Chapter 45

The night sky was pitch black. Standing atop a twelve-story building, the roar of the sky felt almost within reach, and the entire world seemed to tremble.

Lin Tu opened her eyes and glanced at the clock. It was 11:01 PM.

A moment later, she realized her senses weren't deceiving her—the world wasn't just trembling; it was actually vibrating. Rain and wind battered the windows with a deafening roar, and faint screams and shouts echoed from all directions. Xiao Huang whimpered, trembling in the corner.

Lin Tu quickly got out of bed, double-checked that the windows were locked tight, and only then let out a sigh of relief.

She crawled back into bed and switched on the radio.

"We now broadcast a red typhoon warning! Xihai City has been affected by a tropical cyclone within six hours, with gusts reaching force 16 or above, and they may continue! At 22:59 on July 21, Typhoon No. 12 'Doma' has..."

"Boom!" Just then, a thunderous crash erupted outside the window. A bolt of lightning over ten meters thick struck down, turning the world stark white.

Xiao Huang shuddered and curled into Lin Tu's arms.

Lin Tu patted the dog's back and continued listening to the broadcast—

"All gatherings are prohibited; schools and businesses must close. Ships returning to port for shelter should take active measures and arrange for personnel to relocate to safe areas. Residents are advised not to go out casually. The elderly and children should stay in the safest places at home. Cut off dangerous outdoor power sources. People in unsafe buildings should evacuate in time. When the typhoon's eye passes, wind force will decrease for a period, but remember that strong winds will suddenly strike again. Please continue to stay in safe shelter..."

"Typhoon No. 13 'Julissa' formed over the waters east of Xiyun City on the afternoon of July 20, and is expected to... Typhoon No. 14 'Terrell' formed on the morning of July 21 at... It is expected that 7-8 typhoons will make landfall in Haicheng one after another, with 5 typhoons potentially making landfall simultaneously, breaking the record of 4 typhoons dancing together set in 2224..."

"The storm surge warning for Xihai City has been upgraded to red!"

"..."

The broadcast repeated itself in a loop. Lin Tu simply turned it off.

She checked the windows once more. Fortunately, the force-16 winds were not enough to shatter her upgraded window glass.

Lin Tu had spent most of her points upgrading the cabin. Among those, 300 points were used to purchase [Reinforced Windows] and [Reinforced Door]. Although [Sturdy Walls] provided some bonus to the doors and windows, given the incident when Li Tong nearly smashed her door lock last time, Lin Tu felt it was safer to spend another 300 points to upgrade them once more.

With these upgrades, the window could not be smashed without extreme force or specialized tools—not even by a typhoon or a regular hammer. The door was the same, even more robust due to its material.

She also spent 600 points to purchase 6 square meters of space. As a side note, the initial 4 square meters of expanded space cost 150 points, and every additional 4 square meters cost 150 more points.

Lin Tu allocated all 6 square meters to the current cabin, without adding extra freezer space, so she didn't pay any additional points. Aside from the freezer, the cabin now had an area of 16 square meters.

The reason she bought 6 square meters of space was that she still needed to purchase [Form Switch].

Considering that she would be taking the cabin through flooded cities to search for Noah's Ark, Lin Tu needed to switch the cabin into a houseboat. The shape of a boat inevitably meant there would be some deck space, which would leave less room for storage and living. Hence, she bought 6 square meters to ensure there was enough space for supplies.

A boat had another nickname—"oil guzzler." Staying still consumed fuel, carrying heavy loads increased fuel consumption, and high speed also consumed more fuel. Aside from a new dryer, the cabin's newly added 6 square meters were mostly used to store fuel barrels.

The fuel barrels were all 30-liter containers. To save space, Lin Tu stored them on shelves, ending up with 100 barrels, approximately 3,000 liters of fuel.

Although at a daily fuel consumption of 30 liters for the houseboat, this could last for 100 days, one could never be too careful. If the sea surface was rough and daily fuel consumption rose, whether it would last even a hundred days was uncertain.

So Lin Tu first spent 60 points in the mall to purchase a disaster map and decided to buy [Travel Once] to settle the cabin somewhere safe.

Surprisingly, the disaster world was not entirely different from this world. It wasn't that the geography was different—on the contrary, the geography was completely identical. It was just that significantly more of the disaster world was covered by water.

For example, the city where Lin Tu was currently staying, Rong City, was entirely flooded by seawater. Yun City to the south had become a coastal city. The original coastal cities in this world were now vast oceans.

It turned out that those 60 points were well worth spending—Lin Tu had nearly ended up living underwater.

She spent 150 points to use [Travel Once] and placed the cabin on higher ground in West City. She didn't dare stay in very tall buildings, fearing they might collapse, nor did she want to stay too low. In the end, she chose the rooftop of a certain 12-story building.

Finally, Lin Tu spent another 150 points to purchase [Waterproof Exterior Walls] to prevent leaks from damaging her supplies.

All of this cost a total of 1,560 points, leaving her with 1,272 points.

For the first time, Lin Tu felt a sense of having a little money. However, when she browsed the mall with her thousand-plus points, she immediately felt like she had been brought back to square one.

The cheapest special abilities started at 1,000 points. For example, the [Entry-Level Plant Affinity Voucher] she had used earlier. The ones that looked truly impressive—like being able to conjure a ball of fire in your palm out of thin air—cost a full 10,000 points.

She decided to keep things simple and spent 150 points on an entry-level speed voucher—

[Special D-rank Item—Entry-Level Speed Boost Voucher]

[Entry-Level Speed Boost Voucher: Slightly increases your speed.]

After using it, Lin Tu felt a very subtle change, far less than the S-rank full-body boost she had received before. But perhaps because her stats were about to break through, her E-rank speed score did rise to D-rank.

Once she started, Lin Tu went ahead and spent another 300 points to purchase Entry-Level Agility and Reaction Vouchers, raising both to D-rank as well.

In water, strength was secondary; speed, agility, and reaction greatly increased her chances of survival. The entry-level vouchers didn't add much, but at least they added something.

Weapon-type special items were also quite expensive. Lin Tu flipped through the options and eventually did the same as Luo Yongzhi—spending points to upgrade her blade.

She spent 60 points to purchase the [Blade Gleam] effect. The blade would store the residual force generated by each strike, and on the thirtieth strike, it could release all that accumulated force at once, capable of cutting through a 1-meter-thick steel plate at close range or plastic within 3 meters. This greatly enhanced Lin Tu's combat capabilities.

Additionally, she bought some of the most basic special items, like [Single-Use Backpack].

In the end, she had 717 points left. Some of that would be used for utilities, while the rest was to be saved up.

After going through her plan once more and confirming there were no mistakes, Lin Tu lay comfortably in bed and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, she was awakened by the sound of a tree trunk slamming against the window.