Wulin City, Longjing Mountain.
Under the sunlight, the leaves trembled slightly, flashing with a faint green glow.
Lu Yang sat in the shade of a tree, quietly sizing up the convenience store in front of him.
Longjing Convenience Store.
A plain market signboard. Tasteless and crude decorations with raw, exposed concrete. A cramped, miserable storefront.
Living upstairs, running a shop downstairs.
What made him truly fall silent, however, was the store's location.
How did that saying go again?
When opening a shop, the three most important things are location, location—and your damn location.
A convenience store opened at the top of a mountain was nothing short of a double-edged sword.
The downside?
Low foot traffic. Extremely high risk of going bankrupt in silence.
The upside?
You could sell to hikers. And you could raise the prices way up.
But that upside rested on one crucial assumption—
That this mountain actually had hikers.
Lu Yang lowered his head and glanced at the road beneath his feet. The paved road brushed right past the mountaintop convenience store.
'Heh.'
What kind of lunatic tourist climbs a mountain along a highway?
Unlucky. Seriously unlucky.
This shop had to endure the nightmare of difficult restocking, and it couldn't even charge hikers premium prices. Lu Yang honestly had no idea how it had managed to survive until now.
He was willing to call the owner of this place a business genius—
The undisputed King of Charity.
"Hey, boss! You there or not?"
A middle-aged guy in white clothes and flip-flops shouted from the entrance.
"Coming, coming."
Dragging his bandaged leg, Lu Yang limped back into the shop and rang up two bottles of Red Bull for the flip-flop guy.
That's right.
Lu Yang himself was that so-called business genius. The King of Charity.
After smiling and seeing the customer off, Lu Yang frowned as he stared at the bandage wrapped around his right thigh.
He hadn't injured his leg at all.
All he'd done was race a motorcycle at 300 kilometers per hour on a coastal highway, clip a tiny stone, get launched into the air, spin several times, and smash headfirst into a cliff more than ten meters down.
That's all.
There was no way that should've injured his leg.
He grabbed a mirror from the counter and stared at the slightly youthful face reflected back at him, momentarily dazed.
By now, he had more or less accepted the truth.
On the day of the accident, he had crossed over into a parallel universe.
In this universe, he was ten years younger and owned a convenience store at the top of a mountain.
Still no parents. But there was one unexpected addition.
"Hey, bro! Are you seriously still admiring yourself in the mirror? Why haven't you gone to restock yet? We're almost out of drinks!"
A girl with twin ponytails, wearing a blue-and-white school uniform, stormed into the shop and glared at Lu Yang.
Lu Yang looked back at her and forced a bitter smile.
This girl named Lu Qiangqian was his younger sister in this parallel universe.
This was the 'unexpected addition.' In his previous life, he didn't have a sister.
"At ease," Lu Yang said lazily. "I already checked. What's left in the fridge can still sell for another month."
He flicked his eyes toward the sparsely stocked refrigerator, not bothering to move an inch.
"Hmph." Seeing her brother's lazy attitude, Lu Qiangqian snorted coldly, ignored him, and turned toward the stairs to the second floor.
Bang!
The door upstairs slammed shut with deliberate force.
Lu Yang let out a long, tired sigh.
In his previous life, he'd been an orphan from a very young age and never had a sister. Suddenly gaining one this grown… he honestly didn't know how to get along with her yet.
His fingers tapped slowly against the glass counter as he began thinking about what to do next.
First things first—
Shut this charity shop down immediately.
In this universe, he was still in high school, and Lu Qiangqian was about to enter senior high as well. There was no way to keep the store open during the day.
Relying on weekends and evenings alone to make money? That income was pitiful.
He wasn't even sure it could cover the electricity bill.
Second—
Find a way to move down the mountain.
Living up here was a nightmare. Every trip out meant climbing up and down the mountain.
And worse—he was still a minor.
No motorcycle. No car.
Going up and down relied entirely on his legs… At best, a bicycle.
It was downright life-threatening.
Wulin City was fairly well developed, how did a place this awful even exist?
Just as Lu Yang was deep in thought, a sudden red glow flared before his eyes.
Two large words appeared:
[ Life Countdown ]
Lu Yang reached out to touch them—his hand passed through empty air.
It was as if the words were engraved directly onto his vision.
Then—
Lu Yang glanced downward and instantly bolted upright.
"Ow—!"
His injured leg gave out, and he collapsed back onto the chair, teeth clenched, staring at the numbers beneath the words.
[ 1 hour ]
He rubbed his eyes.
The number changed.
[ 59 minutes ]
His heart sank instantly, an uncomfortable, familiar tightness spreading through his chest.
Was this countdown real?
In the past, he would've laughed it off.
But after crossing into a parallel universe and seeing something this vivid.
He couldn't ignore it.
Especially that sudden heart palpitations.
So familiar.
It was the same sensation he'd felt right before dying in the previous universe.
The countdown was real.
He had 59 minutes—
No, 58 minutes left to live.
As he watched another minute tick away, countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
'I just crossed over… and now I'm going to die? Is it because I already died in the previous universe?'
'What am I even supposed to do with fifty minutes? That's not even enough for a movie. If I die like this… what happens to my sister upstairs?'
'Can I… live a little longer?'
The moment that thought surfaced, a dull ache bloomed behind his eyes.
New words appeared.
[ Life Mission ]
[ Seek the truth of life through speed! The host must operate a non-powered two-wheeled vehicle on Longjing Mountain and reach a speed of 30 km/h ]
[ Note: All missions must be completed independently, without external assistance ]
[ Mission Reward: +240 hours of life ]
After reading the mission, Lu Yang's emotions surged.
He didn't have to die just yet.
In his previous universe, crashing at 300 km/h didn't mean he was suicidal. On the contrary—
He cherished his life deeply.
It was precisely because he valued life that he dared to risk death in pursuit of its meaning.
He didn't want to die.
Lu Yang moved immediately, limping into the storage room and rummaging around.
He vaguely remembered owning a bicycle.
Sure enough, he found it—
And let out a groan.
"Qiangqian! What the hell happened to my bike?!"
Her annoyed voice echoed from upstairs.
"You rode it yourself—why ask me? Do you think your leg got injured for no reason? You crashed, passed out, and probably smashed your brain too!"
Lu Yang froze.
That explained a lot.
In this universe, Lu Yang had fallen off a bike and lost consciousness. When he woke up—
It was him.
Was the bike accident what triggered the crossover?
No time to think about that now.
He shook his head, dropped the mangled wreck of a bicycle, and looked back at the countdown.
[ 50 minutes remaining ]
Only fifty minutes left.
The bike was beyond saving.
And this was the mountaintop—no shared bikes in sight.
Borrow from a neighbor?
But he didn't even know who owned one. Wasting time would be fatal.
Then—
An idea struck.
Lu Yang limped to the corner of the storage room.
There, he saw a black wheelchair.
He'd been using it these past few days before he could walk on his own again.
The mission only said—
A non-powered, two-wheeled vehicle.
It never said it had to be a bicycle.
This thing had no motor. And it had two wheels.
Close enough.
Screw it.
Let's do this.
Lu Yang's expression twisted into something fierce.