Chapter One: The Apocalypse Approaches

At the end of September, the long, hot summer finally passed, and autumn arrived.

But in Jiangbei City, the weather hadn’t cooled down noticeably yet. During the day, temperatures still hovered above thirty degrees, remaining stubbornly high. Yet as soon as night fell, the temperature would suddenly plummet, leaving people shivering with cold. Almost everyone was complaining about this crazy weather.

In an unremarkable rental apartment in the south of the city, the air conditioner’s fan was buzzing noisily, making the place seem a bit chaotic. Below the air conditioner was a room that looked to be less than fifteen square meters, with both the living area and bed in the same space, and the doors to the bathroom and kitchen side by side on the other wall.

Although the space was small, the room looked very tidy. The male owner, a slightly thin young man, was sitting on the lower bunk of a bunk bed, staring intently at a television not far in front of him.

On the TV screen, the national broadcaster’s midday news was playing.

A week ago, William Carter had never used this TV for anything other than watching sports, let alone sitting in front of it to watch the midday news.

But now, William Carter was not only sitting in front of the TV for the first time, but was also completely focused on the time displayed on the clock.

At exactly 12:45:51 this afternoon, the national broadcaster’s midday news would air an important story.

“…And now, an international news item. An international team of scientists has just held a press conference announcing that they have discovered a prehistoric super-virus in the permafrost of the Russian Far East. This giant virus is the fourth such mega-virus known to humanity. Previously, scientists had already discovered another giant virus in this region. Scientists actually discovered it a year ago, but only recently made it public. They say research on the virus is ongoing, and it is not yet known whether this prehistoric virus can infect humans or animals… Some experts have stated that as long as the permafrost remains frozen, there is no need to worry about whether the virus poses a threat…”

“This is it!”

William Carter suddenly stood up from the bed. He glanced at the time on his phone—about 12:45, almost to the second!

“Right again. This is already the third time.” William Carter stared at the TV screen, but his attention was no longer on the news. He already knew the general content of this story, even the exact time it would be made public in the media—right now!

Since it was a live press conference, there was no way the news could have leaked in advance. Even though the media and reporters had known about the press conference a day earlier, they couldn’t have known the specific content!

But William Carter knew in advance. And not just this story—he had also learned about several other major international incidents in the past week before they happened.

It wasn’t because William Carter had suddenly gained some kind of superpower to foresee the future. Rather, a week ago, he had suddenly discovered a “star seed” in his mind.

Upon discovering this “star seed,” William Carter had received some information from it, including these not-yet-released news stories. The most important of these was today’s news about the discovery of the giant virus.

Because the confirmation of this news meant that another thing William Carter had learned from the “star seed” would also really happen.

A viral outbreak, and the end of the world!

The previous news stories had been about heads of state missing important events, or major international meetings or trips being canceled at the last minute. These stories hadn’t attracted much attention, but William Carter knew that many countries had already learned about the viral infection and were preparing to evacuate.

The viral outbreak would spread extremely quickly, and there was no effective way to control it. Telling the public would only cause panic and chaos. So ordinary people knew nothing, and continued living their normal lives, not noticing that some important figures had already disappeared.

This press conference about the virus was the last bit of mercy the authorities were giving to ordinary people, so they wouldn’t die completely clueless.

At 2 p.m. ten days from now, disaster would strike these ordinary people without warning. And just like William Carter, they would be watching the news on TV, completely unaware. Many people would be scrolling through Weibo, Moments, or news apps on their phones, seeing this story, but at most just expressing a bit of surprise and casually sharing it.