Chapter 1:
The ball doesn’t care–– that’s strange!

It’s the beginning of school season and supermarkets are crowded on weekends, filled with black-headed crowds.

Jing Qizhen was still holding a shopping bag in his hand but suddenly he felt a creeping sense of danger.

He stopped immediately, looked up and looked around. The customers around him were pushing carts and carrying baskets while the cashiers were also busy. Everything seemed active and lively, and he had no idea where the strange sense of crisis came from.

However, something unexpected happened at this moment.

Without any warning, Jing Qizhen saw the crowd around him disappear out of thin air and the originally bustling supermarket suddenly became empty and desolate.

The clean and tidy department store was suddenly weathered with a heavy passage of time; the walls darkened significantly, the floor and shelves were covered with dust, and spider webs hung in the corners as if more than ten years had passed in an instant.

Jing Qizhen looked around and saw that there were only a few people left in the decayed and dilapidated mall.

A cashier girl was holding a barcode scanner at the counter in front, a middle-aged man who was halfway through the checkout in the cashier aisle next to her, an old woman holding two candied hawthorn sticks in her hand, and Jing Qizhen himself who just came out after paying the money.

The four people stood in the empty supermarket blankly looking at each other.

The old woman’s withered fingers grasped the two candied hawthorn sticks she had just bought for her grandchildren. Seeing such a shocking change, her face was blank.

The cart in the middle-aged man’s hand was still brand new and filled with items, which was in sharp contrast to the dilapidated department store around him.

“Where’re the people? What– what’s going on!?” The cashier girl looked confused, holding the barcode scanner on the checkout counter in her hand.

At this moment, a gut-wrenching sound of rubbing and tearing suddenly came from the ceiling of the store.

The sound came from right above the cashier girl’s head. Jing Qizhen raised his head.

There was a creature with long and twisted limbs, climbing on the ceiling like a spider. Its limbs similar to humans were extremely slender and its thin skin was almost tightly wrapped, revealing the obvious muscle shape inside. Its face was pale and swollen. Its protruding eyes like fish’s were covered with red threads.

“Be careful!” Seeing such a scene, Jing Qizhen stopped breathing for a moment and shouted sharply. He looked around hastily, trying to find a handy tool.

The cashier girl took a moment to raise her head in confusion. After seeing the monster above her head, her pupils tightened unconsciously and an uncontrollable scream instantly broke through the sky: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh——!!!”

The next moment, the monster flew towards the cashier girl from the ceiling.

Accompanied by the scream of the cashier girl, almost at the same time, a supermarket shopping cart suddenly flew over from the side, and together with the goods inside, smashed headlong into the monster falling from the sky.

And just like that, the lanky monster was firmly trapped by the checkout counter with the overturned shopping cart. A small chair inside meant for children use just so happened to fall out and hit it. There was also a clear purple-red mark on the monster’s swollen face.

Jing Qizhen, who just couldn’t find tools with handles such as mops and brooms, was so anxious that in his rush, he simply picked up the shopping cart from the customer in the next cashier aisle who was halfway through payment and still full of merchandise.

The screams of the cashier girl continued and the items in the shopping cart fell all over the floor because of Jing Qizhen’s violent movements.

Jing Qizhen pressed hard on the shopping cart. The monster trapped under the shopping cart was still struggling and roaring desperately, its mouth full of pale and sharp teeth biting on the metal pole of the cart, creating a grinding sound that made the teeth ache and sporadic dark red mottled blood stains were left behind.

The cashier girl finally came to her senses and her face was full of horror. She continued to scream uncontrollably and dropped the barcode scanner in her hand. When the barcode scanner collided with the counter, it made a ‘pop’ sound. The sound is crisp.

Under Jing Qizhen’s slightly surprised gaze, the screaming cashier girl immediately took out a bundle of inelastic packing tape from under the checkout counter and quickly wrapped the entire shopping cart and checkout counter countless times until they finally were all tied together.

It wasn’t until the entire bundle of packing tape was used up that the shocked cashier girl finally staggered back with her weakened legs, fell to the counter next to her, raised her hand to wipe the sweat on her forehead, and took a heavy breath of air.

Jing Qizhen relaxed his hand slightly and tested the strength of the monster struggling under the shopping cart. After confirming that the cashier girl’s packing skill was very reliable, he took back his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at the cashier girl whose face was covered in cold sweat, Jing Qizhen pondered for a moment, nodded towards her, and praised, “Your lung capacity is good.”

The cashier girl forced out a smile that looked uglier than a cry. “Thank you.”

The old lady still holding two candied hawthorn sticks: …

The middle-aged man whose shopping cart was robbed by Jing Qizhen: …

At this moment, a panicked cry came from the supermarket.

“Ahhhhhh–!!!” A pair of young man and woman screamed one after another with vibrato, “What’s going on? Is anyone there!?”

There was also a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes with a heavy Sichuan accent speaking in Mandarin, “What happened? What happened? Who is playing a prank?!”

Immediately, there were the sounds of several people running towards the exit in fear and panic.

After a while, the few people left in the supermarket all gathered near the checkout counter and the customers who had just screamed were sweating profusely.

“Why– How did the supermarket become like this? Why did everyone around suddenly disappear?!” The young man and woman must be lovers. They stood together, holding each other’s hands tightly. The girl ran too fast just now, she was still a little out of breath when she spoke.

A man with a burly figure, strong muscles, and a gold chain around his neck, frowned and looked around warily, “I see the shelves inside have suddenly become old. Are we the only ones left here?”

Jing Qi Zhen noticed that while the man was speaking, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his mouth to calm himself but did not light it.

The middle-aged man wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said with a trembling voice, “It seems like so at the moment.”

Soon, the eyes of the few customers who had just arrived also fell on the counter with the shopping cart taped together.

There were a lot of gaps in the shopping cart, even after the cashier girl taped it up with packing tape. Through these gaps, they could clearly see that the monster inside seemed to be getting more manic and restless as the number of onlookers increased. Its body twisted and curled up with difficulty and it was still struggling and colliding, making ‘peng-peng’ crashing sounds and weird howling sounds, trying to break free from the restraints.

Even when trapped, the monster was still creepy.

The young couple looked at each other and asked in a low voice in surprise, “What– what is this?”

Jing Qizhen briefly summarized, “The monster was attacking us just now. I don’t know if there are any other dangers nearby.”

Gold Chain Brother’s brows furrowed deeply and his expression was very serious. He became more and more cautious and actually gave a chilling air.

But the old lady who had been silent suddenly walked up to the monster, waved the two candied hawthorn sticks toward the monster, and carefully observed the monster’s reaction. Then she took out her mobile phone, turned on the flashlight, and shined the light towards it.

The others were a little confused but Jing Qizhen and Gold Chain Brother were slightly aware of the reason.

“Grandma, what are you—?”

The old woman simply turned the candied hawthorn sticks over and poked the monster inside. She narrowed her aged eyes, looked at it carefully, and quickly concluded, “The body shape is similar to a human but it seems to have no intelligence at present.

“There are webbed membranes between the toes, which should be used for paddling, but its body shape and skin are not suitable for moving in the water. The canine teeth in the mouth are well-developed and the upper jaw is large. The premolars and molars of the lower jaw are particularly developed, which is a characteristic of carnivorous animals. At the same time, it also has obvious reactions to sugary foods and is resistant to light sources.”

After the old woman finished her analysis, she took back her candied hawthorn sticks and concluded, “The characteristics of this creature do not match the species characteristics of most of the animals on Earth that we know.”

As someone who had just trapped the monster in the shopping cart, Jing Qizhen was a little dumbfounded. Grandma, you are really too skilled…

Hearing her analysis, Gold Chain Brother showed great respect to the grandma and asked, “And?”

Grandma said, “This kind of creature may appear in the water and the darkness of the room’s corners. However, its limbs are too slender and lack strength; it should be its weakness.”

Jing Qizhen raised his head and looked at the ceiling and soon noticed the central ventilation duct of the air conditioner. The monster must have crawled out from that position just now. He immediately warned, “Be careful of every ventilation duct.”

Gold Chain Brother glanced at Jing Qizhen, nodded, and immediately suggested, “Let’s take a look at the door first!”

Everyone was at a loss until someone suggested something, and then they naturally followed.

Jing Qizhen added, “Try to bring some self-defense tools with you!”

Soon, under the guidance of the cashier girl, a group of people took durable long-handled mops, rubber gloves, and some hats and clothing as protection.

Jing Qizhen wiped away the thick dust on the product labels and identified some of the handwriting that had changed, faded, and been stained with difficulty. Most of the production dates on the products were in 2019. In other words, the products here should be from the previous year.

Jing Qizhen shared this discovery and the foreigner who spoke Sichuan-flavored Mandarin suddenly exclaimed, “The disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle! The disappearance of the Moscow subway in 1975! We must have encountered similar things and escaped our original time!”

After hearing what he said, everyone felt worried and uneasy.

Jing Qizhen glanced at the foreigner and said, “But if you read the reports carefully, you will find out that the Moscow subway disappearance case, which is listed as an unsolved mystery in the world, actually happened on April 1, 1975. A big April Fool’s Day event…”

The foreigner: =口= ???

“I’m so shocked!” The blond-haired, blue-eyed man’s words became more and more intense with the flavor of Sichuan hotpot.

The rest of the people: …

What a waste of emotions.

After this episode passed, everyone headed back to the department store’s entrance.

Halfway there, a deafening sound suddenly appeared in Jing Qizhen’s mind.

It felt like he was asleep on a quiet night when someone suddenly put a speaker into his ear and then played the song ‘Serving the Country with Loyalty’ with drums beating at maximum volume.

There was a loud bang and Jing Qizhen’s mind went blank, leaving only the unfamiliar surroundings in his eyes.

After a long while, he could vaguely distinguish what he heard, “Warriors from Earth, let’s fight desperately to save the planet!”

He silently took a deep breath and saw the others around him showed no reaction. Jing Qizhen temporarily suppressed the urge to ask everyone but asked silently in his mind, “…who are you?”

Without waiting for the other party to answer, Jing Qizhen quickly said, “Speak softly! Keep your voice down! Take it easy!”

The unfamiliar voice turned down its volume and answered naturally in Jing Qizhen’s mind: “I’m a ball (planet)! Huh??? Someone can hear me!!!”

Because it was too surprised, the voice of the ‘ball’ rose again in the second half of the sentence.

Jing Qizhen’s head was buzzing and he felt his eardrums were about to explode. He closed his eyes and said, “If you keep shouting so loudly, no one will be able to hear you soon.”

Jing Qizhen used his fingers to indicate the distance of a hair’s thickness. “I was just that close to dying on the spot.”

“Emmmm…” The excited Earth quickly lowered its voice, “Sorry, sorry!”

It also sighed, “I usually use public announcement. This is the first time I have switched to private chat mode. I’m not used to it.”

Jing Qizhen said coldly without any flattery, “Then you are really awesome.”

After a pause, Jing Qizhen tried to ask the voice in his mind: “You just said something about saving the earth, what’s the matter?”

The Earth’s voice changed to a salesperson’s tone, “Dear friend, have you heard of the bubble universe hypothesis theory?”

Jing Qizhen said sincerely, “No.”

Earth: …

Jing Qizhen: 0.0

Earth: “Then you have heard of it now.”

Jing Qizhen: “Oh…”

After a pause, the Earth said, “The universe is made up of countless bubbles; each one contains a parallel universe. These bubbles will gather and collide, and at this time, our universe will intersect with the parallel universe. The Earth you are on, that is me, is now rubbing against the ball from another parallel universe. Now, this ball (Earth) is facing the crisis of erosion and the erosion area is this department store building.”

As the Earth spoke, its voice became passionate, “So, in order to save the Earth, you humans must stand up!”

Jing Qizhen: “… And become an idol?”

Earth: “If you want to, I don’t mind!”

Jing Qizhen said, “Sorry, I said it casually. Basic physics tells me that the action of force is mutual. If it erodes you, you can also erode it.”

The Earth suddenly grumbled, “Who would want to erode a stupid ball? It has no brain. I just want to say it, don’t nag me!”

Jing Qizhen: “So?”

Earth: “So! My warriors, if you save the ball, you own the ball! Don’t you have an old saying that goes like this?”

Jing Qizhen: “Hero saves the ball and is rewarded with the ball? I think you are talking dirty…”

The Earth asked back, “Isn’t it because you humans don’t protect the forest vegetation that I am so dirty?”

Jing Qizhen: “…You sound like you still have the leisure to tell us to plant trees to help you change your skin.”

After a pause, the Earth asked sincerely, “Excuse me, are you holding a grudge? Hehe, why am I so miserable? I finally found someone who can listen to me and you human still act like a big shot.”

At this point, the Earth suddenly felt sad and hesitated to answer Jing Qizhen’s previous sentence, “No, I didn’t erode it. I just want the ball that is currently tangent to me to roll farther and farther, ok? And then it should roll away completely and never come back.”

Jing Qizhen tried to get back to the topic. “So, what’s going on here now?”

Earth stated, “Various anomalies will occur in the overlapping areas where the balls are tangent to each other. If you humans don’t deal with it soon, the erosion will worsen, the overlapping areas will become larger and larger, and this anomaly will eventually spread to the entire Earth.”

While Jing Qizhen and the Earth were chatting in his mind, he had already followed Gold Chain Brother to the lobby leading to the outside of the department store.

The department store seemed to be shrouded in a thick fog. At the end of their field of vision was the store’s old glass door, and beyond that, there was a thick, impenetrable, dark fog. The building opposite, the road, the street lights, and even the stairs only two meters away were all covered in the fog. Nothing could be seen clearly.

Everyone stopped walking.

Jing Qizhen looked at the fog outside the door, and then looked at the store that suddenly became dilapidated and outdated, and asked the Earth in his mind, “How do we deal with the erosion area?”

Earth: “Honey, I don’t know!”

Jing Qizhen: “You don’t know???”

Earth complained, “If I knew, why would I tell you humans to step up to deal with it? I only knew that stupid ball was too close to me. This ball (Earth) is going to be eroded, get out of here!”

Jing Qizhen: …

I am speechless.

After a long while, the Earth, which had become increasingly irritable due to the embarrassing situation of being eroded, calmed down again and chatted privately with Jing Qizhen, “The reason why the two bubble universes overlap is that there is something at the overlapping point that causes the two bubbles to generate strong gravity. I don’t know what it is but as long as you humans destroy that thing, I can push the other ball away, and the erosion area will naturally disappear.”

Jing Qizhen frowned slightly and pondered the Earth’s words. For something in the overlapping point to cause the two universes to attract each other, could it be the core of the erosion area?

The young couple walked to the door, the man stretched out his hand, pulled the door, and suddenly said in surprise, “The door can be opened!”

But Gold Chain Brother and Jing Qizhen screamed at the same time, “Don’t move!”