December 20.
The morning at Linhai University still carried a biting chill.
Outside the window, several students bundled in down jackets hurried toward the teaching building, sprinting to avoid being late.
Kannazuki had not gone to class.
He sat in his dim dorm room with the lights off. The laptop on his desk gave off a cold blue glow, illuminating his expressionless face.
The screen was divided into four precisely arranged windows.
Three top international news livestreams, and a time zone converter with flashing red numbers.
Moscow time: 09:58:45 a.m.
The Shinigami Ryuk hung upside down from the ceiling light, his yellow eyes fixed on the screen.
"Finally getting started, huh? Kid, you've prepared quite a gift for the whole world."
Ryuk let out a raspy laugh, his long tongue circling his cracked lips.
"One minute left."
Kannazuki's voice was calm, without a trace of emotion.
In the upper-left window, the Northern United Heavy Industries Group's annual shareholders' meeting was being broadcast worldwide.
Dark red velvet covered the table on the dais.
Seven or eight suited magnates who controlled the lifeblood of the country's industry sat stiffly upright. Sergei Kozlov occupied the unmistakable center seat.
Round-faced and balding, with gold-rimmed glasses, the oligarch who dominated international energy and arms markets was turning the diamond ring on his ring finger.
Moscow time: 09:59:50 a.m.
"Ten seconds."
Kannazuki counted down softly.
On the livestream, the host was smiling as he read out the financial projections.
09:59:57
09:59:58
09:59:59
Screech!
A piercing scrape of a chair suddenly came through the broadcast.
Kozlov stood up without warning.
His movement was so violent that he knocked over the bone china teacup before him, splashing scalding tea all over the vice president beside him.
"Mr. Sergei, what are you doing?"
The vice president looked up in