Jiang City, in the afternoon, the breeze was gentle and warm.
A faint dazzling glint flickered on the balcony of a high-rise apartment, the man looked up toward the sun, checked the time on his watch, and then closed the cover of his astronomical telescope.
Beyond the city, under the clouds, there was an eerie silence, and in the sky, that huge cloud mass stood still like a mountain.
Drip drip, drip drip, the sound of the watch's alarm went off.
17:00 in the afternoon, there was still an hour and a half till dusk.
The man pulled up an iron chain, and a specially made alloy gate rose outside the floor-to-ceiling window, as the light inside the room gradually disappeared.
Sunlight streaked through the gaps in the alloy panels, casting linear bands of light across the living room filled with supplies.
A strange noise arose, pausing the man's actions as he listened intently.
Suddenly, his complexion changed.
He took his Short Knife, which was for self-defense, and clipped it to his waist, then cautiously went out and climbed the stairs to the roof terrace.
A helicopter approached from afar, flying low, its massive rotor noise growing deafening.
The man pulled out a long water hose from nowhere, with a tattered orange cloth tied to the end, and quickly waved it towards the helicopter.
On the helicopter, the girl wearing headphones spotted the swath of orange, and silently traced her fingers across the window.
The pilot at the front also noticed the orange color on the rooftop, and turned to ask tentatively.
The man, known as Mr. Wen, suited and booted, glanced outside the window, his expression indifferent as he closed his eyes, "Wishful thinking. Who cares about the lives and deaths of these poor wretches!"
The pilot remained silent.
Mr. Wen noticed the girl's gaze and said loudly, "What, getting sentimental?"
"Remember, they're not like us. If tomorrow were the end of the world, we would be the last to die, you understand?!"
The girl's expression was cold, her gaze fixed outside the window, showing disdain for the man's words.
Above the horizon, the helicopter roared past.
The man on the distant rooftop watched this unfold, and casually lowered the pole, his gaze lingering.
"Damn it, such a good plane, what a pity..."
Minutes later, an urgent alarm suddenly sounded inside the helicopter.
"Danger of stalling - danger of stalling"
"Losing lift suddenly, might have hit an unknown air current," the young co-pilot's face paled as he frantically tried to maintain the flying posture.
Panic ensued among all from the sudden crisis.
"We are in the air, is it possible that we've encountered something ghostly in broad daylight?" the previously composed Mr. Wen in the backseat yelled first.
The pilot glanced at the onboard radar and detected nothing unusual. At that moment, the light in the cockpit changed abruptly as if covered by a shadow; sensing something, he quickly leaned out to look up at the sky.
That glance caused his pupils to shrink and his face turn ashen white.
A peculiar shadow flickered in and out of sight within the massive cloud overhead, darkening the sky!
The clouds churned, and the wind whipped up violently!
The helicopter was caught by a massive suction force, uncontrollably ascending.
"Damn it! Captain, what do we do?"
The co-pilot, confused, looked to the captain for guidance but saw that he already seemed fixated on something, which prompted him to follow the gaze.
As the scant clouds dissipated and they climbed higher, the two in the cockpit finally saw the shadow within the cloud mass.
The shadow in the clouds... it was a gigantic humanoid mummy!
The humanoid mummy floated face down amidst the clouds, its immense size akin to a floating landmass, with more than ten kilometers just in visible torso length from the cloud cover.
Immobile in the sky, it looked deceptively still, its entire form gray and dark. One could clearly see skin folds as deep as valleys, and the pitch-black, lifeless eyes exuded a sinister pressure as it hovered over the city.
At this moment, screams erupted in the uncontrollable helicopter!
The girl in the back seat turned pale, her pupils slowly consumed by darkness.
The hurricane tore at the helicopter's fuselage; this multi-ton industrial artifact was now but a speck of dust in the air.
The invisible suction swallowed it upwards in an instant, and soon it vanished into the clouds, out of sight.
Far away on the rooftop, Lin Xian watched this scene, his expression slightly grim.
At that moment, a mysterious light flashed on the horizon line, and Lin Xian, realizing something, spat out "Damn it," then quickly made his way back to his residence.
He pulled down the window shutter, sprayed deodorizer in the stairwell, and closed the iron door.
Waiting for the night to come.
Drip drip, drip drip.
At 18:45 sharp, the second flash of mysterious light shone beyond the shutter, the sun was falling, and the entire city was engulfed in darkness.
Beneath this curtain of black, sinister whispers arose in Dark Alleys; piercing howls echoed through the darkness - terror was approaching, the uncanny was descending!
The record player spun a mellow jazz tune; Lin Xian, wearing an apron, leisurely opened a can of beans in the kitchen, while the aroma of tomato and beef soup wafted from the electric stove.
A freshly vibrant coriander sprig, today's bounty from the rooftop garden, lifted the spirits in these hard times.
He sprinkled the chopped coriander into the pot, not sparing even a small piece that clung to the knife.
Outside the window was a desperate and hollow night; footsteps sounded from beneath the floorboards, and something sinister seemed to be breathing in the depths of the dark corridor...