The sky above Beijing had never looked like this. Swirling auroras danced along the horizon, shades of green and violet bleeding into a deep, unnatural orange. Streetlights flickered and died as Jianyu sprinted across the cracked stone floor of the Great Wall excavation site, the remnants of collapsed parapets crunching beneath his boots. The cavern had expanded overnight, black roots writhing like living serpents, and the air itself hummed in a low, vibrating pulse that seemed to sync with his heartbeat.
Every step was met with sparks of static electricity. Nearby cranes shuddered and groaned as if the metal itself were alive.
Satellite dishes bent slightly under forces no one could see. Jianyu's radio crackled uselessly—voice commands distorted, static masking human tones. Even the phones of the workers on site went dead, screens black, as if reality itself had been muted.
And then came the first scream. Not human. Not animal. Something between a groan and a resonance, echoing from the cavern's depths. Jianyu froze. The black book lay open on the pedestal, its pages turning of their own accord, symbols bleeding into one another. A faint heat rose from the leather, burning the palm of his hand when he reached for it. Yet somehow, it did not wound him—it welcomed him.
The roots pulsed violently, whipping against the stone walls, forcing dust and small rocks into the air. Jianyu could feel the ground beneath him vibrate, as if a heartbeat from deep within the Earth had finally found its surface. Each pulse carried a whisper he could not fully understand, but a single word threaded through the hum: "Witness."
Government teams had arrived—men in black armor, faces obscured by visors, weapons at the ready. Yet even their organized formations seemed insignificant against the storm of roots.
One agent leaned toward his comrade, whispering something that froze Jianyu's blood:
"Project Vein predicted this. The Awakening Phase…"
Jianyu's mind raced. Project Vein—the secretive initiative that had obsessed over global geological anomalies for decades—was no longer theorizing. They had anticipated the awakening, and now he was caught in its epicenter.
He glanced at the cavern. A massive root, thicker than a bus, surged upward like a living column, twisting skyward.
The carvings along its surface shimmered faintly, as if ancient glyphs were crawling across its bark. The root struck the ground with the force of a quake, sending dust clouds into the air and forcing Jianyu to shield his eyes.
Above, the auroras intensified, streaks of light arcing across continents visible on Jianyu's mind's eye. Reports from the global network—the visions he had shared with Lena, Akio, Maya, and David—flooded in flashes: planes descending uncontrolled, satellites vanishing, cities plunged into darkness. The Earth's pulse was no longer subtle. It was a declaration.
A sudden whip of roots lashed at the pedestal, sending the black book into Jianyu's hands. Symbols crawled across his skin—tiny, intricate marks glowing faintly blue against his wrist and forearm.
A shiver ran down his spine. The book had chosen him, and the roots had recognized his touch.
In a moment of clarity, Jianyu understood: the world was changing, and humanity's perception of reality was about to fracture. The Earth remembered, and now it was awakening.
Outside the cavern, the government men shouted commands, but the words were swallowed by the pulse. The auroras above Beijing flared with unnatural intensity, painting the city in ghostly hues. Cars skidded, traffic lights blinked into oblivion, and the air tasted of ozone and electricity.
Jianyu took a step forward, feeling the weight of being both observer and participant in a transformation far greater than he could imagine. He whispered under his breath, almost to himself:
"This… this isn't just an awakening. It's a reckoning."
As the roots surged higher, the black book burned gently in his hands, symbols shifting, pages rewriting themselves, showing glimpses of continents, civilizations, and colossal trees that seemed to reach for the cosmos. And then, across the city and beyond, every pulse, every hum, every subtle vibration aligned perfectly with Jianyu's heartbeat.
The world was on the edge of seeing the unimaginable, and he was standing at the center of it.
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Cliffhanger – Part I: Tiny, black symbols crawl further up Jianyu's arm, glowing faintly, pulsing in rhythm with the Earth itself. The roots grow taller, more aggressive. Somewhere deep below, something moves. And it's aware of him.