The Age Without Electricity

On September 17, 2027, at 2:07 p.m., all electricity on Earth vanished in the same second. There was no warning, no explosion, no war. Phones, power grids, generators, ventilators, pacemakers: everything that lit up or made a sound went dark overnight. The engine that kept human civilization running had stalled. Shen Che, an emergency room doctor, used a lighter to save a child on the operating table in the darkness after the surgical lights went out. What he didn't know was that the city's food, medicine, and order, along with everything everyone had taken for granted, were slowly crumbling away with the power. At the same time, an eerie blue light welled up from a fissure on the outskirts of the city. It spread along the paths of the old power grid. Fields were reborn, gates opened on their own, and someone heard a heartbeat deep underground in the light. Some said the electricity was coming back. Others called it a miracle. Still others said the world was tired of being exploited by humanity and had taken the power back. In a world without electricity, some struggled in hell while others relearned how to live beneath the stars. Candlelight, stoves, ox carts, handwritten missing-person notices: people were forced to face one another. The civilization humanity had built over two hundred years came crashing down, but humanity itself had not yet fallen. And the circle of blue light underground was slowly, steadfastly growing its own veins, with this city as its breeding ground. It was watching, waiting to see whether you people could survive without it. Theme: After a global blackout, civilization must kindle its flame anew