The dark clouds in the sky at noon weighed down very low, like a piece of lead gray plastic covering the entire Tokyo airtight.
"Is anyone... is anyone here!"
The north-south avenue was empty, and the sound of hurried footsteps came from far to near, accompanied by a breathless vibrato.
A woman in a fur coat came running from the thick fog, her stiletto heels were crooked, and she sprained her feet many times but didn't stop, as if something was chasing after her, and if she stopped, she would be fatal.
The woman looked around, the doors of all the shops were open, the cars were neatly parked on both sides of the street, and the large LED screen above the mall was showing advertisements for new autumn products.
On the screen, the glamorous female star grinned and was talking, but there was no sound.
Everything is the same as the usual weekend street scene, except there are no people and no sound.
Not even the slightest sound of wind could enter the entire city.
"Is there anyone! Please reply!"
In the eerily quiet world, the woman couldn't resist the fear in her heart, and finally cried out, and her steps slowed down.
Passing through a wide intersection, the stiletto heel of her right foot broke, and the woman threw herself heavily forward and fell on the asphalt road. The rough ground scratched her palms and knees, and she couldn't stand up for a long time.
While she was struggling, there were slow and heavy footsteps behind her, as well as the dragging sound of steel leaning against the ground.
The woman raised her head suddenly, her eyes, covered by the disheveled hair, were wide open, bloodshot and terrified.
She quickly moved her eyes left and right, but she couldn't see what was behind her. In desperation, she scratched the ground with both hands, dragging her weak body forward.
"Is there anyone, help me..."
The footsteps behind her were unhurried, with a teasing leisurely complacency.
Like a dying bird, the woman dragged her broken body forward.
Suddenly, she couldn't move any more, and the movement behind her stopped.
She was stepped on by one person.
The body was shaking into sieves, the woman's hands were firmly grasping the ground, the crystal fingernails were turned outwards, and she whispered: "Who... who will save me..."
"Who! Who will save me~"
A parodic imitation sounded from above, a low, feminine male voice with perverted pleasure.
Now, the perspective turns around the woman and behind her.
A little girl in a sweet plain cotton dress holds an ax aloft in both hands.
"I caught you, you lost~"
The little girl spoke, and the voice she made turned out to be a mature male voice.
The girl held the ax and pointed it at the woman's head for a while, and the neck for a while, like a little birthday boy looking for an angle to cut a cake at a birthday party, with a relaxed posture.
"God, please help me."
Premonitioning the movement behind her, the woman on the ground trembled desperately, praying with trembling voices, and her whole body was eroded by fear.
The little girl paused for a second, then showed a big smile, with an almost ferocious expression: "The gods are not at home, Homo sapiens will play with you."
The ax fell instantly, and dark red blood splashed onto the sweet cotton skirt.
In the middle of the empty and wide intersection, the woman lying in a pool of blood opened her gray eyes, like a crow lying on the black frozen soil, becoming some kind of landmark, and the blood spread towards the four intersections.
The little girl let go of the handle, allowing the ax to pass through the woman's throat and sink deep into the ground.
Clapping his little hands, he jumped off the woman's back.
Looking up at the dark clouds hanging over the city, the little girl smiled.
"The game has begun."
At 12:13 on August 31, 2022, Shanghai——
When the echo of "ゲームスタート" sounded, Tang Zhi suddenly opened his eyes.
The goal of entering is the LCD TV in the living room, with a pale snowflake dancing on it, with a slight static sound.
"woke up?"
A low magnetic male voice asked.
Tang Zhi looked sideways, only to realize that he had fallen asleep snuggled up next to the man.
In the brightly lit living room, Tang Zhi wiped his face, sat up tiredly, and asked in a low voice, "Bo Ye, how long have I been asleep?"
The man in front of him is Bo Ye, his same-sex lover, and this year is the fifth year they have been dating.
During the five years, he has been in a foreign country for four years. This semester, he came to China as an exchange student. He thought he could end the state of separation between the two places, but...
He leaned back against the back of the sofa, raised his face, and murmured: "It seems to have been a dream for a long time."
"It's less than a quarter of an hour." Putting down the book, the man got up to pour water for him, "What dream did you have? A dream?"
"..."
Tang Zhi tilted his head, staring at the direction he left for a while.
The feeling of suffocation in his heart dissipated a lot, Tang Zhi sat cross-legged on the sofa, his body relaxed, and he turned his face to look out the French windows.
The sky was abnormally bright, as if a hole had been broken, all the sunlight had leaked in, and nothing else could be seen except for the bright halo.
They lived on the eighteenth floor, and the sea water had already reached the edge of the French windows, and the waves passed by with floating objects from time to time.
The dark blue sea level reflected the tall building on the opposite side, and the raging fire was emitting black smoke. That floor had been burning for three days and three nights, leaving only a scorched steel and concrete frame.
The picture of half sea water and half flame stimulates the visual nerves, reminding people where they are over and over again.
"It's hell..."
Tang Zhi read.
Bo Ye came out of the kitchen with a water glass in his hand, followed Tang Zhi's gaze to look out the window, knowing that he was thinking about something, so he walked to the French window and pulled the curtains shut.
"Think about the best of everything, the earth is about to explode, and human beings are on holiday." He handed the water glass to Tang Zhi, "Tomorrow Monday, I don't have to go to work, you don't have to go to school, and you can hang out at home, how nice it is."
"I'd rather go to school..." Tang Zhi took the water glass he handed over with puffy cheeks. The hot milk in it exudes a reassuring temperature. He raised his head and said, "Are you not nervous at all? This is already the seventh day gone."
The abnormal condition started seven days ago.
Bo Ye went to work that morning, but he couldn't open the door, not only the door, but also the windows. Besides, all signals were cut off, and he couldn't get in touch with the outside world.
They seem to be enclosed in a different dimension.
After the two tried everything to no avail, they could only accept the reality and wait quietly at home, with only the electronic clock reminding them of the passage of time.
Through the glass window in the living room, they watched the earth-shaking changes in the outside world. From the first day the world became dark, to the third day the sea flooded into the city from the east, and to the fifth day the birds disappeared. Everything is as described in Genesis.
How God created the world in seven days, and how the unknown mysterious power is destroying the world.
Today is the seventh day, the Sabbath.
Bo Ye sat back on the sofa, and naturally pulled the boy into his arms: "There's no need to be nervous. From the third day on, I suspected that what I saw was not real. It's like that outside, and the water and electricity can still be connected at home. ?”
Tang Zhi took a sip of milk and muttered softly, "That's what I said...but my heart is always up and down."
Bo Ye took his left hand and played it in front of his eyes, tilted his head slightly, kissed his ear, and said, "I should do something so that you don't have the energy to think about it."
Of course Tang Zhi knew what "do something" meant, his face blushed, and he drank milk in silence.
Both of them held slender hands, and the ring finger of their left hand wore the same style of platinum ring, which was simple and elegant.
Bo Ye frowned slightly, and turned the ring on Tang Zhi's ring finger: "It's a pity that we can't hold a wedding."
The two were originally scheduled to hold their wedding in Norway on September 7th, but this is now impossible.
Proposal: "Why don't we organize the wedding tonight?"
"What are you going to do?" Tang Zhi put the cup away and looked at him.
Bo Ye: "Delete the complicated and make it simple, and go to the bridal chamber at night to make sense."
"Bo Ye!"
Tang Zhi slapped him across the face.
The two were nestling on the sofa and fighting, and from the corner of their eyes, they caught a glimpse of the lights in the study room flickering quickly.
"The lamp is broken?"
Tang Zhi stopped his movements, looked sideways, and said strangely.
Bo Ye pulled his hand from the hem of his clothes, got up and walked to the study: "I'll go and have a look."
Tang Zhi tidied up his loose T-shirt, looked at the TV in front of him, the screen was still full of snowflakes.
After a while, I felt a little weird.
From the corner of my eye, the lights were still flickering, but there was no movement after Bo Ye entered.
"Bo Ye."
He called to the study.
No reply.
Tang Zhi stood up hesitantly, feeling uneasy, and slowly approached the study, asking, "Bo Ye, are you okay?"
When he reached the door of the study, his steps suddenly stopped.
The curtains were drawn in the room, the lights flickered at an extremely fast frequency, and the man stood motionless in the middle.
Between light and darkness, Tang Zhi could clearly see his pale complexion.
"Bo Ye?"
He was about to step forward, but Bo Ye stopped him: "Candi, don't come over."
The lights flickered and the man disappeared.
Tang Zhi was startled, and was about to enter the study, when the door in front of him was slammed shut suddenly, and he threw himself on the door panel.
"Bo Ye!"
Tang Zhi was so anxious that his eyes were flushed, and he kept patting on the door with one hand.
At this moment, all the lights in the house flickered, and at the same time, Tang Zhi felt a subtle change in the texture of the door under his hands.
When the lights were dimmed, the hands felt cold to the touch, and when the lights were turned on, there was a solid wooden door in front of them again.
He didn't care so much, he pulled the doorknob desperately: "Bo Ye! Are you inside?"
The moment the voice fell, all the lights went out, or in other words, all the lights in the world went out.
In the next second, the light reappeared, and Tang Zhi found himself inexplicably in a cuboid, which was so small that he could only stand upright, and it was difficult to even turn around.
Looking around in a panic, it was a white cuboid like a coffin, and the joints were tightly stitched, locking the person inside tightly.
Tang Zhi patted the wall in front of him, feeling cold to the touch.
The sound of light sense sounded, frightening him to stick to the back, and then, the white on the four walls gradually melted and turned into transparent glass.
Finally, seeing the scene around him, Tang Zhi opened his mouth, unable to make a sound in shock.
As far as the eye can see, there are glass rooms one after another. These glass rooms are arranged in an orderly manner, full of unknown spaces.
There is one person locked in each glass room, everyone is uniformly dressed in white clothes, some people are beating the glass angrily, swearing something; some people are breaking down and crying, with tears on their faces; however Most of them were like Tang Zhi, whose expression was full of uneasiness and bewilderment.
At this moment, human beings are like toys on the shelf, stuffed in transparent boxes.
If the perspective is infinitely extended, each glass room becomes a section of scrolling code, circulating up and down in a space without boundaries.
If you take one of the codes, zoom in, zoom in again, zoom in to one of the glass rooms, and zoom in to the eyes of the people in the room, you can see the bottomless black imprinted in the deepest part of the eyes—
fear.
The author has something to say:
ゲームタート: The game starts.
It's snowing today, let's start the article.
Some people say that my heart is empty after licking the small milk bag, so let's write.
——
Thanks Zining March for the two mines.
Thanks to Guan Shanqianli for the nutrient solution.