Xuan Mo had been very agitated the past few days. She couldn’t help but recall the fluctuations that occurred previously.
She had no idea what she was waiting for, nor did she have an idea what would come.
The research continued as normal, but the team did not come across any new findings. Or if they did, they didn’t announce anything new. The golden stone revealed its brutal side, granting the team a brand new research perspective. Now that they knew it was not as harmless as it appeared, they were much more cautious with regards to matters related to the subject.
In the first “battle” between the golden stone and humans, the former emerged victorious. Such an outcome was a heavy blow to the masses. The golden stone’s security measures continued to increase, but Xuan Mo had already moved on. She had done all she could, there was nothing else for her to do, nor was it in her place to do anything more.
As her unease settled into the background, the Sports Fest arrived.
Xuan Mo had no idea how other schools conducted their sports day, but the one at her school was rather solemn. The semi-circle-shaped spectator seating was a sea of green — filled with reluctant students, pulled over from every faculty and every year, sitting all upright and proper.
After the parade, combat exhibition and all the various demonstrations and displays, the first item was the hundred-metre race.
The rows of guys sitting in the front ran forward. The girls going after them appeared a little nervous; most of them were wearing pants and warming up as they sized each other down.
Xuan Mo was the only one that was not moving.
She wasn’t trying to act cool, rather, she was calculating.
She was going to calibrate her starting speed, half-round speed and last lap speed from the guys’ match timings. She was going to make sure her round would be perfect.
It was only till she was on the field did she realise that she’d never once displayed her speed in front of blue planet beings. Neither has she even properly registered how fast this body of hers could go.
Stamina wasn’t an issue. Her speed from the outfield session previously when she ran down the hill was very fast. She figured that Zhao Jing Lei was helping her suppress the noise; much gossip and discussion as to how fast she actually was might erupt otherwise. Why, because she was really too fast.
As for now, if she were to let loose and run with all her might, she might just scare some people off their seats?
Therefore she settled on calculating her speed. She must make sure to remain within a humanely-capable speed; there were so many pairs of eyes watching after all. She really wasn’t keen on being whisked away into a research lab otherwise.
Very quickly, the male preliminary round ended, and the female preliminary rounds were starting.
The stadium was getting noisy.
Usually the male items were more popular for competitions like these. However, females were a rare species in their school, hence all the more precious; so when there’s a bunch of girls gathered together, every single move would attract the attention of the male students. As for the girls themselves, even though most of them were pushed into entering this item, there were still a few strong candidates, so the female item was not in any manner less exciting than the males’.
The referee waited for everyone to get ready before raising the pistol in her hand: “Ready… go!”
Xuan was the first to zoom out.
Her reaction speed was unquestionably incredible. She zipped out with a dash. Not only was her posie breathtaking, her speed was astonishing too. Even though there were a few others neck-at-neck with her in the beginning, after fifty metres or so, her speed was simply insane. In a blink of an eye, she was already pulled apart from the person behind her as she made a dash for the end.
When the results were out, her timing was only a few seconds slower than the first place from the male prelims.
At that, the stadium delved into commotion. She was so fast she could probably qualify for olympics.
Xuan Mo received congratulations from her classmates as she returned to her seat. As she waited for her next item, she found out that the four-hundred-metre item was in the afternoon instead, while the several team-centric items were held on the next day. And so, she was able to head back to her dorms to rest.
Since that was possible, she immediately made her way back; she was definitely not going to stay around to be spectated.
Neither the twins nor Zhang Yi Ke were in their dorms. They were probably either watching the competitions or studying somewhere else. Just as Xuan Mo switched her computer on, Lu Yu Chen’s call came in: “Mo Mo! How did your competition go?”
“I just completed the hundred-metre preliminary.”
“Hehe! Did you come in first?”
“It’s not finals yet.”
“You’ll do fine! Don’t worry about it!” Lu Yu Chen paused, “oh right, my dad was asking when you’re free for a meal, your break starts after your Sports Fest right, you comin’?”
Xuan Mo was quiet for a moment: “Anything, when is it.”
“I’ll update you when we book a time and place, don’t say no!” Lu Yu Chen suddenly lowered his voice, “if my dad gives you anything, just accept it, don’t worry about it!”
“Heh, okay…”
“Oh and, recently, I’ve been @#￥%￥#…” Lu Yu Chen’s voice was suddenly drowned out by static noise. He didn’t seem to have noticed it himself. It was buzzing for a long moment before his voice returned, “come over to my school and see me then!”
“…Xuan Mo?”
“Mo Mo?”
Xuan Mo didn’t reply. Frozen, her grip on her phone dead tight as she listened to Lu Chen’s voice repeating itself over again and again. She was silent for almost a good minute.
“Mo Mo what’s wrong?”
“…I have something on, gotta go.” She didn’t ask Lu Yu Chen what he had been talking about when his voice drowned out. Instead she hung up the call and rushed over to the balcony on the top floor and looked up at the sky.
The sunlight in mid-autumn wasn’t piercing, but it would still be uncomfortable if you stared into it. Xuan Mo fixed her gaze at the sun, and she stared on for a very, very long time.
As she did, her mental net received all sorts of information from her surroundings.
“Ten minutes ago, a telecommunication error impacted the entire nation, resulting in a delay in information dissemination, and deferrals in all manners. The public has feedbacked that their calls were disrupted by a loud static noise, but it has since then recovered. Experts have revealed that specialist teams have been dispatched to look into this unexpected communication failure to prevent similar situations from occuring in the future.”
“Relevant information reveal that the communication failure impacted the entire of Asia, parts of the Pacific, Middle East and Europe have also been affected…”
“Experts predict that this is an unexpected solar storm, this is a natural occurrence. Solar storms are…”
“XXX Research Centre reveals that parts of the satellite have been rendered out of order temporarily as a result of the solar storm. The satellite is now back in working order, and can receive telecommunications…”
“Climate protection groups advocate for environmental awareness and protection…”
“Is the Athens prediction true, does the solar storm hint at an apocalypse…”
“…”
Lu Yu Chen’s text message came: “Mo Mo! Did you hang up cuz you couldn’t hear me earlier? The signal was bad just now, it should be fine now.”
Xuan Mo remained staring at the sky, zoning out.
It’d been only four days since the golden stone emitted the frequency.
She had a feeling that someone would come, but she didn’t know which civilization they would be from, nor did she know when they would come.
She’d prepared herself mentally, she prepared herself for combat, and… she prepared herself to see some familiar faces.
But everything seemed to fall apart when it really did come.
Two hundred million years, and four days.
How ironic these numbers were.
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