Chapter 82

Twelve hours after the apocalypse, the heating furnace in the mountain villa still emitted a steady "whoosh," and the red light from the furnace mouth shone through the cast iron grille, casting dancing spots of light on the light gray floor.

Su Jing had just taken out a piece of smokeless coal from her spatial storage and added it to the stove. The dry warmth of the coal still lingered on her fingertips when the patrol robot's electronic voice sounded with a mechanical solemnity: "Outdoor temperature -62℃, a drop of 12℃ from 4 hours ago. Wind force remains at level 8. Snowflakes mixed with ice blocks 3-5 centimeters in diameter are hitting the outer wall with a loud 'clang,' like metal colliding."

The snow in the yard was 45 centimeters thick, and some of the snow was compacted by strong winds, forming a hard ice crust.

The infrared alarm's detection range has been reduced to 5 meters due to the extreme low temperature. The highest level of anti-interference mode has been activated, and no abnormal target has triggered it.

The surveillance footage was affected by the blizzard, with some areas showing snow-like noise, but the core areas (the mountain entrance and the moat) remained clear.

Su Jing walked to the monitor projector and adjusted the image clarity—in the four monitor screens, the snow-like noise looked like tiny white particles dancing on the screen, but the key scenes were still visible.

In the upper left corner of the video showing the entrance to the deep mountains, the path that was originally covered in snow is now completely covered by ice, with a cold, hard sheen and no footprints.

In the upper right corner of the moat, the ice is 15 centimeters thick. When ice blocks hit the moat and bounce off, you can see tiny white marks on the ice surface, but there is no crack at all.

The most shocking sight is the forest surveillance footage in the lower left corner—in the video, a dead tree about 20 centimeters in diameter has its branches covered with an ice shell at least 10 centimeters thick, resembling a frozen crystal sculpture.

Suddenly, a crisp "crack" came from the speaker. The main branch of the dead tree broke in the middle, and the broken branch, covered with ice, crashed heavily onto the snow, splashing up a cloud of snow mist. The dark brown wood exposed at the break was instantly covered by snowflakes, without even a trace of heat escaping.

"At this temperature, even metal will become brittle." Su Jing murmured to herself, recalling a shovel she had left in the yard earlier—it was intact when she checked it yesterday, but now, after scanning it through the security camera, the wooden handle of the shovel had detached from the metal blade, clearly caused by the low temperature making the wood brittle and the joint broken.

She walked to the window and looked out through the double-glazed glass. Her breath froze instantly into a thin layer of ice as soon as it touched the inside of the glass. Scraping it open with her fingertips, she could see icicles hanging down to the windowsill on the insulation panels of the villa's exterior wall, like inverted ice knives, gleaming coldly in the dim sunlight.

Just then, the screen of the housekeeping robot "Chef 1" suddenly lit up, displaying an "Emergency Notice from the Official Base" captured by the system—titled "East City Shelter Operation Abnormal, Requires Emergency Support," with a live video feed attached. Su Jing's gaze was instantly drawn to it. This was a large shelter she had learned about from Chen Yang before, but the scene on the screen had nothing to do with "order."

The shelter in the east of the city in the picture was originally spacious, but now it was packed with people. The green cots were crammed together, and some people were even lying directly on the cold cement floor, shivering wrapped in thin military green quilts.

In the corner of the hall, next to the oil-fired boiler, three workers in blue uniforms were using wrenches to repair a pipe—the boiler's oil supply pipe had frozen and cracked, and black diesel fuel was leaking out, instantly freezing on the ground like a piece of black glass.

One of the workers' gloves got frozen to the wrench handle. He pulled hard, and the fingertips of the glove were torn off, revealing his frozen, purple fingers. He didn't care about the pain, he just breathed on them and rubbed his hands, then grabbed another wrench and continued to tighten the screws. The white breath he exhaled vanished instantly before his eyes, leaving no trace.

"Heating can only be maintained at 5°C! Does anyone have extra coal? We can exchange it using points!"

A staff member wearing a red armband stood on a high place, shouting through a megaphone. His voice was hoarse and he was clearly exhausted.

The loudspeaker's sound quality became noisy due to the low temperature. As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd stirred—a man in a black cotton-padded coat pushed his way to the front, holding up a half-full bag of coal: "I have some! But I want to exchange it for two packs of instant noodles! My child hasn't eaten all day!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several people surrounded him, holding up various items: "I'll trade my down jacket for it!" "I have half a bottle of water! I'll trade it for coal!"

Chaos erupted instantly. Someone took advantage of the confusion to reach for the half-bag of coal. The man tried to protect it, but was pushed and stumbled. The coal spilled onto the ground, and the black coal lumps rolled a few times before being trampled into the snow by the crowd, turning into dark snowballs.

The man sat on the ground, looking at the trampled and dirty coal, and suddenly broke down in tears: "That's what I painstakingly brought out of the house... My child still has a fever..."

The scene shifts to the medical area of ​​the shelter, where the situation is even more chaotic: makeshift beds are crowded with people suffering from frostbite, some with fingers swollen like carrots, skin turning bluish-purple, and some even with nails that have turned black.

A nurse was applying frostbite cream to a child. The child's face was red from the cold, but he dared not cry, only clutching the nurse's clothes tightly. The nurse's eyes were red, and the tube of cream in her hand was almost empty. She shouted into the walkie-talkie, "We're out of frostbite cream! Do you have any spares? There are more than a dozen children waiting here!"

A broken reply came through the walkie-talkie: "That's all! The last one was just given to the elderly person in the emergency room..."

Further away in the supplies area, the shelves had long been emptied, leaving only scattered packaging bags and empty cardboard boxes. Several staff members were trying to maintain order, but they were surrounded by anxious people. Someone cried out, "Why can they get two packs of instant noodles? I only have one!"

"My child hasn't received the elixir yet! Wasn't it supposed to be given to every child?"

The staff explained helplessly, "The medicine was given to those with severe frostbite first. We're really short on supplies. We've already requested support from headquarters, but the roads are frozen over and the support vehicles can't get through..."

Su Jing watched the chaos on the screen, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing her cuffs—in her villa, the temperature was a stable 25°C, and there was still mutton soup simmering on the stove. There was enough coal to last a month. Meanwhile, the shelter in the same country was in chaos due to heating failure and shortages of supplies.

This wasn't due to insufficient official preparation, but rather because the extreme low temperatures exceeded expectations, causing even pipelines and equipment to succumb, let alone the transportation of supplies.

"Check the sealing of the villa's doors and windows, and activate the robot's indoor patrol mode."

Su Jing gave the patrol robot a command, and the robot responded immediately. Its robotic arm extended and began to slowly patrol along the interior walls of the villa, focusing on checking the gaps in doors and windows, the heating pipes, and the spare battery interface.

Su Jing went to the kitchen and lifted the lid of the casserole—the mutton soup inside was steaming, the milky white broth bubbling and carrying a rich aroma of meat. She ladled out a bowl, took a sip, and felt the warmth spread from her stomach to her limbs, a stark contrast to the coldness of the shelter in the scene.

Just as she put down the bowl, a light blue notification suddenly popped up on the system panel. It wasn't the previous channel message, but a bolded "Instance Opening Notice": [Global extreme cold has been detected to have reached its peak. The fourth instance, "Alien Mineral World," has officially opened! 500,000 participants will be randomly selected from around the world. The instance contains various alien ores that can be used to power cyber devices, enhance cultivation items, and craft special defensive equipment. Participants must confirm their entry within 24 hours; failure to do so will be considered a forfeit.]

Su Jing's eyes lit up instantly—alien ore could power cyber devices! She still had 40 laser guns in her space; if she could find suitable ore, she might be able to enhance the weapons' power.

Moreover, "enhancing cultivation tools" and "crafting defensive equipment" are exactly what she wants. Now that extreme cold has arrived, there may be even more dangerous situations to come, and more enhancements mean more protection.

She looked at the "Confirm Entry" button on the panel without hesitation; she had already made up her mind.