"Cough, cough, cough! Please just call me Light-Gathering Drawer! Or Mr. Sen is fine too!" The author first reminded Haoyun.
Then, with an uncertain tone, he replied, "I don't know who the real mastermind behind all this is. It's like a thought that suddenly appeared in my mind and has been guiding my actions."
"A thought guiding your actions? Light-Gathering Drawer, can you explain that a bit more?" Haoyun pondered the two key points in the author's words as he continued questioning.
"Cough, cough, cough! Call me Light-Gathering Drawer or Mr. Sen," the author corrected Haoyun's address once again.
Then he answered, "It's a long story. You might think I'm making it up because everything sounds incredibly bizarre."
Dream Jia, hearing this, put aside her thoughts of equality among all beings and shrugged, "Huh! How bizarre can it be? Do you think the strange events we've experienced are few? Moreover, what could be stranger than characters from a novel suddenly jumping out to meet the real author?"
The author nodded in agreement with Dream Jia's reasoning. He then gestured politely, "Ahem! Sorry for chatting away without properly welcoming you both! Please, come with me to the humble abode first, and then I'll explain everything slowly!"
Since the author put it that way, Haoyun and Dream Jia stopped being overly polite. They followed the author out of the storage room and into the living room of his home. Despite the semi-basement nature of the private storage room where the author resided, his residence was not particularly upscale. In fact, it was just a small three-room suite on the ground floor. The building style, primarily constructed of red bricks, indicated it was an old-fashioned residence from many years ago.
The author's home was not only old but also covered in thick dust everywhere. It seemed that apart from the old desk piled high with manuscripts by the living room window and the heavily worn-out vintage sofa set, the author had never cleaned his room. Even in these areas where the author frequently used, they were only sporadically and lightly cleaned. Bedding and clothing used by the author were haphazardly piled on a single sofa chair of the sofa set. On the coffee table next to the sofa, several half-eaten instant noodle boxes were scattered, some of which had dried-up soup noodles covered in dust. This made the author's life look even more messy and destitute. Oh my, this guy is actually much messier than he looks! Haoyun withdrew his gaze, thinking disdainfully.
"You must have had a hard journey here. Why don't you sit and rest for a bit, and then we can chat slowly?" The author seemed unconcerned about his dirty and messy living environment. He warmly invited Haoyun and Dream Jia to sit down without even symbolically tidying the sofa.
"Oh dear! Please don't bother, we're not hungry or thirsty," Haoyun quickly intervened, fearing the author would brew tea with that filthy teapot. Haoyun was certain that even with his superhuman physique, he couldn't withstand the magical harm caused by tea brewed in such a dilapidated teapot!
"Light-Gathering Drawer, what do you mean you didn't know if we could actually come here?" Dream Jia swiftly changed the topic to stop the author from fussing over making tea.
Seeing that Haoyun and Dream Jia didn't want tea but were very eager to know the situation, the author stopped being polite. He sat down heavily at the desk piled with manuscripts and muttered quietly, "Light-Gathering Drawer, Mr. Sen, call me whatever you want."
Haoyun and Dream Jia remained expressionless, completely ignoring the author's protest. The author had no choice but to give up resistance and say, "Ah! Forget it! These are small matters! Let's get back to the main issue!"
At that moment, another strong roll of thunder reverberated outside, causing the simple chandelier in the living room to flicker dimly. As a result, the living room, already darkened by heavy curtains covering all the windows, became even darker. However, the author seemed unfazed by this. He paid no attention to the flickering lights and instead stood up again, walked to the window, and pulled back the thick curtains, saying, "But before we continue, I'd like to welcome you both to Earth."
Initially, Haoyun and Dream Jia had thought the dull thunder was due to an impending storm. But when the author drew back the curtains and they saw the scene outside clearly, both of them couldn't help but stand up in shock again. They saw that the sky outside was almost completely obscured by dense black clouds formed from yellow sand, and lightning resembling dragons' tongues were rampant in the dense clouds. Amid the scorching yellow sand-filled sky, these lightning strikes left terrifying fire marks.
The city outside the window appeared faintly through the swirling sandstorm, with vehicles strewn randomly across the streets. Haoyun could vaguely see several citizens struggling against the wind and sand, carrying their belongings. Across the street from the author's house, he also saw several people repeatedly blown down by the wind and sand but stubbornly getting up each time to kneel and pray towards the dusky sky. All these sights perfectly created an atmosphere of despair as if doomsday were imminent for the city. Even Haoyun and Dream Jia, feeling overwhelmed by the oppressive atmosphere, momentarily felt a sense of breathlessness.
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"What's going on? What happened here?" Dream Jia asked in astonishment.
"As you can see, our Earth is facing destruction. Everything is because of an unknown calamity that suddenly struck, pushing our world to the brink of collapse. Earth is on the verge of destruction!" The author spoke solemnly.
Following this, the author narrated the whole affair to Haoyun and his friend in detail. According to the author, the city where Haoyun and his friends currently reside is called Xiumu. Originally, the author and his family were all faculty members at Xiumu's highest educational institution. Therefore, although the author's life wasn't extravagantly wealthy, they enjoyed a comfortable life with stable income.
Later on, the author met their significant other, who also worked at the institution. After two years of courtship, they married and had a daughter. With a family of three established, the author not only found marital happiness but also smoothly ascended in their career. At this point, the author's life was so blissful, full of grand aspirations for the future. The author hoped to climb higher professionally through outstanding performance and provide a more prosperous life for the entire family.
The author's plans for the future were bright, but fate had other plans. Just over three years ago, the entire planet Earth suddenly plunged into turmoil. The natural ecological environment of Earth suffered irreparable damage overnight: dark clouds filled the sky, dust covered the land, rivers and seas began to evaporate in intense heat, and in many regions, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions emerged, engulfing areas in flames. Under the assault of unknown forces, Earth fell into a great catastrophe. Faced with the invisible and formidable destructive force upon Earth, humans could only live in fear and struggle in despair without seeing any hope.
However, it was precisely because of this sweeping global disaster that Earth's inhabitants set aside all grievances and conflicts, forming a global united defense force to try their best to overcome the catastrophe and safeguard Earth's peace. Yet, in the struggle of the past two years, despite discovering that Earth was rapidly approaching its end, the united defense force had not found any way to defeat this disaster. Scientists predicted based on the energy movements within Earth that it could survive only a few more years before completely declining due to continuous energy depletion. This was an enormous catastrophe for humanity on Earth. With no escape, humans had no choice but to accept their fate of destruction alongside Earth.
Eventually, the majority of people worldwide calmed down amid this immense disaster. Besides relentlessly seeking a breakthrough, humanity finally learned to accept the reality of approaching extinction. Thus, Earth's humans redirected their focus to daily life, hoping to at least spend the remaining time of their lives in happiness with family and friends.
Among those who couldn't accept this reality was the author. Since learning that humanity couldn't overcome this natural disaster, the author immediately fell into resentment and complaint against fate. The author felt humans were unlucky, their family was unlucky, and they themselves were extremely unlucky. There were so many planets in the universe, many of which didn't harbor life, yet why did Earth, which nurtured countless lives, have to face such ruthless destruction? What's more, the author couldn't understand why their life, which had just become happy and fulfilling, had to suffer such a fate.
Always inclined to blame others, the author couldn't accept the impending reality of accompanying the world toward destruction, preventing them from facing it with the same acceptance and laughter as others. Consequently, while other faculty members gradually returned to their work, preparing to continue their enthusiastic work as usual and calmly await death's arrival, the author, with a despondent spirit, secluded themselves in their old home, sinking into despair day after day.
The author wanted to escape from facing the fact of death at the peak of their life. They wanted to vent out the injustice and cruelty of fate but didn't know how to act. After much thought, the author suddenly conceived the idea of expressing everything—from their life story, love for their family, aspirations for life, to their accusations against the cruel reality of fate—through writing. Thus, the author began to write tirelessly day and night.
Pausing here, the author changed to a strange tone and continued, "But just as I was about to immerse myself wholeheartedly into writing, something strange happened. Just after I conceived the idea of writing an autobiography, my mind began to become unusually active. Ideas flowed through my mind like a tidal wave. Then, many plots seemed to be forcefully implanted into my brain, allowing me to write extensively without much deliberation. As soon as I put pen to paper, I could write lengthy paragraphs fluently."
"So, where did the strange thing happen?" Dream Jia couldn't help asking. From the author's current narration, she couldn't see anything strange at all.
The author made a calming gesture and continued, "The strange thing is that as soon as I entered the writing state, it was as if I was sleepwalking in a dream. My mind became confused, and after completing the first day of writing, I quickly fell asleep due to mental exhaustion. That sleep might have been the most peaceful sleep I've had in years! Upon waking up, I felt extremely relaxed in body and mind, even filled with hope for the future again. So, I regained my spirits and plunged back into writing. However, when I reviewed the content I wrote two days ago, I was surprised to find that everything I wrote on the first day had absolutely nothing to do with my personal life."
"I started to wonder, was someone playing a prank on me? Did someone sneak in while I was asleep and replace my manuscript with another article? So, I immediately contacted my family, but they had been volunteering for an end-of-world prayer event organized by the school since the day before I started writing, and they had been at the school all this time, too busy to leave."
"Then, I conducted a comprehensive inspection of the doors and windows at home, confirming that there were no signs of forced entry. Finally, I had to focus my investigation back on the manuscript. That's when I was astonished to find that while the content of the manuscript had nothing to do with what I wanted to write about, the handwriting was identical to mine! These manuscripts were clearly written by my own hands!"