Chapter 8

When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on an unfamiliar beach.

The waves washed over his body, and a hermit crab with a seashell on its back scurried past him.

Zhang Heng was in a terrible state. Since waking up, he had been thirsty, hungry, and utterly exhausted, as if he had really been drifting at sea for several days.

He found a drier spot and managed to sit down, leaning against a rock wall.

Looking in the direction from which he had been washed ashore, he saw nothing but endless seawater.

What kind of survival reality show set was this?

Perhaps it was a side effect of that lemonade, or maybe it was because he hadn't eaten anything for too long, but Zhang Heng's mind was now foggy. He forced himself to calm down and began to think about everything that had happened to him.

He had become the agent of that peculiar man in the Tang suit, as he had requested, and went to a bar called "Desire City" to participate in a mysterious game. After finally finding the person he was looking for, he was drugged and then thrown onto a deserted island.

So, the question was, why did the other person do this? What did they gain from it?

And what about that mysterious voice that had appeared in his mind, which seemed to be part of a game login? Was it just a hallucination? If not, what did it mean?

His body was still the same, but the sportswear he had been wearing was gone, replaced by a pair of shorts and a floral T-shirt. The Swiss Army knife he had kept in his pocket as a precaution was also missing.

However, the watch on his right wrist was still there, the only thing he hadn't lost.

But when Zhang Heng's gaze fell on the watch face, he was stunned.

The date on the watch hadn't changed; it was still the Thursday night he had entered the "Desire City" bar. The time on the watch had only advanced by one minute since he had lost consciousness.

Zhang Heng stared at it for a while and noticed that the second hand wasn't moving.

Was it broken?

Zhang Heng was a bit surprised. He had conducted many experiments with this watch before. It couldn't be adjusted, and the time on it was always accurate. The extra 12 marks on the dial were visible only to him. Neither water nor fire could damage it, and it was so sturdy that it didn't seem to belong to this world.

Zhang Heng had once thrown it from a building over 200 meters high onto the concrete ground below. The hard concrete had been cracked, but the watch remained unscathed.

He had once thought that even if he died, the watch would keep ticking until the end of the world, but he never expected it to lose its power one day...

However, Zhang Heng's heart then stirred, and he remembered the mysterious voice that had appeared in his mind recently. The voice had mentioned a time dilation factor of 480 at the end.

Zhang Heng's eyebrows raised. Could it really be taken literally?

If someone else wanted to verify this, they might have to wait 40 days, but for Zhang Heng, there were other ways.

He reached out and felt his pulse. After 20 minutes, he confirmed a terrifying fact.

—The watch on his wrist wasn't broken.

The watch was still running according to the time in the real world, but when converted, one second had become eight minutes.

So... was this really just a game?

Zhang Heng was a bit lost. The scenery before him was so real: the golden sand, the coconut trees swaying in the wind, the T-shirt sticking to his body after getting wet, the uneven rocks pressing painfully into his back, the hunger and weakness enveloping him, making him acutely aware of the passage of life.

No matter what, the most urgent task now was to regain some strength.

Zhang Heng was already finding it difficult to think.

He knew he needed to eat and drink, but although his mental fortitude was better than that of an average person, he was still just an ordinary college student. As a modern person, he had no idea how to survive on a deserted island. He couldn't distinguish which plants were edible, didn't know how to hunt, find water, or build a shelter...

Fortunately, he at least recognized coconut trees.

Less than twenty meters to his left, there were several coconut trees, with some green coconuts growing on them. The coconut water inside could moisten his dry lips and throat, and the flesh could provide him with the energy and vitamins he desperately needed.

Zhang Heng picked up a palm-sized stone from the ground and found a coconut tree that might have been bent by a typhoon.

He used the stone to knock the coconuts off the tree.

There were seven in total, about three to four meters above the ground.

This would have been no problem under normal circumstances, but considering Zhang Heng's current physical state, he had to exert a lot of effort to knock the coconuts down.

By the time he had cracked open the green coconuts on the rocks and drunk the coconut water, half an hour had passed. Then, Zhang Heng used the stone to scrape out some coconut flesh and swallowed it. After doing all this, his strength was somewhat restored, and he could continue to think about his current situation.

Zhang Heng couldn't tell whether he was in a game or reality.

If everything was fake, it couldn't explain why his senses and physical state felt so real, nor could it explain the strange time dilation on his watch. But if he was still in reality, how could the other person have transported him from the city where he was studying to this deserted island in the blink of an eye?

Zhang Heng shook his head and decided to use the old method of putting unsolvable problems aside.

According to the old man in the Tang suit, whether this was a game or reality, he had to find a way to survive.

But could an ordinary modern person living in the city really conquer this mysterious and unpredictable nature?

A bitter smile appeared on Zhang Heng's lips. He was usually an optimistic person, but he didn't think he could survive for 40 days on this completely unfamiliar island.

Actually, even four days would be a challenge.

He lacked the knowledge and skills for wilderness survival, his physical condition was poor, and he was alone. Zhang Heng now really hoped he was in a game, because a good game shouldn't have any situations where death was inevitable, especially not in the beginner's level at the start.

As if in response to his hope, three small black dots appeared in the distance in the waves.

Zhang Heng dropped the coconut shell in his hand and stood up. He ran to the beach as fast as he could under the scorching sun and finally saw the three black dots clearly. They were three people floating in the waves.

All three were foreign men.

One was wearing a full set of outdoor gear and hiking boots, with what seemed to be a dagger hanging from his waist, though Zhang Heng couldn't be sure because of the strong waves. He was the calmest of the three. Another was wearing only shorts, with a blank expression on his face. The third was a bald man with nothing on, not even a pair of pants.

All three were in a dangerous situation. They were trying to get closer to the island, but for some unknown reason, they could only maintain a floating state, being pushed back by the waves.

Zhang Heng knew he had to make a choice. Although he had regained some strength from the coconuts, it was unrealistic to save all three at once. With his current strength, he could only try to rescue one of them.

He ultimately chose the bald man with nothing on, for a simple reason: he was the closest to the beach.