Chapter 001 Tower Epoch 2121_1
```
"Humans had conquered the high skies over thousands of years, but on this day, the sky became the forbidden zone of the gods..."
At the podium, Old Wang read aloud.
Yi Lin yawned and turned her head to look out the window.
In that direction, far, far away, there was a towering tower that reached into the clouds, invisible to the end.
"Yi Lin!"
Accompanied by the teacher's roar, a short electronic pen hit Yi Lin's forehead with impeccable accuracy.
"Ow!"
The force of the electronic pen left a red bump on Yi Lin's forehead.
Wang Fenbi, male, 40 years old, unmarried, introverted, irritable, petty, reportedly had a "Mental Attribute" as high as 3.2, and a throwing accuracy of up to 93%.
"Yi Lin, stand up!"
Upon hearing this, Yi Lin rubbed her red-swollen forehead, a hint of helplessness flashing across her eyes, and slowly stood up.
"Yi Lin, you answer this question! Humans had conquered the high skies over thousands of years, but on this day, the sky became the forbidden zone of the gods... what day am I referring to when I said 'this day'?"
Yi Lin sighed.
Then, her gaze drifted toward the distant horizon, that towering gray mega-tower.
"Don't understand, do you? If you don't understand..."
Old Wang on the podium saw Yi Lin's reaction, his face hardened, ready to scold, but to his surprise, Yi Lin leisurely gave out the answer.
"November 11th, 2111..."
Old Wang's expression turned cold, silently pinching another electronic pen.
"This answer is known to the entire world, I am sure Teacher Wang wouldn't be satisfied with it."
Yi Lin's tone shifted, forestalling Old Wang's electronic pen from being thrown out.
Yi Lin added with a slight smile, "On the day of November 11, 2111, four giant towers appeared out of nowhere on Earth, and just in our Dragon Country, more than two hundred million people disappeared without a trace in Jiaoyan Province, Chuan Province, and Xizhou Province..."
"That very night at 23:00, 3,422 artificial satellites fell to Earth simultaneously, creating what was described as the most 'spectacular' meteor shower in human history... That night, in history, was known as 'Meteor Shower Night.' It was also on this day that humans completely lost air supremacy."
"And from the day of November 11, 2111, many proposed it as the start of a New Era... the Tower Epoch."
"But considering the source of this original text, it comes from a paper titled 'To the Sky That Humanity Will Ultimately Lose' by Tower Studies researcher Molly, published in the 'Good Fortune' journal on January 5, 2114, which, through various data and experiments, confirmed the real existence of the 'No-fly zone' above 3,000 meters."
"So the answer Teacher Wang wants should be January 5, 2114."
Having said that, Yi Lin calmly looked at Old Wang.
Old Wang widened his eyes; he hadn't expected the usually silent, seemingly obedient student to have a certain understanding of "Tower Studies."
"Teacher Wang, may I sit down now?"
"Cough cough!" Old Wang coughed twice, trying to mask his embarrassment, then clapped his hands soberly: "Student Yi Lin is studious and has a profound understanding of the history of Tower Studies, deserving of praise! You may sit down, Yi Lin."
"Thank you, Teacher," Yi Lin said.
Yi Lin calmly returned to her seat.
This small interlude didn't interrupt Old Wang's enthusiasm for teaching; he pressed a button to clear the content on the screen and started writing with the electronic pen anew.
"This day, was the greatest disaster in human history, but at the same time, it was also the beginning of a new civilization for humanity..."
Yi Lin's gaze once again unconsciously drifted toward the window, as if through endless time and space, staring at that gray mega-tower.
Listening to Old Wang enthusiastically lecturing at the podium, Yi Lin shook her head; this was the "reality" humans currently recognized.
...
After class, Yi Lin packed up her textbooks, ready to leave.
A tall figure walked over to Yi Lin.
Yi Lin looked up and her face blossomed with a brilliant smile, "Brother Yang, it's you, what's up?"
While speaking, Yi Lin silently repeated the newcomer's name three times in her heart.
Siao Yang, Siao Yang, Siao Yang.
"Haha, Little Rin, you're not thinking of majoring in Tower Studies, are you?" Siao Yang, looking down from his height, rested a hand on Yi Lin's shoulder, and asked with a smile.
"Yeah..." Yi Lin packed her books into her bag as she responded with a helpless smile, "I heard the country now needs a lot of professionals to study 'Tower Studies.' To respond to the call, the nation's key universities will lower the total attribute requirements for the Tower Studies major this year, um... guess it's another hope."
"True, who makes Little Rin an ordinary person…" Siao Yang's eyes flashed with contempt, but his smile widened, patting Yi Lin's shoulder vigorously before shifting his tone, "Speaking of which, today's history homework..."
Without waiting for Yi Lin to agree, Siao Yang had already stuffed a thick stack of homework into Yi Lin's bag.
"Oh... homework, right! Don't worry, I've got it!" Yi Lin cheerfully took care of the homework Siao Yang handed her.
"You truly are a good friend of Siao Yang; rest assured, since I, Siao Yang, am a genius with Strength, Agility, and Mental Attributes all over 10.0, when I Siao Yang make a name for myself, I won't forget you."
Yi Lin laughed, "Indeed, who lets us be good friends. If Brother Yang doesn't have anything else... I'll be heading off now."
Yi Lin packed up and was about to leave the classroom with her thick backpack.
As she was walking out the door, Yi Lin suddenly remembered something, "Oh right, Brother Yang, the weather doesn't seem right today, there could be a downpour tonight, remember to close the doors and windows. Bye~"
Siao Yang watched as Yi Lin left.
It wasn't until Yi Lin had completely gone that Siao Yang, with a face full of disdain, spat out two words.
"Idiot."
...
...
"Welcome home, Yi Lin."
"The date is July 8, 2121, and the time is 18:30."
The moment Yi Lin opened the door, the lights in the house and the air purifier automatically activated.
A sweet but emotionless synthesized voice rang out.
Yi Lin casually tossed her backpack to the side, "Little Yee, heat up a quick nutrition meal for me, Flavor B, I'll eat it in 30 minutes."
"I'll prepare it for you right away, Yi Lin."
Yi Lin raised her head to look at the electronic screen.
Then she lowered her head.
She raised it again.
And lowered it once more.
Over and over.
She checked six times.
```
Today is indeed July 8, 2121.
Even an AI housekeeper can make mistakes, and on a regular day, a mistake would just be a mistake.
But not today.
No errors are permitted today.
"About 3 more hours," he said.
Yi Lin nodded calmly and then made his way to the gym.
The gym floor was unexpectedly cluttered with mannequins lying in disarray.
The mannequins bore deep and shallow scratches, but these were most densely concentrated around the neck, right in the center, deeply indented.
Some mannequins were even severed at the neck, presenting a somewhat terrifying sight.
Yi Lin approached the power test instrument with an impassive face.
He threw a punch with all his might.
"120KG!"
Suddenly, a cold number flashed on the power test instrument's screen.
"Just 120KG... converted to the strength attribute, it should be around 2.0."
Yi Lin's expression remained unchanged.
Next, he stepped in front of the speed test device.
After pressing the button, countless small balls were shot out from the barrel.
Yi Lin, fully focused, rapidly slapped away the balls in mid-air with his palms.
"Missed 5... Agility is about 3.0? Though it might not be very accurate... but this is enough."
Yi Lin nodded in satisfaction and, without wasting more strength, walked out of the gym.
After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes, Yi Lin took out a just-right-temperature microwaveable nutritional meal and began to eat heartily.
Though it was called a nutritional meal, it looked like nothing more than a mysterious paste, and as for the taste...
That was unimportant.
...
A few years ago, the Chief Scientist of Dragon Country invented a miraculous device that could categorize human talent into three main attributes: "Strength," "Agility," and "Spirit," and measure specific values for each.
The strength attribute was related to muscle intensity, physical explosive force, physique, cell activity, and so on.
Meanwhile, agility was associated with reaction speed, running speed, dexterity, and other factors.
As for the mental attribute, it was akin to a composite score of memory, calculation power, observation, understanding, abstract thinking, and various other abilities.
The emergence of the attribute checker completely changed the human resources selection systems in all human societies.
Since then, all schools and organizations abandoned the "examination" system and replaced it with attribute checkers to gauge everyone's talent and potential.
Even five years before, the country unveiled two ancient martial arts fitness techniques handed down from the Ming Dynasty, the "Body Strengthening Technique and the "Dragon Swim Steps." As long as one persevered in training, they could steadily improve their strength and agility attributes, igniting a national craze for martial arts practice.
For instance, in Qingcheng High School, where Yi Lin attended, physical education took up half the class time.
According to data released by professional researchers, ordinary people's attributes all fell below 3.0.
By practicing the Body Strengthening Technique and Dragon Swim Steps, one could steadily improve their strength and agility attributes, though the extent of improvement was linked to innate talent.
An attribute value over 3.0 was considered excellent, and over 4.0 was genius.
Three years ago, Yi Lin underwent an official initial test, and his attributes were... Strength 1.5, Agility 1.8, and Spirit 2.9.
And the final comment was—
"An ordinary person without anything remarkable."
...
20:00.
Yi Lin did just one thing: he practiced the Body Strengthening Technique twice.
To promote digestion.
In the case where the nutritional meal provided sufficient energy, he couldn't let a feeling of over-fullness compromise his body's flexibility.
80% full was just right.
Any more or less was unacceptable.
Too tired, too lazy, too full, too hungry—all were not options.
He had already made hundreds of attempts, eating a nutritional meal and practicing the Body Strengthening Technique twice an hour later.
"Just right," Yi Lin clearly understood his own mild obsession with precision, especially regarding numbers. But it didn't matter, these did not affect the bigger picture.
20:10.
It began to rain outside the house, just as he remembered; this day was a torrential downpour.
Seeing the storm arrive as expected, Yi Lin finally breathed a sigh of relief.
For the past three years, he had refrained even from spitting on the roadside, for fear that such an act would trigger some unpredictable butterfly effect and cause a change from rain to clear skies on July 8, 2121.
20:30.
Yi Lin emptied his bladder completely.
He pulled out a black waterproof hoodie from under the bed, which he had prepared three years earlier, and put it on.
Then from the bathroom, he retrieved another dust-covered box that had also been lying there for three years.
Gloves, a mask.
And a...
Brand-new dagger.
Under the desk drawer, Yi Lin tore fiercely, ripping away the small paper package that was tightly taped underneath.
A light, perfectly square paper package.
Yi Lin carefully unwrapped the package, revealing only a small, delicate card, blank on both sides, with nothing on it.
But Yi Lin carefully placed the blank card close to his body.
"Let's go," he said.
With preparations complete, Yi Lin left his home, exited the residential area, and vanished into the pouring rain in the blink of an eye.