Yunhua Third Middle School, in the classroom for Senior Class 2.
Homeroom.
The homeroom teacher stood at the front of the classroom, his voice ringing with passion. "There are less than three months until the college entrance exams! You all must hold on until the very end and give it everything you've got!"
"The college entrance exams are the fairest system, the greatest opportunity to change your destiny! If you don't give it your all now, you'll regret it when it's too late!"
'The fairest system?'
In the back row by the window, a young man with a shaggy haircut wore a placid expression.
As someone who had been through this before, Guan Tong knew there was no such thing as a truly fair system in the world.
His world before transmigration had been like that, and this world after was no different.
However, Guan Tong was quite satisfied with his transmigration.
Back on Earth, he had just been an ordinary office worker, stuck in a job he disliked and in poor health.
But after transmigrating to this planet called Celestial Water Star, he had actually reverted to the age of eighteen.
Putting everything else aside, just regaining this young, energetic body was enough.
As for what the future holds...
Guan Tong looked out the window, and the look in his eyes suddenly changed.
'What is that?'
Irregular black spots suddenly appeared in the sky, like drops of ink on a sky-blue canvas.
The spots seemed to be "alive," moving and combining in a bizarre fashion. Soon, they formed two large, pulsing words.
TESTING BEGINS
TESTING BEGINS
At that moment, these two words resounded in the minds of everyone across the world, each in their own language.
The homeroom teacher, who was in the middle of speaking, paused, a look of confusion on his face. The students looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Just now..."
Someone started to speak, but the voice in their mind had not yet finished.
[Welcome, Intelligent People, to the "Sublimation Plan" test.]
[I am your tester for this session: Fire Thief.]
[Scope of this test: All Intelligent People of Celestial Water Star.]
[Test Content: Forty-nine Apocalypse Rules.]
[Test Objective: Those who pass will learn the truth behind the test and may participate in the Apocalypse Initiative.]
"You all heard that, right?!"
A student jumped up and shouted in terror.
"I heard it! It was like someone was talking inside my head!"
"Holy shit! What's going on?"
"Forty-nine Apocalypse Rules? Sublimation Plan? Apocalypse Initiative?"
"That voice sounded like a robot!"
Guan Tong also heard the voice in his mind.
He, however, wasn't particularly surprised.
After all, things like "transmigration" and "reversing his age" had already happened to him. At this point, nothing could really faze him.
Just then, the voice in his mind rang out again.
[Personal Terminal function activated. Can be viewed at any time by mental command.]
[First Apocalypse Rule has been issued.]
[Apocalypse Rule 1: Sleep Deprivation]
[Rule Content: From the moment this rule is issued, you cannot enter a state of sleep in any form for 72 hours.]
[Survival Reward: 100 Sublimation Coins, Psychic Power.]
[Failure Penalty: If you enter a state of sleep while the rule is in effect, you will never wake up again.]
[Note: It is known that among the Intelligent People of Celestial Water Star, one individual once remained awake for 297 consecutive hours. 72 hours is far from the limit. Please strive to pass.]
After the voice in their heads, which called itself the "Fire Thief," stopped, the entire classroom exploded into chaos.
No one knew what was happening. Even the homeroom teacher stood frozen at the front of the room, completely at a loss.
"Look, quick!"
Someone looking at the sky outside the window shouted, and the others turned to look.
A huge red countdown timer was suspended in the sky, its numbers constantly changing.
71:59:22
71:59:21
71:59:20
Everyone stared blankly at the countdown in the sky, when suddenly a loud roar came from the very back of the classroom.
"So fucking annoying! What's all the shouting about!"
Everyone was startled and looked over in unison.
The shout came from a burly male student with a buzz cut. From the drowsy look in his eyes, it was obvious he had just been sleeping.
The student's name was Xu Beipeng, and his grades were perennially last in the class. Because he was strong and had a bad temper, even the teachers didn't dare discipline him much, turning a blind eye to him sleeping in class.
"Some test... rules... so annoying." Xu Beipeng picked at his ear, assuming the voice in his head had just been part of a dream. After muttering a few words, he slumped back onto his desk to sleep.
The faces of everyone in the class filled with horror.
"He... he's sleeping?"
"Didn't that Fire Thief guy say..."
"The first Apocalypse Rule is that you can't sleep for 72 hours! Is this for real or not?!"
Guan Tong looked at Xu Beipeng, his brow slightly furrowed.
SNORT... SNORT...
Xu Beipeng fell asleep extremely quickly; he had only been down for a few seconds before he started snoring.
Seeing this, all the classmates breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's fine. Looks like those rules aren't real after..."
Before the student could finish his sentence, Xu Beipeng's snoring suddenly stopped.
At that moment, the classmates saw Guan Tong, who was sitting in the back row by the window, suddenly stand up and walk toward Xu Beipeng.
Guan Tong walked straight to Xu Beipeng's side and shook him. "Xu Beipeng, wake up."
Xu Beipeng didn't move or make a sound, showing no signs of waking up.
The few students around him couldn't stay in their seats any longer, scrambling up in terror to get away.
SLAP!
Guan Tong suddenly slapped Xu Beipeng hard across the face.
"Wake up!"
Still no reaction.
Guan Tong placed his fingers in front of Xu Beipeng's nostrils. After a few seconds, he pulled them back. Facing the gazes of the entire class, he shook his head. "He's not breathing."
"AHHH!!!"
The more timid boys and girls in the class started screaming.
The homeroom teacher also panicked. He hurriedly pulled his phone from his pocket to call for an ambulance, saying as he dialed, "Everyone stay in your seats, don't panic... Guan Tong, where are you going?!"
Guan Tong had already reached the classroom door. Without turning his head, he replied, "Home. It's about to get chaotic out there."
"You..."
"I'm going home too!"
"Me too!"
With Guan Tong leading the way, the other students rushed out of the classroom one after another.
The entire school was soon engulfed in a cacophony of noise. Students from every class were in an uproar. The bicycle shed was packed with people, all scrambling to get their bikes and leave.
Because Guan Tong had left a step ahead, he was already out of the school gates by now.
The chaos was a telling sign. If even a closed-off high school campus had descended into mayhem, one could only imagine what it was like outside.
The streets were filled with people running in panic. The sound of car horns was incessant, and car accidents were happening one after another.
On the large screen hanging in the public square, an emergency notice was being broadcast. A famous host from the North Star Country was repeating with a grim expression:
"In the face of this sudden emergency, please do not panic. Proceed in an orderly manner to a safe indoor location and await the latest official announcement."
"In the face of this sudden emergency, please do not panic. Proceed in an orderly manner to..."
It wasn't just the large screen in the square; everyone's cell phones and other smart devices had also received an emergency notification from their service providers. The content was the same as the broadcast, telling people to wait for official announcements.
Guan Tong stood on the street corner, looking at the text message on his phone. 'A lot of people must have died already,' he thought. 'Otherwise, the government would never have acted this quickly.'
'For many countries on the other side of the planet, it's nighttime right now, and most people are asleep. Even if they were woken up by the Fire Thief's voice like Xu Beipeng was, most of them would probably do the same thing he did—assume it was a dream, roll over, and go back to sleep... Just how many people must have died?'
'As for this country, places like hospitals are probably disaster zones.'
'People who are just sleeping normally might be woken up by the Fire Thief's voice and have a chance to survive. But what about the patients in hospitals—the ones in comas from illness, or under anesthesia for surgery? How are they supposed to "wake up"?'
'The government must be receiving an avalanche of death reports from hospitals in every city. That's why they didn't dare to delay, issuing a nationwide announcement at the first possible moment.'
Guan Tong had thought of this, and many others surely had as well.
For instance...
Guan Tong looked at a supermarket not far away, where seven or eight able-bodied men were crowded around the entrance, arguing.
"I was here first! All of you, get out of the way!"
"Who the fuck cares about first come, first served right now! Hey, owner! Give me all the energy drinks in the store! I'll buy all of them! Right, and I'll take the coffee too!"
"What gives you the right to buy so many?!"
"Because I've got the money! None of your damn business!"
"You motherfucker!"
"Hey, talk it out, don't start a fight!"