The sky over the eastern industrial district was a sickly gray, thick with storm clouds and smog. A convoy of armored vehicles crawled across the dilapidated overpass like beetles swarming toward a carcass. Sirens wailed in the distance—not police, but private security firms funded by multinationals. Something big was happening.
And Lin Chen was in the middle of it.
The Trigger
It started as a standard corporate audit. Lin Chen had arrived at the old ZephyrTech Manufacturing Complex, a facility recently acquired by one of his shell companies during a rapid-fire merger. Rumors suggested Erebus had once used this place for off-book data storage—and possibly something worse.
The system had issued a low-grade alert just before arrival:[Fluctuating energy detected in subterranean vault. Origin: Unknown. Recommend caution.]
He'd barely descended the central elevator shaft with his team when everything went wrong.
The Shockwave
A soundless pulse hit them first—like the breath of something ancient exhaling. Then the world detonated.
The explosion originated deep within the underground levels, a white-hot core of energy ripping upward in a thunderous bloom. Metal twisted, concrete erupted, fire consumed oxygen like a hungry beast.
The entire building shuddered.
Time slowed.
The system screamed in his mind:[Emergency Reflex Boost Activated: Neural Response Override Enabled.][Micro-Timefield Engaged — Duration: 2.7 Seconds]
For Lin Chen, the world fractured into frames.
A woman near him, frozen mid-scream.Steel beams, slicing through the air like spears.The elevator cable above, snapping.His own hand, outstretched, too far from the executive team behind him.
But he moved.
No hesitation. No calculation. Just reaction.
Within those 2.7 seconds of micro-time manipulation, Lin Chen grabbed two team members, twisted his body in midair, used a falling beam as a springboard, and flashed across twenty meters of collapsing debris.
Then time resumed.
And the world exploded again.
Sirens. Screams. Dust clouds. Fire.
He stood atop a pile of rubble, suit scorched, blood on his temple, one eye swollen shut. But alive. Around him, half the facility was in ruin—but every member of his core team had survived. Because of him.
And it had been recorded.
One of the security drones, built into his surveillance network, had been broadcasting in real-time.
The footage was… impossible.
A human body should not have moved like that.No training could explain the split-second saves, the precision, the timing.No one should have been able to react before the explosion even registered.
But he had.
And the footage was already going viral.
The Miracle Goes Public
"Who is this man?"
"This is not CGI. I repeat, not CGI!"
"Did China just get its first real-life superhero?!"
Within two hours, the video clip had reached 40 million views across platforms. A slowed-down, frame-by-frame analysis showed Lin Chen moving before the blast shockwave even occurred. He wasn't dodging—it looked like he knew it would happen.
"Superhuman?""Time traveler?""Government experiment?"
The hashtags exploded:#RealLifeSuperman#ShanghaiMiracle#TheManWhoSawTheBlastBeforeItHappened#BlackKnightIsReal
Internal Fallout
In a secluded hospital wing, Lin Chen sat against white pillows, brows furrowed as his fingers tapped rhythmically on his phone. His team was safe. The injured were receiving VIP treatment. But something more urgent was happening.
The system's voice was low, almost wary:[System Alert: Unexplainable anomaly recorded by public networks.][Risk Assessment: Exposure Threat Level RED.][Initiating Emergency Countermeasures: ID Obfuscation Program Activated.]
"Too late," Lin Chen muttered. "The footage is already global."
A new message blinked on the system panel:[Would you like to release a "Believable Denial Narrative" to media outlets? Estimated success rate: 74.8%.]
"Yes. Do it," he replied. "And mask my vitals again. No one gets blood samples."
A Conversation with Li Chu
That night, Li Chu sat beside his hospital bed.
Her expression was unreadable—part concern, part fear, part… something else.
"You saved all of us," she said softly.
Lin Chen turned his head slightly, watching her. "You sound like you're accusing me of something."
"I'm wondering how you did it."
He didn't answer.
She stood up, walked toward the window, and whispered:"They're calling you a superhero, Lin Chen. But I've seen enough to know this isn't just skill or training. Something changed you."
He finally replied, voice calm, "Maybe the world changed first. I'm just catching up."
She didn't push further. But her silence said everything.
System Expansion: The Next Phase
Later that night, when the ward was empty, the system spoke again.
[Host Survival Under Impossible Parameters: Validated.][System Level-Up Threshold Triggered.][New Module Incoming: Adaptive Abilities Classification (AAC)][System Comment: "Your awakening has begun."]
The screen shimmered, displaying a new tree-like diagram of nodes and energy pathways.
Lin Chen's heart beat faster.
The old world was cracking.
And something greater was now watching.