"HAAAAAAA!!" Liu Kai gasped for air, clenching his chest as he woke up from a deep sleep. Cold sweats are dripping from his face.

He looked around to scan his surroundings and seemed to be inside an underground cave. Confusion overwhelmed the newly woken Liu Kai.

"Where am I? What happened to me? How did I survive getting hit by a truck??" Liu Kai finally voiced out while patting down his body quickly, checking if there were any injuries or still having his limbs. There were no signs of pain or even scars that might be from old wounds.

He was still wearing the uniform he wore that day, but it was all worn out and looked old.

"How long have I been sleeping here?" Questions kept piling up inside his head.

He scanned his surroundings to look for something familiar, but it was too dark to see. The only source of light was from a single torch on the wall beside him. He stood up from the old and worn-out bed, then grabbed the torch.

With the torch in hand, Liu Kai walked around, the light revealing more of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor made from bricks. The room had no windows, so no light passed through it.

"It looks like some sort of underground temple." He said while he reached out his hand to touch the cold walls slowly.

"What is this place, and how did I get here?"

"Did someone bring me here and take care of—Ah!" A quick stabbing pain pulsed in his head. He grabbed his head with one hand as he winced, almost falling.

'You really are kind, aren't you?' An older man's voice echoed once more in his head as it reminded him of that day. His head throbbed less as time went by and regained his stance.

That was his last memory before blacking out. 'Why do I hear that voice again?' He thought about it but dismissed it.

He circled the room to look for something that could be useful besides the torch he was still holding. Checking all sides of the room but he even found nothing.

"Nothing, Hmmmmm… The bed," muttering as he walked towards it. He lifted the pillow to check if there was something under it, but still nothing. And then he wondered if there was something under the bed.

He took a few steps back to get on his knees, but he stopped and couldn't help but stare at the shadow covering what may be under it. Something was moving down there and he could hear it rustling and felt uneasy.

Curious to find out what made that sound, he continued to crouch down. As the torchlight slowly revealed the dusty brick floors inch by inch, the sound became more distinct.

His heart was beating out of his chest in anticipation. Swallowing the saliva that pooled inside his mouth. Crouching more and more, his face almost parallel to the ground and as it closed the gap from the floor…

Out of nowhere, a bat flew at his face, screeching at him.

“AAAAHH!!” Liu Kai screamed as he pushed himself back and fell on his backside. He picked up the torch he dropped from being startled. The bat flew in circles then hung its feet to an aperture on the ceiling to sleep.

"Stupid bat," he cursed as he positioned himself to check the underside of the bed once more.

Investigating what's below, he found carved ancient scriptures that he couldn't understand.

Beside it, he saw a carved figure that had a crown on its head, a large sword on its right hand, and a shield on its left.

"What's this supposed to mean?" Liu Kai asked himself while he traced the carvings with his fingers.

He tried to read it but he couldn't, so he disregarded his stupid questions and decided to move on. He got up and looked for the exit. It was a solid iron gate that had designs that were similar to the carvings under the bed.

He pushed it open with all the strength he could muster. He walked a few steps forward. Stretching out the hand with the torch and slowly moved it from one side to the other.

Outside the room was a long passageway with walls that curve and a tunnel stretching into the darkness.

He had no choice but to move forward.

*****

"How long have I been walking? I can't seem to find an exit," he complained as he looked down at his bare feet, sore from the long walk.

Liu Kai looked back, thinking if he should've just stayed inside the room. The passageway seemed endless, and the only option was to go back or continue to look for an exit.

He continued to stroll, checking if any passageways led in a different direction.

As he kept walking for what seemed to be hours, a wall loomed in front of him. He realized that it was a dead-end—no other rooms or even a small hole, just a long and empty passageway.

"What the heck? A dead-end?! Are you kidding me?!" Liu Kai shouted in frustration.

After a few minutes of grumbling, he tried to compose himself and thought back.

"Did I somehow miss something? A different way, maybe? Should I go back and recheck it? But I'm already exhausted. I mean, it's a miracle that I could walk that far, as soon as I woke up."

"And now that I think about it, how did I walk that far? Will I be okay?"

"How could I have possibly survived that accident anyway?"

"How did I survive in that room with nothing?" More bothering questions surfaced while he delved deeper into his thoughts. His eyes wandered the walls.

He was too focused on finding the exit earlier that he had no room for thinking about the answers to his questions.

"Well, I can't find the answers here with—Wait a minute," Liu Kai suddenly realized something while looking at the ceiling.

He tried to think and imagine his field of vision while he was walking earlier if there's something he missed.

"That's it… The ceiling! I couldn't see it earlier because I was too busy looking at the walls and didn't notice." Liu Kai's eyes shined brightly as he finally identified the difference between the passageway earlier and the dead-end now.