Bright golden sunlight poured down.
In the midst of ink-green forests, Baiqiu Village stood out like a piece of dark chocolate on a green cake, conspicuous and abrupt.
The entire village sat atop a large area of gray-white hills, located at the peak of these hills.
Scattered across the village were more than thirty tile-roofed houses.
At that moment, on the western outskirts of the village, a pale-faced man leisurely strolled, looking around nervously from time to time.
He wore a gray T-shirt and yellow casual pants, both filthy and wrinkled, clearly unwashed for a long time. His hair was clumped together with sweat and oil into a Mohawk.
On his feet were gray, muddied sports shoes, treading unevenly on the ground, clearly unaccustomed to the local roads.
Around Baiqiu Village, there were no insects chirping, no birds singing, only the soft sound of the man's steps as he slowly walked on.
"It's been almost fifteen minutes."
Yu Hong took out his phone from his pocket and checked it. The old-fashioned phone he had refrained from replacing due to sentimental reasons had become a critical tool here.
He had lain in bed for several days; a smartphone would have run out of battery long ago. But this old phone had a small screen, a large battery, and could last more than a week on standby. It was also durable and water-resistant.
At this crucial moment, it provided him with great psychological comfort.
The phone's interface clearly displayed the time: March 5, 2024, 3:32 PM.
"Ah..." Yu Hong sighed lightly—this was the time before he had arrived here.
But now, it was meaningless.
Looking at the empty signal bars on the top right corner of the phone screen, he realized he was probably not in the original world anymore...
Whether it was the reports in the newspaper before, the common knowledge told by Xia Jieba and Doctor Xu, or the bizarre circumstances he was encountering, they all indicated... this wasn't his world.
He looked up at the bright sunlight.
Yu Hong looked down and made a mark on the muddy ground at his feet, using a few stones to form a small triangular structure.
This was a marker meant to prevent getting lost.
Fifteen minutes had passed since Doctor Xu and Xia Jieba had left. During those fifteen minutes, he had walked around the village for a while.
But to his disappointment, it seemed that, apart from the three of them, there were no other living people here.
"Perhaps the living have hidden away and don't show themselves. After all, even in the daylight, there could still be great dangers."
Yu Hong sighed inwardly, his hand constantly gripped the enhanced white stone.
His previous experiences had made him keenly aware that, in this place, the effect of the white stone was his only guarantee of safety.
According to what Doctor Xu had said before leaving, during the day when there was sunlight, there would be no black bugs, and only very few shadows might be encountered by chance.
And these shadows were not much of a threat during the day as long as one carried a white stone.
For the shadows seemed very weak during the day.
Yu Hong believed this; otherwise, Xia Jieba and Doctor Xu would not have ventured out so casually.
With his mind settling down, he looked back at the markers he had made along the way to ensure they were still there, then continued walking forward.
Silence.
Utter stillness.
Swoosh.
Swoosh.
Aside from the crisp sounds of his steps through the weeds, there was no other noise.
Even the wind was barely audible.
After another ten or so minutes,
Yu Hong finally managed to largely circumnavigate the entire village.
He stood at the initial gravel road junction, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and mentally noted some of the important places he had discovered just recently.
Most critically, the well.
Earlier, he had seen a well in the yard of a house from a distance.
The well's stone edge had many footprints, indicating that it was a rare source of drinking water here.
But even from over ten meters away, he could feel a bone-chilling cold emanating from the well.
Even the sunlight couldn't suppress it; he felt something was off, so he didn't approach but just memorized its location.
"It's strange... a small village located on a hilltop, yet they dig wells on high ground..." Yu Hong pondered, puzzled. Normally, wells are dug in low-lying areas since water flows downward.
But this place was different from others...
Standing on the gravel road, he looked around once more.
Surrounding the village was an unending sea of ink-green forests.
The forests merged into one vast expanse, resembling a sea of trees.
No bird calls, no visible creatures, even the ink-green trees and grass gave an eerie, unsettling feeling.
Yu Hong stared blankly, focusing on the only road that led out of the area. After a while, he turned and went back to the village.
Without incident, he returned to Xia Jieba's house.
He only breathed a sigh of relief after he had firmly shut the wooden door behind him.
"This place... is too eerie..." Thinking about how he might have to live here indefinitely without hope of returning, a deep sense of despair arose within him.
"I've looked around just now; no cars.... but there are tyre marks on the ground, which means there were cars here before, but later they were driven away."
Yu Hong found a piece of charcoal in a corner filled with odds and ends and began drawing a map of Baiqiu Village on the wall.
The map was simple, just basic lines and small squares representing houses.
The well, the old road leading out, and Xia Jieba's house where he was staying were all marked by him.
The three places formed a triangular structure.
"Now, what should I do?" Yu Hong stared at the map, quickly suppressing his despair, and pondered his future.
"I can't rely on Xia Jieba forever; I must learn to deal with these dangers myself and find food and shelter."
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he held the charcoal and continued to draw on the wall.
Then, he raised his hand and gazed at the Black Mark on the back of his hand.
"And this mark, if I don't want to be noticed, I must choose to live alone. Otherwise, in such an extremely dangerous environment, being known for my abilities... would be very dangerous!"
Although it was still unclear whether others had similar abilities, Yu Hong was certain that Little Stammerer and Dr. Xu definitely did not.
This could be seen from some subtle details.
"I'll first learn how to find food and drink and then move out!" Yu Hong quickly made up his mind.
Having decided, he got up, went back to his bed, and planned to rest some more, waiting for Little Stammerer to return.
Thud, thud, thud...
Suddenly.
The door sounded again.
One knock after another, very rhythmic.
Yu Hong's throat bobbed, and he looked toward the wooden door. He didn't make a sound.
Such knocking was not right.
But he ignored the other party, gripped the enhanced white stone tightly, took a deep breath, and quietly lay down, ready to rest.
Thud thud thud...
The knocking still sounded.
One after another.
But Yu Hong remained silent as if he hadn't heard.
He lay on his side on the bed, his gaze fixed on the door, his hand holding the enhanced white stone, his body tense, ready to react at any moment.
Fortunately, the knocking continued seven times and then stopped.
Instead, there seemed to be someone peeking through the window.
Looking inside through the cracks of the seals.
Yu Hong felt a chill in his heart, turned his head to stare intensely at the window, and breathed heavily in a low voice.
A strong sense of crisis continuously stimulated his adrenal glands to secrete, his blood flowing rapidly, speeding up the circulation, his face flushing red.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
The figure outside the window seemed to have lost patience and quietly left.
The light at the window was no longer blocked, returning to normal.
Yu Hong clutched the enhanced white stone tightly, feeling both the stone and his palm sweaty.
Lowering his head, he took a deep breath, adjusting his physical condition. He got up and picked up another piece of white stone, an unused one this time.
Then he looked at the numbers displayed on the stone: 2 days.
"The unused one only takes two days to be enhanced?" He breathed a sigh of relief.
Listening to the question that arose beside him, he silently gave the confirmation to enhance.
Soon, the numbers on the surface of the white stone instantly disappeared, and it seemed to be enveloped in a layer of greasy fat, beginning the Black Mark enhancement.
Yu Hong didn't look, just pocketed it in his other trouser pocket.
Then he lay down with his eyes squinted, set an alarm on his phone, and fell into a groggy sleep.
He didn't sleep long and not deeply this time, waking up soon.
"Little Stammerer is not coming back tonight, which means tonight, I'm the only one staying in this room..." Yu Hong glanced at the dim sunlight outside the window slit, his heart sinking slightly.
He got up, went to the corner of the room, took out a large candle and something like matches that Little Stammerer had left him.
He prepared them, placing them beside his bed, within easy reach.
Then, just like that, Yu Hong lay half-reclined on the bed, waiting for nightfall.
Time slowly passed, and soon, the outside grew darker and eventually fell into pitch black.
This time it was very quiet, no previous black bugs, no shadows.
Everything seemed to have forgotten him, a moment of peace.
In the weary vigil, the night quickly passed.
Until daylight, when Yu Hong saw the bright sunlight streaming through the window, did he finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
But though it was daylight, and the night had been uneventful, the long hours of vigilance and torment had left him extremely exhausted, both mentally and physically.
This made him increasingly desperate to find a truly absolutely safe resting place.
He wasn't like Little Stammerer; he couldn't go on without proper rest, or he would die.
He got up, filtered some water to drink in the room, then Yu Hong's stomach started growling again.
Although he had eaten all of Little Stammerer's stored food yesterday, so much time had passed, and his stomach was already digested clean.
He got up and went out, taking advantage of the good sunshine, wandered around at the broken stone junction.
This time, he followed the old highway for a while, trying to find edible plants and insects.
But unfortunately, he found nothing on the road, not a single insect, and he didn't recognize any of the plants.
None of the plants here were ones he had seen before. Not even the most common wild chrysanthemums and dandelions could be seen.
Luckily, eventually, the two Little Stammerers came back.
Plop.
Inside the room, Little Stammerer strenuously placed a large bundle on the floor.
Then he opened the bundle tie.
Inside were packets of dried meat, dried mushrooms, and dried insects.
Yu Hong came forward to help, discovering the dried meat was primarily blackish meat granules, unsure of what animal they came from.
The dried mushrooms were also broken, unclear of what species they were.
And the dried insects...
"Is this... cockroaches??!" Yu Hong's expression changed a bit.
"Yes... it's... a 'treat.'" Little Stammerer shook her head, correcting him. Then she casually picked up a thumb-sized dried cockroach and popped it into her mouth.
"Tasty!" She gave a thumbs-up, chewing rapidly with a crisp crunch, her eyes wide and round, filled with joy.
"... " Yu Hong was at a loss for words.