It was midnight, and most people were already asleep. Those who were still awake were fiddling with their phones, wondering what to have for breakfast tomorrow.
But tonight was destined to be no ordinary night.
The once-bright moon slowly moved across the sky, hiding its form. The color of the heavens began to change, the pitch-black canvas gradually taking on a purple hue, making it seem more distant and mysterious.
A closer look revealed that the dark purple sky was also dotted with sparkling, diamond-like points of light, making the night even more brilliant and beautiful.
Two hours later, some of the points of light began to fall, streaking through the night, while most of the glittering specks remained high in the sky.
These points of light were neither stars nor meteors. Scientists would later generally agree that these mysterious substances were related to the attribute values that suddenly appeared in people's bodies. As for the exact relationship, no one knew for sure, so it was simply attributed to the wonders and mysteries of nature.
Those who were still awake and fortunate enough to witness this magnificent spectacle scrambled for their phones, taking pictures and posting them on Weibo and their Moments to marvel at the beautiful scenery and praise the lovely stars.
But they didn't know that as beautiful as the scenery was, it heralded an unprecedented, world-ending disaster.
At 6:00 AM, Tang Mo's alarm went off right on time.
She grabbed her phone, turned off the alarm, sat up, and got dressed. She felt for the pendant around her neck, then pulled it out to take a look.
This had become Tang Mo's morning ritual. The trauma from her past life had left her unable to feel at ease until she confirmed the pendant was still around her neck each morning.
'Is it just my imagination, or has the pendant's color gotten a little darker this morning?'
She recalled that today was the first day of the apocalypse; all the changes had already begun at midnight. Tang Mo sensed the energy within her body. Sure enough, her spiritual power had returned.
Not only that, but her spiritual power was much stronger than it had been at the start of the apocalypse in her previous life. A jolt of joy went through Tang Mo.
She couldn't feel her strength and speed yet, and without an ID Watch, she couldn't see the specific values. But her spiritual power was a tangible presence in her mind. Since it had grown, her other stats must have increased as well.
Tang Mo used her spiritual power to enter her supermarket Space. The layout of the shelves and the stacks of mineral water hadn't changed, but the open area by the checkout counter had expanded by about a square meter.
'The Space can grow!'
Tang Mo was genuinely ecstatic about this discovery. If the Space could grow, it would be much more convenient for her to gather supplies later on. Although she already had enough in her Space to last several years, who would ever complain about having too many resources?
In the apocalypse, food wasn't just food; it was currency. It could even be traded for people's lives.
She figured her spiritual power had grown because she'd been constantly communicating with the Space with her mind, which had made her spiritual power stronger. The growth of the Space itself, she analyzed, was likely related to the falling stars from earlier that morning.
She had fallen asleep early last night, but she was still well aware of what had happened.
After all, in her previous life, that meteor shower had blown up her Moments and all the major news outlets. It would have been hard for her not to know.
With a happy expression, Tang Mo got dressed, washed up, and headed out. Right now, she had a more important matter to attend to: breakfast.
The school cafeteria was open for breakfast from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. It was still early, so news that all the crops in the ground had withered hadn't reached the school yet.
If she remembered correctly, the fog would appear on Earth at 8:00 AM. All crops rooted in the soil had instantly withered at midnight, and any plants or raw meat exposed to the air would rot completely within three days. In the end, only hermetically sealed food would survive.
It was now 6:30 AM. She could still grab breakfast at the cafeteria before people realized what was happening. Once everyone discovered something was wrong around noon, having a peaceful meal would not be so easy.
At the cafeteria, Tang Mo ordered steamed dumplings, congee, and an egg. After eating, she bought two more breakfast sets for her roommates. Finally, after a moment's thought, she also ordered ten servings of steamed dumplings, ten servings of century egg and lean pork congee, ten cups of soy milk, twenty eggs, and twenty baked flatbreads to go.
Her Space had an extra square meter of room, so she had some more storage. These were her favorite breakfast items, and it was just Tang Mo's style to pack as much as she could without arousing suspicion.
She found an empty corner and placed the food she'd packed for herself into her Space. Then, Tang Mo ducked into the campus supermarket and ordered several cases of water, various snacks, and some fruit. After a supermarket employee helped her move everything into her dorm's hallway, she carried it all to an empty corner and transferred it into her Space.
Seeing that the newly freed-up area in her Space was full again, with only the same two suitcase-sized gaps remaining, Tang Mo felt a sense of satisfaction.
'Maybe Li Lanlan was right. I really must be part hamster.'
It was past 8:00 AM when Tang Mo returned to the dorm. Li Lanlan and Song Qing were both awake, sitting motionless on their beds and staring intently at their phones.
"AHHH!!! I shouldn't have stayed up all night binge-watching that show! If I hadn't stayed up, I would've woken up early! If I'd woken up early, I would've gone to breakfast! If I'd gone to breakfast, I wouldn't be starving all day just because the cafeteria is closed for lunch!"
Li Lanlan clutched her hair. The first thing she saw when she woke up was the school's announcement that the cafeteria would be closed for lunch. She had instinctively opened a food delivery app to order something, only to find that all the restaurants were closed.
"None of the delivery places are open either! Why is this happening? Am I really going to have nothing to eat all day?" Li Lanlan was still upset about being abandoned by the cafeteria.
"This might be more than just a one-day thing. Check Weibo," Song Qing said, pushing up her glasses. She had obviously already found the news about the soil turning purplish-red and all the crops rotting.
As a top student from the Biological Science College, she had found numerous photos of the soil from news reports and was carefully comparing them, not missing a single detail. Her professional knowledge told her that it would be impossible to grow plants in soil made of such purple, sandy particles—it would be even harder than planting grass in a desert.
"Huh??" Li Lanlan froze for a moment, then frantically opened Weibo. The more she scrolled, the paler her face became.
Just then, a notification popped up from the T University student group chat.
Wu Yi (Life Science Institute): Extra, extra! Has anyone seen the thick fog at the school gate? I'm getting a super weird vibe from it.
Li Qian (Foreign Language College): My roommate lives nearby. When the cafeteria didn't open, she decided to go home to eat. She left campus, and now she's not replying to my WeChat messages... I'm a little worried. You don't think something happened, do you?
Xiaxia (Life Science Institute): My roommate too... Not answering WeChat or texts. Do you think it has something to do with the fog?
As soon as these messages appeared, the group chat exploded. Many people chimed in, saying their own classmates had vanished without a trace after entering the fog.
Wu Yi (Life Science Institute): This can't be the actual end of the world, can it?
Connecting this with the news they had just seen about the mutated soil and rotting crops, a shadow of dread fell over everyone's hearts. They all felt that the world they knew was somehow becoming a little different.
Li Lanlan and Song Qing's faces also turned pale as they read the messages in the group chat.
People are always afraid of the unknown, especially when they are far from their families.
"You took my arm and you broke my will, you made me shiver with a real thrill, you took my arm and we walked along…"
Suddenly, a ringtone shattered the silence in the room.
"Hello, Mom."
"Yeah, I'm doing fine."
"Don't worry, I'm okay."
"I have plenty to eat. You know how much I love to shop, don't you?"
"I definitely won't wander around."
"You be safe, too."
"I know, I know. I'll come home as soon as I finish my experiment."
"Okay, bye-bye."
Tang Mo hung up the phone and let out a soft sigh of relief.
The first thing Lin Yi did after watching the news this morning was call her daughter. She was only able to relax after hearing that everything was okay.
For the first few months of the apocalypse, the power grid continued to operate, so phones and the internet worked normally. Later, after the grid failed, everyone had bound an ID Watch, which made communication even more convenient. As long as a person was alive, it was almost impossible to lose contact.
In her previous life, Tang Mo had also spoken with her mother at the beginning of the apocalypse, but not long after, she could no longer get in touch with Lin Yi.
Tang Mo never knew what had happened to her mother out there and didn't dare to imagine the worst. Trapped at school and unable to go out and investigate, she was tormented by waves of anxiety and despair, causing her will to slowly erode.
This was also why she had been so utterly crushed after losing her necklace; she had simply accumulated too much pressure and too many negative emotions over time.
"Momo, you went to the cafeteria for breakfast?"
You had to hand it to Li Lanlan; she had a knack for bouncing back. She quickly shook off her anxiety about the unknown and went back to worrying about her stomach, her eyes filled with envy as she looked at Tang Mo.
"Yep, I've eaten. And look what I've got here." Tang Mo grinned, holding up the two breakfast sets she had brought back for them.