[22:10:00]
Shíhou Qitian clung to every second like a man drowning, his eyes ever-shifting, scanning the towering wheat stalks that rose around him like a forest of golden skyscrapers. The staff beneath him—his last safe platform—wouldn't hold much longer. At best, it would sustain him for six more hours.
He hadn't stored enough aura. A foolish mistake, wasting it back in the human world on mundane tasks . fishing wasn't worth it . Now, on the Dark Continent, that carelessness was about to cost him everything.
Below, his staff remained embedded deep in the distant earth, jutting out like a spear from the vast sea of wheat—his only anchor in a world that wanted him dead.
[20:48:00]
[20:47:00]
With each tick of the counter, his anxiety thickened, desperation wrapping tighter around his chest.
Death wasn't just possible. It was inevitable. And the uncertainty—no, the certainty—of it gnawed at his sanity. There was no escape.
So, like a rabbit cowering from a hawk's shadow, he clung to his staff and watched—silent, still, paralyzed.
[18:00:02]
The countdown kept slipping downward. With every passing second, so did his aura.
And when the final strand of hope vanished—when the last flicker of power drained from the staff—
It vanished.
"Aahhhhhh—!" he let out a startled scream as he plummeted.
But whether by luck, fate, or sheer stubborn will, he latched onto one of the wheat stalks.
His arms wrapped around it, the coarse stem biting into his skin as he slid. Flesh tore.
A few inches of raw, red skin scraped off his arms. But he clung.
[17:50:00]
[17:30:59]
[17:25:00]
[16:40:00]
[15:50:00]
[14:20:00]
[13:56:00]
Pain like a thousand needles stabbed into his exposed flesh. The agony drowned out thought, drowned out time, drowned out everything. Pain. Pain. Pain. An endless wave of it.
[1...]
His eyes found the timer again. But the numbers no longer mattered.
His grip was failing. Gravity claimed him.
His skin peeled, muscles scraped as he slid down the stalk.
Thud.
He hit the earth—soft, but unkind.
Back on the ground. Where death was no longer a question, but a fact.
He didn't need to look. He already knew.
From the shadows emerged a massive rat.
Its skin shimmered with a slick, diseased gray, twitching as if filled with worms beneath.
Its eyes—deep ruby red—locked onto him.
It lunged, jaws stretching impossibly wide.
Death.
[0:00:03]
Time froze. Or perhaps it ended. Qitian didn't know.
It made sense. Of course it did. He was about to die. Again.
Again, he'd have to go through that hell.
But the bite never came.
The rat's figure—gone.
In its place, familiar sights.
He was back.
Back in Hakone.
Same street. Same corner. Same unpaved dirt road.
Home.
He stood there, stunned.
Tears welled in his eyes.
His mouth twisted—not into a scream, but a broken smile.
He cried.
And laughed.
[ Quest completed a reward will be distributed ]