Volume One: Breaking the Sky

Chapter 1: Kidnapping

Henry Clark stared intently at the computer screen in front of him. Aside from the usual, common WINDOWS desktop, there was an extra, very strange frame on it—a simple rectangular box with a line of text and an option.

"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you truly... want to live?"

"YES...NO..."

Henry Clark pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked carefully again at the line of text and options on the computer screen, then pinched his brow once more.

To be honest, he found this quite troublesome. From a certain perspective, he didn't believe any hacker could break into his computer. Not to boast, but the kind of hacker who could hack his computer probably hadn't even been born yet. Of course, it's not that his computer skills were invincible, but there was a very simple reason...

Damn it, his computer wasn't even physically connected to the internet!

And today, while he was using this computer to process some intelligence information, this frame suddenly popped up. Because of the importance of the information stored on this computer, he had never connected it to the internet, nor used any personal programs on it. He even had the operating system custom-made through connections. From a certain point of view, rather than calling it a computer, it was more like an information safe.

But on such a computer, one that was almost absolutely impossible to get a virus, a strange window suddenly popped up, with symptoms almost exactly like a virus infection. This was simply unbelievable.

Henry Clark lowered his hand from his brow. He wasn't sure what triggered this virus—was it clicking X? Clicking YES? Or NO? Or maybe just shutting down? If he handled it wrong, even though it wasn't connected to the internet and there was no risk of data leaking, if the data on this computer was lost, that was something he couldn't bear.

"Forget it, better get a professional to take a look at this weird virus..."

Henry Clark pressed his brow again, then intended to stand up and turn away. But just as he was about to get up, a strange sense of melancholy suddenly arose, making him involuntarily look again at that line of text.

"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you truly... want to live?"

"Truly want to live?"

Henry Clark gave a slightly bitter smile and muttered to himself, "Of course I do, but how should I even think about it?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but reach out and tap YES on the computer screen. Of course, he didn't use the mouse or keyboard, just tapped the display itself. It wasn't a touchscreen, so it shouldn't have mattered...

But in that instant, the moment Henry Clark's hand touched the computer screen, his vision went black and he lost consciousness...

Half-awake, half-dreaming, he didn't know how much time had passed. When Henry Clark woke up, before he even opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that the temperature felt off—very hot...

Yes, Henry Clark was wearing early winter clothes, long sleeves and pants, two layers. This kind of outfit was very common in early winter and wouldn't feel hot. After all, in late October in the north, this was just right.

But now Henry Clark felt the heat—not the comfortable warmth of a heated room, but real, undeniable heat. In just a short moment, Henry Clark could already feel sweat on his back. Estimating the temperature, it was probably around thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees Celsius, like a sweltering summer day.

After waking, Henry Clark didn't open his eyes right away. From the moment he touched the screen, to the half-dreaming state, to suddenly going from early winter to a scorching summer, everything was so unbelievable, making Henry Clark extremely alert.

His first thought was that he had been kidnapped by the FBI or some similar organization. After all, his identity was...

But that didn't quite make sense either. When he lost consciousness, he was in an absolutely secure location. If he could be kidnapped even there, he would have died countless times over the years. Or maybe there was a traitor in the organization, and the target was only him. If that were the case, there was a ten or twenty percent chance they could have kidnapped him from such an environment...

While Henry Clark kept his eyes closed and pretended to sleep, he could already faintly hear the sounds around him. Strangely, this wasn't the secret room or similar place he imagined, but a noisy place like a bustling city center. All around were the sounds of traffic, people talking and laughing, and so on. This situation only made Henry Clark even more confused.

"Damn! Where the hell is this?!"