Cold, suffocation, darkness… then a violent wrenching pull.Ao Yu jolted awake once more from the despair of drowning, his heart pounding wildly against his ribs. Cold sweat instantly soaked the fresh, dry T-shirt he'd just changed into. He gasped for air, his fingers clawing at the bed sheet, knuckles white with strain.The digital clock's red glow stubbornly displayed: 3:47AM.Despair coiled around him like icy tendrils. He was back again! Stealing the boat, getting caught, the argument, and then… being crushed by that irresistible blue wall of death. Wu Feng's shocked face had become the clearest brand in his corridor of death."I can't force my way through…" Ao Yu forced himself to be calm, his teeth gritted audibly. He couldn't break through the wall of "rules and reason" that was Wu Feng. He had to try a different approach. One she would accept.A plan rapidly took shape beneath the icy layer of his despair.This time, he didn't rush to the docks. He still had time. He took several deep breaths, facing the blurry mirror in his dorm room, and worked to adjust his expression. His face was already pale from fear, now utterly bloodless. He vigorously rubbed his eyes to make them look redder, more watery. He even held his breath to force fine beads of cold sweat onto his forehead.He staggered out of his room, his steps unsteady, his target—Wu Feng's door.Bang! Bang! Bang!The urgent knocking was especially jarring in the silent corridor.The door opened quickly. Wu Feng stood there in light sleepwear, her expression sharp, tinged with annoyance at being disturbed. "Ao Yu? At this hour—" Her words cut off as her eyes landed on his paper-white, sweat-sheered face. Her brows instantly drew together in a tight frown."As… Assistant Wu Feng…" Ao Yu's voice was frail, drifting, carrying a distinct tremor. His body swayed unsteadily for effect, as if he might collapse at any moment. "H…help me… My… my stomach… It hurts… I'm dying…" He clutched his abdomen, bending over, his pained expression twisted and convincing.The annoyance in Wu Feng's eyes was quickly replaced by concern. She stepped forward to
support his swaying body. "What's wrong? When did it start? Where exactly does it hurt?" Her fingers found his wrist, checking his pulse—the sensation was cold and erratic."I… I don't know… Sudden… stabbing pain… Like… like a knife twisting inside…" Ao Yu panted, his gaze unfocused. "The island… island clinic… won't help… Can't hold on… Must… must go to… the main island hospital… Please… the speedboat…" He gripped Wu Feng's arm with surprising strength, as if it were his only lifeline, his eyes filled with the pleading of someone staring death in the face.Wu Feng looked at his lifeless face and his eyes, full of pain and despair. Professional duty and concern for a student's safety instantly overrode the rules. She made a snap decision. "Hold on! I'll take you!"The engine's roar tore through the predawn silence. The speedboat shot forward like an arrow from the bow, slicing through the ink-blue sea, racing away from White Sand Island. The icy sea wind whipped violently against their faces, carrying the scent of salt and brine.Ao Yu huddled in the passenger seat, his heart hammering wildly in his chest—not from feigned illness, but from the familiar, approaching destruction. He used every ounce of his strength to keep himself from checking the rearview mirror, his nails digging deep into his palms.Time seemed to stretch. Every second was an agony, like being fried in scalding oil.Then—A vibration, incredibly subtle yet enough to freeze the soul, transmitted through the hull.Hum...It was followed by a distant, dull roar, like the awakening bellow of some primordial leviathan.Rumble...The sound grew closer, louder, more urgent, carrying a momentum that could crush everything, instantly overwhelming the roar of the engine!Wu Feng's hands tightened violently on the steering wheel! She instinctively slammed the throttle; the speedboat let out a strained howl as its speed surged abruptly! At the same time, she snapped her head around to look back toward White Sand Island!Ao Yu also raised his head at the terrifying sound, a look of fated despair in his eyes as he finally glanced into the rear view mirror.It was here!That sky-obscuring wall of blue-black, like a giant hand rising from the depths of hell, was crashing down upon tiny White Sand Island in the dim light of dawn!"Heavens...!" Wu Feng gasped, the sound cut off in her throat. The professional calm on her face shattered like fragile glass, leaving only pure, unadulterated terror in the face of nature's wrath! Her pupils dilated with extreme fear, fixed unblinkingly on the scene of destruction.
The knuckles of her hands gripping the steering wheel turned white, the joints making faint cracking sounds from the strain.BOOM—!!! CRASH—!!!A dull, soul-stopping roar that felt like a physical blow to the chest even at this distance! In the rearview mirror, the familiar coastline of White Sand Island, the outline of the training base—all of it crumbled like a child's sandcastle under the wave's impact, fragile and utterly defenseless! Houses, trees, the dock… everything was instantly shredded and swallowed! White spray and black debris were violently hurled into the grey sky, only to be swiftly consumed by the moving, merciless wall of death!Wu Feng let out an uncontrolled cry.Ao Yu's body trembled uncontrollably. He bit his lower lip hard, tasting the metallic tang of blood.They had escaped… this time, he had escaped!But witnessing the horrifying instant obliteration of his home brought no relief—only a deeper, more profound chill and an absurd sense of nihilistic self-blame.The speedboat had slowed at some point, now almost drifting on the sea. The low hum of the engine seemed exceptionally feeble.Wu Feng still stared fixedly at the churning, roaring, ink-blue hell that had swallowed the island. Her chest heaved violently, her face terrifyingly pale, her lips trembling slightly as if she wanted to speak but couldn't form a single coherent sound. The cataclysmic scene she had just witnessed had completely shattered her frame of reference as a diving instructor.A full ten seconds later, she seemed to find her voice again—dry, hoarse, carrying the disorientation and disbelief of a world turned upside down:"This… this is impossible…" she murmured, her eyes still locked on the chaotic waters, as if searching for a rational explanation. "It doesn't… it doesn't seem like… a tsunami…"Ao Yu's heart gave a violent jolt. He held his breath and looked at her.Wu Feng took a sharp breath, forcing a sliver of reason to break through the extreme shock. She lifted a slightly trembling hand, pointing toward the center of the terrifying maelstrom—a massive, swirling wound in the sea that still violently churned and pulled at the surrounding water. Her voice remained unsteady, but it carried an intuition born from a seafarer's bloodline, an unusual sensitivity to the ocean's moods:"That whirlpool… and the wave wall…" Her fingertip was stiff with residual tension. "They're too… too uniform! It's… it's almost as if it was…pushedhere by a giant hand!"Ao Yu's heart constricted violently! He recalled the previous tsunamis—therewasan unnatural uniformity to them, and details he'd overlooked—each time he was caught in the violent undercurrent, a faint, incredibly weak yet exceptionally pure and resilient golden light, like the last stubborn spark in a stormy night, flickering and floating tenaciously at the edge of the chaos and destruction, as if stubbornly pointing towards a certain direction within the abyss of despair…
"Pushed… here?" Ao Yu's voice was as dry as sandpaper, each word vibrating with the tremor of his soul. Wu Feng's intuition confirmed his deepest fear, accumulated through the cycles—this was no natural disaster!The sound of sirens, ambulances, and general chaos... Ao Yu and Wu Feng were taken to the hospital."Wake up, Ao Yu."...Boom!...Boom!It was like an invisible thunderclap detonated inside Ao Yu's skull. The blood in his veins seemed to freeze solid. He stared at Wu Feng in utter disbelief, finding himself lying in his own bunk, back in the training camp dormitory!!"Hurry up and get ready. Today's training focus: Tsunami Emergency Drill."Ao Yu stared at her face—slightly energetic, as if last night's catastrophe had never happened at all—She… didn't remember!A thread of icy despair, colder than last night's seawater, slowly seeped into Ao Yu's very marrow.The noose of the time loop was still cinched tight around his neck