3:25 a.m.: Darkness Descends

3:25 AM.

The general was fast asleep in his luxurious bedroom on the third floor of the main building, snoring loudly. On the bedside table, a half-empty glass of foreign liquor reflected the faint moonlight filtering in from the window in the darkness. Everything was the same as countless other nights: dull, calm, with a sense of security that seemed illusory due to power and military might.

In the security guard's lounge not far from the main building, Brother Bo was dozing off, sprawled on a worn-out sofa, a walkie-talkie lying beside him, its screen dark. He dreamt that he had won another large sum of money and was about to embrace the new woman and enjoy himself.

A Bin, lying on the hard bed, was finally driven to a semi-conscious state by extreme drowsiness and anxiety, his brow furrowed and his breathing unsteady. The snoring in the dormitory continued.

Bai Shan lay in the darkness of the repair team's warehouse, his eyes closed. On his left wrist was a watch disguised as an ordinary digital watch, the numbers on the dial silently ticking: 3:24:50, 3:24:55, 3:25:00.

3:25:00.

There was no warning whatsoever.

"Click!"

A muffled, short, and violent crack, seemingly from the depths of the earth, shattered the silence of the night! Then—

"Buzz----!"

Throughout the entire park, except for the main building and a few key points connected to the main building's emergency backup power lines (such as the finance office), all the lights went out simultaneously within a fraction of a second!

It didn't dim slowly; it was instantly extinguished by an invisible giant hand!

Darkness, pure, thick, suffocating darkness, like spilled ink, instantly engulfed the dormitory buildings, "office areas," warehouses, kitchens, watchtowers, roads, walls... swallowing up more than 90 percent of the park's space.

Only the main building, relying on the buzzing diesel generators that were urgently starting up, was still maintaining lighting on most of the floors, but the lights suddenly became dim and unstable, flickering like candles in the wind, appearing unusually abrupt and isolated in the absolute darkness around them.

The incessant, buzzing noise of the "office area," like that of a giant beehive, abruptly ceased the moment the power went out, turning into a deathly silence, which was then replaced by countless panicked screams, shouts, crashes, and curses.

"What happened?!"

"The power is out!"

"Damn it, who touched me?!"

"I can't see!"

"Don't push! Ah--!"

The dormitory building erupted into chaos instantly. The already terrified students, awakened from their sleep, panicked in the pitch-black darkness. Some rolled off their beds, some bumped into the bed frames, some burst into tears, and others tried to grope their way to the door, causing even greater chaos and a stampede.

"Shut the fuck up! Get down! Don't move!" The security guards roared furiously in the darkness, waving their rubber batons. But without the light, their intimidation was greatly reduced, and they could only strike randomly by feel, causing more screams.

Main building.

"What's going on?!" The general was jolted awake by the loud bang and the sudden, unusual darkness outside the window. He sat bolt upright in bed, his heart pounding. He grabbed the intercom from the bedside table, pressed the call button, and roared, "Bozai! Bozai! What the hell is going on? Why is the power out?!"

A piercing static crackled from the walkie-talkie, mixed with Brother Bo's panicked, incoherent voice. "General! I don't know! Suddenly everything went black! It might be... it might be the generator... no, it's the outside wiring... Hello? Hello?! Can you hear me? A Long? A Hu?! Damn, this broken walkie-talkie..."

The communication quality is extremely poor; it's almost impossible to hear anything.

The general's face turned ashen. He threw off the covers, rushed barefoot to the window, and abruptly pulled back the heavy curtains.

Outside the window, the park, which should have been dotted with lights like a city that never sleeps, was now mostly plunged into absolute darkness. Only a few places, such as the main building where he was and the finance office, still emitted a dim and unstable light.

Darkness, like a crouching behemoth, swallowed up most of his kingdom. An extremely ominous premonition, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart.

"Guards! Guards!" he shouted hoarsely at the doorway.

Two bodyguards outside the door burst in, fully armed and tense. "General!"

"Level One Alert! Lock all access gates! Send men to check the generator and wiring! Now!" the general roared, spittle flying everywhere.

"Yes!"

Outside the security guard's rest room.

Brother Bo clutched the crackling walkie-talkie, pacing frantically around the doorway. The sudden darkness and communication disruption threw even the head of security into a panic.

He tried in vain to shout into the walkie-talkie, attempting to contact various watchtowers, patrol teams, and key posts, but all he received in response were the static of electricity and occasional, indistinct, and terrified shouts.

"Watchtower! East watchtower! Do you see anything?!" Brother Bo shouted into the walkie-talkie, but A Qiang, on the east watchtower, was holding his gun, looking in terror at the park below, which was completely plunged into darkness and resembled a ghost town. He frantically fiddled with his equally malfunctioning walkie-talkie, unable to hear anything at all.

"Patrol Team One! Where the hell have you been?!" Brother Bo continued to yell.

The patrol team was now trapped in the sudden darkness and chaos. The beams of their flashlights swayed wildly in the darkness, and the captain tried in vain to gather the terrified team members, but the huge commotion coming from the "pigs'" dormitory made it impossible for them to judge the situation.

"Damn it! Something's happened! Something's definitely happened!" Brother Bo's back was instantly drenched in cold sweat. He suddenly remembered the general's instructions, remembered K... power outage, communications cut off... This was too much of a coincidence! He yelled at the several equally panicked security guards beside him, "Quick! A few people go check the finance office! Keep a close eye on K! The rest of you, come with me to the main building! Hurry!"

He drew his pistol, turned on his flashlight, and led a few men, stumbling along towards the dim light of the main building, his heart pounding in his chest.

Repair team warehouse.

The moment the power went out, Bai Shan suddenly opened his eyes. In the darkness, his eyes were sharp as knives. He didn't get up immediately, but listened quietly for two seconds.

Outside, a sudden, approaching commotion erupted, a cacophony of fear, chaos, and bewilderment. Brother Bo's furious, intermittent shouts came through the walkie-talkie, confirming that communications were severely disrupted.

The time has come.

Like a cheetah that had been lying in wait, he sprang silently and swiftly from his sleeping mat. He didn't turn on the light, nor did he need to. He quickly pulled out a pistol—already assembled, fully loaded, and fitted with a silencer—from the bottom of his toolbox, inspecting the weapon with lightning speed. At the same time, his left hand was near his mouth, holding the modified whistle, and he forcefully blew a short, sharp, but not overly piercing, sound, mimicking the call of some kind of night bird from the Northern Myanmar mountains.

"Chirp--!"

The sound penetrated the warehouse's not-so-thick walls, inconspicuous under the cover of the massive external chaos. But to the other agents scattered throughout the park, it was the preparatory signal for the operation, a clear order to "get ready to move in."

After blowing the whistle, Bai Shan didn't linger. His body, like a ghost blending into the darkness, silently slipped to the warehouse door, listened intently for any sounds outside, then gently pulled back the latch, slipped out, and disappeared into the even denser darkness outside the warehouse. His destination was clear—the main building.

Inside the "office area".

When the power went out, A Bin's heart almost stopped. He sat up in bed with a scream, his vision completely black, his eardrums ringing from the huge sound waves erupting inside and outside the dormitory. He instinctively hugged himself tightly, curled up in the corner, and trembled uncontrollably.

It's here! It's really here! That was the only thought in his mind. That inexplicable, suffocating premonition had come true! Darkness, chaos, screams... What's happening outside? Is there a war? Or...?

He dared not think any further, and could only bury his face in his knees, his teeth chattering, praying that misfortune would not befall him.

Finance Department.

The moment the power went out, the lights in the finance office flickered briefly before switching to the relatively dim but stable backup power. The four screens in front of K also went black at the same time, but in less than two seconds, two of the screens connected to the backup lines lit up again, displaying simplified monitoring images and system status.

A Long and A Hu were both startled when the lights switched, instinctively gripping their guns and looking at K.

K didn't even look up, only frowned slightly, glanced at the other two screens that were off, and then said in a calm voice, "It's probably an external line fault; it's switched to backup power. It doesn't affect core operations." He even tapped a few times on the still-lit screens to bring up the power status diagram, which displayed the message "Main line fault, backup line activated."

His overly calm demeanor eased A Long and A Hu's tense nerves slightly. A Long picked up the walkie-talkie, trying to contact Brother Bo to report the situation, but there was only static on the other end.

"The walkie-talkie seems to be broken," A Long frowned.

"It's probably signal interference caused by a power outage. It should be back to normal in a bit," K said casually, his gaze returning to the screen as if everything before him was just a trivial technical glitch. His left hand gently touched the sensor on the inside of his belt under the table, sending a pre-set signal that indicated "chaos has been triggered, prepare to evacuate."

It's located at the eastern watchtower, next to the electrical distribution box.

Almost at the same moment the power outage occurred, plunging the entire park into darkness and chaos, the agent codenamed "Qingsong" reappeared like a ghost from the shadows of the wall where he had been hiding.

Without the slightest hesitation, he quickly opened the electrical box with a special Key (copied during the daytime "inspection"), reached inside, and precisely tore off the few newly installed miniature devices. He then stuffed them, along with the special "tape," into an anti-magnetic shielding bag and tucked it into his pocket. The entire action took only three seconds.

Then, without even glancing at the sentry above him, A Qiang, who was panicking and futilely fiddling with his walkie-talkie and night vision goggles due to the sudden darkness and chaos below, he pressed himself against the base of the wall, like a silent gray shadow, and sped off in the opposite direction from the main building—towards the kitchen and garbage dump area. His mission was to clear out secondary threats and ensure the evacuation route remained clear.

Darkness became their best cover.

Chaos was the prelude they had been waiting for.

And the killing and control are about to officially begin in this sinful land shrouded in darkness and panic.

At 3:25 a. m., the sleeping mask of the park was torn off, revealing the surging, about-to-erupt crimson magma beneath.