Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
A sudden fierce quiver rushed through Ji Dong and woke him from a slumber.
When he opened his eyes, he noticed that the lighting was gloomy and not unlike a sky before a storm.
Perhaps he wasn’t truly awake. Ji Dong felt as if a swarm of bees were whirling in his head: his ears were buzzing, and his vision was blurry.
For a moment, he thought he had just finished playing in a tournament and simply felt too exhausted to sleep. But, he quickly realized that things were not as simple as he had initially assumed…
Because Ji Dong could smell sulfur in the air.
He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes vigorously.
He found himself lying on his back in a strange alley. There were two towering dark gray walls looming over him as far as his eyes could see. When he looked up, he saw a lead-dark sky with ashes cascading down like snowflakes. One of them landed on his face; a flake with a residual temperature several degrees above that of human skin.
——Fuck!
Ji Dong was shocked into awareness.
He rolled over and sat up, then jumped up again, looking around vigilantly.
When he moved, he disturbed the settled ash that had fallen on him earlier and it began to rise, suffocating him and making him cough.
——What the hell is going on!?
Ji Dong wondered if he was going crazy.
He patted off the dust on his head as he observed the surrounding environment.
At present, he was in a narrow, dark alley that could, at most, only fit two people walking side by side.
The walls and the ground were heavily coated with ash. They continued to fall like snowflakes from the densely packed sky of lead-colored clouds.
Ji Dong’s eyes widened.
He stared at the scene before him in a trance. He felt as though he was dreaming; it was as if he was playing the ancient horror game: Silent Hill.
But the prominent smell of sulfur and the peculiar stench of rotten eggs, made him doubt that such an overly realistic sensory experience could be simulated in any dream or virtual four-dimensional game.
What’s more, he clearly knew that he should be dead.
After such a serious maglev rail car accident, anyone would have serious physical injuries: broken arms or legs along with severe lacerations were to be expected. Even if they managed to survive with the fortune of some miracle, the injuries would be so severe that the person would have needed to be admitted into the ICU and placed under months of treatment before recuperating.
And yet, not to mention the absence of fatal wounds on his body, he didn’t even have the slightest scratch on his skin.
It was very odd.
Ji Dong looked down at his clothes.
He was wearing a set of the standard summer sportswear for his team; it was spotless: without any blood and stains. On his feet were newly bought sneakers, which had cost him a month’s subsidy, and his bow bag with the baby bows and arrows on it, rested at the foot of the wall. They were all also clean.
All his belongings were here. The only strange object that didn’t belong to him was a watch that had appeared on his left wrist.
Ji Dong raised his hand and studied the watch carefully.
It was black with a two-centimeter-wide dial and an LCD screen that was long and narrow. There was no time or text displayed on it, but there was a progress bar for the player. The small triangle that represented the progress bar was located on the far left of the screen and flashed once every second.
He dragged his finger across the LCD screen, but the small triangle didn’t move. It was obvious that it didn’t function as a touch screen. “What is this?”
Ji Dong murmured softly.
He swung his wrist up and down, back and forth, left and right. He found that although the strap was thin, it turned out to be a complete metal ring which was tightly adhered to his skin. He couldn’t find any openings or buckles at all. In other words, he didn’t know how to take it off.
For some reason, when he saw this watch, he had a very bad feeling in his heart.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“… This is… too weird, isn’t it?”
Al Gbcu abemtfv tlr kjamt jcv qlcmtfv atf rxlc bc tlr tjcv tjgv.
“Llrr!”
Lf qlcmtfv tlwrfio jujlc jcv ujrqfv, uglaalcu tlr affat lc qjlc.
Ktja’r gluta, atlr qjlc kjr 100% gfji! Pa kjr wbgf ufcelcf atjc qfjgir!
Lf tjv ab jmmfqa atf mgefi gfjilas: tf kjr cbk lc jc ecxcbkc qijmf ktfgf atf jlg kjr atlmx klat reioeg jcv jrtfr kbeiv mbcalceberis ojii ogbw atf rxs.
This was already shocking enough, but the most crucial point was that he had “seen” this place shortly before his accident!
Ji Dong pressed his fingers on his forehead, hard, and forced himself to calm down. Then he raised his head, fixing his gaze on the ashes floating down from the sky, and pondered for a moment in silence.
He began to speculate about the current situation in his heart, but he quickly crossed out all his conjectures after concluding them to be irrational; he could not find a plausible explanation for his current predicament.
As he thought, his head was once again quickly covered in a coating of ash, so he raised his hand and brushed his bangs. He then knelt, picked up his bow pack, and walked towards the exit of the alley.
——No matter what, it was useless to continue standing there. He might as well walk around and analyze the situation!
——————————-
After leaving the alley, Ji Dong soon realized that his situation was far more treacherous than he had expected.
He found himself wandering in a city he knew all too well.
This was his World Youth Championship’s training site: a big city on the east coast of China.
He was familiar with the city’s landmark buildings, such as the sailing hotel with a dolphin statue next to the front of the door that he had just passed by a few minutes ago.
But this ‘city’ was completely different from what he remembered.
A never-ending stream of ashes descended from the sky, completely engulfing the city.
The streets, buildings, plants, and even the cars parked on the side of the road were all covered with gray-colored or gray-black ashes. Everything outdoors had lost its natural hue. Everything was an absurdly dark gray for as far as the eye could see.
Ji Dong slowly strolled along the streets.
Every step he took left a footprint on the ashes, but more ashes quickly fell over it, concealing the footprints.
The sky was very dark, and the visibility was very low due to the occlusion of falling ash.
Even with Ji Dong’s 20/20 vision, it was impossible to distinguish between people and animals from one hundred meters away, thus, it was basically impossible to even make out the outline of things 1000 meters away.
However, what scared him more than this was the fact that he couldn’t find anyone in such a big city.
No, to be more precise, let alone humans, he hadn’t crossed paths with even a cat or a dog.
Ji Dong felt himself becoming increasingly flustered as he walked.
To him, the city felt dead; he was the only exception in a place with no living things.
At least his cell phone was still in the bow bag, with a third of the power left.
He continued walking, trying to find a signal in various open areas, but it was useless. Nevermind finding a telephone or network signal, even the built-in offline navigation system could not be used.
There was no way Ji Dong could rely solely on his memory to get to the center of the city.
After about half an hour, he estimated that he had walked about two kilometers, and yet, all he could see were the dead gray streets.
——Where are the people of this city? Where did everything go?
This question emerged in Ji Dong’s heart for the 101st time.
His current situation made him recall his first international competition in Japan two years ago. He remembered that, after the competition, he and his teammates had taken a trip near the participating city.
At that time, he had visited an active volcano in the area. When taking the cable way car and passing by the volcanic vent, he’d smelled the same strange and recognizable smell of sulfur and hydrogen sulfide gas.
Looking up at the sky covered by the lead-colored clouds, and the ashes drifting down from the sky, Ji Dong felt as if he had somehow gone to the time of the eruption in Pompeii, which had been destroyed by the legendary volcanic eruption— disappearing in a sea of ash.
But where was the volcano near this eastern coastal city?
Even though Ji Dong was a dedicated student in physical education and often did not perform well in cultural courses, he didn’t think his knowledge of geography was so terrible that he lacked fundamental common sense.
——Wait…
Ji Dong’s heart skipped a beat.
——If this is really volcanic ash…
Ji Dong stretched out his hand, caught a piece of ash that was as large as a fingernail, and rubbed it between his fingertips, carefully feeling its texture and temperature.
The gray ash was not delicate. While kneading it, he realized it felt strangely sand-like. It did have a residual temperature, and the temperature in the center was higher than that on the surface.
——Suppose… Just suppose
He said to himself in his heart.
——If these were really pieces of volcanic ash, wouldn’t this mean that the tragedy of Pompeii 2000 years ago was going to be replicated? Wouldn’t the people in the city either evacuate or be killed by the toxic gas and hot ash during the volcanic eruption?
Thinking of this, Ji Dong couldn’t help turning around and looking around vigilantly.
He was really afraid that he would see a corpse splayed on the side of the road, covered with a layer of solidified mud.
Unfortunately, Ji Dong underestimated the horror of the city.
Because he soon saw something that he couldn’t understand at all.
It was a dress.
It was a very ordinary, red, floral, short-sleeved dress with a wide skirt, a chiffon texture, and a pin with a kitten pattern pinned at the neckline. It was common to see many young girls wear this in midsummer every year and become the beautiful scenery in the city.
There was truly nothing fussy about the skirt.
It was an ordinary skirt, but it was spread out like a flower, covered with ashes, abandoned loosely on the street.
Ji Dong slowly approached, squatted down, and stretched out his hand, gently pulling on the collar of the red dress, and carefully pulling up a corner, as if he were touching a ticking time bomb.
Then, in the next second, he jumped up as if he had stepped on the electric door. He spread his hands out and took three steps backward.
Big drops of cold sweat slowly appeared and slipped down his forehead. He used up all his restraint to control his urge to scream in horror.
Because, just now, through the neckline of the dress, he saw the shoulder straps young women wear, lined with waistcoat.
——What does this mean!?
——What does this mean!?
——What does this mean!?
Ji Dong’s thoughts were jumbled, as if several voices were screaming in his ears, all asking the same question again and again.
If there was only one skirt, he could speculate that someone had accidentally dropped it in the street when they hurried out of the city in a panic.
But what if under the skirt there were other garments?
He shivered.
In fact, an extremely frightening speculation had emerged in Ji Dong’s mind. It was unreasonable and unimaginable, but it was most in line with the current situation.
To confirm his guess, he had to bite the bullet and step forward, once again reaching out to the stacked dresses on the ground.
And this time, Ji Dong lifted off the hem of the layers of skirts.
He saw a pair of white ladies’ stiletto sandals that were covered by the skirt just now.
——Fuck!
At this moment, Ji Dong didn’t know how to react except for the scream that he held back in his throat.
His horrible guess was likely to be right!
These were not just some clothes thrown on the street!
It was as if their wearer had vanished without a trace, only leaving behind the garments they had been wearing. The body, on the other hand, seemed to have disappeared like smoke and ashes, leaving behind an empty dress!
Ji Dong dropped the skirt, stood up, took two steps back, and then turned around in circles a few times, like an ant on a hot pot.
He had always considered his psychological endurance to be very good. The more strain he was under, the more he could maintain his composure and rarely became confused.
However, in the prior 19 years of his life, all the major turning points he had experienced were normal and definitely had not included opening his eyes and finding himself in an empty city buried in ashes, and finding a dress in the street that had lost its owner in thin air.
——No, wait, calm down. This sort of thing was totally unreasonable, wasn’t it?
While trying to persuade himself, Ji Dong knelt down for the third time to check the red floral skirt again.
With the experience of the first two checks and the efforts of psychological construction, he managed to appear calm this time.
In addition to the shoes, he discovered a little purse beneath the skirt, which contained a smartphone and a personal IC terminal, as well as some small items that ladies frequently bring with them when they go out.
At that moment, Ji Dong had to accept the fact that his guess just now was probably true.
After all, no one would take off their clothes and shoes and leave them behind arranged in this way when running for their life, and even throw away their handbag and the documents and necessities in it.
But then… What happened to the owner of this dress?
Author’s note~
The author has something to say:
The background is set for the near future twenty or thirty years later, infinite flow, and focusing on the thriller suspense reasoning system, there will be a few horror elements, but don’t be afraid! (Hey)
Translator’s Note~
Hiyaaa all! Haven’t closed one pit yet opened another ┬┴┬┴┤･ω･)ﾉ but this a such a good novel that I couldn’t stop myself hehe! Anyways welcome to the new pit!! Maybe cuz I am the translator so I am probably biased so maybe take this with a grain of salt but all the arcs and the worlds are super interesting. There is not a single boring moment. Our MC is such a sweet and caring baby (he is 19 year old but in my eyes he is a baby) he doesn’t depend on ML and slowly starts to get strong by himself. He is a bit naive but not an stupid naive. You guys will definitely love him.
I will not say much about the ML but even though he is strong compared to others he listens to others opinion and lets his teammates come up with a plan and execute it rather than doing everything himself. Also he has his mysterious thing going so…..
The romance is a little slowish-burn but don’t worry, it will not disappoint you.
And you all are gonna love teamwork. I highly appreciate this novel a lot cuz the author made sure that each and every team member has equal contribution to the world and plot; in some cases more than ML. Not a single person is used as a prop to make MC and ML look badass or smart. Everyone grows alongside our MC.
Sorry for a long ramble but wanted to give you all an idea about the novel.
Hope y’all will enjoy reading this novel! <3
Editor’s Note~
The Rambling Corner:
Welcome, welcome to the novel! Co-editor Mreow here wants to thank you for reading~ ( ･ω･)ﾉ
Me at the beginning of the chapter: Aiyo, what luck– our dear protagonist has traveled to a fantasy world! Me next!
Me in the second half of the chapter: (O∆O) You know what… this life… it’s not unsatisfactory……..
Proofreader Note~
Heyo~ adjective, proofreader here~ come enter this new pit *insert fire elmo meme*
It’s heerrreeee!!! Gahh I am excited!
Thank you for translating!!
Yesss!! I am super excited to be able to release the chapters finally!!! I am so excited for you all to join enjoy this wild ride with me! ❤
Looking forward to more 🥰
Thank you for reading!!! Hopefully will be able to release more chapters soon!!❤
Another pit (✷‿✷) count me in
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
Yes join me in this crazy wild exciting and scary pit!!❤
Thank you for the chapter 🥺💞
Love cute baby MCs ahhhh I‘m looking forward to it!!
And teamwork? Everyone in the team is important? Love it🥳✨
U welcome! Enjoy the novel❤
Helloo, I was wondering if this novel had different instances/games in it
Jump into the pit
I am late by 2 years but here I am