Alex Chen had just swung onto the motorcycle when the fire station’s alarm suddenly blared.

  He turned his head and saw Lena Lin’s expression change instantly.

  “Emergency call?” Alex asked.

  Lena nodded and ran toward the fire truck at once. As she ran, she turned back and shouted, “Wait here. We’ll talk when I get back—”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Lena stopped and looked back at him, her eyes full of doubt. “You?”

  “I know what’s going to happen,” Alex said. “I can help.”

  They locked eyes for three seconds.

  Lena didn’t have time to hesitate. She pointed at the back seat. “Get on. But if you slow us down, I’ll throw you off.”

  The motorcycle roared out of the station, following behind the wailing fire truck.

  Alex gripped the rear seat tightly. The wound on his left arm started bleeding again from the vibration, but he ignored it. He stared at the street ahead, quickly running through the second key event of this day in his mind—

  The old residential building in East City. A gas leak would trigger a fire. Three households would be trapped inside. By the time the fire brigade arrived, cracks would already be spreading through the structure.

  In his previous life, Lena Lin had led the team inside. She successfully rescued two households, but when she went in for the third time, the building collapsed. She was pinned beneath the rubble, her left leg fractured and her spine injured. She had spent three months bedridden.

  Later, she told him that in that moment, she had thought she was going to die.

  Alex was not going to let that happen again.

  Five minutes later, they arrived.

  It was an old six-story apartment building. The outer walls were weathered, and the windows still had old wooden frames. Thick smoke was pouring out from the third and fourth floors, and tongues of flame were shooting from the windows, licking up the outer wall.

  A crowd had already gathered below. Some were crying and shouting. Some were taking pictures. Some were just standing there, staring blankly.

  Lena jumped off the bike and rushed toward the fire truck. Her teammates were already moving—rolling out hoses, putting on breathing gear, checking equipment.

  Alex followed behind her.

  A middle-aged man rushed over and grabbed Lena’s arm, his voice hoarse. “My parents are still on the fourth floor! Please, please save them—”

  Lena nodded. “We’ll do everything we can.”

  She turned and shouted to her team, “Team One, with me upstairs! Team Two, contain the fire from outside! Move!”

  “Wait.” Alex suddenly spoke.

  Everyone looked at him.

  Lena frowned. “What is it?”

  Alex pointed at the wall on the left side of the building. “That section will collapse in three minutes.”

  The others followed his finger and looked over. That wall really did have some cracks, but in a building this old, cracks were everywhere.

  One of the younger firefighters gave a mocking snort. “Who are you? You know anything about firefighting?”

  Alex ignored him and kept his eyes on Lena. “Go in from the right side. Take the stairwell. When the wall on the left collapses, you should already be above the second floor. You won’t get buried.”

  Lena stared at him, her expression complicated.

  “How do you know?”

  “I told you. I get premonitions,” Alex said. “Believe me or don’t.”

  Lena gritted her teeth and turned to her team. “Route change. We’re entering from the right stairwell.”

  “Captain!” the young firefighter protested. “We don’t even know who this guy is. How can we listen to him—”

  “I’m the captain. You listen to me.” Lena finished speaking, put on her breathing apparatus, and charged into the building.

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  Two firefighters rushed in after her. The rest set up water cannons outside and began spraying down the fire.

  Alex stood outside the cordon line, staring at that wall and counting down in silence.

  One hundred fifty seconds.

  One hundred twenty seconds.

  Ninety seconds.

  The cracks in the wall were widening. No one noticed. Only Alex was watching.

  Sixty seconds.

  Thirty seconds.

  Fifteen seconds.

  Suddenly, Alex shouted into the air as if he had a radio—he didn’t know the channel, but he shouted anyway.

  “Lena Lin! Fall back! Fall back now!”

  Lena’s voice came back over the radio. “We haven’t finished the rescue yet—”

  “Fall back! It comes down in ten seconds!”

  Three seconds later, Lena’s shout rang out over the radio:

  “All units, fall back! Move!”

  Five seconds later, three figures burst out of the building entrance.

  Two seconds later, the wall came down with a thunderous crash.

  Bricks and chunks of concrete slammed into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust. If they had entered from the left side just now, they would have been buried right underneath it.

  Everyone on the outside was stunned.

  The young firefighter stood there with his mouth hanging open, looking at the collapsed wall, then at Alex, his face drained white.

  Lena yanked off her breathing mask and sucked in huge gulps of air. She stared at Alex, shock, suspicion, and something else unspoken all mixed in her eyes.

  Alex walked over and glanced at her leg—

  Whole. Uninjured.

  “Anyone still trapped inside?”

  Lena came back to herself. “Yes… there’s still an elderly couple on the fourth floor.”

  “The right stairwell is still usable,” Alex said. “That wall collapse will suppress the fire for a bit. You’ve got ten minutes.”

  Lena stared at him for three seconds, then turned and shouted to her team, “Team Two, with me! Now!”

  She charged back into the building.

  This time, no one questioned her.

  II

  Ten minutes later, Lena Lin and her teammates came running out of the building carrying two elderly people.

  The old couple were rushed into an ambulance. Their family members cried as they thanked everyone over and over. Lena pulled off her helmet. Her hair was soaked and plastered to her face. Her skin was streaked with sweat and soot.

  But she was standing.

  And she wasn’t hurt.

  She walked up to Alex and stopped in front of him.

  “How did you know?”

  Alex met her gaze. “I told you. I get premonitions.”

  “Premonitions?” Lena lowered her voice. “You can predict collapse points, predict my leg getting crushed, and even predict that we’d have ten minutes to finish the rescue? That’s not a premonition. That’s—”

  She didn’t finish the sentence, but her eyes said the two words clearly enough:

  A prophet.

  Alex didn’t deny it.

  Lena was silent for a long time.

  Around them, the firefighters were packing up equipment, the ambulances were screaming away, and the crowd of onlookers was gradually dispersing. No one paid attention to the two people standing beside the rubble.

  Finally, Lena spoke.

  “You said that if I went out on that call, I’d get hurt. Three months in bed.”

  “Yes.”

  “And then? You said I’d live to the second year, the third year, the tenth year. What about after ten years?”

  Alex didn’t answer.

  Lena stared into his eyes and asked, word by word,

  “Did I die after ten years?”

  Alex’s pupils tightened slightly.

  In that instant, Lena saw the answer.

  She took a deep breath, looked away, and stared at the smoking ruins in the distance.

  “So you came back from the future.” Her voice was quiet, half question, half confirmation. “Came back to change all of this.”

  Alex neither admitted it nor denied it.

  He only said, “This world is more dangerous than you think. the System, Monsters, Dungeons… this is only the beginning.”

  Lena turned back to look at him.

  “Then what do you need me to do?”

  Alex met her eyes.

  “Stay alive. Get stronger. Then help me save more people.”

  Lena was silent for three seconds, then nodded.

  “Okay.”

  Right then, a System Notification appeared in front of both of them at the same time.

  “Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Fire Rescue Hero”

  “Successfully rescued three or more survivors from a fire”

  “Reward: Fire Resistance +5%”

  “Reward: White Crystal Core x3”

  Alex froze for a second. He looked at Lena, and she was also staring at the panel in front of her.

  “You got it too?”

  Lena nodded and tapped the air in front of her, probably accepting the reward. Then she looked at Alex with a strange expression.

  “This System… what the hell is it?”

  Alex didn’t answer. He looked up at the sky.

  The sky was still just as blue, and the rift was still there, like a wound that would never heal.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But one day, we’ll find the answer.”

  Lena followed his gaze up to the sky. After a moment of silence, she asked,

  “Where to next?”

  Alex turned and walked toward the motorcycle.

  “We’re going to find someone,” he said. “A little girl. She should be hiding in the storeroom of some convenience store right now. If we’re too late, she dies.”

  Lena followed him over.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Alex swung onto the motorcycle and started the engine.

  Lena climbed onto the back and grabbed his shirt.

  The motorcycle roared forward.

  The wind screamed past their ears, and Alex’s voice drifted back from the front.

  “You’re not afraid I’m a liar?”

  Lena’s voice came from behind him, carrying the faintest trace of a smile.

  “A liar wouldn’t risk his life to save strangers.”

  Alex said nothing.

  He only twisted the throttle all the way down, and the motorcycle tore through the empty streets.

  Behind them, her teammates at the fire station were shouting her name.

  Lena never looked back.

  III

  Ten minutes later, the motorcycle stopped in front of a convenience store.

  The rolling shutter was half lowered. Bloody footprints stretched from the entrance into the store. The glass door had shattered all over the floor. Shelves had toppled over, and all kinds of goods were scattered everywhere.

  Alex jumped off the bike and strode into the store.

  “Iris?”

  No answer.

  He stepped around the collapsed shelves and headed for the storeroom area. The storeroom door was shut, but a faint light was shining through the crack beneath it.

  Alex knocked on the door.

  “Iris, it’s me.”

  No sound came from inside.

  Alex stepped back, took a deep breath, and said,

  “Your name is Iris Su. You’re seventeen years old. This morning, you came to the convenience store with your parents to buy things. After System Descent, Monsters rushed in. Your parents shoved you into the storeroom and stayed outside to block them.”

  A muffled sob came from inside.

  Alex continued, “You’ve been hiding in here for four hours. No food. No water. No idea what’s happening outside. You’re scared, and you don’t know what to do. But you know your parents wanted you to live.”

  Quiet crying came from behind the door.

  Lena stood behind Alex without speaking. She looked at his back, her eyes full of complicated emotions.

  Alex’s voice softened.

  “Iris, I’m here to save you. Open the door and come with me.”

  There was a long silence.

  Then the lock clicked, and the door opened a crack.

  One swollen red eye peeked out through the gap.

  She was a thin, small girl with a ponytail, a pale face, and tear tracks still wet on her cheeks. She looked at Alex, then at Lena Lin behind him, and bit her lip.

  “H-How do you know my name?”

  Alex crouched down so he was at eye level with her.

  “That doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is this—do you want to live?”

  The girl looked at him, and a tiny spark appeared in her eyes.

  “My mom and dad…”

  Alex was silent for a moment.

  “They shoved you into that storeroom because they wanted you to live,” he said. “If you go running out now, then everything they did was for nothing.”

  Fresh tears welled up in the girl’s eyes.

  But she nodded.

  Alex held out his hand.

  After a moment of hesitation, the girl took it.

  She stepped out of the storeroom and saw the devastation outside for the first time—the collapsed shelves, the shattered glass, the blood on the floor.

  She bit down hard on her lip and didn’t cry out.

  Lena walked over, took off her own jacket, and draped it over her shoulders.

  “Let’s go,” Alex said. “There’s still a lot to do.”

  The three of them walked out of the convenience store.

  The sunlight was blinding, and the rift in the sky was still there, like an eternal scar.

  Iris looked up at it.

  “What is that?”

  Alex looked up too.

  “The entrance to the new world,” he said. “And the grave of the old one.”

  Iris didn’t understand.

  But she tightened her grip on Alex’s hand.

  Alex lowered his gaze and looked at her.

  This face was exactly the same as the Iris who, ten years later, had burned away her life to give him that final buff.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  The motorcycle roared to life once more, carrying all three of them toward an unknown future.