Whoosh... gurgle...
On the wooden table, freshly boiled water tumbled inside an electric kettle, white steam puffing from its spout. Next to the kettle sat a cup of instant noodles.
In the lavishly decorated house, a young man named Li Xuan was dozing on the living room sofa with his eyes closed.
A strip of paper on the air conditioner's vent fluttered in the cold breeze. Outside the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows, the streets were deserted. After all, the summer heat, approaching forty degrees Celsius, was more than most people could bear.
The television was broadcasting a reality show featuring a team of celebrity runners. In the kitchen, the microwave was heating a frozen pizza. On the balcony, the washing machine rumbled as it washed clothes, and in the bedroom, a computer was on in standby mode.
Gurgle... gurgle...
The fully boiled water in the kettle let out a loud whistle. The sound startled Li Xuan awake on the sofa, and he opened his eyes.
Li Xuan. Male. Likes women. Seventeen years old. He was currently living the decadent life of a high school graduate on summer vacation. Coming from a well-off family with excellent grades, he was too lazy to get a summer job. Instead, he stayed home like a shut-in otaku growing mushrooms on his head, waiting to be accepted into a university. Although he was an otaku, he had a sunny and handsome face that was the complete opposite of the stereotype, a fact for which he silently thanked his mother. As for why he didn't thank his father, it was, of course, because his father wasn't handsome at all.
"Haaah..." Li Xuan yawned, rubbing his slightly long, soft black hair. He walked over to the wooden table in the living room and reached out to turn off the kettle, ready to enjoy his deluxe Laotan Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles. Just then, his phone buzzed. Ding-ding. It was a WeChat notification. Li Xuan pulled the new iPhone 6S his parents had bought him after graduation from the pocket of his black casual pants. He saw a message from his WeChat friend, [Tianshen].
He had added [Tianshen] one time when he was on the toilet, using the "Shake" feature. The two would often chat to kill time. Li Xuan had laughed at his friend's nickname several times, but the other person never seemed to mind.
[Tianshen]: "Little Xuan, you there? Little Xuan, you there?"
[Mu Xuan]: "Yeah! I'm so bored!"
[Tianshen]: "I found a pretty fun ACG game recently! Wanna give it a try?"
[Mu Xuan]: "Sure, I'll try anything!"
[Tianshen]: "Okay. I'll send it to you."
His friend [Tianshen] immediately sent Li Xuan a URL. Curious, Li Xuan opened the link and entered a download site for a game called Honkai Gakuen. He thought for a moment. His phone had plenty of storage, so downloading a random game to try out wasn't a bad idea. He'd been taking a break from the game grind lately to recover, and he felt he was ready to make a comeback. With that in mind, he tapped the download button. A progress bar immediately popped up on his screen, loading at high speed.
Just as Li Xuan was about to put his phone down, he noticed his battery was down to twenty percent. He casually grabbed a charger from the messy pigsty of his bed, plugged one end into the phone and the other into the wall socket. The phone began to charge.
With everything settled, Li Xuan unplugged the power cord of the kettle next to his phone, aimed the spout at the just-opened instant noodle cup, and poured in the boiling water to let it steep. Perhaps because his home broadband was one of the more expensive plans, the phone, connected to Wi-Fi, had finished downloading Honkai Gakuen in just a minute. At the same time, the appliances in the house began to make strange noises. Black smoke billowed from the air conditioner, the TV screen went black, and the washing machine crackled.
Li Xuan stared in astonishment. What was happening? Were the appliances malfunctioning? Suddenly, the phone pressed under his right hand emitted a blinding white light. All the appliances in the house stopped running, and a dead silence fell.
Then, BOOM!
The appliances exploded as if they were bombs. Glass from the windows flew everywhere, and thick black smoke poured out of Li Xuan's apartment. The explosion even shattered the windows of the floors above and below his. Frightened screams echoed through his residential complex.
Ten minutes later, the sirens of fire trucks wailed outside the complex. A large crowd of passersby and residents gathered below, looking up at Li Xuan's apartment and murmuring amongst themselves.
This was the cause, the prelude to everything.
(End of Chapter)