Tian Le settled Ji Heng safely, and the sharp screech of tires on the pavement came from outside. He walked to the window and looked out.
He looked up and saw the clouds turn an unnatural crimson, as if someone had dissolved rust into the stratosphere.
A girl walking downstairs in a skirt suddenly dropped the pastries she was holding; drinks spilled from torn packaging. She emitted a hoarse, bellows-like wheeze from her throat.
Three passersby nearby simultaneously turned their heads. Their pupils became covered by milky white membranes at a visibly rapid pace.
A couple on the street, dating, had the girl bite off half of the boy’s face; a strawberry hairpin stuck with brain matter fell into the gutter. Stray dogs along the street wailed incessantly.
Tian Le saw a normally stable car in the distance suddenly crash into a fruit stand. Fruits scattered everywhere. The stall owner rushed forward to argue, but soon came the sound of agonized screams.
The air suddenly thickened.
Yogurt poured from a refrigerator, forming white streams on the ground. An elderly woman with her neck twisted 180 degrees leaned over, licking it. Her dentures were stuck in aloe-flavored yogurt bottles with a creaking sound.
Security guards patrolling the Residential Community wandered aimlessly. The security captain in deep blue uniform had a sunken left eyeball, his walkie-talkie still broadcasting dispatch orders.
His jawbone appeared dislocated and stretched downward, biting the arm of a passing woman in a panic. Accompanied by her terrified screams, blood dripped and spread across the ground.
Traffic lights at the intersection suddenly went out.
A runaway garbage truck smashed a fire hydrant. The gushing water hurled two struggling figures onto the sidewalk.
A promoter wearing a Pikachu mascot costume dragged its intestines toward the Children’s Playground. The lightning tail on its headgear wrapped around the carousel’s metal shaft, flinging a zombie child toward the still-spinning ice cream machine.
The heavy clouds finally collapsed under the weight. Torrential rain poured down.
Foul-smelling, pale yellow raindrops made the open-air market’s fish stalls boil with chaos. Ribbonfish, turned belly-up, twitched and jumped into the pork shop. Rain-soaked zombie stall owners wielded cleavers, chopping at the sharp claws growing from their own hands.
Tian Le saw the pharmacy across the street shatter its glass display. Vitamin bottles swelled like white maggot-like blobs in water, flowing into the sewer along with blood.
The cages at the pet hospital exploded one after another. Three Dobermans smashed through the windows and charged into the street. Their spines pierced through their fur like jagged bone blades, cutting a suit-wearing zombie devouring a pregnant woman in half.
One leapt onto the roof of a burning electric car, chewing on a severed human finger amidst the flames.
All electronic devices along the street suddenly rebooted.
Screens flickered with static snow. The live broadcast host’s eyeballs burst; before the lens turned red with blood mist, chocolate on the shelves behind her oozed black slime in its packaging.
When Tian Le had previously read reports, he had only imagined terrifying scenes—but now, it unfolded in front of him. Stunned for a moment, he soon regained composure.
In Interstellar, everyone was obligated to fight. To prevent sudden invasions by other insectoid species in the universe, everyone was equipped with weapons.
From childhood, they had trained in real-combat simulations in the light brain. No matter how disgusting the insectoid wars were, he had seen them in the simulations—just never in real life.
He felt uneasy. As far as he knew, before this day, Earth had been a thriving and prosperous planet. Now, everything had changed. The chaos to come made his head ache just thinking about it.
“Tutu, have you contacted the Transmigration Alliance?”
“Master, I can’t. There isn’t enough energy; the signal can’t be sent.”
“Sigh~”
He really did not want to survive in an apocalypse. The hardships ahead were foreseeable. What sin had he committed to deserve this punishment?
“Tutu, check on Ji Heng.”
“Master, he has a massive amount of lightning-type energy appearing on him.”
“Looks like he’s about to awaken a supernatural ability.” Tian Le pressed his throbbing head. “Tutu, I think I’m about to faint too. It’s probably the awakening of a supernatural ability. Watch carefully. If anything goes wrong, wake me up. If I turn into a zombie, use a shock to kill me.”
“Yes, Master.”
Tutu wanted to explain that as a light brain, he technically had no permission to kill Master, but if he became a zombie, that was effectively death anyway.
As Tian Le sank into unconsciousness on the sofa, he comforted himself: maybe if this body died, he could return to Interstellar.
Ever since Tian Le half-dragged Ji Heng onto the bedroom bed, the moment his body touched the mattress, a vortex of darkness instantly swallowed him, plunging him into unconsciousness.
He only felt his body as if it were placed inside a blazing hell furnace, radiating scorching heat outward.
Sweat poured like a dam breaking, quickly soaking the sheets beneath him. Every inch of skin felt like a burning iron.
His eyebrows were tightly furrowed. Facial muscles twitched from pain. Chapped lips quivered, emitting muffled, agonized groans.
In the room were three others: two unconscious, one drowsily asleep. Naturally, they saw nothing of the blue-purple lightning streaks appearing across his body.
The lightning flickered like lively yet violent electric spirits, dancing across his surface in no particular pattern.
Because of the presence of lightning energy, the room’s air shimmered with a unique aura of danger and power. Each flash of lightning crackled sharply.
The air carried a faint burnt smell, produced by the friction of lightning energy against the surrounding air.
The flashes lit the dark room like daylight, illuminating Ji Heng’s pained yet resilient face.
On the sofa, Tian Le also lay unconscious.
Though his body seemed calm, a faint, wavering glow surrounded him. Energy continuously gathered.
The glow rippled like gentle waves, and the air around the sofa seemed pulled and twisted by an invisible force.
Small “Rebirth” vaccines, cups on the coffee table, scattered books—without warning, they flickered, disappeared, then reappeared moments later, in different positions.
Tian Le’s forehead was covered in fine sweat beads. His fingers curled slightly, as if struggling to control this mysterious, powerful energy.
Amid the screams, crashes, and other chaotic sounds outside, the bedroom’s lightning energy and the fluctuating spatial energy were the only movement within.
In the neighboring suite, after Lu Jingze had arranged for everyone to rest, they all fell unconscious. Each endured the immense pain and challenge of awakening their supernatural abilities.
The energy fluctuations in each body were varied, like fragile flames of hope swaying in the dark—weak, yet stubbornly burning.
Similar scenes unfolded across the globe. From this day onward, everything changed.