Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

End of a "fulfilling" campus life.

Su Ming strolled casually through the streets of Pingjiang City.

These past few days, he hasn't even needed to improve his strength.

In Wen Qi's own words: "Try to return to a normal life as much as possible and avoid frequent contact with abnormal events."

Since yesterday, Pingjiang City has been under full government control to maintain normal operations.

On the surface, the city seems no different from any other day.

There are more pedestrians on the streets.

Some are going to work, and some are going to school.

Listen closely to the casual conversations of passersby; the topics always revolve around unusual events and the extraordinary abilities of the awakened ones.

Everyone's eyes held a mixture of fear and anticipation, their emotions a complex and unsettling mix.

Such stable cities are not common in the Dragon Kingdom.

Many cities are still in a state of panic and chaos.

On the street, Su Ming also saw some familiar-looking government officials.

Some of them run shops, some work as construction workers, and some direct traffic.

This is their anchor point.

Integrate into ordinary life to avoid getting lost and out of control.

Even Gu Yan, who is in charge of the Abyss Entrance Research Center, would occasionally take time off to work as a cashier for a day.

Gu Shen is the same; no matter how busy he is, he still has to find time to drive a taxi.

Driving a taxi was his anchor point.

Every awakened individual needs their own anchor point to stabilize the abnormal power surging within them.

but.

How long can this kind of life last?

The end of the world has come.

How much longer can Yu Mengnian hold on?

Once the gods descend to earth.

The existing order on Earth will completely collapse, and the anchor points of all awakened beings will crumble and disintegrate.

By that time.

There's not even a need for the gods to intervene.

Out-of-control awakened beings, terrifying anomalies, and unknown anomalies are enough to destroy the entire world.

By the time Su Ming returned to Lanyue Residential Area, it was already getting late.

Push open the door.

The room was completely empty.

Even the ghost who jumped off the building and the coal ball are gone.

Their temporary departure gave Su Ming a dreamlike, dazed feeling.

"Why."

He sighed, leaned back lazily on the sofa, and casually turned on the TV, but had no interest in watching it.

My thoughts drifted back to the night of March 22, 2026.

Su Ming was lying in bed, wide awake.

It's not insomnia.

It's simply a feeling that life is too meaningless.

Doing practice problems, taking exams, attending classes, and sleeping.

The monotony of day after day is like a stagnant pool.

He craved something exciting and crazy.

Even... something abnormal.

So, Su Ming subconsciously activated his horizontal pupils, and everything around him froze instantly, as the torrent of time began to flow backward.

Zhou Zhengyang, Old Lin, Bai Bin, Gu Yan, Gu Shen, Shen Wanyu, Wen Qi, Chen Zhiwei…

People who once left their mark in this room appear and disappear repeatedly in the light and shadow.

Until it completely disappeared.

Time froze on the night of March 22, 2026.

He looked at himself back then, curled up in bed, aimlessly scrolling through his phone.

It's a very strange feeling.

Su Ming was thinking.

Did I know then that he was scrolling through his phone with me through Hengtong?

Thinking about this...

He grinned, lying on the bed, his image intertwined and overlapping with his past self.

The only difference is.

The Su Ming of that time and the Su Ming of now have completely different mindsets.

时间不知不觉来到了2026年3月22日凌晨2点51分。

This point in time marked the beginning of Su Ming's discovery of the "Raising Ghosts" app, and also a turning point in his fate.

It was at this very moment.

The phone screen suddenly went black.

But Su Ming didn't notice at the time; he was still scrolling through his phone, trying to find something interesting to look at.

Only Su Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.

This differs from his memory at the time.

He remembers a strange app icon suddenly appearing in the corner of his phone screen.

The phone screen never went black from beginning to end.

"What's going on?"

Just as Su Ming was deep in thought, the black screen suddenly started flickering.

It's like the garbled text in a system error message.

A line of extremely faint, blurry characters silently appeared.

【~%?…,# Target for Development』☆&℃$︿★? 】

【~%? Su Ming☆&℃$︿★? 】

【~%? Favorability* Degree】☆&℃$︿★? 】

【~%? Forbidden*』☆&℃$︿★? 】

The handwriting flashed by so quickly it was almost an illusion.

Then, the screen lit up, and the eerie app from my memory appeared in the corner of the screen as expected.

"Person to be nurtured, Su Ming, affection level, forbidden."

Su Ming frowned.

Actually, he wasn't very surprised.

He guessed it when he realized he was most likely the source of the contamination.

What he was curious about was the "prohibition".

What is prohibited?

That bunch of gibberish was completely indistinguishable.

"Are you forbidding me from breaking free from the human framework?"

"Forbid me...from yielding to the instinctive urge to forbidden knowledge?"

"Or should I be forbidden from returning to my original state?"

This prohibition has many meanings.

Currently, Su Ming can only think of these three.

He didn't mention this to Wen Qi and the others.

Or perhaps, it's an unspoken secret between them.

In his field of vision, Su Ming had already chosen his character to raise.

He chose the school beauty who was considered a ghost.

In an instant, he was sucked into the phone.

The subsequent scenes were exactly the same as his personal experiences.

The only difference is...

After realizing that he wouldn't die in the game, Su Ming gritted his teeth and pressed the [Interact] option.

The next second, a door appeared in front of him.

The door led into complete darkness, as if it led to an abyss.

As the one-minute countdown ended, the door rushed towards him and swallowed him whole.

The Su Ming of the past has disappeared. He went back to the classroom he used to be in and confronted Wen Qi head-on.

In contrast, Su Ming's eyes at this moment...

The door remained firmly in place.

I haven't seen this door in a long time.

It has not appeared since its last appearance.

When I clicked on "Interact" later, the door didn't appear; the scene just changed instantly.

Su Ming's sixth sense told him.

He can go through this door.

Step into the gates of the past in the form of the future.

There was a strong sense of calling from inside the door.

It seems to have always been here.

It has always existed in the old days of the night of March 22, 2026.

Then, it waits for Su Ming to discover it and come in.

What's inside the door?

Su Ming didn't know.

But his strong intuition told him...

Once he steps inside, he will gain true freedom.

All the shackles and constraints on his body will be completely broken.

But before Su Ming could react...

A dense, overwhelming number of chains surged forth.

It's like a sea formed by the convergence of endless iron chains.

They locked every inch of Su Ming's body, penetrated every corner of Su Ming's soul, and forcibly trapped him in place.

But can it trap Su Ming?

Because the countdown above the entrance has ended.

As long as Su Ming nods, the door will pounce on him, helping him tear apart all the shackles that bind him.

All it takes is a nod.

Then you can obtain the ultimate "great freedom".

Su Ming smiled.

He wasn't sure if this was Wen Qi's doing.

But this method is too clever, too unsolvable.

The instigator pulls himself into the true form of humanity, fixing himself within the framework of humanity.

This is the highest level of driving skill.

Because no one can forcibly control Su Ming.

Only Su Ming himself can "control" himself.

Use your own human emotions to control and restrain yourself.

Wen Qi, Shen Wanyu, and Tang Tang showered him with endless favoritism and pampering.

That is eternal and unchanging, an extreme and compulsive love.

Chen Zhiwei, Yu Mengnian, Jiang Qian, and Zhou Zhengyang gained Su Ming's friendship.

His parents and family doted on him from a young age, so Su Ming never lacked love.

He has no worries about food and clothing, is accompanied by family, has a beautiful woman by his side, is surrounded by friends, is protected by his country, and is respected by the world.

What a...perfect dream.

The horizontal pupils began to fade.

This means that Su Ming has made his choice.

There is no solution to the apocalypse.

His "control" is also unsolvable.

As the horizontal pupils dissipated, the frantically surging chains began to fade and disappear.

Until the room returned to silence, everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion.

It was at this very moment.

The door was pushed open.

"Son, long time no see! Let your dad see if you've lost weight."

Su Ming's parents have returned.

Apart from Su Ming's parents.

Some of his trusted friends also came.

Zhou Zhengyang, who is far away in Beijing, and Gu Yan, Jiang Qian, and Gu Shen, who are nearby in Pingjiang City.

Even Li He, who had only met Su Ming a few times, came.

The quiet room suddenly became lively, just like during the Chinese New Year.

Only Wen Qi, Shen Wanyu, and Tang Tang were absent.

No.

Perhaps they have already appeared.

Watching him from somewhere.

Su Ming's guess was correct.

What appeared before Wen Qi was the scene of Su Ming's room.

Shen Wanyu and Tang Tang stood to the side.

Tang Tang kept her eyes fixed on Su Ming.

Shen Wanyu looked at Wen Qi with lingering fear: "Aren't you worried he'll leave?"

Although I don't know what happened.

But just now she was enveloped by an invisible, overwhelming fear.

It's like the thing you cherish most in your heart is about to disappear completely.

Wen Qi shook his head: "It's meaningless."

Although she said it was meaningless, Shen Wanyu had just clearly seen that when Su Ming stood in the living room in a daze, her fingernails dug deeply into her palms.

Her wound has not yet healed.

You should know that Wen Qi is a devastatingly strange being.

However, Shen Wanyu was also aware of this.

The most thrilling and dangerous moment has come to an end.

Su Ming has made his choice.