Chapter 12: A Clever Method of Awakening

At the same time, more than a thousand kilometers away in a house in Golden City, Kong Zhe suddenly turned his gaze in a particular direction.

Just moments ago, he had sensed an intense surge of magical energy. He rushed to the window and craned his neck to peer into the distance. The sky was blue and dotted with clouds, seemingly no different from usual. Yet, as someone attuned to magic, Kong Zhe could distinctly feel a tremendous force of magical energy sweeping rapidly toward him from afar—drawing closer with each passing second.

“So it’s finally beginning!”

Kong Zhe understood that the appearance of this magical cloud marked the true advent of the apocalypse. He couldn’t quite say what he felt at that moment—panic, anxiety, and even a faint trace of anticipation. He noticed his own hands trembling slightly.

A sharp click snapped him out of his thoughts—the sound of the door unlocking. He turned to see the woman opening the door, about to flee outside. Alarmed, Kong Zhe sprang forward, seized her, and slammed the door shut.

The woman struggled violently, flailing her arms and legs in a desperate attempt to break free. In her panic, she bit down hard on Kong Zhe’s arm.

Damn it, I’m trying to save you, and you bite me? Stung by pain and anger, Kong Zhe flung her to the floor and shouted, “Take a good look outside! If you want to die, don’t drag me down with you!”

The woman cried out in pain as she hit the ground. At his words, she instinctively looked out the window—and what she saw left her rooted to the spot, the sting in her body instantly forgotten.

The entire sky had been swallowed by thick, heavy clouds, and where the sun once hung was now only a faint, ghostly halo. The world had grown dim. Snowflakes began to fall, at first drifting gently but soon swirling ever faster. In less than half a minute, the snow was no longer floating but pelting down in heavy clumps, merging with a fierce wind. In an instant, the city was transformed into a world of white.

Kong Zhe stared in shock at the scene before him. Though he had witnessed it once before in his previous life, the awe it inspired was undiminished—this was a blizzard straight out of a fantasy epic.

The temperature plummeted. It was the depths of winter, and Golden City’s outdoor temperature had already hovered near freezing. Now, even inside the once-warm apartment, Kong Zhe felt the chill seep in. As for the people out on the streets, it was surely even worse.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream split the air from the street below.

The crowd instinctively turned toward the source. In the distance, a green-skinned fishman howled, clutching a heart still dripping with blood. At his feet lay the body of a woman, her chest a hollowed cavity.

But that was only the beginning. Behind the fishman appeared one, two, three—soon, at least a hundred magical beasts of all descriptions surged down the street.

There were white-furred dire wolves, towering snow-mountain yetis, horned owl-beasts, and in the sky, shrieking harpies. Every one of them had eyes aglow with a crimson light as they swept into the throng, beginning a massacre.

The street descended into utter chaos.

“Help me!”

“What are those monsters?!”

“They’re killing people!”

People who had only moments before crowded together now scattered in all directions. Faced with the blizzard, the freezing cold, and now these monsters, everyone’s first instinct was to flee indoors.

The woman, witnessing the carnage outside, shrieked and collapsed in terror.

Kong Zhe did not linger at the window. He returned to the room and retrieved the black box he had just found. Now, the runes on its surface glimmered with a faint dark-gold light, and it was clear that a vast energy surged within it.

Without hesitation, he bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the runes. The moment his blood touched the box, it blazed with radiant, shifting colors. Kong Zhe could feel, unmistakably, the connection between himself and the box.

Success!

A surge of joy filled Kong Zhe’s heart. The box was now bound to him—no one else could use it, even if they stole it.

Now, as magic flooded the world, human beings would gradually begin to awaken to magic as well. The timing of this awakening depended on one’s affinity for magic; Kong Zhe’s own magical aptitude was mediocre—he had only awakened in the second month after the apocalypse in his previous life.

But this time, he had no intention of waiting two months. He would use a shortcut to awaken immediately.

His magical talent was nothing special, but by placing the box—brimming with magical energy—inside his own body, he could create the illusion of an abundance of magic within himself, far surpassing the threshold for awakening.