Online: I Can See Health Bars

Fang Yu’s luck turns sideways the morning someone else picks up a scrap of yellowed sheepskin and watches words crawl across it like living ink. A legendary artifact, they say. World‑changing. Of course, it lands in someone else’s hands.

Downstairs, the old man who never pays his rent on time suddenly claims he can see glowing numbers ticking above people’s heads—a private countdown to their deaths. The proof comes fast: his own digits are almost gone. Upstairs, the landlord’s daughter wakes from a nightmare with memories that don’t belong to this timeline at all. She knows what’s coming. Fang Yu doesn’t even know what to do with his laundry.

While reality warps into something that feels coded rather than born, a new online service launches: “Seeking Demon.” No health bars. No convenient values over monster heads. Just darkness, claws, and the sound of your own breathing in a headset.

Then Fang Yu logs in and the world explodes in numbers.

Bosses march past with life totals stamped across their hides. “Big Demon King: 1/21999.” Elite beasts flash near‑full bars except for a single missing point. “Sky Fang Tiger: 29481/29482.” His teammates rush forward, swinging for loot and glory. Fang Yu, watching the values plummet in real time, is already edging toward the exit, yelling tactics over his shoulder.

Caught between an apartment building that’s turning into a prophecy trap and a game that refuses to behave like a game, Fang Yu’s useless‑looking talent becomes the only honest thing left: cold numbers, counting down to who gets out—and who doesn’t.