The Doomsday Paradise

Chapter 2: Do you want to eat me?

Between 12 and 1 AM, what's the difference in temperature?

Usually, hardly anyone would notice.

But tonight was clearly different. The sun had long disappeared, yet the scorching sensation in the air seemed to be increasing with each passing minute; worse still, there hadn't been a breath of wind for several days. What floated outside the window wasn't air but rather clumps of scorching hot sand, ready to smother you at any moment.

As if by command, the last few households in the city that hadn't turned on their air conditioners for various reasons started up their outdoor units one after another. Those without air conditioning couldn't hold on any longer; bars, 24-hour convenience stores, company units... wherever there was a sliver of cool air, that's where they headed.

Thirty minutes later, with a soft click, the night lights in the 38th-floor apartment suddenly went out. The house was plunged into absolute darkness—the faint "hum" that had always lingered in the bedroom had quietly stopped at some point.

The central air conditioning stopped blowing.

Not long after the cold air stopped, Lin Sanjiu turned restlessly in her sleep. Without the 26° cold air, a sticky sweat quickly formed on her body, like an airtight cover, and she was soon awakened by the heat.

Ugh... the remote control seems to be on the bedside table...

The thought flashed through her drowsy mind, and she was about to reach for it when she suddenly felt something was wrong. Lin Sanjiu jolted, immediately stopping her hand, not moving at all, and after a while, she quietly squinted her eyes and looked up.

A pale face hung directly above her face, and two black hole-like eyes were staring straight at her in the dark night.

Here it comes again! —Here it comes again—!

A scream erupted in Lin Sanjiu's mind, but her throat was dry, and she couldn't make a sound—the pounding of her heart grew faster and louder—the white face tilted slightly to listen, and then suddenly leaned close to Lin Sanjiu.

Two weeks ago, she woke up thirsty in the middle of the night, got up, and immediately bumped into this face. At that time, Lin Sanjiu was so frightened that she screamed, rolled and crawled to turn on the light, only to find out that it was actually Ren Nan—

Ren Nan didn't know when he sat beside her, his face expressionless in the dark night, not knowing how long he had been staring at her like this—just like tonight.

At that time, Ren Nan said that he had been sleepwalking since he was a child.

If it weren't for Lin Sanjiu's doubts, she might have believed it. At this moment, she forcibly endured her fear, pretending not to be fully awake, reached out to rub her eyes, and asked in a trembling voice, "Ren Nan, are you sleepwalking again?"

Ren Nan's face silently cracked a smile in the dark, his speech was extremely clear: "Yes, I've got my old problem again. Didn't scare you, did I?"

"A little bit..." Lin Sanjiu almost fled the bed, standing at the door—this illusion of being able to escape at any time calmed her down a bit, and then she felt the steaming temperature in the room.

"Why is it so hot? Did you turn off the air conditioning?"

Ren Nan didn't speak, just reached out and pulled, and the heavy curtains quickly retreated to both sides, revealing a floor-to-ceiling window. Usually, through this window, Lin Sanjiu saw half of the city's dazzling night view. But tonight, the city had lost its never-ending brilliance, and even the starlight had conveniently hidden, leaving only a dead black.

In the tightly closed room, the stuffiness was suffocating.

"The power burden is too great, it seems the whole city has a power outage." Ren Nan's voice still contained a smile, revealing a sense of leisure. As he spoke, he slowly stood up, walked around the foot of the bed, and step by step walked towards the door.

Lin Sanjiu's mind suddenly rang with alarm bells, and before he got close, she turned and ran towards the living room. The past three months of taking care of the layout of this apartment finally paid off for her: in the pitch-black darkness, she still managed to rush into the entrance of the living room, and before she could catch her breath, she slapped the elevator button with a bang.

The expected red did not light up—such an expensive apartment, actually there is no backup power system?

"The backup power supply is only for the corridor lights, the elevator—especially the private elevator, they don't care." The voice she had been listening to for half a year sounded behind her. Ren Nan was still so gentle, but when he pronounced the words, Lin Sanjiu heard a hint of water sound. As if... Ren Nan couldn't control the secretion of saliva in his mouth...

In the dark, the vague outline representing Ren Nan paced closer to her, and finally stopped in the center of the living room.

Lin Sanjiu felt a wave of dizziness in her mind. Her sixth sense was right—she felt a surge of regret: "What... what do you want to do?"

"You are quite alert," Ren Nan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "you should have felt it for a long time, right? But you should learn to listen to your intuition more... otherwise, you wouldn't have come back here with me. These days, you must have had a lot of internal struggles... really thank you for your trust in me."

Lin Sanjiu didn't realize it, but her tightly clenched fists were trembling incessantly.

"Xiao Jiu, in such a hot day, do you sweat a lot?" Ren Nan suddenly asked a question that was far from the point.

Lin Sanjiu was stunned, and subconsciously touched her arm. She only had a thin layer of sweat—but—why ask this at this time?

Ren Nan was very satisfied, and nodded in the dark. "Xiao Jiu is really great! It's worth me raising you for half a year..."

What on earth is he talking about—she can't understand a single word!

Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth and wanted to say something, only to find that her teeth were chattering fiercely. The thought that had been lingering in her heart for several days made her ask a question that she thought she would never say: "You... do you want to eat me?"

The dark figure gave a satisfied praise: "This intuition, how sharp."

Lin Sanjiu was angered by his attitude—fear, indignation, confusion, mixed emotions together, she didn't seem so helpless anymore, and the following words gushed out like a tide: "Stop joking, who on earth are you! Why did you choose me? I tell you, don't mess around, all my friends know I live here with you..."

She deliberately raised her voice, secretly hoping that someone could hear, while quietly feeling her way to the open kitchen on the side of the living room.

Ren Nan sighed. "At least you have been with me for six months, I will give you a clear death." After speaking, he raised his hand and gently snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, with a "boom," a glass wall in the living room suddenly shattered into thousands of pieces—accompanied by the distant, vague screams from outside, a heat wave that Lin Sanjiu had never experienced before, wrapped in glass fragments, swept into the apartment. The last bit of coolness left by the central air conditioning was instantly swallowed up.

How, how could it be so hot? It's as if someone had put the whole city on the fire to roast!

Before Lin Sanjiu could react, Ren Nan's gentle voice had already sounded again: "From tonight on, this world is no longer the Earth you are familiar with. In this new world, according to your measurement method, it is now... oh, fifty-six degrees Celsius."

Lin Sanjiu was stunned. Fifty-six degrees Celsius is enough for ordinary people to have severe heatstroke, dehydrate and die several times over—this thought came up, and she quickly touched the back of her neck. Unexpectedly, Lin Sanjiu's body did not sweat much more.

"Look! I have only raised you for a few months, and you have already evolved 'high-temperature adaptation' and 'keen intuition'... You are really a high-potential seed I chose at a glance. If the new world hadn't come too early, I would like to raise you for another two years, and then eat..." Ren Nan's tone was quite a pity. He loudly sucked his saliva and walked towards Lin Sanjiu. "Xiao Jiu, I haven't eaten a good child with high potential for a long time."

After the glass wall was broken, some light spilled into the living room. With this little bit of brightness, Lin Sanjiu saw Ren Nan's face at this time.

The once handsome features of a male model were gradually squeezed out of sight by his increasingly wide-open mouth. The clear saliva, uncontrolled, kept flowing down the corners of his mouth— and at this time, Lin Sanjiu had been forced back into the corner of the kitchen.

"I, I still don't understand! What kind of thing are you? Why do you want to eat me? Also, what evolution, abilities— aren't you going to give me a clear explanation, tell me!"

Even if it delays for a minute, it is an extra opportunity! Lin Sanjiu, taking the opportunity to shout, quietly reached for the knife rack on the back of the sink.

The big mouth paused, shrank a bit, and revealed some of Ren Nan's original features. "Alas... why are you so stupid? Of course I am a person, Ren Nan is my name—but I am not the same as you backward species. I come from another 'new world'. The humans who survive in the new world will all evolve different abilities... The ability I have is something you dare not even think about."

Ren Nan wiped his wet chin. "I advise you to put down the knife, my vision is very good. Just let me eat you, I promise it won't hurt—"

"Go to hell!" Before he finished speaking, Lin Sanjiu, who was both scared and angry, had already rushed up with a sharp knife in hand.

The bright bone knife was extremely fast, drawing a bright line in the dark—just as the tip of the knife was about to pierce Ren Nan's chest, he just took a light step to the side, and Lin Sanjiu missed. She stumbled, stepped on a piece of glass, and could no longer maintain her balance, falling heavily to the ground.

A mouth that had split to the cheeks didn't give her a chance to stand up, and it came at Lin Sanjiu like the wind—she could only just turn over in a panic, and threw the bone knife in her hand fiercely. Ren Nan was caught off guard and dodged, but was still scratched a shallow wound by the knife.

With a clang, the knife fell to a distance.

Furious, Ren Nan pressed Lin Sanjiu to the ground, staring at her black eyeballs, which almost shrank to the size of a needle tip. "A steak should have the appearance of a steak!"

In the dim light, Lin Sanjiu looked at the dark shadow pouncing at her throat in despair.