God and Demon Breeding Ground

Chapter 1: Catastrophe at School Su Yu lay listlessly across his desk, earbuds in his ears as he listened to a news broadcast; a small radio sat inside his desk drawer. He had been heavily influenced by his grandfather; in his spare time, he had developed a habit of listening to radio news reports. At the front of the lecture hall, Professor Ma—who taught the "Deng Xiaoping Theory" course—was lecturing with great animation, spittle flying and hands gesturing wildly, yet few students below were actually listening. Professor Ma inwardly lamented that this bunch was simply beyond saving—like rotten wood that could not be carved. It was around 2:45 PM—the start of the afternoon's first class—at the AJ City Vocational and Technical College, an institution that ranked somewhere in the fourth or fifth tier, far below even "third-rate" status. The class was "Computer Science Class 2," with a total of twenty-seven students. Su Yu shifted his sleeping position to make himself more comfortable and took a casual glance around the room. His deskmate and best friend, Zhang Zhongmou, was already snoring softly; a pool of drool had formed at the corner of his open mouth, and his eyes occasionally rolled back to show the whites—the guy had all sorts of quirks when he slept. Three rows up on the left, Ning Yan—the girl of his dreams—sat quietly, listening attentively to the lecture. Ning Yan was the acknowledged "department beauty" of the Computer Science department; she was the object of secret crushes and fantasies for Su Yu and the vast majority of the male students in the department. From where Su Yu sat, he could see a glimpse of the back of Ning Yan’s neck, which was as fair and smooth as jade. Gazing at that jade-like skin and her hair casually pinned up, he felt an indescribable, captivating charm. Su Yu swallowed hard, his drowsiness fading slightly. The girl sitting next to Ning Yan suddenly turned around and happened to glance right at Su Yu; their eyes met. The girl seemed to realize what Su Yu was looking at; she suddenly shot him a glare, her eyes flashing with unmistakable hostility. Su Yu hurriedly looked away, feeling a twinge of guilt, as if he’d been caught doing something wrong. The girl sitting next to Ning Yan shared Su Yu’s surname—Su Yu (though written with a different character for "Yu"). They lived in the same neighborhood; not only did they share a surname, but their given names sounded alike, and they had played together since childhood. Coincidentally, they had attended the same kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school, and had even ended up in the same class at the same university. They were childhood sweethearts of a sort—or at least, they had grown up together. Logically, they should have been closer than siblings, but the reality was quite the opposite: they couldn't stand the sight of each other. Su Yu (the girl) had a temperament fiercer than most boys. When Su Yu (the boy) first ran into her at university, he had nearly burst into tears, wondering why he had to run into this walking disaster again. After that glare from Su Yu, he slumped back onto his desk and closed his eyes to doze, listening to news broadcasts through his earphones at the same time. He wasn't actually sleepy; he just couldn't muster the energy to listen to Professor Lao Ma’s lecture. To him, listening to the news was far more interesting. "...Recent frequent appearances of 'sinkholes' across various regions have drawn attention... According to breaking news, at approximately 10:35 this morning, a chain of three sinkholes suddenly appeared on the northern section of Renmin Road. The largest sinkhole exceeds fifteen meters in diameter; nearly half of a 'Jinhua Supermarket' was swallowed by it, and three people are missing. Rescue operations are currently underway, and experts predict..." The news about sinkholes was playing in his earphones; lately, reports of such sinkholes had been surfacing all over the world. These "sinkholes" appeared without the slightest warning; most terrifying among them was a colossal sinkhole—spanning over a kilometer in diameter—that opened up in the center of a small city abroad, nearly swallowing half of it.