October 12, 1987

October 12, 1987, Monday.

The incident unfolded with unbelievable suddenness.

The achievements of Oppenheimer and Heisenberg don’t just stop at the level of humans gaining destructive power that didn’t exist before. The emergence of the atomic bomb caused the collapse of superhuman political theory, which held that democracy or the seizure of power by non-superhumans was no longer possible in the face of superhumans. The U.S. government, more desperate than any other country to preserve at least the shell of democracy, created that terrifying bomb through cooperation with German scientists, and barely managed to use the power of that bomb to preserve at least the shell of democracy.

It’s widely believed that if the atomic bomb, followed by the hydrogen bomb, and the intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering hydrogen bomb warheads anywhere in the world hadn’t been developed sequentially, the electoral systems of Europe and America would have been shattered by military coups of superhumans. That’s not all.

Even Joseph Stalin, if he hadn’t succeeded in concentrating nuclear weapons in the party central, would have failed to carry out the Great Purge against superhumans, and it would have been impossible to create a system where the position of party general secretary was strictly passed on only to non-superhumans.

However, despite nuclear weapons being such an important weapon. Despite being a very important weapon that almost turned world history upside down, nuclear weapons have never been used as a direct weapon to kill humans even once until 1987, the present. The reason was simple. It was because it was too powerful and dangerous.

With the emergence of superhumans and nuclear weapons, the theory of mutual assured destruction, which predicted that a second world war could be deterred and would not occur, became popular. The deployment of superhumans in war could happen at any time, but an all-out war with powerful superhumans, an all-out war between superpowers using nuclear weapons that could turn even those superhumans into ashes in an instant, was a hopeful prediction that it would not occur in the 20th century, even into the 21st century.

After October 12, 1987, no one could be so sure anymore.

We received the news in the middle of lunch. Through the loud siren sound echoing throughout the Huangpu Women’s Military Academy.

“National emergency declared. National emergency declared. All cadets and instructors are to immediately assume combat readiness. Strengthen Huangpu’s barrier immediately and move to your positions. This is not a drill. Repeat. This is not a drill but an actual situation.”

The siren sound loud enough to overturn the entire huge school. All the street lamps placed here and there in the school were flashing red light, and the warning broadcasts alternating between Chinese and English were enough to make our ears hurt.

The Chinese students in the cafeteria suddenly flipped over their trays and jumped up from their seats, hurriedly running off somewhere. The only ones left sitting perplexed in the cafeteria were us, the 10 foreign students and the senior foreign students who had come to this school from abroad.

“What’s going on?”

Churchill said, slowly standing up from her seat.

“Where’s Barbara Tikhonov?”

Catherine Duey jumped up from her seat. We were all thinking something similar. There was no such emergency broadcast even when there was a murder in the school. If something had happened, it must have been caused by the Soviet spy. Just as all of us foreign students who thought so stood up, in less than 30 seconds, the colonel we were looking for ran into the cafeteria and looked around.

“What on earth is going on? What’s happening?”

“Barbie?”

Lieutenant Duey’s eyebrow twitched. Although she usually acts friendly with Barbara Tikhonov, the fact that she immediately suspects Tikhonov when something seems to have happened shows that there isn’t much trust between the two.

“Katyusha. Did something happen while I was away? Can you explain?”

“We need an explanation right now too. How long is this noisy broadcast and siren going to continue…”

“Where’s Zhou Lizhi?”

“Why are the Chinese moving so busily?”

Not only the first-year students but also the 2nd and 3rd-year foreigners were all in a state of confusion. Since it clearly stated that this is not a drill, it doesn’t seem to be a drill situation…

“Does anyone feel anything from Huangpu right now? I can’t feel anything inside this school… No killing intent, no dead souls, and no signs of destruction anywhere.”

Rebecca Katerfeld said, wiggling her fingers. Churchill asked.

“Hey, can that German girl feel if anyone has died in the entire school?”

“The school is small, so I can feel it all. If I couldn’t do that much, I wouldn’t even call myself a spiritualist.”

“Then when you appeared at the scene during the Chen Yayuan incident…”

Anya Crystal looked at Rebecca and asked. Katerfeld nodded towards Crystal.

“That’s right. But it doesn’t seem like any incident has occurred in Huangpu right now. I don’t feel like anyone has died. Then outside the school? An incident in downtown Guangzhou… I can’t feel that far because of the barrier…”

“Whatever it is, it’s not an ordinary matter…”

Shradha Bhatt frowned and tilted her head. As the conversation progressed to some extent, the conclusion was that I, as the platoon leader, should do something, but I just shrugged and said:

“Then shall we eat? You said nothing happened inside the school.”

“Your guts to say that in this situation are quite impressive…”

Hoang Thi Linh said. As soon as Churchill heard my words, she grabbed her stomach and burst into laughter.

“Pfft! Pfahaha! Let’s eat, you say? Eun-young, let’s eat, you say? Seriously? Wow, is this the madness of a truly crazy woman? Even a fake like me can’t keep up! Even the cafeteria staff have all run out, leaving only us in the cafeteria, and this noisy broadcast is still blaring, but you say let’s eat?”

“Can’t you somehow block the sound waves? It is too noisy to eat comfortably.”

Well, what else can we do? When they saw me really sit down with a thud and start to finish my meal, the other students just shook their heads as if they couldn’t believe it. But there really wasn’t anything I could do.

Seeing that everyone seemed dissatisfied with me, I gave an additional explanation.

“When an incident occurs, the more you panic, the more dangerous it becomes. There are largely two options. Either return to the dormitory and wait in your rooms, or stay here together. But the problem is that Zhou Lizhi, who’s in charge of us, hasn’t shown up yet. If we need to receive instructions, we should get them from Zhou.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go back to the dormitory than stay here?”

Celine Demetriades asked. I shook my head.

“If we go back to the dormitory, Zhou will have to go around knocking on each room to find us. It’s better to gather in one place, and since it’s lunchtime now, if Zhou tries to find us, she’ll come to the cafeteria first. It’s right to stay here. There’s nothing else we can do anyway, so let’s just finish the meal we were eating.”

“Well, that’s certainly correct…”

Rebecca nodded after hearing my words.

“It doesn’t seem like an idea that would come from the head of an ordinary college girl.”

“You said there were no dead people in this school, Katerfeld. Come to think of it, there’s no other option but to stay in the cafeteria, so what do you expect us to do…”

“Well, I agree. I’ve only eaten half of my chicken cutlet.”

Catherine Duey quickly raised her hand and said. The others didn’t seem to have much objection either, so we started to sit down one by one. Five minutes passed after Tikhonov ran into the cafeteria and looked around.

Finally, the person we were waiting for, Major Zhou Lizhi of the Chinese army, ran into the cafeteria.

“First-year foreign student class, 10 people? Why are you still gathered here like this? It made it easy to find you, but can’t you hear this noisy broadcast?”

“I gathered them to wait, Major.”

I stood up and said.

“The content of the broadcast wasn’t specific and didn’t tell us what to do. I judged it was better to gather and wait for you to come here than to scatter.”

“Well, it was a good judgment. But I’m surprised to see you calmly using chopsticks…”

“What on earth is going on, Zhou Lizhi?”

Churchill asked sharply.

“Did the Soviet Union attack? Should we arrest Tikhonov here?”

“Ah, I didn’t do anything! Please forgive me!”

Barbara Tikhonov hurriedly raised both hands and shouted. Zhou Lizhi frowned and tilted her head.

“We don’t know yet if it’s the Soviets’ doing. But we might need to consider arresting Tikhonov just in case.”

“What exactly has happened? Can’t we know?”

I asked earnestly. Zhou Lizhi let out a deep sigh and bit her lip tightly.

“It happened in Beiping.”

“Beiping? That’s far north. Why is there such a commotion here because of something that happened there? Unless it’s a pretty big incident…”

“It is a pretty big incident, that’s why we’re like this, Churchill! Listen to the end. An atomic bomb exploded in Beiping. A nuclear weapon exploded at the Beiping Hero Training School, killing most of the superhuman faculty and students on the spot. The nuclear explosion occurred inside the barrier, so the city wasn’t damaged, but because of that barrier, the blast was concentrated inside the school grounds, and it’s estimated that there are no survivors.”

At that moment, we all lost our words.

What did we just hear?