The rain had begun to taper off, the fine drizzle thinning into a sparse mist that formed hazy halos around the streetlights.
Wei Xichen remained standing by his SUV. The group had left; not one of them spared him a second glance before they departed, nor did they mention their earlier promise.
But he had known it would be this way.
He clenched his teeth, forcing himself to remain calm. His mind was racing like an overheating engine. That weapon did not belong to this world, and neither did those people.
They moved with total synchronization, highly disciplined, without a single wasted motion. He had seen soldiers and mercenaries before, but these people were different. Their body language and their gaze carried a cold, inhuman efficiency. They had a goal, a plan, and preparation. They didn't kill to intimidate; they killed because it was the most efficient option.
Staring at the wet asphalt, he whispered to himself, "Who the hell are they? And that gun... what was that thing?"
He felt something surging within him. It wasn't simple fear. It was something deeper—a curiosity that tore through his reason and instinct alike. He wanted answers; he needed to know. Having already stepped into this game, there was no turning back. He pulled out his phone, his fingertips damp and cold, and dialed a number he never thought he would call of his own volition.
"Moushan Police Department, how may we help you?"
"I'm at the Television Bureau building on Mouzhong Road. There's a hostage situation. The hijackers are equipped with heavy weaponry. Two security guards have already been killed. They may have more hostages."
He intentionally omitted the supernatural details. He knew mentioning them would only get him dismissed as a madman.
"Please stay calm. We are dispatching backup immediately."
The operator's tone sharpened instantly; the rapid clicking of a keyboard echoed in the background.
Wei tucked his phone away and abandoned his SUV. He walked briskly into a nearby 24-hour convenience store. Through the fogged glass window, he watched the TV station across the street. The lights were still on, but the familiar building now looked like the lair of something monstrous.
—
Wei Xichen leaned against a shelf, eyes fixed on the building across the road. Five minutes passed. Aside from the shadows of moths dancing under the streetlights and the busy sounds of the clerk behind him, there was no movement.
Suddenly, three patrol cars glided silently into the intersection. No sirens wailed; only their roof lights flickered quietly. The doors opened simultaneously, and several officers filed out. He watched intently as one team slipped through the revolving doors of the station, his nerves taut.
Then, a sudden, trivial event shattered the peace of the moment.
The LCD advertising screen on the convenience store wall had been playing a "Summer Popsicle: Buy Two Get One Free" ad—a scene so cheerful it felt surreal. Cartoon bears were dancing on a beach, carrying oversized popsicles and laughing brightly.
"Bear-y Burst! Summer is—"
Before the line could finish, the screen flickered violently. Pop! The image died. A wave of invisible electronic interference seemed to sweep through the store.
"Damn! Scared the hell out of me!"
The blonde clerk behind the counter barely had time to complain before a piercing screech of static exploded from the audio system, like nails scraping against a chalkboard. Then, a raspy, fractured male voice surged through the speakers:
"Good evening, dear Aboriginals."
"We have crossed the rifts between worlds, seeking only a special friend: 'The Future Traveler.' He may be hidden among you, gifted with the talent to traverse the years."
Wei Xichen snapped his head up, his pupils shrinking. He recognized that voice. Cold, clear, and wrapped in a nauseating layer of feigned gentleness. It was Etzel. No doubt.
The Future Traveler?
The phrase pricked his brain like a needle. In an instant, his mind flashed back to the book Yuan Liheng had shoved into his arms—Manuscripts of Parallel Worlds: Strange Records of a Future Traveler. Those erratic scribbles and grotesque descriptions suddenly felt terrifyingly real. However, aside from the title, neither the content nor the author's bio had ever mentioned the specific term "Future Traveler."
He instinctively reached for the book to check, but then realized—he had left it at Yuan's Heavy Industries.
A surge of anxiety and regret rose within him, but he forced himself to stay focused. He retreated to a corner of the store, his back against the cold wall, suppressing his breathing. His thoughts raced. He knew this event had already breached the boundaries of reality.
Etzel wasn't just here to kill. This wasn't a simple armed occupation. It was about time, fate, and an alien technology. The power hidden behind those people was more destructive and unpredictable than any weapon.
The voice spoke again:
"Please, do not be alarmed. We bring opportunity. That wise one who can manipulate time shall receive authority beyond life and death."
The voice paused, then its tone shifted drastically:
"Now... deliver 'The Future Traveler' to the Mouzhong Road Television Bureau before sunrise. In return... this beautiful city shall continue to welcome tomorrow's dawn."
"But if anyone... dares to harbor our friend... then at daybreak... you shall witness for yourselves the meaning of the Apocalypse. May you all... be wise."
The message ended. Only a brief silence remained in the airwaves, followed by a harsh burst of static—a final warning of the threat's validity.
"Moron! Which psycho is pulling a prank this time?"
The blonde clerk rolled his eyes and casually switched off the monitor, still chewing his gum. "Lately there's so much fake news. Last week, someone said burger meat isn't real pork, it's all synthetic."
He scoffed and turned back to restock the shelves, completely ignoring the warning.
Wei Xichen felt a chill run down his spine to his very core. The clerk's ignorance only made the threat feel more real. He realized these visitors weren't just looking for someone—they were prepared to use extreme measures against this world to achieve their goal. And the vast majority of people wouldn't even believe the disaster was coming until it arrived.
—
When the television signal abruptly cut off, the light inside the convenience store seemed to dim by several degrees. Aside from the clerk's frantic muttering, there was no other sound. Wei Xichen leaned against the window, his eyes locked on the television station across the street.
About three minutes later, he saw a figure stumble out of the building's entrance, followed by another, and then another—the patrol officers who had been ordered inside earlier.
They looked as if they had crawled back from the depths of hell. Their faces were ashen, their eyes vacant. Some had long since discarded their service weapons; others gripped them with a death-like tenacity. One young officer suddenly shrieked, collapsed to his knees, and began to shudder, his screams raw and hysterical:
"It's not right... they aren't human... they aren't human..."
The few survivors managed to haul themselves up, staggering to take cover behind their patrol cars. They exchanged chaotic fragments of intel; some called for backup, others cursed under their breath, while one officer fumbled with trembling hands to reload, muttering to himself as if trying to suppress a total mental collapse.
"Has anyone seen the Sergeant? Oh God, I just saw him... no, he melted, that wasn't him, that wasn't..."
"Shut up! It has to be... some kind of chemical weapon! Hold on, backup is coming... it has to be coming..."
The brief silence that followed lasted only a few minutes, yet it felt as if time itself had been stretched thin. Finally, the distant roar of engines and the screech of emergency brakes tore through the air.
Amidst the strobing red and blue lights, a fleet of police cruisers and armored vehicles swarmed into the block. Counter-terrorism units, geared to the teeth, filed out and rapidly deployed yellow caution tape. The atmosphere instantly reached a breaking point, the air saturated with the invisible scent of gunpowder, waiting for a single spark to ignite.
One of the team leaders raised a megaphone, his voice booming toward the station's entrance:
"Listen inside! You are surrounded! Drop your chemical weapons and surrender with your hands up immediately! Otherwise, we will initiate a forced breach!"
The silent building before them offered no reaction, save for the faint chime of shattered glass vibrating in the wind.
Just then, a grim-faced officer burst into the convenience store, his expression frantic:
"It's not safe here, get out! Now! The terrorists could come out at any second!"
Wei Xichen nodded, following the officer and the clerk out with a calm expression, as if merely complying with a well-intentioned warning. But the moment the automatic doors began to slide shut, he lunged back inside, slipping into the narrow crevice between the shelves and the newspaper rack, hiding behind the cigarette counter. He curled his body, merging into the shadows of the wall, his eyes fixed on the window.
In the next heartbeat, the night sky flared a blood-red, illuminating the entire block.
BOOM!!! The explosion thundered through the heavens!
The shockwave roared past, swallowing the entire street in an instant. Every window along the block shattered in unison. The convenience store's storefront took a blow like a colossal fist; shards of glass sprayed in from all directions, slicing through the air and slamming into the floor, the shelves, and the walls with a deafening, echoing clatter.
Wei instinctively ducked low, clutching his head. He heard the sound of shelves being shredded by shrapnel. Plastic bottles rolled across the floor, and metal cans were struck, bursting open. The air was suddenly thick with the cloying scent of sugary syrup mixed with pulverized glass.
Outside, a patrol car was flipped entirely by the blast, spinning like a top out of control. It launched into the air before plunging back down at a grotesque angle, slamming into the asphalt and kicking up a storm of debris and fire. The chassis twisted as it burned, the metal shrieking in agony. Thick black smoke billowed out like a giant serpent coiling around a pillar of fire, surging toward the night sky.
In that moment, Wei Xichen peered through the semi-shattered glass toward the street corner, and his heart tightened—his old silver-gray SUV, originally parked beside the police cars, was now nothing more than a mangled, flaming wreck. The driver's side was flattened, the windows were gone, the tires had been blown off, and even the license plate was nowhere to be seen.
"Should have left earlier..." he murmured under his breath, but he didn't even have time to finish his complaint. Because in the next second, he saw them.
—