiang Ran held his breath unconsciously and stared intently.

As a result, another shadow flashed within that darkness.

This time, Jiang Ran saw it more clearly.

The shadow was moving along the wall of the building, rapidly approaching the structure where the man was located.

Then came a second, a third...

Their target was very clear.

Yet the man seemed completely oblivious.

He was still trying to make a call while cursing at the empty street: "Once I get out of here, I'm going to find out which bastard..."

His voice cut off abruptly.

A shadow climbed vertically up the exterior wall of the building.

By the light of the streetlamp, Jiang Ran finally saw the monster's appearance clearly.

It was about the size of an adult dog, but its body structure was abnormally twisted.

Its head resembled a lizard, its mouth split at an angle that extended almost to the base of its ears, and its gray-green skin was covered in scales.

However, this thing was clearly not a lizard.

It looked like a forced amalgamation of traits from multiple creatures.

The first monster climbed to the height of the fourth-floor windowsill and, without pausing, lunged from the exterior wall toward the man inside.

"Holy shi—!!!"

The man only had time to let out a short, sharp cry before he was tackled to the ground by the thing, disappearing from Jiang Ran's line of sight.

The screaming.

It lasted for only two seconds.

Then, everything returned to silence.

Jiang Ran slowly lowered the curtain and gripped the knife in his hand.

It seemed he was not the only person who had come to this world.

And here... there was more than just people.