[Xiao Bai Tu Nai Tang: Oh my god, has 18 already reached City A? I’d better grab my bags and run—tch, all the tickets are gone! And the highways will be completely gridlocked. Heaven wants me dead.]
[Hua Kai Fugui: That goes without saying. I ran off to Antarctica a few days ago. Black holes? I don’t care in the slightest. Once it’s sorted, I’ll come back.]
[Hua Bai Gu: Tch, why rush? Heaven and earth live as one=No one dies.]
The web was alive with chatter, netizens flooding official outlets with comments. Forum threads had become the hottest place for conversation.
Ye Shu watched in silence.
Could a black hole be destroyed by weapons?
Of course not—a fact Ye Shu understood all too well. She had prepared for this outcome long before anyone else.
Still, she hadn’t expected that this world would possess something akin to Noah’s Ark—an escape pod designed to journey into outer space. The catch? The quota was so stringently limited there was little chance of sneaking aboard.
Still, as long as one ran far enough, survival was possible.
Less than half an hour after the voting channel opened, the site was stuttering, turning into a slideshow no one could access.
“Xiao Shiyi, do you think they stand a chance?”
“Aren’t you the one who already knows the answer, Sister Ye? Why ask me?” Fu Shiyi peeled a pomelo with practiced ease, handing a segment to Ye Shu.
These days, the two were as close as siblings.
Whenever Ye Shu ate, Fu Shiyi insisted on handing her the spoon himself.
It was no exaggeration to say: if Ye Shu wanted to kill someone, Fu Shiyi would smile as he passed her the knife.
“By the way, Fu Jingchuan mentioned you dropped off the radar recently.”
Ye Shu took a bite of pomelo, her eyes drifting sidelong to Fu Shiyi, who was still peeling.
“Sister Ye, I got in touch with him last night. It’s a trivial matter, no need to worry. Let’s focus on clearing the dungeon. If Third Brother has something to deal with, he’ll handle it himself.”
Fu Shiyi’s hands stilled briefly. He swiped at the glowing screen at random.
“Good.”
Ye Shu didn’t pay Fu Jingchuan much mind—he was just a passing thought.
No one noticed the palm print pressed into the green pomelo peel by Fu Shiyi’s side.
…………
Day seven in the game world.
The results of the public vote were in.
They had unanimously decided to use H-class weapons against the black hole that had plunged their city into chaos.
Once more, the authorities opened a livestream—this time remote. All anyone could see was a tiny black speck in the distance.
In just seven days, eight cities were wiped off the map, deaths in the tens of thousands, buildings reduced to dust, the financial toll incalculable, and nearly ten million displaced. The government had no choice but to open its shelters.
City Q.
Shelter.
Inside the narrow building, people pressed in on all sides, the air thick with a sour stench.
Ye Wanwan had lived a pampered life; never before had she suffered such indignity. She had no choice but to pinch her nose, angling her body to squeeze into a spot with fewer people.
When hunger made her vision dim, Ye Wanwan fished in her pocket for a hard, cold bun.
Pale, plump, nearly as big as half her face—when she brought it close, the warm scent of wheat filled her nose.
Suddenly, tears pricked her eyes, bruised by a wave of injustice.
That cold bun had been handed out just before she entered the shelter.
She’d thought the survival game would make her famous—instead, some freak had stolen her abilities. Even the spatial tools she’d drawn were gone—along with Qin Zaozao, who now targeted her at every turn.
She managed two reluctant bites. Just as she tried to stash the bun in her backpack, a shadow swept past—her bun vanished from her hand.
Ye Wanwan had never seen anything like it, and stood frozen in shock.
By the time she reacted, the thief had disappeared.
“Damn it… Damn it! It’s all Ye Shu’s fault I’ve fallen so far.”
Curling up in a corner, her once lovely face twisted with hatred, Ye Wanwan’s eyes burned with rage.
…………
On the livestream, dozens of flares streaked toward the black hole.
[Dong Dong Pa Xiansheng: So these are the latest H-class weapons? Can’t believe my first time seeing them is when they’re dumped into a black hole.]
[Gou Dong: Let’s hope it works!]
[Hanzhou: I agree—so many warheads, enough to level a city in an instant—this should totally work… right?]
[I Love Going to Work: My eyes! The flash is blinding—this one’s in the bag.]
[I’m Your Dad: I wouldn’t count on it.]
[Anonymous Tourist: What are you talking about? These are H-class! Way beyond that Little Boy from decades ago.]
[Anonymous: You filthy dog, die.]
[Anonymous: What, are you a spy or something?]
[…]
Ye Shu sent a single bullet comment.
She was immediately mobbed by a swarm of anonymous users, all spewing abuse.
She muted her mic and stopped engaging altogether.
The entire screen was engulfed in white light.
There was a series of low booms, the ground shuddering underneath.
Ye Shu’s face remained unchanged. She sipped her tea and ate seeds without a care.
Predictably, the weapon had no effect on the black hole.
Of course, if that weren’t the case, she would have welcomed it.
When the white light faded, the black hole was utterly unchanged—in fact, it seemed ever so slightly bigger.
Clearly, the H-class strike was a failure.
Ye Shu’s buzzing inbox—more than ninety-nine unread messages—went silent.
…………
In the days that followed, the authorities tried every kind of weapon they could muster, but none made a difference.
Anything that came close—no matter how advanced—was pulverized to dust in an instant by the black hole’s pull.
Riots broke out across several countries.
On the twelfth day of the game, Black Hole-18 began to fully take form.
It had grown to nearly a kilometer wide, the buildings and roads in a dozen-meter radius swept completely clean. With the path unknown, most people could only flee farther—but had no idea where to run.
As the black hole grew, every communication device for hundreds of kilometers around went dead.
On the twentieth day, it became something out of Ye Shu’s nightmares.
Its diameter was nearly a hundred kilometers—capable of swallowing an entire city in a blink.
By now, it had devoured more than a hundred cities, countless mountain forests, and stretches of road.
The desperate unity of the people had faded into numb resignation.
Perhaps realizing there was no escape, some simply gave up and stopped running altogether.
A few days later, the black hole started moving north. It wasn’t long before it reached Ye Shu’s city, terrifying enough for her to pack what she could and board a private jet in the middle of the night.
The jet was courtesy of Fu Shiyi—who not only secured it but could fly it, too. All Ye Shu had to do was sit tight.
“Sister Ye, are we leaving for good, or…?”
“Let’s take a closer look at this so-called black hole.”
It wasn’t as though Ye Shu was inviting trouble—right before she left, she recalled nearly being sucked into the black hole the day it had appeared. She had the strangest sense that there was something alive in there…
“Alright.”
Fu Shiyi offered no objection, only steered the helicopter directly toward the black hole.
A few hours later, they were hovering a few hundred miles away.
Staring down from above, the black hole was like a beast baring its fangs—devouring all in its path.
She remembered—she hadn’t been sucked in that day…
Suddenly, the shrill blare of an alarm sounded in her headset, and a military fighter jet appeared beside their helicopter.
“Warning! Warning! This is a restricted airspace. Leave immediately.”