Chapter 1: Fear of the Dark

"It's so dark. Where's the light?" Su Tan woke up. Stirring in the darkness in a groggy daze, his first reaction was to throw off his blanket and reach out. He stretched his hand toward the familiar spot on his nightstand, intending to turn on the lamp and illuminate the room.

SWISH!

Su Tan groped around out of habit. Normally, he would have found the lamp switch in an instant, but this time, he grasped nothing but thin air. He thought, "Huh? Where is the switch?" A hint of confusion crept into his mind. Despite his puzzlement, he tentatively reached out again, feeling around... Still, he couldn't find the familiar switch.

THUD!

As he continued to grope around, his hand finally brushed against something solid. It was hard. It felt like a wooden board. He thought, "Why would there be a wooden board here?" In his memory, he was intimately familiar with his own bedroom. He knew it so well that he could move around freely with his eyes closed. There was absolutely no way a wooden board like this existed in his room. He felt around some more... This wasn't just a wooden board; it was an entire wall! Su Tan was slightly taken aback.

"Could it be that this isn't my room?" he wondered. The moment this doubt surfaced in his mind, his sharp intuition told him that this was, indeed, not his bedroom. The air was thick with an unpleasant odor. The blanket and the bedsheets... they reeked of stale, unwashed sweat. It was a terrible smell. "How did I end up in a strange room?"

Su Tan's confusion deepened. When he went to bed, he distinctly remembered walking into his own room... How did he wake up in such an unfamiliar environment? Unable to find the light switch, he subconsciously patted the bed in search of his phone. His phone could provide some light. But after searching for a long time, he didn't find it. Instead, he only discovered that the bedding was made of incredibly coarse material, even riddled with a few holes.

A strange room. No phone. No light switch. Surrounded by pitch-black darkness without a single sliver of light... Where exactly was this place?

Harboring deep suspicions, Su Tan felt his way out of bed, hoping to find some source of illumination. His feet probed the floor, searching for his shoes. He couldn't find them, but what his feet felt only intensified his bewilderment. He thought, "This floor... It isn't wooden flooring, nor is it concrete. Is it a dirt floor? Could I be in the countryside? No, that isn't right. The living conditions in the countryside are pretty good nowadays, and most houses have paved floors."

Filled with questions, he continued to feel around while looking for his shoes...

THUMP!

He hadn't moved far before he bumped into a table. He instinctively braced himself against it and shifted his footing, only to bump into something else a moment later—something he couldn't identify. He stumbled around, bumping into one thing after another... Su Tan was absolutely certain now. This was definitely not his old bedroom, but an entirely new and unfamiliar place.

"Even if it's nighttime, isn't it way too dark?" he muttered. Heaven knew how dark this room was. Forget starlight or moonlight; there was absolutely zero source of light. It was total darkness!

Suppressing his perplexity, he decided to return to bed. It was too dark to move around safely. He forced down his lingering unease, resolving to wait it out until daybreak. The bed wasn't hard to find again. Without much effort, he made his way back, brushed the dirt off the soles of his feet with his hands, and slipped back under the covers.

He lay there. The unfamiliar environment made him uncomfortable, rendering it impossible to fall back asleep. Time trickled by... In the darkness, he felt an indescribable sense of torment.

CHIRP CHIRP...

An unknown amount of time passed before he finally heard chirping sounds outside his room. It was the crisp, melodious song of early morning birds. It was pleasant to the ear. It was finally dawn!

Su Tan felt that this had been the most grueling night he had ever endured in his entire life. However, he quickly discovered a new problem. Even though he could hear the various calls of the birds, and even the occasional sounds of human activity outside... this room still felt like a black hole. There wasn't a single ray of light.

Panic began to well up in Su Tan's chest. Why was there no light? Why was the room still so dark? He thought, "Have I been locked up? Trapped in some dark cell that never sees the light of day?"

"Is anyone there?" he called out.

No one answered.

"Is anybody out there?"

Still, no response!

Why wasn't anyone answering?

Su Tan leaped out of bed with a SWISH, not even bothering to look for his shoes before springing into action. Thanks to his fumbling around last night, he had a vague mental map of the room. The table was still there. Using it as a central reference point, he groped his way outward toward the door. He didn't know if this "prison" was just sparsely furnished or if the family living here was utterly destitute, but the room contained very few objects, which ironically made it much easier for him to navigate in the dark.

THUMP THUMP THUMP...

He ran his hands all over the walls and corners. After a considerable amount of effort, he finally found the door handle—or more accurately, a door latch. It was simply a small wooden stick used to bar the door.

He pulled it open. To his surprise, the door opened effortlessly. It hadn't been locked from the outside at all. A wave of relief washed over Su Tan. He thought, "So that means..."

But a split second later, he froze in sheer bewilderment. The door was open... A rush of fresh air instantly hit his face, filling his lungs with unparalleled crispness. He could feel the warm sunlight shining directly onto his skin. The chirping of the birds became even clearer, and the lively voices of children playing just outside grew louder. However...

His vision remained completely pitch-black and hollow... Opening the door hadn't greeted him with light. It was still dark... An absolute darkness without a single trace of light. An extreme, suffocating blackness.

Confusion... Disbelief. An ominous premonition suddenly bubbled up in his mind... Why couldn't he see any light? He was clearly standing at the open doorway now... Could it be??? He didn't want to think any further...

"Blind Demigod, you're up early!" a child called out in greeting.

He could only hear the voice, but he could tell the child wasn't standing very far away. Su Tan's heart ran cold...

"Blind... Demigod... Blind... Demigod..." he muttered to himself, repeating the child's words.

Blind??? Blind???

That single word exploded in his mind! He suddenly realized a grave problem... No, it wasn't a sudden realization. He had actually realized it this morning, or rather, the exact moment he pushed the door open. He had just refused to admit it.

And that was... He was blind! He had become a blind man!

"Why is it like this? How did this happen?" Su Tan muttered, looking as if he had lost his mind. In no mood to respond to the child, his mind raced as he desperately tried to recall how he had gone blind.

"Blind Demigod? What's wrong with you?" the child asked with concern. "Huh? Are you okay?"

Su Tan still ignored him.

At that moment, he heard another little boy speak up in an annoyed tone. "Mumu, ignore this blind man. Let's go play somewhere else. Seriously, he has no actual skills but spends all day mumbling crazy things and scaring people. I have no idea why my grandma actually believes he can tell fortunes..."

The children's voices gradually faded into the distance.

And Su Tan became even more certain of one undeniable fact... He really was blind! He had turned into a blind man! But no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't figure out how he had lost his sight. He had just been exhausted from work, suddenly felt unwell, and went back to his room to sleep. How did he wake up as a blind man?

Also, why was he even here? This place was clearly not the developed city he lived in; it was the countryside. Why?

A trace of genuine terror began to take root in Su Tan's heart...