After hearing Senku and Li Xiang explain the state of the world following thirty-seven hundred years of petrification, along with their entire plan to rebuild civilization and establish the Science Kingdom, Taiju was so excited that his whole body burned.
He had awakened after millennia of silence to find his best friend before him. There was no holding back the passion surging through him.
Without another word, he spread his arms and locked Senku in a fierce hug.
Taiju possessed monstrous strength by nature, and he put every bit of it into that hug. His firm, solid chest pressed hard against Senku, his arms sealing him in without an inch of room.
Senku's chest instantly tightened under the crushing embrace. His neck was squeezed so badly that he couldn't lift his head, his breathing grew shallower, and his entire face flushed faintly red. His arms and legs flailed weakly, but he couldn't break free.
Watching from beside them, Li Xiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She hurried forward to intervene.
"Taiju, I know you're excited, but try to calm down first."
She raised a hand to pat Taiju's arm gently, then pointed toward the mountains of stone, clay, and volcanic ash piled behind the house.
"Look at all that. It's all building material, and there's a ton of work to do. This is only a small part of what we need for the early stages. It's nowhere near enough to reinforce the house and build a basic base."
"Let little Senku go first. If you keep hugging him, he really won't be able to breathe."
Taiju froze at her words. Finally realizing something was wrong with the person in his arms, he hurriedly let go.
Freed at last, Senku staggered back two steps and bent over, gasping for air as his chest heaved.
Li Xiang stepped forward and gently rubbed his back to ease his discomfort.
Once the suffocating sensation passed, Senku gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of water. His expression settled back into calm, and he waved a hand.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm used to it. Forget that for now. Let's get to work."
The construction that followed completely overturned Li Xiang's understanding.
Before, she and Senku had slowly hauled earth by hand. Progress had been sluggish, and they had estimated it would take at least another couple of weeks to finish.
He lifted raw stones weighing dozens of kilograms with one hand and effortlessly hoisted them onto his shoulder.
Whenever a hard chunk of stone needed breaking, he simply swung another rock down onto it. A few loud cracks later, it was shattered to pieces.
Li Xiang stood to one side, speechless the entire time.
She looked down at her own hands, then back up at Taiju, whose physical prowess rivaled construction machinery.
"Dude, do you seriously never get tired?"
"You just casually handled all the rocks we spent half a day struggling to move. You're making me look completely useless, my friend."
Senku watched from the side, long accustomed to it.
With Taiju, the ultimate human workhorse, joining them, all their tedious manual labor instantly became effortless.
A project that would originally have required two people to toil for a full month was compressed by Taiju's terrifying stamina, reaching completion in just seven days.
A week later, the crude, drafty wooden hut that had seemed ready to collapse had been completely transformed.
The outer walls were coated in dried, hardened volcanic ash cement. Thick, sturdy, smooth, and tightly sealed, they firmly protected the entire hut.
The wooden framework had been fully reinforced and every gap sealed, leaving it waterproof, windproof, sturdy, and durable.
The three of them stood before the newly renovated hut, gazing at the finished result in a momentary daze.
Looking at the smooth, hard cement walls, Li Xiang sighed softly.
"So it really was that simple."
Senku nodded. "Yeah. Taiju's physical abilities were never something ordinary people could compare with."
With the work finally complete, the exhaustion of days of labor washed over them.
Li Xiang stretched. "All right, you two take a break. I'll go make dinner."
After Taiju joined them, survival became dramatically easier for all three.
They no longer had to be so cautious when heading out to hunt, gather, and forage. With Taiju's incredible stamina and drive, hunting and finding food took half the effort for twice the results. They had plenty of ingredients every day.
At dusk, the three sat together and peacefully finished a steaming hot dinner.
The sky darkened completely, night shrouded the mountains and forests, and the evening breeze was gentle as everything settled into stillness.
After clearing away the dishes, Li Xiang relaxed in body and mind and lay down alone on her soft bed of hay.
With the bustle of the past few days suddenly at an end, a cool, mechanical voice rang out in her mind amid the quiet night.
[Host, the storyline of the "Dr. STONE" world has officially begun airing. Would you like to view live audience comments from the outside world?]
The unexpected system notification made Li Xiang pause.
She fell silent for two seconds, suppressed her surprise, and spoke tentatively.
"Wait, I have a question."
[Please go ahead, host.]
After thinking for a moment, she shook her head lightly.
"Never mind. It's nothing. Open the live comment forum."
The next instant, a transparent virtual screen appeared before her, clearly displaying the forum interface.
The screen was filled with rows of viewers checking in.
[Checking in! Time to rewatch Dr. STONE!] [I'll never forget Senku, who made science legendary!] [It's starting! It's starting! Classics never get old!]
Li Xiang was a little surprised by all the activity on the screen.
"Is this manga that popular?"
The system answered immediately.
[Actually, it isn't, host.]
Dr. STONE: Ouch, buddy...
[In the isophase world, this anime enjoys only moderate popularity. The entire story centers on restarting civilization through science. Although certain plot points are somewhat absurd, it is set in a fictional manga world, so there is no need to scrutinize the logic of every detail.]
Li Xiang nodded in understanding, returned her gaze to the playback window, and quietly watched the opening unfold.
The scene shifted, revealing a classroom in a modern city.
The bright sunshine and neat school buildings seemed worlds apart from the wild, primitive mountains and forests surrounding her now.
On the screen, a teenage Taiju flung open the classroom door. Excitement and nerves filled his face as he strode up to a desk.
"Senku! I've made up my mind! I'm going to confess to Yuzuriha today!"
The boy at the desk looked up. His trademark scallion-shaped hair stood straight up, his expression indifferent and his tone carrying a teenager's casual nonchalance.
"Kids these days really grow up fast, getting into romance so young."
Seeing that familiar face on the screen, Li Xiang couldn't help quietly commenting.
"System, I've honestly wanted to complain about this forever."
"How exactly does little Senku keep that giant scallion hairstyle in place?"
"He believes in science more than anything and insists everything follows the laws of physics, yet his own hair completely defies Newton's Laws by sticking straight up. Did he use a lethal dose of hair gel or something?"
The system gave no reply, and the story on the screen continued.
Senku picked up a bottle of homemade potion and handed it to the fired-up Taiju.
"Drink this, and your confession has a ten-billion-percent chance of success."
Taiju hesitated for a moment, but ultimately waved his hand and declined the boost.
Senku shrugged indifferently and turned to look out the window.
The scene shifted. Under a tree outside the window, Taiju gathered his courage and finally stood before Yuzuriha, just about to confess.
At that very moment, everything changed.
An eerie green light instantly engulfed the entire city, sweeping across heaven and earth and enveloping every human.
Pedestrians on the streets, teachers and students at school, passersby along the roads-everyone the light touched froze in place. Their bodies rapidly hardened and turned gray-white, completely petrified in an instant.
The bustling, prosperous modern civilization fell deathly silent in a single moment.
Live comments instantly flooded the screen.
[Now that's familiar.] [The scene I'll never forget. Everyone turned to stone!] [So are people actually conscious after they're petrified?] [Of course they are! Senku counted for thirty-seven hundred years!] [The smarter you are, the more conscious you stay, and the sooner you wake up!] [Waiting for Senku's millennia-long vigil alone!] [So this is where it starts?] [Yep, yep. But Taiju was still shielding Yuzuriha with his body right up until the second before he turned to stone.]
The comments flew past as the story continued.
On the screen, the entire world was reset to zero. Civilization broke off, and the years raced by.
The seasons changed, vegetation grew wild, and plants swallowed the cities, reducing them to wilderness.
Throughout those long years, Senku alone remained conscious, silently counting within his stone shell as he endured thirty-seven hundred years of solitude.
At last, the stone shell cracked apart, and the boy awakened alone.
A primitive world with nothing to offer. A boy all on his own.
The story progressed slowly, finally settling on a sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze.
All was peaceful in the reborn world, the mountains quiet. Senku, only recently awakened, lifted his gaze toward the distance and spotted a thin wisp of cooking smoke slowly rising among the faraway mountains.
Li Xiang's eyes lit up. Was this where he would meet me?
Before you continue