Notes from the Earth Abyss

Fifteen years ago, geotechnical engineer Shen Xuanqing disappeared in the Gobi Desert in the northwest. The official conclusion: a geological disaster.

Fifteen years later, his son Shen Mo receives an old book. Tucked inside is a scrap of paper bearing the coordinates of his father's disappearance and a single line: “He didn't disappear. He went down.”

Taking his father's incomplete notes and a bronze compass, Shen Mo enters the desert. The moment the compass slots into a hollow in the rock wall, stone steps “grow” out of the stone, leading into a darkness absent from every map.

There are no ancient tombs or treasures underground. But something far more terrifying is there.

A geological cross-section is carved into the rock wall. Thousands of years ago, someone used symbols understood only by modern geologists to record every “breath” of the underground. His father's handwriting appears on the wall, with a button embedded beneath it, identical to the one in Shen Mo's pocket.

On the second level, a door bears the inscription: “Shen Xuanqing entered. Zhou Yuanzhi stopped.” The door knows who will come.

On the third level, his father appears. His skin is pale, but his eyes are clear. He says, “You mustn't cross the bridge.” Yet he crossed it himself. He chose to “come back,” then spent fifteen years trapped on the third level.

He is waiting for someone. Waiting for someone to take his place.

Another button has appeared in Shen Mo's pocket. His father reached out of the darkness and slipped it in, across fifteen years. It is engraved with the words: “Don't take the bridge. Go below.”

“Below” leads to a fourth level, deeper than the bridge. There are older structures, darker spaces, and the truth his father has been afraid to speak for fifteen years.

Six buttons. Six words. The moment Shen Mo gathers them all, he will find his father. But is his father alive, or is he something else?