Chapter 3

"我已经查过了，你父母……已经不幸，少年你要节哀！"

As the TV screen focused on the faces of two people, I saw the familiar yet strange, blood-stained faces, and the last shred of hope in my heart burst like a bubble, leaving me completely stunned. I felt as if I had lost all my strength and collapsed to the ground, not even noticing when he had released his hold on my body.

He looked at me for a while, shook his head helplessly, and with a flick of his finger, a glass of wine spun and landed in front of me, with a very skillful movement.

I didn’t care what was in the wine glass, nor did I pay attention to his sleight of hand. I grabbed the glass and drank the liquid in one gulp.

The spicy sensation spread from my mouth to my throat and down to my stomach. I almost immediately roared, my cries mixed with sobs, incoherent, not even knowing what I was shouting.

I only knew that I was very angry, very sad, and extremely helpless.

I only cried for a short while before the anger in my heart gradually overwhelmed everything. I pounced in front of the person, grabbed his collar, and shouted, "Tell me what happened! Or I’ll kill you!"

He gently pushed me, and I involuntarily flew through the air, crashing into the wall.

The force of his push was immense. I felt a loud bang in my back, as if my entire body had been shattered. For a moment, I couldn’t even feel my own body, let alone stand up and rage.

The person seemed to be in bad shape too, coughing for over ten times before he managed to catch his breath. He said somewhat discontentedly, "The one who killed your parents is also my enemy! If you want revenge, you’ve come to the wrong person. Even I am no match for Loki. You are just an ordinary person, so forget about this and live your life well."

I cursed, "Loki? Do you think this is Norse mythology? Is there a Thor?"

He shook his head and said, "This Loki may not be as powerful as the Norse god, but he is even more terrifying… Oh! Also, his strength is considered weak compared to the god in the myths, not the useless one in the movies. If it were the one in the movies… he is much stronger than that pathetic, useless god."

"I want to kill that bastard, I want him to be torn to pieces, to have no place to bury his body…"

"Very regrettable! Young man, you can’t do it!"

I struggled to stand up, staring at the person with eyes as fierce as a wolf, my heart filled with unventilated anger and sorrow. I growled, "I want to avenge my parents… I can do it! Or rather, I must do it, right?" Seeing my determined gaze, the person shook his head, threw me a bottle of wine, and said in a low voice, "Drink it all."

Without any hesitation, I raised the bottle and drank all the strong liquor in one breath. I had tasted this stuff before and knew how potent it was, but I didn’t care if it was poison. I was willing to do anything, care about nothing, and just wanted to find something to vent my anger, including killing!

"Alright! You did save me. Since you insist, I’ll tell you the whole story."

The person smiled slightly, and I don’t know where he got another bottle of the same wine. He popped the cork with his thumb, took a big gulp, and then slowly said, "This world has many secrets, known only to a few, while most people are unaware! The majority of people in this world live in lies, they live peacefully and happily… well! Or unhappily, but at least happier than we are."

"You may not know, oh… I’m talking nonsense, you probably don’t know. There is a parallel world that intersects with our main world, which we call the Dark World! Although we discovered the Dark World a long time ago, about a few thousand years, the governments of various countries only began to develop it officially in 1953, and this government-level development has been ongoing for over sixty years."

Seeing that I was listening attentively, he couldn’t help but smile and continued, "The development trajectory of the Dark World’s civilization is completely different from Earth’s mechanical and electronic civilization. It is a completely different model, filled with all kinds of strange and powerful beings, various unimaginable entities, and indescribable wealth and power."

"There is even a saying that most of the myths and religious legends in our world are actually descriptions of the Dark World by ancient people who entered or came into contact with the beings of the Dark World. Therefore, we call the development model of the Dark World’s civilization—Ghost God Civilization. Both Loki and I have entered the Dark World and gained non-human abilities there."

"I want to enter the Dark World!"

I interrupted him for the first time, speaking with determination and no hesitation.

The person shrugged slightly, looked at me for a while, and then suddenly smiled, "Alright! As a reward for saving my life, I can help you enter the Dark World. But I must warn you, since 1953, the governments of various countries, some super corporations, and underground forces have sent about three million people into the Dark World, but currently, fewer than ten thousand are still active in the Dark World. These ten thousand include the old-timers who entered the Dark World for various reasons before large-scale development. Excluding those who voluntarily withdrew, about eighty percent died by accident, meaning at least two million four hundred thousand people died in there."

"I’m not afraid of death! I want to kill Loki!"

The person chuckled again and said casually, "In the Dark World, at least ten thousand people want to kill him, including me, who also wants to get rid of this annoying guy, but no one has ever succeeded. Instead, this time he almost killed me. If you want to kill him, work hard to improve your strength. I’ll give you a small gift, maybe it will save your life at some point!"

He handed me a piece of fabric that looked very much like gold foil, thirty centimeters long and about the size of a palm, as thin as the best silk paper, very soft and elastic, feeling even more comfortable than the smoothest silk, and could be stretched very long with a slight pull.

I took it and played with it for a while, not understanding what it was for.

Seeing the questioning look in my eyes, he raised an eyebrow easily and said with a carefree smile, "I don’t know what this thing is, but I fought Loki fiercely because of it. This thing comes from an ancient tomb in the Dark World. Maybe you’ll have the chance to explore there someday and uncover its secrets. Oh! Loki calls it the Golden Shroud, but I hate that name!"