Chapter Two: The Nursing Home

“I'm so tired...”

Stepping out of the school gates, Bai Yuze muttered about his fatigue but didn’t head straight home. Instead, he boarded a bus bound for the Akihabara Retirement Home, located across more than half of Yeqiu City.

He was preparing to volunteer at the retirement home.

Most of the residents there were victims of the third Black Tide disaster; their relatives, children, and friends had all perished in that catastrophe.

Upon entering, the elderly residents glanced over, their wrinkled, plain faces breaking into faint smiles.

It seemed the arrival of a young person lifted their spirits considerably.

“Xiao Ze’s here! What new stories about those naughty students are you bringing us today?”

“Thanks for your hard work, Xiao Ze, coming every day to help us old folks with this and that.”

Bai Yuze greeted them warmly before entering the courtyard.

“Brother Ze, you’re here.”

In the courtyard stood a burly young man, about 1.8 meters tall, dressed simply in a light blue shirt and black shorts. Despite his casual attire, he worked efficiently, quickly gathering the sheets hanging out to dry. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and smiled upon seeing Bai Yuze enter.

This young man was named Peng Liang, about twenty years old.

Their friendship began by chance. When Peng Liang was eighteen, his parents and younger brother died in the Black Tide disaster, leaving him alone. Just as he was about to jump into the river to end his life, Bai Yuze, newly out in the world, discovered and saved him. He introduced Peng Liang to the Akihabara Retirement Home, and over time, influenced by Bai Yuze, Peng Liang also became a volunteer there.

Having lost his family, Peng Liang treated these elders as his own, and naturally, they regarded him as their child.

Most of these elders were alone and without ties. Even with government welfare policies, their faces rarely bore smiles anymore.

Like kites drifting aimlessly in the sky, their strings had been severed.

Bai Yuze and Peng Liang’s job was to try to tie these kites to new anchors, so they could live happily again.

Not long after, Peng Liang received a recruitment notice from the Special Operations Department. Filled with hatred for the disaster beasts, he enlisted without hesitation.

There, he seemed to regain his will to live and soon recovered from his trauma.

He appeared to be doing well, often boasting about his rapid promotions—one year to captain, two years to bureau chief.

In the courtyard, Bai Yuze and Peng Liang busied themselves back and forth.

The elders gathered, reminiscing.

“Xiao Ze is handsome, caring, and a teacher. I wonder which lucky girl he’ll marry someday. It’s a shame my granddaughter was killed by those damn disaster beasts, otherwise...”

“Ah, it’s all in the past now.”

“Bai Yuze and Peng Liang are truly good kids. Xiao Bai teaches at Akihabara No.1 High School. Though it wasn’t much before, after the Black Tide crisis, schools from other cities merged resources with No.1, making it the best school in Yeqiu City...”

“Little Peng is also impressive, I hear he’s with the Special Operations Department...”

“They get good pay, but they’re rarely home and it’s very dangerous. Still, both are promising young men with official posts.”

At this moment, an elderly woman suddenly spoke up quietly.

“You talk about them benefiting others, but wouldn’t it be better if they were matched with someone from our own families? What do you think of my daughter, Xiao Huan?”

“Don’t. Your daughter hasn’t visited once since graduating high school and going abroad for university. She doesn’t even care about her own mother. Don’t let her ruin such a good prospect.”

“She hasn’t come to see me, true, but she sends money every month and it’s quite a bit. She’s still very filial.”

The white-haired woman beneath the tree wasn’t ready to give up but knew that if she wanted Xiao Bai to meet her daughter, she’d need the consent of her peers.

“No way, absolutely not. We old folks don’t lack money; we lack care. What if your daughter corrupts them? Then who will look after us lonely elders?”

...

In the courtyard, Bai Yuze and Peng Liang chatted casually.

---

“Peng, I heard your side is having a celebration banquet, all gathered enjoying good food and drink. Why did you sneak out?”

Bai Yuze asked casually. Over time, he had guessed a bit about Peng Liang’s identity, and Peng never tried to hide it.

“Want me to invite you along?”

“If Captain Peng sincerely invites me, maybe I won’t say no.”

“All right, join the Abyssal Security Bureau and I’ll take you there.”

“Save it. You don’t know me—I’m just a freeloading layabout, not the self-sacrificing type. If they recruit me, I might just throw myself into the abyss one day... and you’d have to deal with the scandal. I’d be screwed.”

Bai Yuze waved him off without hesitation.

This wasn’t the first time Peng Liang had extended an olive branch, but Bai Yuze always declined.

He understood—Peng had a younger sister still in high school relying on him.

As for that last line, he took it as a joke. Judging by Bai Yuze’s care for the retirement home elders over the years, he wasn’t that kind of person.

“Forget it, if you don’t come, you don’t. The Special Operations Department’s doors are always open for you. The third Black Tide is finally over; the time-space rift closed. No more living in constant fear. Just don’t know when the fourth Black Tide will come. Damn abyss gates, damn disaster beasts...”

“Stop complaining. Those stragglers might be hiding in some dark corner, waiting for you to let your guard down to cause trouble. And... never mind.”

Bai Yuze leaned against the wall, deftly reaching into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. But upon seeing a few familiar elders, he quietly put the pack away.

There were things he couldn’t say—words that hurt too much.

Every time he tried, a sharp pain stabbed his mind, as if needles pricked his brain, robbing him of speech.

It often took a long while to recover.

“Don’t worry. What you ordinary folks can think of, we’ve considered too. Every district has several A-level Judicator squads on standby. If those pests dare show their faces, we won’t hesitate to exterminate them.”

Seeing Bai Yuze hesitate to smoke, Peng Liang pulled two cigarettes from his pocket, handing one over while lighting one himself.

*Click*

The fire went out; Peng took a deep drag and pointed at the no-smoking sign on the wall with a smile.

“Brother Ze, if you want to smoke, go ahead. This is the smoking area, no problem. But honestly, you should quit. As a teacher, how will you set a good example for the country’s future?”

“Pfft, you’re one to talk. When I invite you out for late-night snacks, you’re the one puffing away. Two or three packs a night disappear like nothing. If you don’t get killed by disaster beasts, you’ll probably be taken down by lung cancer first.”

“You don’t know a thing. That’s stress, man. You have no idea how cunning those disaster beasts are... forget it, what’s the point talking to a regular civilian like you.”

Hearing this, Peng Liang started to retort but stopped midway, shaking his head with a look of someone burdened by too much pressure yet disdainful of explaining himself to mere mortals.

“Hmph!” Bai Yuze snorted, teasingly bringing up Peng’s past. “Yeah, yeah, don’t forget who was almost dying by the Mijiang River back then.”

“Last time you took that cigarette from me, you told me never to mention the past.” Peng’s face fell, speaking fiercely.

Bai Yuze said nothing, lighting the cigarette in his mouth with a smirk.

---

The First Black Tide Crisis

The day after Toyo City, backed by America, insisted on discharging nuclear wastewater, a time-space rift suddenly appeared in Kyoto District, Toyo City. From it emerged monsters called disaster beasts—thick-skinned, massive creatures that preyed on humans, vicious and cruel.

The more they ate, the faster they evolved.

Ordinary firearms were ineffective against them, leaving humanity desperate.

In the end, it was Xia Country’s ultimate weapon—the Space Orbital Particle Beam—that brought the threat to an end.

During the tense countdown, a dazzling pale blue light pierced the sky like a divine, solemn, and terrifying thunderbolt. With a blinding flash, the red dots on radar vanished. Amid cheers, the disaster beasts were annihilated.

Only a year later, the Second Black Tide Crisis erupted.

Time-space rifts appeared not just in Toyo City, but across the globe—in highly developed cities like Yonue, Washington, London...

---

Faced with this, humanity was desperate; they couldn’t just bomb their own cities with mushroom bombs!

Then, magical creatures resembling Pokémon appeared. They could form magical contracts with human girls, granting humans the power to destroy disaster beasts.

Soon, the second crisis ended, and humanity found hope to resist.

In the same month, the Earth Abyssal Security Bureau was established. Magical girls who signed contracts were officially called Judicators and accepted by most middle-aged and elderly populations.

Young people preferred the term “magical girls,” especially the anime fans, who formed fan clubs and cheered for their favorites.

They could often be spotted amidst ruins during battles.

Though officially banned, this didn’t stop their enthusiasm.

Even Judicators secretly liked being called magical girls—a term full of youthful charm and spirit. Who doesn’t have a girlish heart?

Over time, aside from official documents, most preferred the term magical girls.

During these Black Tide crises, humans also ranked abyssal disaster beasts based on their damage and difficulty to fight:

Meteor, Eclipse, Falling Sun, Asura, Crystal Wall.

---

The Third Black Tide Crisis

With magical girls’ power, humanity believed they could easily defend against the abyssal onslaught.

They became complacent, but the abyss quickly woke them with a heavy price.

Beasts emerging from the rifts had greatly enhanced strength. The earlier crises’ beasts ranged mostly from Meteor to Eclipse.

From the third crisis on, the beasts’ overall strength increased: the weakest were at Eclipse level, with Falling Sun and Asura as the core, top-tier powerhouses included three great demon queens at Crystal Wall level, and the abyss lord summoned by them—a colossal disaster beast rivaling Godzilla in size: the Abyss Titan.

After tremendous losses, humanity ultimately triumphed, but victory was hard-won. The population dropped from 7.4 billion to 4 billion. Magical girls lost two-thirds of their fighting power. Out of 24 defense fortresses, 14 were breached. Countless prosperous cities were reduced to ruins overnight.

Peng Liang’s family perished in this crisis.

---

“Enough about the past. When will I finally meet your sister-in-law? The grandparents outside are really anxious. If you can’t find her, I can introduce a few candidates.”

Peng Liang grinned mischievously at Bai Yuze.

“Tsk tsk, I’m not in a hurry. I’m more curious about how you’ll handle your two beautiful girlfriends. I don’t want to someday have to mourn your headless corpse.”

Bai Yuze glanced at his good brother—standing 1.85 meters tall, looking like a big, goofy guy.

Then he looked at his reflection in the glass—about 1.78 meters tall, black tousled hair, sharply defined features with a somewhat androgynous handsomeness, eyes shining with vitality, a well-toned figure—not as tall or imposing, but certainly better looking...

How did it end up this way—one drowning, the other drying up?

“You laugh because Brother Cheng left early, and he laughs because you don’t get enough action. Don’t worry, they’re my wings—I know what I’m doing. It’s getting dark, you obsessive little brother-lover. Go home and start dinner, or you’ll have to crash at mine again and ruin my girlfriend’s happiness.”

Peng Liang emphasized “happiness” deliberately.

“Joking. I’m not afraid of my sister, just letting her have her way.”

Though he said it casually, Bai Yuze’s eyes glanced at the darkening sky honestly.

Unconsciously, the bright moon rose, and dusk deepened—it was indeed time to go home.

“Damn you, you shameless womanizer, like I’d ever want to come to your place.”

“Alright, alright, you’re so great and aloof. Next time your sister kicks you out, don’t come begging at my place for food and shelter.”

Bai Yuze: “...”