Late at night, at a crossroads, Wang Rui sat cross-legged next to his own body.

The streetlight's beam pierced through his semi-transparent body but left no shadow on the ground.

His story was simple: a late-night worker urgently called back to work, checking WeChat while crossing the street, when a heavy truck, which was restricted from driving during the day, and a tired driver collided with him... Well, the rest was as you'd expect.

The driver fled the scene, and the twisted body was left on the road, with dark bloodstains spreading beneath it, illuminated by the dim streetlight. The tire tracks stained the asphalt and stretched forward.

Maybe he'd join the urban legends, Wang Rui idly thought. After all, this intersection was said to be quite cursed, with rumors of people having hung themselves in the nearby greenery.

He then started to entertain a peculiar thought—maybe he was still in bed, having a nightmare about being run over by a dump truck, and would wake up the next morning to rush to work and begin another mundane day.

While sitting there, trying to figure out how to escape such a ridiculous nightmare, his phone suddenly rang.

"Can't I just die in peace?" Wang Rui muttered as he closed his eyes, having no intention of getting up to check, "But this phone sure is tougher than my life, it's still not broken."

He ignored the buzzing phone, continuing his aimless thoughts.

However, the ringtone persisted, ringing over and over again. Finally, he reluctantly cast a glance at the phone.

The screen was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, still glowing weakly in the pool of blood.

Wang Rui squinted, studying the caller ID on the cracked screen: Wang Xiaohua.

That was his nickname for his twin sister.

Wang Rui froze for a moment, before suddenly realizing something, and reached for the phone on the ground with a trembling hand, trying to press the answer button.

But his semi-transparent fingertip passed through the screen, and the green icon seemed to form an insurmountable barrier between life and death.

Although he no longer needed to breathe, Wang Rui felt as though he were being forced underwater, gasping for air. It wasn't until that moment that he truly understood he was dead.

Wang Rui's sister wouldn't randomly call him at midnight.

Maybe it was some sort of telepathic connection, a mystical twin bond that sensed her brother was in trouble; or perhaps she was in danger and needed his help; or maybe it was just the simplest reason—a heartbreak at midnight, needing her older brother's comfort.

But he would never be able to answer that call.

He was dead. He could no longer pick up his sister's phone.

The phone rang and rang, the muffled sound echoing through the scene of the accident, bringing with it an eerie feeling.

The dead soul knelt beside the small screen, trying over and over again to answer the call that would never be answered.

Eventually, the phone's battery died, and the screen went dark.

After an unknown period of time, Wang Rui heard a faint noise behind him, like the scratching of claws on the ground, perhaps from a stray dog. He turned stiffly to look—

A beautiful beast, like something out of a fantasy, stood in the orange light of the streetlamp.

It was semi-transparent, like Wang Rui, with no shadow.

The creature, about a person's height, was like a lion but not quite—its four paws were like a dragon's, shining in brilliant gold. A pair of sharp horns protruded from its fiery mane.

It tilted its head, eyeing Wang Rui, its golden eyes showing a hint of human-like curiosity. A golden vertical line on its forehead opened, revealing a blood-red eye.

After a brief moment of surprise, Wang Rui, like most office workers, calmly accepted the sight of the strange beast, not feeling scared. But when faced with the red vertical eye, he felt a strange discomfort.

He furrowed his brows, staring back, yet somehow felt that the golden lion-like creature was vaguely familiar.

The beast and the man stared at each other in silence for a while, until the creature spoke first, its voice cold and clear: "Human, do you want to live again?"

Wang Rui didn't respond but clearly expressed his skepticism in his eyes.

The beast seemed slightly irritated. "I am the Emperor of the Star Dou Forest, the Three-eyed Golden Lion. Do you wish to trade your fate with me, to exchange it for a chance to live?"

Wang Rui let out a small "wow."

He was a bit surprised, but not overly so.

After all, he was already dead. Anything could happen after death. Even being reborn as a slime in another world seemed perfectly normal.

"What do you mean?" The beast, sensing his hesitation, flicked its tail impatiently. Wang Rui noticed that the golden, shining tail was more like a dragon's than a lion's, not the thin furry one.

Wang Rui pondered for a moment and asked, "I always thought you were a character from a novel."

The beast tilted its head and replied, "Your world's novels may not be entirely fictional, and the real world may not be entirely real." It said with a cryptic line that fit the narrative of fate, "What do you say? Will you use my fate to enter the world of Douluo to live again?"

Wang Rui considered it for a moment. After all, he was already dead, so there was no harm in indulging his curiosity about this three-eyed golden lion that seemed to have stepped out of a novel.

"How did you end up here? I thought you had fully merged with Huo Yuhao," Wang Rui asked.

The beast turned its head to look at him, a hint of softness in its golden eyes. "You're right, I did sacrifice myself for Yuhao, my soul and my fortune became part of him. I have been watching him all this time. My bloodline power followed a trace of soul to..."

It paused. "That woman. When we were in the Blue Silver Valley, a part of me, or what I thought was my part, separated from Yuhao and attached to her."

Wang Rui racked his brain, trying to recall this part of the plot, but since he had read the novel ten years ago, he couldn't remember the details. He could only agree with, "Is it the part of your consciousness that merged with Tang Wutong?"

"Yes." The beast lowered its proud head, sounding unusually sad. "She said, 'I used the power of fate to merge my soul and origin power into the still-sleeping Dong'er. Whether she is Dong'er or Tang Wutong, she is your true love. When you miss me, just hold Wutong more often.'"

Wang Rui still couldn't recall the exact part in the novel, but he understood that this was like a knife in the heart for the beast that had sacrificed itself for Huo Yuhao.

This wasn't something that could be described as just NTR (netorare).

Sure enough, the beast became angry, its golden mane rising like a blaze, its claws digging into the ground. "But Tang Wutong isn't me! I wanted Yuhao to remember me forever, not to treat Wutong as me! That woman isn't even Dong'er! I have seen the love in Dong'er's eyes, that beautiful, sparkling love that's like a jewel—far different from the fake feelings in that woman's eyes!"

Wang Rui shrank back. The beast in front of him reminded him of an angry little dragon hidden inside a lion.

He quietly swallowed his thoughts and let the beast vent.

Maybe it was because he was used to comforting his little sister, Wang Rui instinctively reached up and patted the beast's head.

"Do you hate them?" he asked after a while.

"I hate that woman, but not Yuhao." The beast hesitated before answering, "In your human words, Yuhao has been manipulated by that bad woman and her father... though I don't fully understand what a CPU is, I know it's not his fault."

CPU... Wang Rui fell silent again. He couldn't help but admire the Three-eyed Golden Lion's ability to accept new things.

"After I came to this world, I wandered through a place called the 'internet' by humans." The beast continued, "The power in this 'internet' is incredible, it's like a sea formed by countless human thoughts."

...So, you really are a Internenet addict, huh