Overtime Death, Dragon Ball Descends

Beneath Azure Cloud Mountain, the clamor of the mortal world had long been separated by ten thousand mountain ranges.

Yet, even in this place where the fires of humanity burned brightest, there were souls who toiled and labored for a few meager pieces of silver, until they were spent and withered.

Lin Fan was one of them.

The night was heavy, and the neon lights of the city filtered through the cold glass of the office building, casting shifting, unpredictable shadows across his pale face.

The sound of keyboard clacking had long since ceased; only the screen emitted a ghostly blue glow, reflecting the dense, wriggling text on the document, which looked like so many lethal talismans.

He felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if a giant boulder were crushing him, leaving him unable to breathe. Everything before his eyes began to spin, blur, and fade... until finally, he plummeted into boundless darkness.

His consciousness was like a candle flickering in the wind, dimming and brightening.

The scenes of his life were fragmented, rushing in one after another, only to vanish just as quickly.

In that very instant of total despair, as he sank into the abyss, a point of seven-colored light—brilliant and magnificent, as if it had come from the dawn of the primordial universe—pierced through the endless void, ignoring the barriers of time and space, and suddenly intruded into the depths of his disintegrating consciousness.

The light was not blinding; rather, it was warm and harmonious. Yet, within it lay an indescribable vastness and antiquity, as if it contained the mysteries of creation itself, or the trajectories of stars shifting and universes rising and falling.

The light flashed and vanished, so quickly that one might have thought it a hallucination before death.

Pain!

A bone-chilling cold rose from beneath him, mixed with the sharp agony of gravel and broken stones digging into his skin.

There was also an intense feeling of being watched, accompanied by a primitive, savage aura that rushed toward him.

Lin Fan snapped his eyes open, a violent headache making him nearly vomit.

What met his gaze was not the snow-white ceiling of a hospital, but an unusually high, gray, hazy sky, across which drifted a few strangely shaped, brightly colored clouds.

The air he drew into his lungs carried an unprecedented freshness, yet it was mixed with a heavy, fishy scent of soil and... some inexplicable sense of danger.

He struggled to sit up, only to find himself stark naked, his skin exposed to the air, breaking out in fine goosebumps.

Surrounding him were waist-high ferns he had never seen before and grotesque, monstrous giant trees, every leaf of which was shockingly large, exuding an aura of primitive desolation.

"Where... is this?"

His voice was dry and hoarse, sounding nothing like a human's.

Fear, like a cold viper, suddenly tightened around his heart.

He clearly remembered working overtime, the sharp pain in his heart... and then? That light?

Before he could make sense of it, the ground suddenly gave a slight tremor—once, then again—slow and heavy, accompanied by a teeth-grinding "crack" sound, as if some behemoth were crushing trees and closing in step by step.

Lin Fan's hair stood on end; that cold sensation of being watched instantly became tangible, filled with a bloodthirsty craving.

He scrambled to hide behind a massive, moss-covered rock, holding his breath tightly, and cautiously peeked out.

He saw the dense forest dozens of yards ahead collapsing to both sides like fragile straw, and a colossal figure emerged!

It was a giant beast, resembling the ancient dinosaurs depicted in old texts. Its body was as vast as a mountain, covered in cold, rough, gray-brown scales that reflected a metallic sheen under the thin daylight.

Every time its thick, pillar-like limbs landed, the earth trembled slightly, leaving deep claw marks.

Most terrifying was its head: its blood-filled maw was slightly agape, its sharp teeth like daggers, densely packed and dripping with viscous saliva. A pair of vertical, scarlet, cruel pupils were slowly scanning the area, its nostrils flaring as if searching for something.

Lin Fan felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet to his crown; his heart felt as if it would leap out of his chest.

He clamped his hands over his mouth, terrified of making even the slightest sound.

He would rather believe this was a nightmare, but the stench blowing toward him, the real tremors of the earth, and the details of every scale on the beast were all cruelly telling him—this was reality!

An absurd, terrifying, incomprehensible reality!

The dinosaur clearly caught a scent; its massive head snapped toward the direction where Lin Fan was hiding, its giant scarlet pupils locking onto the rock.

It let out a low, hoarse roar, like sandpaper rubbing against stone, making Lin Fan's eardrums ache and his blood surge.

Run!

That was the only thought left in his mind.

Lin Fan could no longer care about anything else. Naked, he unleashed every ounce of strength born from the instinct to survive, lunging from behind the rock and sprinting for his life into the depths of the dense forest, away from the beast.

Sharp gravel and dead branches pierced his soles, leaving trails of blood, but he felt no pain.

The wind whistled in his ears, mixed with the despairing, heavy thuds of footsteps behind him and the thunderous crashing of trees being smashed aside.

The giant beast appeared clumsy, but its speed was shockingly fast; every stride it took covered a dozen of Lin Fan's desperate lunges!

The tremors of the ground grew more intense, and the foul, fishy stench was almost spraying onto the back of his neck.

Lin Fan didn't even dare to look back; he could feel the massive shadow already looming over him, the scent of death chilling him to the bone.

He performed a wretched roll, narrowly avoiding a claw strike. The massive, sharp talons raked past his body, carving three deep furrows into the ground!

He scrambled to keep running, his lungs burning like fire, his strength fading rapidly.

A shallow stream appeared ahead, and without a second thought, he dove in, splashing water everywhere, hoping the current would wash away his scent.

Yet the giant beast didn't care; it stepped into the stream, churning up mud and cutting off the flow.

It lowered its hideous head, letting out another threatening growl, its giant scarlet pupils reflecting Lin Fan's desperate, tiny figure.

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run!

Lin Fan was backed against a steep cliff face, the path behind him completely cut off.

The icy stone pressed against his spine, while before him loomed a gaping, blood-stained maw and a suffocating, ferocious aura.

In the wake of overwhelming terror, a sense of extreme absurdity and rage surged forth, shattering his reason.

He had spent ten years of bitter study, working himself to the bone with tireless dedication, only to end up dying of overwork at his desk—and that was bad enough!

Yet even in death, he found no peace, cast into this unknown, savage wasteland, naked and destined to become a meal for this beast?

Why?!

A nameless, wicked fire surged to his crown, drowning out his fear and wringing the final ounce of strength from his body.

He suddenly straightened his naked, blood-streaked, and bruised frame, ceasing his retreat. Pointing at the primordial behemoth closing in step by step, he gathered every bit of his strength and let out his first roar since arriving in this world toward the gray, hazy sky, his voice torn and distorted by extreme fury and resentment:

"You thieving heavens! Are you toying with me?! If you want me dead, then just make it quick! To toy with a man like this—what kind of bullshit Heavenly Dao is this?!"