When Lin Chen opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the ceiling.
The second thing was the noise outside—car horns, vendors shouting, the distant thrum of a city that never learned how to be quiet.
The third thing was dread.
[Ah. This ceiling again.]
He sat up slowly, staring at the cramped bedroom, the faded poster on the wall, the cheap desk by the window. Everything matched perfectly.
[No way… don't tell me this is that novel.]
This was Dragon King Returns to the City, his favorite guilty-pleasure urban webnovel.
The one he'd reread three times despite swearing it was "objectively terrible." The one filled with face-slapping villains, jade beauties, and a Dragon King who solved everything with a cold smile and a phone call.
Lin Chen was sure of one thing:
He was not the Dragon King.
[Relax. Calm down. If this really is the novel, then I'm probably just some background extra. Maybe a classmate. Maybe a random office worker. As long as I don't provoke anyone, I'll survive.]
Downstairs, in a black Bentley parked across the street, a man in a tailored suit stiffened.
The man was Zhao Ming—one of the novel's early antagonists.
A businessman who specialized in smiling while ruining lives.
"…Did you hear that?" Zhao Ming asked softly.
His assistant frowned. "Hear what, sir?"
Zhao Ming's fingers tightened around his cane.
He could have sworn the voice came from inside his head.
Lin Chen washed up, changed clothes, and left the apartment. The morning sun hit his face, warm and ordinary.
[Okay. First rule of survival: stay far away from plot hotspots. No auctions. No banquets. No jade markets. Definitely no offended young masters.]
At that exact moment, a red sports car screeched to a halt near the curb.
A woman stepped out, sunglasses hiding her eyes, her presence alone drawing attention from half the street.
She was beautiful in the effortless way that made passersby slow their steps.
One of the heroines.
Su Wan.
Lin Chen recognized her instantly and immediately looked away.
[Nope. Too close. Way too close. If I make eye contact, the plot might notice me.]
Su Wan froze.
The world around her faded for half a second.
That voice…
She turned her head slowly, eyes locking onto Lin Chen's retreating figure.
He looked… normal. Too normal. Plain clothes. No aura. No confidence. Just another passerby swallowed by the crowd.
Yet his voice echoed clearly in her mind.
[Please let me live a quiet life. I don't want to be slapped by fate.]
Su Wan's breath caught.
"…Interesting," she murmured.
Lin Chen boarded a bus, grabbed a seat by the window, and let out a quiet sigh.
[As long as I don't interfere with the Dragon King's storyline, everything should be fine. The villains will get face-slapped, the heroines will fall in love, and I'll just… exist.]
Across town, in a private hospital room, Zhao Ming suddenly swept everything off the table.
"Find him," he snapped, eyes dark with fear and excitement.
"The man who thinks he's invisible."
Lin Chen watched the city pass by, unaware that every thought he considered harmless had already begun to ripple through the story.
[Being a passerby is the safest role there is.]
The bus doors closed.
The plot, however, had already heard him loud and clear.