The world’s descent into darkness would only hasten the crumbling of human civilization. Perhaps, after millennia of existence, humanity itself would—be wiped out.
9:14 a.m.
Oxygen returned.
The darkness overhead vanished in an instant, and sunlight once again burned fiercely, as though it had never been gone.
A fresh group of survivors perished from suffocation inside the shopping mall, and their corpses were carelessly discarded.
The dead lay everywhere, rotting and stinking. There were simply too many.
People had moved from grief to numbness.
Each bout of oxygen deprivation lasted longer than the last—there was no reprieve at all.
Nine hours!
The government-issued oxygen tanks were nowhere near enough.
Those without resources had no choice but to steal or rob, just to survive.
…
Ye Shu sat fiddling with the old radio in her hands. Perhaps this was the only working device left in the present world.
She’d salvaged it from the mall’s senior citizens’ electronics stall—just an antiquated thing, but still.
"Zzzzt—zzzt—"
The radio started picking up noisy static.
Ye Shu’s face flashed with surprise—it actually worked.
She twisted the dial, flipping through several channels.
"Zzzzt—zzzt—"
"Citizens of E Star, our homeland is facing an unprecedented crisis. We have discovered vast walls encircling the planet—walls that shroud us from the sky. The oxygen depletion is directly related to this barrier!"
"Today is July 16th—we should all be enjoying our summer vacations."
"At midnight, the oxygen ran out for nine hours and six minutes. By tomorrow, it may last up to eighteen hours. None of us wants to see that."
"After unanimous discussion with representatives on all sides, a decision has been made!"
"At 6 p.m. today, nations will deploy mushroom bombs. Target zones: Longguo’s T City, M City… P City, Maoxiong Nation, Daying Nation… All nearby residents, seek refuge in air-raid shelters immediately."
Ye Shu was not surprised by the authorities’ plan.
All their tricks had run dry.
There was nothing left to consider—one way or another, something had to be attempted.
Yet, even if it succeeded, this world would be disfigured beyond recognition. After all, that wall in the sky spanned the entire planet—Ye Shu doubted nuclear weapons could so much as dent it.
The radio was loud enough that survivors throughout the warehouse district could hear.
They turned, stunned, toward Ye Shu and her companions.
"So... they're trying to save us. We haven't been abandoned!"
"That damn wall killed my whole family!"
"Let it blow!"
"We’ll get our old lives back soon. You all agree, right?"
"No more talking! Let’s go. Listen to the government—air-raid shelters, now! I know where one is. Move!"
The once-despondent survivors regained a trace of life.
Dull eyes shone again. They packed up what little they had and hurried outside.
Ye Shu and her group followed close behind. The mushroom bombs might kill them instead—even if they survived the suffocation, they might not withstand a nuclear blast.
All along the route, uniformed soldiers could be heard barking through megaphones.
Their orders were the same: survivors were to evacuate to safety.
With oxygen restored, more cars appeared on the road—thankfully, not so many as to choke the route with a traffic jam.
10:54 a.m.
Ye Shu’s team squeezed into a minivan and sped toward the air-raid shelter.
She and Pang Pangzi took turns at the wheel. As for Fu Jingchuan—his vision was too blurred to drive. Fu Shiyi, freshly eighteen and barely licensed in the game, was not allowed either.
When hunger struck, they gnawed on bread, dealing only with basic needs—wasting not a single minute.
They managed to reach H City’s shelter by 4:50 p.m., just in time.
There was already a considerable crowd inside; nearly every survivor had at least one oxygen tank slung over their shoulder.
Soldiers lined the shelter, maintaining order. Strange sensor devices were even mounted to the walls, while a battery of surveillance screens—all trained on a single point.
The sky above P City.
Less than an hour until the mushroom bombs fell.
Ye Shu found a patch of floor and flopped down, digging out a preserved vegetable pastry and munching her way through it.
Pang Pangzi followed suit, slumping against the wall and slowly nibbling a biscuit piece by piece.
5:50 p.m.
A tinny broadcast echoed through the bunker.
"Do not leave the shelter. After the nuclear blast, dangerous radiation will be present. If you have earplugs, use them. If not, stuff old rags in your ears..."
The surveillance camera still showed the sky above P City.
The setting sun stained everything golden—as if it were any ordinary twilight.
"It’s all that wall’s fault! It tore my family apart."
"We’ll get home soon."
"Ah… finally rid of these damned oxygen tanks!"
"Who knew breathing fresh air could feel so good? When this is over, I’ll do my part for the environment—plant more trees for E Star!"
Ye Shu kept gnawing on her pastry.
She gazed out at the fading sunlight, catching a glimpse of the translucent wall high above the clouds.
She, too, wondered if human weapons could do anything to this unnatural invader.
6:00 p.m.
A mushroom bomb soared into the sky. A blinding white flash—and then a thunderous boom shook even the deepest part of the shelter.
But the wall in the sky did not shatter, as people had hoped.
The heavens remained unchanged. No—that wasn’t quite true. At the very least, the billowing smoke from the explosion left a dark scar at ten thousand meters above, if only for a few seconds.
"Did we fail?"
"I knew it wouldn’t be that easy."
"Where’s my oxygen pack now? I shouldn’t have sold it when I thought we’d be fine. Perfect."
"It’s okay, it’s okay. They said it was only a test… Maybe… Things might turn out all right."
Despair flickered in the eyes of the survivors, but they consoled themselves—it was only a setback.
Day 17 of the game.
Midnight.
Oxygen deprivation—and that suffocating pressure—struck once more. The ground heaved, and radiation storms swept across the skies.
The ozone at both poles vanished. Without this shield, E Star was exposed—humanity faced the full force of cosmic radiation.
Ye Shu continued her midnight snack.
[Congratulations, player Ye Shu! Your Grass and Wood Spirit has risen to level 3. Oxygen supply radius expanded to 12 meters. Derived spores can now be planted on all types of terrain. Given a supply of nutrients, each seed can provide a 1-meter radius of oxygen.]
The system’s prompt sparked a bold idea in Ye Shu’s mind.
As the bonded master of Little Green, she could sense the value of the spores. Once they started growing, they could yield new spores—though weaker than Little Green’s.
Despite being surrounded by survivors, the open space around Ye Shu was filling up.
Besides Pang Pangzi’s group, people within a dozen meters of her started looking around in astonishment.
"Hey, isn’t the oxygen in our packs suddenly much fuller? Wasn’t it empty just before? Whatever—breathing feels wonderful!"
"Same here—my head isn’t spinning anymore. Even now, the lack of air hasn’t burst my eardrums. It’s a shame my left ear still can’t hear, though."
"Strange. Isn’t that wall still there?"
"Could it be… damaged, just a little? Is that why the suffocation is easing up?"