Mysterious Disappearance

Mysterious Disappearance

Basic Information of Missing Person

Name: Fang Tianyi

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Reason for Disappearance: Uninvestigated

Physical Features: Height *** Weight *** Hairstyle ** Special Marks (e.g., Scars, Tattoos)

Time of Disappearance: 22:00 sharp

Location of Disappearance: Room 1202, Building 2, Jiayuan Residential Complex (Home)

Recent Photo: Daniel Wu's appearance

In the evening, veteran detective Old Li, biting down on a nearly burnt-out cigarette, squinted through the curling blue smoke at the thin missing persons investigation report on the desk.

"Little Liu!" Old Li's voice carried the hoarseness left by years of heavy smoking, and he tapped the report with his finger.

"Are you sure? A 25-year-old, able-bodied adult male, right inside his own home, with doors and windows intact and security cameras catching no one leaving, just vanished out of thin air?"

Junior officer Little Liu stood nearby, his brow furrowed. "Yes, Brother Li. The scene has been inspected. Twelfth floor, the anti-theft mesh is intact with no signs of being pried open.

The hallway surveillance covers the elevators and stairwells. From yesterday afternoon when his parents last saw him until 10:0s PM when he was found missing, there is no record of him leaving during this entire time.

His mother said she only heard a shout come from the room, as if he had been startled, and when she rushed in, no one was there—she only saw the computer still displaying an anime screen."

"Hmm... Regardless of how he vanished, what about the motive? Emotional dispute? Financial trouble? Or... did he offend someone?" Old Li flicked his cigarette ash.

"None found so far. Fang Tianyi had a simple social circle, just an ordinary office worker with no recent anomalies. His mother is driving herself crazy with worry."

"Strange as hell, he really turned into a locked-room disappearance?" Old Li stubbed out the cigarette butt in an ashtray full of cigarette stubs, his cloudy eyes revealing the stubbornness cultivated from years of casework. "You can't glean any flowers from just looking at this report.

Little Liu, tonight at ten sharp, come with me to the scene again. I've got to see with my own eyes just how locked this 'locked room' really is."

"Got it, Brother Li."

Excruciating pain dragged Hinata Tianyi awake from a chaotic nightmare.

It wasn't a dream!

His lungs heaved violently like a broken bellows, every breath carrying a rich stench of blood and the decay of soil.

The wound on his left shoulder was already numb, but a slight movement caused that bone-deep pain to instantly course through his entire body, reminding him of his current plight—he was alive, but he might soon be dead.

He leaned his back against a giant tree scorched black by an explosive tag, the cold rain piercing through sparse branches and beating ruthlessly against his face. Moving his gaze upward, an 'X' mark on his forehead was the pattern of the Caged Bird curse seal.

Hinata branch house, Genin, Year 37 of Konoha, somewhere in the Land of Rain during the Second Shinobi World War.

The fragments of memory were chaotic and absurd.

Just a day ago, he was still called Fang Tianyi, an ordinary office worker. He remembered resting at home over the weekend, rewatching Naruto, with a strange, thick, unbadged ancient book he had picked up at a second-hand book stall placed beside him.

When he stroked the pages, they suddenly turned automatically, erupting with an indescribable suction... With a scream and a roar, upon waking up, he was already in this battlefield of flesh and blood, his mind filled with the complete memories of a teenager named Hinata Tianyi.

Thoroughly thrown from a peaceful era into a battlefield, the past day felt like a nightmare.

His squad had encountered an ambush and scattered while fleeing, with one teammate dying a gruesome death. To prevent enemies from pursuing him, that teammate had even deliberately taken off his forehead protector and tied it to his arm.

Exposing the seal of the branch house's Caged Bird, it was precisely by virtue of this caution that he had managed to escape here by the skin of his teeth, but he had already reached the end of his rope.

I'm going to die... I'm really going to die in this damn place... Soaked in sweat, boundless panic made his heart thump wildly. I want to go home! I miss that safe, peaceful world!

In despair, he instinctively fumbled toward the depths of his ninja tool pouch. Lying quietly inside was that strange book that had transmigrated with him. This was his only modern attachment.

Right at that moment—the book in his hand suddenly and without warning grew scorching hot!

!? Hinata Tianyi looked down in astonishment.

He saw that the previously blank cover flickered with shimmering light, and four archaic and mysterious large characters abruptly emerged—Book of Ten Thousand Worlds!

Following that, beneath the book title, a line of clear, small characters appeared like a projection:

[Communication possible daily at 22:00, 10-minute limit]

[Can two-way transfer non-living items]

[Space capacity: 0.3 cubic meters]

This sudden change was like casting a beam of light into endless darkness! Hinata Tianyi's heart beat frantically as he struggled to judge the time... It was just about ten o'clock at night!

Hope! An unprecedented sense of hope dispelled a portion of the cold and agonizing pain!

He no longer cared about hiding or concealment, bringing the book close to his mouth with trembling hands, and with a tearful, hoarse roar:

"Mom! Mom, are you there!? Can you hear me? It's Tianyi! Your son! Answer me, Mom!"

Tianyi's mother was sitting in her son's room, tears streaming down her face. Several police officers, including Old Li and Little Liu, were still analyzing the case files in the living room, trying to find clues.

Suddenly, a tearful and hoarse young male voice rang out in the room out of thin air.

This voice was so familiar—it was none other than her missing son, Fang Tianyi!

Mother Fang sprang up from her chair in a start, looking around in a panic and excitement. "Tianyi?! Tianyi, where are you?! Mom can hear you! Mom can hear your voice! Where are you?"

Her exclamation immediately drew Old Li and Little Liu from the living room.

"Ma'am, what's going on?" Little Liu asked urgently.

"The voice! My son's voice! He's calling me!" Mother Fang stammered incoherently, pointing at the empty room.

Old Li's brow furrowed tightly as he strode quickly into the room, his sharp gaze sweeping rapidly across it. Finding no anomalies and hearing nothing else, he figured it was auditory hallucinations caused by her son's disappearance.

Just at that moment, Fang Tianyi's anxious, desperate voice rang out from the book on the desk once more, this time even louder:

"Mom! I'm right here! This book brought me across—I'm in the world of Naruto! It's very dangerous here! There's a war going on! I'm injured! I might... I might not be able to come back!"

"The voice is coming from this book! A war? Injured?" Old Li's expression changed drastically. Picking up the book, he immediately barked at Little Liu, "Record! Turn on the law enforcement recorder! Record all video and audio!"

At the same time, he said quickly and clearly to Mother Fang, "Ma'am, calm down! Ask him for specific details! What kind of environment is he in? Who is the enemy?"

Mother Fang suppressed her grief, crying out toward the empty air, "Tianyi! Tianyi, don't be afraid! The police officers are right here! Make it clear, where are you fighting? Who is hitting you?"

"Naruto! Officer uncle, I am in the world of Naruto! Year 37 of Konoha, fighting the Second Shinobi World War right now! The enemy is the ninja of Amegakure!

My shoulder was pierced by a kunai! I've bled so much blood!" Fang Tianyi's voice carried heavy panting and pain.

"Naruto? Shinobi World War? Konoha? Amegakure? Kunai?" Old Li's brows were tightly locked; these terms completely exceeded the scope of his understanding.

He looked blankly at Little Liu, the youngest person beside him. "Little Liu, what he's talking about... what kind of stuff is that? Have you ever heard of it?"

Upon hearing "Naruto" and "Konoha," Little Liu's expression had already shifted.

Prompted by Old Li's question, he reacted immediately and explained at a rapid-fire pace: "Brother Li! Naruto is a very famous anime work from Footpan Chicken!

There really are five great nations in it, including the 'Land of Fire' and 'Konoha' where the protagonist is located, as well as the Land of Wind, Land of Water, Land of Lightning, and Land of Earth! That world... is at war all year round!"

"Anime? Cartoons?" Old Li's tone rose involuntarily, his face plastered with a sense of absurdity.

"You mean to tell me that Fang Tianyi, a living, breathing man, went missing for a whole day, only to transmigrate into... a cartoon? And that this cartoon is also a war film?"

"Uh... you could look at it that way." Little Liu's expression was also quite colorful.

Yet he knew that now was not the time to fuss over anime versus cartoons; he had to make Old Li understand the gravity of the situation.

"But Brother Li, the war in that anime is completely different from our modern warfare!

The ninjas in there use superpowers called 'ninjutsu,' capable of spitting fire, releasing water, and summoning giant beasts! Individual combat power is terrifyingly extreme; powerful ninjas... possess the power to destroy a country!"

"Destroy a country?!!" Old Li gasped, the sense of absurdity on his face instantly replaced by immense shock.

Having handled cases for many years and having encountered the most ferocious and ruthless fugitives, he still couldn't fathom the concept of a "one-man country destruction."

"Are you certain? This anime has settings like that?"

"Absolutely certain!" Little Liu nodded heavily, his expression turning solemn. "If he really transmigrated to that world, and moreover during the Second Shinobi World War, then given the physical and mental limits of us ordinary people, and based on my understanding of that anime...

His current situation is extremely dangerous! That place is a hellscape where human lives are like grass; for a modern person on a battlefield, the mortality rate is horrifyingly high!"

Listening to Little Liu's reply, Old Li fell into deep thought.

The book had just emitted the missing person's voice, and furthermore with a certain logical coherence, though he already believed five or six parts of it in his heart.

Yet the instincts of a veteran detective demanded one final puzzle piece to confirm this unimaginable reality.

Facing the book, he asked in as steady a tone as possible: "Tianyi, what you've described is far too... earth-shattering. Can you... prove it?"

"Prove it?... Okay! Okay! Just wait a second!" The voice on the other end was startled for a moment before becoming even more urgent.

In the forest of the ninja world, Hinata Tianyi suddenly recalled a rule within the Book of Ten Thousand Worlds: it could two-way transfer non-living items!

Enduring excruciating pain, he immediately pulled a kunai from his ninja tool pouch.

This was the item he possessed that could best verify his identity and situation at this moment!

"Transfer! Send this over!" He growled, pressing the kunai tightly against the page of the scorching Book of Ten Thousand Worlds.

The next second, the book burst with brilliant light, and the kunai seemed devoured by an invisible force, transforming into particles that vanished right upon the book!