Linyan's cries quickly faded into the distance.
Everything before him sank into darkness, and his weightless body seemed to fall with the ticking of time.
"Nice. This is probably the first time I've been knocked out in my own room by a little girl... Yu Xuan aside."
In the midst of the unknown, Jiang Qian was relieved to find that he could still think.
So he skipped right over the fear and panic that should have come first and began to retrace how he had ended up here.
Had it started when he caught sight of the words "invitation"?
No. More accurately, everything had changed the moment his hand touched the card bearing those words.
He hadn't even had time to read the invitation carefully!
Had receiving it meant "accepting" it? Was that the point at which he'd been pulled into this darkness?
Jiang Qian continued to drift downward, surrounded by utter silence.
Under his unruffled response, an incident that should have made his heart pound seemed almost absurd.
He had his brain's physiological defect to thank for that. It kept the relevant emotional responses from being triggered.
Just then, a mechanical, monotonous prompt rang in his ears:
[Name: Jiang Qian] [Race: Human] [Age: 20] [Notice: Evolutionary path under evaluation] [Notice: Upon completing the trial dungeon, you will receive an "Identity Card" and rewards based on your evaluation]
Evolutionary path?
Identity Card?
Dungeon...
If this sort of setup appeared in an online novel, it'd probably be classified as an intellectual power fantasy, wouldn't it?
Jiang Qian listened intently, carefully absorbing the only information available to him.
The evolutionary path and Identity Card most likely pointed to some kind of supernatural power.
And "dungeon," a term usually found in games, clearly referred to some kind of otherworldly order.
Could this really be a chance to touch the extraordinary?
As a flicker of excitement stirred in Jiang Qian, he realized something else: risk, or perhaps a price to pay.
The monotonous voice paused for a moment.
Then it continued:
[Welcome to the "Super-Species World." You will become a free-evolving warrior of the Super-species, surpassing the human race and reaching for the divine gifts of a new world. Before that, please pass the qualification trial.] [The trial is about to begin. Randomly matching trial dungeon... You have been matched with Dungeon AS1741, "Whispers of the Inner Demon."] [Type: Single-player custom] [Difficulty: Nightmare] [Stake: 1 life] [Main Quest: Reach the "Abyss Video Hall" and complete your personal viewing task (0/7)] [Introduction: The forbidden depths of a mortal's heart seal something capable of killing them.] [When your consciousness falls asleep, it will quietly slip into your dreams and sow mischief, making you mistake those "evil thoughts" for your true desires. You awaken in dismay and stare warily into that unknown forbidden place. That thing is staring back at you...] [Do Not Act Rashly, Do Not Sophisticate, Do Not Immerse, Do Not Trust Easily] [Note: Unfortunately, you've drawn the most difficult trial dungeon in history. Its sky-high death rate may well make you give up before you even begin. No, don't do that. Remember: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.]
By the end, the voice had grown fainter and more distant, until it disappeared completely.
At the same time, Jiang Qian's fall finally stopped, and his feet touched the ground again.
The darkness remained.
As he waited for his eyes to adjust, he quickly went over the information in his mind, gradually forming an idea of what was happening.
It sounded ridiculous, but he really did seem to have been dragged into some kind of mysterious space.
This place had its own game rules and evaluation system.
The winners would receive a special identity and corresponding rewards.
That special identity was probably what the prompt called an "Identity Card." It was most likely some kind of unknown power, and could be strengthened through "evolution."
The losers would probably die—after all, the stake was "life."
"So this is what you meant by 'a little risk'?" Jiang Qian sneered, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
He'd even grandly speculated that humanity was a model organism, only to be tossed in here like a lab rat and made to fight for his life...
You seduced me, stabbed me in the back, and set me up, and now you're crying?
What kind of veteran actor did you think you were fooling?
"Little girl, don't worry... Just wait until I get out. I'll show you how I comfort you."
Though he hadn't chosen this, Jiang Qian quickly accepted reality: he was now in a high-stakes gamble with his life on the line. If he didn't move forward, he'd die.
According to the dungeon's prompts, he was likely under attack from some kind of hidden force.
Those twelve characters seemed to be instructions for avoiding danger: Do Not Act Rashly, Do Not Sophisticate, Do Not Immerse, Do Not Trust Easily.
But that alone wasn't enough.
He'd have to follow the clues.
"The main quest is to find the 'Abyss Video Hall' and watch a film according to the instructions. I know films. It's just that the name of this video hall doesn't sound too auspicious..."
"Does the 0/7 mean progress? Great. Seven holes to fall into."
Jiang Qian continued to mull over the clues this so-called dungeon had given him.
The darkness all around him, where he couldn't see a thing, began to stir.
Suddenly, he heard a strange noise behind him, as if someone had laughed, then quickly gone quiet.
Almost at the same moment, running footsteps came from another direction.
They sped up and slowed down, sometimes running off into the distance, yet on a second listen seeming to draw closer...
Then a strange, faint whisper sounded beside his ear... It was as if someone were dancing cheek to cheek behind him, their bad breath almost spraying the back of his neck.
An ordinary person would've lost it by now.
The quiet ones would've gone weak in the knees and collapsed, while the more lively ones would've run off while wetting their pants!
By comparison, Jiang Qian's experience was woefully lacking.
He could be said to feel no fear at all.
In the darkness, his eyes turned toward the sounds. After carefully gauging each one's direction and distance, he lunged for the other party's throat!
But he caught nothing.
Jiang Qian stayed on guard and didn't press the attack. He wasn't sure whether the things drifting around him, waiting for a chance to cause trouble, were real or imaginary.
The more chaotic things were, the more important it was to stay calm. Any unnecessary action might play right into the other party's hands.
Suddenly, a cool breeze blew against him, lifting the hair from his forehead and sweeping it back.
Was this a spot where the wind came through?
In other words, if he was inside a partially enclosed space and his vision was blocked because of it, heading toward the breeze might lead him to an exit.
His mission was to reach the "Abyss Video Hall." Without any clearer instructions, restoring his vision and actively searching was his best option.
It was worth a try, at least.
Jiang Qian slowly felt his way forward with his foot. The whispers behind him suddenly grew restless again.
They'd been urging me forward the whole time. They're probably not trying to help me... Jiang Qian slowed down, lowered his body, and shifted his weight, carefully guarding against an ambush in the dark.
Then his foot touched something.
It didn't feel alive, but it withdrew as soon as he touched it. A moment later, he heard a faint sound of something falling below.
"Huh?"
Could this be the edge of some building with no guardrails?
Jiang Qian pulled back his probing foot. At the same time, his hand touched a section of broken wall beside him.
Its jagged edge looked like the remains of a wall that had been smashed and left unfinished.
Case closed! The renovation company was to blame.
No wonder there were so many nasty things around here.
Another gust of wind blew toward him...
Jiang Qian grabbed the broken wall to steady himself.
His eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness. Under the weak light from outside, the outlines of the things before him began to sharpen...
Then something chilling happened.
The utterly silent space suddenly felt crowded.
A voice full of despair rang out without warning. "Ah, what a shame. He's still alive..."
Another voice, fraught with anxiety, followed close behind. "Shut up, loser! He was this close to falling for it!"
"No, you're the one wasting our time." The speaker sounded as if he were gritting his teeth.
Then an irritable voice roared furiously, "Useless! You're all damn useless! Let me at him. I'll smash him in a minute and grind him into the floor!"
Perhaps a certain suggestive word had set him off. A voice burning with desire trembled as it called out, "Come on, get in here... I can't wait! He's mine, mm, mine~"
The jumble of voices chattered on in the darkness.
Jiang Qian was speechless.
Were these... dungeon bosses? They didn't sound too bright.
If he remembered correctly, this dungeon was supposedly Nightmare difficulty, right?
...That was it?
Still, although he was making fun of them, Jiang Qian didn't let his guard down.
He had reason to believe that the more dangerous something was, the more absurdly it would make its entrance.
The bosses quickly came to an agreement.
Then the entire world fell silent without warning.
Next, several lights switched on at once, their noise drowning out the sound of something falling.
At last, the surroundings came fully into view.
Jiang Qian's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.
He was in an abandoned old-fashioned shopping mall.
He stood in a corridor under renovation. At the other end was a retro-styled video hall that was still open for business.
Its dilapidated sign glimmered dark red at its core, bearing the name "Abyss."
The Abyss Video Hall.
What caught his attention was the ground around where he stood: it was studded with haphazard, sharp steel rebar, scattered glass, and tiles with razor-sharp edges... along with "people" impaled by steel bars all over the floor.
These "people" had died in horribly twisted positions, then weathered away in some indescribable manner, leaving behind a grotesque tableau.
There were office workers, students, well-dressed members of the upper class, and unremarkable scavengers...
"Other trial participants?"
Based on what Jiang Qian had heard and sensed in the darkness, these people had probably been startled into running around in a panic, then fallen or crashed into something sharp and died.
Even worse, just two steps ahead of him was the edge of the old building... an open window with no frame installed.
It was easy to imagine how cleanly he would've gone if he'd taken one careless step forward, or been startled by the whispers behind him and fled ahead.
The night wind poured in from outside without restraint, cold and biting.
Jiang Qian recalled the dungeon's prompt. One line had been "Do Not Act Rashly."
Now it seemed to refer to the opening situation.
"The dungeon didn't give many clues, but the ones it gave were crucial. I bet plenty of failed participants fell here because they acted rashly."
There was no denying that when fear took hold and tension ran high, people often lost control of their actions, made foolish moves, and threw their lives away.
Fear was the killer of reason, the seed of the Inner Demon.
Fortunately, that feeling was already quite foreign to him.
Even standing amid a mountain of corpses, he didn't feel the slightest unease.
"Even if you're not as numb to fear as I am, you still have a good chance of surviving the darkness if you stay calm and cautious."
Jiang Qian stepped around the strange mummified corpses covering the path, picked up a half-length piece of steel rebar from a loose crack in the floor, and carried it casually as he walked toward the old-fashioned "video hall."
"Let's go watch a movie."
Before you continue