Baisha City, Wenhai District.
Summers in coastal cities are always tough, and today’s rainy, foggy weather made visibility extremely low.
The neighborhood where Chu Zaizhou lived was an old community, not very crowded with average facilities, but it was quiet and affordable.
At the entrance of the community, a noodle shop hung red lanterns, casting a particularly hazy and enticing light.
Chu Zaizhou, smelling the aroma of the noodles, felt no appetite due to the throbbing headache from staying up late…
He thought coldly to himself, excessive overtime would surely lead to an early death, but please, let me not go bald before I die!
Death should come with dignity.
He entered the building, his trouser legs completely wet.
“Xiao Chu, you’re not working today?” a neighbor who was throwing out trash greeted him.
Chu Zaizhou put away his umbrella and responded with a smile, “Good afternoon, Auntie. I finished work early today, so I came back!”
He didn’t know Aunt Li’s full name, just that she lived alone and had a son studying at a top university.
Aunt Li put down her black garbage bag.
She warmly said, “You should rest a bit, look at you, all drenched. Have you had lunch? I made extra pork ribs, want to take some home?”
Without giving him a chance to refuse, she grabbed Chu Zaizhou’s arm and headed inside.
Chu Zaizhou hesitated, but eventually gave in.
For some reason, hearing about the pork rib soup, his previously absent appetite suddenly returned.
“Auntie, you should rest too, don’t overwork yourself,” he said awkwardly, thanking her as he changed his shoes and walked into the room.
Aunt Li headed to the kitchen, rubbing her waist, “It might be the constant rain lately, I always feel so tired, well, I am getting older.”
The room was tidy, but the moment he stepped in, Chu Zaizhou’s eyelids twitched, feeling slightly uneasy.
Looking around, he saw a Guanyin statue on the altar in the living room.
This Guanyin statue was different from those commonly seen in the market; it was brightly colored, with pure black pupils that seemed to have black veins on them.
It looked somewhat sinister.
“Speaking of which, Xiao Chu, did you pass by Jianren District on your way back? I heard several people have gone missing there, I wonder if there’s a murderer!” Aunt Li’s voice came from the kitchen.
“Be careful when you go out, it’s not very safe recently. I hear about it in the news every day, wild animal attacks, or infectious diseases…”
This chatty conversation gave Chu Zaizhou a sense of home warmth.
He reassured her, “If anything really happens, the country will definitely intervene. And you can’t believe everything in the news, think about that ‘Step Out into Science’ show.”
The news reported that the air in a certain place was electric, and villagers claimed they were descendants of the Thunder God, but further investigation revealed—
A leaking voltage detector.
Aunt Li remembered those blunders and chuckled, “That’s true.”
Chu Zaizhou didn’t tell the truth.
He indeed passed by Jianren District on his way to work.
But today, for some reason, he felt so uncomfortable that he took a detour, which got him soaked.
Thinking about his strange anxiety today, Chu Zaizhou began to wonder if he was coming down with a cold.
He held the bone soup Aunt Li handed him, his gaze falling behind her, “Auntie, where did this Guanyin statue come from?”
“This?” Aunt Li turned and smiled, “It was a gift from my sister, cost a lot of money.”
“Ah, it’s because my son was selected by the army last year, signed a confidentiality agreement, and now he can’t even come home. I can only pray to the Buddha for his safety…”
Chu Zaizhou wanted to say something, but seeing her picking up the garbage bag again, he eventually swallowed his words, only looking back again as he left.
Hmm?
That brightly colored Guanyin statue now looked like its most common, holy form.
Chu Zaizhou gasped; was he so tired that even his eyes were playing tricks?
Or perhaps he was also experiencing a bit of arrhythmia and nervous exhaustion?
“Then, Auntie, I’m going upstairs.”
He hesitated slightly, politely thanking the neighbor, and closed the door.
As the door shut, a swirl of black mud surged around the benevolent white Guanyin statue, accompanied by a thick, sticky sound, gradually engulfing the altar.
Aunt Li, oblivious, turned away from the altar.
She picked up the garbage bag and hummed a tune as she walked out.
Back at home, after a shower and dinner, Chu Zaizhou changed into his comfortable cotton bear pajamas.
He intended to handle some work documents, but still felt uneasy.
Looking at the draft he had revised countless times, the sadness of being a corporate drone suddenly overwhelmed all other feelings.
When will this day-in, day-out life ever end?
Remembering Aunt Li’s lament, Chu Zaizhou couldn’t help but procrastinate and checked the news.
“Beautiful Country’s Sudazhou, Taylor City under lockdown, suspected local government bio-experiment, residents protest.”
“Wuaicheng residents witness levitating person, suspected aliens stealing local pumpkins.”
“Lunguang Mountain shrouded in white mist, experts warn of magnetic field disturbances, easy to get lost, please do not go there casually.”
…
Below these stories, numerous netizens were joking and munching on popcorn, with many official media outlets debunking the rumors.
Chu Zaizhou’s eyelids twitched, feeling that today’s news was getting more and more exaggerated.
It wasn’t without precedent; there had been a citizen who claimed to have seen five aliens stealing his bike, chased them three hundred miles with a rock, and scared the aliens away.
—Aliens these days really have no dignity.
Chu Zaizhou gave up on his wild thoughts and decided to play a game to relax.
He plugged in the power, and the silver holographic gaming pod opened, a row of cartridges beside it.
Chu Zaizhou chose a single-player game called “Savior.”
This was a game he had found in a junk pile during high school, and he had been playing it ever since, thoroughly familiar with its content.
It was a game with a high degree of freedom.
Players could randomly create characters, fight monsters to level up, and each character setup could trigger new adventures and achievements.
Holographic monster fighting was good for relaxation, and as a game designer at a big company, Chu Zaizhou often played it to decompress.
Plus, with his collecting obsession, he had created countless small accounts to grind various achievements.
[Task refresh detected 0/2, switch interface?]
“[Yes]/[No]”
Chu Zaizhou lay peacefully in the holographic gaming pod, routinely choosing “Yes.”
The task was straightforward; he randomly selected an account.
[Character Card]
Name: Ka Xiu
Gender: Male
Ability: [Zhu Yuru Ni] (Carving Jade as if Molding Clay)
Inherent Attributes:
[Forgetful] You often forget things you need to do.
[Highly Focused] You are serious and undisturbed by external forces.
[Combat Instinct] You are a born fighter.
On the card, a slender young man with black hair and green eyes was toying with a scalpel, the thin blade flipping at his fingertips.
His gaze was distant, as if he was daydreaming.
“This card isn’t bad!”
Chu Zaizhou muttered, “I hope this time it’s more fun and doesn’t end in just a few cuts.”
[Anomalous traces detected, preliminary rating D, please prepare… scene transitioning]
Character fusion, a full surge of power filled his body, and as a sensation of weightlessness came, Chu Zaizhou closed his eyes.
“Buzz! Buzz!”
The phone on the desk vibrated, and the young man buried in research picked it up, “This is the Special Ops Team, I am Qing Qing, who’s this?”
“…Anomalous energy fluctuation detected? Where is it?”
“Is it in Wenhai District? Okay, I got it.”
The door snapped open, another team member entered, “Where’s the captain?”
Qing Qing continued on the phone, gesturing for silence, “The captain and the others are handling an anomaly in Jianren District.”
The team member sighed, “Looks like the expense report will have to wait until tomorrow, want to grab dinner together?”
Qing Qing hung up the phone, rolling his eyes, “Da Hai, stop thinking about eating all the time, there’s another anomaly, we need to check it out.”
Da Hai furrowed his brows, “Have you noticed, anomalies have been occurring more frequently lately? It used to be one or two every half month, now it’s three or four times a week!”
“Although they’re not high level, working overtime without rest can really lead to premature balding!”
Qing Qing subconsciously touched the top of his head, his expression turning bitter.
He said, “I heard that the higher-ups are discussing how to transition smoothly after disclosure—it should be soon.”
“I’m still keeping my job a secret from my family.”
“Same here.” Da Hai flexed his muscles, grinning, “My girlfriend still thinks I’m a special forces soldier.”
D-class power boost, isn’t that just special forces?
Qing Qing slipped the ID labeled Special Events Management Bureau into his pocket.
The Special Events Management Bureau, as the name implies, handles events that conventional methods cannot resolve. They operate in the shadows, unknown to the general public.
But with the frequent anomalies, the countdown to revealing the truth has begun.
Da Hai said, “I’ll grab the psychic bullets; there haven’t been any casualties, right?”
Qing Qing replied, “No, just suspected, the special energy peak isn’t that high.”
Just then, Qing Qing’s phone rang again; he answered and looked a bit puzzled.
Da Hai asked, “What’s up?”
Qing Qing hung up, “The police said the special energy fluctuation disappeared, might be an instrument error.”
“So we’re… going to eat?” Da Hai tentatively asked.
“That can’t be, instruments aren’t that easy to damage. The police are just ordinary people assisting us in investigations, they don’t know how expensive our high-end equipment for detecting anomalous fluctuations is.”
Qing Qing put on his dark blue jacket and headed out, “Grab the psychic bullets, let’s go check out that community!”
Da Hai followed hastily, “Let’s eat over there then!”
In Wenhai District, Happiness Community.
Unbeknownst to the players, the mission was already at its end.
He skillfully maneuvered his character, leaping between spots not covered by the black mud.
“Ka Xiu,” with his [Highly Focused] attribute, had only the anomaly in his sights.
The exhilarating feeling of combat was something no other pastime could replace…
The young man slightly bent his body, dashing forward with his feet against the wall like a hunting cheetah, instantly closing the distance with the shadow.
Swipe!
The thin, sharp scalpel glinted faintly, following the direction of force from his arm, slicing off a large chunk of the writhing, deformed shadow.
The black viscous fluid pressed together, seemingly trying to escape. It stretched and crashed into the surroundings, creating chaos.
Then, at the last moment, it shot up the water pipe.
This type of escaping anomaly was quite common; Chu Zaizhou calmly threw a gadget.
[Translocation Coordinates]
[From the starry thief, uses coordinates to return prey, capturing it all in one net.]
[Target within 3 meters for a one-time translocation]
The black trench coat merged into the shadows, disappearing in an instant, leaving only an overturned Guanyin statue in its place.
Chu Zaizhou caught up to the anomaly, not hesitating to deliver the final blow.
Silver light pierced through the anomaly’s core, shattering the glass behind it along with the shadow.
Crack! Before Chu Zaizhou could react, he heard the abnormal “beep” of the gaming pod’s alarm.
The severely damaged gaming pod automatically switched to safety mode, the hatch rose, and power was cut off.
Chu Zaizhou’s vision suddenly changed, as if experiencing a split-screen on a smartphone.
In one view: A cold young man in a black trench coat, half-merged with the shadow.
He stepped on the remains of the anomaly, his green eyes reflecting the damaged gaming pod, flickering with confusion.
In another view: A young man in bear pajamas propped himself up, staring blankly upwards, his eyes also full of bewilderment.
Instinctively double-tasking from his gaming days, with his mind blank, Ka Xiu crouched down slightly and poked Chu Zaizhou’s cheek.
Without the sensory shielding of the holographic gaming pod, a hundred percent real touch transmitted from the contact point, warm and soft.
Chu Zaizhou blinked, and at the same moment, Ka Xiu’s eyelashes trembled slightly, casting a shadow beneath his eyes.
Chu Zaizhou, “…?”
Chu Zaizhou, “!!!”
Help! His game had broken through dimensions!
