The day the world was destroyed, Lin Wan was buying the last bottle of mineral water at the convenience store.
It was August 17.
At 5:23 p.m., the sky suddenly turned a strange grayish white.
It wasn't storm clouds.
It wasn't the kind of sky that came before a typhoon, either.
It was a pallor like the color had been washed out of the entire world.
The air conditioning in the convenience store was still running. The freezers emitted a low hum, and the electronic clock on the register had stopped at 17:23.
Every phone lost signal at the same time.
The next second, alarms began blaring from every direction in the city.
Some people screamed.
Some ran out of the store.
Some dropped to their knees by the roadside and stared up at the sky.
Lin Wan stood in front of the glass doors.
She saw a streak of white light flare along the distant horizon.
It wasn't like lightning.
It made no sound.
Yet within seconds, it swallowed the entire city.
Every car on the street stalled.
The traffic lights all stopped at once.
The windows of the high-rises shattered as if struck by an invisible hand.
Then—
Boom!
The ground began to shake violently.
Lin Wan fell to the floor, with nothing but a sharp ringing left in her ears.
She didn't know how much time had passed.
When she opened her eyes again, the glass doors of the convenience store were shattered across the ground.
Smoke was everywhere in the street.
Cars had crashed into one another.
Gray dust drifted through the sky.
The crowd fled toward the outskirts of the city like mad.
Someone shouted:
“Don't stay here!”
“The second wave is coming!”
“Run!”
Lin Wan didn't know what the second wave was.
She only knew one thing—
She had to survive.
She grabbed her backpack, stuffed in a few bottles of water and several packs of crackers, then turned and ran out of the convenience store.
She hadn't gone even two hundred yards when—
An out-of-control car suddenly veered toward her.
She instinctively closed her eyes.
But the impact never came.
A powerful force yanked her violently to the side.
She slammed into a man's arms.
The man held on to her as they rolled into an alley by the roadside.
The next second—
BOOM—!
The car crashed into a wall.
Flames shot up instantly.
Lin Wan lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
She lifted her head.
That was the first time she saw him.
The man wore a black jacket. His cuffs were covered in dust, and a wound at his temple was still bleeding.
He looked to be in his twenties.
But his eyes were too cold for someone so young.
He looked down at her.
“Can you walk?”
Lin Wan froze for a few seconds.
“…Yes.”
The man stood up.
“Then don't stop.”
“Where are we going?”
He didn't answer.
He only looked toward the heart of the city.
There, a second streak of white light was slowly rising.
The man grabbed her by the wrist.
“Leave this city.”
“Now.”