The subway rattled steadily through the tunnel, wheels drumming over the rails beneath the low hum of conversation. Somewhere nearby, a phone played a video through cheap speakers before its owner hurriedly turned the volume down.
Lin Yan sat slumped among the evening commuters, his head hanging forward as the train rocked beneath him.
Cold sweat ran along his temples. His whole body was drawn tight, muscles trembling beneath his clothes, with the occasional involuntary jerk running through his shoulders and legs.
"You pervert!"
Lin Yan came awake choking on a breath.
What the hell?
Hadn’t he just died?
He could still feel the rusted club smashing into his skull, hear something crack inside his head, and feel the warmth spreading beneath his cheek as the world went black.
So how the hell was he standing here again?
"You! I’m talking to you!"
The sharp voice came from behind him.
Lin Yan turned, still trying to understand what was happening. People were packed shoulder to shoulder around him, the overhead lights were still on, and the train continued rumbling through the tunnel as though nothing had happened.
No corpse. No blood.
A woman in a black coat stepped closer and jabbed a finger toward his face.
"Yes, you! Stop pretending you can’t hear me."
Lin Yan stared at her, finally realizing she was talking to him.
Where had this lunatic come from?
"You were crouching behind me and taking pictures under my skirt," she shouted, making sure everyone nearby could hear. "I saw you. Disgusting."
Several passengers turned toward them. A few raised their phones, but most simply watched, uncertain what had happened and unwilling to get involved until they did.
Lin Yan looked behind the woman. The carriage was so crowded there was barely enough room to stand, let alone crouch down without being stepped on.
Then he looked back at her.
"I was taking pictures of you?"
"What else were you doing behind me?"
"Taking pictures of what?"
His gaze traveled over her face and figure before returning to her eyes.
"Have you ever looked in a mirror? What exactly do you think I was trying to photograph?"
A muffled laugh came from somewhere among the passengers. Someone else quickly covered it with a cough.
The woman’s face flushed.
"You—"
"Even if I had a thing for pigs, I’d still need a camera."
Lin Yan pulled out his phone. Its screen was cracked, and black tape held the back cover in place. When he had run short of money a few months earlier, he had sold the camera module along with several other parts to a repair shop. The battered thing could still make calls when it felt cooperative, but taking pictures was beyond it.
He held it out toward her.
"Mine doesn’t have one. Go ahead and check."
The woman slapped his hand aside instead of taking it.
"Who knows how many phones you have? Maybe you already hid the other one."
More people were watching now, but the reaction was no longer one-sided. Some glanced at Lin Yan’s battered phone, others looked at the cramped space behind the woman, and several exchanged doubtful looks.
The woman noticed the change and raised her voice.
"Don’t let him fool you! Men like him always have excuses!"
Lin Yan barely heard her. His attention had shifted to the man beside her, whose phone had already been recording when Lin Yan first turned around.
The dark train window caught the screen clearly. More than forty seconds.
The woman hadn’t even been shouting for twenty.
When the man noticed Lin Yan looking, he didn’t lower the phone. He just smiled.
Motherfucker.
He was about to say something when a pale number appeared at the edge of his vision.
At first he mistook it for a reflection on the window, but when he turned his head, the numbers moved with him.
02:47
"What the hell is that?"
He looked across the carriage. The numbers followed.
02:46
"A countdown?"
Several passengers were giving him strange looks now.
"Is he seriously trying to play crazy?" someone muttered.
Lin Yan’s stomach tightened. The memory of that rusted club suddenly felt a lot less like a nightmare, but before he could think any further, the woman grabbed his sleeve and yanked him toward her.
"Unlock your phone!"
Before Lin Yan could shove her away, every sound inside the carriage vanished.
The woman froze with one hand around his sleeve and her mouth still open. The man beside her remained motionless with his phone raised, its recording timer no longer moving. Even the train had fallen silent, although Lin Yan could still turn his head and move his arms. His legs, however, remained fixed to the floor.
A new line appeared beneath the countdown.
[Correct.]
[You have experienced your future death.]
Lin Yan stared at the words.
"The goblin was real?"
[Yes.]
"And in less than three minutes, that thing comes through the door and kills me again?"
[Yes.]
Lin Yan looked around at the frozen carriage.
"...Fuck."
[I can change the outcome in which you die.]
[In exchange, you must enter into a contract with me.]
A golden page unfolded beneath the countdown. The writing was unlike any language Lin Yan had ever seen, yet he understood it as soon as he looked at it.
"Holy shit," Lin Yan blurted. "Something this good actually happened to me?"
He barely glanced at the golden page before pressing his thumb against it.
The contract flashed.
[Contract accepted.]
[What the fuck?]
Lin Yan blinked. "Aren’t you supposed to be some mysterious higher existence? Watch your language."
[You signed a binding contract without reading it.]
"Yeah."
[You did not even hesitate.]
Lin Yan glanced at the countdown.
"I’ve got less than three minutes before a goblin caves my head in. This isn’t exactly fine-print time."
His attention had already moved to the words beneath the contract.
Only then did he notice the designation written beneath the contract.
[Contracting Party: System.]
Lin Yan’s eyes lit up.
"So what kind of system are you? Sign-in? Summoning? Territory-building?"
The system did not answer quickly enough, so Lin Yan continued guessing.
"Please be a sign-in system. Getting rewarded just for showing up sounds perfect. Summoning would be fine too, though. Give me a few legendary heroes and I can sit in the back while they handle everything."
[You are remarkably optimistic for someone facing imminent death.]
"That’s exactly why I’m optimistic. I was going to die with nothing, and now I get a system. How is that not good news?"
[You have not considered that I might be deceiving you?]
"Deceiving me for what? My phone? That’s the most expensive thing I own."
The system fell silent.
[You are the first contractor I have encountered who signed before reading.]
Lin Yan immediately caught the wording.
"The first? So there were other contractors?"
[That information is not relevant at present.]
"Fine. Then what ability are you giving me?"
[I do not give you an ability. The contract awakens a power that already exists within you.]
Lin Yan’s eyes widened.
"So I was a genius all along?"
[That is an overly generous interpretation.]
"It still counts."
Lin Yan grinned. "All right. Wake it up."
The golden page condensed into a small seal beneath his thumb. Cold flowed into his hand, entered his chest, and spread through the rest of his body, leaving behind the strange sensation of three empty spaces opening somewhere inside him.
[Contract established.]
[Innate ability awakened: Trait Plunder.]
[Initial trait slots: 3.]
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