Chapter 27: The First Impact: Across the Ocean

To the ancients, the vast Milky Way was truly boundless—a diameter of one hundred thousand light-years, beyond the reach of mortals even if they walked to the end of the universe.

And on the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, a tiny planetary system suddenly underwent a profound and far-reaching change.

In the Solar System, the blue planet, which accounted for only 0.0003% of the mass, suddenly swelled thirtyfold in volume, like a balloon being inflated.

As if a marble had become a ping-pong ball.

From space, winds and clouds churned across the blue planet’s surface; continents expanded relentlessly, and oceans grew ever larger.

Miraculously, no matter how the blue planet changed, its continental shelves did not sink, sea levels did not drop, and the air did not thin.

It was as if all the added mass had been generated out of nothing.

On the surface, the drastic environmental changes triggered massive earthquakes.

Waves hundreds of meters high surged across the seas, while mountains in uninhabited lands collapsed and rose repeatedly.

Only regions inhabited by humans, protected by the force of cosmic laws, escaped major crustal movements.

Yet even there, drastic changes occurred.

The distances between houses, between buildings, steadily widened.

First, concrete roads split apart; new land, appearing out of nowhere, gradually spread from the center, filling the gaps between buildings.

Even more astonishingly, this newly appeared land came naturally with flowers, grass, trees, vines, thickets, and even birds and beasts.

As if shaped by nature itself.

Simultaneously, countless spatial fissures began appearing across the blue planet; existing ones rapidly expanded, and silver light began to dot the earth.

Innumerable extraterrestrial creatures began pouring through these fissures, piercing the celestial disk, drawn by the abundant cosmic laws on the blue planet.

They rushed excitedly toward individual human survivors.

Survivors in the eastern hemisphere, within China’s longitudinal range, were fortunate—it was midnight, and no one dared venture outside.

The extraterrestrial creatures could not enter buildings or damage them, so casualties remained minimal.

But survivors in non-Chinese regions of the eastern hemisphere and the entire western hemisphere suffered terribly; some bold individuals had been hunting zombies outdoors.

The sudden transformation left them stranded, unable to return home, and they were torn apart by swarms of extraterrestrial creatures, their bodies ripped open and dismembered.

The death toll was horrific.

…

“Max, how was your haul today?” a tall, muscular white man wielding a club asked another white man dressed in Tang attire.

The man in Tang attire was equally muscular, wielding a broadsword, slashing through zombie crowds with wide, sweeping strikes.

“William, don’t call me Max. Call me Tang Sancai.”

No sooner had he spoken than a single slash severed a zombie’s head, sending it rolling to the ground.

William chuckled, smashing the skull of the zombie before him with his club: “You’re China’s number one wanted fugitive, and you still use that name? Whatever, I’m too lazy to argue. I’m just two hundred experience points away from leveling up to Level 3—I’ll surpass you soon.”

“Heh, really?”

Max stepped lightly, moving like a bird in flight, weaving through the zombie horde, his broadsword flashing—five zombies before him fell like cut wheat.

He cleared the path ahead of them entirely.

“I’m only a hundred experience points away.”

William’s eyes gleamed with envy: “Your Chinese martial arts are impressive—what’s it called? Eight Steps Chasing Cicadas? And you even formed a specialty.”

William and Max were both instructors for the Enders unit of the United States.

The Enders—named for their purpose: to annihilate all things, to end everything—were a secret special forces unit of the United States.

They specialized in assassination, subversion, arms trafficking, and other covert operations.

The rise and fall of many small nations’ governments rested on a single decision by the Enders unit.

Naturally, anyone chosen to serve as an instructor within it was extraordinary.

William, for instance, mastered Krav Maga and possessed physical strength near the human limit—his strength alone reached 16 points.

A single swing of his arms delivered 240 kilograms of force; an ordinary person struck by his punch would suffer broken bones and torn tendons, and a vital hit meant instant death.

Max was even more legendary: raised in China from childhood, he trained under a Chinese martial artist, then killed his master and betrayed his school.

He later joined the Enders as an instructor, using the Chinese martial arts he learned to train the unit, and carried out multiple missions assassinating Chinese scientists in the United States.

He was one of China’s most wanted targets.

Unfortunately, his martial prowess was formidable—not only did he possess 16 points of strength, but through integration of Chinese martial arts, his agility matched it, also reaching 16 points.

Added to his long-term concealment within Enders bases, China had almost no opportunity to eliminate him.

Do not underestimate 16 points of agility—just that alone made him the king of Enders instructors.

Theoretically, 15 points of agility is already the human physiological limit—a 0.1-second reaction speed.

The theoretical maximum of 18 points exists only to sustain that limit longer.

After all, reaction speed is affected by focus; each point beyond 15 extends the duration of the limit state.

Of course, Fang Shi was an exception—he could perfectly unleash agility beyond 15 because he was no longer human.

After the apocalypse, William and Max happened to be in a small town.

Their long military training kept them calm; after capturing a few zombies and studying the apocalypse, they began their monster-hunting leveling journey.

Due to lack of information on Fang Shi, their zombie-killing process remained orderly and unhurried.

Combined with their research on zombies, the apocalypse, attempts to contact the outside world, and the United States’ vast, sparsely populated territory,

Despite starting with higher base stats than Fang Shi and fighting in pairs, their leveling efficiency fell far short of his.

Yet even so, they were nearly at Level 3.

“Boom!”

In the early morning, China time, the town began to change.

First, the road between William and Max split open; expanding land separated and isolated them.

That wasn’t alarming—Max simply stepped forward, crossing the gap in one stride, standing beside William, eyes wide with wonder at the phenomenon.

Then, ten meters away, a spatial fissure suddenly appeared and rapidly formed.

A creature emerged—its head triangular, jaws gaping wide, forelimbs extended, hind limbs upright, dragging a long tail.

It was a Deinonychus, the creature ravaging this town.

“Damn!” Max exclaimed. How could a creature that only appeared at night surface during daylight?

The Deinonychus was Level 3, with 15 strength, 15 agility, 19 constitution, 3 natural armor, and 34 health points.

It possessed the specialties of Improved Initiative and Run.

Its claws were razor-sharp, its bite force immense, its lethality extreme.

Its tail moved with flexibility, maintaining balance and enabling rapid turns; when needed, it could become a weapon—a single whip-tail strike delivered a crushing blow.

Such a terrifying killing machine did not frighten William or Max.

Fang Shi could take one on alone—they could too.

But killing such creatures was time-consuming and exhausting, especially at night, when Deinonychus with their low-light vision moved far more nimbly than humans.

The energy spent killing one could have eliminated dozens of zombies, with far less risk.

Moreover, Deinonychus had one fatal trait: they always appeared in groups. One sighting meant at least two more nearby.

This factor had previously deterred them from attempting to kill even a single one.

Sure enough, the moment this Deinonychus emerged from the fissure, five more followed instantly.

And that wasn’t the end—more Deinonychus continued emerging from the fissure.

William and Max had already fled the moment the second one appeared.

This was no time for heroics—what else would you do but run?

But before they’d gone far, another fissure opened ahead, and three Deinonychus had already emerged.

They spotted William and Max, roared, and charged straight at them.

“Fu**.”

Turning back, the Deinonychus behind them were closing in.

…

“Splash.”

Fang Shi stood in the bathroom, washing his body with a bucket of water.

For three days, grime had built up across his entire body; a single rub peeled off a thick layer of dirt.

After an hour of washing, his skin was once again clean and white.

He paid no mind to the occasional tremors shaking the house, calmly enjoying this rare luxury of a bath in the apocalypse.

He was fully aware of the celestial changes outside—it was just the First Impact, wasn’t it? He’d seen it before in his previous life; nothing remarkable.

There would be a Second and Third Impact later—this was merely the beginning.

As for the mechanism behind it, it was beyond his current understanding.

His concern over the First Impact stemmed mostly from the threat of vastly increased extraterrestrial creatures, not the expansion of the heavens and earth.

But that didn’t mean the expansion posed no danger.

After the expansion, physical separation isolated human survivors, turning cities into islands.

Even within the same city, within the same neighborhood, the distance between survivors widened.

Coupled with the increased number of monsters, this physical isolation intensified.

Human survivors found it harder to organize and far less able to wield collective strength.

“Next, I’ll prepare properly. Tomorrow morning, I’ll activate the Dungeon Key—I hope it randomly selects a dungeon rich with monsters, ideally one that lets me reach Level 4.”

As for the Dungeon Key’s evaluation, Fang Shi sneered.

Young dragons have no nests to speak of; they are mostly still under their parents’ care, and if there were no level restrictions, whether one could survive going there would depend on fate.

Before his rebirth, he had never heard of anyone using a Black Iron Key to enter a Great Dragon’s nest—Silver Key would be more plausible.

However, the appearance of the Secret Realm Keys gave Fang Shi a new option, sparing him from immediately facing a violent first strike.

Merely this one point qualifies as a great stroke of fortune.