1 Invitation

Neon light from an enormous electronic clock, hanging on the wall filled the small portion of the dark, spacious room, revealing a silhouette of a young man sitting in front of it.

The air congealed around him appeared to be heavier, as if there sat a sovereign at the peak of power, not a youth who just recently turned twenty-five.

The exception was his eyes, bright and sharp as blades, but sparkling with such an intense curiosity as if they belonged to a newborn child.

For the last couple of hours, Li Lang's gaze had been entirely suspended on the clock's hands, which were now slowly approaching midnight.

"It should appear soon," he thought to himself.

Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong Bong!

Twelve bongs sounded one after another, signalling that midnight passed.

After the last bong, a loud knocking on his cabinet's door echoed through the room, or rather it was similar to slamming.

"Let him in," Li Lang said casually to his assistance as if he had already expected a guest.

A silhouette of a bony older man arrived in front of him. All of his clothes were tattered, and a strong smell of urine filled the air following his arrival. His bloodshot eyes silently stared at Li Lang. There was nothing in them, no love, no hate, no anger, only endless void as if they didn't belong to a human, but a lifeless doll.

At his sight, Li Lang's assistant screamed. The older man didn't respond; his hand slowly reached into his pocket, as if he was about to take out a gun from it. The assistant's whole body stiffened, then she dropped to her knees, ready to beg for sparing her life. The young man, on the other hand, was remarkably calm as if he encountered such a scene many times.

"It's okay Cindy. You can leave now," Li Lang said slightly frowning.

His assistant didn't hesitate, quickly rushing to the exit, she liked her job, but it wasn't to the point of putting her life on the line.

When she left, the older man finally took out a tiny object, which flew towards Li Lang as if controlled by an invisible force. At the exact moment, it reached Li Lang's hands; the older man's body shivered, then he collapsed to his knees.

"What happened? Where am I? Why do I feel so tired?" the old man muttered, his body still shivered, but the light was present in his eyes, making him again look like a human.

"My name is Li Lang. I'm the CEO of Moonlogz. You are safe now," Li Lang said.

"Li Lang? Moonlogz?" the old man was bewildered.

"It can't be that Li Lang?" he muttered in disbelief, but when he scanned his surrounding and examined the young man carefully, it all appeared to be true!

Li Lang just gently smiled, giving the man a little bit of time to come back to senses.

"Who are you, senior? What's the last thing you remember?" Li Lang asked with slight faith in his eyes that this time he will get a different answer.

"Sir, below is named Lee Honzo. I'm just a homeless person, living in Sakata district. The last thing I remember? I was cooking some rice, then…" heavy tension appeared on the old man's face as if he was using all his mental ability to recall recent events.

After a long moment of silence, he shook his head, "then I don't remember."

"So it's the same as with others," Li Lang thought to himself.

Li Lang took out a phone that he had already arranged in advance and handed it to the older man.

"Senior Hanzo, be my guest. Please use this phone to contact my employee, Mark. He will take care of you. From now on, you will be under my protection. There is no need to live on the street again. Now please let me have some privacy," Li Lang said.

The older man was still puzzled. Everything appeared like a dream. A nobody like him just had a conversation with such an outstanding man, and what's best, he won't need to live on the street anymore. He still had many questions, but he didn't dare to risk offending this youth. What if he renegades on his promise?

Lee Hanzo once again had glanced at Li Lang with a gaze full of gratitude before he left the cabinet.

Li Lang didn't know him, nor had he any responsibility to help him, but he just couldn't look at those poor homeless people with bloodshot eyes without doing anything. He also had faith that maybe one day, they will remember something that will help him to solve that mystery, or at least track that person.

He opened his hands to examine the tiny object delivered by that older man.

It was a violet envelope with carved golden words "INVITATION" on its back.

"Will this time be different than the last one?" Li Lang thought to himself.

Every single year, no matter where he was, always on 23rd of October, precisely at midnight this invitation followed him for the past nine years.

Even once he was in the middle of exploring magnetic storms on the North Pole, another older man showed up with this envelope. The last location that person remembered was five-thousand kilometres away from the place he met him. How could an average man travel such distance without any specialised equipment, and survive in such a climate? How could he track him? As a CEO of Moonlogz, he had some of the most strict security in the world. He had many questions and no answers.

Each time a different person carried the letter, but what connected all of them was they were homeless and under the effect of strange hypnosis, making them unable to remember anything. He tried many methods to recover their memories, but without any positive result. After the fifth person, he stopped attempting.

The sender of this invitation became his shadow; he couldn't escape from him, nor had he wanted to.

Li Lang clutched his hands into fists; his heart was sprinting. Obsession rapidly spread through his whole body like an avalanche wanting to conquer everything upon it. Sweat dripped on his forehead. After a long pause, and a deep breath, he knew what he should do. He loosened his fists and opened his eyes in which a spark of determination glittered; he opened the envelope.

Inside was a white sheet of paper as big as an infant's hand with sentences and postscript, written using emerald ink,

"To Mr Satoshi, Crucifier, Galaxyxx, Stardust, DarkBell, and your other losers' names.

Topic: Hack me. You have thirty-three days.

P.S. You are weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak".

Every year one more "weak" was added, ridiculing Li Lang's inability to solve it. Besides that there was nothing more; no website link, no clues, literally nothing.

"Bastard!" muttered Li Lang to himself, tightly clutching his fists again.

avataravatar
Next chapter