Rain.
Cold rain dripped steadily onto rusted iron railings.
Drip.
Drip.
The sound echoed hollowly through the darkness.
Lin Wan slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing that struck her was not pain.
It was weight.
Real, physical weight.
Her lungs felt crushed by pressure as freezing air rushed violently into her throat. Her chest convulsed, and she coughed up a mouthful of water, nearly collapsing to her knees.
She could breathe again.
She could feel cold.
She could hear the rain.
She could even smell the damp, rotting mildew in the air.
Everything felt horrifyingly real.
—
She had returned?
No.
Something was wrong.
Lin Wan's pupils tightened slightly.
Because the silence around her was unnatural.
Not the quietness of an empty street.
But the silence of a world with no living people left in it.
—
Dim streetlights flickered weakly through the rain.
The entire street was deserted.
A convenience store still glowed with pale light, its doors hanging wide open. Shelves were disorganized, the cashier counter abandoned.
Cars lined the roadside.
Their doors stood open.
Some engines were still running.
As if people had existed here only seconds ago—
before vanishing all at once.
—
Lin Wan slowly stood.
Rainwater beneath her feet reflected her pale face.
And—
the shadow behind her.
It was still there.
But no longer perfectly aligned.
When she raised her head, the shadow lowered its own.
When she breathed, the shadow paused for a second before slowly following.
Like something learning how to imitate a human being.
—
"This isn't reality."
A weak, hoarse voice suddenly broke the silence.
Lin Wan spun around instantly.
At the far end of the street, a drenched figure leaned against the doorway of the convenience store.
Captain Zhang.
But he looked even more horrifying than before.
Half of his body appeared normal.
The other half—
was becoming transparent.
Fading slowly from existence itself.
—
"You're still alive?!"
For the first time, Lin Wan's voice lost control.
Captain Zhang slowly lifted his head.
His face was pale as a corpse.
"To be precise," he said quietly,
"only part of me survived."
—
BOOM—!!
Thunder exploded across the sky.
But strangely—
the lightning did not illuminate the world.
Instead,
everything became darker for a split second.
—
Lin Wan instinctively looked upward.
And instantly, every drop of blood in her body froze.
The sky—
was cracked open.
Not clouds.
Reality itself.
A gigantic black fissure stretched across the heavens.
Inside it, there were no stars.
No moon.
Only countless eyes.
Thousands upon thousands of them.
Floating silently within the darkness beyond the crack.
Cold.
Empty.
Watching the city below.
—
Lin Wan stopped breathing.
Those eyes—
were identical to the "System Eyes" from the Observation Layer.
Except now,
there were enough to drown the world in despair.
—
"Don't stare too long."
Captain Zhang suddenly spoke in a low voice.
"They'll remember you."
—
Lin Wan immediately lowered her gaze.
At almost the exact same moment—
every reflective surface nearby changed.
Car windows.
Store glass.
Rain puddles.
Every reflection—
showed her face.
No.
Not only her.
Another "Lin Wan" stood inside every reflection.
—
The faceless shadow substitute.
Quietly staring at her from within the mirrors.
—
Then—
every reflected version of "Lin Wan" slowly smiled at the same time.
The exact same smile.
Cold.
Rigid.
Inhuman.
—
"We found you."
—
啪!
Every light on the street went out instantly.
Darkness swallowed everything.
And in the final second before the world vanished into black—
Lin Wan saw clearly—
her shadow beneath her feet
was gone.