[Alternate World + Bizarre Rules + Cthulhu + Apocalypse + Suspense]
When ancient myths are no longer just legends, and the gods descend in “uncanny” forms,
don’t pray.
Thirty years ago, the entire world became a playground for the divine and the uncanny.
The “Yamata no Orochi” you see is only a projection of a disaster’s rules. The “Nian Beast” territory you enter is a dead end where you must follow a countdown ritual.
Here, all mortals are sacrifices.
Chen Chen.
While others desperately struggled to survive in mythic realms, even kneeling before the uncanny, he quietly pulled out an old lighter.
“The only way to fight one set of rules is with another.”
The lighter sparked, and a white flame flared to life.
He burned away “fear” to gain absolute clarity.
He burned away “time” to halt the gods’ countdown.
The price was that his body temperature faded, his shadow grew fainter, and his hair turned the lifeless white of an old photograph.
In his notebook, he wrote a hundred different “contingency plans for death” for every member of his team.
But as long as he stood at the front line, none of those plans would ever come to pass.
Because behind him
Someone sacrificed their eyes just to defy the realm and ignore the gods for five minutes.
Someone erased their memories just to rewrite an unspeakable true name.
Someone refused to retreat, even in death, their flesh and blood becoming a section of the Great Wall, aflame as a beacon.
“You ask why we’d steal the gods’ authority, even if it meant becoming monsters?”
Chen Chen exhaled a breath of colorless, icy vapor and looked up at the indescribable eye opening in the heavens above.
“Because what I’ve lit isn’t a fire.”
“It’s humanity’s unyielding will to never bow its head.”
