In the dark night, the crackling of a burning fire echoed softly, its glow illuminating a small corner of the darkness. Cheerful voices and laughter filled the air, driving away the cold, empty silence. Someone poured water into a metal cup and handed it to a young man warming himself by the flames.
The stranger clicked his tongue and asked the young man:
"Hey! You're Thành Dũng, right? So… how did you get here? Mind sharing it with us?"
He chuckled lightly.
"Haha!! Don't be so tense, kid. Just tell us. This is our deal, after all—give us the information we need, and we'll return the favor."
The young man named Thành Dũng tightened his grip on the cup before slowly relaxing his hand.
In his thoughts:
Of course… In this place, in this world, the most valuable thing I possess is the knowledge gained from surviving it.
That knowledge was incredibly precious because each piece of it was something he had fought for—often risking his life to obtain. Every bit of information was a treasure. He dared not forget, dared not underestimate it, for he knew this was the capital he needed to survive in this strange and dangerous new world.
He finally spoke:
"You're Minh Đạt, right? Alright… I'm ready to tell you everything as agreed.
The story happened long ago, but the terror of it still haunts me."
At the end of December 2019, the old world was buzzing with news of a newly discovered disease called Covid. It hadn't yet caused severe damage, but it was enough to send waves of fear through the population. Back then, Thành Dũng was still just a naïve, well-meaning kid—always wanting to help others, always meddling in things.
On January 1st, 2020, the day he arrived in the world he now lived in.
Thành Dũng was chatting with an elderly man as they walked:
"Uncle Bách! You're too old for smoking. You know cigarettes shorten your life, right?"
Uncle Bách grumbled back:
"You again? Always sticking your nose into someone else's business! Aren't you afraid someone will trick you into going to Cambodia and electrocute you or something?" he barked in his usual rough manner.
Uncle Bách was already an old man. His family had a long lineage of soldiers, so his harsh tone was nothing out of the ordinary. But Thành Dũng knew that the soldiers of the past—even if rough around the edges—were people who had courageously sacrificed for peace. Such people could never truly be bad.
Thành Dũng joked:
"Aren't you afraid swearing like that will damage your karma? All the merit you earned on the battlefield— you're wasting it by cursing, you know!"
Uncle Bách smacked the boy on the head with a loud thump and scolded him:
"You little brat! You think this is something to joke about??? I'm an atheist, alright? I curse whoever I want—if you don't like it, cover your ears!"
They were so engrossed in their banter that neither of them noticed the pickup truck losing control and speeding straight toward them.
Being young, Thành Dũng reacted the fastest. He tried to pull Uncle Bách out of the danger zone—but it was too late.
In that split second, time seemed to slow. Thành Dũng could feel the truck's metal bumper brushing against his skin. Panic surged through him. Within less than a second, his vision went pitch black. Terrified and trembling, he waited for the pain—
But it never came.
For a long moment, he sensed something strange. There was no pain at all. He tried to open his eyes, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't.
*A passage is the history of Vietnam