The convenience store's automatic door hissed shut behind Lei Han, sealing him back into the rain-soaked night. He clutched the plastic bag—instant noodles and an energy drink, his dinner and tomorrow's fuel—and hunched deeper into his jacket. The worn fabric did little against the downpour hammering Sanctuary Hills. October in the city meant cold rain that seeped through everything, turning the world into shades of grey and neon.
'Forty-two yuan'. All gone. Half his weekly budget evaporated for a meal that wouldn't even fill him up.
Lei Han's phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out with his free hand, rain immediately speckling the cracked screen. A notification. It was an overdue payment reminder, one from the student loan company. The number at the bottom made his stomach clench.
He swiped it away and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
The street stretched before him, slick with rain, neon signs from closed shops bleeding colors across the wet pavement. Ten minutes to his apartment if he walked fast. Lei Han shifted his backpack, feeling the weight of his physics textbook pressing against his spine—a constant reminder of tomorrow's exam. The one he'd already failed twice.
Third time's the charm, people said.
Lei Han had stopped believing in charms a long time ago.
He reached the zebra crossing and glanced up at the signal. Green. Safe to cross. He stepped off the curb, his sneakers splashing through a shallow puddle, but his attention had already drifted back to the plastic bag dangling from his fingers. If he split the noodles into two portions, added some soy sauce from the kitchen, filled his stomach with tap water...
But suddenly a truck's horn broke his calculations.
He jerked his head up. Headlights—massive, blazing white, impossibly close. How had he not heard the engine? How was it already—
But he don't get time to finish the thought.
Time didn't slow into some cinematic moment. There was no montage of memories, no peaceful acceptance. Just raw terror flooding his veins as his brain screamed commands at muscles that refused to obey fast enough. Move. MOVE. His legs tried to respond, tried to throw him backward, but his body betrayed him—too slow, too clumsy, too fragile.
The plastic bag slipped from his numb fingers.
'Mom. Dad. Xiao. I'm sorry.'
But the impact never came.
Instead, the world exploded into fragments.
Reality fractured around him like a mirror struck by an invisible fist, each jagged shard reflecting a different ending—him diving left only to die anyway, him frozen as steel crushed bone, him stumbling back to crack his skull on concrete. A thousand deaths flickered past in the impossible space between one heartbeat and the next.
At the center of the fractured world, where all the jagged cracks converged into an endless black void, something began to open.
It wasn't a door, exactly—not a solid shape, but rather like a wound torn into the very fabric of existence, pulsing with a rhythm that matched the pounding of Lei Han's heart.
Without realizing when, his hand had lifted automatically, reaching instinctively toward the darkness.
And the instant his fingertips brushed against it, a searing pain exploded through every nerve in his body.
He tried to scream, but no sound escaped; because he had no mouth and no voice—only his consciousness suspended in an infinite void, overwhelmed by visions that weren't his own.
Childhoods that weren't his, deaths he hadn't died, faces of strangers that somehow felt familiar—like memories from lives he'd never lived.
Suddenly, the words etched themselves into Lei Han's mind, burning like fierce, glowing brands:
[INITIALIZING]
Lei Han wanted to scream. He tried to move, to break free, but it was like his body was no longer fully his own. An awkward, cold sensation took over.
[HOST DETECTED]
[COMPATIBILITY: 99.7%]
Panic surged through him. What the hell was happening? What the—
Then, pain exploded. It was like a severe bone crack that finally snapped everything into place, as if a missing part of him had slotted in with a chilling finality.
Suddenly, he was falling—falling endlessly into a darkness that had no end.
It was cold.
It was wet.
And somehow, it felt real.
Then, without warning, the void rejected him.
Suddenly, Lei Han was thrown back into his body with a sharp gasp, as if he'd just surfaced from drowning. His hands—solid and shaking —hit the wet asphalt. Rain poured down his back. The rumble of the truck's engine was right beside him, so close he could smell the burning oil and hot rubber.
"—Hey, kid, are you okay? You were right in front of me and then you just— you just—"
Hands grabbed Lei Han's shoulders. He flinched, still feeling pain from wherever he had been, but the grip was gentle. Someone was helping him up. More people gathered around, their voices mixing together—worried, confused, all too loud.
"Someone call an ambulance—"
"Did you see that? He moved like—"
"He's probably in shock—"
"Son, can you hear me? What's your name?"
Lei Han tried to speak, but his throat was dry and raw, like he'd been screaming for hours. No sound came out.
'What had just happened? Where was that place he'd been?'
Then suddenly, strange words appeared in his vision—not as a screen floating in front of him, but layered directly over reality, glowing softly in blue like a video game interface.
[LIFE PATH SIMULATOR SYSTEM – ACTIVE]
[SYSTEM POINTS: 100]
[SYSTEM COUNTDOWN: 100/100]
Lei Han blinked hard, but the glowing text stayed right before his eyes.
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. When he opened them again, the words were still there—calm and steady.
"This isn't real," he whispered, voice weak and shaking. "I must've hit my head. It has to be some kind of concussion."
[HOST MENTAL STATE: HIGH STRESS]
[REALITY CONFIRMED, HOST]
[YOU DID NOT IMAGINE THE VOID]
[YOU DID NOT IMAGINE YOUR DEATH]
His stomach suddenly twisted painfully. Lei Han turned away from the hands reaching to help him and vomited onto the wet street.
Someone draped a jacket over his shoulders. A worried old voice said softly, "Easy, son. Just breathe. The ambulance is on its way."
An ambulance. That's what anyone would expect after nearly getting hit by a truck. But Lei Han wasn't like anyone else. He saw glowing words floating in his vision. He felt like he had slipped out of reality.
With a shaky hand, Lei Han wiped his mouth and forced himself to look at the blue text again.
Now, the message had changed.
[APOLOGIES FOR THE DISORIENTATION]
[SYSTEM INTEGRATION IS NEVER SMOOTH]
[BUT YOU MADE IT THROUGH. CONGRATULATIONS.]
"What…" Lei Han mouthed, barely making a sound. He didn't want anyone around to hear him talking to himself. "What are you?"
[I AM THE LIFE PATH SIMULATOR]
[YOU CAN CALL ME 'SIM' IF YOU LIKE]
[AND I'M HERE TO OFFER YOU A CHANCE...]
There was a short pause. The words felt almost… alive, like the system was really thinking.
[I OFFER YOU THE ABILITY TO SIMULATE MULTIPLE LIVES]
[FULL, IMMERSIVE SIMULATIONS THAT FEEL REAL TO YOU]
[SKILLS, MEMORIES, AND EXPERIENCES FROM EACH SIMULATION CAN BE TRANSFERRED BACK]
[THINK OF IT AS INTENSE PRACTICE FOR YOUR TRUE LIFE]
Hearing this, Lei Han's breathing quickened and his vision darkened at the edges. He recognized this feeling—panic, the kind that had gripped him during finals week when everything felt too heavy to bear.
He forced himself to focus, falling back on the technique he'd learned.
Five things he could see: wet pavement reflecting neon, worried faces hovering above him, the truck's dented bumper, his backpack still strapped to his shoulder, the glowing blue text floating in his vision.
Focus. Ground yourself. You've done this before.
Four things he could touch: cold asphalt beneath his palms, rain falling on his face, the jacket draped over his shoulders, his own trembling hands.
Real. All real. You're still here.
Three things he could hear: sirens wailing closer, rain drumming steadily on metal and stone, his own ragged breathing.
Breathe. Just breathe.
The panic slowly released its grip. Just enough for him to think clearly again.
"Prove it," Lei Han whispered into the rain. "Prove you're real and not just in my head."
[LOOK IN YOUR BACKPACK'S FRONT POCKET]
His hand moved on its own, reaching for the bag. With shaking fingers, he unzipped the front pocket.
Inside, tucked between his calculator and a pack of tissues, was a folded piece of paper. He pulled it out.
His sister's neat handwriting covered the note:
"Good luck on your exam! You're smarter than you think! - Xiao"
A tiny smiley face decorated the bottom, the marker having bled through just a bit.
Lei Han stared at the note. He hadn't known it was there. Xiao must have slipped it in this morning when he wasn't paying attention.
His chest tightened. She believed in him, even when he didn't believe in himself.
"How..." His voice broke. "How did you know this was here?"
[I SEE WHAT YOU SEE]
[I KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW]
[I'M PART OF YOU NOW]
A pause, then more text appeared.
[BUT I'M NOT YOU]
[I'M SEPARATE—AN ADDITION, NOT A REPLACEMENT]
[YOUR MIND. YOUR CHOICES. YOUR LIFE.]
[I'M JUST THE SYSTEM RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND]
Sirens wailed through the rain, growing louder. Red and blue lights splashed across the wet street as the ambulance pulled up.
Lei Han's thoughts spiraled. If they took him to the hospital, his mother would rush out of work early, worry deepening the lines around her eyes. His father would stare at the medical bills with that look—the one that made Lei Han feel like even breathing cost too much.
And tomorrow? He'd fail another exam. The professor would shake his head, disappointed but unsurprised. More student loan debt would pile on.
Nothing would change. His future stretched ahead—unchanging, suffocating, bleak.
Unless...
Lei Han wiped the rain from his face with a trembling hand. "These simulations," he whispered. "Will they actually help? Can they really change my life?"
[YES]
[EACH SIMULATION GRANTS YOU REAL SKILLS, REAL MEMORIES, REAL GROWTH]
[WHAT YOU MASTER IN THE SIMULATION BECOMES YOURS IN REALITY]
[BUT FIRST, YOU MUST CHOOSE]
[DO YOU WANT TO KEEP LIVING THIS LIFE AS YOU ARE?]
[OR DO YOU WANT TO BEGIN YOUR FIRST SIMULATION?]
The ambulance doors burst open. Paramedics rushed out, one heading straight toward Lei Han with a medical kit.
Lei Han looked down at his hands. Nineteen years old. Soft. Scarred from a kitchen accident when he was twelve. Hands that had never accomplished anything worth remembering.
Then his gaze shifted to Xiao's note, the ink beginning to blur in the rain.
"You're smarter than you think."
Maybe he wasn't smart. Maybe this was the most reckless decision he'd ever make. Maybe he'd wake up in a psychiatric ward tomorrow.
But if there was even the smallest chance—the tiniest possibility—that he could become someone better...
Someone who didn't disappoint everyone he loved...
Someone who didn't feel like a burden just for existing...
This was insane. Every rational part of his brain screamed at him to refuse, to get checked by the paramedics, to go home and sleep it off. But rationality had never gotten him anywhere except deeper into debt and disappointment.
"I'm ready," Lei Han said quietly. "Start the simulation."
[EXCELLENT]
[INITIATING FIRST SIMULATION]
[PREPARING TALENT SELECTION]
A female paramedic reached his side and knelt in the rain. "Hey there, I need you to look at me. Can you tell me your name?"
"Lei Han," he answered automatically.
"Good. Do you know where you are?"
"Sanctuary Hills. Maple Street."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I almost got hit by a truck."
Her expression softened with sympathy. "You're in shock. That's normal. Just stay calm, okay?"
She pulled out a small flashlight and checked his eyes, then his pulse.
Lei Han answered her questions on autopilot—about pain, dizziness, nausea.
The paramedic's voice became a distant hum. Her flashlight was just another glow competing for his attention, fading into insignificance beside what now filled his vision.
Eight options floated before him, ethereal and commanding. Some shimmered with soft white light. Others pulsed with vibrant blue energy, almost alive.
Each one displayed a title in elegant script:
[Natural Athlete] — White glow
[Quick Learner] — White glow
[Silver Tongue] — White glow
[Iron Will] — White glow
[Keen Observer] — White glow
[Lucky Break] — Blue glow
[Martial Prodigy] — Blue glow
[???] — Blue glow, flickering
The last one pulsed with intense blue light, its name obscured by crackling static.
[TALENT SELECTION]
[CHOOSE ONE TALENT TO BEGIN YOUR FIRST SIMULATION]
[WARNING: THESE OPTIONS ARE RANDOMLY GENERATED]
[ONCE YOU SELECT, THE OTHERS WILL DISAPPEAR FOREVER]
Lei Han stared at the eight choices before him.
Eight different paths.
Eight different futures.
For the first time in his life, he had control.
[SELECT YOUR TALENT, HOST]
[YOUR FIRST SIMULATION AWAITS]
The rain continued falling on Sanctuary Hills, cold and relentless.
But Lei Han barely felt it anymore.
His finger hovered over one of the glowing options.
One choice.
One chance.
One simulation to change everything.
He reached out and selected —