Please Load Bixia!

With a jolt Wu Liang Hui opened his eyes in a strange room. Nothing about the simple wooden cottage room was familiar to him. In his confused state Liang Hui tried to sit up only to realize that he couldn't move his body. Feeling panic starting to grip his heart he tried to clutch at the fragments of his memories. His breathing became labored as the memory of him running through dark empty halls. Something or someone was chasing him. He overheard something he shouldn't have. A transparent screen with glowing blue writing flickered into existence in front his eyes. Frowning in confusion Liang Hui squinted at it as a loading bar appeared. It reminded him of one of those games that he would catch his young twenty-something research assistants playing when they thought he wasn't looking.

Buzz....3%

He caught sight of himself or what he figured was 'himself' in an old dusty mirror hung on the wall opposite the rusty metal framed bed he was laying on. The 'him' in the mirror looked like a beautiful pale and flail teen, nothing like his old self. Wu Liang Hui was a 46 year old researcher at a large pharmaceutical company married to his job and had no kids. As he had no one home waiting for him Liang Hui often stayed overnight at the lab to document his experiments. It was one such night that the incident happened. Turning off the lights in the lab, Liang Hui tucked himself into his sleeping bag under the lab table..... He clenched his eyes closed as a pounding noise invaded his ears. For a second he thought it was his heart beating out of his chest. What was even happening!?

.....15%

Focusing on the noise Liang Hui deduced that it was someone pounding on a door. From how loud the pounding was it sounded like it was coming from below him. 'So, I'm on an upper floor' Wu Liang Hui thought to himself, 'Is someone trying to break in?' His franticly beating heart froze. Last time he felt so scared he was running through those damned white halls that smelled of chlorax. He clutched his chest and collapsed to his knees. Hot crimson liquid gushed past his trembling lips with each strangled breath.

....48%

His eyes flew open as a loud crash reached his ears. His heart revving at full speed, he still couldn't even lift a finger. More crashing noises, followed by shouting. Liang Hui couldn't tell if it was because he was on a different floor or that whoever was arguing was just speaking another language, but he couldn't understand what was being said. More Crashes followed by an eerie silence.

...63%

'Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit' Liang Hui looked around the room he was in franticly then froze. He could move his head! Trying his limbs again he let out a strangled groan. Shuffling and banging came from downstairs. Were they looking for something? Were they looking for him!? He clutched his sweaty hands. More shouting he couldn't understand but he knew it wasn't anything good.

...84%

Bang-"What are you dumb**** waiting on, go check upstairs!", came a roar.

Wu Liang Hui felt sweat run down his forehead. His eyes nervously shifted to the old wooden door that looked like one hard breeze and it'd collapse off its rusted hinges. 'Shit!' his head snipped back to the floating screen. He didn't know what the truth behind the screen was, but his heart told him it had something to do with his paralysis. As the creaking of the floorboards got closer Liang Hui felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest with his soul.

.....91%

The heavy footsteps stopped and to his horror a shadow appeared under the room door. The world slowed. The doorknob turned. The door was pushed open with a heart wrenching creak. Everything felt like it was moving so painfully slow, like a scene in a horror movie. Everything was so painstakingly slow, especially that fucking loading screen! Wu Liang Hui was never a fan of computers before but now, now he wanted to destroy any and every device he came into contact with. Starting with that damned screen!

....97%

A large muscular man stepped into the small wooden room. His eyes immediately locked onto the panicked Wu Liang Hui sprawled on the bed. A sinister gleam flashed in his eerie golden eyes. This was it. He just escaped death only to be murdered as soon as he opened his eyes once again. The man scanned the hallway as if to assure they were alone. A smile, more like a smirk crept onto his face before he softly closed the door. He carefully clicked the lock so as not to alert his companions.

....97.3%

Wu Liang Hui cried in his heart. This was it indeed. This was how he was going to die. Helpless and confused in an unfamiliar place. He closed his eyes and waited for his inevitable end.......... Then came the rustling noises. Then he felt it. Rough hands sliding down his face then neck. Liang Hui's eyes snapped open, piercing golden eyes stared back at him. Looking closer at the man he was shocked again to see that the man was not human. He had black-ish grey scales on his cheeks and forehead and had webbed fin like ears to match. He was some kind of reptilian man, a beastman. However, Wu Liang Hui had no time to worry about that as the beastman settled himself on the bed on top of him.

...97.8%

'Oh, heck no, what we not gonna do is that!' He thought to himself with a monotone, Wu Liang Hui was so scared that he was calm. 'Lao' System, oh great and powerful Bixia please load faster' He mentally clasped his hands and knelt to metaphorical feet of the game screen. His heart dropped into his stomach when he felt his pants ruthlessly ripped off.

Ding-100%

||[Welcome back Wu Liang Hui]||

Writing started to flash across the screen, but Liang Hui had more pressing matters to handle. All he needed was for it to say 100%. He reeled his arm back then let it fly smashing the beastman straight in the face. His head snapped back with so much force crashed into the metal bar of the bedframe. Wu Liang Hui leaped off the bed and grabbed his discarded pants and slipped them on. The beastman shook off the hit and chuckled.

"So, you do have some life in you little Mage," he got off the bed and wiped the blood from his busted lip. "Rumor had it, you were on your deathbed due to overuse of your abilities." Liang Hui frowned in confusion, Mage?

'Wait is this really one of those games,' he tilted his head and tried to analyze the situation, 'is this like a Jumanji thing?' However, before he came to a conclusion, he had to take a cautious step back as the beastman stepped towards him. He suddenly lunged forward forcing Liang Hui to jump back, stumbling on an old wooden chair that was near the bed.

'Bixia help!' he screamed at the floating screen in his mind.

||[You have 1 free Lucky Spin; would you like to use it?]||

'One!? After all this crap I'm going through,' he snapped 'I don't know what a Lucky Spin is, but I do know I deserve more than that!' The screen went blank for a second as the beastman tried to grab Wu Liang Hui by the ankle, but he rolled away just in time.

||[You have 2 free Lucky Spin; would you like to use one?]||

||[no more negotiations]||

'Yes, please!' he pleaded. If he had the time he would have gotten on his knees and begged. On the screen a wheel with ten different colored slices appeared and it's long black pointer started to spin. Each color was numbered. 1.grey 2.yellow 3.green 4.blue 5.purple 6.orange 7.red 8.black 9.gold 10.white. After the wheel spun for a while, much to Liang Hui's relief it stopped. The black pointer landed on blue. The wheel then disappeared as the screen read out the prize.

||[Ghost Step Technique, 5th Life]||

While his mind was still trying to figure out what the "5th Life" part meant his body started dodging the attacks faster. Wu Liang Hui's feet were moving so fast that they started to appear transparent. Even the beastman had to pause for a second in confusion.

"I've never seen a mage move like that," and it was true as footwork techniques were usually only used by warrior class cultivators. This made the beastman even more excited to get his hands on the little mage. A healer was rare enough but now with warrior class skills, he just hit the jackpot. An eerie broad smile spread onto his face, and he started his pursuit with even more vigor.

As the two were dancing to and frow crashes started to ring out from the lower floors. Soon came yelling. And before the door to the room slammed open the beastman jumped towards the open window. A group of men dressed in armor raced in the room just in time to see the beastman's back as he hopped out the window. Two of the men jumped out the window after him while the remaining three ran back out of the room to follow.

"Bai Cai!" An old man who was a step behind the men raced into the room. Though he was holding a cane in his right hand, he walked briskly with a straight back and was dressed in elegant red and black robes. "Chi Bai Cai, you're safe," he sighed.

'Chi Bai Cai? What a crap name' Liang Hui thought to himself as he looked around the room to find this country bumkin. 'Really who names their kid after cabbage in this day and age?' He tried to hold back his laughter, still coming up empty in his search.

"A'Bai Cai why aren't you answering me?" The old man's face crested further with worry. He grabbed Wu Liang Hui by his shoulders and gave him a look over. "Are you hurt anywhere? Is it your head? Should I get a doctor?" He franticly shook him like a bubble head as Wu Liand Hui started to cry.

'I'm the country bumkin,' he thought to himself as the tears rolled down his face. Seeing the young mage silently cry the old man wrapped him in a warm embrace. "It's going to be okay A'Bai Cai." With that Wu Liang Hui started wailing scaring the old man.

'Why is it me!?' he cried to himself.