No. 97, Fengming Road. Linjiang Market.
The street was empty, quiet. Lin An slowed his steps, then suddenly surged forward.
Bang!His boot slammed into the rolling shutter of a corner shop. The harsh metallic echo tore through the silence.
By day, this "teahouse" was dead. By night, it pulsed with life—gambling, deals, the underworld's playground. Nobody dared to rob it. Nobody but him.
Three kicks later, the shutter caved, leaving a gap half a man's height. Lin An crouched and slipped inside.
"Who the hell's making noise? Tired of living?"
A tattooed thug shuffled out, cigarette in hand, slippers clapping the floor.
Lin An ignored him, eyes fixed on the red dot glowing on his phone map. This is the place.
"You deaf? I'm talking to you!"
The man swung a heavy fist. Lin An shifted, fluid, letting the punch whistle past. A sidestep, a sharp elbow down—
Crack!The strike smashed into the thug's spine. He screamed, but Lin An silenced him with a brutal right hook, dropping him bloody-mouthed to the ground.
Cursing, the man fumbled for a blade at his waist. Lin An stamped down. Boot met temple. The thug went limp, dagger clattering free.
Lin An stepped over him, scanning the room. His mind replayed memories of his past life. Places like this had begun warping even before the apocalypse—small overlaps between reality and alien space.
And here… here was where a legend was born.
A space ring.
One had surfaced in Linjiang before—a gangster found it, awakened, and built a safe zone with its power. A ring that could store supplies, keep them fresh, bend survival itself. Rarer than any weapon. Priceless.
Lin An searched the teahouse top to bottom. Nothing.
With a scowl, he dumped a bucket of ice water over the thug's head.
The man jolted awake, shivering."You—"
Crack! Lin An's kick shattered teeth before the insult finished.
"You answer. You live." His boot pressed against the man's throat.
"G–gulp! Don't kill me!" Fear washed over the thug's bravado.
"The ring. Jewelry. Anything unusual."
The man blinked. So this wasn't random violence. He stammered, "I—I'm not the boss! But upstairs, the office—lots of valuables locked there!"
That was enough. Lin An knocked him out cold and headed upstairs.
Lockpicking wasn't needed. He swung a fire axe until the door splintered inward.
The office reeked of dust and disuse. A faint ripple stirred the air.
"Spatial fluctuation…"
In the corner, a fist-sized black void floated, darkness gnawing at reality itself. Within it glimmered a flash of silver.
Lin An's pulse spiked. The ring.
He reached out. His fingers slipped through emptiness, then brushed cool metal. He pushed deeper, seized it, and pulled.
Buzz… buzz…The void rippled, pulsing waves outward. A suffocating aura burst free.
ROAR!A monstrous cry erupted from within, heavy with death.
Lin An's instincts screamed. Run.
Clutching the ring, he bolted. Glass shattered as he dove headfirst through the second-floor window.
"Ding."
Doomsday gamer detected.Test failed. No digitized body found.Warning. Warning.
The alarms blared inside his skull. The deathly aura lashed outward like grasping vines.
He hit the ground, staggered—then darkness swallowed him whole.
The silver-white ring melted into his palm, vanishing into him.