On May 20th of a certain year, the South Pole was 66º34'.
Thousands of miles of ice and snow.
At first glance, this place is covered with snow, as if a huge ice sheet is upside down in this area.
There is loneliness here. Apart from ice and snow, there is only day and night.
Boundless, a winding trail of footprints treads across the snow. At the end of the trail lies a desolate figure.
He was like a lone wolf on the snowy plain, moving forward step by step.
The lone traveler seems out of place here no matter how you look at it. Perhaps in this area, all lone travelers are so out of place.
The man was wearing thick cold-proof clothing and snow boots, and he walked forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow, making a "crunching, crunching" sound.
His name is Aric, and he is a polar explorer.
'I have climbed to the top of Mount Everest, crossed the Namibia Desert, passed through Death Valley, and explored the Amazon rainforest...'
Half a month ago, he was diagnosed with cancer in the hospital and was given a final countdown to his life: six months!
Blood cancer, commonly known as "leukemia."
Unfortunately, there is no match for him in the national bone marrow transplant bank. Even if one can be found, he will have to bear high medical expenses.
So Aric, who was only 22 years old, decisively gave up treatment, left a large sum of money to his younger siblings, and then quietly left his original life.
He didn't like the smell of disinfectant and formaldehyde in the hospital, and he hated being confined in a small ward even more.
Polar explorers yearn for freedom, fearlessness and adventure!
This was also his last polar expedition.
Aric choose Antarctica. He wanted to conquer the polar night alone without any support.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Aric stopped under a huge snow-covered rock and put down the huge backpack on his back.
"Six months, it should be over here."
"Without the hustle and bustle of the city, without the damn smell of disinfectant in the hospital, dying here seems like a good thing."
Aric muttered to himself, with a carefree tone in his voice.
After a long time, he set up the cold-proof tent, leaned against the huge rock next to him, and looked up into the distance.
At the end of the sky, you can see the arrival of night. It was like his life, he could see the end at a glance, with nothing but darkness and no light at all.
He has no worries. The only things he can't let go of are his younger brother who is still in high school and his younger sister who has just started elementary school.
Even though they are not related by blood, it runs through his life.
Aric leaned against the boulder, gazing at the gradually darkening sky, and gazed into the distance...
Time passed little by little and night fell.
Aric curled up in the tent, pain sweeping through his body.
He felt severe pain in the lower part of his sternum and joints, and blood was constantly flowing from his nose, staining the bedding crimson red.
This kind of pain is simply unbearable for ordinary people. It's like being run over by a truck, and the excruciating pain in the bones is infinitely magnified...
Aric struggled to find the special-effect painkiller from his backpack and swallowed it whole.
'I don't know how long it took before the pain gradually eased and subsided...'
Suddenly, a brilliant light shone into the cold-proof tent.
Aric opened his eyes in a daze. Even though he had experienced such pain countless times, it was still unbearable for him.
"The intervals between attacks are getting shorter and shorter. I don't know how much longer I can hold on..." Aric muttered to himself, but didn't care much.
In his previous polar expeditions, he had experienced too many death crises. Every time he was able to survive was a gift from God. He had long since become indifferent to life and death.
Standing up and unzipping the tent, Aric bent down and walked out.
Suddenly, a biting chill swept over him, and even though he was wrapped in thick cold-proof clothing, he couldn't help shivering.
The temperature at this time is already -70°C, and the lowest temperature during the polar night can even reach -90°C. In such an environment, normal people simply cannot survive.
'Maybe I will never see the sun tomorrow.'
Aric thought so in his heart, and then laughed helplessly.
Polar night, also known as "eternal night," means that during a month of polar night, the moon can be seen for half of the month and not for the other half of the month, and this situation will last for six months.
How could he possibly see the sun again six months later?
In the sky, colorful lights are scattered, as if elves are dancing in the polar night.
The red, yellow and blue lights merged together, floating lightly, flickering, as if arrows of light were falling from the sky.
Aric was immersed in this dreamlike scene.
It seems like the end of the world, but also the corner of the sea.
Silently, above the area where the aurora was shining, a layer of light black mist rose. It was hazy, but it was getting thicker and thicker.
Aric frowned. He had never heard of such a phenomenon as black fog appearing in the polar night.
He walked towards the black fog step by step, his explorer's curiosity driving him forward.
Gradually, his figure was enveloped by the black fog and completely sank into it.
"Boom!"
With a loud bang, the snow under his feet suddenly collapsed.
In an instant, he fell straight down without even having time to shout.
It's like an invisible giant mouth appeared on the snow and swallowed him up. It's bottomless, and he lost his consciousness while falling.
Above, the aurora was still flowing, but even with it's splendor, it could not penetrate the layer of black fog.
Not far away, there was only the winter tent left.
The snowflakes on the ground slid down towards the collapsed deep pit. Looking down from above, it was just pitch black hole with no end in sight.
In this polar night, there is no concept of time. Maybe a few days passed, or maybe just a moment.
Aric slowly open his eyes, only to see darkness, so complete that even his facial features had lost their function.
A kind of fear entwined and wrapped around his body through the deep abyss, bit by bit eating away his remaining consciousness.
'It's like a chaotic world.'
'Am I going to die here?'
Aric murmured in his heart, thinking back to his adventures and countless times when he was on the verge of death, but he always managed to survive.
Just this time? Even if he escaped from here, would it matter? Cancer is ready to rob him of his life.
Suddenly, a faint light flashed in the corner of Aric's eye.
Aric's heart skipped a beat. Years of exploration experience told him that there was a way to survive!
The originally stiff limbs gradually regained consciousness. For a long time, Aric followed the flickering light. As he walked, he became more and more uneasy. In Antarctica, beneath the abyss.
'Why does this space exist?
Is it man-made? Or is it naturally formed?
Is it a collision of plates? Continental shifts?
Or perhaps a secret base built by a certain nation? An alien base?'
From more reliable speculation to more imaginative imagination...
When he approached the glimmer of light, he finally saw everything clearly. At that moment, there was a loud bang in his mind, and he stood there like an ice sculpture, unable to move at all.
Under the dim light.
A huge black creature soared above the cave, it's jet-black body gleaming, it's body like a snake, it's head like a crocodile, it's antlers like a deer, it's claws like an eagle, and it's tentacles dangling at the corners of its mouth. A pair of eyes were like fireworks exploding in the darkness, deep and dazzling. With your head held high, you look down upon the world with pride and no one to look down upon you!
— Dragon!
For a moment, the only thing that came to Aric's mind is this illusory creature.
If someone had told him before today that dragons really existed in this world, Aric would have definitely give him a hard slap.
But if this creature in front of him is not a dragon, then what is it?
Compared to it, the 6 feet tall Aric, is as tiny as an ant and completely insignificant.
Suddenly, a huge suction force came from above, locking Aric firmly and pulling him towards the top of the terrifying creature.
"What's going on?"
Aric was terrified, his face turned pale with fear, without a trace of blood. No matter how he struggled, he could not escape the powerful suction.
When Aric reach in front of the terrifying creature, he looked directly into it's eyes.
In the moment they looked at each other, he felt as if his soul had been sucked out.
It felt like... death!
If it hadn't remained motionless, Aric would have thought it was alive.
Fortunately, the pulling force did not stop. He finally stabilized his body after flying nearly a hundred meters.
Above the skull of the terrifying creature, there was a fist-sized cube suspended. It was purple in color and divided into nine areas by several golden threads. It looked like an ancient metal box, emitting a faint glow.
Before he could think about it, he heard a "crash." The metal box shattered instantly, turning into countless fragments, flashing fluorescent light, lingering in the sky, and then poured into Aric's chest.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, the entire underground world began to tremble.
"It's moving…it's moving, it…it's moving!"
It all happened so fast that he couldn't react.
Aric watched helplessly as the terrifying creature below moved, and this movement caused the entire space to tremble.
"Tens of millions of years have passed, and the evil spirit will eventually revive again!"
A deep and loud voice came from the mouth of the terrifying creature, echoing in this underground world for a long time.
Aric's brain went into a state of complete shutdown, and even his breathing stopped.
'This guy can talk? He can talk!'
Suddenly, the whole space erupted with a loud "boom" sound, and the terrifying creature raised its head and roared, rushing upwards.
"Roar!" A dragon roared and rushed straight into the sky.
The loud roar filled Aric's ears, causing his eyes to turn black and he fainted.
The terrifying creature shook its body and rushed towards the barrier above. The hard rock was like thin paper in front of him and was easily torn apart.
With a "boom", the heavy rocks turned into powder & gravel and fell down.
Just as the terrifying creature was about to escape, a dazzling light suddenly appeared from Aric's chest.
With a "rustling" sound, huge chains spread out and directly wrapped around the terrifying creature.
When the terrifying creature finally broke through the rock layer, the chains locked it completely.
"Roar!"
The terrifying creature opened its huge mouth and roared, and a huge black mist spewed out of its mouth, spreading towards the sky, and then covering the sky.
After a moment, the terrifying creature gave up struggling and allowed the chains to pull it back.
The mountain like body suddenly shrank and entered Aric's body along with the chains.
"Evil Suppression Art - Ten Directions Demon Body, reviving..."
"Detecting that the holder's vitality is insufficient to revive the Evil Suppression Art, activating the freezing effect."
"The freezing effect has been activated. The recovery time is five hundred years!"
Aric, who was in a coma, only heard these few cold words in his subconscious, and then complained.
"Oh shit!"