Pain.

  Severe pain.

  Unparalleled severe pain, like a husky tearing down the house in the head, tearing apart every nerve.

  Rod was awakened from his deep sleep by the pain.

  "D*mn...why does my head hurt so much? Is someone trying to trick me?"

  "F*ck, if anyone says that drinking can prevent cerebral infarction, I will let him have a cerebral infarction first..."

  Rod opened his eyes and was about to get up.

  However, the next moment, he was stunned.

  This is not a dormitory, nor a home. The good brother who poured wine with him is gone. He is not sleeping on the bed, but on the dry and hard wasteland.

  What is creepy is that there are still many people lying on the wasteland. They are motionless and lifeless.

  It is clear that they have been dead for a long time.

  The hairs on the back of Rod's head exploded instantly.

  Why are there so many dead people?

  My body was dumped?

  But this does not look like a crematorium.

  Rod forced himself to calm down, and as his eyes moved, he found more strange things.

  The dead were dressed strangely, not in modern style, and their bodies were shriveled and black, not like normal death. There were signs of destruction around them, but as a man who had watched more than a thousand episodes of Conan, he keenly found that these signs were not harmonious.

  But what was even more strange was a lamp.

  In the center of the pile of corpses, it was tightly held by a dry hand.

  Its outer layer was a grille surrounded by gray metal, and the inner layer was thick translucent glass, from which you could vaguely see a tiny flame that seemed to be extinguished at any time.

  And the light emitted by this fragile flame illuminated the world within a radius of 100 meters.

  Beyond the 100-meter fire, there was a thick black fog that kept rolling.

  There was no night sky, no stars, no moon, and no sun.

  There was only darkness.

  Rod opened his mouth wide, and he couldn't even breathe. Only the husky in his head was destroying the house.

  There was no doubt that this was not a normal, understandable world.

  If the pain hadn't continued, Rod would have thought he was dreaming.

  "Oh no, I'm not in a weird world... This is going to be a bad death..."

  Rod regretted watching so many horror movies. Various horror scenes in his memory surged out of his mind uncontrollably, such as being eaten by monsters, being stuffed into the sewer alive, pressed into a suitcase, made into candied fruit, and other uncomfortable scenes came one after another.

  "Calm down, calm down, I need to calm down now."

  Rod took deep breaths continuously.

  "Don't panic, don't panic. Mr. Lu Xun once said that the best way to eliminate fear is to face it. Not all ghost movies are annihilated..."

  "I will definitely survive and return to my world. Zhiling, Satomi, Yui, Mei, Yuna, and Asuka are still waiting for me. I can't let them be sad for me..."

  It took Rod a lot of effort to calm down. As soon as his rational thinking was restored, fragments of memory surged out of his brain.

  After spending dozens of minutes digesting this not-so-long but very fragmented information, Rod's heart sank to the bottom of the sea.

  As he saw, this was a world shrouded in black fog.

  The diffuse black fog would corrode all living creatures, and only monsters roamed in it.

  The world had sunk, countless countries had been destroyed, and turned into monster nests, and the sun, moon, and stars were hard to see.

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  The only thing that protected humans was fire.

  They called it the Guardian Fire, or the Fire of Light, the Fire of Life, the Fire of Hope, and the Fire of Eternity, and used it to build human settlements to survive in this dark hell.

  The settlements depended entirely on the power of fire. The stronger the fire, the larger the settlement.

  The most powerful Guardian Fire was the Holy Fire of the Royal City, which was also their largest settlement. All villages and towns were within the range of its power radiation and existed around it.

  The Red Stone Village where he lived was such a settlement, and its mission and livelihood were to mine redstone for the Royal City.

  He was naturally a miner. Both his parents were miners. His grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-grandfather's grandfather were also miners. He had a happy life mining all year round until one day, doom came.

  A turmoil occurred in the world shrouded in black fog. The royal city had to reduce its scope and abandon part of the land and settlements.

  Red Stone Village was unfortunately among those abandoned, and they were forced to migrate.

  And the corpses on the ground were all members of the migration team from Red Stone Village to the royal city.

  "This... the whole army was wiped out? Only I am alive?"

  Rod felt a strong chill.

  This is definitely not a good thing. It usually means that he will encounter a more terrible and worse doom.

  He didn't know what happened during the migration process, how they died, and how he survived.

  The memory was broken, with large blanks. "What should I do? I won't die here, will I?"

  "No, no, it's impossible."

  "Observe, I need to observe, maybe I can find clues to go home."

  Rod looked around and soon noticed the red stones scattered among the corpses.

  They seemed to have been arranged artificially, with strong directionality.

  The center of the direction was a strange pattern drawn by blood.

  It was less than half a meter in diameter, with a circle on the outside and two intersecting lightning lines inside the circle. The strong visual sense made it look extremely aggressive, and the black bloodstains made it look a little weird.

  Rod's pupils shrank, and for a moment, both fear and headache were forgotten.

  Isn't the symbol on this pattern the cover page of the dream symbol about courage in the famous psychology masterpiece "The Interpretation of Dreams" that he had read before?

  The experience before the time travel came to his mind.

  He was studying in the dormitory, and his brothers asked him to go for a drink.

  I didn't want to go at first, but a friend said that drinking alcohol can prevent cerebral infarction, open up the blocked areas in the brain, open his mind, and let his emotional talent that had been covered for many years shine again. Reading the classic secret book he has collected for many years, he will definitely be able to become a gentle and warm man who is a master of love, warm her up all day with one sentence, easily chase the goddess of his mind, marry a white, rich and beautiful woman, and reach the peak of life.

  Rod couldn't resist the invitation of his friend and the desire in his heart. Although he didn't drink much, he still went.

  It seemed to be really useful. After reading books such as "The True Scripture of the Sea King" and "The Magic Skills of Scumbags" after drinking, Rod felt that he had realized the true meaning of life and understood "Emotional Quotient". He would never be rejected by girls because he couldn't read the atmosphere.

  The only thing he lacked was courage.

  Then, he thought of "The Interpretation of Dreams" he had just read, and thought of the symbol about courage.

  Before going to bed, he used his hands to make this symbol according to the book, placed it on his chest, and closed his eyes peacefully.

  I thought that after waking up, a new bright road of life would open up before his eyes, but I didn't expect it to be so "peaceful".

  Thoughts passed by in an instant, and a thought suddenly jumped in Rod's mind.

  If all this is really related to it, then.

  Can I go back?

  The moment this thought appeared, his brain blood vessels were beating wildly, and his heart was almost broken. The desire to go home attracted him, his family, his best friends, the Internet, the keyboard, his wives in reality or virtual, present or future, encouraged him.

  Infinite courage rose in his heart.

  There was nothing to be afraid of.

  Rod quickly ran to the target point.

  In such an unknown danger, decisive and goal-oriented actions may not necessarily have good results, but they are the closest path to success.

  Hesitation, hesitation, and staying still seem safe, but they often lead to worse results.

  Although it is impossible to be sure, this is the only possibility.

  Maybe with just a slight touch, he can instantly travel back home.

  Rod jumped and jumped into this weird pattern.

  The next moment, the body felt hot, as if something hot penetrated into it.

  Then, the eyes went dark, and countless images rushed in front of him.

  In the dark wasteland, a team was walking alone.

  In the team, a hand was raised high and crushed a black skull. There was a very obvious eye pattern on the back of the hand.

  The team was disturbed, and a ghost was walking among them.

  Everyone was dead.

  The picture disappeared, the strange feeling faded, and Rhodes came back to his senses. The pattern under his feet began to evaporate, and the black blood steamed up, turning into fine black dust and flying away.

  The light dimmed a little.

  "What happened?"

  Rhodes was a little confused. What did those pictures mean? What was the hot and swollen thing?

  Also, this weird symbol just disappeared?

  Aren't you going to give me a surprise?

  Looking around, the scene of corpses everywhere still made people creepy, but there was a familiar feeling.

  Suddenly, a thought popped up:

  "Could it be that the scene I just saw was the scene when this team was destroyed?"

  "The hand that crushed the top of the head is the murderer?"

  But what's the use of knowing the murderer? If I kill the murderer, will a portal open on his body to send me home?

  While he was in a daze, Rhodes suddenly found that there were shadows like ghosts floating around, and strange humming sounds sounded in the air, and all the corpses were covered with shadows.

  "What's going on?"

  "Didn't I release some ghost thing?"

  Puff!

  A monster covered with black hair stepped in from the edge of light and darkness.

  The moment the firelight shone on it, a raging fire ignited, and black smoke and dust scattered all over the sky with the flames.

  Its movement froze for a moment, but it did not stop completely, as if trudging in a quagmire.

  "F*ck!"

  Rhodes was frightened and stepped back repeatedly.

  "What the hell is this! I don't want such a surprise!"

  Puff! Puff! Puff!

  More black-haired monsters stepped in from the black fog.

  The flying black ash and burning fire made them look extremely terrifying.

  Bang!

  In panic, Rhode accidentally tripped over a corpse.

  Just as he was about to get up, the corpse grabbed his ankle.

  "F*ck!"

  All the hair on Rhode's body stood up. He kicked the corpse's hand away and jumped away like a frightened rabbit.

  "The corpse is alive!"

  What's worse is that Rhode looked around and saw that every corpse within a hundred meters was ready to move.

  "F*ck!"

  Rhode couldn't say anything else.

  He had nowhere to escape and didn't know where to escape.

  Is it not over for me?

  In panic, he suddenly saw a meteor streaking across the distant sky from the corner of his eye.

  His thoughts were touched in an instant.

  Rhodes immediately remembered that this was the rescuer of the Royal City.

  In his memory, the Royal City was the pillar of all their beliefs.

  As a human kingdom that could survive in such a harsh and dark environment, they must have their own way of operation to deal with threats from the sinister outside world and the invasion of monsters.

  The migration team lost contact here, they must have discovered something unusual!

  "Hey!"

  Rhodes shouted, and hope suddenly rose in his heart.

  Not only the hope of being rescued, but also a greater hope.

  He just stepped into the pattern and saw the scene of the destruction of this migration team.

  Combined with the traces left at the scene, it can be inferred that this must be a man-made murder.

  And the characteristic of the murderer is that there is a very obvious eye pattern engraved on the back of his hand.

  This is a very important information for solving the case. If he provides it to the rescuer, he should be rewarded.

  According to the experience of the original world, for a major case of murdering hundreds of people, at least an S-level wanted order should be issued. If you can provide important information to capture an S-level wanted criminal, it is not too much to allocate a house in the Royal City, right?

  If things could really go as he thought, at least the chance of survival would be greatly increased.

  "I'm here! I'm here!"

  Rod jumped and danced in front of the lamp, waving his hands wildly.

  And the meteor in the sky seemed to have noticed this place and turned to fly over.

  "Good! I have hope!"

  However, in ecstasy, Rod suddenly found that there was a black mark on the back of his waving hand.

  The black lines intersected up and down, forming a huge pupil.

  It was exactly the same as what he had seen before.

  No way?

  Rod froze.

  This... the murderer was actually me?

  I reported myself and was assigned a cell in the royal city?

  Bang.

  The meteor fell to the ground.