As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider.

Lin Chen leaned against the wall, taking one step at a time, and it took him nearly twenty minutes to get back to his rented room, more than twice as long as usual. Pushing open the creaking, dilapidated wooden door, a faint musty smell mixed with the scent of laundry detergent hit him. In the cramped room, there was a single bed, a desk, and a simple wardrobe. The furnishings were extremely simple, yet they gave him an unprecedented sense of peace.

He didn't turn on the light, but groped his way to the bedside using the faint moonlight streaming in from the window, and sat down heavily. The wound on his shoulder reopened from the movement, and blood seeped into his palms, sticking to his skin. A dull ache also came in waves, making him involuntarily frown.

He propped himself up on the table, opened the drawer, and took out the last of the iodine and gauze. By the moonlight, he clumsily treated his wound—the piercing pain from the iodine stinging the wound made him tremble all over; he bit his lower lip hard to stifle a sound. He wrapped the gauze around his shoulder with one hand, his movements awkward and stiff. It took him more than ten minutes to finally manage to bandage the wound; cold sweat had soaked his hair and dripped down his cheeks.

After treating his wounds, he collapsed onto the bed, panting heavily. Eight hours of working at the convenience store, coupled with the life-or-death struggle just now, had pushed his body and mind to their limits, but he dared not sleep immediately. He forced himself to stay awake, calling out that cold, mechanical voice in his mind.

The next second, a light blue virtual panel clearly appeared in my mind:

Ultimate Evolution System

[Host: Lin Chen]

[Race: Tiger-type Orphnoch (Primary Form)]

Core Attributes:

Constitution 16/72 (average human average 5): Physical strength, physical defense, wound healing speed

Agility 19/78 (average human 5): movement speed, neural reaction speed, and dexterity

Spirit 21/55 (average human 5): Sensory range, body control, mental defense

*The three attributes complement each other; a weakness in any attribute will limit overall strength. Maxing out all three attributes unlocks the conditions for form evolution.

Lifespan: 16 years

Evolution Points: 10

System Functions:

Evolution points can be used to enhance core attributes (every 10 evolution points can increase a single attribute by 1 point). Defeating monsters will grant evolution points, and absorbing special energy sources will allow you to evolve into a special form.

[New player tip: Enjoy a 8% discount on your first attribute upgrade (8 evolution points increase 1 point of a single attribute)]

Lin Chen's eyes lit up instantly. The system's rules were simple and straightforward, and he quickly grasped the concept: physique was the foundation; only by withstanding attacks could one deal damage. Agility was for survival; only by dodging damage could one stay alive. Spirit was the ceiling; only by controlling one's power could one avoid going berserk. All three were indispensable. And killing monsters was the way he obtained evolution points.

But when his gaze swept over the "Lifespan Value" column, he froze instantly.

Lifespan: 16 years

The four numbers were like red-hot irons, piercing his eyes. His blood seemed to freeze instantly, and even his breathing stopped for a moment.

Wait, how could it be 16?!

He shook his head violently, thinking that he had lost too much blood and his eyes were playing tricks on him. He repeatedly focused on the number in his mind, but no matter how many times he looked at it, the cold "16 years" remained unchanged.

He is 25 years old this year.

With only 16 years left to live, it means he will die at the age of 41 at most.

A bone-chilling cold instantly shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, his scalp tingled, and his back was instantly soaked with cold sweat. He had spent fifteen years traversing time, barely surviving in this foreign land without an Eastern Kingdom. What kept him going, besides his obsession with returning home, was the very act of "living." But now, having awakened his powers and gained hope of returning home, he was told that he only had sixteen years left to live?

In a flash, he remembered the cruelest plot point in Kamen Rider 555—the Orphnochs, the evolved form of humanity, yet also a cursed race. Every awakened Orphnoch must pay the price of a drastically reduced lifespan, ultimately meeting their end in sandification, without exception.

He thought he was a time traveler, an exception, but reality slapped him hard in the face.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, oblivious to the pain from the wound on his shoulder. Sixteen years—too short. Forget finding his way home; he might not even survive the dangers of this world before ending up like that leopard-shaped Orphnoch, reduced to ashes scattered by the wind.

Then, he recalled those fragmented pieces of information about the Orphnochs—the power of the Orphnochs originated from the Source, and at the core of the Source was the King of the Orphnochs. Only by coming into contact with the Source power of the King of the Orphnochs could one touch the essence of lifespan, and even rewrite life and death.

Finding the king and extending his lifespan are his top priorities, and finding the king requires finding the main characters. A series of unexpected events has made Lin Chen unable to continue researching the system. He only wants to know how he will survive.

The exhaustion from his initial awakening caused him to quickly fall into a deep sleep.

Unbeknownst to him, a black minivan had been parked silently downstairs at his rented apartment for half an hour.

In the back seat of the car, a man in a black suit looked at the two sets of abnormal signals flickering on the detector—one was the energy fluctuation of a newly awakened tiger-type Orphnoch, and the other was a spatial distortion fluctuation that did not belong to this world. He spoke coldly into the walkie-talkie, his voice devoid of any warmth:

"Target locked, Smart Brain School Discipline Team, prepare to close in."

The moonlight outside the window was suddenly completely obscured by dark clouds.