The moon was bright and the stars were sparse.
The bell rang for the end of the evening self-study. Students in twos and threes emerged from the classroom, chatting and laughing as they walked in the night. After a day of studying, this was probably the most relaxing time for them.
There was no homework, no teachers. Surrounded by a few close friends, they could go home, take a shower, and then climb into bed comfortably to rest. Wasn't that wonderful?
Among the scattered crowd, a large group of more than a dozen people suddenly appeared and walked steadily towards the school gate.
In the middle of them, a young man with black cloth wrapped around his eyes was like the filling of a dumpling, tightly surrounded.
Such a large group immediately attracted the attention of all the surrounding students.
"Actually... I can walk back by myself, really," Lin Qiye said with a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, feeling a bit helpless. "I can see, but my eyes are just sensitive to light..."
"Don't say anything, classmate Lin Qiye!" Jiang Qian interrupted Lin Qiye, saying seriously, "We promised your aunt that we would take good care of you, and we will definitely do it!"
"Yeah, Qiye. Our homes are in the same direction anyway, so it's on our way."
"Me too, it's on my way."
Lin Qiye: ...
To be honest, now he wished he was the one being isolated. Having been in the dark for so long, he wasn't used to the feeling of being cared for by so many people. It made him feel very uncomfortable.
Of course, his aunt and Yang Jin were exceptions because they were his family.
However, since they were doing it out of kindness, he couldn't say much. He could only helplessly follow the crowd forward.
"I need to turn right at the intersection ahead, but I can still walk with you for a while."
"I'm going to turn here. I'm leaving now. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
"..."
As they got farther and farther away from the school, the classmates surrounding Lin Qiye said goodbye and left one after another. A few minutes later, only five people were left by Lin Qiye's side.
The originally noisy atmosphere gradually quieted down, and the space suddenly became more spacious. Lin Qiye let out a long sigh of relief.
"Do you think... that fog will really revive again and swallow up Daxia?" Li Yifei, carrying his bag, turned his head curiously and asked.
"Haven't you heard what those experts said? The probability of the fog reviving is very low. Maybe it won't change in the next hundred years. As for what will happen after a hundred years... anyway, we won't be around then. Why worry so much?" Jiang Qian rolled her eyes.
"Sigh, you know those experts' words are the most unreliable. What if we finally get into university with great difficulty, and before we can enjoy life properly, the fog swallows up the whole of Daxia? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"
"So is this why you've been slacking off every day and not concentrating on your studies?" Jiang Qian walked up to Li Yifei and said seriously, "I have to remind you that Teacher Wang has already said that if you get the last place in this exam again, you'll have to move your desk to the side of the podium."
"Got it, got it." Li Yifei smiled sheepishly.
"However, I really don't think that fog can revive again," Wang Shao, who was walking at the front, suddenly said. "After all, the fog is just a natural phenomenon. After reaching a certain critical point, it will gradually recede, just like the Ice Age. When the glaciers cover the land, as the temperature rises, they will slowly recede, and a new era will follow."
"I know what you're talking about. It's called the Theory of Natural Disasters, right? It has a pretty high level of recognition now." Jiang Qian nodded.
"Then what if... this fog isn't a natural phenomenon?" At this moment, Lin Qiye, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up.
Wang Shao was taken aback, then laughed and said, "Qiye, you don't really believe those so-called theologians' statements and think that this fog is related to supernatural powers, do you?"
"It's already the 21st century. We should believe in science. There aren't so many mysterious and supernatural things in the world." A classmate named Liu Yuan interjected.
Lin Qiye didn't answer. He knew better than anyone whether there were things beyond the scope of science in this world. It was just that there was no need to tell outsiders about these things.
Li Yifei murmured softly, "I actually think that if there really were such things, the world would be more interesting."
"Why are we talking about all this useless stuff? These aren't the things we should be concerned about.Instead of worrying here about whether the fog will revive or not., it's more practical to sleep in during the three-day holiday on the Survival Day." Jiang Qian smiled.
"Right, the holiday is the most real thing!"
...
At this moment, in the old urban area of Cangnan City.
A man was carrying a notice board and walking unhurriedly on the desolate and dim street. The old streetlights cast a dim light, stretching his shadow longer and longer...
He glanced at his phone, walked to a certain narrow street corner, and stopped.
"This is the place..."
He muttered to himself, put down the notice board on his shoulder, and straightened it.
Under the flickering streetlights, the shadow of the notice board appeared and disappeared. On the black background, a few bright red characters were extremely eye-catching!
—No Admittance Ahead!
The man leaned against the streetlight, lit a cigarette for himself, took a deep drag, and then turned on his headset.
"Captain, the third notice board is in place."
"Received. Start."
"Okay."
With the cigarette in his mouth, the man walked up to the notice board, put his thumb on the tip of his tooth, and bit down hard!
A drop of blood oozed out from the wound. The man squatted down and drew a long horizontal line with his blood-stained thumb across the four characters "No Admittance Ahead"!
His eyes focused, and an indescribable aura burst out centered around him!
He looked up at the black night sky and murmured in a voice that only he could hear...
"Forbidden Ruins, [No-Rule Airspace]."
The next moment, the bright red bloodstain on the notice board in front of him faded rapidly as if it was being absorbed. Then, the four characters "No Admittance Ahead" flashed with a red light!
And then gradually returned to their original state.
The man plopped down on the ground, let out a long sigh of relief, and said with a bit of complaint,
"Damn it, I'm drained again..."
At this moment, if someone were to look down at Cangnan City from the sky, they would find that near the old urban area, three points of light were flickering. Then, using these three points of light as vertices, a dark red equilateral triangle was quickly outlined!
The moment the triangle took shape, the half of the old urban area that was covered by it gradually disappeared as if it had been erased from the map...
However, from the ground, the old urban area still looked the same.
At the same time, in the center of this triangle, six black-red cloaks flashed across the sky like lightning!
The man at the front looked up at the dark red sky, reached out and grasped the handle of the knife behind his back, and narrowed his eyes slightly.
"The operation to eliminate the Masked Men begins."