Chapter 1: Safe… For Now
Lightning outside the house tore through the darkness.
Boom!
Taking advantage of the thunder, Zhou Kai pushed open the cabinet door, moving with extreme caution so the rotten wood would not let out a creak.
He stepped out.
This medieval-style wooden house had fallen completely into ruin.
The roof had collapsed, forming a massive breach.
Cold rainwater mingled with a fishy stench, swept up by the wild wind and hurled hard against Zhou Kai’s pale face.
He did not wipe it away.
The rain would not stop.
Wiping it off would be pointless.
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the wall clock that was still ticking.
“…It came in again,” he thought.
Boom!
Rolling thunder exploded once more. Outside the filthy glass window, a twisted black shadow flashed past.
Using the roar as cover, Zhou Kai took a deep breath and suddenly charged toward the inner room.
Duck.
Roll.
The series of movements flowed as smoothly as running water. He lay on his back on the floor, staring fixedly at the rotting underside of the bed above him.
“Four, three, two, one…”
The instant the countdown in his heart ended, a tremendous crash came from the outer room.
The door panel had been smashed apart by something.
The wind grew louder.
The rain grew louder.
But what truly made his heart nearly stop was the heavy, damp, and chilling sound of footsteps mixed into the wind and rain.
Something had come in!
Step… step…
Step… step…
The unknown presence slowly paced through the living room.
All of a sudden—
Boom!!!
The wardrobe where Zhou Kai had been hiding earlier was smashed to splinters by a chain hammer dragged in from the wind and rain.
Wood chips exploded outward.
Countless odds and ends scattered in every direction.
Zhou Kai’s pupils contracted sharply, and he did not dare so much as breathe.
If he had still been inside the cabinet…
He would have died!
Died as an indistinct mass of flesh and blood.
This was not a guess.
It was a memory that had already happened several times!
Zhou Kai remained utterly still, forcibly suppressing his breathing and heartbeat.
He was waiting.
Outside, the figure dragging the chain hammer was still pacing, as if searching for something.
After a few breaths, it squeezed past the bedroom doorframe and walked in.
The cold wind instantly flooded the entire room.
A pair of enormous feet stopped beside the bed.
They wore no shoes, bared to the air, bluish-purple like those of a floating corpse.
When the lightning flashed again, Zhou Kai could even make out, from the corner of his eye, the dried dark-red bloodstains clotted on its toes.
Stay calm…
Wait…
Amid the foul stench, Zhou Kai held his breath. Under the shroud of death, he forced his wildly pounding heart to settle down.
He could not make any sound.
Once he was discovered… he would die.
One minute passed.
Zhou Kai felt his limbs had already gone stiff, and his back stung where stones and iron nails on the floor dug into him.
“Has it left… this time…”
Last time, it had been right here that he had tried to shrink further inward and adjust his posture, making the faintest sound.
Then—
One hammer blow fell.
He became a puddle of minced flesh.
This time, he had learned his lesson. After hiding under the bed, he did not make another unnecessary movement.
But whether he could survive remained unknown.
“Every time I die in the nightmare, my real body grows weaker… I can’t die again!”
Zhou Kai fixed the corner of his eye on the shadow cast by those huge feet, waiting for a turn of events.
Another two minutes passed.
Outside came the muffled crack of a tree trunk snapping. The chain-hammer armored warrior seemed to be drawn away… and the footsteps gradually receded.
Until they could no longer be heard.
But Zhou Kai still did not dare move.
He had to consider the possibility that the thing might return.
“Wait for a thunderclap.”
Boom!
The thunder exploded at the exact moment the thought flashed through his mind.
Now!
Enduring the sharp pain, he rolled out from beneath the bed and swiftly got to his feet.
Blood seeped from his pierced back, staining the old white shirt with dark-red blossoms like plum flowers.
There was no time to care about that.
Zhou Kai pressed himself against the window and tilted his head to listen.
Wind and rain lashed together, thunder rumbling.
Good.
That monster should truly be gone.
At last, he was safe…
For now.
…
Zhou Kai was from Xishan City and had just graduated from university. His major was the unpopular field of classical studies, and his job hunt had hit wall after wall.
For the past three months, he had been living entirely on the support of his elder sister, Zhou Qing, who worked at a well-known pharmaceutical company. At her suggestion, he had signed up at a boxing gym, intending to learn some combat skills and shake off his decadence.
He had only gone for one day.
Then the nightmare had found him.
Starting from this Monday, he had entered this nightmare for four days in a row.
Today was the first time he had survived for more than five minutes.
Each time he died, his body in reality weakened a little more.
Judging by his current condition, if he died five more times at most, he would die in reality as well.
He had to figure out his situation!
He had to survive!
He had to find a way to escape the nightmare!
As long as the monster was not here, the wind and rain were the best cover.
Zhou Kai could finally begin exploring.
The bedroom was still in that rotten European style.
On the heavy bed was a strange stain, as if left behind by something that had melted, soaking through the quilt.
Zhou Kai reached out and lifted it.
Rustle.
The quilt crumbled apart at once.
Its fibers had completely rotted.
After a search, aside from decayed furniture and a few photographs whose faces could no longer be made out, there was nothing to be found in the bedroom.
“There are photographs. At least I can confirm the time period here is after the nineteenth century.”
Zhou Kai returned to the living room.
Nearly half the living room had collapsed, all the “masterpiece” of that chain-hammer armored warrior.
For the moment, he searched the intact half first.
There was one place he had cared about from the very beginning, but had never had the chance to check.
A corpse in the living room.
From a distance, he could see a pair of long boots extending out from the short corridor connecting the kitchen and living room.
Zhou Kai casually took a decorative axe down from the wall… but the wooden handle had rotted away and could not be gripped at all.
Still, that did not trouble him.
He took off his shirt, twisted it into strips of cloth, and tied it tightly to the axe head.
A crude chained axe took shape.
He swung it a few times, and the wind whistled.
The heavy feel of metal gave him no small sense of security.
Assuming a stance from which he could strike at any moment, Zhou Kai cautiously stepped into the corridor.
Then he let out a heavy breath of relief.
“This guy… is already dead through and through.”
The so-called “corpse” was actually a set of stark white bones wrapped in heavy clothing.
But this was the nightmare.
Zhou Kai still used the axe blade to crush the skull.
Just in case.
He glanced at the kitchen. There was no danger inside, and it was unusually intact.
Zhou Kai dragged the skeleton in and began searching it.
The heavy clothing looked like hunting leathers and a padded winter coat stitched together. It was too rotten to wear and gave off a sticky, nauseating stench.
In life, the corpse had probably been a hunter.
In a small pocket on the inside of the clothes, there was a leather pouch.
Inside were a group photo and a badge.
The group photo showed one man and two women. On the back, written in letters, were the words: “Family, dear Louis, Meimei, and me.”
“Why would my nightmare… be in the West?”
Zhou Kai suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and examined the other item.
That badge.
It was made of brass, covered in green rust, and engraved with a god spreading its arms as if sheltering its people.
“What use is this thing?”
Zhou Kai frowned.
The next moment, his expression suddenly froze.
[Item obtained: Residence Certificate (Helen Beckerberg Parish)]
[Can currently be set as “Home.” Once set, you may return to the main world.]