The Years I Became an Ancient Investigator

After receiving a letter, the amnesiac protagonist, Gu Shanlong, is kidnapped and taken to a mysterious mountainous region, where he and three others, an old man, a youth, and a police officer, are forced to take part in a hunger game in an abandoned village. The letter had given Gu Shanlong a few clues to help him clear the game. But those were only the surface rules given to them by the game's master. At the same time, all kinds of bizarre, deadly "monsters" were closing in on them in the valley. After several close calls, Gu Shanlong and his companions finally realize that this world is beyond ordinary understanding. --Time and space in a loop. --An ancient tomb shaped like a snake. --Prehistoric vegetation. --A mysterious coffin in a rural village from the 1950s. Most absurd of all, the mutated, deformed "ten-meter-tall monster" turns out to be a university student from a prestigious school in the 1980s! The four refuse to believe in supernatural forces, so they try to explain everything through science, geography, nature, and the humanities. Then a mysterious energy tied to the origins of Huaxia civilization, Fuxi and Nuwa, brings the truth to light. It turns out a special organization has been conducting "monster investigations" all over China. This world is even more fantastical than they imagined. Nuwa and Fuxi are both serpents, not humans! And Chang'e isn't a goddess, but an old man who mastered ancient alchemy?! Five thousand years later, "gods" are no longer myths, and science can explain them. Gu Shanlong takes on more missions to uncover the truth, while also hoping to get the explosive packs off the four of them and claim the billions in cash dropped from the helicopter overhead. And so begins the story of Gu Shanlong's origins and his adventures with his teammates across the land of Huaxia. Theme: Gaze into the abyss and overcome fear.