The tourists who had originally planned to hide in the store no longer cared about the strong wind and rain outside and ran out of the store like crazy.
But there were too many tourists hiding inside, and the double glass doors were only so wide. People were pushing and shouting at each other, like a group of sardines trying to escape.
"Hurry up and move on! What are you crowding at the door for?"
"Get away from us, you bitch! Don't block our way out!"
"If you want to die, don't drag the people behind you into the water. Hurry up and get up!"
When it comes to survival, people can throw away their moral bottom line in an instant.
Anyone who dares to block their escape route at this time will become the target of public criticism.
Song Yue did not follow the crowd to squeeze towards the main door, but stood on a half-meter-high box in the hardware store, looking at the woman who was being scolded by everyone on the other side of the crowd.
The woman went against the crowd, ignoring the spitting and punches from others, and struggled to squeeze into the store.
"Daughter, my daughter! Where are you? Mommy is here to find you. Please hold on!"
Tears streamed down the woman's face. She looked around and suddenly saw several women around her age. Her eyes lit up and she grabbed them, tears streaming down her face as she asked, "Kind people, have you seen a girl as tall as this one in a red dress? She's my daughter, and we're lost. Please, please... please... please answer me!"
The women she caught did not show any sympathy just because they were the same age as her. On the contrary, in order to protect their children and escape from the shop that was about to be flooded as soon as possible, they coldly shook off the woman's arms and rushed forward.
The woman cried helplessly, her clothes torn to shreds.
A faint "Mom" suddenly came into Song Yue's ears. Song Yue's eyes moved, and then she jumped off the box. With her flexible and small body, she shuttled quickly among the crowd like a slippery fish.
In a blink of an eye, she came to a collapsed metal shelf.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you." She squatted down and gently touched the little girl in a red dress who was pressed under the shelf.
The shelves were five stories high, and she definitely couldn't move them by herself. She had to find some tools to pry them open.
Oh, right, the elevator!
Song Yue remembered that she had glanced at it when she bought the tool kit before, so she quickly turned around, ran to the shelf next to the tool kit, and successfully took out a household mini lift.
This model is just right for her. If it was a jack or something like that, she would be worried that she wouldn't be strong enough to shake the metal support pole.
Song Yue knelt on the ground, bent down, and inserted the lifter into the space between the shelf and the ground. After placing it, he gripped the handle with both hands and propped up the metal support rod inside as quickly as possible.
Soon the shelf was propped up to a certain height. Song Yue gently comforted the little girl, put her hands into the other's arms, and with all her strength, she quickly pulled the little girl out from underneath.
At the same time, there was a buzzing sound in her head.
[Successfully rescued 1 citizen (1/10)]
Song Yue was secretly delighted. She didn't expect this to work. It was really a blessing in disguise.
Carrying the little girl on his back, Song Yue waved to the woman who was still swimming upstream not far away. The woman, whose face was originally full of despair, suddenly felt great joy when she saw a touch of red on Song Yue's back!
"Tingting!" The woman rushed over and hugged her daughter. Her tearful eyes were filled with gratitude towards Song Yue. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"Let's not talk about this for now. Go upstairs quickly. The store is about to be flooded." Song Yue interrupted him and looked outside. The backflowing lake water and the water flow formed by the heavy rain were rushing towards this side at an unstoppable speed.
The hardware store and the hypermarket are located in a low-lying area. Song Yue had observed this when she was stocking up just now. If she wanted to avoid being swallowed by the water, the fastest way right now was to go up to the rooftop of the hardware store.
Except for the hotel, most of the buildings in this area are only one or two stories high. The first floor is a shop, and the second floor is where the owner lives and rests.
Song Yue caught sight of the hardware store owner in the chaotic crowd and discovered that he had already run to the stairs leading to the second floor and was about to take out his key to open the iron gate.
However, perhaps because he was too scared, the key fell to the ground as soon as he took it out because his hands were shaking violently. Then it was kicked away by the crowded crowd and disappeared without a trace.
With a flood approaching from behind and an iron gate blocking the way in front, the chubby shop owner collapsed in an instant. He squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, muttering in despair.
Song Yue was very disappointed. She had thought that people who opened hardware stores had some skills, but she didn't expect that just because a bunch of keys were lost, her psychological defenses were broken like this.
"Where is the fire axe?" Song Yue rushed over and asked the owner in a cold voice.
The shop owner raised his head tremblingly, still looking frightened, but when he heard her question, he turned his head and pointed to the corner.
Without saying a word, Song Yue handed the little girl back to the woman, rushed to the corner to retrieve the fire axe, then aimed at the lock, raised the axe high, and chopped it down hard.
The iron lock clanged and became slightly deformed.
Song Yue continued to chop, and finally succeeded in cutting off the headlock on the fifth strike.
The shop owner burst into tears of joy, jumped up from the ground, opened the iron gate, and rushed upstairs desperately!
The woman and the little girl followed closely behind, with Song Yue at the end.
At the critical moment, when she just stepped onto the stairs, the torrent behind her came roaring!
The double glass doors were smashed to pieces, glass fragments flew all over the floor, and rows of shelves collapsed, cruelly burying those who did not have time to escape the store in the water.
This was the last scene Song Yue saw before she went up to the second floor. She felt very sorry about it, but there was nothing she could do.
She must first ensure her own survival before she has the energy to save others.
"It's over, it's over! We can't escape..." The hardware store owner was the first to rush to the second floor. He looked down through the second-floor window and saw that the waterline had already submerged more than half of the first floor. Despair flashed across his face again. "If I had known about this shabby house, I wouldn't have renewed my lease. Damn it! Why didn't I listen to those people..."
It sounded like the hardware store owner knew some inside information. Song Yue was in a state of confusion and was about to ask something.
At this moment, a line of small white three-dimensional characters appeared before my eyes.
[A hidden mission has been triggered. Do you want to accept it? ]
Hidden mission?
Song Yue was stunned. She didn't expect that there would be this in a novice copy.
"099, what's the reward for completing the hidden mission? If I don't complete it, will there be any punishment?"
Based on previous gaming experience, the rewards for hidden missions are usually richer than those for regular missions. Song Yue was actually very tempted after seeing the small white words, but she had to first ask clearly what the punishment mechanism was, so as not to get herself into trouble.
099 replied in her mind: [The mission reward is currently unknown, and you, the host, need to explore it yourself. However, don't worry if you don't complete it. This type of mission is not mandatory, and there is no penalty for failure.]
No punishment is good! Song Yue felt relieved and chose to accept it.
The small white characters immediately melted, and a new line of text flashed out - [Find and report the cause of the backflow of Qianhe Lake (Completion Reward: A magical cocktail)]
【Magical cocktail: drink it when you need it, it can give you unexpected effects】
?
Song Yue's first reaction when she saw the reward description was confusion.
How could the explanation be so unclear? How could anyone dare to drink it without even being told its basic purpose?
But after a moment, she suddenly realized.
Without specifying its specific purpose, doesn't it mean that it can achieve any effect if interpreted in another way?
Almighty props!
Song Yue's eyes lit up, and she decided to complete this task if she had the chance!
His thoughts returned to the present. Since the hidden task was triggered by the conversation with the hardware store owner, Song Yue analyzed that the follow-up of the task might be related to what the owner had just said.
But the situation is urgent now, she has to find a way out first.
"Where is the passage to the rooftop?" After looking around, she didn't find any stairs leading to the rooftop from the second floor, so she asked the owner.
The water level was still rising, and they couldn't hide on the second floor forever. Sooner or later, this place would become the same as the first floor, so Song Yue planned to go to the rooftop, and then find a reason to release the inflatable kayak from the space, and then take everyone away.
The shop owner saw that Song Yue was the calmest among them, but even so, he still didn't think her question made any sense.
"What's the point of going up to the roof?" he said dejectedly. "It's raining so hard outside, the house is flooded, and no one is coming to rescue us. We'll just die if we go up there."
The woman, who had been silent the whole time, became anxious when she heard this: "What should we do? We can't just wait for the water to come in, right? I'm still with my daughter. She's everything to me, I can't let anything happen to her!"
After saying that, he turned his gaze to Song Yue. Although the latter was young and looked like a naive student, he had always been the calmest among the three adults.
First, she rescued her trapped daughter from the chaotic crowd, then found an axe to cut the lock when the key was lost, and now she calmly thought and made a proposal to save herself. All her actions show that this is a girl with extremely strong psychological quality, and she is willing to follow her to find a way out.
So he said, "Little sister, I'll go up to the platform with you. When the time comes, just tell me what you want to do. I will definitely help you if I can."
Song Yue hummed and continued to stare at the owner.
Seeing that she was not giving up, the latter gritted his teeth and finally confessed: "The passage to the rooftop is not on my side."
Song Yue: "Where is it?"
Shop owner: "In the supermarket next door."
The house fell into dead silence.
Except for the little girl Tingting who didn't know what was going on. She innocently took the woman's hand and said, "Mom, then we can go to the supermarket."
The woman's face couldn't help but tremble. She hugged the child tightly, and the light in her eyes that had just ignited because of Song Yue's words went out in an instant.
Yes, who wouldn’t want to go there? There’s a platform over there that can save their lives!
But the problem is that they can't get through at all!
They were completely trapped on the second floor.
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