"Bro, bro, wake up! I think there's something outside my window."
Qin Ziwen, exhausted after a full day of moving, was jolted awake and flew into a rage. "For fuck's sake, you're a six-foot-one athlete! What are you so scared of?"
"I think it's a bat. A really big bat."
"A single bat has you this scared?!"
Qin Ziwen reached for the light switch by his nightstand.
"CLICK. CLICK."
He flicked the switch several times, but the room remained pitch-black.
"Bro, I think the whole Gated Community lost power. I couldn't turn my light on earlier, either."
Sitting up, Qin Ziwen used the moonlight filtering through the window to look at his brother perched on the edge of the bed. He got out of bed, grumbling, "Alright, I've gotta see for myself just how badass this bat is that's got you so scared. Watch me beat it into jerky and hang it over your headboard."
He walked into the spare bedroom. "Where's the bat? Why'd you stick such a huge poster on your window?"
"That's not a poster. I don't have anything on my window." Qin Ziwu's voice trembled.
Qin Ziwen: ?
He stared at the window, at the dark, squirming thing that covered nearly the entire pane of glass.
The 1.2 by 1.8-meter pane of glass was almost completely obscured.
Moonlight streamed in from outside, faintly illuminating its silhouette. It looked something like a bat. A huge question mark appeared in his mind. 'This is a bat?'
But that wasn't the point. The point was, how had the apartment he'd just bought in the city center suddenly turned into a cabin in the woods? In the distance, a river even snaked its way through the landscape.
He pointed out the window. "Where did the entire downtown area go?"
"Holy shit! Bro, your apartment's worthless now." Qin Ziwu finally snapped out of it. His attention had been so focused on the creature that he hadn't even looked outside.
"THUMP!"
A loud thump echoed from the glass. The sound of their voices had drawn its attention, and its claws began to paw at the window.
Qin Ziwen took a step back, his left hand gripping the doorknob. "Go get knives from the kitchen. Hurry."
Qin Ziwu scrambled to the kitchen and came back with two cleavers.
Taking a cleaver from his brother, Qin Ziwen felt a little more at ease with the weapon in his hand.
After a tense standoff, the bat on the window suddenly unfurled its wings. Its size instantly doubled or tripled as it flapped away toward the forest.
Even through the window, they could hear the powerful thwapping of its mighty wings.
Only when the bat was a distant shape in the sky did Qin Ziwen's tense body finally relax. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He went back to his bedroom and grabbed his phone from the pillow. He unlocked the screen—zero bars in the top-right corner.
Although he'd steeled himself when he first saw the view outside, he was still dazed for a moment as the reality of the situation sank in.
'So... my entire Gated Community was actually transported somewhere else?'
"SWISH—"
He yanked open the curtains in the master bedroom.
Under the night sky, the buildings of the Gated Community were bathed in cold moonlight. Beyond its walls, no matter which direction he looked, there was nothing but a vast, unending black forest.
...
"CHIRP CHIRP~"
In the towering trees on either side, brightly colored birds unlike any species from Earth watched the uninvited guests below with curiosity.
In an open space not far from Building 8, a crowd of residents had gathered. The atmosphere was grim.
A middle-aged man in a suit said gravely, "I've tried calling countless times. The calls won't connect; there's no signal at all. It's the same on the roof. I went up there to get a look around... it's nothing but forest..."
An older woman asked worriedly, "Will the government come to rescue us?"
A younger woman beside her pointed to the two suns in the sky. "I think that's unlikely. We can't even be sure we're still on Earth."
A teenager in a gray sweatsuit angrily pointed a finger at his friend. "This is all your fault! You just had to have us over to hang out. And now look! We've been transported! How am I supposed to get home? My mom must be worried sick!"
The taller boy's expression soured at the accusation. "How the fuck was I supposed to know? You think you're the only one with a mom? How could I have possibly seen this coming? Instead of blaming me, you should be figuring out how we're going to survive."
Qin Ziwen and his brother, Qin Ziwu, stood off to the side and exchanged a look.
Qin Ziwu whispered, "Bro, it's a good thing this happened at night, so your apartment is still here. If we'd been transported during the day, you'd not only be out of an apartment, you'd still have to pay off the mortgage."
Qin Ziwen shot his brother a sideways glance. "You think you're hilarious, don't you?"
Qin Ziwu managed a pained smile. "Things are already this bad, might as well try to be optimistic. It's not like it can get any worse."
After waking up in the middle of the night, the brothers hadn't dared to sleep. They'd come to accept the reality of their situation. Once dawn broke, the other residents of the Gated Community began to notice something was amiss, and some even started knocking on every door.
Their Riverside Gated Community had a total of 10 buildings, mostly mid-rise residential towers. The transportation event had perfectly encapsulated the entire Gated Community, including its perimeter walls, the main southern gate, and the eastern gate. To the north, there was a large iron gate that was normally kept locked.
The underground parking garage was also perfectly intact. Its entrance and exit were located next to the east gate.
Since the event happened at night, most of the residents were at home. By a rough estimate, there were at least one or two thousand people.
In the center of the crowd, the middle-aged man in the suit scanned the faces around him. "My water, electricity, and gas are all out. I assume it's the same for everyone. With the power out, the food in our refrigerators will spoil soon. If we want to survive, I believe we need to stick together and find a stable source of food in the surrounding area."
A bald-headed man in a short-sleeved jacket across from him suddenly interjected, "There's a forest right there. How could we possibly be short on food? It looks to me like you're just trying to use this as a chance to seize power. I've met plenty of your type before."
The man in the suit's expression remained unchanged. "It's just a proposal. I'm not forcing anyone. I'm looking for like-minded people. For those willing to cooperate, we can work together to survive.