On an evening during the rainy season, a frustrating, muggy heat floated in the damp air.
The streetlights cast murky halos in the puddles, like crushed egg yolks.
On the bus, which swayed like a boat, Qin Feng's fingertips traced the edge of his phone. Raindrops slanted against the window, shattering into a spray of stars.
"Excuse me... is there any news about my sister?"
The voice on the other end of the line was steady and formulaic, mixed with the static of the connection, as if floating in from a great distance.
"I'm very sorry."
"Mr. Qin Feng."
"We haven't found any useful leads on our end."
The person on the other end paused, and the rustle of shuffling papers was clearly audible through the receiver.
"However."
"We are taking your sister's disappearance very seriously. We've entered the case into our system and have dedicated significant police resources to an ongoing investigation."
"Please try not to worry too much."
The speaker's tone remained placid.
"If you recall any further details, no matter how insignificant they may seem, please contact us immediately.
"We will also conduct a more thorough search of the surrounding area. As soon as we have a lead, we will notify you at once..."
Listening to the same formulaic response he had heard countless times, Qin Feng silently pressed his thumb to the screen and ended the call.
He leaned against the bus's cold glass, pressing his feverish forehead to the window and staring blankly at the mottled streaks of rain outside.
'No leads?'
'One second she was right in front of me, talking and laughing, and the next she just vanished into thin air. Every security camera on the street was on, red lights blinking, but none of them caught her leaving. And they call that no leads?'
'It was clearly an unbelievable supernatural event!'
'And they insist on classifying it as a common missing person case!'
'Hah...'
After lowering his gaze for a long time, Qin Feng pulled a black stone that glinted with a cold light from his pocket, placing it in his palm to examine it closely.
The patterns on the stone's surface resembled twisted blood vessels, and it leached a faint chill into his palm.
This was what his sister had given him before she "disappeared."
He didn't know what it was for, but his intuition told him this was no ordinary object. It was very likely connected to his sister's disappearance.
His intuition was sharp.
It always had been.
It had been sharp eighteen years ago when Qin Feng had inexplicably transmigrated to this world, a premonition always lingering in his heart—that beneath the surface of this seemingly ordinary world lay an unspeakable secret.
Now, with the sudden arrival of a supernatural event, it felt as if fate itself was validating his intuition.
As he was lost in thought, the bus suddenly rolled over a pothole. The streaks of rain on the windshield twisted into a grotesque, ghostly face, making Qin Feng instinctively flinch.
'Strange...'
'I suddenly have a bad feeling...'
He couldn't help but look out the window.
The plane trees lining both sides of the street drooped with soaking wet branches, slapping against each other in the wind. They made a rustling sound like dry leaves scraping together, as if countless withered hands were clawing in the darkness.
In the distance, the traffic light at the intersection blinked on and off. Though it was just a normal cycle, it reminded Qin Feng of the warning lights on a heart monitor in a morgue.
What was even stranger was that the normally bustling commercial street was now completely empty. Not even a stray cat could be seen. The shops' roll-down shutters were sealed tight, with dark green spots of mold seeping from the cracks, looking just like the festering wounds of some creature.
A damp wind poured in through the cracks in the window, carrying a putrid, fishy stench, like dead fish that had been soaking in a sewer for days.
Just then, the bus began to jolt violently. Qin Feng staggered and grabbed a nearby handrail. The metal surface held a faint warmth, as if someone had just been holding it.
At the same time, the street ahead plunged into an eerie darkness. The streetlights flickered with a ZZZT, casting distorted shadows on the ground.
'Wait!?'
'What's that!?'
Qin Feng shot upright, his pupils contracting abruptly.
In the middle of the road, a black mist was spinning rapidly, like a bottomless vortex.
Following a piercing shriek, an Undead Horse wreathed in emerald flames stomped out of the Void. On its back, a Death Knight was clad in tattered Bone Armor, its empty eye sockets flickering with two clusters of ethereal blue ghost-fire.
"What the hell!?"
"Wh-what is that thing!?"
"We're gonna crash!?"
"Stop!"
"Driver, stop the bus!"
In an instant, the passengers' screams rose and fell in waves.
The driver frantically spun the steering wheel, and the tires shrieked against the pavement.
Qin Feng, however, gripped the seat tightly, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest.
'It's real...'
'My premonition was real...'
'This world really does have Extraordinary Power that defies all logic...'
Meanwhile, the distant Death Knight slowly raised its War Axe. Dark red, crusted blood gleamed eerily in the gloom, and a purple light flowing along the axe's blade seemed to originate from the netherworld.
BANG!
With a tremendous crash, the War Axe descended from the sky.
A blinding white light flashed. Qin Feng felt the world spin as the deafening sound of tearing metal made his eardrums ache. A cold wind, carrying the smell of rust, rushed over him.
When he opened his eyes again, the sight before him made his blood run cold.
The once-intact bus had been cleanly cleaved in two. Wisps of green smoke drifted up from the break.
Aside from Qin Feng, every other passenger lay dead on the spot, their severed limbs and heads scattered everywhere.
Crimson blood gushed from the sundered bus, mixing frantically with the rainwater to form a meandering river of blood on the ground, dyeing the street into a shocking, scarlet hell.
From deep within the curtain of rain.
The tall, dark figure mounted on the Undead Horse shattered the downpour as it approached.
The sound of hooves mixed with the rain, making the air thrum. Ethereal blue mist coiled around the dark figure, tracing strange streaks of light through the curtain of rain.
It spoke to Qin Feng in a voice that was clear, yet lifeless and raspy:
"Where is the Lord's Stone hidden? Hand over the Lord's Stone!"
'What?'
'The Lord's Stone?'
'That little black stone?'
At that moment, the once-cold black stone was searing hot in his palm. Qin Feng's arm rose almost instinctively, wanting to obey and offer the black stone in his hand.
But as cold sweat trickled down his back and into his collar, the chilling sensation instantly jolted him awake.
'Even if I hand over the treasure with both hands, this Death Knight from the netherworld will never leave me alive.'
'Fuck it!'
'I'll risk it all!'
Having made up his mind, Qin Feng broke into a run. Puddles exploded into silvery splashes at his feet, splattering his pant legs with dark red blood. Every step was like a drumbeat.
Seeing this, the Death Knight didn't rush to pursue. Instead, it tilted its neck slightly, scanning Qin Feng's pathetic figure up and down like a precision searchlight. The rotting flesh clinging to the corners of its mouth twisted into a faint, sinister grin.
"Heh."
"A last-ditch struggle."
"Such a lowly and fragile human ant."
"No wonder you couldn't earn the favor of the Lord's Stone and become a Divine Chosen Lord."
It paused, then slowly hoisted the War Axe, glowing with ethereal blue ghost-fire, onto its shoulder. Its well-defined, skeletal fingers gripped the handle tightly as a foul stench mingled with the evaporating rainwater.
"Time to end this."
As it finished speaking, the Death Knight's fingers, flaking with rotten flesh, suddenly tightened. The War Axe, wreathed in Netherworld Flames, ripped through the rain. The burning blade carved a crimson arc through the air, like the bared fangs of the Death God, aimed straight for Qin Feng's heaving back.
SWOOSH!
The sharp whistle of it cutting through the air made his eardrums ache.
Though Qin Feng didn't turn back, he was keenly aware of the flying axe hurtling through the air, as if the Death God's scythe was mercilessly closing in on his neck.
'I...'
'Am I going to die again...?'
'Will I transmigrate to a new world this time...?'
However, as the aura of death from the War Axe drew closer and closer, the hairs on the back of the despairing Qin Feng's neck strangely relaxed.
The feeling of imminent danger, like a needle at his back, receded like a fading tide.
Just as the frigid axe blade was about to touch his skin, a stream of crimson data exploded across Qin Feng's retinas, and a roar like the grinding of mechanical gears echoed in his ears.
[Life-Threatening Alert!]
[Checking loading progress... Current program loading at 29%!]
[Emergency interruption of loading procedure!]
[Core module "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord" and partial MODs are force-starting—]
In that instant, the black stone in Qin Feng's palm erupted with a blinding purple light. Ancient runes flowed into a ring in the Void.
[Ding! Core module force-start successful! Unblocking "Lord's Stone"... Unblocking successful!]
[You have been granted "Divine Chosen Lord" authority!]
[Entering Lord World!]
As the system prompts appeared, a torrent of blue, data-like light enveloped Qin Feng. His entire body distorted and vanished amidst the roaring sound.
And the War Axe that should have shattered his neck slammed into the ground like a falling meteor.
Immediately after, the searing-hot axe blade plowed a charred trench in the earth. Splattering rubble, mixed with the sweet-smelling bloody rain and mud, shot into the sky, tracing a fleeting, dark-red arc through the downpour.
Finally, the world fell silent.
Only the wreckage of the bus, still burning fiercely, was gradually blurred by the washing curtain of drizzling rain.
...