Chapter 0001: Suspected Bandits

If you opened your eyes and found yourself in an unfamiliar environment, with all familiar things far away from you, and everything around you was incomprehensible and strange—what kind of feeling would that be?

It's hard to say...

Brian Clark had never seen a scene like the one before him. The light shooting in through that low, round hole in the wall was not enough to illuminate the whole room. What met his eyes was a dim, hazy light; all around were rammed earth walls mixed with straw, and on the walls, wooden hooks hung things he couldn't even name.

Because the light was so dim, he could only vaguely make out some things piled in the corner. He could roughly tell they were jars and pots, but their shapes were completely unfamiliar to him.

Confusion and panic were almost exactly what Brian Clark felt upon waking up. He tried hard to recall what had happened, but the more he thought, the more confused he became. He only remembered that he was carrying his purchases and about to walk out of the mall when a sudden loud noise struck. Before he passed out, all he saw was red, and when he woke up again, he was already in this strange place.

At first, he thought he had been kidnapped, but then he found the idea a bit funny. Although his family had some money, it wasn't enough to make him a target for kidnapping. But if not kidnapping, then what? Had someone knocked him out and dumped him in some pigsty somewhere?

There was an indescribable smell in the air, as if something was fermenting, making the room's air rather unpleasant.

In fact, it was precisely because of the smell that he thought he was in a pigsty...

He had tried to get up from the pile of weeds to get a better look at his surroundings, but for some reason, he just couldn't muster any strength. As the light grew dimmer and the silence around him became almost terrifying, his panic only deepened.

At first, he was afraid that making a sound would attract some hidden thug who would beat him up, so he wanted to wait until he regained some strength to quietly observe his surroundings and escape if he had the chance. But his body showed no sign of recovering. Because of hunger, he only grew weaker, and as his nerves grew more tense, his mind became increasingly muddled. The calm he had tried to force upon himself was completely shattered, and he began to call for help.

His cries for help were weak, more like feeble moans, but no matter what he did, no one ever appeared.

When the room became completely dark, his panic grew even worse. His body had no strength at all, and he couldn't even shout. This kind of state could drive a person to mental collapse.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Just as Brian Clark was beginning to suspect he would break down in the next second, a faint sound reached his ears.

At first, he doubted himself, but after making sure he hadn't misheard, he heard footsteps approaching from far away. His mood first soared with inexplicable joy, then turned to terror. The sudden swing from joy to fear left him breathless, the air stuck in his chest, his eyes rolling back—he almost suffocated himself.

Strangely, even when he felt like he was about to die, Brian Clark's mind was still able to think.

"Why did I end up here?"

"Who did this to me?"

All sorts of strange thoughts surged through his mind like waves. He was surprised that he could still think about these things instead of fainting from sheer panic.

Finally... with a sudden "creak," it seemed a door had been pushed open. However, the person didn't come in right away; instead, there were sounds outside of things bumping or being moved.

Brian Clark was tense in both body and mind, his thoughts running wild. When he finally came to his senses, a figure was standing straight in the darkness—he didn't even know when this person had arrived.

Only when he realized someone was there did Brian Clark snap back to reality, unable to remember what he'd just been thinking, only that he was staring in terror at the person standing in the dark.

The newcomer seemed to be muttering something, but Brian Clark was so nervous he couldn't make out a single word. When he saw the shadow squat down, his heart couldn't help but tremble—he was scared out of his wits.

The person reached out and pushed Brian Clark, but out of fear, he didn't dare make a sound or even move.

There was another string of syllables. This time, Brian Clark could make out the sounds, but still couldn't understand what was being said. It sounded like some kind of local dialect—he recognized some of the pronunciations, but when strung together, it was just confusing.

With a "snap," a flash of light briefly lit up the room, but it quickly disappeared.

In that instant of light, Brian Clark seemed to catch a glimpse of a rugged face almost entirely covered in beard. Maybe it was because he was so nervous, but he immediately associated the face with the image of a bandit from movies or TV dramas. Thinking this, he found it a bit funny, and his tension eased a little as he quietly waited to see what would happen next.