The ride over was uneventful. After picking up a cheap backpack, Su Jin spent the taxi trip reviewing Fu Qingdai's intel before getting dropped off outside the Talent Residential Community.

The complex lacked any real perimeter walls. Standing by the curb, Su Jin had a clear view of the drab, six-story walk-ups squatting inside.

Spaced a decent distance apart, the structures were scarred with webs of soot-stained cracks, wearing their heavy years on their crumbling facades.

Other than their depressing age, they were entirely unremarkable. Fortunately, the building numbers painted on the sides were still legible.

Building Seven—Fu Qingdai's residence—was visible right from the street.

Su Jin didn't rush in. Instead, he pulled out Fu Qingdai’s hand-drawn map and began pacing the perimeter, matching her layout to the real world.

Half an hour later, he circled back to the main gate.

The girl was terrifyingly meticulous. Every single line on her hand-drawn schematic had been drafted with a ruler.

Even the scale of the surrounding supermarkets and print shops was remarkably accurate.

It saved him the headache of mapping the territory himself.

He stepped onto the grounds. There was no access control; the rusting security booth at the entrance was nothing but window dressing.

Standing beneath Unit Two of Building Seven, the sour stench of rotting swill assaulted his nose.

Beside the main entrance was a square opening, roughly sixteen inches across, carved directly into the wall.

A vile sludge of food scraps, spoiled broth, and plastic bags festered at its base.

A low, knee-high cement partition separated the doorway from the filth.

He recognized the design from his childhood housing block—an old-school garbage chute.

Every floor had a hatch in the corridor, letting tenants blindly chuck their trash straight down to the ground level.

Thanks to the unbearable reek and constant clogging... these architectural nightmares were extinct outside of the most decrepit slums.

A massive, gnarled tree stood sentry right in front of the building.

Su Jin quickly circled its trunk. Sure enough, near the exposed roots, he spotted a dab of red paint—faded, but unmistakable.

This had to be Fu Qingdai's stash!

A quick glance confirmed the courtyard was empty. Su Jin slipped on a pair of work gloves from his backpack and started digging.

Four inches down, his fingers scraped against the rusted lid of a patterned biscuit tin.

He popped it open. Inside lay tightly bound rolls of crumpled bills and a handful of loose coins.

He didn't have time to count it, but he silently offered the girl another round of applause.

Shoving the tin into his pack, Su Jin kicked the loose dirt back into the hole, stamping it flat.

Then, he tilted his head back, scanning the glass windows above. A satisfied smirk tugged at his lips.

Fu Qingdai lived on the fifth floor. Crudely written "For Rent" signs were plastered on the windows of both the second and fifth floors.

If he played this right, he could set up base camp directly across the hall from her... it would make managing the upcoming disaster vastly more efficient.

Time to secure the asset!

Memorizing the phone number, Su Jin scanned his surroundings.

Spotting a middle-aged woman shuffling by, he moved to intercept her.

"Excuse me, sister. Could I borrow your phone for a second? Mine's dead."

....

Thirty minutes later, outside the fifth-floor apartment.

A middle-aged man in a faded gray polo jammed a key into the lock. Su Jin stood patiently behind him.

"You've got a good eye, Xiao Su. Don't let the peeling paint fool you. Back in the day, these units were assigned to the real heavyweights at the plant—professors, cadres, combat veterans. Top-tier folks."

The heavy door groaned open, and the landlord gestured him inside. "Old Fu across the hall? Military. Xiao Cheng, the security captain at the gate? Ex-army. The aesthetics are a bit rough, but you won't find a safer place to sleep."

"My son used to live right below me. If he hadn't begged me to move in with him, I never would've left. I kept the place immaculate. What do you think?"

"Your son is a good man, making enough to support you like that," Su Jin smoothly flattered. "If I had that kind of cash flow, my folks would be thrilled. You're living the dream!"

"Ah, it's not bad, not bad! You're doing fine yourself, young man!" the landlord waved it off, though a smug grin betrayed his pride.

Su Jin didn't waste breath on idle chatter, beginning a systematic sweep of the rooms.

Two bedrooms, a living room, a squat toilet, and a kitchen. It lacked appliances, but the basic furniture—tables, chairs, bed frames—was intact... the total footprint was roughly seven hundred and fifty square feet.

The landlord trailed him closely. "Got the essentials, enough to get by. You'll need your own electronics. For cooking, hit up the gas depot right outside the complex. Sixty bucks for a propane tank, hundred-yuan deposit. Morning market's a street over... So, what do you think?"

They both stopped in the center of the living room.

Su Jin cut straight to the chase. "It works. How much per month?"

"Five hundred. And for the deposit... since you seem like a straight shooter, Xiao Su, just one month's rent up front."

"Done. No problem." Su Jin paused, shifting his weight. "Brother, you mentioned your son lived beneath you. Is the downstairs unit vacant too?"

"Yeah, it's empty. That's his property, though. Didn't want the hassle of tenants, so it's been collecting dust."

"Is he willing to rent it now?"

"Huh?" The landlord blinked, caught off guard. "I mean, the layout's identical to this one. If you're paying, sure, I have the final say. But how many people are you moving in here?"

Su Jin adopted a perfectly calibrated look of mild embarrassment. "Brother, like I said, I'm new to Longshan. This place is just for me. But I've got a... friend moving here soon. A girl... I figured if I scouted a place for her in advance, it might, you know, score me some points. I swear to you, strictly one person per unit. No funny business."

"Ah... chasing a skirt, I see." The landlord let out a booming laugh. "Alright, no problem!"

Su Jin offered a sheepish grin and thanked him, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Just one more thing, brother... Being fresh in town, dropping cash for two apartments at once is going to bleed me dry. Especially with her arriving in a few days—I'll need some walking-around money."

"I can cover the first month's rent for both units today. Give me half a month to pony up the deposits—we can lock it in the contract. You can drop by then to inspect the place. If there's a single scratch on the floorboards, keep the deposits and toss me out on the street. Deal?"

The landlord hesitated, chewing his lip, before slapping Su Jin’s shoulder with a grin. "You're an honest kid. I can't be the guy standing in the way of true love over a technicality! Alright, we have a deal!"

.....

An hour later, the apartment was silent. Su Jin stood perfectly still by the window, chewing mechanically on some bitter, unidentifiable leafy green he'd bought, his deadened gaze fixed on the horizon.

Outside, the sun was bleeding into the west, drenching the decaying concrete sprawl in a deceptive, golden warmth.

In a single day, he had been ripped from his home, dropped into an alien world, navigated a psych ward, and finally rented two apartments... he was 'settled.'

While he was moving—while there were tasks to complete, variables to manage, people to manipulate—his raw panic and crushing helplessness had been shoved into a dark box by sheer, desperate rationality.

But now, the tasks were done. He had four walls. He was alone. His adrenaline spiked, and the walls of that box began to crack... it felt like a fever dream, yet sickeningly, viscerally real.

Su Jin leaned forward, pressing his burning forehead against the cool glass. He closed his eyes and let out a long, shuddering sigh.

The astringent bitterness of the greens exploded on his tongue. The terror and utter bewilderment he had been suppressing violently clawed its way up his throat.

A cosmic job forced down his throat, and a looming, unavoidable apocalypse to prepare for...

Why did I get dragged across dimensions... why the hell is the world ending?!

Why is this my problem?!

I'm just a salaryman. I never asked for any of this!!

Su Jin clutched the fabric over his chest, his knuckles white, drowning in the suffocating weight of his new reality.

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