Era of Cataclysm: I Ignite a Sequence in the Rules-Based Apocalypse

In the first year of the Ashen Era, a global catastrophe struck. Solar storms tore apart electromagnetic civilization, while "Rule Anomaly Zones" appeared across the world. Anyone who entered had to obey the rules posted on the walls. Those who broke them were "corrected" into monsters on the spot. Survivors huddled in safe houses, hoarding food and clinging to life, while the remaining government agency, the Catastrophe Management Bureau, used human bodies to seal off the anomaly zones. Chen Jin, an ordinary office worker who had stockpiled three years' worth of supplies before the apocalypse, awakened the only talent in all of humanity during his first encounter with a rule-based horror: Sequence Igniter. Every time he "cleared" a rule-based horror, he could devour it and turn it into a Sequence ability.

"Rule: Do not look in a mirror after midnight." He devoured the Mirror Monster and gained the Eye of Truth, which could see through lies.

"Rule: There can only be seven people in the corridor." The eighth person's shadow became his puppet.

Others saw the rules as death sentences. He saw them as experience packs.

But Chen Jin soon discovered that every Sequence he ignited brought him one step closer to understanding the source of the catastrophe. The rules were no natural disaster: they were an elimination test written for humanity by some being, and the talent known as "Igniter" was itself an "abnormal answer" circled on the test paper. As he ignited his way to the peak of the Sequences, the ultimate question came into view: Was this catastrophe truly a disaster, or a "selection" targeting the old humanity? And was he a survivor, or an ember left behind by those conducting the selection?