"January 1, 2000, Earth calendar."
"According to expert observations, a black bird suddenly appeared and vomited up an enormous stomach that swallowed the entire sun. Then the black bird swallowed its stomach again and vanished."
"With the sun gone, Earth entered the Dark Age."
"However, life on Earth did not become completely extinct, and humanity could still barely survive. Large numbers of researchers are currently studying the reasons behind this."
"On the same day, Gods appeared across Earth on a massive scale. Most Gods were hostile toward humans and slaughtered them."
"Led by countless unsung heroes, humanity established the United Government and built several large Safe Zones. From then on, humans lived only within the Safe Zones. For some reason, Gods cannot enter the Safe Zones to slaughter humans. Large numbers of researchers are currently studying this as well."
"This period of history is known as the Descent of the Dark Age on Earth. There are three exam topics here. They weren't on last year's exam, so they'll definitely be on this year's! Believe me or don't! The first topic..."
Sitting in a corner of the classroom, Qin Siyang sighed.
"Studying history won't save humanity. Especially history this full of holes."
"In this world, only knowledge related to sequence abilities matters."
He turned to look out the window.
Through the protective glass, he could just make out one or two bizarrely shaped Gods drifting through the night sky overhead.
Earth had entered an eternal night, so no matter when he looked up, the view beyond the Safe Zone was much the same.
A sky of faintly twinkling stars.
And the so-called "Gods" roaming beneath them.
"Class, next we'll discuss Gods. There are exam topics here too, so listen carefully. This is our first round of review, the perfect time to fill any gaps in your knowledge."
"After the eternal night began, strange creatures appeared on Earth, taking all sorts of bizarre forms."
"But they shared one trait: they were aggressive and possessed immortal bodies."
"Humans believed these creatures were divine punishment brought by the Descent of the Dark Age, punishing humanity for its past sins. Thus, they called them Gods..."
Bizarre creatures with immortal bodies, yet people glorified them as "Gods."
At that, Qin Siyang couldn't help scratching his head.
It was always the same.
At the end of science lay theology.
People attributed everything they couldn't explain to Gods.
"Remember, everyone, the sections on Gods and the Dark Age will definitely appear on the Gaokao, whether you're in the arts or sciences..."
The students showed little enthusiasm.
Everyone knew that in this world, awakening a sequence ability was the only way to make something of yourself.
As for the Gaokao, the path for ordinary people-only those who ranked in the top one-tenth of one percent of the Safe Zone could enter a higher academy and have a chance at securing a respectable job with the United Government.
But placing in the top one-tenth of one percent in such an enormous Safe Zone was far too difficult.
Even the top five students in the school weren't guaranteed a spot.
Qin Siyang couldn't manage it before his rebirth, and he was even less capable of it afterward.
In his previous life, Qin Siyang had been an orphan. His Gaokao results had been unimpressive, but he later passed the postgraduate entrance exam and secured a reasonably respectable job after graduation. Then, in middle age, his company laid him off. When he went to demand compensation, a security guard accidentally beat him to death, and he was reborn at the age of eighteen.
After his rebirth, most of the people around him were still those he had known in his previous life.
But the once-normal world had become this strange place.
It was like a parallel world.
This parallel world was ruled by Gods and Sequence Ability Users.
Still unable to awaken a sequence ability, Qin Siyang inwardly lamented, Come on, heavens, why haven't you let me awaken a sequence ability yet? Did you bring me back just to be cannon fodder?
After the Dark Era began, all kinds of living creatures mutated. Countless species went extinct, and countless new species emerged. Humans began mutating as well.
That was how Sequence Ability Users appeared.
On January 1, 2005, Earth calendar, exactly five years after the Descent of the Dark Age, humanity produced its first Sequence Ability User.
He possessed an incredible ability-turning one hand into a revolver.
His revolver could fire six bullets a day.
Many people believed this mutation was meaningless, because humanity's current enemies were Gods that could not be killed.
Even nuclear bombs couldn't kill Gods. What use was his revolver?
Yet, to everyone's surprise, his revolver actually accomplished what nuclear bombs could not.
He killed two "Small Gods" that scuttled swiftly along the ground.
Even though those Gods looked like giant cockroaches, they were still immortal Gods.
Sequence Ability Users could kill Gods!
That shattered the accepted belief that Gods were immortal.
Humanity rejoiced, seeing hope of fighting back against the Gods!
This man's awakening ushered in a new age. After him, many others began awakening sequence abilities.
Humans killing Gods gradually ceased to be a rarity. In fact, most Sequence Ability Users made their living by hunting Gods for generous rewards.
However, the tiny spark of sequence ability awakening did not change the fact that humanity lived within the Safe Zones. In the five years since sequence awakening first occurred, no one had killed the most dangerous Large Gods.
But sequence abilities did change the balance of power within humanity.
Outside the Safe Zones, Gods ruled. Inside the Safe Zones, Sequence Ability Users ruled-
Sequence Ability Users became the [Gods] within the Safe Zones.
This was humanity's apocalypse. It was also a paradise for Sequence Ability Users.
Stories of people begging on the streets in the morning, then awakening a sequence that afternoon and rising straight to the top, circulated widely within the Safe Zones.
Compared with studying hard, awakening a sequence ability was the true path to changing one's fate.
Even after his rebirth, Qin Siyang had not awakened a sequence ability.
He had thought that, as a chosen one, he ought to receive at least a little boost to his luck.
But three days had passed, and he was still an ordinary student living on the outskirts of the Safe Zone.
He wanted to learn more about sequence awakening, but almost no one around him could explain it clearly.
That was understandable. Anyone with a friend or relative who was a Sequence Ability User, anyone who knew anything about sequence abilities, would hardly be living on the remote outskirts of the Safe Zone.
"Class, the awakening of Sequence Ability Users is humanity's hope, but we still need to keep our feet on the ground and study hard..."
Sequence awakening?
He immediately raised his hand and looked at his homeroom teacher, who taught history.
"Qin Siyang, what's your question?"
"Sir, why hasn't a single student in our class awakened a sequence ability? How can we awaken one?"
"Haven't we already covered this?" The homeroom teacher frowned deeply. "No one knows what causes a sequence to awaken. If I knew, I'd awaken my own first."
A student immediately interrupted. "But I heard Zhou Yang from the class next door has an uncle who awakened a sequence ability! Why can't I awaken one?"
"That's Director Zhou! United Government officials already have a very high rate of awakening sequence abilities!"
"But..."
"No buts! Instead of sitting here spouting unrealistic fantasies, you should be preparing for the Gaokao!"
"You have only six months until the Gaokao! If you don't study hard and get into an academy, you'll have to work as soon as you graduate from high school!"
"Can you stop giving me headaches?! Open your homework. I'm checking it!"
The homeroom teacher grew increasingly agitated as he spoke, eventually pounding furiously on the desk.
But Qin Siyang, who had lived two lives, could tell that the teacher wasn't upset over his students' failure to live up to their potential.
Only the school's top five students had any chance of entering an academy. Even the highest-ranked student in their class was only around thirtieth in the school.
In other words, everyone in their class would have to work after graduating from high school.
There was no way the homeroom teacher didn't know that.
Naturally, his agitation and anger weren't born of concern for his students' futures.
Qin Siyang detected resentment and envy in his eyes.
Resentment at being an ordinary person.
Envy of others who had awakened sequences.
When the teacher reached Qin Siyang, he discovered that Qin Siyang hadn't done his homework.
"With how much you talk in class, I thought you'd finished your homework."
"You haven't done your homework, yet you're always dreaming up impossible fantasies."
"Go stand outside the door! Come back when you've come to your senses!"
"Okay."
He wasn't the only one who hadn't done his homework, but he was the only one sent out to stand as punishment. Apparently, his earlier question had angered the teacher.
Someone had once said that human anger ultimately stemmed from one's own powerlessness.
That was probably true.
Qin Siyang walked out of the classroom.
Something as trivial as being made to stand outside didn't bother him at all.
If the school cafeteria didn't provide meals, keeping an orphan with no income like him fed, he wouldn't even have bothered attending school.
He would surely have spent all his time and energy figuring out sequences.
As it happened, it was quiet outside the classroom. He could think in peace about how to awaken a sequence.
He was only racking his brains, but that was better than not thinking at all.
As far as he knew, the wealthy and powerful of this world had a very high chance of awakening sequence abilities.
Yet among poor students like him who lived on the outskirts of the Safe Zone, not even one in several thousand awakened.
"Sequence awakening isn't completely random. It seems to favor the rich and look down on the poor."
He let out a long sigh.
"If the conditions for sequence awakening depend on quality of life, I'm afraid I'll never awaken a sequence."
Looking up through the window, he could faintly see several Gods roaming beneath the stars.
"Even if I awaken a sequence ability, I'll still be a plaything in the Gods' hands. To be truly free, I'd have to become a God myself."
"But how do I become a God?"
"As the saying goes, you gain what you eat. If I want to become a God, eating ordinary meals definitely won't do."
Qin Siyang gave a bitter smile. "I'd probably have to eat Gods!"
Just as Qin Siyang was talking to himself, trying to find some humor in his misery, an eye slowly opened in the dark, star-filled sky and turned toward him.
Its pupil shone as brightly as the moon. It didn't look human.
It looked more like a bird's eye.
The eye hanging in the night sky was enormous and round. If it truly belonged to a bird, that bird could probably swallow the whole Earth in one gulp.
Qin Siyang frowned and glanced at the other students from nearby classes who had also been sent to stand in the corridor. Some were staring idly out the windows too, yet none seemed to have noticed the eye.
Am I the only one who can see it?
He stared into the eye for a moment, then suddenly felt as though it were exerting some kind of interference on him, making his head spin.
Immediately afterward, a piece of information appeared in his mind.
[Sequence "God Eater" awakened]
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