Chapter One: Prologue

That sudden explosion occurred on a sunny, leisurely weekend morning.

All over the world, regardless of country, region, age, or race, everyone suddenly felt intense upheaval, saw flames, heard the deafening sound of explosions, and sensed the trembling of the earth and the tearing of the entire world.

They saw the sun turn dark, saw the ground split open, and terrifying beings crawl out from beneath the earth.

Mountains of corpses piled up before their eyes, and cities, as fragile as thin paper, were easily crushed by enormous hands.

The coming of doomsday arrived without any warning.

But after just a few seconds, everyone suddenly opened their eyes, only to find that nothing before them had changed at all.

The sunlight was still bright, the buildings were intact, and the water spraying from the fountain still maintained its graceful shape.

That violent explosion just now seemed to have been nothing more than a hallucination.

Yet, everyone in the world experienced this same hallucination.

Thus, a wave of panic swept across the globe. People discussed, argued, hoarded food, and clashed. Administrative agencies everywhere did their utmost to maintain order, and experts and scholars from all industries around the world gathered together, trying to find an explanation for this mysterious explosion.

After countless studies and debates, they finally gave an answer: it was a rare case of collective hallucination.

But clearly, this answer could not satisfy everyone.

For a time, the internet and the public were flooded with all kinds of discussions and speculations.

Some believed it was a signal from the universe, marking the countdown to an alien invasion.

Some said it was a solar flare that affected everyone’s brainwaves.

Others claimed the explosion had really happened, and that everyone had died in that instant.

Now, the whole world had become a world of the dead.

Chapter Two: First-Type Danger

Boom! Shakalaka!

Just as he stepped into the elevator, William Carter heard the faint thumping of energetic music, buzzing into his ears like a persistent fly.

Judging by the volume, it didn’t seem far away.

He glanced sideways, his eyes sweeping over the old elevator’s buttons for floors B1 through 9, pursed his lips, and chose the third floor.

The elevator doors slowly closed, a slight dizziness set in, and the red numbers began to change.

From one to two, then to three.

The moment the elevator doors opened, the faint energetic music suddenly vanished. Outside the elevator was a stretch of empty darkness.

A chilly breeze drifted in, as if someone was blowing cold air on the back of his neck.

By the faint light spilling from the elevator, he could see that outside was an unfinished, undecorated space—no one in sight, only rough concrete pillars and floors covered in dust, with tattered plastic bags rolling gently, like weightless human heads.

Wrong floor.

William Carter pressed the close button and returned to the first floor.

He left the elevator and slowly walked outside the building, taking another look at it.

It was an unfinished building on the outskirts of the city, looking rather lonely and abandoned. There were ten floors in total. Looking up from below, each floor was a gaping black hole, with no glass installed, the empty spaces like greedy mouths.

Looking in from the outside, there was no sign of anyone ever being in this building.

It didn’t even look like it had electricity.

But in fact, not only did it have power, it even had an elevator, so there was definitely something wrong here.

William Carter furrowed his brow and returned to the elevator, deciding to use a more direct method.

He pressed all the elevator buttons from the first to the ninth floor, then took out his pistol and pointed it at the elevator control panel.

His pupils turned slightly red, as if blood vessels were swirling within, and he threatened in a low voice:

“Go up.”

The elevator trembled slightly, as if shivering in fear, then the display changed and it began to rise rapidly.

When he reached the third floor again, a sudden, strange sense of weightlessness hit his mind, as if the elevator was plummeting downward.

William Carter nodded slightly, put away his gun, and turned to look at the elevator.

There were only two possibilities for this kind of special weightless sensation.

First, the elevator had malfunctioned.

Second, the folded space on this floor had been found.

……

……

“Boom! Shakalaka!”

When the elevator doors opened, intense, pounding music mixed with the smell of alcohol and blinding colored lights rushed toward him.

William Carter narrowed his eyes slightly and looked up at the chaotic space before him.

Multicolored lights spun wildly, casting beams of varying lengths, as if slicing this world into pieces.

Though a bit tacky, the adrenaline-pumping music sent wave after wave crashing against the ceiling.

Fashionably dressed, scantily clad men and women were wildly shaking their heads in a crowded dance floor.

From a distance, they looked like a swarm of earthworms writhing and swaying.

William Carter looked at this chaotic world, a trace of disgust flashing across his face.

He gave the elevator a long look, warning it to behave.