Waking Up, First Arrival in Another World

Wuchen teleported outside the cave and carried over a huge boulder with his bare hands. After casting a deep look at his mate with his fox eyes, he blocked the cave entrance, leaving only a gap for light to pass through.

Three days later, Feng Rumeng's eyelids twitched. As consciousness returned, she snapped her eyes open, the dim cave ceiling reflected in her brown, almond-shaped eyes.

She rubbed her eyes, confirmed she wasn't dreaming, and shot upright.

Not dead? Feng Rumeng looked around the cave warily, relaxing only after she found no danger. Did someone save him?

She raised a hand to touch a beam of light slipping through the gap at the entrance. Lowering her eyes, she said, "No way. I was wondering why I felt so chilly. Where are my clothes?"

"What's this?" Feng Rumeng saw a dark blue animal mark that had appeared out of nowhere on the right side of her waist and abdomen. She rubbed it hard, but it wouldn't come off. "A tattoo?"

She quickly took clothes out of her bracelet space and put them on as she analyzed the situation. A cave, captivity? A tattoo, living human-skin art?

Feng Rumeng's thoughts were a tangled mess. After tying her shoelaces, she took a dagger from her space and crept to the cave entrance, steadying herself against the stone wall.

She listened for a while at the entrance, but heard nothing except the wind. She pushed at the boulder for ages, but it didn't so much as budge.

She took out a flashlight and illuminated the whole cave. It was small, and empty apart from the animal hides she had been lying on and covered with.

She took her phone out of her space and tried every corner of the cave, but there was no signal anywhere. It's over. I can't even call for help.

What did the person who saved her want? Feng Rumeng glanced at the boulder at the entrance, shone her flashlight on it, and felt it over meticulously. There was no mechanism.

"If I'm really going to be imprisoned in a cave where the sun never shines, I'd have been better off falling to my death," she murmured.

She pressed her eye to the gap and looked out, but all she could see was that it was very sunny outside. She couldn't see anything else.

Feng Rumeng kept trying for a long time, until she was panting with exhaustion, but it was no use.

The cave grew darker and darker. She took a deep breath, trying to relax, and after resting for a while, she leaned against the stone wall and ate something.

The cave was completely dark by then. She shivered. It's so cold. The temperature difference between day and night is way too big. She returned to the hides and lay down.

Feng Rumeng thought it over. There was no use getting anxious, so she decided to sleep first and deal with it tomorrow.

"Roar!"

In the darkness, an earth-shaking beast's roar jolted Feng Rumeng awake, followed by rolling waves of sound.

Her chest heaved as she rushed to the very back of the cave and pressed herself against the wall, dagger in hand.

After the roars gradually faded into the distance, Feng Rumeng went limp and slid to the ground. She found that her clothes and hair were soaked.

When the cave grew light, she opened her eyes and bit her own arm. It hurt. She really wasn't dreaming.

"Could that boulder at the entrance be there to keep the beasts out for me?" Feng Rumeng muttered to herself.

How big would an animal have to be to let out a roar that made her heart tremble like that? After recovering for a moment, she took a few biscuits and two sausages from her space and ate them.

In the twenty-ninth century, once students entered high school and turned sixteen, the school would issue them a spatial storage device so they could conveniently carry whatever they needed.

She was a junior in college this year, and her space had grown from its original ten cubic meters to a hundred. Fortunately, she loved buying things and had stuffed it full; otherwise, she would have been going hungry now.

After eating, she took out a nanocomposite ceramic knife and inserted it into the stone through the gap where the light came in.

Staying in the cave wasn't a long-term solution. If she heard those beast roars at night a few more times, even if they didn't scare her to death, they would drive her mad.

The blade slid in smoothly. After she scraped at the stone a few times, pieces began to fall away. She had only been giving it a try and hadn't expected much, but it actually worked.

An hour later, she finally made a small hole. She looked out through it and saw the faint outlines of a mountain range ahead. No wonder she had heard beasts roaring; she was in the mountains.

Feng Rumeng kept cutting. Once the opening was large enough for her to squeeze through, she put away the knife, took out some water and drank a few mouthfuls, then stored the two brightly colored hides in her space.

Only after crawling out of the cave did she realize that she was near the top of a steep mountain, with a vast forest below.

Feng Rumeng looked around. Everywhere she looked, there were either mountains or forests, with no sign of a village or city. Where on earth is this? What does the person who locked me up here want?

She leaned against the boulder and looked down at the forest. At her pace, it would probably take her several months to get out of here. If she stayed, whoever came for her probably wouldn't be any good either.

After thinking it over again and again, Feng Rumeng decided to head down the mountain and find her way out. The water in her space was limited. If the forest was especially dangerous, she would find a water source and then lie low somewhere safer—or, at worst, come back here.

She put on a long-sleeved, high-collared jacket, changed into combat boots, and tucked her pant legs into them. She wound her hair into a bun and put on a mask and gloves, leaving as little skin exposed as possible.

She took out a nanowire controller and strapped it to her left wrist, then tucked the dagger at her waist. Once everything was ready, she started down the mountain. After two steps, she turned back, looked at the boulder, and carved a few lines on it with her dagger.

"This stone's pretty nice. Save it for your own gravestone. Bye-bye to you."

Feng Rumeng looked up at the position of the sun. Was it her imagination? Today's sun seemed many times bigger than usual. Was it because she was up high, closer to the sun?

Muttering to herself, she climbed down step by step, resting wherever she could find a foothold when she grew tired and taking out food for a quick bite when she got hungry.

By the time the sun was nearly down, she still couldn't see the bottom of the cliff. Fear began to spread through her heart. Just how high is this mountain?

Her eyes reddening, she continued to climb down. After a while, she spotted a small natural cave.

Hanging vines blocked the entrance. Feng Rumeng edged over, switched on her flashlight, and used a lighter to drive the insects out.

After eating a little something, she curled up at the very back, covered herself with a hide, and forced herself to close her eyes and sleep.

Moonlight had only just begun to filter into the cave when the beast roars that had left him shaken came again. They sounded clearer here.

Her heart pounding with fear, she clutched her dagger, covered her ears, and kept muttering, "It's okay, don't be afraid. Find a water source, then go back up there."

Like this, Feng Rumeng endured the torment, waves of fear surging through her, until dawn.

Pale-faced, she walked out of the cave, took a deep breath, and continued climbing down.

By the time the sun was overhead, she could finally see the leaves clearly beneath her.

Feng Rumeng was still rejoicing when a giant bird flew in from the distance, straight toward her back. Its enormous talons pierced her shoulders and carried her a thousand meters into the air.