1: Chapter 1 The Descent of the Ghost Realm

Chen Mo was woken up from his sleep by hunger.

He groggily reached out to find the phone on his nightstand.

But his palm touched something rough and grainy.

This was not the nightstand at home.

Chen Mo sat up abruptly.

His bedroom was gone.

The bed, the wardrobe, the desk.

And that second-hand laptop he had used for four years were all gone.

In their place were a seat, a steering wheel, a dashboard, and the dust-covered windshield right in front of him.

He was sitting in a car that was no different from a wreck; the interior was yellowed, and the leather on the steering wheel was cracked.

"What the hell is this—"

Chen Mo's voice cut off abruptly.

In the bottom right corner of his vision, a line of translucent text suddenly appeared, as if branded directly onto his retina:

【Sequence Evolution System Activating...】

【Bound Entity: Chen Mo (Human/Male/23 years old)】

【Initial Assessment: Ordinary】

【Generating Safety Car... Complete】

【Time until the first "Ghost Night" arrives: 5 hours 43 minutes】

【Current Fuel Level: 30%】

【Survival Advice: Find supplies, hoard resources, and stay alive】

The text faded, but the feeling of being watched did not disappear.

Chen Mo took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Life in the Orphanage taught him one thing: panic and fear cannot solve any problems.

The only thing he could do now was check the vehicle.

The key was in the ignition, the odometer on the dashboard showed zero, and the fuel gauge was indeed stuck at 30%.

In the glove compartment, there was a rusty wrench and a yellowed road map.

There was only a single red line on the map, extending from his current location into the endless distance.

Outside the car window was the dark night, but not the kind of night in the city.

There were no streetlights, no neon lights, only a four-lane asphalt road extending straight into the thick, impenetrable darkness.

Abandoned vehicles were scattered along the roadside.

Chen Mo turned the key.

The engine let out a hoarse groan, then struggled to come to life.

The headlights illuminated about ten meters ahead. At the end of the beam, a crow was startled into flight, the flapping of its wings sounding unnaturally loud.

Chen Mo got out to wipe the windshield, returned to the car, and stepped on the gas.

The engine wheezed as it slowly started moving forward.

The speed stabilized at 40 kilometers per hour, which was the maximum speed he could accept under unknown road conditions.

His right hand rested on the gear shift, his left hand loosely gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles slightly white from the tension.

About three kilometers later, he discovered a corpse.

The thing was lying on the road, wearing a tattered suit, its posture as if it had suddenly frozen while crawling.

Chen Mo did not stop; he just slowed down and swept the headlights over it.

The corpse was lying flat on the road, its neck twisted a full 180 degrees, the back of its head facing the sky.

Its right hand was reaching forward, finger bones exposed, scratching five deep grooves into the asphalt.

Chen Mo looked away and pressed harder on the accelerator.

Five kilometers later, a road sign appeared.

Blue background with white letters, reading "Service Area Ahead 2km".

The name of the service area was covered by black stains and was illegible.

There was light in the service area.

It was not electric light, but that dim, flickering light, as if someone had lit a bonfire inside.

Chen Mo slowed down and stopped fifty meters before the entrance.

He turned off the engine, rolled down the window, and let the night wind pour in.

There was a strange smell in the wind.

Rust, and some kind of sweet, cloying stench.

"Is anyone there?" he shouted.

The only response was silence.

Then, that "bonfire" in the service area suddenly flickered, and Chen Mo saw clearly—it was not fire.

It was a lantern, carried by a pale hand, approaching him from the supermarket entrance.

The person holding the lantern was wearing a gas station uniform; the red uniform looked as dark as blood in the night.

It walked very slowly, its posture strange, like a marionette with rusted joints.

Chen Mo stared at it, and a sudden sharp pain shot through his right eye.

It felt as if someone had pierced his eyeball with a needle tip and poured a spoonful of boiling oil into it.

He groaned, raised his hand to press his right eye, but a pale golden light seeped through his fingers.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.

On that "gas station employee," fine lines appeared, as if someone had woven a web inside its body with golden threads.

The densest area of the lines was at the position of its heart, where a writhing black shadow was located, shaped like a weeping human face.

【Sequence Insight Activated】

【Target: F-Rank Ghost Shadow (Camouflage Type)】

【Core Weakness: Knee joint sequence lines are disordered; high-frequency sound waves can cause it to briefly stiffen】

【Kill Reward: sequence fragment × 1 (F-Rank)】

【Threat Assessment: Medium (In current state)】

【Advice: Detour or repel, avoid direct conflict】

The text appeared again.

Chen Mo confirmed that this was not projected into his vision, but appeared directly in his mind.

His right eye now viewed everything with a pale golden filter.

He looked at the lantern.

Under the filter, the flame was not yellow, but a strange, ghastly green.

The inside of the lamp shade was covered in scratch marks from fingers.

The Ghost Shadow holding the lantern stopped at the entrance of the service area and did not continue to approach.

It tilted its head, as if "looking" at Chen Mo, although there were no eyes on its face, only two dark, hollow depressions.

Chen Mo slowly rolled up the window and started the engine.

He bypassed the Ghost Shadow holding the lantern and continued driving forward.

The Ghost Shadow still stood in the same place, holding that ghastly green lantern, like a loyal gatekeeper waiting for prey.

Fuel Level: 28%.

Time: 4:05 AM.

Chen Mo took his right hand off the steering wheel and touched his right eye.

The eyeball was still there, his vision was normal, but that strange feeling had not disappeared.

He could "see" more things.

Some of the abandoned vehicles on the roadside were just ordinary scrap metal.

Others were wrapped in golden lines similar to those on the Ghost Shadow, only fainter and more unstable.

This Golden Finger of his gave him at least some bargaining chips to survive in this damn world.

Chen Mo stepped on the gas.

The headlights cut through the darkness, and the road behind him receded rapidly.

He didn't know where this road led.

But he knew one thing.

That Ghost Shadow guarding the service area entrance was not trying to stop him from going in.

It was trying to keep him from getting out.

Chen Mo's peripheral vision swept over the rearview mirror.

The light of the service area was still flickering at the edge of his vision, like a ghastly green eye, staring intently at his receding taillights in the darkness.