Chapter 1

Since the post Li Tianran published was deleted very quickly, not many people saw it.

And even if some did see it, most would think it was just a prank and wouldn't pay any attention to it.

On a mixed-up online community like a forum, too many "fishing" posts are published every day, such as "I, Qin Shi Huang, need money..." "I am Ultraman Tiga's human host. Golza will invade Earth in 24 hours. I need 300 for travel expenses to return to the Land of Light to replenish energy. By the way, Gaia and Taro are with me..." Compared to those eye-catching posts, the apocalyptic message Li Tianran posted was unoriginal. Some people accidentally opened it, then immediately clicked the "x" in the upper right corner.

In addition, the forum was flooded with posts, and the post seeking Li Tianran was quickly pushed down, landing on the dozens of pages later.

Li Tianran rubbed his chin, closed the forum, and didn't plan to contact the other party actively.

In this apocalypse where dangers occur frequently, exposing his identity before the situation is clear is tantamount to seeking death.

Who knows what the other party is thinking?

After closing the forum, Li Tianran turned on the TV, ready to browse the news.

However, all the TV stations were broadcasting recordings. There were no reports about this anomaly at all, and the evening news, which was originally scheduled to be broadcast on the hour, was already seven minutes late.

The TV was still showing some pointless soap operas.

Seeing this scene, Li Tianran's mood became heavier.

Even the evening news can't be broadcast normally, what does that mean?

There are only two possibilities.

First, the media signal is also disturbed by radiation and cannot conduct normal live broadcasts.

But this possibility is basically zero because he just logged into the forum, and the network signal is normal.

Second, the consequences and losses caused by this anomaly are too serious. Even the higher-ups dare not report the truth to the public at this time, fearing it will cause greater and more uncontrollable riots!

"Are people already dying?" Li Tianran stood in front of the window, holding the railing with both hands, a trace of worry appearing in his brow.

…

The reality was worse than Li Tianran imagined.

7:00 PM.

Nancheng Central Hospital.

The emergency ward was already full, and some patients, unable to get a bed, could only lie in the corridor, groaning in pain.

A scene of gloom and misery, like a living hell.

"Director! Bed 2 is experiencing rapid breathing, a sharp drop in blood pressure, and bleeding points in the chest cavity!"

"Doctor Liu! Bed 6's heart has stopped!"

"Immediately notify the operating room for rescue, prepare to inject adrenaline!"

"Director... there are no vacant spots in the operating room!"

In the hospital, countless doctors and nurses hurried back and forth. In the midst of wailing, even their conversations were shouted.

Within three hours, one hundred and thirty-two critically ill patients were sent to the central hospital.

The symptoms were the same.

Rapid fibrosis of the lungs, rapid perforation of the stomach and intestines.

After questioning, it was learned that they were all residents of nearby suburbs. Either they had eaten vegetables stored in their own earthen cellars, or they had eaten mutated cattle and sheep. Within ten minutes, they developed symptoms of rapid breathing, and then quickly deteriorated. More than fifty people had stopped breathing when they were sent to the hospital.

Director Wang of the emergency room had bloodshot eyes. Even with his forty years of medical experience, he could not find any treatment method to deal with this sudden critical illness.

He could only use machines and cardiac stimulants to forcibly keep these critically ill patients alive.

But it could only last a few more hours.

After a few hours, these patients would still inevitably stop breathing due to the failure of all organs.

"This is an acute poisoning symptom, but the poisoning effect is completely different from any known element in modern medicine! There is no targeted drug!" Director Wang forced himself to calm down and said to his assistant, "You immediately issue an announcement in the name of the hospital, notify the media and the publicity department, that all residents of Nancheng should no longer eat their own stored vegetables and fruits!"

"In addition, immediately find a family member of a patient and go to the suburbs to get some vegetable samples that caused the poisoning and send them to the laboratory!"

"Yes!" The assistant answered loudly.

Then the assistant was silent for a moment, looked at Director Wang and said, "Director, just now my classmates who were assigned to other city hospitals told me that their hospitals have also received hundreds of similar patients, plus the sun's collapse... this may be a catastrophe sweeping humanity."

The director pushed his glasses and asked, "What do you want to say?"

The assistant's lips moved, and he asked in an almost tearful tone, "Can we... can we survive this disaster safely?"

…

9:00 PM.

Li Tianran finished cleaning up the dishes and had a moment to rest.

Han Han was still sitting on the sofa watching TV without a care in the world, watching something called *Balala the Fairies*... The protagonists wore exaggeratedly colored costumes, waved magic wands, and only needed to open their mouths and shout a few slogans to eliminate evil.

It was a very childish plot, but Han Han laughed so hard that she leaned back and forth.

The chaos and changes outside had nothing to do with her.

"I am Ling Meixue, Dage is Youle Prince! I am pink... Dage is blue, Xiao Hei is the Dark Lord of Gulala, dark, da da da, I will eliminate you!" Han Han gestured with her hand like a magic wand, and flaunted her power at Xiao Hei.

Xiao Hei lay beside the sofa, helplessly cooperating with Han Han, rolling on the ground, with his tongue hanging out, looking like he was defeated.

A hint of "caring for the naughty child" was revealed in his eyes...

Carefree happiness is the privilege of children and dogs, but Li Tianran could not enjoy it at all. He looked fondly at the two little things playing happily beside the sofa, and entered the news website again.

This time, an emergency report had been pinned to the top.

"As of 21:03 on November 20, 2025, the number of deaths in the Yanhuang Alliance: 38,021!"

"Global death toll: 486,527!"

Li Tianran's pupils suddenly shrank, and he quickly followed the report to read on.

These numbers were shocking, representing fresh lives!

Li Tianran quickly finished reading the report. The reason for those people's deaths was simple: poisoning!

Li Tianran knew very well that this was because they had eaten radiated vegetables, fruits, and some mutated livestock meat.

He still underestimated the curiosity of some foodies.

For some "food bloggers" who can eat centipedes and bats, some radiated fruits and vegetables and mutated livestock cannot scare them at all, but instead aroused their interest.

What shocked him even more was that, according to the report, nearly a thousand traces of mutated wild beasts and even mutated humans had appeared in many parts of the world.

Li Tianran originally thought that the probability of two percent was not high, and there shouldn't be so many mutations, but he forgot one thing. No matter how low the probability, the world's population base is so large, plus the herbivorous wild animals in some nature reserves, when multiplied together, even a probability of two percent is terrifyingly large!

At the end of the report, written in striking red font:

Warning to all citizens of the Yanhuang Federation, do not continue to consume fruits and vegetables stored at home, and do not consume mutated livestock meat until further notice!

There were not many characters in the entire report, only a little over two hundred words.

Compared with the news that used to discuss even social morality issues such as extortion with thousands of words, this report on the sudden change in the world environment was pitifully short.

But Li Tianran knew a sentence about news reports very well.

The fewer the words, the bigger the thing!

He continued to scroll down and saw that within ten minutes, there were already hundreds of thousands of comments.

"Seeking to purchase! Our city is locked down, and there is no surplus food at home. Who can resell some? I will buy it at ten times the price!"

"The largest grain merchant in our city was arrested for driving up prices!"

"Scary! I just threw away all the fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator at home, and washed my hands three or four times with disinfectant..."

"All the grain fields were destroyed within a few hours. Will there be a famine? The rice and noodles in the supermarket downstairs have been emptied. I am going to purchase a batch in the countryside!"

Li Tianran looked at these comments. He guessed right. When the disaster began to show its fangs, the resources that people cared about most were indeed food.

Just then, his cell phone suddenly rang.

The note was... Zhong Ling.