【Hiss… this thing actually appeared…】
【Why does it look different!?】
【What… what direction is this world even heading?】
【This red light is not ordinary…】
A few lines of live-screen comments flashed past Lin Su’s eyes so quickly that before she could react, they had already disappeared.
Wen Shiyun noticed Lin Su staring blankly and instinctively followed her gaze, but he couldn’t see anything.
At the same time, Lin Su finally came back to her senses.
“Did it really appear?”
Hearing Wen Shiyun’s words, Lin Su nodded, then whispered, “That red light… something’s wrong with it.”
According to the comments, the appearance of the red light seemed to take everyone by surprise. It was as if the red light shouldn’t exist in this world. Its appearance disrupted the collective understanding of the world that the viewers had formed.
Could it mean that the future of this world isn’t necessarily what the comments had predicted?
Meanwhile, as someone who often had precognitive dreams, Cheng Jiajia didn’t expect to witness a scene so drastically different from anything in her dreams.
A few hours earlier, everyone across the country had received a notice to stay indoors, close doors and windows, and even hide in basements.
Her home was an apartment building, so there was no basement. Going to the underground parking lot wasn’t practical either. So Cheng Jiajia hid in her room, scrolling through social apps on her phone. As for her parents and her cousin, Cheng Jiajia had already given up hope for them.
But soon, she couldn’t focus on such thoughts anyway. She, too, saw the image of the sky filled with blood-red light.
It made her even more uneasy.
Because in her dreams, many of these events hadn’t happened. For example, the massive sales by merchants. Or the fact that authorities had intervened so early.
Now, things were happening that hadn’t appeared in her dreams. That terrifying red light above her head looked increasingly ominous the longer she stared at it.
Cheng Jiajia had a faint, unsettling realization: the scenes in her precognitive dreams did not perfectly match reality.
Meanwhile, after her initial shock, Lin Su had already started searching online for more answers.
But most people’s guesses were roughly the same. They ranged from unreliable ideas like a zombie apocalypse to more extreme speculations, such as earthquakes or meteor strikes hitting the planet.
On several apps known for sensational videos and livestreams, Lin Su noticed that quite a few streamers were broadcasting the blood-red sky outside live.
“Hey guys! Look at the sky! Isn’t this red the purest blood-red?”
In the livestream, a young man in his twenties was standing with his back to a floor-to-ceiling glass door. Outside the window was the blood-red sky. The young man raised both fists high, clenching them, and shouted excitedly at the camera: “Guys! Witness the miracle! This red light is definitely extraordinary. Who knows, after touching it, you might gain superpowers!”
Such reckless shouting caused his fans to spam the chat uncontrollably. One by one, they were urging him to open the glass door and expose himself to the red light.
Watching the madness unfold in the livestream, Lin Su couldn’t help but frown.
She casually checked several more livestreams across a few different apps. Without exception, every streamer was promoting the idea of standing directly under the red light, claiming it might turn them into a superhuman, or an Ultraman.
“Hmph, or maybe they’ll just turn into zombies or monsters!”
Lin Su wasn’t the type to rant, but she couldn’t hide her disbelief at this kind of hype.
“Guys, I’m coming!”
Sitting beside her, Wen Shiyun happened to scroll to the livestream Lin Su had just seen. Hearing the sound, Lin Su leaned over and caught the young streamer yanking open the glass door and stepping onto the balcony.
The streamer’s action sent the entire chat into a frenzy. Gifts and donations flooded in, as if everyone was waiting for some miraculous moment.
In reality, however, the blood-red sky above him didn’t descend like some sci-fi scene. The streamer kept his fists raised, but against the crimson backdrop, he looked more comical than heroic.
One minute passed, then two… even after five minutes, nothing unusual happened.
Lin Su noticed the streamer’s arms starting to tremble from fatigue. He was clearly tired, yet at that moment, he was trying to figure out how to save face in the livestream.
The audience, of course, wasn’t about to give him that chance.
When nothing happened, many viewers simply left.
Lin Su kept staring at the blood-red sky, sensing that something was off.
After checking dozens of livestreams, she realized that none of the streamers who had gone outside under the red sky experienced anything abnormal.
The streamer’s failed stunt instantly became a trending topic online.
Time passed, minute by minute, and the blood-red color of the sky gradually faded. The sunlight slowly began to filter through the clouds.
By now, it was nearly six in the morning.
Lin Su had stayed up all night; her eyes were tired. The three elders were already asleep in the small basement suites. The living room was left with just her and Wen Shiyun.
Wen Shiyun was still scrolling through different livestreams.
After the previous streams of people “bathing in red light” had all failed, many viewers had left. But these streamers were sharp, they hadn’t returned indoors. Instead, they were wandering outside, showing the audience what was happening.
At that time, the sun hadn’t risen yet. Even though the outdoor temperature had already surpassed fifty degrees Celsius, people could still barely function outdoors.
However, the moment the first rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds and touched the earth, the temperature began to climb again.
Some streamers, unable to withstand the heat, prepared to go back indoors.
But in the next second…
The normally harmless morning sunlight, when it hit the streamers’ exposed arms, caused large, blistering bubbles to appear immediately.
It was at that moment that Lin Su moved closer to Wen Shiyun.
She had just been about to ask him if he wanted to eat something before resting, when a series of screams reached her ears. She turned her gaze to the livestreams and saw the streamers’ skin blistering under the sunlight.
The blisters formed rapidly, almost like the bubbles from a child’s soap bubble toy, appearing one after another in neat, rapid succession.
On the streamers’ bodies, the skin erupted with blisters in the same rapid, sudden manner.
Within just a few minutes, the blisters lined up in chains and rows. Even through the screen, the sight was horrifying.
At that moment, all the comments in the livestream disappeared. The viewers could only hear the streamers’ screams and the dense, terrifying formation of blisters.
The same thing was happening in countless livestreams. People across the internet were screaming in fear.
After this incident, all livestreaming apps were cut off from broadcasting.
Lin Su looked at her darkened phone screen and exchanged a glance with Wen Shiyun; they both saw the shock mirrored in each other’s eyes.
“You’re telling me…”
Lin Su anxiously licked her upper and lower lips. After a long pause, she finally spoke her guess: “Do you think this is caused by being exposed to sunlight? Or is it because they were directly exposed to the blood-red sky earlier?”
Wen Shiyun had been scrolling through news from different parts of the world. Regarding these dense blisters, no one had reported anything like it before. However, signals from many countries and regions were showing interruptions.
“Not sure, but it definitely has something to do with the sun.”
With anxiety and fear gnawing at them, many people had stayed awake all night, unable to sleep.
Yet the sun continued its usual path across the sky. By the time it was fully risen, painting the sky a clear, cloudless blue, the outdoor temperature was approaching sixty degrees Celsius.
“Now we interrupt for an urgent notice…”
Shortly after six in the morning, the news program, which had been running non-stop all night, finally provided some answers about what had happened during the early hours.
“…The red light has dissipated. It is still unclear whether this substance is harmful…”
“…Patients with dense blisters have been admitted to hospitals and are receiving treatment…”
“…Relevant authorities are assessing the changes caused by the red light. Until results are available, all citizens are advised not to go outside. Please take precautions against the sun and avoid direct exposure of skin to sunlight…”
The text was accompanied by footage of groups of soldiers and researchers in the highest-level protective suits. They were seen walking through forests, grasslands, sand dunes, cities, and rural areas, using various unidentifiable instruments to collect environmental data.
“Signals from other countries are still completely unreachable…”
Since the red light appeared, Wen Shiyun had noticed that signals from many countries around the globe had gradually started to disappear. So far, only a few nearby small countries still had signals.
These countries were also beginning to report patients with blisters. The patients’ movements before the onset of symptoms and the symptoms themselves were identical to what had been observed in the livestreams.
However, this was not enough to make Wen Shiyun feel at ease.
“Susu, hand me the satellite phone…”
As expected, the satellite phone failed to dial.
Wen Shiyun then tried calling different parts of the country with his mobile phone. He found that some areas had stable signals, while others were very poor. The only thing to be grateful for was that, for now, no province had completely lost contact.
“The TV still works, so the signal must be okay,” Lin Su noted, seeing what Wen Shiyun was doing and sharing her thoughts.
Wen Shiyun shook his head. “Domestic signals are fine, but international ones aren’t working at the moment. The satellite phone doesn’t connect either. I wonder if it’s because of that red sky last night?”
While they were talking, Lin Su and Wen Shiyun’s phones rang at the same time.
It was the He siblings calling.
“Yes, we haven’t gone outside. Shiyun is also at my place.”
“Yes, we haven’t gone outside. I’m at Susu’s place.”
Wen Shiyun and Lin Su simultaneously explained the current situation to the He siblings. Then they heard the He siblings say at the same time: “Don’t go outside for now. Nobody should go outside. Our hospital has admitted more than ten patients with the blister condition…”
The blister condition was exactly what had just been seen, people whose bodies had broken out in strings of blisters. No one knew why it happened, but it was clearly related to the changes outside.
Lin Su looked at the real-time outdoor temperature—61°C, and shook her head.
“Don’t worry, we won’t go out. You two be careful at the hospital. Protect yourselves from the sun, avoid direct sunlight.”
Until the cause of the blister condition is understood, any exposure to sunlight is effectively toxic for people right now.