The transition was not a flash of light, but a sensation of being squeezed through a straw made of ice.
When Ji Han opened his eyes, the sterile white ceiling of his apartment was gone. In its place hung a sky the color of bruised violets, vast and indifferent. The air tasted metallic, like sucking on a penny, and the ground beneath him was hard-packed, cracked earth that radiated a dull heat.
He pushed himself up, his palms scraping against grit. He was alone.
Around him, a translucent, shimmering dome covered an area roughly the size of a football field. Beyond the dome, a thick gray fog churned, obscuring whatever lay in the distance. The silence was absolute. No birds, no wind, no distant traffic. Just the sound of his own ragged breathing and the blood rushing in his ears.
Then, the text appeared, burning itself into his retinas.
[System: Welcome to the Azure Vastness.]
[System: You have been selected as a Lord. The struggle for the Eternal Domain begins now.]
[System: Novice Protection Barrier Active. Duration: 7 Days (External Time). During this period, you are immune to external attacks.]
Ji Han ignored the grandeur of the message. He was a man of logistics, not poetry. He patted his pockets, confirming he was wearing the sturdy canvas clothes provided by the transfer. At his waist hung a small leather pouch. Next to his foot lay a wooden crate stamped with a glowing rune: Starter Kit.
He didn't open the crate yet. First, he needed to know the variables. He focused his mind, mentally calling for his Status Panel, just as the introductory manual—which had been downloaded into his brain moments before arrival—had instructed.
Name: Ji Han Race: Human Rank: Mortal (Tier 0) Talent: Temporal Domain Anchor (SSS-Rank)
Ji Han blinked. SSS-Rank? In the pre-transfer forums, anything above B-Rank was considered a golden ticket. An SSS-Rank was a myth. A surge of adrenaline spiked in his chest. Maybe he had won the lottery. Maybe he would become an immortal god-king with a wave of his hand.
He tapped the talent to expand the description.
[Temporal Domain Anchor] [Effect: Within the boundaries of your territory, you possess absolute authority over the flow of time relative to the external world.] [Current Ratio: 1 External Day = 1 Internal Year (365 Days).] [Constraint: The user is subject to the internal time flow. You will age according to the time within the domain.]
The smile that had begun to form on Ji Han's face froze. It shattered, replaced by a cold, creeping horror.
He sat back on his heels, the dry soil crunching beneath him. He reread the text. Then he read it a third time.
"One day outside," he whispered, his voice cracking in the dry air. "Is one year inside."
He looked at the barrier timer in the corner of his vision.
Time Remaining: 6 Days, 23 Hours, 55 Minutes.
Ji Han was good with numbers. He lived his life by spreadsheets, inventory manifests, and efficiency ratios. He didn't need a calculator to understand the catastrophe that had just befallen him.
The Novice Barrier lasted 7 external days. To the other Lords, this was a week of safety to build walls and gather wood.
To Ji Han, this was 2,555 days.
Seven years.
He was trapped in this dome, alone, for seven years.
"Food," he gasped, scrambling toward the wooden crate. "Water."
He tore the lid off the crate, splinters digging into his fingers. He didn't care. He ripped through the straw packing. The contents were meager.
1 x Iron Pickaxe
1 x Rusted Iron Sword
3 x Loaves of Black Rye Bread
1 x Waterskin (2 Liters)
1 x Pouch of Spirit Rice Seeds (10 seeds)
1 x Novice Recruitment Token (Random)
Ji Han stared at the three loaves of bread. They were dense, hard as bricks. A normal human needed roughly 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight. To survive seven years, he would need over five million calories.
He had enough food for three days. Maybe four, if he didn't move.
"This isn't a cheat," Ji Han hissed, clutching the bread as if it were gold bullion. "It's a tomb."
He stood up, his legs trembling. Panic clawed at his throat, urging him to scream, to pound on the barrier, to beg the System to turn it off. But he forced the scream down. Panic burned energy. Panic increased metabolic rate. Panic killed.
Think, he commanded himself. Solve the equation.
He couldn't change the time flow. The description said "Current Ratio," implying it could be adjusted later, but for now, it was fixed. He was locked in a hyper-accelerated time chamber.
If he didn't plant those Spirit Rice seeds immediately, he would die.
He grabbed the pickaxe. It was heavy, the handle rough-hewn wood. He scanned his territory. It was a wasteland of cracked clay and dry dust. There was no water source. The System expected him to find a spring or dig a well within the "week."
But for him, a week of thirst was seven years of dust.
"I need water. I need labor. I can't dig a well and plow a field before I pass out from dehydration."
His eyes fell on the Novice Recruitment Token. It was a small, grey stone rune.
According to the manual, this token would summon a random denizen from the River of Time and History to serve as a subject. Usually, it was a peasant, a militia soldier, or a craftsman.
"I need a farmer," Ji Han muttered, gripping the stone. "Or a well-digger. Someone strong. Someone who can work while I figure out the logistics."
He didn't hesitate. He couldn't afford to wait. He poured his will into the stone.
[System: Activating Novice Recruitment Token...]
[System: Anomaly Detected. Temporal Dilation interfering with Reincarnation Gate.]
The air in front of him began to warp. Usually, summoning was described as a flash of white light. This was different. The space twisted like heat haze over asphalt. The sound of tearing metal shrieked through the silent domain.
[System: Energy Deficit. The Token Grade is too low for the Soul being pulled.]
[System: Compensating... Siphoning Territory Mana... Siphoning Life Force...]
Ji Han felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if a hook had been yanked through his ribs. He fell to his knees, gasping, as the grey stone in his hand crumbled into dust.
BOOM.
A shockwave of displaced air knocked him backward. Dust billowed up, coating his face.
When the dust settled, there was no muscular farmer standing there. There was no well-digger.
Lying in the center of a small crater was a woman.
She wore robes that had once been white silk, now stained a horrific crimson and shredded at the hems. Her hair, black as ink, was matted with dried blood. A broken sword lay near her hand, the blade snapped in two.
Ji Han crawled toward her, ignoring the pain in his chest. "Hey," he croaked. "Can you work?"
He reached her side and rolled her over.
Her face was pale, translucent like fine porcelain, and breathtakingly beautiful, but marred by blood trickling from her nose and ears. Her breathing was shallow, a rattling wheeze that spoke of collapsed lungs.
[System Notification]Subject Acquired: Lin QingheRank: SSS (Sealed/Damaged) Identity: The Severed Moon Sword Empress Status: Critical. Meridians Shattered. Dantian Ruptured. Impending Death.
Ji Han stared at the notification, then at the dying woman.
He had spent his only token. He had hoped for a worker to help him dig a well to save them from thirst.
Instead, the System had given him an Empress who was seconds away from dying, requiring medical attention he didn't have, water he couldn't spare, and food that didn't exist.
The woman's eyelids fluttered. She looked up at him, her eyes clouded with pain but burning with a terrifying, cold defiance. Her lips moved, barely whispering.
"Water..."
Ji Han looked at his single waterskin. He looked at the dry, dead earth. He looked at the seven years stretching out before him.
He uncorked the waterskin.