"Are you in there?"
Tingting’s voice came through.
Just as Jiang Chen was about to open his mouth, his throat felt like it was stuck with cotton known as fear.
He lifted his terminal slowly.
<4:25 pm>[There were still 15 minutes left before the class ends, so how can she be in here? That’s really strange. Even if the sports instructor wants her to find me, why would she go to the activity room? It’s as if—]
"I know. I’ve been watching you for a long time."
Suddenly, the two familiar but surreal confessions surfaced in his head.
A frightening thought crept into his mind.
…being watched?
A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead as Jiang Chen held his breath. He didn’t even dare to make a sound. Instinct told him that there must be something wrong, but he couldn’t explain where the problem came from.
[Tingting is a stalker? How is that possible? But she is so graceful… wait, graceful? It seems that it was her who took the initiative to push me down yesterday. Usually, she would be reading under the window but today…]Jiang Chen searched through today’s memory. Yao Tingting’s watching him, being engrossed in her terminal, paying attention to class, watching him smile...
A disquieting feeling crept all over his body.
"I heard there's a ghost at the ground floor of the library. Have you seen it?"
The knocking sound was light, but it pierced through his heart like a hammer. He couldn’t explain the reason, but his instincts told him that terrible things would happen if he opened the door this time.
Jiang Chen let the beads of sweat rolled across his face as he sat there motionlessly. He looked at the drawer where the gun was, but it failed to bring him even a scant trace of security.
Like drums playing, the pace of knocking seemed to increase and grew louder.
All of a sudden, a violent, smashing sound transmitted through the door. The frantic, smashing sound made every single one of Jiang Chen’s muscles tightened due to tension, and his facial expression morphed into a stunned expression.
The sound, however, suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
…followed by the sound of fading footsteps.
[Has he given up?] Jiang Chen let out a sigh of relief. He then touched his chest and felt a wet sensation from his hand.
It was then that he figured out that his body was drenched in sweat without even realizing it.
"Now that I think about it, the uncomfortable feeling came from the robot yesterday morning. No, to be precise, it should be during that morning class…" Jiang Chen realized something.
Yes, it was at that time when the entire class was staring at him. His heart responded with an eerie feeling known as ‘Uncanny Valley’ effect.
[Could it be…all the students are robots?] An odd expression appeared on his face as he thought that the very idea was preposterous.
Why? He grew up with Zhao Peng together, Qian Han, who was sitting in front even gave him a love letter, and Yao Tingting…
Jiang Chen suddenly frowned.
Where did all the books that Yao Tingting always read go?
BOOM!
The violent tremor almost threw him on the ground as the window produced a loud, sharp sound. He got up hurriedly, ran to the window and discovered a shocking scene.
A blue light hit the dome protecting this city. The light blue particle disintegrated followed by the thinning air membrane.
There was no sound as the concave barrier opened a gap in the center and the blue light faded away.
Suddenly, countless numbers of dense, black dots dropped from the sky, each carrying a trail of air waves behind. Those were NATO’s airdrop soldiers, as well as the bombs used to disguise them.
It was, however, at this moment that the ground fired a series of orange flare missiles to the ground. It was the anti-aircraft missiles stationed in the city…
A loud rumble fell from the sky and a series of explosions filled the sky with bright sparks. The deafening air defense alarm broke the city sky accompanied by the cry and scream from the distant street, which woke Jiang Chen up from his stupor.
Not even a single warning.
"It's s a fuck*ng war! This can’t be happening..." He looked at the sky, terrified. Jiang Chen retreated from the window and rushed outside the door.
The news already announced that when the air defense alarm got triggered, everyone should immediately go to the nearest defense shelter, and the sanctuary would be forcefully closed once it reached the right time and go into a dormant mode.
Jiang Chen didn’t have time to get confused as his priority was to stay alive. He glanced at the table before he left the activity room; he gritted his teeth and reluctantly sprinted downstairs.
There was a gun on the table, but he didn’t think it would bring him any semblance of security. If he really encountered a NATO soldier, he’s afraid that it would be more dangerous to wield a gun.
Moreover, according to the rules of war, they usually didn’t shoot civilians. Not only it was a waste of bullets, it was also quite troublesome…
He tried to comfort himself as he dashed down the stairs towards the gate of the school and ran for his life. At this time, however, a massive explosion broke out in the sky in the distance from the center of the city. He felt the scorching heat wave despite the distance of 100 km away.
Mushroom cloud.
It was a nuclear bomb!
"Fu*k." Jiang Chen stared at the orange mushroom cloud and the falling black dots with quivering eyes.
BOOM!
The intense shockwave almost blew him away. He tried to raise his arm to cover his face. From the rapid airflow of the cylindrical airdrop pods came out several soldiers in power armor.
There was simply no room for escape.
Jiang Chen's shoulders relaxed, signaling that he had given up, and his face gave way to a wry smile. Why was his reaction so calm, even he himself didn’t have any ideas.
The last thing he saw was a gun barrel.
-
BOOM!
Struggling to open his eyes, the first thing Jiang Chen saw was the wooden floor of the gymnasium. He realized he was thrown on the ground.
He struggled to stand up…his chest and joint throbbed in pain, but he couldn’t let out a sound because of fear.
The gym was filled with people, students, and teachers… Everyone’s terrified face had hopelessness written all over them as NATO soldiers circled around. The cold barrels were ominous.
No one dared to make a sound as they quietly watched Jiang Chen who was thrown on the ground.
"Jiang Chen, are you okay?" Yao Tingting anxiously hurried to his side.
He felt the body temperature enveloping him as he exerted all his effort to open his puffy eyes.
He caught a glimpse of graceful face fraught with tears.
"Tingting? You’re…also here?"
"Mhmm! What, how are you?"
The silvery voice was tearful. He felt the softness touching the swell on his face as he forced out a smile. He wanted to lift his hand to wipe off her tears, comfort her, and embrace her, however…
"Drag that girl over here."
"Yes."
Two soldiers in power armors walked over.
"Let me go! Ah—"
"What are you doing!" Jiang Chen watched the person forcefully drag Yao Tingting away from him in horror.
"Jiang Chen, save me! No!"
Jiang Chen desperately tried to his hold on her, but he was met with a boot on his face. The kick almost made him lose his consciousness again.
In the corner of Jiang Chen’s blurry eyes, he saw the soldiers who dragged Yao Tingting away took off his mask. It was a pale, devil-like face that was currently mocking him.
"Listen up, hostages—that’s right, you guys are all hostages—your so-called Holy Barrier System has already been broken by our space-based weapon. Don’t count on being rescued, stay there obediently, and pray that your fathers won’t blow you up as well." The person standing at the stadium of the gym seemed to be the leader of the squad as he was using the loudspeaker of the power armor.
"Tingting…"Jiang Chen struggled to crawl to the figure being dragged away.
"Boss, this girl is quite pretty. It would be a pity if we hang her outside. Hehe, what if…" The white soldier had a leery grin as he held the girl up. He seemed to be pleased by her frightened appearance and almost sobbing figure.
Another soldier also took off the armor mask and exposed a black face and white teeth. "Are all people from Georgia (State in the UA) perverted like this? But sir, I do agree with his point of view, hehe…"
What are you trying to do!
Jiang Chen’s heart suddenly ached. He bit his lips as he struggled to stand up to his feet, however, his woozy head kept him unstable.
"No—" A shrill cry resounded throughout the gym.
Seeing the commander nodded, the soldier then tore the white floral dress apart…
In front of everyone.
"Stop!" Jiang Chen opened his mouth as his finger almost penetrated through the hard wooden floor.
His bloodshot eyes were ferocious.
However, it wasn’t him who screamed out.
Was that Zhao Peng?
"No!" Jiang Chen reached out his hand to his childhood friend in horror.
BANG!
Smoke floated from the muzzle.
"Beautiful, man! Bull’s-eye!"
"Hahaha." The soldier heard his comrade’s compliment before he made an exaggerated shooting gesture at the crowd. He was gratified to see the crowd screaming and scrambling backward in terror.
"Don’t, don’t come over." Yao Tingting shrunk back on the ground as she tried to use the torn pieces of clothes to cover her naked body.
The white soldier with perverted smile strapped the gun to his waist as he walked towards Yao Tingting who was scampering backward. "Don’t worry, we’ll do it one by one."
"Jiang Chen, save me! Jiang Chen… Wooo—"
The young, beautiful Chinese teacher from next class stood up, her expression wore a decided humiliated expression. She was trembling but refused to flinch.
"Let the girl go, I’ll take her place."
The black soldier standing on the sidelines laughed, and then came and grabbed her by the collar, ignoring her scrambling limbs due to her difficulty in breathing and threw her on the stadium.
"You guys can go together. We have plenty of brothers here."
Eyes filled with sorrow.
Dead eyes without the soul.
And dilated pupils because of the shocking horror.
Blood covered every single inch of Jiang Chen’s eyes.
At this time, however, an unprecedented clarity he had never experienced before eradicated all the tyrannical emotions in his heart.
"Hehe… are you guys done fooling around?"
Jiang Chen closed his eyes carelessly. He struggled to shift and then sat on the ground.
His mouth curled up into a sneer and his eyes regained its tranquility.
"The secret teller?"
_Min_
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