Chapter 1 Welcome Back

Chapter 1: Welcome Back

His fingertips brushed gently against the cold metal wall. The dim fluorescent light overhead flickered uncertainly. Zhou Jinru stood still, wondering if, back in 1940, Churchill had also cowered in some cramped, shadowy basement, terrorized day and night by the unending tremors above his head.

Boom!

The ground suddenly lurched as if struck by something massive. Zhou Jinru quickly steadied himself against the wall.

He still hadn’t grasped where he was. His last memory was of a sudden flash of fire before his eyes—he had been sweating it out with friends in the school gym, playing basketball. After the flash, he found himself lying in this pitch-black metallic corridor. It was as if, after the graduation dinner that year, he’d blacked out and remembered nothing.

He was still wearing his basketball jersey as he wandered forward. There was electricity here, so there must be people. If he could find someone, perhaps he could figure out what had happened.

The year after graduating from university, he fulfilled his last wish as a student—playing in a school basketball match—then set aside all personal desires, ready to accept everything his family had arranged: a romance with a beautiful young stranger, a grand wedding, continuing the family line, and ultimately contributing to the family business.

He thought, that was only fair. He’d enjoyed all the privileges his family provided, and now he would become one with that towering family tree.

He pushed open a heavy metal door with effort. It had originally been automatic, but it had lost its sensors and power long ago, evidently unused for quite some time. Zhou Jinru increasingly felt as though he’d been thrown into an ancient shelter, with everything around him bearing the look of a post-apocalyptic world.

He sighed. Back in his student days, one of his dorm mates wrote web novels and would constantly, deliberately or otherwise, fill the room with eccentric ideas from internet fiction. As the saying goes, you become like those around you; over time, all four roommates grew thick-skinned and developed wildly unconventional thinking.

Stepping into the room, Zhou Jinru drew a sharp breath at the sight before him.

It was an office, long shrouded in dust. The soles of his sneakers left faint prints across the floor. In the dim light, he immediately saw a rectangular blackboard with several photo stickers attached, the faces connected by bold lines sketched in white chalk. Three notes were pinned to the lower left corner with magnets.

The scene felt eerily familiar, as if he’d seen it somewhere before. He stepped closer to examine the faces on the board—strangers all, but their attire gave them away.

The woman in the upper right with the red hairpiece was called W, the woman with short white hair in the middle was Talulah, and below them were the red-haired Hooded King Slayer and the expressionless Frostnova.

Zhou Jinru couldn’t help but laugh. “Could this be Rhodes Island?”

The year he graduated, everyone in his dorm had suddenly become obsessed with a mobile game called "Arknights." Zhou Jinru poured more than three months into it, spending money, drawing characters, and leveling them up. The game had a strange allure, gripping him completely, until he abandoned it mid-August for basketball training. He’d often thought of picking it up again, even downloaded the client, but never installed it. It just sat there, forgotten.

And the office before him was a set of event furniture from the game, unlocked with the start of a new storyline—named "Chen’s Office."

The realization steadied him. Clearly, this was some elaborate prank. Someone had brought him here, set up a scene, and the only people capable of such mischief were his group of friends—truly outrageous.

The dim light barely illuminated the room. A thin layer of dust coated the exercise equipment by the blackboard, the potted plants were long dead, and the files stacked on the desk hadn’t been touched in ages. Zhou Jinru quickly noticed the absence of Chen and Talulah’s photo, as well as the old toy bear. The glass case for weapons was empty, too—Chen’s signature twin swords were missing.

“Even the set dressing is half-hearted,” Zhou Jinru sighed. The three core items of Chen’s Office—the photo frame, the teddy bear, and the twin swords—were all gone.

As if sensing something, he looked up and locked eyes with a pair of bright eyes peering from behind the chair at the desk. The chair had been turned away from the desk, so he hadn’t noticed anyone was there.

Or rather, not quite anyone. Zhou Jinru instinctively took a small step back. Curled up in the chair was a slight figure with chestnut-brown hair, her slender body nearly swallowed by the soft, oversized seat. But it was the upright, prominent ears that caught his attention.

The girl wore a Rhodes Island operator’s uniform—a look Zhou Jinru knew all too well; he had a knock-off version hanging in his own closet.

This was too realistic. What were his friends playing at? If this was some cosplay performance, it was astonishingly convincing. Amiya’s appearance was so true to life it was as if she’d stepped straight out of the game. He hadn’t seen such a professional cosplayer in ages.

Zhou Jinru tried to find the right words. “Um, excuse me, could you tell me where the exit is?”

The girl across from him stared at his face, hesitated, and asked, “What group are Exusiai, Lappland, and Texas in?”

What? Is she really staying in character?

Faced with Amiya’s odd question, Zhou Jinru instinctively replied, “Penguin Logistics.”

The girl’s eyes lit up, and her voice quickened, “What about Hoshiguma, Chen, and Swire?”

“Hoshichen Swire,” he answered.

“What is Braised Chicken Rice?”

“Ninety-eight coins for shame.”

“Amiya’s race?”

“…Rabbit! Cautus!” Zhou Jinru forced himself to swallow the word he shouldn’t have said, for he saw Amiya’s expression freeze, then shift rapidly, almost as if a local storm was brewing.

He let out a long breath. “All right, we’ve played enough. Can you tell me how to get out now?”

Maybe there were cameras hidden in the office, recording for a live broadcast. Zhou Jinru even suspected this was a reality show organized by the game’s developers.

“What’s your name?”

This was Amiya’s final question. Zhou Jinru found it odd. She seemed to be waiting for something. Perhaps this was the final step?

He replied, “Zhou Jinru. Zhou as in framework, Jin as in gold, Ru as in scholar.”

No sooner had he finished than Amiya’s eyes filled with tears. Her small shoulders trembled, and she choked out, “Welcome back, Doctor.”

(End of Chapter One)