The cold night breeze embraces the people of City H, as the snow slowly covers the ground painting the whole city in white. In this modern city where people and cars are bustling about, a young man, tall in structure coupled with a handsome face stood unmoving on the ground, his face has a look of shock and disbelief while holding his phone near his ears. His gaze are unfocused while facing the wide window overlooking the city. The office where he is in, is surrounded by modern machines and laboratory equipment. Looking out the window from his office his gaze is cold with melancholy slowly displaying in his face. Then tears gradually streak down his cheeks as he tried his best to keep himself from crying."h.e.l.lo! Are you still there? s.h.i.+n, are you okay? I mean… I"m… I"m really sorry… I..." a sweet voice coming from the other end of the line said with a hint of hesitation in her voice.
The young man didn"t move for a couple of minutes even after the call was dropped. He looked dazedly trying to understand what had happened as he couldn"t accept everything he heard. Within his mind, he is recalling their conversation and her words echoing in his head over and over.
"s.h.i.+n, I… I fell in love with someone else. He can give me the future that I desire which you cannot. I"m so sorry…"
After hearing those lines, his mind went blank as memories of their time together came rus.h.i.+ng through. Happy memories that they shared, the laughter, the love, their first meeting and the first night they were together. He could not think of anything he did that could have made her sad. He is a man of his words and only keeps her in his heart. He intends to propose to her after the project is done and will surprise her of the house he bought for them. But now everything is over just like that.
The young man mindlessly sat on his black leather covered office chair and stare in the open air.
This young man in his 20"s is s.h.i.+n Jiao. He was an orphan and grew up with his old grandfather. Considered as a genius with regards to machines and coding in school. He made a name for himself in this field when he got into college and became well known in the entire school. Now he is working as the youngest chief engineer in a country owned laboratory. He is working on a fusion power cell that would solve the energy crisis. They already made a successful breakthrough and once this research comes out, it can actually help the whole planet itself.
All of this was possible when they found a meteorite that contains a black stone. Through research, they found out that the ball sized black stone will emit energy with the right combination from the runes surrounding it. With the collaboration of all the greatest minds on the planet, they are able to decipher the runes. Throughout this process, s.h.i.+n Jiao"s contribution is actually the most important because he was able to discover the secret of the runes. With that discovery, he could become a very rich person. But because of his desire to help his country in his new life, he decided to share this discovery to others.
s.h.i.+n Jiao is actually a person who can be considered as a jack-of-all-trades, but the difference is that he can master anything he wanted to. Like for example, he knows five different languages, he is also a mix-martial arts expert, and good with machines and computers.
Because of these abilities, he had a secret. He was scouted by a special organization responsible for protecting the country in secret. Thus he experienced living two different lives, the one in the shadows and the one in the light. Throughout his service, he eliminated dozens of men he considered as evil.
But all of this was changed when he was faced with a dilemma. It was in his last missions when he was spotted by a young child, a bistander, after he had eliminated his target and was being pursued by the enemy forces. If he didn"t silence the child, his ident.i.ty could be exposed and that will cost the lives of his comrades and the failure of their mission. With all many variables on the line, he had no choice but to break his principle to kill the innocent. And so with a heavy heart, he eliminates the child. This gave him a lot of sleepless night and nightmares, as the faces of the people he killed began to haunt him. So, one day he decided to quit his life in the shadows and try living a normal life. Because he is still going to work for the government, they let him go.
After he left the agency he began to focus on contributing to the country through research and development. Which demanded more of his time, and since this is also part of his hobby he enjoys doing it. Although he is busy, he still spends time with his girlfriend who stayed with him since they were in college. And he always spends quality time just for her. But it seems that it was not enough and thus in his mind, this may be the cause of their break-up and he blames himself for it.
The only thing that he can"t accept is that she actually cheated on him. It would be okay if she just wanted to break-up, as he can actually understand that. But knowing that another guy was involved and saying that the other guy can give her the future that she wanted, an unknown fury is actually rising deep within his heart, and a killing intent rises within him. His years of experience and blood drench hands are trying to break out from within himself. But still, he was able to control himself as his grip on the chair slowly loosen.
"Sigh… I guess… this is inevitable, it was my fault after all. But… Is this the retribution that I get from all those years of bloodshed? If so, then I have no choice but to accept it right?" s.h.i.+n Jiao said to himself with a sobbing voice as he couldn"t control himself from sobbing anymore.
Fear didn"t made him cry on the battlefield, but he couldn"t understand why he is crying right now.
His tears went on and on until he composes himself to accept everything and calm down.
"I hope that she would be happy with her new life." He said as he stood up from the chair.
His mind is still a little unfocused so he just decided to go home. After packing his laptop in his bag and some other things he needed as he decided to just finish everything at home, he went out of his office. He decided that night to walk through the cold and snowy weather, maybe it could freeze his heart and stop it from feeling the pain. But when he was out of the building he realized that it was useless as the pain in his heart wouldn"t go away and tears keep falling down his face as he walks down the path.
Unknown to him a car is slowly following him not too far on the other side of the road, and on the driver"s seat sat a woman. She is looking at him with her tear-filled beautiful blue eyes without blinking, as she can feel heart-wrenching in pain. Her cheeks are already wet with tears as her eyes couldn"t stop themselves from crying.
"I"m sorry, s.h.i.+n… I know that this will hurt you, but I have no choice. I am not the woman you think I am, I know that it is wrong for me to feel this way, but you had become the most important person in my life and it is not right for me to be with you will all of my secrets." She muttered to herself.
Then suddenly her thought was interrupted as her phone suddenly rang.
"h.e.l.lo."
On the other line spoke an encrypted voice that belongs to a man with unknown age. She herself is not sure who she is talking to. All she knows is that he is the one in command with their operation since she started to approach s.h.i.+n Jiao in his college days. But unknown to her, he is also part of the same organization, and she is the fail-safe.
"Yes, I know. I will leave immediately, I"ve done what"s required. I"ve checked everything and he has successfully finished the project. Tell the higher ups that they can relax now, according to his calculations the orb can actually provide enough power to support a big city for at least 100 years. And he was also able to make a complete blueprint of the orb which can be duplicated with enough scientist and engineers, but he has already distributed those through other channels. I wasn"t able to prevent that one I"m sorry."
"A threat? No sir, I don"t think he is a threat to the security. And…. And we can still use him in other projects, but we have to convince him otherwise."
After some instructions from the person on the other line, the girl dropped the call and decided to take a last look at the lonely figure of s.h.i.+n Jiao. Her heart is still troubled as she knows that the love she had for him will not fade. Although in her line of work it was not supposed to happen but as she spent time with him, she had unknowingly fallen for him, it was not that hard as s.h.i.+n Jiao is a very handsome young man, intelligent and a very caring person. Which girl wouldn"t fall for a man like that?
As she was trying to suppress the pain in her heart, she noticed in the side mirror of her car that a black van is speeding. She suddenly had a bad feeling about it. So she decided to maneuver her car to block the path of the van. But it was to no avail as the black van evaded and went to the other side and just pa.s.s through, with this she heaves a sigh of relief. Thinking that it was all false alarm, so she continues to watch that lonely figure of a man walking down the pathway.
When she decided to leave, the same vehicle appears once again, this time it"s on the opposite side of the road. It suddenly stopped ahead and five men alight from the vehicle. Their eyes are looking straight at s.h.i.+n Jiao"s direction.
"This is bad, wait a minute… I know these guys, I thought I told them that he is not a threat." Her voice is in panic as she quickly parked the car and ran towards s.h.i.+n Jiao prepared to prevent the kidnapping that"s going to happen.
While all of this is happening, s.h.i.+n Jiao, unaware of the situation just tried hard to keep his mind clear. When he saw a convenient store he went inside and bought some food and liquor deciding to drown his sorrows using alcohol. When he got out, he actually noticed that something is wrong. With his experience and sharp senses he actually spotted 5 men coming towards him with suspicious movements. Looking at the way they walk he can deduce that they are military. But he acted as if he didn"t saw them and decided to walk to the other direction. But when he turns around, he was suddenly rooted to the ground as he saw the very woman who broke his heart. Although he felt a little happy seeing her beautiful face but he remembers what she said to him, anger and resentment suddenly can be seen in his handsome face. But when he wanted to say something to her, he noticed that something is not right, her face is pale and her eyes are puffed with wet tears still visible in her jade-like cheeks.
No words escaped their mouths as they stood there looking at each other. The whole area became silent as two eyes are glued conveying the feelings they had.
s.h.i.+n Jiao even forgot the danger he is in right now as he just stood there, trying to burn her image in his mind thinking that even for the last time at least he can see her. He didn"t care about the world around him as he looks at her beautiful face. Then as if reaching a mutual understanding, both of them smiled.
But then all of a sudden everything turns black and s.h.i.+n Jiao found himself in a place devoid of light. And he noticed himself floating, and he also saw the things he bought floating. It"s like he is in a place without gravity. His heart began to feel scared, as a normal man although he had his training, he still felt fear of the unknown. But a ridiculous idea suddenly pops out of his mind, which is illogical and makes no sense for him.
"Ha, ha, ha. That"s impossible… I mean transmigration is not real right? And I still have my clothes, bags, and groceries. I think this might be my hallucination because of the stress acc.u.mulated with work and upon seeing her…"
Remembering what happened he can"t help but be curious especially when he saw her smile. The smile she gave is not someone who"s going to leave but someone who is in love. But she clearly told him that she is going away, why would she suddenly appear in front of him at that time? Those are things that bothered him and he would have asked those before he went to this place.
Meanwhile…
s.h.i.+n Jiao sudden disappearance startled the group of men who came near him. The girl is also stupefied and was unable to move.
"Where did he go?... Hey, agent Li. Where is he?..." a white man with a blonde hair which looks like the leader of the group shouted with a fl.u.s.tered look on his face.
"Why would you ask me? I"m the same as you are, I was just looking at him and he just disappeared." The woman, s.h.i.+n Jiao"s ex-girlfriend, which they called agent Li replied with a worried look in her face.
Everyone that saw this situation was stupefied and was unable to piece the puzzle of what had happened as they look in the area in panic. Unknown to them, s.h.i.+n Jiao was taken by an unknown power to an unknown land to face unknown challenges.