The Strange Arrival

In a daze, Zhang Yuanqing felt something soft and plump pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.

He opened his eyes to see a round, delicate face and a mischievous smile.

Aunt hummed and hawed:

"You brat, daring to stand me up? I'll sit you to death!"

She sat on her nephew in a duck-sit position, leaned forward, and slammed her weight down.

Zhang Yuanqing let out a muffled grunt, nearly losing his breath, and irritably thrust his waist upward, flipping the woman over.

Amidst Aunt's "Aiya!" shriek, he saw the sky outside had already turned dark; without realizing it, he had slept from morning until night.

"Time to eat!"

Aunt lay on her side on the bed, kicking her nephew's backside with a relentless barrage of strikes.

"Stop with the retaliation, alright? I respect the elderly and cherish the young, so I won't lower myself to your level."

Zhang Yuanqing slid to the edge of the bed, put on his shoes, and walked out of the room.

The living room was filled with a rich aroma. Grandfather and Grandmother were sitting at the dining table. Grandfather, with his silver-white hair, was lean and tall, his face stern and humorless.

"So, how was the match they arranged for you this time?"

At the dining table, Grandmother asked with a hint of anticipation.

"Not bad at all! Annual salary of a million, corporate executive—satisfied, very satisfied!"

Aunt nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"You say that every time, and every time you end up blocking them." Grandmother reached out and poked her daughter's head hard, scolding:

"Use your head for once, think about how old you are."

Yeah, yeah, Zhang Yuanqing thought, gloating, before his calf was kicked hard by Jiang Yu'er.

The two began kicking each other under the table, making it rattle with a constant "clatter-clatter."

"If you aren't going to eat, get back to your rooms!"

With a roar from Grandmother, Zhang Yuanqing and Aunt immediately lowered their heads and shoveled rice into their mouths.

"Grandmother, when is Cousin coming back?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

Uncle's family lived right across the hall. A while back, Aunt-in-law, who came from a wealthy family, and the devil-may-care Uncle went abroad for a trip, so Cousin had been eating dinner here lately.

"He said he's working overtime tonight and won't be back until late... That boy, he works himself to the bone; he's the complete opposite of his idle father," Grandmother complained.

Overtime. Zhang Yuanqing let out an "Oh," unable to hide his disappointment.

After dinner, Zhang Yuanqing and Jiang Yu'er returned to their respective rooms, leaving Grandmother to clean up the mess.

Back in his room, Zhang Yuanqing locked the door, picked up his phone, and dialed Cousin's number.

Since he couldn't say it in person, he would just have to call.

Communicating over the phone was never as clear as a face-to-face conversation, though.

The call connected quickly, but the speaker only emitted the automated voice of a powered-off phone.

In a meeting?

Zhang Yuanqing hung up helplessly. As a captain at the Songhai City Public Security Bureau, Cousin was always busy, and his schedule and diet were completely irregular; it wasn't unusual to be unable to reach him.

He was used to it.

Zhang Yuanqing lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, letting his thoughts drift.

Assuming Brother Bing's disappearance was man-made and the target was the Black Card, I need to be careful. The safest method is to hand the Black Card to Cousin and have him report it to his superiors.

Given the administrative rank of the Songhai City Public Security Bureau, the influence of forces in Jiangnan Province is limited.

But the problem is, the Black Card is gone. That's the most headache-inducing part. Zhang Yuanqing scratched his head in frustration.

A Black Card that could vanish into thin air—just thinking about it was chilling. If he couldn't find the card, the plan to hand it over to the state wouldn't work.

I can only confess to Cousin first, let him report it to his superiors, and then follow their arrangements. I'm just an ordinary college student; there's nothing else I can do.

Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing felt his forehead ache and burn. He reached up to scratch it, and the pain intensified.

Huh? Painful and hot? What's going on?

He left the bed in a daze and walked to the full-length mirror by the window to examine himself.

The mirror reflected the face of a young man with delicate features and fair skin, lacking the grit forged by society's hardships and the weariness washed in by time.

There was only the vibrant, surging spirit of youth.

On his forehead, there was a black crescent moon mark, vivid and lifelike, with irregular patches clearly visible on its surface.

At the bottom of the crescent moon mark, there was something resembling a progress bar, displaying: 90%.

This... Zhang Yuanqing stumbled back in shock. He rubbed his forehead hard, but the mark felt like a tattoo; no matter how he scrubbed, it wouldn't come off.

How could I have something like this on my forehead? When did it appear? Chaotic thoughts flashed through his mind, mixed with panic and confusion.

"Wait! This—this pattern, isn't it the Black Moon from the card?"

He was stunned for a moment, then his thoughts suddenly clicked into place.

The black card wasn't lost; it had entered his body, transforming into a mark on his forehead in a way he couldn't comprehend.

While he was still bewildered, he noticed the progress bar beneath the Black Moon Mark had reached 92%. As the numbers ticked upward, his forehead began to burn.

What was this? A supernatural phenomenon? High-tech? A hallucination?

At this moment, the contents of the letter surfaced in his mind once more: This is a gift that can change your life.

"The black card really is a treasure, so my previous guess was right. Someone coveted this card, and Brother Bing didn't want them to succeed, so he mailed it to me, and he went missing because of it."

While worrying about Brother Bing, Zhang Yuanqing stared at the progress bar with hidden anticipation.

What would happen when the progress bar reached 100%? Having witnessed the supernatural before his eyes, he was filled with curiosity about the changes to come.

After a few more bouts of burning pain, the progress bar at the bottom of the Black Moon finally finished its journey, reaching 100%.

The next moment, a voice devoid of emotional fluctuation or sentiment echoed in his ears:

[Role Card reboot complete]

[Name: Awaiting naming (Please name immediately)]

[Race: Human]

[Occupation: Night Wanderer]

[Level: 0]

[Skills: None]

[Experience Points: 0%]

[Moral Value: 60 (Initial value)]

Beneath the Moral Value was a line of notes:

[Never let your Moral Value drop below 60. You might not have had a choice before, but now, please be a good person.]

Looking at the fluorescent blue Character Attribute Panel floating before him, Zhang Yuanqing was dazed for a long time, thinking, what is this thing?

He probed, "System?"

As a seasoned internet surfer, being well-informed was a necessary skill.

The emotionless voice echoed in his ears again:

[Please name your character immediately!]

The attribute panel, frozen in mid-air, popped up a fluorescent blue handwriting box.

It wasn't a system, or at least the intelligence was too low to communicate. Holding the mindset of taking things one step at a time, Zhang Yuanqing extended his finger and wrote his own name:

Zhang Yuanqing

[Warning, please do not use your real name.]

He couldn't use his real name? Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback, then wrote a second name:

Yuanshi Tianzun

[Naming successful! The Spirit Realm will open in ten seconds. Yuanshi Tianzun, good luck!]

Listening to the voice echoing in his ears, Zhang Yuanqing was stunned. What was going on? Opening the Spirit Realm? Shouldn't you explain what the Spirit Realm is first?

Before he could regain his composure, the ten-second countdown ended.

[Ding, Spirit Realm map opening complete. Welcome to "Night Wanderer—Sheling Tunnel", ID: 0079.]

[Difficulty Level: S]

[Type: Solo (Death-type)]

[Main Quest 1: Survive for three hours.]

[Main Quest 2: Explore the 0079 Spirit Realm. Current exploration progress: 0%]

[Note: Non-Spirit Realm items cannot be brought in.]

[0079 Spirit Realm Introduction: Do you know about the Sheling Tunnel, one of the ten great ghost stories of Songhai?]

[The Sheling Tunnel was built at the end of the last century. During its construction, a work crew entered the tunnel to excavate on a rainy night and vanished from the tunnel, never to appear again.]

[The Public Security Bureau organized search parties for several days and found one worker who had participated in that night's excavation in the mountains, but the others were nowhere to be found.]

[Although that survivor lived, he suffered some inexplicable trauma, his mind broke, and he became insane. No matter how the officers questioned him, he would only repeat one sentence over and over.]

[He said: Don't enter the temple, don't enter the temple.]

The voice in his ears grew lower and lower until it was inaudible, and the scenery before him began to twist and blur like the surface of a wrinkled lake.

A moment later, the image gradually stabilized. Dim, yellow light shone on the uneven walls, and beneath his feet was a road paved with fine gravel.

"Where is this?"

Zhang Yuanqing looked around in astonishment, discovering he was in an old tunnel. The vintage xenon lamps on the arched ceiling emitted a faint, orange glow.

PS: We've hit 11th place for monthly votes. Thank you everyone, you guys are truly awesome.

Since this is a modern setting, I need to create a fictional backdrop. In this world, there is only the Public Security Bureau. As veteran readers, you should all understand.