Fall of Daylight

Friday, August 17

Lin Mochen ran five kilometers that day, ate a serving of chicken cutlet rice, and came across a news story: “Wushan Third People's Hospital Admits Three Patients with High Fevers; Cause Under Investigation.” He glanced at it and scrolled past, then went back to watching funny videos.

It was the last whole day of the old world.

Seventy-two hours later, the city fell silent. An unknown virus turned those it infected into something impossible to define. They weren't the slow, shambling zombies of traditional stories. They could sprint, jump, tumble, and shoot. Those who had been long jumpers in life could leap seven or eight meters; former gymnastics stars could perform perfect backflips on the high bar. Their athletic abilities remained intact, twisted and amplified to the extreme.

And at the epicenter of the disaster stood one of the nation's top sports universities.

Sprinters, long jump champions, gymnastics prodigies, soccer forwards... The classmates and rivals of the past became the campus's deadliest apex predators. No System, no golden finger, no script giving him a second chance. All Lin Mochen could rely on was his deep understanding of the laws of athletics and a screwdriver he'd found in his dorm's toolbox.

He wrote a line on a dormitory sticky note: Stay calm. Survive.

After daylight fell, the long night had only just begun.