Chapter 1 First Hearing of Advent

The lights outside the window were bright. Xie Liang lay on the bed, trying hard to feel the real world he was in, in order to dispel the fear brought by the dream just now.

One day ago, at noon, the July sun scorched Linjing City, sending billowing steam rising from the ground.

Xie Liang took bus No. 125 to the swimming pool in the stadium to practice swimming.

The journey took about half an hour. The bus started and stopped along the way, moving forward steadily.

Xie Liang was sitting in a seat at the back of the bus with headphones on, his eyes squinted and he looked drowsy.

"Boom!" A loud noise exploded!

Xie Liang quickly took off his headphones and turned to look at the source of the sound.

A huge landslide appeared in front of the road. The bottomless hole swallowed up all the vehicles, trees, road signs and other buildings around the road. The collapse continued to extend in the direction of the bus.

The driver, startled, slammed on the brakes, startling everyone. The car began to shake violently, and the four passengers were thrown out of their seats by inertia.

Xie Liang grabbed the bus seat with both hands, steadying his body, and looked ahead to observe the situation.

At this time, half of the bus body has sunk into the collapsed area, and the other half is hanging on the road. As long as the center of gravity of the body is slightly unstable, it may fall into the bottomless hole!

The driver broke out in a cold sweat and shouted, "There's a landslide ahead! Everyone, sit down quickly and hold on to the handrails! Don't move! There's a landslide ahead!"

Inside the car, the little girl held by the old lady was terrified. She raised her foot and tried to take a step, but after hearing what the driver said, she did not dare to move rashly.

The old lady seemed to be frightened. She opened her mouth and gasped, patting her chest with her hands, and seemed unable to speak.

The car body was still swinging up and down, as if it was about to fall at any second.

"Don't move! The whole car will fall down if the center of gravity is unstable!" the driver shouted anxiously.

The bearded man squatting beside the front seat seemed too afraid to even breathe. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead as he trembled and said, "Shit! What... now?!"

A girl dressed like a college student trembled and said, "What...what else can I do? If I move now, I'll fall. I can only stay where I am and wait for rescuers!"

At this moment, Xie Liang felt a strong sense of dizziness coming over him. After a while, he completely lost consciousness.

When Xie Liang opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the dry mud and sand. The people on the bus were also lying not far from him, but they had not woken up yet.

Xie Liang sat up and looked around, and found a man in a black shirt and a muscular man in a white vest standing not far away.

The muscular man was saying something to the man in black.

Xie Liang's latest memory still lingers on the thrilling bus. As soon as he opened his eyes, he arrived at this hazy place.

He felt puzzled and pinched the flesh on his wrist. It hurt, so he knew he wasn't dreaming. After confirming that he hadn't lost his memory, he felt even more puzzled.

The muscular man glanced at him and said, "Someone is awake." Then he walked straight to Xie Liang.

He stared at Xie Liang blankly, smiled, and said, "You are really good-looking."

"..." Xie Liang was confused for a moment. He was about to ask where this place was with a puzzled look on his face.

Unexpectedly, the man said first: "You are new, right? Let's wait until they are all awake before I tell them together. Otherwise, I have to tell everyone one by one, which is really... troublesome..."

Upon hearing this, Xie Liang looked up at the muscular man, nodded, and said, "Okay." Then he stood up and took small steps to observe his surroundings.

They were in a circular area of about 70 square meters, and everyone was inside the circle.

There was a huge blue vortex next to it, like the vortex that gathers on the sea surface, but this one was stationary.

Xie Liang stared at it for a long time in confusion, full of questions. No matter how he looked at it, he felt like he was dreaming.

The area beyond the 70 square meters was like a dividing line, shrouded in layers of fog and smog, but the smoke could not enter the circular space.

After looking for a long time, Xie Liang retracted his gaze and walked to the edge of the dividing line, observing the smoke outside curiously.

Something seemed to be moving in the smoke, but Xie Liang couldn't see clearly.

After circling along the dividing line, Xie Liang returned to the whirlpool. Only then did he see two large black characters floating on the wind wall next to it - "Pray".

"It's almost done." The muscular man said as he walked towards the people who were waking up one after another.

Everyone who was on the bus looked at the unfamiliar surroundings with a confused look on their faces, and turned to each other to ask what was going on.

"Grandma, I'm scared..." The little girl, who was about nine years old, spoke in a voice as thin as a mosquito. She was wearing a princess dress and hugged the old lady standing beside her tightly.

The old lady seemed to have not yet recovered from her shock. She patted her chest gently with one hand and hugged the little girl tightly with the other.

"What's going on! Is this some kind of scripted show? Aren't we on a bus?"

A young girl with two ponytails and wearing a school uniform asked in confusion with panic written all over her face.

"Damn it! I don't care whether this is a show or a prank!! Someone better come out and explain it soon! Otherwise I will never let you go!" the bearded man yelled impatiently.

The driver in the red hat looked puzzled: "I clearly remember a landslide on the road, and then I slammed on the brakes, and then half of the bus was hanging on the edge of the landslide. What's going on now? Am I dreaming?"

"This isn't a dream. You should have died, but the vortex gate gave you a chance to be reborn. Only by completing the corresponding tasks in the small world can you return to the real world and live."

The muscular man said this and waved his hand at the crowd, motioning them to come closer so that he could speak.

"What the hell is this Whirlpool Gate? Are you out of your mind? Are you involved in a pyramid scheme?!" the bearded man yelled in a rough voice.

"Believe it or not, what I am going to say next is related to your own life and death. Listen to it or not." The muscular man seemed to understand the doubt and did not bother with him.

"The area beneath our feet is called the Temporary Resting Area by the Adventers. That blue vortex is called the Vortex Gate. When it moves, it means the gate is open and we can enter."

Xiao Ha said this and pointed at the still blue vortex.

"The Vortex Gate randomly selects some people who are about to die and then lets them descend into different small worlds to complete corresponding tasks. Therefore, we are also called Adventers."

"Once we complete our mission, a vortex gate like this will appear in the small world. Pass through the vortex gate and you will be able to return to where you were before you came here."

"What will happen if we fail to complete the mission? Will we die?" The girl with a ponytail asked in disbelief and panic.

"Of course, if the mission fails, the vortex gate will erase your memory of being here, and you will face the death that you should accept." The muscular man replied.

"The small world is also called a copy. Each copy has a corresponding prompt and name. This time the prompt is blessing." The muscular man pointed to the word "blessing" next to the whirlpool and said.

"After entering the dungeon, there will usually be an NPC to pick us up. The descenders have to find key clues from the NPC's behavior and words and complete the main task. Only then will the vortex door leading to the real world open." The muscular man said as he tucked his vest into his jeans.

"Being able to return alive is just the beginning. From now on, every ten days or so, you will be forced by the vortex gate to descend into a different small world. The rest will be dealt with after you can return to the real world alive."

Xie Liang found that the man in black beside him was staring at him. The look in his eyes made him feel like he was not wearing any clothes. He couldn't help but look at his own clothes. Fortunately, they were decent.

At this moment, the blue vortex is like a giant beast in the deep sea, no longer static.

It seemed to be constantly swallowing something, and blue waves kept surging towards its center.

Xie Liang saw the man in black walking over. He stretched out one hand towards the whirlpool, but in just a moment, he was sucked into the whirlpool and disappeared without a trace.

Aside from the muscular man named Xiao Ha, everyone in the group stared in amazement at what had just happened. Even if they didn't want to believe it, they had to admit that this truly defied common sense.

The bearded man acted as if he didn't believe what Xiao Ha said, and walked into the fog. However, he tried several times but was blocked by the wind wall and couldn't get through. He gradually calmed down.

"Hello, Xiao Ha. Is there anything I don't understand after entering the dungeon that I can ask you?" The girl with twin ponytails asked earnestly, as if she regarded Xiao Ha as her backbone.

"Ah? Hahaha, of course. Oh, and by the way, we'll see each other again after we get in. If you have any questions, you can ask me, but I don't understand everything either."

"Um... I'm about to enter the dungeon. Don't stay here too long. If you exceed the time limit, you will be forced into the dungeon. You will miss a lot of useful clues and it will also increase a lot of danger."

Xie Liang, like the people on the bus before him, had a confused look on his face, but he was not very scared.

The old lady who had been silent for a while seemed to come to her senses and said worriedly, "How could I open my eyes and be here? I'm an old woman, and I can die if I die, but my granddaughter is only 9 years old. What should I do?"

"Grandma, grandma, I want to go home..." The little girl looked at Xiao Ha, hugged the old lady tightly and sobbed timidly.

"Madame, you're doing magic! I want to see what's going on!" Without a word, the bearded man strode towards the vortex gate. As soon as he reached out and touched the edge of the vortex gate, he was immediately sucked in and disappeared without a trace.

When everyone saw this scene, they believed what Xiao Ha said even more.

"Um...what's your name, little brother?" Xiao Ha asked Xie Liang while scratching his head embarrassedly.

"Thank you Liang."

Xie Liang's eyes were fixed on the vortex gate in front of him, ready to go forward and try like the man just now.