Qin Chuan was a maintenance worker at Kangning Residential Community. He'd been at it for six years, unclogging drains, fixing wiring, smashing up floor tiles in the middle of the night. He'd handled every kind of mess.
That was until one early morning, when he went to repair a convenience store that shouldn't have been lit.
A sign titled "Customer Notice" was posted on the door, listing five rules. Someone had altered the third. Everyone else saw the printed text, but he saw the original sentence underneath, crossed out, and a pencil note beside it: Don't trust Rule Three. I did last time, and never got out. Left by a fellow plumber.
He neither followed it nor forced his way in. He found the breaker box and cut the main power.
A mirror needs light to form an image. No electricity, no mirror.
By dawn, a black mark had appeared on his wrist, and a new sentence had lodged in his mind: After midnight tonight, don't look back.
A fat man stood waiting at the mouth of the alley, a cigarette dangling from his lips. "First time doing after-sales service, kid?"
From then on, Qin Chuan had a second job: an external maintenance worker for the Abnormal Incident Cleanup Bureau. While others entered dungeons to clear them, he waited until they collapsed before going in to clean up. No permanent position, no social security, paid by the job. If he died, they'd replace him.
Every time he repaired a dungeon, its most vicious rule would be nailed onto him and brought back to reality. Break it, and you die.
EN
The Landbound Key Immortal
Blazing King
EN
Physician’s Odyssey
A Nation's Beauty Brings the Empire to Ruin
The Way of Restraint
Never Yield the Land