When Lin Fan crouched beside a trash can behind his university, so overwhelmed by the three hundred yuan rent increase that he could barely breathe, he had no idea that the silver pocket watch he casually picked up would shatter his ordinary life for good.
The moment his fingertips touched the watch, a cold electronic voice sounded in his mind: [Lifespan Recovery System successfully bound. Remaining lifespan: 7,362 days]. Other people's systems gave them superpowers and fortunes. His treated lifespan as currency: redeeming a loaf of bread cost two hours, while refusing a mission took a whole day off his life.
Even stranger, something about this world had been wrong for a long time. Food delivery workers who could fly were commonplace. His roommate had a hidden video on his phone of him picking up the watch, and even the stray cats in the alley sized him up like he was "emergency rations."
To stay alive, Lin Fan had no choice but to trade his life for resources: three days of lifespan for the ability to see through lies, half a year for footwork that could help him evade pursuers, ten years... for a cruel truth about "why the System exists."
When he discovered that all those floating, mutated, secretive people were looking for "lifespan Hosts" like him, and realized that what he had picked up was not a pocket watch but the key to opening Pandora's box...
Lin Fan looked at the dwindling number of days on the System panel and suddenly smiled.
"Take it. Once I figure all this out, you'll pay back every second you owe me, with interest."
This is a story about playing your lifespan as a stake and proceeding cautiously through a bizarre world. Here, food delivery workers can fly, "friends" keep secrets, and countless eyes are fixed on your lifespan. And
