On his way home that night, Jiang Ran had actually wondered...
Since this place was called the Abyssal Void, could it really contain the bizarre beings recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas?
Now it seemed his guess might well come true.
Although he had no idea what those monsters had been.
But if he assumed they were creatures from the Classic of Mountains and Seas...
It meant that the danger level in this city—or this world—was rising exponentially.
He could die the very next second.
Without even knowing why.
After all, at the low end...
Some of the strange creatures in those records might be beaten to death by an ordinary person with a club.
But at the high end...
There were beings capable of moving mountains, filling seas, and reshaping the world.
Jiang Ran slowly let go of the curtain and stepped back to the middle of the living room.
He needed a plan.
He had to survive these 24 hours.
The first plan was the simplest: hide quietly in his apartment and lie low for 24 hours.
It was feasible, but the risks were actually considerable.
The climbing ability that monster had just displayed meant the buildings' outer walls were no obstacle to them.
If those monsters discovered someone was in his apartment, being surrounded would mean certain death.
Besides, who knew whether those monsters had other ways to detect humans?
Or he could go out and explore.
That was actually the option Jiang Ran favored more.
All fear came from the unknown and a lack of firepower.
And exploring was essential if he wanted to understand the unknown.
But where to explore was the problem.
The streets were obviously unsafe.
What had happened to that man just now was proof enough.
But...
Jiang Ran suddenly froze.
If this world was an exact replica of reality, then did the firearms from the real world exist here too?
The thought made Jiang Ran's breathing quicken slightly.
Although he was far stronger than an ordinary person in close combat,
it wasn't impossible for him to fight a monster of that size at close range.
But the risks were too high.
The monster's claws and fangs, possible toxins or pathogens, unknown methods of attack...
Any accident could leave him gravely wounded or even dead.
Firearms were definitely the safer, more powerful option.
Besides, judging by the message in that voice, he would probably enter this place again in the future.
Firearms were undoubtedly the most realistic way to improve his combat ability at this stage.
With that thought, Jiang Ran immediately got moving.
He went to his desk and picked up his phone.
The screen was still on the page where he had searched for the Abyssal Void.
Jiang Ran switched to the map app.
The internet worked.
Even the signal seemed unaffected.
That man hadn't managed to get through on the phone just now, most likely because... the person he had called hadn't entered this world.
Jiang Ran quickly searched for police stations and shooting clubs.
In the end, he settled on the nearest police station.
It was right at the intersection of Zhongshan Road and Jiefang Road, two kilometers away.
That distance was manageable.
Jiang Ran opened the police station's location details and checked the street-view images.
It was a three-story building, a typical neighborhood police station, with blue-and-white police lights by the entrance.
The whole trip would take about twenty-five minutes on foot.
But that was at peacetime pace.
Now... it might take much longer.
There was no time to waste.
Jiang Ran stood up, slid the tactical knife back into its sheath at his thigh, checked his gear again, and went to the door.
But just as he put his hand on the handle, he stopped.
He turned back to the bedroom, pulled a plain black hoodie from the bottom of the wardrobe, and grabbed a black face mask.
He put on the hoodie, zipped it up, pulled up the hood, then drew the mask over his nose.
Jiang Ran stood in front of the full-length mirror.
The mask and hood shadowed the figure's face, leaving only a pair of eyes visible.
Good.
Jiang Ran gave the apartment one last scan to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything important, then turned the doorknob.
The hallway was terrifyingly quiet.
He gripped the knife handle, its tip pointed down—the ready stance for close-quarters combat indoors.
That way, he wouldn't accidentally stab himself and could quickly slash upward or thrust.
The fire door was ajar.
Jiang Ran pressed himself beside the gap and listened for more than ten seconds.
There wasn't a sound.
He gently pushed the door open and slipped sideways into the stairwell.
He kept his footsteps as quiet as possible, placing the balls of his feet down first before slowly lowering his heels.
One floor, then two.
Nothing was out of place in the stairwell. The only sound was his own breathing.
But the quieter it was, the more alert Jiang Ran became.
Combat Intuition hadn't warned him, but that didn't mean he was completely safe. It only meant there was no immediate threat in sight.
Five minutes later, Jiang Ran reached the first floor.
The building's entrance was glass, with the residential complex's internal road outside.
He crouched behind the door and observed the area carefully for at least three minutes.
There were no moving shadows and no unusual sounds.
Jiang Ran gently pushed open the entrance door, slipped outside, and immediately moved along the wall. He crossed the dozen or so meters of open ground at speed, then disappeared into the shadows of another building.
The back gate of the complex was fifty meters ahead.
Jiang Ran crouched by the wall and waited patiently.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Other than the wind, there was no movement.
Only then did he stand up, quickly cross through the iron gate, and enter Wutong Lane.
The rest of the journey took longer than he'd expected.
The trip should have taken forty minutes, but by the time he spotted the police station's blue-and-white sign, his phone showed 01:53.
An hour and six minutes had passed since he left home.
The lights inside were on, but the area was completely silent.
Jiang Ran didn't rush inside. Instead, he stood at the mouth of the alley and watched.
In these extreme circumstances, if anyone else had entered this world nearby, they might have had the same idea once they'd calmed down.
It had been nearly two hours since he entered this world.
Given the timing, there was a decent chance someone was inside the police station.
But after waiting a little while, there was still no movement inside, and no one passed by the windows.
Only then did Jiang Ran get up and circle around to the side of the police station.
There was a small window in the back wall.
Jiang Ran braced one hand on the sill and climbed in without a sound.
He drew his tactical knife and listened closely.
Only after confirming that nothing was moving did he push open the door.
A corridor lay beyond. Keeping close to the wall, Jiang Ran moved toward the stairs.
But just as he reached the landing...
The sense of danger from Combat Intuition jabbed into the back of his mind like a needle.
Left!
Jiang Ran abruptly ducked.
At almost the same moment, a gun barrel emerged from the shadows above the stairs, aimed at the spot where his head had been.
At the same time, Jiang Ran instinctively reached out with his left hand, grabbed the other man's wrist, and shoved it sharply upward.
Bang!!!
The gunshot thundered through the narrow stairwell. The bullet grazed over Jiang Ran's head and struck the ceiling.
The noise was so loud it made his eardrums ache.
The other man clearly hadn't expected his sure shot to miss. He hesitated for a moment.
Jiang Ran gave him no chance to fire again.
As the shot rang out, Jiang Ran used the momentum of his duck to drive forward into the man's chest. His right fist came up from below and slammed into the man's right side, beneath the ribs.
"Urgh..."
The impact was followed by a muffled groan.
The man doubled over, his body curling like a shrimp. His pistol slipped from his hand, and he crumpled to the floor.
Young people really could sleep well. One hit, and he was out like a light.
But Jiang Ran had made a mistake just now. He'd instinctively avoided the man's jaw and temple.
In a fight to the death,
the liver wasn't quite reliable enough.
He'd have to train himself out of that habit.
Jiang Ran shook his head and picked up the pistol.
It was a Type 92 service pistol, with a full magazine.
The man on the ground was in his thirties, wearing a dirty jacket and sporting stubble.
Jiang Ran used the paracord he carried to tie the man up securely, then took a pair of handcuffs from his waist and cuffed his hands behind his back.
Then he dragged him all the way to the monitoring room on the first floor.
Several screens in the room were still on, showing footage from fixed cameras inside and outside the police station.
Jiang Ran tied the man to a chair, filled a cup with cold water from the water dispenser, and splashed it in his face.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
The man choked awake. His eyes were unfocused at first, then settled on Jiang Ran—especially the Type 92 in his hand.
"Brother, it was a misunderstanding. A complete misunderstanding!" The man immediately forced a sycophantic smile. "I thought one of those monsters had gotten in, so I... You're alive too, right? We can talk this out. Please, don't hurt me!"
Jiang Ran said nothing. He pulled over a chair and sat down.
He rested the pistol on his thigh and looked at the man calmly.
Liu San's eyes darted around, and he spoke rapidly. "Brother, you're really good in a fight. You've definitely had training, right? How about we team up? This place is creepy. There's strength in numbers..."
Jiang Ran suddenly asked, "Your name. What do you do?"
"My name's Liu San. I'm just an ordinary guy. I woke up here and was scared out of my mind, honestly..." Liu San answered quickly.
Jiang Ran stared at him in silence.
A lie, and not a very clever one.
"Oh."
Jiang Ran gave a brief reply, then suddenly raised the pistol, clicked off the safety, and aimed it at Liu San's forehead.
Liu San's smile froze.
"W-what are you doing?! Everything I said was true! It's true!"
Jiang Ran rested his finger on the trigger guard, his voice flat. "You have one last chance."
Five seconds of silence passed.
Sweat rolled down Liu San's forehead.
He looked into Jiang Ran's eyes. There was no emotion in them at all.
This wasn't a bluff... This man really would shoot him.
"I... I'll talk!" Liu San broke down. "I'm a tomb raider! The day before yesterday, I dug up a Song dynasty tomb in the northern suburbs. As soon as I came out, the cops who'd been waiting there grabbed me and locked me in the holding room next door.
I was exhausted last night, so I fell asleep... When I woke up, the door to the holding room was open, and there wasn't a soul outside. So I ran..."
Tomb raiding. Grave robbing.
Jiang Ran's thoughts stirred.
He'd been able to enter because of the clod of earth from the museum. He didn't know what was inside it, but it had to be an artifact.
"Did you find anything unusual in the tomb?" Jiang Ran asked.
"Y-yeah. There was a jade cong, and a few pottery figurines. One of them had a cracked head..." Liu San stammered incoherently. "The police confiscated them and put them in the evidence room at the precinct. I caught a glimpse of them before I fell asleep..."
"Which one did you touch?"
"The jade cong. I stuffed it against my chest to hide it, but they found it. When they took it, my hand touched it, and then I heard a voice in my head..."
The clues came together.
Touch an artifact, gain qualification, then get pulled into the Abyssal Void at this specific time.
Jiang Ran was about to ask for more details...
A shadow suddenly flashed across the edge of one of the surveillance monitors nearby.
Something was coming.
Before you continue