The moment the ringtone sounded, Shi Rang stepped toward the door. After taking two steps, he realized it was not the doorbell.
He turned around and picked up the phone.
"Ying—"
"Hello, do you need life insurance?"
Shi Rang swallowed the nickname that had already reached his lips and hung up the phone.
He could not help but open the door and look outside, just in case Ying Shang was crouching there playing a prank, but once again, he found nothing.
The sky was about to turn completely dark, and the food had already been reheated twice.
'Normally, at this time, she should have been back long ago...'
Shi Rang opened his contacts and found the number for Ying Shang's art studio.
'I should call and ask.'
"Beep... beep..."
The moment the call connected, the world collapsed. Tattered images and mottled patches of color rushed past him.
Everything returned to clarity.
Shi Rang woke up.
He found himself lying on the floor, a bath towel wrapped around his waist, his whole body shrouded in steam.
The lights in the house were off, but the room was faintly illuminated by the glowing sky outside. The sun was about to rise.
He was so weak he could not move, as if he had just finished a marathon and collapsed headfirst after crossing the finish line.
At first, he could only twitch a few fingers. Using all his strength, he dragged his palm across the floor until he touched a solid, rectangular outline. It was his mobile phone. The screen was covered in deep spiderweb cracks; it was broken. After lying there for a while, feeling his strength recover slightly, he pushed himself up from the floor. By the dim light, he noticed his camera resting on the counter near the door.
'Am I at home?'
'But wasn't I... didn't I go to Yunling New District?'
'So, was it all just a dream? The darkness, the monsters, my life flashing before my eyes... was it all just a dream?'
His stomach was completely empty, and he was so hungry he felt dizzy.
His last memory was of killing the Stitched Walker and waiting alone in the darkness for death. However, the more he thought about it, the more absurd it felt—his right arm was still perfectly attached to his body!
Still somewhat dizzy, Shi Rang tossed the thoughts of monsters and human faces aside, trying hard to convince himself that he had woken up.
He dispelled the confusion in his mind, trying to locate the credible parts of his memory.
After a few minutes, he managed to piece together a plausible truth:
He had not been trapped in the industrial zone at night. Instead, he had returned home before sunset in a highly emotional state. He had probably planned to take a shower and go to sleep, playing the coward in the face of the chief editor's unreasonable demands. Somehow, he ended up fainting in the living room, breaking his phone in the process, and having a bizarre dream.
The supernatural elements in the dream had all appeared on the Management Bureau Main Station. He already knew the information about Director Bjorn and the Stitched Walker, while the rest stemmed from his traumatic memories from a few days ago. His imagination and subconscious had undergone a chemical reaction, ultimately causing him to suffer immense torment in a half-awake state. Perhaps his intense hatred for the chief editor had condensed into the miraculous defeat of the Stitched Walker as a way to relieve his stress.
'Exactly, that makes sense.'
'This is the real world. How could such bizarre things happen?'
'But wait, why am I not even wearing slippers...?'
'I keep feeling like there's a weird smell in the house. Is it just my imagination?'
Shi Rang clenched his very real right hand and decided to ignore these details for now.
He set aside the phone that had broken after only a day of use and fumbled his way through the dark to the kitchen to find food.
It was a bit too early to eat, but he had not consumed anything since running around for those photographs at noon. Right now, every cell in his body was screaming for energy.
The dizziness and lethargy brought on by hypoglycemia made him stop in front of the refrigerator. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against the fridge door to alleviate the discomfort.
The coolness spreading across his forehead reminded him once again of the hand reaching for his skull.
That was supposed to be his arm, but the Stitched Walker had stolen it and made it its own...
'Stop overthinking. It was all a dream.'
Shi Rang let out a sigh.
He remembered buying a bag of bread before his business trip. If it had not gone moldy yet, he could toss it in the microwave and make do with it.
It was time to return to reality.
He pulled open the refrigerator door, squinting against the sudden glare of the internal light bulb.
'Stop letting your imagination run wild. How could there possibly be any anomalous creatures in the world—'
Shi Rang froze in place.
After a moment, he blinked forcefully, then began to rub his eyes.
On his plastic bag of freshly expired bread, there was a swarm of... ants.
No, ants would be slightly larger. He could clearly see what looked like tiny specks of dust moving inside the plastic bag along the grain fibers.
Just then, something about the length of an index finger caught Shi Rang's attention. It stood at the front of the bread bag, blending in almost perfectly with the printed logo, jumping up and down while waving its arms at him. It also emitted a faint, mosquito-like sound that was almost entirely drowned out by the humming of the refrigerator.
"I'm right here! I'm over here! Can you see me?"
It was a Mini-Human.
Shi Rang stared blankly at the Mini-Human for a long moment. Then, he closed the refrigerator door just as he found it, stumbled his way into the bedroom, and collapsed face-first onto the bed.
He really needed to rest.
The dream came with unusual ferocity. Once again, Shi Rang stood next to the cold food, waiting for Ying Shang to come home and see the surprise.
As time slipped by, he paced back and forth anxiously. It was not until the room darkened along with the fading daylight that he finally gave in and pulled out his phone.
'I should call and ask.'
He pressed the dial button.
'Something's wrong...'
'Something is definitely wrong...'
Shi Rang halted his finger.
The dreamscape blurred in response to his memories. The surrounding objects morphed and constantly shifted along with his thoughts.
Finally, he looked out the window, gazing at the descending night.
He was terrified of interacting with people, but any anomalous signs regarding Ying Shang would fill him with deep unease.
He always felt that misfortune loomed right behind happiness. Day and night, he worried that his dreamlike, beautiful life would be ripped away by some sudden tragedy.
If she failed to reply to a message for just ten minutes, vivid scenes of collapsing buildings, gas explosions, or robbers getting into shootouts would flood Shi Rang's mind. Fueled by anxiety, he would call her to check if she was safe, and only upon hearing her laughter would he reclaim his peace of mind. Ying Shang never grew annoyed or blamed him for this. Every time he made his "check-in calls," she would return his affection, presenting him with a small gift and a mysterious smile the next time she saw him—sometimes fruit, sometimes a small cake, and sometimes a single flower.
She was practically spoiling Shi Rang rotten.
Ying Shang had gotten off work an hour and a half ago. How could he have waited at home until it was completely dark before going out to find her?
For the first time in his life, Shi Rang felt doubt regarding his own memories.
Not doubting the specific details or his thoughts at the time, but doubting the memory itself...
Instantly, the dream shattered.
Sprawled awkwardly across the bed, Shi Rang opened his eyes to the morning light. Before he could even sit up, his gaze focused on the tip of his nose—a Mini-Human was standing right there, hands planted firmly on its hips.
"I am talking to you, Mr. Big. Surely you can see me now, right?"
Shi Rang began to seriously suspect that he had gone insane.
-----------------
[Nu-2 "Hippies" Combat Communication Channel-3]
[Command Operations Department: All squads, the Intelligence Department has completed the analysis of the "Stitched Walker." Captains of all teams, synchronize the intelligence according to your clearance levels.]
[Al Squad Leader: In the past twelve hours, our team has found no traces of walker activity. The same applies to C-888. Perhaps the remaining missing entities have already reached neutralization.]
[Be Squad Leader: Are you serious? This thing is afraid of light?]
[Ga Squad Leader: If the data wasn't already archived, I'd honestly say they were talking nonsense. This description is far too vague. What specific kind of light? Natural light? Artificial light? Where is the spectral data? When the walker was running rampant through the city in broad daylight, it didn't seem afraid of the sun at all. Has their recent work really been this sloppy?]
[Command Operations Department: Anomalies are subject to change. The Stitched Walker has already mutated multiple times, so of course it might continue to do so. Before you begin your next round of complaints, all squads prepare to hand over operations in three hours. The follow-up work of hunting down the traitor and the out-of-control anomalous creatures will be taken over by local field agents and the Containment Squad.]
[Be Squad Leader: Finally!]
[Al Squad Leader: Do we need to switch our gear to continue the hunt? Can our tactical flashlights meet the requirements to suppress the walker?]
[Command Operations Department: I would love to give you an answer, Team A, but unfortunately, there are currently no available entities that can be used for testing...]
[Al Squad Leader: Oh, I see. They couldn't find any lab mice inside, so they're looking for them out here.]
[Command Operations Department: Report any situations immediately.]