Chapter 1: The Apocalypse Arrives

Su Ning never imagined that in the year 9012, the apocalypse would arrive—and on a global scale.

As a freshly graduated intern, she only had one thought: If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone so far for this internship. It was as if ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through her heart.

Su Ning, 22 years old, a Chinese national from the Northeast, was now in the South. She had once dated a “jerk” ex-boyfriend, so she fled Jiangnan with her best friend Qiao Duoduo and Duoduo’s boyfriend, Huo Yang, hoping to sever all ties with the scumbag and never meet him again.

But unexpectedly, on this bright and sunny early April day, Su Ning’s mind suddenly received a prompt:

“Beep, the Apocalypse Game has begun, successfully integrated with Earth. Game initializing, loading %1”

Immediately, the spacious, bright office erupted in a chorus of shouts and exclamations: “What the—!”, “Holy crap!”, “Damn it!”, and other varying tones and volumes of swearing.

“Su-ge^[1]Lhaozi’s Note: I dont know why Su Ning is a female but, Duoduo call her as “ge” it means brother in english, it should be “Jie” sister in english but I leave it be … Continue reading did you hear the game’s voice?” came Qiao Duoduo’s trembling voice. “Su-ge” was her personal nickname^[2]Lhaozi: Oh, it was a personal nickname, maybe a joke between friends for Su Ning.

“Of course,” Su Ning said calmly, noticing a row of floating, semi-transparent prompt subtitles appearing at the bottom of her vision.

“Duoduo, I’m already at twenty percent,” Su Ning confirmed again.

“Yes, twenty-one percent. Su-ge, do you think running will help?” Qiao Duoduo felt her life had gone dark.

“Based on years of reading novels, running probably won’t help. I’ll contact my family first. You tell Huo Yang not to rush here—let’s see what’s going on. Who knows what this situation is?”

Watching the slow, steady loading bar, Su Ning just wanted to quickly contact her aloof mom and her saintly father. She gave simple instructions: find weapons, protect herself, and assess the game’s situation first. The Northeast near the imperial capital was vast and sparsely populated; guard the home, and she would return as soon as possible. If communication broke, they must not come looking for her—wait for her to get home.

After all, she knew exactly where home was. They must not come to Jiangnan and risk missing her.

Similarly, Qiao Duoduo reassured her parents and calmed Huo Yang, telling him to wait and observe the situation.

“Beep, game loading complete. Map regenerating.”

“Duoduo, the map is being generated—it’s coming!”

Su Ning and Qiao Duoduo clutched each other tightly, hands gripping each other’s clothes.

No one knew what would happen next. Everyone around anxiously watched the world outside the window.

Would this new map even resemble the world they once knew?

“Beep, map generation complete. Loading new map.”

Everyone felt a flash of white light. When they opened their eyes, they were in a massive square, with a few squads of silver-armored guards patrolling, and a handful of scattered buildings.

“Su-ge, is this the newbie village?”

“Duoduo, are those NPCs?”

“Beep, welcome players to log into the Apocalypse Game.”