Nancheng had a vibrant nightlife. Even past nine o’clock at night, the streets and parks were still crowded with people.
But tonight, there were especially many people outside.
As Jiang Sui drove, she saw several people running at full speed on the road, constantly looking back over their shoulders—clearly fleeing in panic.
Ahead, traffic had already gone chaotic. Horns blared everywhere.
Jiang Sui’s heart began to pound violently. She had a strong instinct—the pollution that would bring about the apocalypse… had begun.
Looking forward, she saw the source of the chaos—the Great Century Mall.
How could this be?
She clearly remembered that in the original story, the pollution outbreak happened at dawn, near the hotel where the female lead Jiang Shuangxue stayed—not at a shopping mall, and not at this time at night.
Had the storyline changed?
Why?
“Something’s happening up ahead,” Jiang Sui said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Her voice trembled slightly.
She thought she was prepared mentally, but when the apocalypse truly began to reveal itself, she realized she was still scared—very scared. She understood the apocalypse in theory, but not in lived experience.
Shen Hanyan, however, remained calm. His voice was lifeless and flat.
“Do you want me to get out here?”
Did he think she was annoyed by having to send him?
“I don’t mean that,” Jiang Sui replied quickly. Her palms were sweating. The road was chaotic—people and cars were fleeing everywhere. She had to slow down and carefully pass through the intersection.
Then she immediately turned and accelerated toward the park.
In her peripheral vision, more people were rushing out of the mall. Something luminous was floating above the upper floors of the building.
Jiang Sui looked over.
It was a ribbon-like light—similar to aurora—soft, flowing, like a fairy’s silk ribbon drifting in the wind.
Her heart sank.
She remembered now.
The cause of Nancheng becoming a completely uninhabitable polluted zone was this entity—the S-class contamination source: Aurora Mushroom.
Those “ribbons” were actually glowing spores. As they drifted through the air, countless invisible contamination particles spread across the city with the wind, rapidly triggering widespread infection.
Those infected would gradually become vessels for mushroom growth. If the mushrooms reached the brain, they would take control—turning people into something like zombies that attacked and tore at others.
And that was only the beginning.
As contamination accumulated, living beings would undergo horrifying mutations. Soon, Nancheng would become a breeding ground for monsters.
Jiang Sui lost focus for a moment because of the mushrooms.
By the time she noticed the out-of-control truck, it was already too late.
The sharp screech of brakes pierced through the car’s closed windows and drilled into her mind. Her eyes widened as she tried to turn the steering wheel—but her body suddenly froze, unable to move at all.
All she could do was watch as the massive truck sped toward them.
In the chaos, Shen Hanyan seemed to reach for the wheel—but it was already too late.
BOOM—!
The car was violently struck and flipped. Everything spun. Objects inside the car flew everywhere. Jiang Sui couldn’t see anything clearly—only felt herself tumbling violently.
Then pain struck her head.
Her consciousness faded.
Everything turned blurry, as if she had fallen into a chaotic nightmare.
Screams, sirens, police cars, ambulances, shouting, crying… and piercing, terrified screams all mixed together like distorted background noise.
She forced her eyelids open, now soaked in blood.
Through her blood-red vision, she saw flashing police lights.
People sat on the ground crying hysterically. Two armed police officers were retreating cautiously. A young woman staggered forward—wearing a pretty skirt—but her body was rapidly swelling.
Like dough fermenting.
Bulges rose across her skin—one after another.
Then—
POP. POP. POP.
The bulges burst open. Flesh tore apart.
Mushrooms—blood-soaked mushrooms—sprouted from her body.
It looked exactly like a scene from a horror film.
Jiang Sui could no longer hold on. Her consciousness plunged back into darkness.
The entire area around the mall had been tightly sealed off.
A special forces team in protective suits, armed with weapons and recording equipment, slowly crossed the road and entered the mall filled with drifting blue light ribbons.
The entrance curtains hung down, and faint blue light seeped through the gaps like vertical beams.
As they approached, the light shimmered slightly.
It was all fine dust-like spores.
When they pushed through the curtain, more blue light poured out. The mall lights were still on, and everything appeared clean and orderly—except for occasional glowing mushrooms on the walls and floor.
One soldier looked closely and discovered fine blue fungal threads crawling across the walls like hair, extending deeper into the building.
Inside, they found bodies.
Or rather—what used to be bodies.
Within just a few hours, flesh had already disappeared, leaving only human-shaped husks overtaken by mushrooms.
The team carefully stepped over the remains, moving deeper.
Their mission was to investigate the situation, search for survivors, and locate the origin of the contamination.
The deeper they went, the more fungi and corpses appeared. Every step had to be taken with extreme caution.
Finally, they reached the central hall—and froze.
A waterfall of fungal threads hung from the upper floors, glowing mushrooms swaying like a surreal ecological installation.
Beautiful.
And horrifying.
The team leader raised the camera and began filming upward.
“I suspect the source is on the fourth floor. Requesting to stop search and proceed directly there.”
Everyone already knew—there could be no survivors.
“Approved.”
Just as they prepared to move, someone in the team suddenly collapsed, convulsing.
He rolled on the ground in pain, tearing off his mask.
His young face was covered in dense red bulges.
In an instant—
They burst open.
Bloody mushrooms sprouted out.
The leader’s radio crackled urgently:
“Retreat immediately!”
But it was too late.
One by one, the team members collapsed.
The last to fall was the captain.
He lay on his back, his chest-mounted camera pointing toward the ceiling of the central hall.
At the source of the fungal waterfall—
A ribbon of blue light drifted out, like aurora—beautiful beyond words.