Chapter 1 The Person in the Closet?

Li Ang subconsciously looked at the tall, old, wooden closet in the corner of the room.

*Sha-sha, sha-sha.*

The sound of hangers colliding and clothes rubbing together came from inside the closet.

With a bang, the closet's wooden door was violently pushed open from the inside, and a figure rushed out.

It was a tall man, wearing a black ninja outfit, a hat, and a mask.

His eyes gleamed with ferocity. His hands, covered in motorcycle gloves, held a small knife and a wet towel.

The man's objective was clear. He charged straight toward the bed where Li Ang was.

However, a burst of indistinct beastial roars erupted from under Li Ang's bed.

A massive black shadow, far too large to fit under the bed, sprang out and surged toward the man,

carrying him through the glass window and slamming him onto the street below.

Li Ang did a carp jump from the bed, his feet pushing hard against the bed frame, using the reaction force to leap nimbly to the window.

He looked down, seeing only a street shrouded in the dim glow of two rows of streetlights.

The man in the ninja outfit was screaming as he staggered down the street,

with the black shadow following him at a leisurely pace, occasionally swinging its arms to tear open the man's back.

Li Ang frowned. Just as he was about to jump out the window, he realized that the floor beneath his feet was rapidly dissolving into nothingness.

In the blink of an eye, the floor, the walls, and the entire house turned into smoke and dissipated.

Li Ang fell straight from the third floor. The height didn't affect him at all.

He was now on the street. Turning around, he couldn't see the house, the man in the ninja outfit, or the shadowy monster that was chasing him.

Silence. Deathly silence.

It was as if all that remained in the world was this straight street, shrouded in the dim light of the street lamps, stretching on for an unknown distance.

"Uh,"

Miss Chai said blankly, "What's going on?"

"Not sure."

Li Ang frowned, noticing a vehicle parked not far ahead.

Judging by the style, it looked like a van.

Li Ang didn't rush forward. He first tried to open his friend communication list, but found that he couldn't.

Then, he took out his Swiss Army Knife 3000, turned on the flashlight, and shone it toward the darkness outside the street.

The flashlight beam was directly swallowed by the darkness, as if it had been cut off in mid-air.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, then took out the beehive and a worm from his inventory.

He used the Marsh Divine Power to control two combat worker bees and the worm, sending them to explore outside the street.

The insects gradually flew out of the range of the streetlights' glow, and suddenly the connection to the divine power was severed. They were swallowed by the darkness, without a sound.

This path is blocked.

Li Ang then tested his phone, drone, shortwave radio, and other devices.

Finally, he confirmed that remote communication was impossible in this space. He also couldn't launch a reconnaissance drone or a Ducati motorcycle.

The compass and GPS locator were also completely useless.

"Hah."

Li Ang exhaled a breath of turbid air, watching it turn into a pale white plume in the cold weather.

Miss Chai asked, "What do we do now?"

"Let's go take a look at that car first."

Li Ang stretched his muscles and walked along the street to the van.

It was a silver van, a bit old but well-maintained.

Through the tinted windows, he could see that the keys were still in the ignition.

The door wasn't locked. Li Ang directly pulled open the car door and looked inside, discovering that all the seats in the back of the van had been removed.

The inside of the van was covered with a layer of black waterproof plastic film, and many tools were placed on the film.

Duct tape, knives, handcuffs, tranquilizers, a handheld video camera, a tripod, ropes, and a plastic bucket containing an unknown liquid.

Li Ang said indifferently, "Judging from the conversation between me and the monster under the bed, I should be a child,

and the owner of this car, that is, the man hiding in the closet."

Miss Chai was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "That man is a kidnapper who specifically targets children..."

"Yeah."

Li Ang nodded and leaned down to inspect the vehicle. He noticed something rolled up and stationary under the car.

He used his bronze scythe to reach under the car, hooked the item, and pulled it out. He discovered that it was a yellowed, old English newspaper.

The gist of the article was that the local authorities, after a family reported a case, had captured a suspected kidnapper.

When he was found, he was lying unconscious on a lawn, his entire body covered in broken glass and wounds from wild animal bites.

His vehicle was parked on the side of the road in the residential area, and various kidnapping tools were found inside.

In the suspect's basement, the authorities found five children who had gone missing over the past three years, as well as a large number of personally recorded videotapes.

In addition, the authorities found a large number of children's bones near the suspect's pet dog's kennel. After examination, the bones did not come from a single person.

The suspect died the day after he was discovered, despite attempts to save him. Before his death, he kept shouting the name "Frank."

The authorities hoped that members of the public with information about "Frank" would contact them as soon as possible.

Li Ang put down the newspaper, and his gaze toward the van became somewhat strange.

"So,"

Miss Chai took a deep breath and said quietly, "Is this something that happened in the real world,

or an absurd and unbelievable anomaly that Sheng Nan Wang's dream spontaneously constructed based on urban legends?"

"Either is possible."

Li Ang said indifferently, "Perhaps, what just happened was a simple beginner's tutorial."

"Beginner's tutorial? What do you mean?"

"If I hadn't completed the conversation with the monster under the bed, if I hadn't waited for the man in the closet to appear on his own initiative, and had attacked Frank directly,

then the story's ending would have been me and Frank fighting each other to the death."

Li Ang narrowed his eyes. "So, the meaning is that only by figuring out the rules can we survive the anomalies here?"

He stood there thinking for a while, folded the newspaper into a small square, put it in his pocket,

got into the vehicle, and turned the key.

The van started, and the two headlights illuminated the darkness ahead.

"It actually starts."

Li Ang closed the car door with some surprise.

"Eh?"

Miss Chai was a little surprised. "Are we going to drive this car? It feels weird, a little scary."

"Might as well drive it. Driving is at least faster than walking."

Li Ang started the vehicle without any hesitation and drove forward, adding in passing, "It's just a car used by a kidnapper.

You used to sleep on a glass box filled with formaldehyde and corpses every day, and I didn't see you being afraid."

"The atmosphere is different! I'm not afraid of dead bodies, just those invisible, intangible, terrifying demons and monsters."

Li Ang shook his head, ignored Miss Chai's explanation, and concentrated on driving.