Chapter 1: Call in the Dark

"Hammer, get some rest early."

"Got it, drive carefully on the way back, see you tomorrow." Shi Jingchui waved goodbye, watched his colleague's car disappear from view, then turned and headed upstairs.

The evening's dinner gathering had been thoroughly enjoyable; he had drunk quite a bit of alcohol and monopolized the karaoke microphone for a long time, and now his steps were somewhat unsteady, in a half-drunk state.

After returning home, washing up, and lying down on the bed, Shi Jingchui habitually picked up his phone to play with it.

This was a new phone he had bought not long ago; despite slight flaws, the user experience was excellent, and its performance in every aspect surpassed that of big-name foreign phones.

His fingers swiped back and forth across the screen—browsing a book for a while, catching up on the news, or tapping open a few silly videos, letting out a few goofy laughs, occasionally rolling over on the bed like a salted fish.

Before he knew it, the effects of alcohol and drowsiness swept over him, and Shi Jingchui fell asleep still holding his phone.

In his sleep, Shi Jingchui's whole body twitched; he reached out and grasped at nothing, rolled over, and felt a sensation of falling, thinking subconsciously: "Damn it, I'm going to fall off the bed!"

Splash...

The next second, Shi Jingchui felt himself fall into water; water rushed into his nasal cavity, making him choke miserably, and just as he opened his mouth, water poured down his throat.

The agony of suffication jolted him out of his half-asleep, half-awake state; he flailed about frantically, but his head throbbed as if someone had smashed it with a brick, and every part of his body ached, as though he had just tumbled down several flights of stairs.

"What's going on? I live on the twenty-third floor—how could I fall into water?"

Boundless fear surged in his heart, but fortunately Shi Jingchui had learned to swim, and his swimming skills were quite good.

The will to survive drove him to force his eyes open; underwater was pitch-black, completely impossible to see anything, so he strenuously thrashed his limbs, using both hands and feet, relying on feel to struggle upward.

With a splash, Shi Jingchui poked his head above the water's surface and found he was not too far from shore.

He swam desperately toward the bank, used the last thread of strength to crawl ashore, and with the lower half of his body still in the water, lay flat on his back on the ground, spitting out a large mouthful of filthy water, greedily breathing in the air, without even the strength to stand up.

"It feels so good to be alive!"

This was the only thought in Shi Jingchui's mind at this moment; only now did he have the presence of mind to think about what had happened to him.

All around was silence; the night was deep, with only a crescent moon hanging in the sky.

Moonlight filtered through the clouds, allowing him to roughly make out that he had crawled up from a wide river, and beneath him was a weed-covered riverbank.

Looking into the distance, there was faintly a city, twinkling with scattered lights.

"Holy shit, what is this place?"

Shi Jingchui's mind was in complete chaos, his eyes blank, thinking he was still dreaming.

A gust of cool river wind blew past, and a sharp pain struck the back of his head again; he raised his hand to touch it and found it smeared with dark red blood, grimacing in pain—it turned out his head was injured, no wonder it hurt so much.

Suddenly, Shi Jingchui froze as he stared at his right hand.

As an over-thirty-year-old aging single dog, Shi Jingchui would absolutely never mistake his own "wife"—the calluses on his hand, the winding palm line in the center of his palm, and the scar on his index finger from a previous injury had all vanished.

Under the dim moonlight, even though the hand before him looked slender and well-proportioned, and also had calluses from long-term gripping of some object, Shi Jingchui made a judgment at a single glance.

"This is not my hand!"

He frantically felt around his wet body and immediately discovered that not only were the hands not his, but the body was not his either.

"I took a nap—how did I switch accounts?"

Before Shi Jingchui could figure out what was going on, a violent pain suddenly erupted in his brain, as if someone had split it open with an axe and then forcibly stuffed in a large amount of foreign matter that did not belong to him.

This foreign matter was extremely chaotic, seemingly another person's life experiences,

intertwined with his own memories, his brain like a boiling cauldron trying to forcibly stir and blend two completely different things together.

"Ahhh..."

The terrible pain made him clutch his head and cry out, and he soon could not hold on any longer and lost consciousness.

In the darkness, Shi Jingchui faintly heard a low and slick murmur; the sound came from nowhere, like whispering in his ear, resembling the most disgusting and filthy existence in the world, sickening to hear; also like sharp metal scraping back and forth on glass, emitting a maddeningly shrill screech that provoked the greatest malice and madness in one's heart.

This indescribable sound of murmuring was like a call from the Abyss.

He tried to cover his ears but could not find where his ears were; the sound went straight to the depths of his soul, and though he did not understand its meaning, after hearing only a few sentences, he was deeply drawn in.

His mind plummeted into an abyss of agony, wanting to find the source of that call.

Suddenly a tremor ran through him, and both Shi Jingchui's reason and intuition told him he could not listen any longer.

"Hahahaha..."

That low voice suddenly amplified countless times, turning into a burst of manic laughter; the entire world shook violently, the vibrations making Shi Jingchui ache to the point of near madness, on the verge of collapse.

One after another, terrifying giant mouths emerged in the darkness, and the laughter came from within these mouths.

Every evil giant mouth was filled with saw-like fangs, and viscous black fluid oozed from between the teeth; the black fluid then rapidly writhed and expanded, forming hundreds and thousands of greasy tentacles that surged forth blotting out the sky.

This terrible nightmare was about to end in tragedy when, suddenly, a red radiance flashed from nowhere; eight petal-like rays of red light swiftly danced about, forming a spherical space that surrounded Shi Jingchui.

The shelter formed by the petals appeared fragile but was in fact indestructible, instantly blocking all the incoming black tentacles, like a reef in a giant black ocean wave—seemingly insignificant yet impossible to shake.

This layer of red light not only protected Shi Jingchui but also shut out the corrupting murmurs, alleviating the agony and the mad evil thoughts.

Countless tentacles lashed out for who knows how long, letting out burst after burst of frenzied sounds, before finally retreating unwillingly back into the darkness.

The eight petals shrank and reverted into a ball of light; upon closer inspection, within the light was a blooming Little Red Flower, composed of eight petals of varying sizes; at the flower's core glowed a hidden golden light, making the whole resemble a glowing sun, appearing quite abstract.

"Why does this pattern look a bit familiar..."

While Shi Jingchui was puzzling over this, the darkness suddenly receded like a tide, light blossomed, and he awoke from this long and oppressive nightmare, abruptly sitting upright and letting out a shout.

"Ah!"

Blinding light pierced his eyes; Shi Jingchui raised his hand to shield them, and after adapting, lowered it to see a golden sun rising from the distant horizon, its light shining on the river's surface, sparkling with ripples.

"It's dawn."

He murmured, then froze.

Because these words were spoken in a language both familiar and strange; he had never learned this language, but could use it naturally, and moreover knew it was the "Aurelien Language," the official language of the Oriense Empire, and that he even carried a slight accent of the "Duke Longshande's domain."

A flood of memories surfaced in his mind; these memories seemed to have been shattered, chaotic and fragmentary, but fortunately no longer as painful as before he lost consciousness.

A few minutes later, Shi Jingchui let out a long breath.

By now he had understood: he had inexplicably transmigrated to another world—this was no longer Diqiu!

He did not know why he had transmigrated; he was just an ordinary office worker, working at the provincial library, his salary not high but never once delayed, on good terms with his colleagues, at peace with the world. Over thirty and unmarried, becoming an aging bachelor—this too was his own choice.

He had absolutely no desire to get married — how could a girlfriend possibly be as fun as video games?

After work each day, he immersed himself in games and various hobbies, living a thoroughly contented little life. How on earth did he end up transmigrating?

Shi Jingchui truly had no desire whatsoever to transmigrate, and even less so to transmigrate into a dangerous world.

From those fragmented memories, he gleaned all sorts of scattered information: this world's civilizational history was extremely long and complex, its level of productive development was not low, and in some respects it resembled — even surpassed — Diqiu.

But between the two, there were far more differences.

The greatest difference was that this world contained a large number of supernatural phenomena and powerful individuals; they determined the development and direction of civilization, and were known as the Transcendent.

As the name implied, the Transcendent possessed power far beyond that of ordinary people, and they were the ruling class of the entire world.

Only a minority could become Transcendent. For ordinary people to break through their class, they could pay to enter a Transcendent academy, where they would have a certain chance of ascending to become Transcendent — but the odds were very low, and the tuition was extremely expensive.

This body's name was "Lei En," from a small place called Yingzhao Town, and had previously been a student at a Transcendent academy.

Over the past three years, Lei En had accomplished nothing at the academy and remained an ordinary person to this day.

Because the tuition was expensive, his father Bard was no longer willing to support his continued enrollment, hoping his son would return to their hometown to carry on the family business and run their grain mill — but Lei En flatly refused. After a huge argument with his father, Lei En returned alone to the city of Longshande and rented a cheap apartment outside the academy, hoping to find a decent job and save up the tuition himself. But just half a month after moving in, something went wrong.

In Lei En's memories, the content most abundant was life in Longshande.

What shocked Shi Jingchui the most was that the gods of this world truly existed!

The gods each had their own churches in the mortal realm. Whether in the past or the present, the churches played an extremely important role, driving the course of history — not only influencing the upper echelons of every nation, but also penetrating deep into the lowest strata of people's lives.

Nearly everyone had to believe in a certain god, or several gods; nonbelievers were evil existences that everyone sought to stamp out.

As an atheist, for a moment, Shi Jingchui did not know how to face this.

He wanted to return to Diqiu, but had no clue how — he did not even know how he had gotten here.

"Sigh…"

Shi Jingchui let out a sigh and thought of something else: having transmigrated here and taken over someone else's body, was his own body on Diqiu dead now?

"Tomorrow morning, when everyone notices I didn't show up for work and can't reach me, they'll probably come to my home soon and find my body — at least it won't have rotted before it's discovered."

He thought of his parents, and his heart was suddenly filled with grief, his eyes reddening. Then he consoled himself: "At least I'm not an only child. From now on, my older sister and younger brother will still be there to keep Mom and Dad company."

After a long while, Shi Jingchui's emotions finally stabilized.

The sunlight grew increasingly intense, and his throat was very dry. His body still ached, but it was much better now — only the back of his head still throbbed faintly. He gritted his teeth, got up, and found a spot where the river water was shallow. He bent down, scooped up water with both hands, and drank a few mouthfuls, finally relieving his thirst. He also splashed his face, and his spirits lifted at once.

Wiping the water from his face, the clear river water reflected an unfamiliar face, which immediately made Shi Jingchui stop in his tracks.

"Holy shit!"

Seeing this face clearly, Shi Jingchui could not help blurting out a curse.

Judging by appearances, the owner of this face should be under twenty. His face still carried boyishness, and he had short black hair. Blood loss had left his complexion somewhat pale, but he had thick brows, large eyes, a straight nose bridge, and well-proportioned features — handsome yet carrying a touch of refinement. The only flaw was his unfocused gaze; the whole person looked listless and dispirited.

"This is way too handsome!"

Out of a fellow man's envious jealousy, Shi Jingchui muttered subconsciously, then his eyes lit up and he straightened his back: "Turns out I'm this handsome, hehe!"

Using the river surface as a mirror, he struck a few poses, carefully studying this face — more handsome than his previous one — and nodded in satisfaction.

Though he had transmigrated most unwillingly, transmigrating into a handsome man was a silver lining amid the misfortune — far better than transmigrating into a woman, or some bizarrely shaped nonhuman race.

This world was not home to only humans; in Lei En's memories, at least several dozen nonhuman races existed.

"From now on, I am Lei En."

"If I went back to Diqiu now, I could make a living on my looks alone, hehe."

"Rich ladies' happy balls and whatnot — I should be able to easily collect a dozen or so… and if I don't want to lose my dignity, at worst I could become a cross-dressing streamer or make cross-dressing videos and post them on Bi Station — that'd have a bright future too…"

"My looks are a bit like that foreign actor called 'Lee Pace' — just a bit thinner and not as tall. But that guy seems to be bisexual… pah, never mind."

Lei En was letting his thoughts wander, finding amusement in his misery, when a flash of red light suddenly appeared before his eyes. He saw his own eyes in the river water turn red, and in both pupils an abstract pattern materialized.

This pattern consisted of eight red petals, resembling a blooming flower, with a golden radiance at its core, within which faint, minute characters seemed to appear.

Lei En's mind drifted for a moment. "Isn't that the thing from the nightmare before? Could it have been more than just a dream?"

The pattern in his pupils appeared for only a few seconds before vanishing.

Immediately after, a semi-transparent interface appeared in Lei En's field of vision. It looked ethereal and gave him quite a fright — he thought it was a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.

He raised his hand and waved it several times in front of his face, and turned his head left and right a few times, only to find that this interface seemed rooted in his brain, or existed on his retina — it could not be closed or shaken off, and even persisted when he closed his eyes.

Most crucially, he was all too familiar with this interface.

"Isn't this my phone's boot screen!"