Chapter 109

[Congratulations! You have successfully cleared the Abyss Doomsday—B-level Disaster: Plague Kingdom.]

[At the third month's checkpoint, your status was 'Surviving,' and your infection level was below 90%. Main mission complete, clear conditions met! (B-level random reward unlocked)]

[Player Performance Rating: SSS]

[World Whisper: The doomed great ship, battered against the currents of time, you have steered it through a thousand destined fates toward the only victory. You have saved this shattered world; civilization will stubbornly endure amidst the ravages of disease.]

[Congratulations! You have achieved a special... system error... reporting error... Congratulations! You have not yet achieved a special achievement!]

[You may now begin drawing a random reward...]

Lin Tu sat up in bed, silently picking up her phone to see the message about clearing the game. She had no mood to draw a reward, and didn't even bother questioning why her special achievement had been swallowed. Instead, she opened the chat with Dong Huadan.

The private chat remained on the last exchange, where she'd asked Dong Huadan to look into where she could buy a useless core.

Lin Tu thought for a moment, then transferred 100 credits first. "Help me look into someone. If you find detailed information, I'll pay more."

After sending, her finger hovered over the screen for a moment before typing out the name "Lin Zhihai." "I want all the information on this person, and on his relatives and descendants."

It was already late at night, and Dong Huadan was probably asleep, as no reply came for a long time.

Lin Tu closed the app and opened her chat with Zhou Yi: "Can this matter be reported to the state?"

After going through the Plague Kingdom, Lin Tu deeply understood the importance of leadership. Her country prioritized its people, so she felt that reporting this to the state might allow them to mobilize resources in advance and jointly resist the disaster.

Zhou Yi, the night owl, was indeed still awake. She immediately raised a question about Lin Tu's initial idea: "Do you know what disaster will happen in this world?"

That was Lin Tu's dilemma—just saying a disaster would occur without specifying what kind would easily get her dismissed as a fraud. "I'll look for some special item that might allow me to predict it in advance."

"Or..." Zhou Yi added, "What type of special item are we talking about? Is there something beyond our current understanding that could convince the state you've truly encountered supernatural forces?"

Lin Tu's eyes lit up. "There is! But..."

Before she could finish, Zhou Yi said, "Give me the item, and I'll handle the state contact! I know you're socially anxious. By the way, how have you been lately?"

Ever since Lin Tu had mentioned the end of the world, Zhou Yi had wondered why she was so certain. Connecting it to Lin Tu's recent purchase of outdoor gear—what could make a person who just wanted to stay home all day voluntarily go outdoors?—Zhou Yi immediately guessed that she might have personally entered a disaster zone.

"Fine," Lin Tu replied.

"You better be! You're my future pillar of support, Lin Tu," Zhou Yi sent a stern emoji. "If you need anything, just say so. I'll go contact the state on your behalf. Once I've stocked up on those things you mentioned, I'll make a list and send it to your mountain."

Lin Tu nodded and expressed her gratitude. "I'll pick out a special item and send it to you by courier."

With Zhou Yi handling this, Lin Tu felt relieved.

She began thinking about which item to give Zhou Yi. It should ideally be reusable—otherwise, performing for the state would cost dozens or hundreds of credits each time, which was wasteful. Items like the corn cob, barbed wire, and blueberries were ruled out. The item also couldn't be something Lin Tu needed herself, so the light shoes and the temperature-regulating vest were also out. Finally, the item had to possess supernatural power. The metal dandelion fit all the conditions, but it wasn't impressive enough—people might mistake it for some high-tech product.

Lin Tu decided to open her random reward first, hoping to get something useful.

[Congratulations! You have obtained a B-level special item: Luxury Supermarket Voucher]

[Luxury Supermarket Voucher: Tear it open to be transported to a super-luxury supermarket recognized by the system. You can purchase any items you need, with a spending limit of 5 million credits.

Notes: 1. This voucher can be used only three times; 2. The supermarket restocks automatically upon each return; 3. This luxury supermarket does not provide any type of special items.]

A good item! But she couldn't give it to Zhou Yi as evidence—she couldn't exactly have Zhou Yi take state leaders shopping. Lin Tu stashed the voucher away and asked the Butler about the issue with her special achievement. The Butler quickly determined that her special achievement had been credited to Deng Haixiang.

Lin Tu: "..." Never again would she work a black-market job. Well, at least she'd earned five thousand credits.

Guan Suixing still hadn't replied. Since she didn't know who was scheming against her in the shadows, Lin Tu didn't dare go to Doomsday Town. To give Zhou Yi a special item, she could only buy one from the store.

It was a bit overpriced, but the quality was decent. Lin Tu consoled herself.

She wasn't sleepy anyway, so she began browsing the shop from bed. Around one in the morning, she finally picked a D-level item for 500 credits—

[Rescue Squad Honor Badge: Wearing this badge increases your strength and allows you to hear breathing from farther away.]

Lin Tu browsed and browsed, feeling that nothing was quite right. Finally, a lightbulb went off—she used the Single-Use Backpack when sending courier packages, didn't she? What could be more impressive than a pocket dimension?

But the problem was, to carry heavy things with that backpack, you had to be able to lift them first. So Lin Tu bought this badge for Zhou Yi, which would also help her defend herself in case of danger.

After finishing this, the night was deep. Lin Tu hadn't found an item to predict disasters in advance, so she could only ask Dong Huadan tomorrow. She closed her eyes and gradually drifted off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Lin Tu was awakened by the shaking.

When she first opened her eyes, she thought she was still on the ship. Then she realized something was wrong—hadn't she returned to the real world already!

Lin Tu scrambled up. Everything in the small house was shaking. The shelves rattled violently, knocking items to the ground. A mug of water on the table slammed onto the floor, splashing water everywhere. The potted plant she had carefully placed shattered as it fell.

Xiao Huang was running in circles, barking in panic.

"Earthquake!" Lin Tu grabbed the clothes by her bed, dressed as quickly as possible, and dashed out the door.

Strangely, the mountain outside the door was calm as still water. She guessed it had become part of the Anomaly Space.

Standing on the stable ground, Lin Tu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Our house shouldn't collapse, right?" the Butler said, hoping their home wouldn't be destroyed.

"We bought the Stable Foundation earlier, so one earthquake shouldn't bring it down," Lin Tu said worriedly, "But this shows how severe the quake is! Even the Stable Foundation can't withstand it!"

She glanced back inside; the shaking was gradually subsiding, but who knew when aftershocks would come.

Lin Tu quickly checked her phone. It was three in the morning, and the signal bar was completely gray. Perhaps a geomagnetic storm was interfering with the signal towers, or the base stations were damaged. Either way, it was bad news.

Fortunately, Lin Tu had experience with this. She pulled out a radio and tuned through channels until she finally caught a useful report—

"According to the Seismological Network, a massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck Qing City at 3:02 AM! Recently, Qing City, which is not located on a seismic belt or major fault line, has experienced frequent earthquakes, none of which were detected by the early warning network. Why is that? Should we hold the seismic warning authorities accountable? But rescue efforts cannot wait. We don't yet know the situation in Qing City. Leader Zhang Hede has ordered that all other matters be postponed. For now, we must use all our resources to help the people of Qing City..."

Lin Tu snapped the radio off. She lived in the neighboring city, and the tremors here were already this strong—the situation in Qing City was unimaginable.

She quickly opened her phone. Zhou Yi's messages were still there, laughing and saying goodnight, but those hours now felt like a century apart.

That woman lived in Qing City! Please let her be safe!

Lin Tu hastily sent a message, but unsurprisingly it failed, with only a red exclamation mark. She tried calling, but that also failed.

She should have thought of this earlier—Zhou Yi's phone couldn't maintain communication during a disaster, and she should have sent her a radio communication device! Lin Tu regretted it deeply, but this was no time for self-blame.

She hurried back into the house, grabbed the Single-Use Backpack, and packed it with food, daily necessities, clothes—the usual amounts for entering a disaster zone. No need to stock oil. Finally, she brought along her special item vouchers.

"Take me! Take me!" the Butler called out, directing Xiao Huang to bite the box containing the drones and surveillance cameras, explaining that they would be needed.

The drones were controlled by radio, so there was no worry about losing communication without a signal.

Lin Tu packed the entire box into the Single-Use Backpack, then brought some dog food. She pushed the motorcycle out, placed Xiao Huang in the basket on the back, and, familiar with the route, rode out of the mountain.

Zhou Yi lived in the center of Qing City. It would take over nine hours by motorcycle to get there. Driving might be faster, but there were many mountainous areas between the two cities, and Lin Tu worried about landslides or road damage, so the motorcycle was safer.

Instead of heading straight to Qing City, she first rode into town.

The town was lit up brightly—everyone had been woken up by the quake. People were everywhere, visible and hidden. Some old, dilapidated houses, already unsafe, had inevitably collapsed.

Lin Tu rode to the residences of the workers she had hired to build the cow shed, dig the fish pond, and do other tasks. Fortunately, their place hadn't collapsed.

Using a flashlight to illuminate herself, she called out and soon found several old masters.

"Thank you for your hard work," Lin Tu said, handing each of them food, water, and a stack of cash. "Stay safe; there might be aftershocks. Once you contact your families and if they're okay, would you stay and continue helping me with the sheds? I'll pay triple the original rate."

They were there to earn money, and especially with the frequent earthquakes now, not earning extra made them uneasy. So the old masters all nodded in agreement—

"We're not going anywhere tonight!"

"We'll call tomorrow to confirm. Our families are far from Qing City. As long as they're fine, we'll definitely stay."

"Thanks, young lady! You're honest. Some people are profiting from the disaster! I tried to buy some fried rice to calm my nerves, but the price went up!"

"Hey, wasn't the chicken coop guy just running home to check on his family?"

Lin Tu frowned. "Where does he live? Isn't he a local?" She had found him at the local farmers' market.

"He's from the countryside, his home is a few kilometers in the direction of Qing City, in Lihua Town!"

Lin Tu knew that town; it was on her way to find Zhou Yi. "I'll go find him!" she said.

"Huh?"

The people behind continued talking, but Lin Tu hopped on her motorcycle, revved the engine, and sped off.

"That girl is genuinely honest with us, not afraid of danger," the cow shed builder remarked.

"She really wants those sheds built," the fish pond digger saw through it. "Let's do a good job for her; don't disappoint the triple pay, and her going out at midnight to save people."

Lihua Town was close to Lin Tu's home; she arrived quickly.

The town was old, mostly populated by elderly left behind. As soon as Lin Tu rode in, she saw a collapsed house. The pillar near the door had fallen, pinning an elderly man's leg. A little girl was kneeling by the rubble, crying and trying to lift the pillar.

Lin Tu quickly stopped the motorcycle and ran over, lifting the pillar with one hand and pulling the old man's leg free with the other.

"Thank you!" the old man said.

"It's nothing," Lin Tu replied, helping him sit on the rubble. "Do you know Niu Tieli? I'm looking for him." Niu Tieli was the chicken coop builder.

"I know him," the old man nodded. "Xiaotian, take this kind lady there. Be careful."

Wiping her tears, the girl nodded and scrambled up.

Lin Tu set her on the back of the motorcycle, and following her directions, she rode on. Houses along the road were collapsed, some untouched, but more were half-wrecked. Family members were frantically pulling belongings from the ruins—mostly just food and bedding—while no one dared stay inside for long, fearing another aftershock.

Finally, they reached Niu Tieli's home. Lin Tu saw the family of five unharmed, but the house's foundation was half collapsed.

"You'd better not stay in this house," Lin Tu said, and after repeating what she'd told the other workers, she handed him a stack of cash. "You're not far from town. Take your family to an inn there. This is extra money for you."

Niu Tieli was overflowing with gratitude. "I'll build you the best chicken coop!"

Lin Tu nodded. "I'll take you to the police station. There are people trapped here, and when the rescue arrives, you can help."

"Okay!"

The girl moved to the front of Lin Tu's motorcycle, and Niu Tieli sat behind her. After dropping the girl home, Lin Tu took Niu Tieli to the nearest police station. It was now 3:50 AM, and Lin Tu officially set off for Qing City.

Many people were leaving Qing City, a continuous stream of lights winding through the mountains.

Few were heading into Qing City. It had only been an hour or two since the quake, and even rescue teams hadn't fully arrived yet.

Because of this, Lin Tu made good time on the road. But it wasn't uninhabited territory, so she resisted the urge to speed. Reckless driving could land her in trouble—she didn't want Zhou Yi to be safe and sound, only to hear that Lin Tu had met her end on the highway.

By dawn, Lin Tu had covered half the distance, still without a signal. She stopped at a service area, ate quickly, washed her face, and continued.

A little after 10 AM, she got off the highway and headed toward the city center.

Rescue workers had arrived in force. Police cars sped past, planes flew overhead, and ambulances carried the newly rescued to temporary shelters set up in open spaces. Many people had parked their cars in clearings, eating and washing outside, some sleeping on the grass, covered in dust, some not even properly dressed.

But those were the lucky ones. They had escaped last night.

At four in the morning, another aftershock struck, registering 6.0. Lin Tu hadn't stopped then; she'd continued driving, unaware of the later aftershocks and their magnitudes.

Around 11:30 AM, Lin Tu finally reached Zhou Yi's neighborhood.

Her worst fear was realized—Zhou Yi lived in an old residential area, and many buildings had collapsed. The police had cordoned off the area, marking it as dangerous, with rescue teams on the way.

Lin Tu quickly parked her motorcycle. The Butler took the opportunity to launch a drone toward the residential compound.

"Have you seen a skinny girl with a center-part bob haircut?" Lin Tu asked a nearby survivor. "She's a bit shorter than me, with an oval face, very pretty."

The survivor shook her head. "Haven't seen her. People who ran out of our compound are around here, but some drove off last night, and others went to relatives. I don't know if you're talking about those people."

Lin Tu thanked her and hurried into the crowd, scanning desperately for a familiar face. "Have you seen a girl with a center-part bob..."

She asked four or five more people, but none had seen her. Lin Tu's heart sank. Knowing Zhou Yi, she would never go to relatives—she had no one else to go to. If she had escaped, she'd most likely be staying near her building.

So... Lin Tu turned to look at the compound.

"Building F has collapsed!" At that moment, her phone buzzed. It was a real-time map of the compound sent by the Butler.

Building F was exactly where Zhou Yi lived. Lin Tu's heart skipped a beat. She had to get in there.

"No entry!" the police officer barked. "Aftershocks could hit at any moment, and many buildings are crumbling. There's danger everywhere! Don't risk your life recklessly!"

Lin Tu was frustrated. In disaster worlds, she could go anywhere, but the real world was different—order existed here. And order served everyone; the police stopping her was for her protection, so she couldn't just barge in.

"I'm a professional," Lin Tu said, crafting a persona for herself. She bent slightly, grabbed the frame of her motorcycle with one hand, and lifted the entire bike up.

"Whoa!" The crowd gasped.

"What is she? Some kind of Hercules?"

"She was just asking about someone—she must be going in to save someone!"

The officer stared in shock, but still shook his head to refuse. Lin Tu set the motorcycle down and looked at a nearby car.

After getting the owner's permission, Lin Tu wrapped one arm under the car's chassis and the other over the roof, straining, and lifted the vehicle. "I'm really a professional! I'm going in to save people!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" the officer hastily stopped her. "Easy! Easy! I'll let you in, but when you come out, you must register."

Having gotten her way, Lin Tu gently lowered the car. A crowd had already gathered around.

"Is this a performance?" someone asked.

"I don't know. Who could lift a car that heavy?"

"Can I get your autograph? Or a photo!" the car owner said, seeming oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

Lin Tu waved them off, ducked under the caution tape, and ran into the compound, carrying Xiao Huang.

Building F wasn't far from the entrance. It was already half collapsed, the stairwell completely blocked.

Zhou Yi lived on the first floor, with a small yard. Lin Tu climbed over the yard wall and found the glass door into the room shattered, the frame caved in.

"Zhou Yi? Zhou Yi?" Lin Tu shouted.

No answer from the first floor, but someone on an upper floor poked their head out: "There's someone in there! I heard her calling a moment ago!"

"Zhou Yi?!" Lin Tu shouted while clearing broken bricks from the door frame. After a long moment, a hoarse voice came from inside—

"Lin Tu? Is that you?"

Good, at least there was a voice! Lin Tu called out excitedly, "Where are you?"

"I'm in the bedroom," she coughed a few times before continuing, "I'm hiding under the bed. Everything around is buried. I'm okay, but I feel something pressing on the bed, and I'm having trouble breathing..."

Lin Tu quickly ran to the other side—the collapsed section was exactly where Zhou Yi's bedroom was.

Every second counted. Lin Tu put on gloves and immediately began hauling bricks, cement, rebar, and wooden planks from the rubble. Meanwhile, the man upstairs asked for help. She climbed to the second floor and brought down the person from the third.

"What about the others?"

"My husband... a piece of debris hit his head. He stopped moving..." The middle-aged woman wiped her tears and stumbled out. "Thank you! Kind young lady. I'll go call for rescue. Maybe my husband... he might still be saved!"

She didn't ask Lin Tu to dig for him, knowing that she had to prioritize those still breathing and speaking over those who had stopped responding.

Lin Tu watched her walk away, then continued digging with her head down.

The rubble wasn't tall—only about two meters—but it was full of rubble, gravel, and lime. After about an hour of digging, Lin Tu finally spots a corner of Zhou Yi's blanket.

"Hey! That's dangerous! Be careful!" The rescue team finally arrived.

Sweating profusely and covered in dust, Lin Tu said, "My friend is trapped down there!"

"You've done well. Go rest for a bit; we'll take it from here!" The rescue workers organized quickly. Some tried to pass water down and talk to Zhou Yi, while others worked in groups to lift the debris off the bed. A few climbed up to the upper floor to rescue the woman's husband.

Finally, after about another half hour, they opened a gap under the bed.

Zhou Yi stuck her head out first, then with the rescue workers' help, she scrambled out. The next second, the entire bed collapsed, splitting in two from the middle.

"Just in time!" the rescue workers marveled. "Most of that debris was supported by this girl. Any later, and she wouldn't have held out."

"Lin Tu! I thought I was going to die!" Zhou Yi cried, hugging Lin Tu tightly.