The beginning

Late at night, in a university dorm room.

"Abandon... abandon..."

The young man faced the flickering screen, mechanically reading one word after another, as though memorizing the vocabulary on it. But a closer look would reveal his vacant eyes and the heavy dark circles beneath them, his soul seemingly long since having left his body to wander.

"I'm begging you, CET-6. Please spare me."

Akutagawa Shang threw his head back and howled, as though trying to suck his departed soul back into his body. As a hapless university student, he had suffered under the College English Test Band 6 for a long time. Although this was his third time joining the battle, the words before him still looked utterly unfamiliar.

"Phew... enough memorizing. Time for some videos."

As he spoke, he deftly pulled out his phone and started scrolling through videos.

As familiar background music played, oversized images of Satoru Gojo's head and the Sukuna cup flashed onto his phone screen.

The video's premise was another absolute classic: Satoru Gojo, with his death taken as a given and his soul transported into Warhammer 40K, versus Ryomen Sukuna, with his death taken as a given and his soul transported into Index from Fourth Sister Little Lamb's work-who would win?

"Gojo's got this in the bag. Sukuna's some roadside nobody. Just a cup."

Akutagawa Shang reached his conclusion after a single glance. His fingers flew as he typed "Satoru Gojo is way more badass than Sukuna" in the comments, then switched off his phone with practiced ease.

"Grrr-"

An ill-timed sound rang out.

"I'm starving. I was so busy reviewing that I almost forgot I haven't eaten all day. I'll go grab a late-night snack," Akutagawa Shang muttered.

As he spoke, he pulled on his pants, went out and downstairs, and headed toward the convenience store beneath his dorm building.

At three in the morning, even at a university full of night owls, everything below the dorm building was silent, apart from the occasional shouting and swearing from upstairs-oh, right, and crying. Perhaps another hapless university student had been left utterly heartbroken by love.

Everything around him was pitch-black, with only the 7-Eleven sign shining in the night. Akutagawa Shang went inside, picked up a grilled fatty beef triangular rice ball with practiced familiarity, helped himself to some oden, grabbed a bottle of sugar-free cola, and smoothly paid and left.

But as he walked out of the convenience store with the rice ball between his teeth, a strange feeling came over him, as though something had changed.

Akutagawa Shang whipped his head around-the same glowing 7-Eleven sign greeted his eyes. Nothing seemed to have changed; even the rice ball was still between his teeth. Yet something was wrong.

He looked around. Although everything was still pitch-black, judging by the surrounding buildings, this was nowhere near his dorm building.

"Where the hell did I end up? Am I even still in China?"

Standing on the unfamiliar street with a plastic bag in his hand, Akutagawa Shang began examining the world around him.

"No way. Did I actually get transported to another world?"

A roadside billboard in Japanese caught his attention.

"Wait, why is it in Japanese? Did I get transported to Japan? Come on, I don't even speak Japanese... hold on, why can I read what it says?"

As he looked at the billboard, Akutagawa Shang's expression grew increasingly strange. He simply looked away and began exploring the unfamiliar space around him.

In the predawn darkness, Akutagawa Shang wandered aimlessly through the empty streets, trying hard to figure out where exactly he had been transported. Suddenly, as he passed a dark alley, a faint sound came from inside. It was especially clear in the silent night.

Ever since he had been transported here, there had not been a soul around. Now, Akutagawa Shang desperately wanted to find someone and figure out where he was.

He slowly walked into the pitch-black alley. The darkness inside seemed capable of swallowing every trace of light.

Akutagawa Shang swallowed and forced himself toward the sound, clearly sensing that he was getting closer to its source.

"Drip, drip, drip."

He did not know whether he was imagining it, but as he drew nearer, there also seemed to be a sound of dripping water coming from the same place.

"Just ahead. The sound's coming from up ahead."

Akutagawa Shang stood at a bend in the dark alley. The source of the sound lay in the pitch-black corner ahead. He gritted his teeth and took a step forward. The sight before him instantly froze him in place.

Something that had lost all four limbs and could still, barely, be called a human body hung in midair, bound with electrical wires. It seemed to still be breathing. That "person's" mouth opened and closed, making faint whimpers, while copious blood flowed from the severed wounds, which had clearly still been attached to limbs not long ago.

Akutagawa Shang stood frozen for two seconds before a piercing scream squeezed out of his throat. His legs gave way, and he landed on the ground. As he braced himself with his palm, it pressed into a puddle of sticky liquid. He looked down to find his hand covered in bright red.

What fragile university student had ever seen anything like this? He immediately turned to run. But just as he scrambled up, a massive figure completely blocked out the light at the alley's exit.

It was an enormous monster, its hulking body blocking the entire exit. A huge mouth split across its head, as though dividing the whole head in two, filled with sharp teeth. Countless deathly pale eyes covered its lumpy skull.

A sharp tentacle shot out of the monster's gaping mouth and pierced straight through Akutagawa Shang's right leg.

"Aah-!"

An agonizing pain shot through his thigh. Akutagawa Shang could not help letting out a piercing scream as he fell to the ground, completely unable to move.

"Where the fuck am I? Why is there something like this here-"

Akutagawa Shang's face twisted, tears streaming uncontrollably as he grabbed everything within reach-pipes, stones, broken glass-and hurled it at the monster before him. Yet none of those things slowed its advance in the slightest when they struck its body.

The monster reached out with an enormous hand, yanked down the corpse tied up with electrical wires, and tossed it into its mouth to chew. Then it lowered its head and spat chewed-up meat mixed with saliva all over Akutagawa Shang. Looking at his face, now twisted with terror, it even made a sound resembling laughter.

Warm bits of flesh and blood plastered Akutagawa Shang's face and body in layers, even obscuring his vision. Then a huge hand closed around his whole body and lifted him into the air. Pressure bore down on him from every direction, making his ribs groan under the strain.

"Why is this happening? I only came out to buy a late-night snack. I was just hungry... why are you doing this to me... I don't want to die! I don't! You-die!"

A powerful desire to survive took over his mind. A strange power surged from his abdomen, spreading along his limbs and throughout his body. At that moment, Akutagawa Shang had only one thought: he had to live. Acting on instinct, he drove a fist coated in cursed energy forward, landing a solid blow on the cursed spirit's head. The cursed spirit let out a strange cry, and the hand gripping Akutagawa Shang tightly loosened.

"It worked!"

Before Akutagawa Shang could rejoice at surviving, he had already fallen to the ground. The wound in his right leg tore open, and dizziness from blood loss made his vision repeatedly darken. He could not muster an ounce of strength anywhere in his body. He struggled to stand, but his body had completely given out, as though it had been drained dry.

Enraged by that punch, the cursed spirit's deathly pale eyes all bulged and turned bloodshot at once, and it lunged at him in a fury.

Akutagawa Shang lay on his back, watching that bloody maw draw closer and closer. Perhaps he had accepted his fate, or perhaps he truly had nothing left he could do. He slowly closed his eyes, his vision went black, and he passed out.

But just before he lost consciousness completely, he seemed to see a white figure appear before him.

"Am I too late?"