3:17 a.m.
Chen Mo was jolted awake by a shrill cellphone ringtone.
With his eyes closed, he groped toward the nightstand. His fingertips touched the cold screen. The caller ID was a string of gibberish, like a system error—or some kind of prank.
“Hello?”
There was no sound on the other end.
Only wind.
It wasn’t the kind of wind that came through a microphone. It was a bone-deep chill seeping through the cracks between his bones. Chen Mo shuddered and woke up completely.
“...Chen Mo?”
The voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping over rotten wood.
“Your delivery.”
Chen Mo froze for a moment.
“I didn’t order anything.”
“It wasn’t ordered by you.” The voice paused. “It was sent to you.”
The call ended.
At the same time, a ghostly blue light rose from the cellphone screen. It wasn’t a notification from any app. The entire interface had been forcibly overwritten by some kind of power, revealing a line of archaic seal-script text—
【Three Realms Express System initializing...】 【Scanning host soul compatibility: 97.3%】 【Compatibility threshold met. System binding successful.】 【Welcome to Three Realms Express. Courier No. 9,742,001.】
Chen Mo stared at the screen, his finger suspended in midair.
He thought he was dreaming.
That was, until a searing pain flared in his palm. A bronze token appeared out of thin air in his hand. The character “Express” was engraved on its front, while the back bore a burning red spider lily.
The token was scorching hot, as if it had just been pulled from a furnace.
“What the hell is this...”
He instinctively tried to throw it away, but the token seemed to have grown into his palm. It didn’t budge.
【Newbie mission issued.】 【Mission name: Nether River Delivery】 【Mission details: Deliver package “NETHER-GENGSHEN-7” to the River of Forgetfulness riverbank. Recipient: Meng Po.】 【Mission deadline: Before the Hour of the Rat】 【Mission rewards: 100 nether coins, +1 yin merit, 1 skill draw】 【Failure penalty: Become silt at the bottom of the River of Forgetfulness.】
Chen Mo swallowed.
He looked down toward the foot of the bed.
At some point, a pitch-black wooden crate had appeared there. It had no lock, yet it gave off an impossible-to-ignore smell—the charred fragrance of burning spirit money mixed with the decay of some ancient sandalwood.
A yellowed label was pasted onto the crate.
Sender: Yama Palace, King Qin Guang. Recipient: Meng Po. Note: Rush delivery. Do Not Open.
Chen Mo’s hands were trembling.
He was just an ordinary convenience-store clerk working the night shift. Yesterday, his boss had docked two hundred dollars from his pay because he knocked over the oden. “Delivering a package to Meng Po” had never appeared anywhere in his life plan.
But the burning sensation in his palm was growing stronger by the second.
The system prompt popped up again—
【Three hours remain until the Hour of the Rat.】 【Friendly reminder: The water of the River of Forgetfulness is corrosive to the living. Host is advised to depart as soon as possible.】 【Claim newbie equipment?】
Chen Mo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, he tapped “Yes.”
【Newbie equipment issued.】 【Acquired: Three Realms Pass ×1 (allows free passage through the Three Realms barrier)】 【Acquired: Yin-Yang Eyes (temporary, duration: 24 hours)】 【Acquired: Beat-Up Bicycle ×1 (Three Realms Special Edition, capable of flight, maximum speed: 300 li per hour)】
Chen Mo looked at the final reward, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“...A bicycle?”
【Three Realms Special Edition. Netherfire engine installed.】 【Please rest assured, this system does not provide after-sales service.】
Outside the window, the moon was swallowed by a mass of dark clouds.
All the city lights went out at that moment, as if someone had hit the pause button on the entire world. The only light came from the token in Chen Mo’s hand, which cast a ghostly green glow across his pale face.
He pushed open the window.
The night wind rushed in, carrying the faintest trace of burnt paper.
At the far end of the distant street, a bluestone road that had never existed before slowly emerged beneath the moonlight. Mist swirled at the end of the road, and the faint sound of flowing water could be heard.
That was the direction of the River of Forgetfulness.
Chen Mo hoisted the wooden crate onto his back and climbed onto the beat-up bicycle that had appeared out of thin air.
The bell rang with a crisp “ding.”
In the dead silence of early morning, the sound carried exceptionally far.
“Well, a delivery’s a delivery.”
He pushed down on the pedal once, and ghostly blue flames burst from the wheels.
“Besides...”
“Besides, it’s not like I have anything left to lose.”
The bicycle plunged into the mist.
Behind him, the city lights came back on, as if nothing had happened.
Only the convenience-store owner would discover tomorrow that the night-shift clerk who was always late would never come to work again.