Chapter 147

When the message "China's Flower Country - Sister Li" popped up in the system chat area, Su Jing was sitting at the workbench in the control room, watching Robot No. 3 install the last solar-powered cooling device.

The communicator sat on the table, its message notifications ringing incessantly, while text scrolled rapidly across the screen: "Family! Has the temperature risen where you are? It was -3 degrees Celsius here yesterday, but when I went outside this morning, the ice on the river had melted! It even reached 12 degrees Celsius at noon. Is the end of the world about to end?"

The chat room exploded the moment the message was sent.

The message from "US-Mark" followed closely, tinged with obvious anxiety: "Don't be silly! How could the end of the world end so easily? Yesterday it was 15 degrees Celsius in New York, and today it has soared to 25 degrees Celsius. The canned goods on the street are scorching hot, and the people hoarding food are going crazy. Just now, someone even shot someone over a bottle of ice water! This is not the end, it's about to change the world!"

"Brother Wang from the Flower Country" chimed in: "I also feel something's not right. Here in the north, the heating has only been off for three days, and now it's too hot to wear a light jacket. The snow in the ground is melting too fast, and there's water accumulating on the roadside. This rate of temperature increase is too abnormal. Spring has never been this fast before!"

Xiao Jin squatted beside Su Jing's legs, its dark eyes fixed on the communicator screen. Its little paws tugged at Su Jing's trouser leg, and its inner voice was full of confusion: "What are they arguing about? Isn't it good that the temperature has gone up? Before, it was so cold that I couldn't even stick my hands out, but now that it's warm, I can go out and sunbathe!"

Su Jing stroked its head and responded with her consciousness: "It's not just hot, it's going to get extremely hot, even hotter than the hottest part of summer. The spirit herbs will get thirsty, the food will spoil, and we'll have to rely on the cooling equipment we just installed to get through it."

She swiped her finger across the chat area and clicked on the message from "China-Chen Yang"—this ability user who had previously bought her hemostatic herbs always spoke with a hint of caution: "Don't panic, everyone. 'I am the God of Wealth' sent me a message before, saying that there might be a period of extreme heat after the extreme cold, and that I should prepare things to cool down in advance."

The temperature is rising so fast now, it's probably going to be an extreme heatwave, not the end of the world. Quickly stock up on water and cooling supplies!

"'I'm the God of Wealth'? You mean the one who sells magical herbs?" "Is what she says reliable?"

"I bought her Qi-gathering herb before, and it worked really well, so what she said must be true!"

As soon as Chen Yang's news came out, the sentiment in the chat area changed, with more and more people starting to worry about the extreme heat rather than looking forward to the end of the apocalypse.

"US-Lily" posted a photo of a street with melted asphalt, accompanied by a message of panic: "It's already 30 degrees Celsius here! The supermarket's ice water has been sold out long ago, the air conditioners are unusable because there's no electricity! Some people have set up tents on the street, but at noon the temperature inside the tents can reach 40 degrees Celsius, it's impossible for anyone to stay there!"

"Su Jing, is the extreme heat they're talking about hotter than the volcano in the dungeon?"

Xiao Jin recalled the scorching heat she felt near the volcano in the "Wilderness Monster World" dungeon, and instinctively shrank closer to Su Jing. Her inner voice carried a hint of fear, "Won't the spirit herbs die from the heat?"

"No, we've installed cooling equipment and sunshades, so the herb will be safe."

Su Jing comforted him, but her fingertips quickly switched to the temperature monitoring interface of the communicator—the current temperature in the operating room was 15℃, which was 13℃ higher than yesterday.

The temperature in the space planting area is 28℃, which is 3℃ higher than yesterday;

Even the ambient temperature outside the villa rose from 0℃ yesterday to 18℃.

She clicked on the system's "Environmental Warning" function, and a light red warning popped up on the screen: "[In the next 72 hours, the global average temperature will continue to rise, and is expected to reach a high of 35°C, with some areas (such as tropical and subtropical regions) reaching 40°C. Please take precautions against high temperatures.]"

The chat room was still buzzing with discussion, and someone started showing off the supplies they had stockpiled: "I've stockpiled 10 cases of bottled water and 5 sleeping mats!"

"I found an old fan and am repairing it. I hope it will come in handy!" Someone else asked for help: "Does anyone have any spare cooling equipment? I'll trade it for grain!"

Su Jing didn't participate; she simply saved Chen Yang's message and the screenshot of the system alert—these would remind her that the extreme heat was coming sooner than expected, and she needed to speed up her preparations.

"Ding-dong—" A private notification suddenly popped up on the communicator. It wasn't a message from the chat area, but an alert from the spatial incubation area: [Monster incubation area anomaly! The crack in the Azure Deer eggshell is widening, and the embryo's activity is increasing. It is expected to hatch within 1 hour. Please proceed immediately to prepare!]

Su Jing's heart tightened, and she immediately stood up: "Xiao Jin, the little deer is about to come out, come with me to see!"

Little Jin instantly perked up, its short golden fur bristling, and followed Su Jing towards the spatial teleportation point. Its inner voice was filled with excitement: "Really? The fawns are coming out! Should I prepare some spirit herbs and tender leaves for them? You said before that fawns like to eat tender leaves!"

"Yes, go to the spirit herb planting area and pick some tender leaves of the newly grown Qi-gathering grass, don't pick the old ones."

As Su Jing spoke, she activated her consciousness to recalibrate the temperature control equipment in the space incubation area.

The temperature was kept stable at 30℃ and the humidity at 55%. A layer of soft sage fiber was laid on top of the hay mat to prevent the fawns from getting cold at birth.

As the light membrane at the transmission point lit up, Su Jing led Xiao Jin into the incubation area. The changes in the three green deer eggs caught her eye: the cracks on the eggshells were twice as wide as before, and on the pale green eggshells, she could see faint pink light and shadows moving inside. Occasionally, she could hear a soft "tap-tap" sound coming from inside the eggshells, like a fawn pecking at its shell.

"Su Jing, look! The eggshell is moving!"

Little Jin ran to the incubator, its dark eyes pressed against the transparent door, its tiny paws gently scratching at the sides. It kept its voice very low, afraid of startling the fawn inside.

"I'll put the tender leaves aside so they can eat them when they hatch!" It took out a few tender green leaves of the Gathering Aura Grass from its bosom (the small cloth bag that Su Jing had sewed for it before) and neatly arranged them on the hay outside the incubator. The leaves were still covered with fresh dew, as they had just been picked from the planting area.

Su Jing used a miniature scanner to target one of the eggs, and the screen displayed: [Green Deer Egg: Hatching progress 99%, embryo activity 100%, has entered the hatching stage, the first fawn is expected to hatch within 30 minutes].

She adjusted the ventilation openings of the incubator to allow fresh air to flow in slowly, and placed a small thermometer and hygrometer outside the incubator to ensure that the environmental parameters would not fluctuate.

The chat was still going strong, with some people complaining that "the flour at home is starting to clump" and "the mineral water bottles are getting hot from the sun."

Su Jing paid no more attention to the matter—the fawn eggs in front of her were about to hatch, and the extreme heat was getting closer and closer. She had to ensure that the fawn was born safely first, and then check the cooling equipment and sunshade again to make full preparations for the upcoming high temperatures.

Little Jin squatted beside the incubator, its eyes fixed on the eggshell, occasionally gently touching the side of the incubator with its tiny paws.

The voice in my mind was full of anticipation: "Will the little deer be furry? Will it like to eat spirit herb seeds like I do?"

Su Jing smiled and nodded, her fingertips gently tracing the transparent door of the incubator—she could clearly see that a little bit of light brown down was already showing through the crack of one of the eggs.