Extraterrestrial demons invaded; I laid the groundwork eight years in advance.

Thirtieth day after the spiritual energy has been restored.

Countdown to the second large-scale invasion: 6 hour.

An old residential area in the northern suburbs of Shanghai.

It was already 8 p.m. when Zhang Wei opened his door. He works as a dispatcher at a logistics company and had worked three extra hours that day.

The rain started in the evening and got heavier at night. He was soaked through in just a few steps from the car to the entrance of his building.

As soon as the door opened, warm yellow light shone out, carrying the aroma of food.

"Daddy's home!"

A little girl, about three or four years old, jumped off the sofa, ran over barefoot, and hugged his leg.

Zhang Wei bent down and picked up his daughter, wrapping his arm around her with his dry arm. His daughter touched his rain-soaked hair with her little hand and giggled, "Daddy's soaked to the bone!"

"Why are you all wet? Go change your clothes quickly, don't catch a cold." His wife poked her head out from the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a spatula. The clay pot on the stove was bubbling and steaming, and there were two dishes and a bowl of steaming ginger soup on the table.

Zhang Wei changed into dry clothes and sat down at the dining table.

The daughter sat in the high chair next to him, wearing a safety bracelet on her wrist, clumsily scooping rice from her bowl with a spoon, making a mess of the table. His wife ladled him a bowl of pork rib soup and added a piece of ginger to it.

"It's raining so hard today, and your company didn't even say they'd release people sooner," the wife muttered.

Zhang Wei smiled but didn't answer. He picked up the bowl and took a sip of soup, the warmth spreading from his throat to his stomach. Watching his daughter tilt her head and earnestly poke at her rice with a spoon, and seeing his wife turn and go back to the kitchen to serve the dishes, he suddenly felt that all the fatigue of the day was nothing.

He patted his daughter's head and whispered, "Xiaoxiao, Daddy will come home early tomorrow to be with you."

The daughter looked up and smiled like a flower.

Countdown to the second large-scale invasion: 5 hour.

Shanghai, Binjiang Garden residential community.

Su Wan sat on the sofa in the living room, a thick project report spread out on her lap, her pen hovering above the paper, not writing a single word.

She had been in this position for a long time, her eyes fixed on the data in the report, but her mind was wandering elsewhere.

Zhou Yunqing came out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit and sat down next to her daughter: "What are you thinking about? Are you staring blankly at the report?" Su Wan snapped out of her reverie and closed the folder: "Nothing, just thinking about the project."

"Thinking about projects until you're practically spacing out?" Zhou Yunqing glanced at her daughter with a smile. "Are you in love?"

"Mom—" Su Wan drawled, "That's not true."

"So you check your phone every time it rings, who are you waiting for a message from?"

Su Wan flipped her phone over and placed it face down on the sofa: "Nobody. Just a friend."

"What friend?"

"Just friends." Su Wan stood up. "I'm going to sleep. I have a meeting tomorrow."

Zhou Yunqing watched her daughter walk towards the bedroom, then smiled and shook her head.

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Su Wan went into the bedroom and closed the door.

She leaned against the door, picked up her phone, and opened Shen Bai's chat window.

The last message was from a few days ago. She typed a few words, then stopped, stared at the screen for a few seconds, but still didn't send it.

She put her phone on the bedside table and turned off the light.

In the darkness, the sound of rain pattering outside the window.

She turned over, then over again, just beginning to feel sleepy.

A thunderbolt cleaved the night sky.

Su Wan sat bolt upright in bed, her heart pounding. Thunder rumbled outside, rattling the windows.

She picked up her phone and glanced at it—there was a message on the screen from Chen Pengfei, sent half an hour earlier: "Are you asleep?" She didn't reply.

She opened Shen Bai's chat page again, her finger hovering over the input box for a long time, her mind filled with the scene by the river that day.

Ever since that day they parted, she has inexplicably thought of that quiet face.

She typed a message: "It's raining so hard tonight, and there's thunder outside. How are things where you are?"

After hesitating for a moment, I pressed send.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the entire room in white.

She gripped her phone tightly, staring at the message she had just sent on the screen, waiting for the gray "unread" status to turn into "read".

Countdown to the second large-scale invasion: 4 hour.

On the outskirts of Hecheng, there is a vast, empty field.

The rain lessened, turning into a fine mist. There were no lights in the fields, only the searchlights set up by the emergency response team sweeping back and forth, their glows blurring into indistinct halos in the moisture.

Sun Chen squatted at the foot of a paddy field ridge, fine water droplets clinging to his combat uniform, trickling down the surface. His combat knife lay askew on his back, and the air was thick with the smell of damp mud and straw roots.

Squatting beside him was Meng Xing, the youngest reserve member in the group, chewing on a blade of grass. His eyes were filled with admiration as he said, "Brother Chen, you're amazing! You broke through to the third level of the first tier in just one month! You used to be a security guard?"

"Um."

"Is being a security guard lucrative?"

"I don't make any money, I'm just lying around doing nothing," Sun Chen said. "I make 3,800 a month, and I only go to work to get off work."

Meng Xing chuckled, then withdrew his hand: "Then why did you come here?"

Sun Chen was silent for a while, and finally he only said one sentence: "Because I don't want to run anymore."

Meng Xing didn't ask any more questions.

He took the grass stem out of his mouth, threw it into the puddle, and touched the short knife in his hand: "Then we won't run away tonight. Sigh, if it really comes to that, I'll have to give the monster a good stab, otherwise it'll be a loss."

Sun Chen glanced at him sideways. Meng Xing realized he'd gone too far, and grinned, adding, "Just kidding."

As soon as he finished speaking, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Meng Xing took it out and glanced at it—it was a delivery notification.

Sun Chen said in a low voice, "Stop looking, or the signal will drop again."

"Okay." Meng Xing turned off the screen, put his phone back in his pocket, and said, "The plaster I bought for my mom should arrive tomorrow. Her back is bad, so I'll go back and pick it up after I'm done tonight."

Sun Chen looked away: "What's the panic? We can't run away."

Meng Xing chuckled twice, then turned his gaze back to the fields in front of him.

Sun Chen didn't say anything more, but simply reached out and touched the battle sword on his back.

About 300 meters away from them, on another ridge in the field, a figure stood in the night.

Li Yang was dressed in a black combat uniform, holding a long gun in his hand, the barrel gleaming darkly in the night. A silver-plated badge on his chest shone faintly under the searchlight—the insignia of the Extraordinary Management Bureau.

After the last battle, he volunteered to join the Extraordinary Management Bureau. Just then, the higher-ups began to focus on outstanding individuals and were forming extraordinary teams. He had just graduated from police academy, entered the public security system with a clean record, and had fought monsters multiple times; his application was quickly approved.

After entering the Administration Bureau, the Bureau obtained a first-level cultivation method from Li Zhou.

As one of the first cultivators, he practiced boxing during the day and standing meditation at night, sleeping only four hours a day. In less than twenty days, he broke through to the second level of the first stage, a progress that surprised even the bureau leaders.

The Extraordinary Management Bureau regarded him as a key talent and promoted him to the position of combat squad leader.

Tonight was his first time leading a team, working with the emergency response unit to be responsible for the outer defense of this area and to cooperate with Dawn to hold the line.

The rain gradually stopped.

Night fell over the fields, as thick as ink.

Li Yang stood on the edge of the field, breathing lightly, his fingers resting on the gun, his fingertips touching the cool metal.

After Wang Hai sacrificed himself, he realized that fear was useless; only standing there was useful.

Behind him were seven young people like him, all watching him.

He couldn't let them see any hesitation.

Keep your back straight, breathe evenly, and fix your gaze on the predicted direction of the crack, without moving.

In the depths of night, the lights are sparse.

It was approaching midnight.