Chapter 4: Golden Ticket
Yin Zhe let out a low breath, and allowed the air to leave in his lungs. "tsk…" His fingers trembled a little, but he forced them to stay steady as he reached out toward the glowing button floating in front of him. The system window hung in the air like a small transparent screen, its golden edge flickering softly.
He pressed down on the bright circle.
Click.
Ding!!!.
A soft ding answered him.
Another message rolled out with a calm voice that only he seemed to hear.
[A golden ticket is required to continue.]
"Huh…" Yin Zhe whispered. The sound came out thin. He rubbed his thumb against his palm, trying not to overreact. His mind kept racing back and forth, between fear and hope. Between the shaky confusion of having memories from Earth and the chaos of being trapped here.
Bao Zi stared at him from the other side of the cramped wooden cell. His eyes were wide, and his round cheeks puffed slightly like he was holding his breath. A soft "uhh?..." slipped out of him.
"What… are you doing?" Bao Zi asked. His voice cracked halfway. "Why are you… clicking the air?"
He leaned closer as if trying to see the same thing Yin Zhe was seeing. He couldn't, of course. All he saw was Yin Zhe moving his hand and tapping empty space like a child playing pretend.
Bao Zi's curious look shifted into a face of worry. His eyebrows pressed together. "Hmmm…" He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Did something break inside you? Or Did the traffickers scare you that badly?" His voice softened. "I heard it happens to some people… it's called trauma or something like that"
Before Yin Zhe could answer, a heavy gravel like voice rose from the other end of the cell.🌱
"Leave the crazy kid alone," the voice said. A hard thud came right after it. The sound was of Ren Tie adjusting himself against the wooden wall. He was the one that had spoken.
Ren Tie was an older teen with a sharp jaw, deep frown, and rough eyes. His voice sounded like stone grinding against stone.
Bao Zi glanced toward him. "I wasn't.. I mean, I'm just worried about the poor lad."
Ren Tie didn't even bother looking back. He closed his eyes, while breathing through his nose. "Worry about yourself. I'm about to break through to the eighth stage of the Root Awakening realm. I need quietness. If you keep on making a fuss, I'll break your heads instead."
The air inside the cell grew tight for a moment. Those words didn't feel like empty threats.
Even Yin Zhe felt it.
His chest tightened, and he sat straighter. A small swoosh sounded inside his mind as Ren Tie's spiritual pressure moved like a slow wave. It wasn't strong enough to hurt them, but it was strong enough to remind everyone that he wasn't someone to provoke lightly.
Bao Zi quickly nodded. "uhhh.. okay... okay!" He slapped his own mouth with a soft pap. "I'll shut up."
He didn't shut up for long though.
A second later, he leaned closer to Yin Zhe again and whispered. "Still… it's crazy he's at the eighth stage. Everyone here is below the sixth. I thought I was the strongest since I'm at the seventh." His voice carried a strange mix of pride and jealousy. "Now he's about to pass even that…"
Then, realizing Ren Tie was still listening, Bao Zi clamped his lips shut with a small hpmh!.
Yin Zhe didn't respond to either of them.
He had heard everything. they both talked loud enough. but his focus remained locked on the system window. His mind was too occupied to pay attention to anything else for now.
He kept repeating the same thought:
"I need to get stronger. Fast." That was the only thought in Yin Zhe's mind at the moment.
He still remembered the weight that hit him the moment his Earth memories returned, like a heavy stone dropping in his chest with a sick thud. That experience was stronger than the pressure coming off of Ren Tie. The first words he told himself back then after receiving his memories were:
"What have I done?"
Yin Zhe thought about His old self or villain self. the version of him without memories had walked into the woods alone and ended up caught by human traffickers. And before that? Who knew what kind of stupid, reckless, violent, or dangerous things he had done in this world. He didn't even remember those acts, yet he was living with the consequences now.
He let out a shaky breath. "damnit… I remember them all. Who am I kidding."
He didn't feel like a protagonist.
Not at all.
If anything, he felt like some small villain character who got caught early in the story.
Nothing about this world made sense to him except the system.
Everything else felt messy, dangerous and confusing.
"If I don't get stronger, I'll die halfway," he thought.
His hand clenched at the idea of being sold as a material for alchemy. He had heard things like these from people in the Yin estate. Humans are used for alchemy by those evil doers. They had been spoken casually. like it was normal here.
That detail stuck into Yin Zhe's mind like a sharp needle.
People get turned into ingredients.
His stomach tightened.
He felt cold.
Bao Zi, who was unaware of Yin Zhe's thoughts, kept glancing at the air in front of him. "So… why were you tapping at nothing? Are you… seeing things?"
Yin Zhe ignored the question. He didn't have the energy to explain the system. Neither did he want to reveal his trump card. And even if he tried, no one would believe him.
The system window glowed again.
He wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his arm and opened the beginner package.
A small crackle of light filled the space.
Inside the package, several small icons appeared, but one glowed brighter than the rest. It was a golden ticket.
It looked like a small thin rectangle with soft golden edges and a shining center with golden written on it. His heartbeat sped up in excitement. "nice…" He reached toward it.
Bao Zi stared blankly at Yin Zhe as he saw his excitement. He watched Yin Zhe grabbing the air with two fingers and mumbling to himself. "Are you okay?" He asked once again.
Ren Tie hissed. "Both of you. Silence."
Bao Zi shut his mouth instantly.
Yin Zhe held his breath. He didn't want anyone distracting him. He grabbed the golden ticket and felt its strange smoothness. His thumb brushed over the surface. It actually felt real, even though he knew it wasn't a physical object.
He lifted it slowly and moved it toward the wheel the system had shown him earlier. The wheel stood in the air like some small floating machine, made of transparent cartoon-like graphics that reminded him of Earth games. It even had a slot like an ATM machine.
His fingers hovered over it.
He felt his heartbeat drummed louder.
thump… thump… thump…
He pushed the golden ticket inside the wheel.
And the moment he did.