Mid-September, 10 a.m.

Most people are at work or school at this time, but I asked for leave from my school and stayed in this rented house outside the school. Today, I have something far more important than going to class.

I know very well that what I am doing is something that cannot be told to others.

Influenced by the guilty conscience, I did not open the window for ventilation this morning. When I walked to the window, I only dared to open the curtains

a crack. The dazzling sunlight hit my face, and the scenery of the community in the early morning came into view.

The world outside is peaceful, and no one knows that there are two people who are not tolerated by society lurking in this room.

I picked up the metal object on my right hand that was emitting coldness and held it in front of my eyes.

This is a pistol, and I don’t know the specific type and model.

In my past life, I have never touched real guns and ammunition, and I know nothing about it. The only thing that can be identified is that this is definitely not a toy model gun that I played with when I was a child, but a real gun that can blow someone's head off and put you in jail for life if you pull the trigger.

It's easy to confirm the authenticity. I unloaded the magazine awkwardly. There were three yellow metal bullets in it. Another bullet had already been loaded with murderous intent. There is no doubt that this is a real bullet.

The legal provisions I found on the Internet automatically emerged in my mind: Those who illegally possess or privately store firearms and ammunition shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, detention or control; if the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. After looking at the killing weapon in my hand for a long time, I turned my head and looked at the beautiful girl who was fidgeting on the bed.

"Let me repeat what you just said. You mean, the future world is plunged into an unprecedented catastrophe, strange phenomena appear one after another, monsters roam around and kill people, and human civilization is shattered under the impact of countless supernatural forces..." I sorted out the information I just heard and my emotions, "And you, are the survivors of the doomsday world, from the future far away, across time and space to this point in time?

She nodded.

"Then, what is your purpose now?" I continued to ask, "Do you want to prevent the advent of the doomsday in this era?"

"That's right..." She looked at the gun in my hand, "So can you give me my gun back?"

I first met this strange and dangerous girl last night when I went to a nearby abandoned construction site to do a ghost story investigation. At that time, ghost story investigation was my hobby. The specific content was to investigate whether the ghost stories and urban legends circulating in the market were true.

This kind of verification behavior itself is not unconventional, and everyone has curiosity. Some schools circulate ghost stories, and the students in them may spontaneously verify the authenticity of the rumors. There is no essential difference between what I do and that.

If there is anything special that draws a decisive line between me and others, it is that I have done this thing since I was a child. Since I was a child, I have been obsessed with the magical stories described in books. I like to imagine experiencing those ups and downs of adventures in person, fighting against powerful enemies that can destroy the world; I am also keen on the incredible anecdotes in reality, such as the unsolved mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the wild man of Shennongjia, or the popular thin ghosts and slit-mouthed women on the Internet, etc. I am fascinated by the unreal existence that is so far away from my real life.

Similarly, I also like Feng Shui, Qimen Dunjia, black magic and other concepts with strong unrealistic mysterious colors, and I am willing to practice them myself to verify their authenticity. Needless to say, my personal practice almost always ends in falsification or in vain, and my exploration of strange stories and legends has brought me some bad reputations.

Whenever I hear that someone in the local area has witnessed supernatural phenomena that cannot be explained by science, I will try to visit them to verify the authenticity. Some of the people I verify are misunderstandings, some are superstitious people who lack even basic scientific knowledge, some are vague, or talk about other things, and occasionally they are asked questions that make them angry.

Some people are frustrated by me and will say to the people around them indignantly: "He Zhuangcheng is not "It's just Ye Gong's love of dragons. If you meet the real thing, you will definitely be scared to death!" Some listeners also agreed with this. In the university, I was also regarded as a maverick weirdo by most people. Although I didn't cause much trouble, it was rare to see normal classmates who interacted with me. My only friend in the university was also confused by my efforts to go to the void. He once spied on my inside story and persuaded me.

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"Since you have never seen real supernatural power, why do you keep investigating ghost stories and legends?" My friend probably asked at the time, "No matter how enthusiastic you are at the beginning, you should cool down after a few failures, but I heard that you have been doing this since you just entered junior high school. Isn't this strange? "I don't think you are doing any ghost hunting live broadcasts, there is no income, and you haven't even achieved any results. There must be some positive feedback...some relevant evidence or clues to persevere, don't you think so?

I heard his hidden meaning and went straight to the point: "Don't beat around the bush, just tell me what you want to say." Hearing this, he stopped beating around the bush and frankly expressed his thoughts: "I think it's better for you not to continue to take risks to investigate ghost stories in the future." "Why? Even you are like those people, thinking that I will be scared to death after encountering the real thing?"

"I'm not worried about that, I'm just afraid that you will break the law." He complained, "Sometimes you exude a lawless temperament, which makes me feel very scary. You won't go to dig up the ancient tombs for excitement, or do cult sacrifice activities?"

"You won't?" His voice changed.

Regardless of whether I plan to do that kind of thing, maybe he is not really afraid that I will break the law, but he uses exaggerated words to avoid conflict because he sees that I ask sharp questions. You know, I have always been a good citizen who abides by the law. All in all, he still didn't convince me in the end. And just recently, I turned my attention to the abandoned construction site near the university.

It is said that there is a haunted place there. The evil spirits who died in construction accidents in the past will appear in the middle of the night covered in blood and kidnap female students passing by. The night I heard about this, I directly picked up a large flashlight and walked there alone.

The place where the incident happened was an unfinished building in an abandoned construction site. Due to the interruption of construction, there were no doors or windows installed on the wall. After I passed through the dark doorway, there were only gray concrete walls that were unsightly on all sides, and dust and building material garbage were everywhere. Even homeless people did not approach this place, and mosquitoes seemed unwilling to enter this barren land. The lights and noise of the outside world were gloomily isolated outside, and there was only dead silence and darkness in the air. Only the lonely heartbeat and breathing accompanied me.

The beam of light from the flashlight can only illuminate the front of me, and the darkness behind me seemed to have a physical body, pressing on my back wetly, making me want to turn back. Once I looked back, I would worry about whether something appeared in front of me. I was always worried and looked around.

This unrealistic atmosphere made me feel at home while being creepy.

My friend's words made sense. People can't always be enthusiastic in a direction where there is no hope.

I don't know when I understood a truth without a teacher. The real world is not as bizarre as fantasy stories. The truth of many puzzles is always vulgar and monotonous. People who say they can use magic are just proficient in magic, people who claim to be good at divination are just good at psychological skills, Taoist priests who can bless peace are just good at arguing, and believers are good at self-deception. For a while, I did fall into a quagmire-like depression.

But people will die after all.

Rather than dying in a calm life, I hope to die in an adventure as bizarre as a story.

I want to get my life out of control, and imagine that monsters suddenly break into the classroom and kill teachers and students in public.

If such an absurd situation really occurs, how will I react? Maybe I will burst out with courage that I never expected, or maybe I will be more cowardly than I could imagine. I want to know. I hope that the world I live in will be out of control.

What really makes me unable to stop is not the narrow-minded monsters, but the unpredictable and incredible adventures that completely transcend my experience and life.

Although I don’t expect to encounter a truly bizarre experience this time, I still try to repeatedly sharpen my vigilance as much as possible. A truly bizarre experience will definitely bring unimaginable dangers. Even I can’t guarantee that I will escape unscathed.

As I move deeper into the ruins, I use the beam of light from the flashlight to scan every detail of the environment with full concentration, imagining that the deadly danger is hidden in those imperceptible corners. They are like extremely ferocious beasts holding their breath and lurking, waiting to pounce on me and bite off my throat the moment I relax and blink.

Monster, if you really exist, show yourself in front of me.

I will prove that I am not a hypocrite. Suddenly, there was a sound of a heavy object colliding violently nearby. This space was originally quiet enough for people to clearly feel their heartbeats. When the sound came, it was like a thunderclap that hit my heart hard. I woke up immediately, immediately grasped the direction of the sound source, and rushed there as soon as possible.

It was only a corridor away. I quickly arrived at the target and saw the source of the sound clearly with the help of lighting.

It was a scaffolding that fell to the ground. So that's how it is. When such a heavy object falls, it will indeed make a very violent sound. But the scaffolding will not fall to the ground for no reason. Someone must have knocked it to the ground. I soon noticed with my peripheral vision that at the edge of my vision, in a dark corner, there was a vague black shadow sitting on the ground with his back against the concrete wall.

Blood flowed on the ground, like several small snakes winding forward, slowly, slowly from the darkness, into the light illuminated by the flashlight. I heard that the ghosts who died in construction accidents in the past and were covered in blood appeared in this abandoned construction site.

The feeling of suffocation strangled my throat. It turned out that I held my breath unconsciously and was isolated and helpless.

My hands and feet were stiff and cold like a corpse.

With trembling and eagerness, I slowly moved the beam of the flashlight to illuminate the vague black shadow in front of me. It was indeed a person covered in blood. But it was not the scary ghost I imagined.

Instead, it was a girl wearing a blue and white striped hospital gown, with slender hands and feet and a beautiful face.