Chapter 128 Sharp Contrast

The whole city slowly woke up, more and more people appeared on the streets, and many people just came out to take a look.

At first, the residents who got up were still very worried. After all, the wind and snow outside were so strong, and who knew how low the temperature would drop. But when they saw people walking on the street, everyone felt relieved and went out.

The sounds of children playing and laughing could be heard from the street.

"There's snow. It's the first time I see it." It was obvious that this was a typical southern child's response before the end of the world.

"Let's build a snowman."

"The snowman should be built on the side, not in the middle of the road, as it will block others from walking." The person who said this was a very sensible child.

Parents are afraid that their children will get cold, so the little ones are wrapped up like cute dumplings.

The adults just smiled when they saw the children having fun. There were no human traffickers in the city-state now, so they felt at ease letting the children play like this. There were also patrolling NPCs in the city, and they could stop anyone who tried to snatch the children away immediately.

Not to mention that photo stones are placed in every public area in the city-state.

The photo stones in the jewelry store are selling out. Almost everyone has one since they were put on the shelves. In a gaming world where law and order are completely lost, this is the best prop to preserve evidence.

The children making a snowman, a girl with two little pigtails is very cute, and the other children love to play around her.

The little girl had a necklace with a beautiful butterfly on it hanging on her collar. Children loved to play with her and were curious about what she was wearing.

"Nannan, what is this?" The child looked at the butterfly with its wings spread on the necklace and thought it was very beautiful.

The little girl, called Nan Nan, picked up the butterfly on the necklace and said, "This is a butterfly necklace. My mother bought it for me. It's very useful. She said that if you encounter a bad guy, you should immediately think of taking a photo. This will send the bad guy's appearance to the city lord."

The children immediately knew what it was. "I have one too. My dad bought it for me. He also said that when he encounters bad guys, he wants to use this to remember their appearance."

"Yeah, my parents said this is like the old cell phones."

"Ah... I miss my phone so much, but my mom said all the phones and TVs are gone."

Everyone has one child. Nowadays, children are the treasures of every family, and their safety makes people more worried.

The children's conversation quickly turned to the ornaments on their necklaces.

"But mine is a cute smiling face."

"Mine is a pony."

…

Lu Jiu and his friends passed by a few children and couldn't help but smile when they saw them holding necklaces and sharing them with their friends.

Photo stones are very cheap, but they play a big role, so no one will be stingy with a few copper coins.

Besides, if the residents of Xuantian City had seized the opportunity before, they would not be poor now.

On the first day of winter, Xuantian City was filled with warmth and joy.

*

The situation in Longjiao City, Jinghe District, is not so relaxed and pleasant. With the arrival of winter, many people are woken up by the cold in the middle of the night.

In order to save firewood, they didn't burn much last night, and as a result, they were awakened by the bleak cold air before dawn.

The protective shield of the second-level city-state cannot adjust the temperature. The temperature inside the city-state is the same as outside the city. If you don’t burn firewood or use haystacks to keep warm indoors, you can’t live a normal life.

Many people who were staying in the hotel got up and shivered as they put a stove in the bedroom. They had the most hay on them, so they put this one on first.

When people placed their frozen hands on the warm stove, they began to groan.

The bedroom was crowded with a family of three: a middle-aged couple and a son in his early twenties. They were all ordinary residents and had been living in the boarding house.

The young son was still shaking, "Dad, why don't we light some firewood? This haystack will be gone in ten minutes."

The middle-aged man said solemnly, "It's only the first day of winter. We still have some time to get through it. If you start burning firewood now, what will you do if you run out of firewood later? You can't go out now."

The young son was in a depressed mood. Before the doomsday, they were a well-off family, and their old house was about to be demolished. He thought that the highlight of his life had come because he could collect rent in the town, but he didn't expect that the doomsday would come.

Now the whole family is huddled in such a small place, shivering.

"Mom, I'm so hungry."

The middle-aged woman was helpless. They only had heating in the bedroom; the living room and kitchen were too cold. "Let's buy some rice balls from the mall to get by today. Let's get used to the winter first."

He had no choice but to spend money to buy a few rice balls at the mall and gave one to each of his parents. "We should leave here in the fall. I saw someone on the same provincial channel saying that the protective shields in third-level city-states can regulate the temperature. If we were in a third-level city-state now, it wouldn't be so cold that we couldn't leave."

The middle-aged couple also regretted it. "No one came out at that time. Who dared to be the first to do it? We can't stand up to those professionals. We have to follow the group. If someone leaves in a group this winter, we will follow them."

The young man nodded. "Yes, we must leave this place. It's unsuitable for human beings. Even an ice cave would be warmer than this room."

At this time, someone spoke again in the dialogue channel.

[Same Province Channel] (Guan Xiao): I tried it. I put three big pieces of firewood at the fire entrance and it can burn all night. I put one extra piece last night and it hasn’t burned out yet. But when I woke up in the morning, the bedroom was very warm.

[Same Province Channel] (Ruan Fanyao): Our city-state was upgraded to level three yesterday. The city lord heard that the protective shield can adjust the temperature, so he upgraded it. Now it’s not too cold to go out on the street.

[Same Province Channel] (Guan Xiao): Our city-state is still at level two. It’s very cold outside, but it’s okay as long as we wear clothes with high thermal insulation properties. If the temperature drops further, we probably won’t be able to go out.

[Local Channel] (Shen Li): The hostel we live in here also has a fire exit, and the whole house is very warm.

The young man was extremely envious when he saw this conversation. These people could even burn firewood. "Dad, what is a fire tunnel?"

The middle-aged couple actually knew this. "It's the mezzanine in the room, commonly known as the fire wall, where you can burn firewood for heating. The fire channel is where you put the firewood."

The young man wanted to swear, but other city-states had firewalls when they stayed in the hotel, but they had nothing here and could only take out a big stove and burn fire inside to keep warm.

The family looked at each other in silence and could only sigh.

It was the middle-aged man who spoke again. "I have a feeling some people will not be able to make it through the winter. It would be best to leave then."

Longjiao City sells some things in the city-state tavern and city-state shops, but not much else, and also purchases their supplies.

They didn't go out to collect winter supplies for half of this autumn. If they hadn't made adequate preparations beforehand, some people would really not be able to survive.

"I was looking forward to it. Luckily, we bought a few more sets of warm clothes at that time and didn't save that money. Otherwise, it would be hard to say what would happen."

The middle-aged woman said this while looking at the thick clothes in her backpack. These were bought before the chaos broke out in the city-state. There weren't many of them then, but they were lucky enough to have managed to buy several sets.

The young man looked at the dim room and just wanted to leave here one day and live like a human being.

(End of this chapter)