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Nanhu Province, Jiang City.

As a typical small city in the south of the Yangtze River, it barely crossed the threshold into a fourth-tier city on a national level.

Compared to those first- and second-tier cities, this place was an unequivocal backwater.

But even so, it was still home to nearly a million people making a living.

...…

Of course, Gu Ran was not currently among those million people.

The reason was simple. Due to the pandemic, the company had laid off employees again, and again, and yet again. Gu Ran, who had dodged the previous rounds, hadn't been so lucky this time.

Inside his suburban rental, he set down the mouse, stood up from the computer chair, and walked straight to the fridge.

It was almost three in the afternoon, and he was feeling a bit hungry.

Although it had been four days since he'd been let go, Gu Ran wasn't anxious; on the contrary, he somewhat enjoyed these leisurely days without the hustle and bustle.

As an orphan with no family to support, Gu Ran felt no psychological pressure at all.

And indeed, four days into unemployment, his fridge was already stocked with a variety of foods.

Fruits, instant noodles, chocolate, bread, beer, soda, and so on—it was quite the assortment. On the ground to the left of the fridge were two 5L bottles of Farmer's Punch. At a rough estimate, even if he didn't leave the house for the next ten days, Gu Ran would live very comfortably.

He had just taken a bottle of soda from the fridge and hadn't even had time to drink it when Gu Ran's brow furrowed slightly; his gaze shifted, looking out the window of the rental.

Something felt off—the outside world seemed too quiet, unnaturally so. He knew that even though his current residence was in the suburbs of Jiang City, there were quite a few other tenants nearby, so it couldn't possibly be this quiet.

With a trace of bewilderment and no concern for the Coke in his hand, Gu Ran strode towards the window.

"How is this possible?"

His gaze moved beyond the nearby buildings and instinctively lifted to the sky. He let out an involuntary gasp and his pupils contracted involuntarily, as if witnessing some unbelievable spectacle.

Above the heavens was no longer the familiar blue sky with white clouds, but instead, an enormous terror-inducing red cloud that nearly shrouded the whole of Jiang City.

This mass of red cloud was an unnatural shade of blood red, casting a sanguine glow below that seemed to wrap the entire city in a blood-colored veil, eerie and horrifying.

Gu Ran wasn't the only one to notice this scene. People in the streets, parks, and residential buildings—countless individuals like Gu Ran—were staring blankly up at the firmament. Even the vehicles on the highways had, at some point, all come to a standstill, which explained the earlier quiet that puzzled Gu Ran.

In the silence, the red clouds above once again began to transform; deep within the mist, blood-red fog roiled madly, growing more and more intense as though something was slowly brewing.

Seeing this, Gu Ran's eyes twitched, instinctively feeling that something wasn't right. But before he could react,

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a thunderous roar resembling that of the thunderclap, the floor beneath him shook violently. "Earthquake," the word barely formed in his mind when the violent shaking suddenly dissipated, as if everything that had transpired was just a mirage.

Once again looking out the window, Gu Ran was startled to see endless streams of gray mist gushing from the depths of the red cloud. In the blink of an eye, the entire Jiang City was almost entirely engulfed in this gray fog, and even the light became dim.

Squinting, Gu Ran strained to survey his surroundings. As the mist thickened, his field of vision was being progressively constricted.

Even as time passed, another residential building just tens of meters away from his rental was beginning to blur.

Before his vision was completely obscured, Gu Ran noticed that streaks of lights suddenly surged above the sky. These were hundreds of colored orbs plummeting straight down.

Green, black, red, white... under their mutual illumination, they resembled a breathtakingly beautiful meteor shower.

```

...…

Because he never shifted his gaze, Gu Ran clearly saw these orbs of light eventually landing in various corners of Jiang City.

The closest one had fallen into the small patch of greenery across the highway in front of his apartment building.

The straight-line distance between him and it was definitely no more than two hundred meters.

It was impossible to not be curious about these strange orbs of light. As an enthusiast of both games and novels, Gu Ran's thoughts were wildly imaginative.

"Treasure? Meteorite? Or perhaps creatures from outer space or another dimension?"

In the blink of an eye, he had already speculated various possibilities regarding the orbs of light.

However, curiosity aside, Gu Ran quickly refocused his thoughts.

The outside world was still undergoing some anomaly; no one knew exactly what was happening, and whether there was danger lurking within the fog was equally uncertain.

It was clearly unwise to rashly go outside under these circumstances.

With these thoughts, Gu Ran sprang into action. First and foremost, he locked the windows and drew the curtains.

Then he hurried to the front door, locked it securely, and, having done this, he went into the bathroom and proceeded to fill every bucket and basin in the house with water.

Although he had two large bottles of 'Farmer Sanquan' water at home, it was always better to be prepared. Should there be a water outage later, this would allow him to hold out for a much longer time.

After a flurry of activity, and upon confirming that his phone and computer had both lost their internet connections, Gu Ran finally dashed into his bedroom and pulled a suitcase from under his bed.

The moment he opened the suitcase, a finely crafted mechanical compound bow presented itself before his eyes.

As a standard homebody, archery was Gu Ran's only hobby aside from electronics. He had gone through a lot of trouble to acquire this mechanical compound bow from a friend, never imagining he would encounter the current situation.

Unfortunately, the matching arrows were not plentiful—only ten—which made Gu Ran sigh for a moment.

But he didn't dwell on it, as it was still uncertain what was happening outside and whether he would need to use the mechanical bow at all.

Carrying the mechanical bow back to the living room window, he didn't even lift the curtains before his expression suddenly changed.

"Damn it, get the hell away!"

"Help, no!!"

...

Countless screams and shouts of terror kept coming from outside the window, mingled with sounds of cars crashing and inexplicable roars and screeches.

His expression shifting rapidly, Gu Ran's breathing became slightly labored.

Although his ability to cope was above average, when confronted with the harsh reality, the confusion in his heart started to grow immensely.

"Huff"!

Taking a deep breath, Gu Ran forced himself to calm down, leaned tightly against the window, and tried to look down as hard as he could.

Even though a fog had enveloped the outside, his floor was not very high, and as time passed, the gray mist seemed to be gradually dissipating, still allowing him to vaguely make out the outlines of the street below.

As his gaze scanned the area, Gu Ran tried to assess the situation below, but the next second, his eyes widened in shock. Within his line of sight appeared a figure that he couldn't believe.

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