Volume One

Chapter 001 Tremor (Part 1)

Crack.

A streak of violet-blue lightning flashed past the window, illuminating the entire night sky in a ghastly white.

William Carter sat upright in the training hall, his eyes, which had been tightly shut, suddenly snapping open.

He was still wearing the crisp suit from work, both hands resting on the wooden chair’s armrests, sweat beading on his forehead, his lips dry and chapped.

His black hair had grown a bit long, slightly covering his eyebrows. But at this moment, William Carter lowered his head, breathing deeply, letting his lungs frantically exchange oxygen with the outside air.

"Where... where am I?" He looked around.

He was surrounded by the familiar training hall.

It was still that old, once-abandoned training hall back in his hometown.

Training hall?

William Carter felt a strange unease.

He was just an ordinary office worker, nine to five.

Then one day, he suddenly got into a car accident and died on the spot.

Yet when he woke up, he was back at his grandfather’s house.

"What’s going on? Did I die and come back to life?!"

William Carter could still recall the pain of the car running over him.

That feeling was something he never wanted to experience again in his life.

"I haven’t even gotten married or had kids yet. If I die like this, won’t the Wang family line end with me?"

William Carter ran his fingers through his hair, lowering his head in distress.

"Is this a dream, or...!?"

Sitting in the chair, he took a long time to calm down before slowly standing up.

After wandering around for a bit, he quickly confirmed that this was indeed his grandfather’s training hall.

Grandpa Henry Carter was said to have been a martial arts and combat expert. In his youth, he opened this dojo in his hometown, originally intending to bring honor to the family, carry on the legacy, and spread martial arts.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.

The dojo did manage to stay open. But nowadays, with advanced technology, there were far too few people truly willing to devote themselves to learning martial arts.

Even William Carter had no interest at all.

As a child, he had tried practicing a few times, but found it boring and tedious, and completely gave up on his grandfather’s guidance.

Later, he followed the usual path: school, exams, then got into a decent university, and after graduating, thanks to his solid technical skills, landed a job at a pretty good internet company.

He had only been working for two years, hadn’t even found a girlfriend yet, when he suddenly received terrible news from his hometown.

The dojo had caught fire, and his grandfather hadn’t made it out. Along with the dojo, thirteen people in total perished.

Upon receiving the news, William Carter didn’t hesitate and immediately booked a ticket to return.

After a complicated investigation, he finally uncovered the truth.

The one who killed his grandfather turned out to be the dojo’s strongest disciple, the senior apprentice Ethan Clark.

Ethan Clark, unable to break through for a long time, believed that William Carter’s grandfather was deliberately withholding a crucial secret and stalling him, so in a fit of rage during an argument, he lashed out.

Grandpa was killed on the spot, and the others were caught up in the disaster.

But William Carter still had doubts about this truth.

Although he wasn’t interested in martial arts, he had some basic knowledge.

With senior apprentice Ethan Clark’s skills, to kill his grandfather in a short time and also take out all the other dojo members so quickly—it just didn’t make sense.

Through cooperating with the police investigation, he received a shocking piece of information.

Behind senior apprentice Ethan Clark, there seemed to be a rather mysterious organization.

The purpose of this organization was unclear, but their actions were cruel and violent. The deaths of his grandfather and the others at the dojo were very likely the result of this organization’s interference.

As for the organization’s name, William Carter managed to find a clue in the police files with the help of a highly skilled friend.

The organization was called Mantis.

Just as he was getting close to the truth, a sudden car accident completely drowned out his consciousness.

When he woke up again, he was already sitting in the training hall of his old family home.

The air was damp and chilly.

William Carter felt the right pocket of his suit, where his familiar phone and car keys were.

The plastic feel of the phone and the slightly raised buttons gave him a bit of comfort.

He took out his ROL smartphone and glanced at the time.

‘Year 4471, March 11th, 7:42 PM.’

"This time...!!" William Carter’s pupils contracted.

Wasn’t this the same time, two months ago, when he went back to visit his grandfather?

That time, he happened to have a public holiday, three days off, and thought it had been a while since he’d visited his grandfather.

So he bought some fruit and supplements, went back to his hometown, and visited his eighty-nine-year-old grandfather Henry Carter.

Although Henry Carter was already eighty-nine, he looked at most like he was in his seventies.

When he saw his eldest grandson come home, he was overjoyed and pulled William Carter to drink a hearty round of baijiu.

As a result, both of them got drunk.