April 5th, Saturday. A beautiful morning. The wind is gentle, the sun is shining, birds are singing. No work, no school today—what a perfect day.
Jack Young woke from a deep sleep and slowly sat up. He glanced out at the spring scenery beyond the window, a look of otherworldly wonder on his face. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he patted himself down—he was neatly dressed in a full kung fu outfit.
He walked up to the mirror and lifted his shirt—his muscular physique was enough to make anyone envious.
He put on his glasses—the world instantly became pixelated...
Took off his glasses—ultra high definition!
He slid down the banister like a parkour pro, landed at the bottom floor, and walked into the spring sunlight, breathing in the scent of flowers and listening to the birds. Everything from last night—it wasn’t a dream!
Checked his phone—April 5th, the date matches!
It really wasn’t a dream!
"Hold on, let me figure this out." Jack Young scratched his head like a confused sitcom character, then slapped his palm in realization: "I get it! If I name my two bodies A and B, when I fall asleep in this world as A, I become B in my dream. When I come back from the dream, I show up in this world as B. And vice versa—if I sleep as B, I turn into A in the dream, and wake up as A again!"
Now it seems, the switching between Jack Young and Jill Young really does follow this rule!
It's the unknown that's scary. Once Jack Young figured this out, he calmed down. After all, he's been through life and death and seen some real chaos by now.
It’s only been two days, but two days ago he was just a deadbeat office drone. Now, he’s a kung fu master with real skills.
Insight Technique, Level Two—Snowfall Perception, activate!
In an instant, the whole world slowed down. Jack could clearly see the red threads moving on the passersby around him. They were faint and thin, nothing like the thick ones on the Bald Giant.
Slow-motion vision—off!
The world snapped back to normal.
Jack took a deep breath. His kung fu skills—every single one of them—came back with him. Everything he learned in that other world works perfectly here!
"The only thing I don’t know now is how often I’ll switch." Jack pondered, "Both times, the gap in reality was one day. Maybe it’ll always be a day between switches? If so, that’s wild. Or maybe it depends on how long I stay in the other world. After all, at the Blackridge Bandits’ place, I only stayed one full day, and the timing matches up."
Whatever, no point worrying about things I have zero clues or info about right now.
All he knew was: first, he was back to normal; second, he had all his kung fu; third, he’d probably keep adventuring in the dream world and keep getting stronger!
Any one of these three is huge news!
So, isn’t this the perfect time to celebrate?
The sunshine’s great, the weather’s awesome, and everything going on is fantastic. Time to go spend some cash and celebrate, young man—ding-a-ling! Suddenly, the ringing phone yanked Jack Young’s stride right back.
He picked up his phone—Mom’s calling!
"Hey, Mom." Being able to call his mom with his familiar male voice, Jack Young was honestly grateful to heaven and earth.
"Qi, how have you been these past two days?"
"The past two days?" Jack Young laughed, "Fantastic, really fantastic. Never felt better!"
"That’s good. Qi, things have been pretty crazy lately. Be careful, okay? Don’t go out alone."
"Yeah, I won’t go out alone." Jack Young thought about it. With his skills now, he really wasn’t afraid of any thugs. He actually wanted to run into a few, just like those TV dramas—one against ten, living the dream! If he could pull off a hero-saves-the-beauty moment, that’d be even better.
"No idea what’s up with the planet. Did you see what happened the night before last? Now all these so-called experts are popping up, saying this and that, but none of it makes sense. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps."
"Hmm... huh?" Jack Young replied absentmindedly, then realized something was off. "The night before last? Something happened? Even the experts got involved?"
"You didn’t know?" Mom sounded shocked. "It was so obvious the night before last—you must’ve slept through it! Didn’t your coworkers talk about it yesterday?"
"I took the day off yesterday, didn’t go to work." Jack Young explained, sensing something odd. "What happened the night before last?"
"Sigh, you kid, always the same—never paying attention to current events. The night before last, starting at midnight, the sky turned white. It’s all over the internet now, everyone’s talking about it. Apparently, it happened everywhere—even the North and South Poles. Some people are saying it’s the end of the world. Things are tense, so be careful!"
The night before last? Wasn’t that exactly when he switched to Jill Young in his dream? Jack Young immediately turned around, entered the building, and took the elevator home.
Mom kept talking: "Qi, your uncle works at the police station, right? He said since the night before last, there’ve been a ton of missing persons cases. No bodies, no clues. You really need to be careful!"
"Don’t worry, Mom. Your son loves his life—he’s not running toward danger. If there’s fire or water, I’m steering clear. I’ll just grab a seat and watch the chaos from the sidelines."
After reassuring his worried mom, Jack Young returned to his own place.
He reached for his computer. Even though only two days had passed in the real world, a month of kung fu adventures made the computer feel like a relic from another life.
Opened the browser, and right at the top: White Night Arrives—Apocalypse Sign!
Scrolling further, every forum, every Weibo, even Renren and QQ Space—everyone was talking about it. Jack Young clicked on a pinned video and finally understood what had happened.
"Hello, viewers. At local time, April 3rd, midnight—that’s 12:00 AM on April 4th—the night sky turned white all over the world. That’s right, local time! Every single place, no matter the time zone, experienced White Night at their own astronomical 'midnight.' Now, let’s track this event—the first place where White Night happened was..."
This chapter isn’t over yet~ Please click next page for more excitement!
Jack Young didn’t pay much attention to the video commentary. The person who made it quoted all sorts of geography facts, but the main point was: on that day, the whole world experienced White Night.
The video was a mashup of clips from all over—mostly shot with handheld cameras or phones, and some by outdoor hosts who happened to catch it live. East or West, people of every race were reacting.
Everyone was yelling, "Holy sh*t!"—panicking, clutching their heads, or running around in chaos.
But what shocked Jack Young the most was: even though the night sky was an eerie, ghostly white, it was still pitch black!
Exactly. Even with a white sky, there wasn’t a single bit of light on the ground—actually, it was darker than a normal night. If you didn’t turn on the lights, you couldn’t even see your own hand!
In the video, a Black guy rapped at the camera, "Oh my god, can you see this? The sky’s white, but it’s so dark I can’t even see myself! Damn, is this a sign of the apocalypse?"
The video ended, and in the comments below, the whole 'White Night Arrives—Apocalypse Sign' thing started to spread from here.
Jack Young closed the video and checked out other posts and news.
One news article said: Experts urge the public not to panic—the white night sky is caused by air pollution and global warming. Some chemical in the air, under certain conditions, caused this phenomenon.
Comment: That proves it’s definitely not a chemical thing—panic, brothers!
Another article said: Experts proved White Night is a normal natural phenomenon, happens every so-and-so years. There are records of similar events in some dynasty, and also abroad.
Comment: That means we’re really dealing with something supernatural—we’re doomed!
And another news piece: This time, it’s foreign experts—not Chinese ones! Blah blah blah, balabalabala...
Comment: Even the foreigners are trying to trick people now? Looks like the apocalypse is real—I better go buy some salt. Huh? Who’s knocking? Water meter guy? What water meter, we don’t even have pipes! Hey, who are you? What are you doing in here? Ah—
Jack Young sighed. The internet really is full of all kinds of weirdos. Just now, a bunch of Gintama fans hijacked the thread, claiming it’s the latest OVA: 'White Night—X—Arrives' in global sync promo. Way more epic than that sandstorm-for-Curse of the Golden Flower stunt.
Nerds really know how to stir things up—their trolling actually shifted the panic into a meme fest, cutting down on the fear.
"I just wonder if this White Night has anything to do with me dreaming into another world." He looked down at his left hand—there, a golden bust shimmered in his palm. Jack Young felt there really might be a hidden connection between them.