Chapter 1: The End of the World Is Approaching
Translator: Liu_Kaixuan Editor: Valvrave
At the end of September, the long hot summer was finally over, and autumn had arrived.
However, people still had a long spell of warm weather in Jiangbei Town. The temperature stayed above 30℃ in the daytime, but during the night it suddenly dropped and made people shiver. Almost everyone was fed up with this terrible weather.
In the south part of the town, there was a small rental house. It was a bit noisy because of the nonstop buzzing sound coming from the air conditioning fan. It was a room less than fifteen square meters with attached living room and bedroom while the bathroom and kitchen were on the other side.
Although the room was small, it still looked very tidy. The owner of the house was a lean young man sitting on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, firmly staring at a TV placed not far away.
The noon newscast of the state television was playing on the screen.
Barely a week ago, Jiang Liushi had never used this TV to watch anything other than matches, and he certainly didn't watch the noon newscast.
But now Jiang Liushi was not only unprecedentedly sitting in front of the TV, but also concentrating on the time. Today at 12:45:51, the National Television Station would broadcast a piece of important news in the noon newscast program.
"An international scientific team has just held a press conference announcing that they found a prehistoric super virus, which is currently known to be one of the four super-viruses in the permafrost of the Siberian Far East region. Scientists had discovered another giant virus in the area a year ago, but it had not been announced until recently. At the same time, researchers say they are still in the initial stages of virus research and do not know whether such a prehistoric virus can infect a human or animal's body… Some experts also said that as long as the frozen layer is kept frozen, we do not have to consider the virus a threat... "
"That's it!" Jiang Liushi suddenly stood up from the bed and glanced at the phone for the time. It was 12:45. It was almost accurate to the second.
"My God! It is the third time this happens…" Jiang Liushi was staring at the TV screen, but his focus was not on the news. He already knew everything about this news-its content and the first time media had broadcasted it.
Because it was a live conference, naturally there should be no leak of information in advance. Even if the press and journalists already got wind of the meeting a day ago, they could not get the specific content. However, Jiang Liushi knew the news in advance. Actually, not only this news but also several international incidents of this week.
This was not because Jiang Liushi had suddenly attained a kind of superpower to predict the future. The fact was that a week ago, he had suddenly found a Starseed in his brain.
At the same time, Jiang Liushi got some information from it, including some news broadcasted from the future. One of the most important was today's news about the discovery of giant viruses.
Once this news was confirmed, it would mean that the other information that Jiang Liushi had acquired from the Starseed was also true. 'A virus outbreak and the end of the world is approaching!'
As a matter of fact, the previous news was about the absence of some heads of state from some important activities, as well as the cancellation of some important international meetings or trips.
This kind of news did not attract too much attention, but Jiang Liushi knew very well that many countries had already heard about the virus infection and were making the necessary preparations to retreat.
Virus infection outbreaks were very fast, and there were no effective means to contain them at all. Therefore, informing people would only cause huge panic and massive riots. As a result, the public was kept in the dark about everything, and people were living their lives normally without noticing that some public figures had not appeared for a long time.
This conference on the virus was the last act of kindness from high-level managers. They did not want to see ordinary people die without knowing why. There would be no sign of this imminent disaster until two o'clock ten days later.
Unlike Jiang Liushi, ordinary people would not realize it by just watching the news. Although many people used phones for browsing, microblogging, socializing and reading the news, they actually used them mostly for entertainment.
Jiang Liushi did not intend to post the truth about this matter. Since the hype of the Maya prophecy, the various predictions of Armageddon on network sites had been endless. There were plenty of 2012XXX series of printed books as well as related movies. Everyone was already immune to this topic.
A post by him would not cause any concern. It could only cause a kind of harmony because he knew this was the truth. As a result, it could make the top managers more vigilant.
Although this possibility was minimal, Jiang Liushi still did not want to do anything meaningless that could cause him unnecessary trouble. Plus, even Jiang himself had doubted it when he'd first heard the news. It was not until that day that he had been entirely convinced of the authenticity of this matter.
For starters, anyone who found out about the upcoming apocalypse would not believe it unconditionally. Everything seemed normal, so why would one believe that the end of the world was coming?
After confirming it, Jiang Liushi realized that he had only one week left and needed to start preparing immediately.
First, Jiang Liushi purchased a lot of food on the Internet and other everyday necessities. For the sake of safety, he also bought a lot of compact high-energy food and drinking water, as well as emergency medicine.
These things could be sent within a day or two, and Jiang could save the procurement time. He also bought jackets, lightweight wear-resistant shoes, disposable underwear, etc. For safety purposes, he also purchased a dagger from a retailer in town.
Although people didn't believe in the end of the world at all, Jiang Liushi had already made a list in his mind, which would help him survive. It was a detailed list of what he had to do.
Actually, a lot of information could be found on the internet. Obviously, the internet never lacked boring people and their boring posts provided a lot of references and help. Jiang Liushi soon methodically finished most of the preparations.
Then it was time for the real highlight. The Starseed's purpose was not only to inform him about the coming disaster. It also gave him a self-preservation ability amid this disaster.
Helping him finish the mechanical refitting and upgrading was the real function of Starseed. However, Jiang Liushi needed to provide the main design and materials of modifying. Jiang's first thought was a vehicle. A vehicle would be the most practical and convenient way of modification.
Among all types of vehicles, Jiang Liushi had to cross out the sedan, because this kind of car was relatively delicate and it could not play any role in that chaos. Doomsday posts recommended off-road vehicles as the most suitable, but Jiang Liushi didn't like them because of their little internal space.
Subjectively speaking, Jiang Liushi's first choice was huge long trucks. They were like a kind of train on the road. The car wheels alone were about the height of a human, but the number of these cars was very limited, so Jiang could only dream of one.
After online searching, Jiang finally decided on two kinds of cars. One was a container truck, and the other was a minibus. In favor of internal space, Jiang Liushi finally decided to go with the minibus. However, Jiang Liushi could not afford to buy an expensive minibus. After purchasing the materials, his bank balance was reduced to less than a thousand yuan, and the word poor was not enough to describe his current state...
If he had a house to sell, Jiang Liushi would have sold it at a low price without any hesitation. Unfortunately, he had sold his house when he had still been in high school. At the time, his parents had just passed away, so in order for his sister and him to survive, they'd had to sell it. They'd lived in rental housing ever since.
Jiang Liushi withdrew almost all the money from his account to purchase the materials. He could also earn thousands of yuan by selling his TV, computer and other electronic appliances, but it would still not be enough. As for robbery or theft, an ordinary student like Jiang Liushi had less than a 20 percent chance of success. Even if he was lucky, there was more than an 80 percent chance of him being caught.
Jiang Liushi did not intend to buy a car. He would rent a car. However, renting a car also required a small amount of money. Jiang Liushi already had a general idea about prices through the Internet. Even renting a common bus would cost more than 1,000 dollars a day, and ten days would cost about 15,000. Plus, he also needed to buy a lot of materials and metal to complete the modification of the minibus. The shortage of money caused him a massive headache.
The following Tuesday would be the end of the world. It was quickly approaching. As he lay in bed, Jiang Liushi took a deep breath. He felt a little flustered. As a student, it was impossible to keep calm when he needed to face the upcoming challenge.
He opened his QQ and clicked on the ID of Li Jun. An idea formed in his head, and he immediately sent a message to Li Jun.
Soon after, the message tone was heard. The chat interface appeared along with Li Jun's reply, "Have you seen my new login device?"
Jiang just looked at his ID, which at the moment was saying "iPhone 7 online." No wonder he was online.
The iPhone 7 was just the latest cell phone launched that month. To be specific, it had just been on the market for a few days. Its price was rather high, so only a few people were willing to buy it. Li Jun had unexpectedly bought one. No wonder his tone was so flamboyant.
"This phone costs about 8,000 yuan!!!" Jiang Liushi exclaimed. He could not afford it at all. He could never buy a phone like that in his whole life.
Li Jun triumphantly replied, "You wonder how I got the first batch at such a low price? I found a cell phone dealer that helped me buy it for an additional 2,000 yuan!"
'A cell phone costing 10,000 yuan!' Jiang Liushi could not believe it. His parents had died prematurely, so he'd had no choice but to take care of his sister. As a result, their life had always been frugal.
However, it seemed that Li Jun had plenty of money. Jiang Liushi quickly typed, "Do you have any plans for next Tuesday?"
"Next Tuesday? Let me think. Ah, I met a girl on WeChat and next Tuesday I will take her to a bar. Then after drinking… you know what I want to do!"
Jiang Liushi became upset and thought for some time. Biting the bullet, he finally said, "Next Tuesday I want to play games with you. Can we just stay in the bedroom and not go out? We should lock the doors and windows too."
"What?" Li Jun did not react at all.
"Are you out of your mind? Sorry, I'm not free."
"Well..." Jiang sighed and shook his head. He had tried his best. In fact, even if they stayed in the dormitory and locked the doors and windows, they still would not be able to avoid the outbreak of the virus. Actually, everyone was already infected. Ten days later, it would ultimately depend on their metabolism whether they would turn into a monster or not.
Locking the doors and windows was just to make sure that those monsters would not kill Li Jun. Obviously, Li Jun would not agree with him, so there was no other way. Jiang said, "Li Jun, I need money urgently. Can you return the 2,000 yuan you borrowed from me?"
Li Jun replied, "Oh. I will give it to you in a few days. I promise."
Jiang Liushi frowned. "I need it immediately. It was my emergency money."
"Really? Wait, that girl is calling me. I have to talk to her. Hold on a minute," Li Jun replied.
Jiang waited for a while, but there was no response from Li Jun. Jiang shook his head and called his other roommate. "Luo Ming, can you lend me 2,000 yuan?"
"I am broke, I spent everything on games. I wanted to borrow some money from you. What do you need the money for anyway?" Luo Ming asked.
"Nothing." Jiang Liushi knew that Luo Ming was a big fan of games. Although his family was fairly well off, due to his habit of spending everything on games, he was always short on money.
"Luo Ming, listen to me carefully. Next Tuesday you should stay in the dormitory and play games. Shut the doors and windows and don't go out!"
"What? Why?" Luo Ming asked in a shocked voice.
"Just do it!" Jiang hung up the phone. He had tried, but it was to no avail.
Li Jun could not return the money he owed him, and it was even harder to borrow money.
After all, they were all students.
"I have to do something..."