Chapter 189

Every country has its own circumstances.

From the very beginning, everyone knew that they could never flee in the way families did in foreign disaster movies—jumping into their cars and driving away at the first sign of trouble.

Not every household in the country owned a private car, and there was nowhere for them to escape to anyway.

From the start, everyone had agreed without question on the fundamental principle:

Defend their homes.

From the first Youth Apartments, to the second expansion that encompassed the entire Tech New District, to the various districts responding in turn and establishing several survivor settlements—

Now the mysterious man wanted to force them to leave.

To make them abandon the base they had defended for so long.

[Difficulty increased.]

Then how exactly would this trial determine victory or defeat?

Or did victory and defeat even exist?

Perhaps the result did not matter at all.

Perhaps the only thing that mattered was watching the process.

Zhao Yi stepped forward and fired off his questions. “What do you want? What are you trying to get from us? What are your demands?”

Unfortunately, the shortwave radio no longer answered him. It began repeating in a loop:

[It isn’t over yet. Escape from here.]

Zhao Yi was deeply disappointed.

He had desperately wanted to make contact with a higher life-form.

He was intensely curious about another civilization—or another world.

No one dared approach the shortwave radio.

For it to make a sound without any power source—by the standards of the Chinese people, that was obviously a haunting.

Only Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan were unafraid. Together, they carried the thing to a newly built house beside the road.

Zhao Yi even built a stand for it and placed it right in the middle of the room.

Inside the empty house, the crackle of electrical interference continued without pause as the mysterious man repeated the same words again and again.

People from the surrounding area began drifting toward the house.

By noon, survivors from the other residential compounds had arrived as well.

The people who had survived had no idea what they should do or where they should go, so they instinctively made their way to the Youth Apartments.

All this time, the Youth Apartments had been like a lighthouse.

Whenever people did not know what to do, they naturally came here.

A rough count showed that the Tech New District had originally housed twenty-four thousand people. Just over four thousand had survived.

Twenty thousand were gone.

Many familiar faces were missing.

At the Youth Apartments, two of the old core members, Wu Jiancheng and Guo Jun, were nowhere to be found.

Of the original property-management staff, only Aunt Pan remained. Manager Wang, Yang Xinyan, and Little Fang were all gone.

Of the little children, only four girls and two boys remained.

Zeng Qiang and Master Luo were nowhere to be found either.

When they said someone was “nowhere to be found,” they meant that there was neither a living person nor a corpse to be found.

Brother Dong from Auspicious Garden had not made it out in time.

As a wind-type ability user, he should have had one of the highest chances of survival. Zhou Wang had survived by jumping straight out of a window.

But Brother Dong had traded for alcohol the day before. He had drunk far too much and was still suffering from a hangover.

When the earthquake struck, he had not woken up at all.

Little Huang was dead.

His death had been confirmed because Zhou Wang and Little Huang had always lived together. One had lost his parents, while the other had lost his wife and child.

The two of them had been like father and son.

When the earthquake struck, Zhou Wang had rushed into Little Huang’s bedroom and dragged him out with him before jumping from the building.

He had never let go.

It was only after the earthquake stopped that he realized Little Huang had died long ago.

Auntie Xue, a wood-type ability user, was nowhere to be found.

Auntie Qian had survived.

She was elderly and slept lightly for only a few hours at a time. She had been awake when the earthquake struck.

Knowing that her legs were too weak to run, she had used the vines she kept indoors to form a ball around herself, then curled up in the corner.

The triangular space formed by three intersecting walls was structurally stable.

The shortwave radio had also been found in such a triangular space.

In any case, Auntie Qian had survived.

Of the more than twenty people at Mr. Xu’s company, only he and Wu Yan had survived.

Uncle Eighty, a metal-type ability user, had survived at first, but died while rescuing others.

Wang Yunya had been rescued, but her mother, Xiao Dan, was nowhere to be found.

Many people were like Wang Yunya, walking around as if their souls had left their bodies.

Jiang Cheng took food out of her storage space, and the people from the Youth Apartments distributed it to everyone.

Many survivors did not even know to line up. They wandered aimlessly like ghosts, some muttering incoherently under their breath.

The people from the Youth Apartments had to force the food into their hands.

“Eat!”

They lowered their heads and ate.

The houses had already been built.

They were extremely simple, box-shaped structures. Inside, there were only two rows of bare, hard bunk beds.

Each room could accommodate thirty or forty people.

Several long rows of houses stood along the main road, looking like matchboxes.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Li Jiangbing called out “Jiancheng” twice in a row. When no one answered, he remembered that Wu Jiancheng was gone.

If someone was nowhere to be found, they were most likely dead.

Li Jiangbing stood there in a daze for a long while.

It was only when another fire-type ability user tactfully approached and asked, “Do you need fire?” that Li Jiangbing finally gave a small nod.

“Heat some water so everyone can wash,” he said.

Everyone was filthy. They were barefoot, covered from head to toe in mud and dirt.

By then, the survivors had already recovered a great deal of clothing and footwear from the ruins. Some of it had even been stripped from corpses.

The temperature was around seventeen or eighteen degrees Celsius—the temperature of spring. Under normal circumstances, people would still have needed light jackets.

Many were wearing pajamas or autumn undershirts and long johns.

Li Jiangbing had already rinsed and dried all the clothing and shoes.

But at this temperature, no one could wash with cold water, so he had called on the fire-type ability users to heat it. It did not need to be hot—just warm was enough.

They had not done this in a long time. Going through the motions again actually made them feel a little nostalgic.

Most of the refugees had washed this way back then, and they all knew what to do. They lined up, one after another, stepped into a warm ball of water, rolled around in it for a while, then came out. The water was drained from their bodies immediately, and they collected clothes before finding shoes in a suitable size.

For many people, they had to be herded over to the washing area.

But after washing themselves, finding clean clothes and shoes, and keeping busy, the survivors gradually seemed to regain their senses.

At temperatures in the teens, the rooms were actually colder than outdoors.

Each room had been equipped with an iron coal stove.

Jiang Cheng took out coal.

In the past, the temporary government of the Tech New District had maintained its own large warehouse. But all the core members knew that Jiang Cheng’s storage space was their backup supply depot.

It contained nearly every basic survival necessity imaginable.

The only thing people did not know was how much she actually had.

Song Jingshuo was probably the only one who had a rough idea.

Temporary toilets had also been built.

They were out in the open, surrounded by walls, with no doors and a screen wall for privacy.

Drinking-water storage tanks had been constructed as well.

Song Jingshuo found watermelon seedlings and immediately grew dozens of large watermelons.

After the heavy snow brought by the extreme cold melted, the ground was muddy everywhere and the air was saturated with moisture. This made it very convenient for Li Jiangbing to conjure water from thin air, and for Song Jingshuo to grow fruits with such a high water content.

They quenched thirst and replenished sugar.

Eating sugar made it easy for people to relax.

Under the organization of the Youth Apartments, the basic necessities required for survival were all provided in an extremely short period of time: the water, food, shelter, and warmth Jiang Cheng had demanded.

Once people had eaten their fill, put on warm clothes, and sat inside a clean, roofed room with a fire burning in the stove, they began to feel as if they had come back to life.

Their eyes slowly regained focus and vitality.

They were still alive. That was all that mattered.

Most people had mainly been frightened out of their wits. But in reality, when they had first arrived here several months earlier, they had already been refugees.

Those who had suffered the loss of loved ones, like Wang Yunya, were actually in the minority. Most people had already lost their loved ones several months ago.

Of course, some temporary couples, friends they had made later, and couples who had gotten together during the ordeal were grieving too.

But this wasn’t their first time experiencing it.

Once everyone had gotten their bearings, they naturally entered a state of standby, waiting for Jiang Cheng of the Youth Apartments to give them their next instructions.

That was how things had always been.

There had to be someone to tell everyone what to do and how to do it.

And that person had always been Jiang Cheng of the Youth Apartments.

Jiang Cheng and all the surviving core members were in the room where the haunted radio was broadcasting.

No one had tuned it in. The radio had switched over to Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao by itself.

【You can’t go north. The north has split open into a massive canyon, turning it into an impassable chasm.】

【You can’t go south either. The southern continental shelf has sunk, pushing the coastline inland by hundreds of miles. The rivers have all been flooded backward by seawater.】

【Go west, toward the plateau. You can survive there.】

【Survive my ass! The cold air has shifted over there. If we go there, we’ll have to endure freezing weather and a miserable life all over again. We’re practically about to become cave-dwelling humans!】

【It’s still better than the east. Don’t you know a Corpse Emperor has appeared over there? He controls the zombies by the thousands.】

【I’d rather fight zombies than freeze. I can’t stand being cooped up indoors.】

【Then go.】

【Do we really have to leave?】

【Of course we do. He said it isn’t over yet. The shaking will continue.】

【Is he going to shake us to death?】

【If you don’t leave, you’ll die. He wants you to go. If you refuse, he’ll simply make you die.】

Jiang Cheng asked, “So who is he?”

Everyone abruptly turned to look at her.

She stared impassively at the radio that seemed to be haunted.

Don’t pretend.

You’re all in cahoots.

【Heh heh.】 Uncle Jiang chuckled. 【You’ll know when you meet him.】

Sister Mao’s voice turned shrill. 【Don’t go see him! Don’t go!】

So they really could hear them.

This wasn’t communication through the shortwave radio’s microphone or radio signals. It was some kind of supernatural ability?

Everyone’s hair stood on end, and they were covered in gooseflesh.

Li Jiangbing swallowed, his eyes darting nervously from side to side.

These temporary structures had been built to give everyone a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

There were no glass windows. Instead, narrow openings had been made high up in the walls. They couldn’t really be called windows—just ventilation holes.

The room where everyone rested was very dim.

This room, however, had several fireballs burning overhead with a whooshing sound, lighting the place.

People’s shadows were cast across the walls, swelling and shrinking as they swayed.

Li Jiangbing was terrified of things like this.

He pressed himself tightly against Song Jingshuo.

【You mustn’t see him! Once you do... you’ll never be able to come back!】 Sister Mao sounded as though she were struggling to suppress her fear.

Her acting was remarkably convincing.

Jiang Cheng remained unmoved. “Why? Will he kill me?”

【Heh heh.】 Uncle Jiang said, 【Guess.】

The radio fell silent. After several seconds of crackling static, it switched to the mysterious man’s voice.

【It isn’t over yet.】

【You must escape.】

They were forcing the people to abandon the base they had fought so hard to maintain.

Jiang Cheng said, “Turn it off.”

Gao Yuxuan said, “Huh?”

This thing... technically wasn’t even on.

It didn’t have any power.

It was haunted. How were they supposed to turn it off?

Jiang Cheng said, “If you can’t turn it off, smash it. Don’t let it make another sound.”

With that threat, the haunted radio obediently fell silent.

The mysterious man and the static disappeared.

It was as though the radio had turned itself off.

It would probably turn itself back on the next time it was needed.

Zhou Wang’s mind felt like a complete mess. He couldn’t make sense of any of it.

Mr. Xu considered himself a highly educated member of humanity’s elite, but even he had begun to question his entire understanding of life.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Zhao Yi, what do you think?”

Zhao Yi was still lost in his own confusion. “They’re actually working together.”

Thinking back, wasn’t that exactly what had been happening?

The mysterious man played the role of a prophet, while worrying that people might not believe him or understand what he meant.

Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao provided commentary, singing in perfect harmony.

This was completely different from the advanced, detached, mysterious higher civilization Zhao Yi had imagined.

It was more like the sort of con artists one might encounter in everyday life.

They were so down-to-earth that Zhao Yi found the whole thing utterly disillusioning.

Zhang Lesi asked, “So their ultimate goal is to force us to leave? What happens if we refuse?”

Gao Yuxuan said, “They already made that perfectly clear.”

If they refused to leave, the shaking would continue.

Zhou Wang interrupted their speculation. “Wait, wait, wait! Little Jiang! Take care of us old folks here! My brain can’t keep up! Explain what’s going on first!”

He was genuinely confused.

And he wasn’t the only one who still didn’t understand what was happening.

Jiang Cheng called on someone. “Zhao Yi, you explain.”

Zhao Yi sighed and stood up to face everyone.

“This started out as a wild guess of mine. I never expected it to come true.”

“We all know that the zombie virus might have been released by an external hostile force to destroy us.”

“But this ‘external’ hostile force... isn’t the foreign power everyone has in mind.”

Zhao Yi had intended to explain his entire theory, including the two possible directions it could take.

But then he saw Zhang Lesi subtly shake her head at him.

Couples developed a certain tacit understanding.

Zhao Yi understood what she meant.

After hearing his theory, she had told him, “I can accept aliens and all that. Anyone who’s been educated knows how vast the universe is. It’s impossible that our planet is the only place with intelligent life. Even if aliens really did appear, that would still be consistent with science.”

“But this whole high-dimensional-world, low-dimensional-world thing? Forget it. That’s way too much like an anime.”