The Apocalypse

The instant they burst through the gates, starlight poured down from the sky, leaving both Zhou Bai and Alice staring in shock.

When they looked at the scenery around them, delight appeared in their eyes.

Before them stretched an endless starry sky, and beneath it, a vast expanse of lush green grassland.

"No matter how I look at it, this doesn't seem like the end of the world." Zhou Bai's heart jolted. Remembering the rescue team mentioned on the radio before, he clutched Alice and continued charging outside.

"Is this the sky?" Alice raised her head in amazement, her face filled with rapture.

But after they had only sprinted a little over two hundred meters, Zhou Bai felt a faint pain in his head. The power of his Primordial Spirit receded into his sea of consciousness like the tide, causing both him and Alice to collapse to the ground.

"What's going on?" Zhou Bai tried to activate the power of his Primordial Spirit again, but waves of stabbing pain surged through his brain. It was as if that power had been exhausted; no matter what he did, he could not extend it outward.

Alice, lying beside him, tried to get up, only for her body to go limp as she fell back down.

Alice's face had turned pale. She clutched her chest weakly. "I... my chest hurts so much, Zhou Bai. What's happening? What happened?"

Zhou Bai's expression changed. He instinctively touched his own chest and discovered that he felt pain there as well, though it did not seem as severe as Alice's.

"I told you already. Earth has entered its apocalypse. Outside the base is no longer suitable for human survival."

Hearing the man's voice, Zhou Bai looked up and saw Dr. Zhuang slowly approaching, his entire body wrapped in a layer of black combat gear. Looking at the two of them, he sighed. "To humans, Earth is now no different from the end of the world. The Spiritual Machine throughout heaven and earth has been completely polluted. If you stay outside for more than half an hour, you will die.

"Come back with me. Only the base's protective measures can prevent Polluted Spiritual Machine from invading your bodies."

Zhou Bai clutched his chest in shock and looked at Alice, who was growing weaker and whose eyes had already begun to glaze over. "How could this happen?"

Dr. Zhuang sighed. With a sweep of his Primordial Spirit's power, he lifted Zhou Bai and Alice and slowly carried them toward the base entrance.

Zhou Bai was taken back without any power to resist, yet his mind was still rapidly piecing together the beginning and end of it all.

The chest pains in the diary... just like ours now... were they caused by going outside the base?

But Bandu...

There was still much Zhou Bai did not understand. Looking at Dr. Zhuang, he asked, "Bandu... did he also go outside?"

Dr. Zhuang gave Zhou Bai a surprised glance. "You really are sharp. After Bandu stole the electronic card, he was afraid that it really might be dangerous outside, so he planned to go out alone first. If there was no danger, he would come back and take Alice out with him."

At this point, Dr. Zhuang could not help sighing. "My research has been at a critical juncture recently, so I failed to discover Bandu's actions in time. By the time I found him outside, he had already been out there for over an hour. Though I later exhausted every method, I still could not cure him."

Zhou Bai asked, "Can Alice still be saved?"

Dr. Zhuang said, "You were outside for only a short time. You'll be fine."

Zhou Bai asked, "Why did you let us out? With your strength, you should have been able to stop us."

Dr. Zhuang said, "Since you have already mastered the power of the Primordial Spirit, you are qualified to see the situation outside with your own eyes. Otherwise, with the power of the Primordial Spirit in your possession, you would keep thinking of going out and dealing with me. That would be troublesome too. I can't watch you every second of every day."

The white cat cried out inside Zhou Bai's head, "So he's actually a good person! You wronged him, kid. If he hadn't saved you, you might already be dead."

Zhou Bai said, "Who was it that told me to hurry up and run just now?"

The white cat said, "I'm just a cat! You're a person, and you actually took action based on what a cat said? Aren't you embarrassed?"

Zhou Bai said, "You've got some nerve saying that. Where exactly is this place? Why am I here? What exactly is going on?"

The white cat said somewhat timidly, "I don't know... I have amnesia. I only remember that when I woke up, I was already here."

Zhou Bai said angrily, "Amnesia? Didn't you say that once I rescued you, I'd know the whole story?!"

The white cat said, "I lied. Otherwise, why would you have come so quickly to save a cat?"

Zhou Bai said, "You damned cat!!"

The conversation between man and cat took place entirely within Zhou Bai's mind, so no one around them could hear it.

Dr. Zhuang carried them into the underground base with the power of his Primordial Spirit. Seeing Zhou Bai's agitated expression, he said, "Don't worry. You were only out there for a few minutes. Rest for a while, and you'll recover. Especially someone like you, who has awakened the power of the Primordial Spirit. Your resistance is a little higher."

Zhou Bai suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, "You noticed us back in the cafeteria? Did you deliberately let us go in then?"

Dr. Zhuang paused, looking puzzled. "What cafeteria?"

Zhou Bai immediately told Dr. Zhuang about having his neck squeezed in the cafeteria.

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Dr. Zhuang's face. "It wasn't me. I've been in the underground laboratory all evening..."

"Huh?" Zhou Bai asked in confusion. "Then who was it?"

Dr. Zhuang said nothing, but his expression grew increasingly grave. After sending Zhou Bai and Alice back to their room, he hurried away.

Just as Dr. Zhuang and Zhou Bai returned to the base, a gust of black mist swept across the sky above the base gates. It circled faintly for a moment, then vanished without a trace.

Back in his room, Zhou Bai recalled everything that had happened that day. His mind felt like a pot of boiling water, unable to calm down no matter what he did.

"The apocalypse... what a pain..."

A purring sound drifted over. Zhou Bai turned his head and saw Elsa curled into a ball on the bed, sleeping soundly.

"It's nice to be carefree."

"Right."

Zhou Bai looked once more at his Auxiliary System and asked expectantly, "Dead cat, the Auxiliary System can be used now, right?"

"Who are you calling that? I have a name. Call me Christina. The cutest and most important cat in the entire world... ptooey... I mean, girl!"

Christina was inside Zhou Bai's mind, her face full of displeasure.

She had forgotten much of her past. She only remembered that, upon waking up, she had formed a connection with Zhou Bai. The only thing she remembered needing to do was hand the Auxiliary System and the gemstone to Zhou Bai, the one fated to receive them.

Christina said, "Let me out first! Your head is full of filthy things. It's disgusting!"

Zhou Bai's face reddened. With a thought, he saw a ball of white mist emerge from between his brows, gradually taking the form of a white cat.

Christina curiously examined her body and exclaimed in surprise, "Haha, I'm out!"

With another thought from Zhou Bai, the white cat turned back into a ball of white mist and returned to his brow. Then, with another thought, she came back out.

After making her go in and out several times like that, Zhou Bai roughly understood the process. He could freely control whether to retrieve or release the white cat.