As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider.

At 11:30 p.m., the evening wind in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, stung his face with icy shards. Lin Chen had just taken off his blue convenience store uniform and casually put on a black jacket. His fingertips were still stained with oden soup and the cold hardness of the cash register. He had some loose yen he had just earned in his pocket, and the heavy weariness made it hard for him to lift his eyelids.

Twenty-five years old, fifteen years in the past. A car accident when he was ten years old took away his parents and trapped him, a stranger in this body.

For the first six months after waking up, he frantically searched for his way home. He scoured the world map in the library, looked through every international news article he could find, and even secretly loitered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. But no matter how much he searched through all the materials or asked everyone he could, he couldn't find the Eastern country that gave him birth and raised him.

In this world, there is no Eastern Kingdom, no five thousand years of history, no familiar local accent, and even the five-cent RMB he holds in his hand has become scrap metal that no one recognizes.

For fifteen years, he eked out a living in the cracks of Tokyo, working part-time at a convenience store and relying on his meager inheritance. He had no friends, no roots, and couldn't even find someone who could speak a word of his hometown dialect. His only solace was the five-cent coin he kept hidden in a tucked-in pocket of his wallet—a coin he had clutched tightly in his hand since waking up from a car accident at the age of ten. It was his only connection to his original world, the only proof that he had ever truly existed, sustaining him day after day, keeping him alive and waiting for a chance to return.

The convenience store was at the street corner. The surrounding residential area was already dark, with only the neon lights of the store sign casting a dim red glow on the ground, reflecting the withered yellow leaves scattered everywhere. Lin Chen zipped up his jacket, buried his chin in his collar, and hurried towards his rented room three blocks away. That cramped and simple single room tucked into an alley was his only safe haven in this world.

He had walked this road for two years; he could find his way back with his eyes closed. But tonight, an inexplicable chill crept up his spine, chilling him to the bone. It was as if a pair of cold eyes were lurking in the shadows, locking onto him. The suffocating feeling of being watched like prey gripped his heart, making his palms sweat and his fingers tighten involuntarily around his wallet. Even his pace quickened unconsciously.

Most of the streetlights were broken, and the few that remained cast dim, dark shadows on the ground. The evening wind whistled through the alleyway, its sound like whispers in his ear. He pulled out his phone; the screen only showed the cold ticking of the clock, no messages, and the signal strength was a mere single bar.

Just as he turned into the secluded alley where the rented house was located, a shrill roar suddenly pierced the night sky—hoarse, violent, and filled with inhuman malice, making his eardrums ache.

Lin Chen's steps abruptly halted, his hair stood on end, and his heart pounded in his throat. He whirled around and saw a dark figure slowly emerge from the depths of the alley. The creature was a size larger than an adult man, its limbs twisted, its entire body covered in gray-black scales, and the sharp claws at its fingertips gleamed coldly in the dim light. Its head was that of a mutated leopard, its blood-red, murky eyes fixed on him, and thick saliva dripped from its mouth. A strong, pungent stench wafted up on the wind, and heavy footsteps pounded on the concrete, each step pounding against his heartbeat.

"A...monster?"

Lin Chen's mind went blank. He instinctively stepped back, his back slamming heavily against the cold wall, his escape route completely blocked. This wasn't a movie special effect; it was real, overwhelming fear—the despair of life's instinct against absolute power.

In a flash, he remembered a short video of Kamen Rider that he had seen online, featuring monsters that fed on humans and were called Orphnoch.

It turns out this world is the world of Kamen Rider.

Before he could think, the leopard-like Orphnoch roared again and pounced, its claws whistling through the air as it aimed for his neck. Lin Chen's pupils constricted, and on instinct, he dodged to the side. The claws grazed his shoulder, the sound of tearing fabric accompanied by excruciating pain erupting as warm blood instantly stained his inner shirt and dripped down his arm.

"hiss--"

The excruciating pain made him dizzy for a moment. He knew he was no match for the opponent, and his only thought was to run. But he had only taken two steps when a tremendous force struck him from behind, shoving him violently to the ground. His forehead slammed heavily onto the concrete, a wave of dizziness washed over him, blood gushed out, and his vision blurred instantly.

The leopard-shaped Orphnoch slowly approached him, lowered its head, and a cruel smile played in its blood-red eyes, as if it were watching its prey's dying struggle. It slowly raised its sharp claws, the tips aimed at Lin Chen's chest; the shadow of death was almost within reach.

"No... I can't die!"

The scream in his heart broke through layers of fear. In this world without the East, without a place to belong, he had lived like a lost soul for so long. The five-cent coin in his wallet hadn't even had a chance to take him home, and he hadn't even seen the smoke of his hometown again. How could he die under the claws of this monster?

The will to survive burned fiercely in my chest; I was unwilling, absolutely unwilling!

But those sharp claws, gleaming with a cold light, were already piercing his heart with a whistling wind!