***Author's note: Before reading, I would like to point out that this is my first novel. If you find some chapters annoying, please forgive me, as I am still learning how to write. However, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to those who are reading this story. Love you guys! Thanks for your support!
Chapter 1
The cold night breeze embraced the people of City H, and a slow-falling snow painted the ground white, covering the city. In this bustling modern metropolis of people and cars, a young man, tall and handsome, stood unmoving as if in a trance. He looked shocked and disbelieving, a phone clutched in his hand as he listened to the person on the other end of the line. His gaze became unfocused as he faced the wide windowsill overlooking the city's tall buildings.
The office he was in was surrounded by modern machinery and laboratory equipment. As he stared out the window, his gaze slowly turned cold, a look of melancholy spreading across his face. Tears gradually slid down his cheeks like beads on a smooth surface. He tried his best to hold back his sorrow, but the sudden shock and pain in his heart made his efforts futile.
"Hello! Are you still there? Shin, are... are you… are you okay? I mean… I'm… I'm really sorry… I..." a sweet voice on the other line said after a long silence, with a hint of sadness in her tone.
Though he heard her voice, the young man remained motionless for a couple of minutes.
Tuut... tuut...
The sound of the call dropping echoed in the silent room. He looked around dazedly, trying to understand what had just happened. He still couldn't accept the fact and what she had just said. In his head, he replayed their conversation, her words echoing over and over again.
"Hello, honey! You've called? What's up?"
"I'm okay… I… I just have something to tell you."
"Umm… What is it?"
"Shin, I… I didn't mean for this to happen, but I… I… I think I need to be honest with you."
Upon hearing this part, his heart began to pound heavily as he sensed that something was terribly wrong.
"Shin… I… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I know that you love me, but… The truth is… I… I fell in love with someone else. He gave me a lot of attention, which you could not, and what I needed... and he... he is the one who can give me the future I desire. I'm... I'm so sorry…"
After hearing those words, his mind went blank. His world began to crumble into pieces as memories of her shattered inside his mind. Those happy memories they shared—the laughter, the love, their first meeting, and the first night they were together—all crumbled into dust.
He couldn't think of anything he could have done to make her sad. In his mind, he had always been a man of his word and had only ever loved one woman. But the thing that hurt him the most was that he already had plans to propose to her after the project he was working on was finished. He wanted to give her a big surprise, especially the house he had secretly bought with a beautiful view of the city.
The young man mindlessly sank back into his black, leather office chair, his mind a jumble of different emotions.
…
This young man was Shin Jiao, only in his twenties. He was an orphan who grew up with his old grandfather, his only known family. As a young man, he was considered a genius when it came to machines and computer coding. He made a name for himself in this field when he got into college and became famous throughout the school.
Shin Jiao was a person who was considered a jack-of-all-trades, able to learn and master anything he put his mind to. For example, he was fluent in more than five different languages, was a mixed martial arts expert, and was good at many other things. Because of these abilities, he had a dark secret. While still in high school, he was scouted by a special government department responsible for protecting the country from the shadows.
Thus, he experienced living two different lives while still young. At first, he found it interesting and liked the idea of being a silent, hidden hero. During his time in the service, he eliminated hundreds of men he considered evil. But later on, he began to have bad dreams of the faces of the people he had killed. That was when he found out that his conscience had already started to take a toll on his mental health.
Because of this, he started taking fewer and fewer missions in college and put more effort into his studies.
But one day, his world changed. He reluctantly accepted a new mission, which, in the briefing, was just a routine, run-of-the-mill assignment.
In the field, after successfully retrieving his mission's primary goal, he stealthily escaped from the danger zone. He moved like a shadow, but he didn't expect that today would be different. For some unknown reason, he decided to take a different path. He could have just eliminated the two guards, but he instead detoured.
That was when he was spotted by a young child—a bystander, an innocent soul. With enemies already on his tail but unable to find him, he was burdened with a dilemma. If the child made a sound, the whole mission would be compromised, along with his life and the lives of the others with him. He had to make a choice, and fast.
With so many variables on the line, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and break his own principle of not killing the innocent.
And so, with a heavy heart, he shot the child.
The innocent look and despair in the child's eyes have haunted him ever since. The different faces and reactions would always wake him from his slumber.
Because of this, he decided to quit. He wanted to bury his life in the shadows and try living a normal one. Due to his contributions to the government, they let him go from being a secret agent and transferred him to the country's R&D department. He then worked as the youngest engineer in that department and slowly moved up the ladder of success because of his ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Currently, he was working on an extraterrestrial fusion power cell that could possibly solve the world's energy crisis. They had already made many successful breakthroughs thanks to his discoveries and experiments.
All of this happened because of a small meteorite.
One day, satellites picked up a falling object near City H, and after the retrieval team brought it back, researchers carefully chipped away the surrounding rocks and found a black stone. Through their research, they accidentally found that the ball-sized black stone could emit a large amount of energy with the right combination of runes engraved on parts of its surface.
This accident caused a few scientists and many others to be injured.
With the collaboration of all the greatest minds on the planet, they began the task of deciphering the runes. And throughout this process, one young man cracked the secret. Shin Jiao was able to discover the runes and their meaning. He was shocked to learn that the runes were actually a complete set that could be used not only to power up the black stone but to make it do many other things. But he kept this discovery to himself. He knew that in the wrong hands, it would cause great danger to the planet.
And so, he rewrote the formation of the runes on the black stone so that it could only be used as a power source and nothing else.
He then began to research the black stone's properties and how to duplicate them as a power source. His research was fruitful due to his complete knowledge of rune technology. After making a blueprint, he decided to send it to his country and secretly distribute it to others. Although he knew he would face trouble for this, he was prepared to face it.
This technology in his hands could greatly help to alleviate the suffering of the world and advance the knowledge of the entire planet, not just his own country.
…
Despite his success, Shin Jiao didn't expect to receive such a blow—a blow to his heart. No matter how good he was at many things, his emotional strength would always be his weakness.
Though the breakup made him realize something he lacked, he couldn't accept one thing she said: that there was another guy involved. A glint of killing intent appeared in his eyes as he sat in his chair and thought. His years of experience in bloodshed were now trying to break out from within him, like a beast roaring deep in his heart. But his will was stronger, and he was able to control it. With this control, his grip on the chair slowly loosened.
"Sigh… I guess… this is inevitable. As she just said… it… it was all my fault. But… Is this the retribution that I deserve for all those years of killing? If so, then… Do I have no choice but to accept it? Right?" Shin Jiao muttered to himself as tears once again slid down his cheek.
This time, they were unconstrained as his heart grew heavy. He just wanted to let it all out. All his pent-up frustrations, anger, hatred, and fear—everything flowed from his eyes while he covered his mouth, preventing himself from making a mournful sound.
It took him a while before he calmed down.
"I... I hope that she will be happy in her new life," he muttered helplessly as he slowly stood up from his chair.
His mind was still muddled, and he realized he was unable to work anymore. So he decided to go home. At least there he could let everything out and maybe accept things as they were. After packing his laptop and some other things he needed, he left his office.
That night, his solitary figure slowly walked through the cold and snowy weather. Deep in his mind, he wished the cold snow would freeze his aching heart and stop the pain.
…
Unknown to him, a car was following from a short distance on the other side of the road. Sitting in the driver's seat was a beautiful woman, her gaze glued to his figure. Her tear-filled, beautiful blue eyes stared at him without blinking.
Seeing him like this wrenched her heart with pain. Her cheeks were already soaked with tears, and her eyes couldn't stop crying.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Shin! I know that this will hurt you, but I have no other choice... I... I am not the woman you think I am… I'm not a good woman. I know that it is wrong for me to feel this way... to love you, but all those years we were together made it hard for me to leave you. You are the most important person in my life, but it is not right for me to be with you. I don't want you to get hurt more than this. Your life would be in so much danger if we were together. I would prefer for you to remember me as the woman who broke your heart and then get over me someday… I… I love you, Shin." She muttered to herself as if trying to explain things to the man she loved.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when her phone rang.
"Ahem… He... Hello!" she said after picking up the call, trying to clear her voice and control her emotions.
On the other line was an encrypted voice that belonged to a man of an unknown age. She wasn't sure who she was talking to. As far as she knew, he was the one in command of their operation since she started to approach Shin Jiao in his college days.
But unknown to her, she was just the fail-safe after Shin Jiao quit his job as a spy. Both of them were just playing in the hands of the agency they belonged to.
"Yes, I know. I'm leaving immediately… I've done what's required. I've checked everything on the files and saw that he has successfully finished the project… Tell the boss that they can relax now. According to his calculations, the orb can actually provide enough power to support a big city for at least 100 years. And he was also able to make a complete blueprint of the black orb, which can be duplicated with enough scientists and engineers, but... there is a minor problem... he... he actually distributed those blueprints through other channels, and I wasn't able to prevent that, I'm sorry..." the young woman reported.
After a few seconds, the person on the other line suddenly asked a question that made the young woman feel a little panicked.
"A threat? No... No, sir, I don't think he is a threat to security. And... And we can still use him in other projects, but we have to convince him otherwise," she quickly replied.
After some instructions from the person on the other line, the girl dropped the call and decided to take a last look at the lonely figure of Shin Jiao. Her heart was still in turmoil, as she knew that the love she had for him would never end in this lifetime.
Although it was not supposed to happen in her line of work, she had spent a long time with him, and because of that, she had unknowingly truly fallen in love with him.
It wasn't hard for a woman like her to fall in love with Shin Jiao. He was a very handsome young man. Besides being intelligent and a very caring person, he was loyal. Though he was a little dense at times and unfocused, her days with him were filled with laughter and happiness.
While taking a last glance at Shin Jiao, she noticed a black, suspicious-looking van speeding toward them in her side mirror. Suddenly, a bad feeling crept into her heart. She decided to maneuver her car to block the path of the black van.
The black van angrily honked its horns, and the driver shouted curses. The van quickly dodged with a screech of tires, then revved its engine and passed by on the other side. Seeing that her conjecture was wrong, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Thinking it was a false alarm, she turned her gaze back to the lonely figure of Shin Jiao, trying to burn his image into her memory for the last time.
When she decided to leave, the same vehicle suddenly appeared once again, but this time on the opposite side of the road. Without warning, it stopped, and five burly men wearing black T-shirts and caps alighted. Their eyes were focused straight on Shin Jiao.
"This is bad... Wait a minute… I... I know these guys. Didn't I tell them that he is not a threat... They… they didn't trust me?" she muttered with a hint of panic.
She quickly parked her car and ran as fast as she could toward Shin Jiao.
…
While all of this was happening, Shin Jiao was unaware of his current predicament. He just walked aimlessly, still trying to keep his mind from going insane. Then he lifted his eyes and saw a convenience store. He immediately decided to buy something... something that would drown his sorrows and pain.
When he entered the store, the people following him slowed their pace and waited for him to come out.
After a while, he finished buying what he needed and left the store. As soon as he stepped out, he suddenly noticed that something was wrong. With his experience and sharp senses, he immediately spotted five suspicious-looking men coming toward him. From the way they walked, he could deduce that they were from the military. But he didn't make a move and just acted as if he hadn't noticed anything, and casually turned to walk in the other direction.
But when he turned around, he was immediately rooted to the ground. What he saw was the very woman who had caused his world to shatter. Although he felt a little happy seeing her beautiful face, anger and resentment suddenly overcame his feelings when he remembered what she had said. He wanted to say something to her but stopped. He noticed that her face was pale and her eyes were puffy with tears still visible on her smooth, jade-like cheeks.
No words escaped either of them as they stood there, gazing at each other as if trying to engrave their features into each other's minds. No words could express the tumultuous feelings they were experiencing.
Shin Jiao even forgot the danger he was in. He just stood there, thinking that, even for the last time, he could see her beautiful face. He didn't care about the world around him as he looked at her. Then, as if reaching a mutual understanding, both of them suddenly smiled. He could now accept the fact that it might actually be over for them, but at least he saw her smile. In his heart, he felt that as long as she was happy, he was willing to give up.
But then, all of a sudden, everything turned black, and Shin Jiao found himself in a place devoid of light. He suddenly found himself floating inside the void, as if in a place without gravity. His heart began to feel scared. As a normal man, he still had the fear of the unknown.
Then a ridiculous idea suddenly popped into his mind, which was illogical and made no sense.
"Ha, ha, ha. That's impossible… I mean, I'm not dead, right? I still have my clothes, bag, and the groceries I bought. I think I might be hallucinating because of the stress I've accumulated with work and... upon seeing her…" he thought, trying to justify his situation.
Remembering what had just happened, he couldn't help but be curious, especially when he saw her smile. The smile she gave wasn't someone who was going to leave, but someone who was in love. But she had clearly told him that she was going away, so why would she suddenly appear in front of him at that time? He would have asked that before he found himself in this place.
Meanwhile…
Shin Jiao's sudden disappearance startled the group of men who had come near. The young woman was also stupefied and couldn't move.
"Where did he go?... Hey, Agent Li. Where is he?..." a white man with blond hair who looked like the leader of the group shouted in anger while removing his cap.
"Why would you ask me? I'm the same as you. I was just looking at him and... and he just disappeared..." she replied with a worried expression.
She didn't know what had happened, and she wanted to cry because she didn't want him to get hurt. But she was clueless and could only keep the pain inside.
Everyone who saw this situation was stupefied and was unable to piece together what had happened as they frantically searched the area for Shin Jiao.
Unknown to them, Shin Jiao was taken by an unknown power to an unknown land to face unknown challenges.