For more than twenty years of his life, Yu Sheng had always considered himself an ordinary person, leading an ordinary life and doing ordinary things.
In the foreseeable future, this ordinariness was destined to continue—until the day his life came to an ordinary end.
Yes, that was what he had always thought—but those days seemed like a long time ago now.
The sky was dark, heavy clouds spread from the northeast like thick cotton, shrouding the entire city.
The air was soaked with humidity, and a rain was brewing within this atmosphere, likely to start falling in just a few minutes.
Carrying vegetables and seasonings he had just bought from the supermarket, Yu Sheng hurriedly crossed the street, bustling among the pedestrians as he made his way home under the increasingly dimming light of the sky.
As he passed by a store, he instinctively stopped, staring at the sign at the entrance.
He gazed for several seconds before reluctantly averting his eyes and quickly moving on.
The number of pedestrians on the road gradually reduced.
The large city seemed to grow quiet under the atmosphere of an imminent downpour.
Yu Sheng lifted his gaze ahead, looking at the brightly lit commercial street.
Although it was a familiar scene, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of unfamiliarity rising from deep within his heart.
Yes, that sense of unfamiliarity—he had lived in this city for over twenty years, yet now, this immense and seemingly endless "Boundary City" felt like a very strange place to him.
This city wasn't the "real" one from his memories; while some places looked familiar, many more seemed off.
The Boundary City he grew up in wasn’t this massive.
He recalled that the tall building in the city center should be called the Boyuan Building, not the current "Council Tower."
He remembered the shops at the intersection of Siyuan Street were once just a wall, and his original home wasn't that huge, crumbling old house deep in the old district.
More importantly, in the city of his memory, there wouldn't be so many... "strange" things.
This included, but was not limited to, those old-fashioned telephone booths that appeared randomly at certain corners, like something from the last century; the steam locomotives that drove over rooftops in the dead of night; the sound of readings echoing from empty classrooms, and...
That tall, black shadow standing beneath the streetlight as if it were a telephone pole, thin and tall.
He looked up, fixated on the streetlight ahead.
A person-shaped silhouette, lanky like a scarecrow, stood rigidly nearby.
Its body towered nearly three or four meters high, with a pitch-black face that obscured any visible features.
That shadow seemed to have noticed him too, but it just stood there, staring blankly, locked in a distant gaze with Yu Sheng.
The hurried pedestrians passed beneath the tall, thin shadow as if they didn’t see the strange figure standing beside the streetlight.
Some even walked right through it, unaffected in any way.
Only Yu Sheng could see that thing.
So after a few pointless seconds of staring at one another, he averted his gaze, suppressing his erratic heartbeat, and changed his path, hurrying away.
Yu Sheng had always been uncertain whether it was the city that had suddenly changed or if he himself had changed.
However, he clearly remembered that the normal, ordinary life he had known vanished one sunny morning two months ago—
He remembered that on that bright morning, he pushed open the door of his home, intending to buy a few oranges from the little supermarket at the corner.
That was the last time he ever opened "his front door"; afterward, he never saw his memory of that home again.
He had speculated—perhaps this was a form of "transmigration."
When he pushed open his door, he stepped into a parallel world similar to his homeland but slightly off.
He could no longer find the door that could take him back, as time and space had collapsed the moment he crossed the threshold.
Another possibility was that some "mutation" had happened to him.
When he stepped outside, perhaps at some subsequent moment, some unknown influence made him "different from others."
His pair of eyes could now see certain "things" hidden beneath the surface.
He was still living in a place he recognized but could no longer see the familiar things...
But all that analysis was meaningless.
In any case, he could no longer return to that "ordinary and normal world" in his memories.
This strange and immense city felt like a boundless forest, ensnaring a disoriented drifter within its eerie, intertwined branches and vines.
In the brief span of two months, it was not enough for Yu Sheng to uncover the secrets of this "forest."
In fact, he had just managed to adapt to this familiar yet strange "new home," barely managing to resume a "normal life" here.
Fortunately, he was still "Yu Sheng" in this Boundary City that clashed with his memories, possessing valid identification, a legal address, and a modest amount of savings alongside a seemingly unreliable means of making a living.
If this was indeed a form of "transmigration," at least he didn't have to face the three major questions that most other transmigrators did: "Who am I? Where am I? Where do I go to apply for identification?"
Considering that this was an orderly, modern metropolis, the aforementioned problems were particularly critical.
After all, the population management system in modern society is so well-established that it wouldn't be easy for a newcomer to shed the status of an illegal resident.
Of course, looking at it from another perspective, transmigrating into a chaotic old society or a wild, lawless world could bring other troubles—like being taken for an enemy spy and cut down, mistaken for an invading other and slain, or potentially even being considered an evil creature emerging from the underworld and put to death—or worse, being viewed as a temporary meal by goblins lurking in caves...
Yu Sheng’s mind was troubled by these random thoughts as he passed through a rustic alley next to the commercial street, making his way toward "home."
The sky grew increasingly gloomy, and perhaps because of this darkening sky, the bizarre things began to multiply slowly.
At the edges of his vision, he saw some swaying figures reflected on the weathered walls of buildings nearby.
A quick cat leaped out from the shadows of the wall, easily navigating to a beam of light shining from an unknown direction, meowing a couple of times in Yu Sheng's direction before it melted away with the falling raindrops, splashing onto the ground.
The rain started, a little earlier than expected.
The wind turned a bit cold, swirling around sharply as it crept into the crevices of his clothes.
Yu Sheng clicked his tongue, mustering his shopping bag over his head and quickening his pace.
If it wasn’t for the urge to avoid the shadow near the streetlight, he could have taken the main road and returned home faster—although that place felt strange too, it was at least shelter from the wind and rain.
Thinking of the shadow under the streetlight, Yu Sheng felt a pang of regret.
According to his experience, he knew the peculiar things he saw were mostly harmless.
At least if they weren't provoked, they tended to be ignored just like ordinary people ignored them.
However, despite knowing that rationally, he still instinctively avoided those things that looked too sinister—but now, it seemed like taking a detour today was not the best choice.
The cold was increasing.
For a rain, this was a bit outrageous.
Yu Sheng noticed that his breath was slowly forming icy mist.
The raindrops falling from the sky felt like sharp nails, striking hard and cold against him, painful upon impact.
The ground, in this freezing rain, began to transform into a smooth mirror.
A huge sense of unease jolted Yu Sheng into alertness.
He realized something was wrong; very wrong.
Even in this peculiar city, this situation was unlike anything he had encountered before.
Unlike the usual bothersome "shadows" he might see, this time he felt... malice.
This rain held malice.
He quickly looked up, only to see that the previously bustling road had emptied without him noticing.
In that narrow alley, he was alone.
Not a single person was in sight.
The distant lights became hazy and surreal.
The end of the road seemed to fluctuate, as if obstructed by something, while around him, besides the cold, bound buildings, there was only rain—the cold rain.
It felt as if the entire world was raining just for him.
Yu Sheng took a quick breath and ran towards the nearest building, an old iron door standing there.
It looked like the back door of some shop—no matter what it was, he needed to find someone to help him quickly.
Because the raindrops now bore the sharpness of blades, and the surrounding temperature had fallen to the point where each breath felt like a piercing pain in his lungs.
In just a few strides, Yu Sheng reached the door, reached out, and knocked forcefully.
"Is anyone..."
His eyes widened as his voice stopped abruptly.
His hand struck a wall; the door was just a painting on it.
Nearby, the windows were painted on the walls too.
A rustling sound transmitted from nearby.
Yu Sheng slowly turned his head, following the source of the sound.
Amidst the rain falling like blades, a bizarre creature slowly emerged from the mirror-like water.
It gained form from the inky shadow, looking at Yu Sheng with cold indifference.
It was a frog, nearly a meter tall, its head brimming with countless eyes, reflecting the frozen rain.
The frog opened its mouth, its sharp tongue darting straight towards the heart of its prey.
“Damn you...”
Yu Sheng’s words were elegant as he reacted quickly.
Even before finishing a sentence, his body had already moved instinctively—he jumped aside, pulling out his usual self-defense baton from his pocket, taking a step to twist and bend forward, ready to charge...
The frog’s tongue curved sharply mid-air and pierced through the center of his back, straight through where his heart lay.
Yu Sheng: "…?"
He blinked, watching as the frog’s tongue reached out from his chest, a heart beating rapidly at its tip.
"…Damn it, that thing is mine..."
He thought to himself, cursing internally.
Then he died.
The End of This Chapter