Chapter 56: Northern Plateau

Two days later, Shu Fu was lying on the chaise longue in the underwater bedroom.

The raft's protective cover had long been closed, and the drifting island house was currently anchored in an uninhabited river area with mountains on both sides. In the past two days, she had tried to land, but the nearest town that looked very close to Qinghe on the electronic map was 70 or 80 kilometers away.

And she couldn't even climb onto the land on both sides of the river. Obviously, the river was the transparent barrier that limited her range of activities.

She couldn't leave the city before, and now she can't enter the city.

The only thing to be thankful for was that she finally connected to the Internet.

Perhaps because it is far from the city, or because there are fewer signal base stations in small cities and they are often damaged by storms, the signal on the river is not very good, and the network is sometimes available and sometimes not. When she is able to connect to the Internet, the speed is terribly slow, and it takes her a long time to even read the news.

She spent several hours piecing together the information, but there was still a great lack of information from the outside world.

All she knew was that after the world-destroying tsunami, except for Fengshang Plateau and other individual provinces and regions where large troops had been stationed early on, other cities that had not been flooded began to fall into chaos one by one, including the small cities on both sides of the river where she was currently.

Before the super tsunami, there were cities here that were officially designated as safe cities for evacuation, but after the tsunami, almost everyone fled further west. People stopped working and going to school, and in some places, a large number of people rushed into supermarkets to buy things recklessly. Many people ignored the purchase restrictions and just grabbed the supplies and ran away...

When only a small number of people in a city commit illegal acts, others will stand on the side of justice to accuse and stop them.

But when everyone in a city is doing the same thing, whether it is illegal or not is no longer important. For them at this time, the most important thing is not to become the minority who fail to grab supplies...

The Internet was full of various videos and pictures uploaded spontaneously by the public. She couldn't open the videos and the pictures took a long time to buffer, but when the pictures were finished buffering, every one of them was a scene of chaotic looting and fighting.

Social order is collapsing and disappearing in more than half of the cities on this planet.

Sadly, at this point, the authorities are no longer able to salvage the situation as they did before. Reducing the scope of the city where safety and order can be maintained is the only way out now...

In the past two days, the map panel had twice prompted that the temporary waterway from Yuncheng to Qinghe was open. One time the countdown was one hour and forty minutes, and she was too far away to catch up. The other time the countdown was three hours, and she happened to be nearby, so she arrived at the entrance of the temporary waterway during the countdown time.

However, this temporary waterway seemed to be only one-way. She could come from Yuncheng, but could not go from Qinghe.

She felt like a fish stranded on the beach, unable to get up except lying down and getting sunburned.

The Qinghe River within her activity range has fast-flowing water. Although the river is wide, there is no small land in the middle. In addition to the time-delay card she used that day in the Yuncheng waters, she has used it for three consecutive days, consuming 12 hours.

She felt a little painful and didn't know how long she would be trapped here.

Fortunately, in the evening of that day, the black notebook that had been silent for a long time finally began to flash.

Shu Fu sighed with emotion, finally the mission he had been waiting for came.

[Within half a month, log in and check in at any store in Hexi Town to get a 20% progress bar for level 4 raft. (Current progress of level 4 raft: 0%)

Note: Failure to complete this task will deduct 15% of the progress bar. 】

Asking her to check in at a shop in a strange town during this period, no wonder the basic progress bar bonus for the first task was 20%. It turns out that it also knew that this was a difficult task...

She checked the electronic map and quickly figured out the location of Hexi Town. It was in the middle and upper reaches of the Qinghe River, where there was a gentle area with river beaches and deltas. There was a Lucheng there, and Hexi Town was near Lucheng and built along the river.

The mission time limit this time was half a month, and she estimated that it would take her half a month to travel from the original several water areas. The main reason was that the limited-time waterway from Yuncheng to Qinghe would take time to open, so it was difficult to fully control the time.

From this perspective, since she arrived in Qinghe several days earlier, she had completed half of the task ahead of schedule.

With a mission, there was a direction. Shu Fu was excited and sat cross-legged on the carpet. He used the chaise longue as a table and began to compare the river map with the electronic map.

Although there is land on both sides of the Qinghe River, the river water has risen sharply due to eight consecutive months of rain, and the appearance of the land nearby is slightly different from that on the electronic map.

She compared again and again before confirming that a dark green icon in the upper reaches of the river map was the destination. There was no such mark on the river map originally, so it should have been outside the barrier range before.

This icon was surrounded by water. If she was not mistaken and this was really the Hexi Town, then this town had been separated from other lands by the surging river water level, forming a town similar to that built on a delta or an island.

Now this land mark appears on the map panel, probably because of the appearance of the mission, it also means that she can finally land.

The raft slowly started along the black route and began drifting.

Route information: [923/15:22:58]

If we leave now, we can arrive tomorrow morning.

**

The next day, when Shu Fu woke up in the underwater bedroom, she was startled by the dense schools of gray fish in the water outside the glass wall.

The raft had come to a stop and was swaying slightly with the surrounding water waves. The water flow in this area was very gentle and the water was very clear. Even though it was still raining outside, the view of the underwater bedroom was still clear.

The raft had not completely reached the shore. She had turned on the protective shield before going to bed last night, intending to circle around the area after arriving, check out the town's environment, and decide how to land after getting a rough understanding of the situation here.

When Shu Fu was stretching her body on the big round bed and preparing to get up, she suddenly saw a large gray-green net falling from the river surface and covering the school of fish in the water. The fish were frightened and began to flee in all directions with their inorganic eyes wide open.

Many fish quickly escaped from the sides and bottom of the underwater bedroom, but many fish were caught in the big net. Shu Fu heard the movement coming from above the river surface.

She immediately got up, ran barefoot to the upper floor, and went to the floor-to-ceiling glass to check the situation outside.

An old wooden boat was parked not far from the raft. Several people on the boat were wearing gloves and trying hard to pull the fishing net towards the boat in the heavy rain. It was probably because the fishing net was dropped accurately and caught a lot of fish, so they had a hard time pulling it, but they were also happy because of the big harvest this time.

This wooden boat was not originally supposed to be a fishing boat. Instead, it looked very much like the sightseeing boats in scenic spots. The boat was not very big, about thirteen or fourteen meters long, with raised ends and a low cabin in the middle.

Everyone standing on the deck worked together and finally pulled the fishing net up. A large pile of fish caught in the big net kept bouncing on the deck. Everyone cheered as they looked at the harvest.

But after the cheers, several people on the boat seemed to have a conflict and they were arguing fiercely at the bow, and their voices were heard through the heavy rain.

Under the eaves of the back door of the raft, Shu Fu was wearing slippers and holding a toothbrush with toothpaste squeezed on it. She was brushing her teeth while listening to the other party's argument.

It seems that it was caused by this harvest. Some people felt that the harvest in this net was enough and wanted to return to the town and quickly take the fish to exchange for the necessary supplies. After all, there are only a limited number of things released every day, and if you go too late, they will be gone.

Another group of people thought that it was a rare opportunity to encounter a school of fish, so they should not just cast the net once and return home. They should cast the net two or three more times to fill up the boat. After all, it was not cheap to rent a boat from the team, and there were so many of them. If they did not catch more fish, each person would only get a small amount of supplies when they returned home. It was a waste.

"Don't be greedy! We agreed before we came out that you must not be greedy! Previously, Ah Zhong and his friends were greedy and ended up encountering a strange fish. The boat was almost capsized, and not only did the fishing net break, but even the fish that had been salvaged fell back into the water!"

"You really believe it? Look, he has told me so many times, but I wonder if he can explain it. He can't even describe what the strange fish looks like!"

"That's right. Don't compare Ah Zhong with us. He's not as smart as us. He got scared just because of an accident. He keeps blaming the fish all day long. Do you think anyone would believe him? No one else on the boat saw it, but he did. Is it such a coincidence? Everyone else said it was because the wind and waves were strong that day! Ah Zhong didn't pull the net properly, and he was afraid of taking responsibility..."

"Stop arguing, the second net has already come up in this little time!"

"That's right, why are you making so much noise on the boat? You're scaring all the fish away! Isn't it uncomfortable to be caught in such heavy rain?"

"Who isn't upset? I'm upset too! Shut up! There are so many fish, just cast another net and go back!"

"Don't be the only one who has the final say. Raise your hands and vote! The minority shall obey the majority!"

"Okay! Come on!"

…

Shu Fu listened to the gossip while brushing her teeth, and from it she learned a little about the current situation in the town.

First, money is not very useful in Hexi Town at present. Daily shopping is completely replaced by barter, and the daily supply is limited. I just don’t know who can have supplies and provide them for trading under the current circumstances?

Official? Shu Fu thought it was unlikely. A small town like this, close to the river and not at a completely safe altitude, was not worth garrisoning.

Second, fishing is not difficult, but boats and fishing nets are important materials, especially boats. Even a wooden boat like this one that looks easy to break has a high rental price.

Third, these people all have complete rain gear, and when it comes to renting boats and exchanging them, they will vote to make decisions when disputes arise, which shows that the town still retains a certain degree of order.

Fourth, there may be strange fish in the Qinghe River.

Of course, the fourth one is currently in doubt. After all, only one person with a "not very good brain" has seen it with his own eyes, and others are still in a state of disbelief.

Therefore, any store check-in task she needs to complete is likely to be the place where these people go to exchange supplies after returning to the town. Such a place should be an important place in the town today, and it is estimated that it will not be too difficult to find.

And the task says any one, which means there is more than one such store.

After collecting preliminary information, Shu Fu decided to survey the river terrain around the town before looking for a place to land.

The shield cannot be saved at the moment and must be kept on continuously, but after logging in, it can automatically store four hours of energy every day, so as long as it can be replenished, she doesn't mind it too much. Unlike the time-delay card, if it is used up a little, it will be a little less, which makes her feel sad.

Because of her mission, she had a simple breakfast, beef and cheese croissant with a small cup of coffee, and tried to drink less water.

She was not idle while having breakfast. She manually controlled the raft and made it circle the island where the Hexi town was located.

Strictly speaking, this place cannot be considered an island. It is because the river rose due to continuous heavy rains and submerged part of the land around the town, separating it from the suburbs of Lucheng. Therefore, there is a big difference in the depth of the flooded waters in the northwest of the town and the clear river waters in the southeast.

The town is quite large, and it took more than an hour for the raft to go around at full speed.

As she toured the town, she compared it with the information about the town that she had previously found on the Internet.

The town is located on the northwest side of the Qinghe River, hence the name Hexi Town. The town was originally supposed to border the suburbs of Lucheng, but now the river has flooded the low-lying areas to the southwest of the town and the mountain valleys to the northeast, wrapping and isolating it, forming an independent small land similar to an island.

The original low-lying areas and valleys were easy to identify. There were still tall treetops and some telephone poles in this area that were not completely submerged. Especially when she looked out from the underwater bedroom, she could even identify from these flooded areas which were originally wooded areas, which were originally slopes, and which were originally mountain roads through the valley.

The town's terrain has a low altitude in the southwest and a high altitude in the northeast. There are several mountains there, and the town's population is concentrated in the southwest. However, the population here was not large to begin with, and after this battle, it is estimated that it is even smaller.

After a round of detours, she was sure that she could not go deeper into the land, that is, the direction of Lucheng, even if there was a large area of ​​water ahead. So, is the entire Level 4 raft progress bar mission only carried out in this small town in Hexi?

This place is quite big, but compared with Suicheng and Louyuncheng, it is too small.

Finally, she discovered a problem: there seemed to be no internet here.

**

An hour later, Shu Fu, wrapped in a raincoat, stopped in front of a shop on a small street in the southwest of the town.

The raincoat was an old army green color that she had specially selected. It was similar in color and style to those worn by the people on the wooden boat. It had a large hood that could be pulled very low, and with the mask, it could cover most of her face.

Although it was not as hot as the area near the cave restaurant, the temperature was still around 25 degrees Celsius, so she wore a thin sports waterproof suit under her raincoat and high waterproof boots on her feet, which were also old and covered in mud.

The backpack is also waterproof, dirt-resistant dark gray, with a vintage design, and contains some food and daily necessities for symbolic purposes.

She deliberately chose an uninhabited place with dense shade to dock. She observed the surrounding environment, landed quickly, walked into the woods for a while and turned a corner before she folded the raft on her bracelet and removed the raft's protective cover.

This sequence ensures that the raft has zero presence from beginning to end and will not be noticed by anyone.

Fortunately, for some reason, perhaps because the terrain and geographical location of the Northern Plateau are very different from the cave area, she has not seen any insects since she came ashore. There are very few mosquitoes or reptiles, even in the woods.

She walked directly into the town smoothly with the help of the downloaded map.

Perhaps it was because she was wearing a raincoat similar to the ones worn by everyone else in town, or perhaps it was because the way she walked was so confident and normal, but no one paid much attention to her along the way.

Of course, it could also be because there are too few pedestrians in the town.

In addition to the backpack in front of her, she was holding a black plastic bag under her raincoat, which contained two ordinary freshwater fish that she had harvested from the Qinghe River in the past few days.

The fish were already dead because they had entered the space, but they still retained their freshness, so it was not surprising to trade them at this moment.

The town's buildings are mainly low-rise bungalows, mostly residential houses, with very few shops. The one in front of her is the only open shop she has seen along the way.

The shop front was very old, and probably because it had experienced a storm, the words on the sign were missing, and it was impossible to piece together the original name of the shop. There was only a very dim light on inside, and on such a dim rainy day, it looked even more dilapidated.

In the past, when she was stockpiling supplies, she would never have walked into such a shabby shop, but apparently such shops were quite popular in the town. At this moment, in addition to her, there were many people wearing raincoats walking in, each of them holding a bag in their hands, as if they were taking things in to exchange.

Shu Fu observed for a moment, then followed him in.