“Dinglingling—” The alarm clock rang incessantly, like a death knell. Qin Zhiyu checked the time—six o’clock. For once, she had actually woken up on time.
The dreams were still there, just not as suffocating and oppressive as they had been in the past few days.
Thinking this, Qin Zhiyu quickly got up and prepared for the day. Today was her shift, and she would be entering the prison cells to organize activities for the inmates.
After waking up, the basic tasks—getting up, roll call, washing up, tidying up, breakfast, and cleaning—all needed to be completed within half an hour. Time was tight.
“Good morning, Officer Qin!” Inmate No. 30 waved enthusiastically. Her name was Tao Zhiyan, 36 years old, a widow.
The reason was that her husband had been a chronic alcoholic who never came home, riding around on his motorcycle with his friends. She endured it for years until one day, when her husband returned drunk and beat her and their son. In a fit of anger, she punctured the motorcycle’s tires. Little did she expect that her husband would drive drunk and speed off, crashing into a tree. The motorcycle was destroyed, and he died on the spot.
“Good morning, Sister Tao! You look energetic today!” Qin Zhiyu greeted her with a smile. She had a good relationship with Tao Zhiyan.
This relationship had developed for two reasons. First, Tao Zhiyan had entered the prison around the same time Qin Zhiyu had just passed the exam to become a prison guard and was assigned to oversee this area. Qin Zhiyu took everything and everyone here to heart.
Second, after being sentenced by the law, Tao Zhiyan had fallen into despair and often attempted suicide. When Qin Zhiyu first arrived, she was full of enthusiasm for her work and frequently counseled Tao Zhiyan. Over time, they developed a nodding acquaintance.
Qin Zhiyu had worked here for over a year, interacting with various inmates. She wasn’t in charge of any particularly vicious criminals; most of the others had tragic stories behind them.
Gradually, Qin Zhiyu lost her initial warmth. Being too accommodating wasn’t conducive to managing these inmates, and over time, she had cultivated a cold, expressionless demeanor. Tao Zhiyan was the only exception.
The walk from the cells to the workshop was about five or six hundred meters. Along the way, Qin Zhiyu encountered other colleagues. The work was dull and monotonous, with little entertainment, so she was familiar with her shiftmates. They exchanged nods as greetings.
During this time, Qin Zhiyu organized the inmates, gave orders, completed the routine tasks, and escorted them to their destination. After finishing her duties, she returned to the production area’s office.
“Qin Zhiyu, a new crayfish restaurant just opened. Let’s go try it after our shift ends.”
Cai Linlang looked up and winked at Qin Zhiyu as she returned.
Recently, Qin Zhiyu’s demeanor and behavior had seemed off. Since they were the only two new female staff in this place, and the work environment was particularly challenging, it was inevitable that psychological issues might arise.
Seeing that Qin Zhiyu didn’t seem as distracted today, Cai Linlang felt it was a good opportunity to take her out for a chat and offer some guidance.
But the current Qin Zhiyu was in no mood for crayfish.
“Sorry, Linlang, I’m not feeling well today. I want to go back and take advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday to rest properly. I might even take some time off to adjust. How about I treat you once I’m back at work?”
Qin Zhiyu knew that fulfilling this promise was likely a distant prospect, but there was no way to explain it to her.
Should she say that because of the Heavenly Disaster dreams, she went to Cai Linlang to widely proclaim that the Heavenly Disaster is coming, urging her to exercise and improve basic survival skills?
Not to mention whether Cai Linlang would believe it, Qin Zhiyu couldn’t possibly say such things. As for broadcasting it publicly, she would most likely be arrested and labeled a lunatic, turning from a prison guard into a detained inmate. Qin Zhiyu had no intention of testing the limits of the red line.
“Alright then, Zhiyu, you must take good care of yourself. Don’t dwell too much on these things.”
“Our job offers good benefits, so we have to endure a bit more than others. All the seniors have gone through this, and I believe we can do it too.”
Cai Linlang looked into Qin Zhiyu’s eyes and spoke earnestly. She genuinely hoped Qin Zhiyu would be alright.
After all, they had shared the bond of joining the unit together, and Zhiyu was generous and low-key in character. Their interactions were always comfortable, and she didn’t want to lose such a good partner in their future work.
“Alright, Linlang, don’t worry too much. Actually, I’m fine. I just need some time to adjust, and I’ll definitely be okay. Thank you, Linlang.”
Qin Zhiyu smiled back at Cai Linlang, revealing a faint dimple. She understood the sincerity behind Linlang’s words, but these matters couldn’t be shared with her now. She would find an opportunity to hint at them later.
“Go home and rest well. Once you’ve adjusted, you can treat me to crayfish!” Cai Linlang also smiled, her round eyes narrowing with a hint of playfulness.
“Alright, I’ll head home now. Goodbye.”
While speaking, Qin Zhiyu busied herself packing up. There wasn’t much to take—just her personal belongings—before she headed home.
The first thing she did upon returning home was to record the dream from the previous night.
The fourth Heavenly Disaster, the flood, was somewhat easier to endure in the first few days, thanks to her prior preparations. Compared to the earlier dreams, this one felt less bleak.
After recording it, Qin Zhiyu reviewed her dream once more to reinforce the memory. For the past month, she had been waking up in this manner almost every night.
From pitch-black nights to consecutive days of scorching heat, torrential downpours, and finally overwhelming floods—Qin Zhiyu experienced one Heavenly Disaster after another in her dreams.
When the first Heavenly Disaster struck, all human-made structures on Earth were reduced to raw materials. Everything, except for the knowledge stored in human minds, vanished. Every person on Earth was bound to the Cataclysm Survival Guide, and survival depended solely on following its instructions.
Like everyone else, Qin Zhiyu lived in constant anxiety, waking up each day to calculate how much food remained, how to find materials to upgrade her Sanctuary, and how to fend off the Alien Races while avoiding harm from fellow humans.
At first, Qin Zhiyu thought it was just a nightmare. As someone prone to vivid dreams, she didn’t take it seriously.
But as the nightmares grew longer and more frequent, even the faces of the men and women that were once blurry gradually became clear.
She began to take these dreams seriously, making it her first task each morning to record them, lest she forget.
During the day, aside from work, she meticulously studied the recorded dreams. Her colleagues, seeing her—once diligent and focused—now constantly poring over her notebook in a distracted state, were utterly astonished.
Thinking she had seen all kinds of criminals and been exposed to too much darkness, the young woman, who had only been working for a few years, found it difficult to bear the psychological burden.
Even her supervisor had spoken with her several times, advising her not to dwell too much on the environmental influences. In these times, jobs were hard to come by, and stable, well-paying jobs were even rarer. Everyone went through such phases, and it would pass once she endured it.
Qin Zhiyu, who usually treated her work as her life, didn’t take her supervisor’s advice to heart. She noticed that the dreams were becoming more frequent and vivid.
The dreams didn’t tell her when the Heavenly Disaster would arrive, but she knew time was running out. She had to seize every moment to remember the details of the Heavenly Disaster, lest everything turn into raw materials when it struck, leaving her with only memories to rely on.
So, Qin Zhiyu took this opportunity to request leave from her supervisor, who naturally didn’t stop her.
There weren’t many people in this line of work to begin with, and even fewer were young women. They couldn’t afford to let someone get scared off by the pressure, so her request was promptly approved.
Since the dreams began, Qin Zhiyu had intensified her training. Whether the Heavenly Disaster was real or not, a healthy body was the foundation for survival.
After packing lightly and having dinner, Qin Zhiyu called Wei Xinglan, a classmate she had met at the sports school.
“Hey, Qin Zhiyu, it’s rare for you to call me! What’s up? Want to catch up on old times?”
Wei Xinglan answered the phone quickly, joking as he spoke.
“Of course, we should keep our old friendship alive. But I also have something important to ask for your help with.”
Qin Zhiyu knew her classmate, as the only child in a well-off family, had a carefree attitude about everything. She didn’t waste time with small talk and got straight to the point.
“Wow, what could be so important that you’d call me after all these years! It seems like I’m the only one who can handle it, so I guess I can’t refuse!”
Wei Xinglan raised an eyebrow, surprised to receive her call after so many years.
He agreed, not out of bravado, but because he owed Qin Zhiyu many favors from the past. Now that he had the chance, he naturally wanted to repay them.
“Could you teach me some simple self-defense techniques?”
“Self-defense techniques, and you want them simple… Old classmate, are you trying to make things difficult for me?”
“I just think learning self-defense would make me feel safer. You know what my job is like.”
“Alright, I could’ve taught you a few moves myself, but I have a mission coming up in a couple of days, so time is tight. I’ll have to send you some instructional videos later.”
“Okay, thank you.”
With her martial arts plan taking shape, Qin Zhiyu began her training for the day.
She strapped two-pound weighted sandbags to each of her wrists and ankles and ran three laps around the hilly area of her neighborhood.
Since Qin Zhiyu believed in everything that happened in her dreams, it was only natural to prepare accordingly.
Unlike other types of disasters, such as zombie outbreaks, where one could stockpile supplies and build a safe fortress if forewarned, the Heavenly Disaster, based on her understanding from the First Playthrough, only left her with the options of training her body and learning some self-defense moves.
Yes, Qin Zhiyu referred to the dreams as the “First Playthrough.” Whether the dreams were memories of a past life or prophetic visions, she now considered herself to have reloaded a save file, making the term “First Playthrough” fitting.
So she called Wei Xinglan, thinking that his family had trained him since childhood, teaching him Taekwondo, martial arts, and other self-defense skills. In college, he had shown exceptional prowess by bravely stepping forward to help others, and later, he even joined the military, where his skills must have improved even further.
It was said that Wei Xinglan now held a military rank, but that wasn’t the focus of Qin Zhiyu’s attention.
Although she couldn’t practice like he did from a young age and build a foundation in martial arts, she now had a direction for training and could continue learning even after the apocalypse arrived.