Apocalypse

On the edge of the city, inside an ordinary apartment building, the curtains were drawn tight.

The temperature was very low, and hard, dry steamed buns sat on the dining table.

A middle-aged couple and a teenage boy sat in silence.

They were a blended family; the man had brought his son, and the woman was a later addition.

On normal days, their relationship was passable—just two people joining together to get through life. Their conflicts were buried beneath the trivialities of daily existence.

But in a situation like this...

“Food is running low. We need to ration,” the man spoke.

The woman said softly, “I know. You can reduce my portion further.”

The boy suddenly let out a cold sneer.

The woman’s shoulders trembled, and the man’s brow furrowed. “What are you laughing at?”

The boy looked up, his eyes filled with malice. “I’m laughing at how you’re both still pretending.”

“Dad, you always call Auntie 'baggage' behind her back. You think she’s just using your money and food, and that she’s not good to your son.”

“And Auntie, haven't you been sick of us for a long time? If you had anywhere else to go, you would’ve run away ages ago, wouldn't you?”

The woman’s face changed instantly. “Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Am I wrong?” the boy said sarcastically.

The man wanted to throw the woman out to die to save food.

The woman had sensed the man’s intentions and proactively offered to halve her food to lull him into a false sense of security, while she was actually looking for a chance to kill him.

The boy’s gaze pierced through the darkness in the hearts of this step-couple.

The two were first shocked, then a surge of wicked fire rose within them.

The man slammed the table and stood up. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m thinking! So what?”

“This house is mine, and I earned the money. Now that I’m out of work, who wants to carry extra baggage?”

The woman looked up, her eyes turning red. “Baggage? When you had me doing the laundry, cooking the meals, and taking care of every little thing for you and your son, why didn't you think I was baggage then?”

Years of resentment gushed out as they stopped hiding their loathing. They even felt a twisted sense of pleasure. Saying these ugly things and seeing the shock and anger on each other’s faces actually made their long-suppressed emotions feel relieved.

The boy sat there, gripping a fruit knife tightly, watching them go from verbal abuse to a physical brawl, waiting for the perfect moment to finish them both off.

...

Outside the Investigation Bureau building in a small city, a temporary cordon had been set up.

Local investigators were working hard to maintain order on the streets.

“Get back! Everyone get back, or we will take necessary measures!”

A young Rank 2 transcendent investigator, code-named Rock, screamed himself hoarse. Simultaneously, he manipulated sand and stone to form a shield, blocking Molotov cocktails thrown by crazed passersby.

His face was a mask of confusion.

The situation had deteriorated too quickly. Mass riots had broken out among the public. They, the transcendent investigators, had been sent out to maintain order. Initially, they could still intimidate the crowd, but the number of rioters was growing, and they were getting stronger.

In the midst of the looting and arson, some ordinary people were gradually gaining strength and speed no weaker than low-rank transcendents.

Meanwhile, the investigators maintaining order were constantly being injured.

He had just seen with his own eyes the kindest colleague in the bureau being beaten to death by a mob, lying in a pool of blood.

And the strength of those rioters had increased significantly afterward.

Something inside Rock’s heart was wavering.

At this moment, he was exposed to the moonlight, his entire body exhausted.

The more he thought, the angrier he became.

A surge of wicked fire gradually overran his reason.

“Calm down,” Rock tried to soothe himself, but his gaze gradually became ferocious.

He stopped maintaining the shield and instead gathered the sand and stone into a mass.

“To hell with staying calm!”

He let out a roar and threw a punch forward.

Boom!

At least five or six people on the street were instantly crushed to death.

Rock gasped for air. Seeing the bloody scene before him, he felt no guilt or discomfort; instead, he felt a warm current surging through him.

His fatigue lessened, and the soreness in his arms vanished.

He looked up, the confusion on his face gradually turning into excitement.

Looking at his other colleagues who were still struggling to maintain order, he licked his lips, turned around, and ended another rioter’s life with a single punch.

“Brothers, don’t waste your breath!”

“Kill them all! Only the dead won't cause trouble!”

...

Investigation Bureau headquarters.

In a certain corridor, 【Hehuan】 leaned against the wall, a pink flower slowly rotating at his fingertips, emitting a strange, sweet fragrance.

Across from him, 【Mary Sue】 was walking past quickly. Her attire was as exaggerated as ever, but her face lacked its usual self-absorbed, dreamy look.

All sorts of messy thoughts were flooding her mind, making it difficult for her to maintain her composure.

“Why the rush?” Hehuan asked, pretending it was a chance encounter.

Mary Sue didn't stop. “I’m very busy right now. I don’t have time to chat with you.”

“Don’t be so cold. A great calamity is coming. Perhaps neither of us has a future. Why don’t we take this time to strengthen each other?”

As Hehuan spoke, the flower in his hand emitted an even denser fragrance.

“Get lost!”

Mary Sue knew exactly what he meant by “strengthening each other,” so she ignored him completely and walked away quickly.

Hehuan stared at her back, malice churning wildly within him.

‘They all look down on me. They all think I’m filthy.’

‘Since this world forced me to become a ██, I’ll turn this world into one giant █-house!’

...

The situation was deteriorating rapidly.

Headquarters put forth all its effort, but it had no useful effect; in fact, it only served to exacerbate the chaos.

The worsening environment was even more lethal.

The surface temperature was dropping too fast. Blizzards raged in the darkness, and staying warm became a more urgent survival crisis than food.

The extreme cold apocalypse had descended overnight.

In the midst of the overwhelming crisis, the Minister tried to contact Tang Zhuhe, attempting to set aside past grievances with this Black Guanyin to weather the storm together.

But unfortunately, he couldn't reach Tang Zhuhe no matter what methods he used.

Unwilling to give up, he sent a diplomatic team to the cities occupied by Tang Zhuhe.

But the news sent back was terrible.

The team simply couldn't enter the vicinity of those cities.

While still a considerable distance away, they would encounter an incomprehensible phenomenon where their five senses were gradually stripped away and their sense of direction became completely scrambled.

In short, they couldn't reach the cities occupied by Tang Zhuhe at all. From a distance, those cities appeared very peaceful, as if they were already in a different world from the outside.

...

In the headquarters conference room, the atmosphere was extremely heavy.

A radical high-level executive said, “Minister, we can’t wait any longer!”

“That thing hanging in the sky is the source of all the disasters. We must destroy it as soon as possible.”

Another executive sighed helplessly. “Who doesn't want to destroy the moon as soon as possible? The key is how.”

“Conventional means are completely useless. And the distance is a massive problem. If we launch an attack on the moon from the surface, the power dissipates before it even gets close.”

The Minister remained silent. He understood the difficulty of destroying the moon better than anyone.

“What if we ask Mr. A to step in?” another executive suddenly suggested.