Ling PingAn’s life would honestly sound depressing to most people.
He runs a small bookstore that barely gets customers, wastes entire afternoons sleeping behind the counter, and spends more time thinking about food deliveries and online games than anything meaningful. If someone asked what his long-term goals were, he probably wouldn’t even have an answer ready.
The strange thing is that, despite how ordinary he seems, very few people who enter his bookstore ever leave feeling relaxed.
Outside the small comfort of his daily routine, the world has not been normal for a very long time. Decades ago, a disaster changed civilization so completely that entire cities had to be abandoned after sunset. Places once crowded with millions became hunting grounds for monsters, evil spirits, and things humanity still doesn’t fully understand. Armed forces patrol safe regions constantly, while forbidden zones continue swallowing anyone reckless enough to enter.
Most people live carefully because they have no choice.
Ling PingAn somehow lives like none of this concerns him at all.
Then the strange customers start appearing more frequently.
A woman leaves behind a bag of dried golden leaves that somehow restore his energy after being brewed like tea. Another customer speaks to him with unsettling caution despite looking far more dangerous than an ordinary person should. Some arrive carrying objects that seem wrong just from looking at them, while others ask bizarre questions that sound less like conversation and more like hidden tests.
To Ling PingAn, they’re all just eccentric late-night visitors.
To everyone else, the bookstore itself feels deeply abnormal.
Hunters who survive forbidden zones begin treating the place with almost religious fear. Powerful figures speak carefully in front of him, as though one wrong sentence could provoke something catastrophic. Casual comments he barely remembers making somehow spread through hidden circles like terrifying revelations.
The worst part is that Ling PingAn remains completely unaware of how unnatural all of this actually is.
While horrifying creatures continue emerging from the darkness outside the safe zones, another mystery slowly begins taking shape around the quiet bookstore owner himself. Certain ancient beings seem to recognize him. Strange books appear without explanation. And people capable of facing monsters head-on react to Ling PingAn with a level of caution that makes no sense at all.
The unsettling question isn’t whether the bookstore hides secrets anymore.
It’s whether Ling PingAn was ever truly ordinary to begin with.
