I was halfway through beating a boss battle when the television that had been on in the background suddenly cut to black.

I looked up just long enough to see Zhenlan, who of course was watching it, and Chenghai exchange a glance. I rolled my eyes. The TV going black was nothing. In fact, I was pretty impressed that there was still regular TV being played all the time.

Of course, there was only two channels now. You had the choice of news or... news.

But at least the internet was still alive and well. I honestly didn’t think I would survive on my downloads when that went.

I sniffed at the very idea of the internet gone when Lingyun looked up from where he was stretched across the other couch. "The hell?" he grunted, and I assumed that he was just as confused as the guys were.

Even Yuche popped his head out of the kitchen, a bowl of chips in his hand as he looked at me. "Want dip?"

Ah, the man was learning. I nodded my head and he grabbed a container and brought it into the living room. "What happened?" he asked, turning to look at the TV.

Static flickered across the screen for several seconds before the emergency broadcast symbol appeared in the corner. The image quality dropped hard almost immediately afterward, becoming more grainy and unstable like someone was filming with an old phone while running.

Then a man’s face appeared.

He looked exhausted, breathing heavily as the camera shook in his hands, but the thing that caught my attention first wasn’t the look in his eyes, or the desperation in the way he was hunched forward like he was trying to tell us all a secret.

No, my attention went to the more notable things. Like his cheeks. They were still pretty chubby and round.

Not overly fat, not healthy by old-world standards, but not hollow either. His skin wasn’t stretched tightly across bone and his eyes were clear enough that he could still focus properly. There were dark circles under them, but not deep enough to mean long-term starvation.

In fact, he might have been considered attractive even now if he hadn’t opened his mouth.

The second he did, I lost all interested in him.

"If anyone is seeing this, then the government hasn’t shut me down yet," the man said quickly, glancing nervously over his shoulder before turning the camera around. It was like he was trying to put on a one man performance.

The image shifted toward a narrow hallway packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people sleeping on thin mats and blankets spread across the concrete floor.

"They’re lying to everyone," he continued, his voice shaking. "The compounds aren’t safe. They’ve crammed us together like animals in here."

The footage moved again as he hurried forward through the hallway. People looked up as he passed, some startled, others too exhausted to care. Children sat against the walls clutching bowls of watery soup while adults argued nearby over portions that barely counted as meals.

But what he wasn’t showing was the outside. As far as I could see, these people were living inside a building, probably with a working roof seeing as there was no moisture on the walls or floor. That was a pretty first class living arrangement.

No wonder there were so many people there.

In my last life I would have killed for a place like that to live.

"They ration everything," the man continued bitterly. "Food, water, medicine. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. And what they give you to eat would never fill a child, let alone an adult."

The camera briefly caught several civilians hauling heavy crates across a courtyard beneath armed military supervision before shifting again.

"People are collapsing from exhaustion and they don’t care," the whistleblower continued. "Everyone gets assigned labor details whether they’re sick or not. Construction, sanitation, corpse disposal. Doesn’t matter. If you refuse, they cut your rations."

The room around me had gone quiet as the four men leaned forward to stare at the scene in front of them. Even Lingyun sat up straighter, his brow furrowing with disbelief.

I shook my head. They had no idea.

The footage changed again, this time showing several men kneeling in the middle of an open courtyard while armed soldiers stood behind them.

One of the kneeling civilians was crying.

"They execute people publicly now," the man whispered. The edge of the video was covered with cloth like he was trying to hide his camera. At least he was a little smart. "The official reason is theft or violence, but it’s really about control. They want everyone scared enough to obey."

A gunshot cracked through the speakers.

Someone in the room behind me cursed quietly.

The camera jerked violently before stabilizing again as the whistleblower ran down another hallway.

"And the awakened..." the man continued, breathing hard now. "They treat them like weapons. They separate them from everyone else and force them into military squads. Some of them don’t even come back."

The footage shifted again.

This time it showed several people with visible powers being escorted across the compound under armed guard. One woman had flames flickering weakly around her hands while another man struggled against soldiers holding him by both arms.

"They say it’s for humanity’s survival," the whistleblower spat bitterly. "But we’re prisoners in here. We’re packed together like livestock while the military—"

"Really?" I interrupted with a scoff, no longer even remotely interested. This man was clearly living in one of the top bases in this county and he was complaining about it? Was he stupid?

Everyone turned to looked at me but I barely noticed.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the game in my hands as I moved my character around another attack pattern.

"That guy has issues if he is complaining about that. Or maybe he lost touch with reality. Is there something else on TV?" I asked casually. Static was better than listening to him.

Zhenlan frowned slightly. "Rouxi..." His voice trailed off as if he didn’t understand how I didn’t have compassion for that man.

I shrugged. "What?" I asked. "Did you not see him? He’s got decent skin color, bright eyes, no serious muscle wasting. He isn’t starving."

The room somehow got quieter.

On the television, the whistleblower kept ranting as he moved through another crowded hallway filled with civilians.

"They monitor everything we say. There’s barely enough room to sleep. People disappear if they cause problems—"

I shook my head slightly.

"This guy has no idea how lucky he is," I muttered.

Chenghai stared at me like I was the crazy one. "Lucky? You think he is lucky?"

"He has shelter," I replied simply, still playing my game. "Security. Food. Water. Something to do. Nobody is eating rats to survive, no one is killing themselves rather than keep living. He’s living like royalty."

The image on the television shifted again as the whistleblower hurried outside into a fenced courtyard crowded with civilians lined up for food distribution.

The portions looked small.

But everyone in line was standing.

Nobody looked like they were about to collapse.

"How can you even say that?" Lingyun asked slowly, his head turning toward me, his eyes wide. "That is no way to live."

I glanced up from my game for the first time. "But it is still living."

That shut everyone up immediately.

On the screen, the whistleblower’s voice had risen almost to shouting now.

"We’re prisoners in here!" he snapped angrily. "People are dying and the government keeps pretending everything is under control while they force us to live like—"

The broadcast suddenly cut to black.