Chapter 1: Apocalypse
Jiang Yang suddenly sat up from the bed, gasping for breath.
The air conditioner kept the room’s temperature at a comfortable 26 degrees, but Jiang Yang was already covered in cold sweat.
He trembled lightly uncontrollably, his mind still immersed in the previous fear and despair, unable to extricate himself.
After panting for a long time, he slowly regained a bit of calm, allowing him to survey the surrounding environment.
This was a simply furnished small room, containing only a few necessary pieces of furniture and appliances.
Jiang Yang was very familiar with this small room.
He had been renting here for over a year.
“Wasn’t I eating barbecue outside? How did I end up back here in the blink of an eye…”
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, he picked up the mobile phone beside him.
The time was August 9, 2036, 7 a.m.
Hmm?
Jiang Yang rubbed his eyes in some confusion and looked again, but the time hadn’t changed.
But he clearly remembered that the current time should be the evening of August 18, 2036!
Jiang Yang scrambled out of bed in a panic, turned on the computer, and saw that the time on the computer also showed August 9, 2036, 7 a.m.
He was somewhat incredulous and opened a webpage again, searching for the national time center, only to see the same time again.
This absolutely could not be wrong.
But…
It was clearly only August 9 now, so why did he think it should be August 18?
Sitting stiffly on the chair, Jiang Yang tried hard to recall, and this was like opening a floodgate, with memories surging in like a tide.
He remembered.
He had experienced this exact scene before. But unlike this time, the previous time he went through this day, he got up and washed as usual, then went to the company to work, spending an ordinary day. Then it repeated cycle after cycle until after work on August 18.
Because there was a major football match that evening, he had specifically gone to a football bar, ordered barbecue and beer, and watched the game with many fellow fans.
But he hadn’t expected that just as the match was halfway through, at midnight 12 o’clock, a intense pain swept through his entire body.
He instinctively thought it was food poisoning, because he clearly saw the fellow fans in the football bar also collapsing one after another, wailing in pain just like him.
But after seeing the live broadcast of the football match on television, seeing the players who had been full of vigor moments ago, and the tens of thousands of spectators in the stands all collapsing in pain together, Jiang Yang immediately realized that this was absolutely not food poisoning.
This football match was being held on the other side of the Earth!
Not only that, he also saw on the street outside the bar that pedestrians enjoying the night also collapsed in pain at the same time, countless cars on the street lost control and crashed, and even raging fires broke out.
Jiang Yang clearly remembered that at the time, he truly felt the process of life draining away.
In that indescribable immense pain, life left his body little by little, and his consciousness sank into a void.
Then the next moment, he woke up again, right here in the apartment building he rented.
These memories were so real that in an instant, Jiang Yang was certain this was no dream or illusion, but something he had truly experienced.
Since this wasn’t a dream, and the current time was truly August 9, there was only one explanation.
After dying, he had been reborn ten days earlier!
“So… how did I die?”
Barely suppressing the shock in his heart, Jiang Yang tried hard to think.
“This, this absolutely wasn’t an isolated incident. Me, the fellow fans in the bar, the pedestrians outside the bar, the drivers on the main road, and the players and spectators in the stadium…
Right, and the match commentary! Though I didn’t see their images, I heard their screams!
So many places, so many people, all feeling this pain at the same time, regardless of location, day or night, gender or age, this, this…”
A word that horrified Jiang Yang somewhat surfaced in his mind.
Apocalypse!
Perhaps… unbeknownst to everyone, the apocalypse had quietly arrived, and in just a few minutes, with an indescribable, unknown cause of immense pain, it took the lives of him and everyone within sight—possibly everyone on the entire Earth—and then he inexplicably reborn to ten days before the apocalypse.
Having figured all this out, Jiang Yang felt a sudden change occur in his mind.
He seemed to perceive the flow of time, and at the same time, he clearly sensed that in this river of time, there was an anchor point belonging to him nailed to 8 a.m. this morning.
A realization dawned in his heart.
“As long as I die, time will rewind to 8 a.m. this morning.
This is a cycle, one starting at 8 a.m. this morning and ending with the apocalypse at midnight ten days later when I die.
Only by defeating the apocalypse and surviving it will the time loop be broken, and the river of time continue flowing forward.
If the cycle can’t be broken, I—no, all of human civilization—will be forever trapped in this loop, endlessly enduring the torment of death time and time again.
Of course, others won’t know about this torment. Because every cycle, everyone else’s memories are wiped, and only I retain my memories.”
Recalling the extreme pain before death, seeming to originate from every inch of his body, every organ, every nerve, every cell, Jiang Yang shuddered.
He stood up and pulled open the curtains to look outside.
At 8 a.m. on a summer morning, the street was already quite bustling.
Crowds of people flowed, and vehicles streamed by.
Raising his head, Jiang Yang saw the clear blue sky, and seemed to see the brilliant starry sky and vast universe hidden beyond the sky that veiled it.
“I wonder which wondrous being in the vast universe granted me the ability of the time loop…”
But that wasn’t important for now.
What was important was that since he had this ability, he should do something.
Whether to avoid repeatedly suffering the torment of death or to save the entire civilization, he should do something.
“Save the world…”
A wry smile appeared on Jiang Yang’s lips.
“I’m just an ordinary person who can’t even afford to buy a house and has to rent, asking me to save the world is thinking too highly of me.
Not to mention one cycle, even ten thousand cycles would be impossible.
Since that’s the case, there’s only one choice.
Report to the nation!”
