The Apocalypse Begins

Thankfully, she had believed that text.

Ding!

Her phone vibrated again, showing a new text. Was it from the person who had warned her?

Xu Duoduo's hands were practically shaking as she sent a message, asking who they really were.

The other person ignored her questions outright and sent her a download link instead.

If the incident with Sister Liu hadn't matched up exactly, Xu Duoduo really wouldn't have dared to open it. Besides, she had three backup phones, so she wasn't afraid of getting a virus. None of the bank cards holding her savings were linked to online banking, either, so she wasn't worried about fraudulent charges.

So she quickly opened the website and downloaded the file to her phone.

An apocalypse survival guide soon popped up. Xu Duoduo read it with painstaking care, practically word by word. In fewer than three thousand characters, the guide covered changes in the climate, all kinds of disasters, and even how chaotic the entire world would become in the later stages.

It also mentioned [mutation].

The word appeared in large, bold red letters. Essentially, everyone would evolve.

That made sense when she thought about it.

Without evolving, no one could survive in such a chaotic world.

Worried that electronic devices might stop working later, Xu Duoduo ran straight to the desk in her room, downloaded the survival guide, and printed it out-many, many copies of it-then put them into her storage space.

By the time she finished all that, her meal had long since gone cold. She ate it without tasting a thing, not wasting a single grain of rice. Then, remembering that there would be a period early on when even electricity would be unavailable, she hurried to start cooking.

Every compartment in her Rubik's Cube space, or rather, her multifaceted space, came with a built-in preservation function.

Xu Duoduo planned to turn as much of her food as possible into ready-to-eat meals. According to the survival guide, it would begin with incidents of people biting others in various places, a period also known as the initial emergence of the zombie virus. Starting tonight, there would be no more peace.

After that, a massive electromagnetic storm would erupt. Signals would disappear completely, and the power lines outside would explode, making the electricity supply increasingly unstable.

The water would gradually begin to become contaminated after three days. It was terrifying.

What Xu Duoduo needed to do was stockpile as much food and water as she could while she still had electricity and running water.

She had plenty of different pots at home.

So she set all three rice cookers to cook rice, while two pressure cookers cooked various meats and meatballs. She had to cook as much of the meat stored in her fridge and freezer as possible.

Any convenience foods that could be microwaved went into the microwave, or straight into the air fryer.

Her gas stove had four burners.

One cooked congee, one ginger soup, one herbal tea, and one soup. Apparently, there would be periods of extreme heat and cold later on, and soups and drinks offered the most comfort. When the time came, she could simply fill a large insulated flask and drink from it.

Xu Duoduo didn't dare sleep at all.

She had been running herself ragged since finishing dinner. She set all the information online to be read aloud automatically, from top to bottom, and listened through her Bluetooth earphones.

As for food, she would prepare as much as she could. Every extra portion meant another layer of security.

Although humans would all begin mutating later on, mutation carried risks. Not everyone would mutate successfully, and those whose evolution failed would die.

Xu Duoduo still hoped she wouldn't get infected too soon. She wanted to hold out as long as possible. After all, in the later stages, the bases would develop effective drugs that could greatly improve human mutation outcomes and reduce the risk of death.

She didn't dare sleep the entire night, keeping busy preparing food and stockpiling water.

For many people, this was indeed an extraordinary night.

The power even went out in the middle of the night.

Numerous screams came from within the residential complex, along with hoarse roars.

Cries for help and barking dogs mingled with them.

Xu Duoduo didn't dare open the curtains at all. She kept the doors and windows tightly shut and prepared to hunker down through the early stages. If she had an opportunity later on, she would continue stockpiling food.

For now, she needed to keep herself safe. Sometimes, being too greedy was a sin.

She didn't panic when the power went out. Instead, she put the partially prepared food into her storage space, ready to take it out again once the electricity returned. It was very convenient.

She herself collapsed from exhaustion, falling fast asleep on the sofa the moment she closed her eyes. She stayed asleep until her phone rang the next day. The property management office was calling her.

"Is this Ms. Xu? Here's the situation: a new strain of rabies suddenly appeared in K City last night. It spreads quickly, and symptoms develop rapidly. We've now received instructions from the authorities that, starting today, no one is allowed to go out without permission."

Work and production were suspended across the city.

Students were given time off.

It was more or less what the apocalypse survival guide had said. It began with a lockdown there, too.

Xu Duoduo was already numb with exhaustion. After an entire night, she had to accept it whether she wanted to or not, and she was in a much better frame of mind. So she first pretended to be surprised, then said she would follow the property management office's arrangements.

The person on the other end thanked her for cooperating, then hurried off to call the other residents.

An announcement had also been posted in the residential complex's group chat, but some stubborn residents had to be called individually so the situation could be explained clearly. It made for a heavy workload.

Still, this wasn't their first lockdown, so everyone had some experience.

Food would be distributed on schedule when the time came. All they had to do was stay inside their homes.

Quite a few people in the group chat were panicking.

It was because of the agonized screams last night.

As a result, everyone in the group chat had been muted, silencing all their voices.

The signal still came and went.

Even the television kept freezing, and the news broadcast stuttered along.

Only a few key words could be made out: typhoons, geomagnetic storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions.

Despite winter being just around the corner, several developing typhoons had formed, and they were the kind that could not be controlled.

Coastal regions around the world had already sounded the alarm and were preparing to face super typhoons.

Starting today, major geomagnetic storms would occur frequently. Many researchers were busy preparing countermeasures, while broadcasts kept explaining what residents could do themselves, urging everyone to pay close attention to their own safety.

At the same time, monitoring around the globe showed that volcanoes both beneath the sea and on land were stirring. They had entered an active phase and could erupt at any moment.

In the end, finally-

Every broadcast announced that humanity faced the greatest disaster in its history. This could very well be a mass extinction of humankind, like that of the dinosaurs long ago. The United Nations therefore called on all humanity to unite and weather this catastrophe together.

When Xu Duoduo heard those words, her eyes began to redden. Looking at the sun outside, she felt that the days she had once known might be gone forever.

Suddenly, waves of distraught shouting and wailing rose through the residential complex.

More people were breaking down.

Xu Duoduo could only pull herself together and keep preparing the food.

She had to be fully prepared.

Over the next few days, bad news came one piece after another. The signal continued to come and go, so news of many disasters could not reach them in time.

Imagination was more frightening than reality. The people holed up in K City's residential complexes were under immense mental strain, and the number of those who could not bear the pressure and took their own lives rose sharply.

The climate had already begun behaving abnormally. In just three short days, it changed several times, with temperatures plunging by as much as thirty degrees.

Many people fell ill, too.