Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
The moment I stepped inside, a shiver ran through me as if a bucket of ice had been poured over my head, sending chills deep into my bones.
The scene before me began to shift strangely. The familiar street had vanished, replaced by a desolate highway. The sky hung low and gray, devoid of both sun and moon.
"What... where the hell is this?..."
The chubby guy released my hand, looked at me, and suddenly chuckled, "Don't you know? This is Youming."
Youming?!
Is he saying this is the underworld? The realm of the dead?
That’s absurd!
"Hey! Don’t walk away! What exactly are you doing here?"
I wanted to grab the chubby guy and demand answers, but an invisible force compelled me to follow him forward.
Before long, I couldn’t even muster the energy to curse because the sights around me were simply too bizarre.
The road beneath my feet was no longer a solid asphalt surface but a semi-transparent material resembling jelly. It made a squelching sound with each step, and the footprints I left behind quickly smoothed out.
Not far ahead, an electronic sign hung over an elevated bridge, its red letters pulsing as it displayed: Huangquan East Road congested, estimated travel time 10 hours of resentment.
On either side of the road stood clusters of gray buildings that resembled office towers. At the roadside below one of them was a convenience store with automatic doors that opened and closed incessantly with a "whoosh." An advertisement outside read: Meng Po Milk Tea—Second cup half price, free extra Forgetting Pearl.
What on earth is all this...?
After walking for a while longer, I spotted a brightly lit area in the gray horizon. It looked like… a toll booth?
"Wangchuan Station has arrived," the chubby guy suddenly announced, startling me.
I looked closely at this toll booth-like structure; it was much larger than any highway toll plaza I had seen before. There were numerous lanes and windows, each with "people" queuing up.
Pushed by the chubby guy, I found myself at one of the windows and realized that what I thought was a potted plant was actually an electronic incense burner with three electronic incense sticks inserted.
The line moved surprisingly fast, and soon it was my turn.
In the window sat a young girl, chewing gum, with a name tag reading “Intern Judge” hanging from her neck.
She casually reached out and tore a translucent strand of “soul” from my chest, stuffing it into a device that resembled a POS machine. The machine beeped and spat out a small receipt.
She handed it to me; the receipt read: Remaining Yang Shou: 21 years, 3 days; Despair Value: 901/100.
“Your Yang Shou is still intact, but your Despair Value is severely over the limit.”
“What the hell is this Despair Value? I’m not despairing at all! This thing must have a bug!”
The girl popped her gum, the sound snapping as it stuck to the edge of the display screen. She clicked around with the mouse for a moment.
“Li Jiang, 31 years old, from a rural background. You worked hard to get into college and then graduate school, but you’ve always been looked down upon by your classmates.”
“After graduation, you started a business with friends, which ended in failure, leaving you with over three hundred thousand in debt. Then you went to work at a big company, but you’ve been stuck in mediocrity. Recently, you were rejected for a promotion to director.”
“Last month, you just broke up; your girlfriend left you, calling you a ‘Phoenix Man,’ saying you’ll never amount to anything in this life.”
“You haven’t been home for the New Year in years; your parents still live in that dilapidated house back home. You’re afraid to go back because you don’t want the villagers to laugh at how a top student has ended up like this...”
“Enough!” I slammed my hand on the window and resignedly said, “Just tell me… what should I do?”
Comment 0 Comment Count