My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Why did Laozi write the Tao Te Ching? Because he felt like it, that’s why.

Whether it was him, Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, or Lei Xiaohui, they all found what they were doing to be pretty interesting.

Li Xiang had always felt that no matter how miserable life became, no matter how harsh the world, one had to maintain a positive, optimistic mindset. Life needed a sense of ceremony.

Even if the Apocalypse came, he would do everything within his power to ensure certain holidays and festivals were passed on.

For example, the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Lantern Festival... and others.

Ancient times were so poor and difficult, so why did the Spring Festival still exist? Because it wasn’t just a sacrificial activity or a state-sponsored celebration; it was a festival for the common folk, one that served a function of social and psychological regulation.

In ancient times, through long periods of hard labor, people gradually came to understand the importance of balancing work with rest. They would arrange for periods of rest and entertainment to relax, which helped them dive into the next phase of labor with more abundant energy.

During the New Year, people didn’t just stop working; they also feasted and drank, sang and danced, and engaged in all kinds of folk activities, enjoying themselves to the fullest. This arrangement of rest and entertainment, this sense of ceremony, helped alleviate the fatigue and stress of the entire year.

But the Apocalypse—with the surface of the Earth uninhabitable, darkness blanketing everything, a world of ice and snow, and Demon Beasts running rampant—is far more difficult than ancient times. If even this sense of ceremony were lost, if the ability to find joy amidst suffering disappeared, then human civilization truly wouldn’t be able to last. It would be not far from extinction.

If there were no holidays at all, wouldn’t that just be waiting for death?

Where would the hope be then?

What the Apocalypse requires is a certain kind of spirit—a will to fight for hope, to fight for the future of humanity! As long as people don’t become pessimistic, as long as they don’t despair, a day will surely come when they can endure and overcome the cold winter and the darkness!

Besides traditional holidays, Li Xiang mused that perhaps they could also create new ones, or reinterpret the old ones.

After all, it would be a new era—a bad one, granted—and in different eras, the meaning of holidays and the ways they are celebrated are bound to be different.

Take ”driving away the Nian Beast,” for example. Nobody does that anymore, but after the Apocalypse arrives, ”driving away the Nian Beast” might just become a literal reality.

Or take the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Apocalypse, the Moon is no longer visible. Should it still be celebrated?

Li Xiang remembered something from his past life. During the Mid-Autumn Festival in the year before he fell, a five-year-old child at their base—born before the Apocalypse, but too young to have any memory of it—had no idea what the Moon was.

On that Mid-Autumn Festival, the child had asked her mother, ”Mommy, what’s the Moon like?”

At that moment, many people were overcome with a deep sorrow and broke down in tears.