Brian Carter closed his eyes, trying to forget what had just happened. But that scene kept replaying in his mind, and he couldn’t forget it even before going to bed that night, causing him to suffer from insomnia until he finally drifted off in a daze in the middle of the night.

When he woke up the next day, it was already 7:30 in the morning. Brian Carter hurried to get up and brush his teeth—he had to catch the 8 o’clock bus. He quickly got dressed, grabbed his backpack, and was about to leave, but just as his hand touched the doorknob, a melodious and smooth tune suddenly rang out.

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...”

Brian Carter turned his head in astonishment, looking for the source of the sound in the room, but couldn’t find it. Yet the song “Jingle Bells” kept playing. There were no lyrics, but everyone knew what song it was.

Brian Carter listened carefully, but couldn’t locate where the sound was coming from—it seemed to come from all directions.

The next moment, Brian Carter froze, then ran to the window at a speed he’d never achieved before, looking into the distance at the black giant tower in the center of Suzhou. He saw the tower flashing with colorful lights, changing with the melody of the children’s song. When the last note fell, the colorful lights vanished, and everything returned to darkness.

A crisp, childlike voice rang out, with the high-pitched, sharp, and bright tone unique to children.

“Ding dong! November 15, 2017, Earth is now online.”

Chapter Two: Who Stole My Book?

The whole world.

At that moment, all of humanity stopped what they were doing and looked toward the nearest black tower.

They had never realized how enormous the black tower was. No matter how far away they were, they could clearly see tiny blue dots of light appearing on the pitch-black surface of the tower. The dots swirled and flickered, forming a string of characters like an old computer that had crashed, sliding rapidly across the tower before finally converging in the center into a line of blue text—

“Ding dong! Within three days, all players must eliminate any one player, including but not limited to through gameplay.”

The crisp child’s voice sounded at the same time.

Brian Carter stood on the balcony, staring at the tower without blinking. The cold autumn wind brushed his cheeks, yet a bead of sweat the size of a bean slid down his forehead. He stared intently at the black tower, but it had returned to calm—the blue text disappeared, the child’s voice was gone, and it looked no different from before.

Half an hour later, Brian Carter arrived at the entrance of the library. Countless people crowded around the black tower, packed so tightly there was no room to move, the crowd even spilling onto the road in front of the library.

The noisy, crowded throng blocked the city center. Brian Carter watched for a while, then turned and walked into the library.

Ten minutes later, Director Smith came to the service desk: “Go home for today, no need to work. Wait at home for further notice.”

Little Scott came over excitedly, unable to hold back her question: “Director, is this about the black tower? The black tower made a sound this morning, did you hear it? What’s going on? Where did that thing come from? Is it really the end of the world?”

Director Smith immediately put on a stern face: “What end of the world? Don’t talk nonsense. You young people shouldn’t be spouting such things or reading all that rubbish.”

Little Scott was the youngest in the library, a girl born in 1996. There was a trace of fear in her round eyes, but even more excitement and curiosity. As soon as Director Smith left, she said, “Brian Carter, you heard it too, right? The black tower spoke. It said something about going online, and something about elimination.”

Brian Carter packed up to go home, feeling irritable, and replied perfunctorily, “I didn’t notice.”

“Do you think this is the end of the world? I don’t think so. If it really was, where are the zombies? The black tower said it wants to eliminate players—could it be trying to turn us into zombies? Is this some kind of government conspiracy...? But that can’t be right, the internet says black towers have appeared all over the world, and they all spoke today. What country could pull that off? Not even America could.”

Brian Carter really wasn’t in the mood to discuss this. For some reason, ever since he heard the black tower speak and saw that line of text appear, his heart had been racing.

A normal adult’s heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. When Little Scott was talking just now, Brian Carter counted.

His heart rate was now 130.

But he didn’t feel unwell—just anxious, as if something was wrong.

Brian Carter looked up to his left and right. The service desk was in the center of the reading room, surrounded by bookshelves. To the left were humanities books, to the right, history books. He didn’t know what he was looking for. Where his gaze landed, sunlight streamed through the windows, and tiny motes of dust danced in the air.

“Brian Carter!” A loud female voice snapped Brian Carter out of his daze. Little Scott sounded a bit annoyed: “I called you several times just now. What’s wrong with you? What are you thinking about, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Brian Carter wiped his face with his hand—his palm was damp. He turned to look at his colleague. “...It’s nothing.”

His heart beat even faster.

Little Scott picked up her bag. “I want to go see the black tower. Do you want to come with me? I saw a lot of people there when I came into the library. It’s on our way anyway, want to go together?”

Brian Carter shook his head quickly. “I’m going home.”