Chapter 47

The government didn't stay silent for long. About half a day after the tsunami, as the sun was setting, the emergency communication contingency plan kicked in. Though the signal was still spotty, you could always find a spot where a call would go through if you held your phone up and wandered around.

As a result, news that the government had dispatched emergency rescue teams and medical aid quickly spread throughout the region. Of course, Lin Tu had already learned about it from the radio before hearing it from the man surnamed Liu.

The displaced victims immediately became optimistic. Xihai City was a major city after all, with plenty of public spaces like schools and government buildings. Many whose homes had been washed away, or who had lived on the first or second floor, moved into these places, or into stairwells and corridors of high-rises, or borrowed space from familiar neighbors and friends. Only a few were left wandering aimlessly in the water.

An even better piece of news was that since Xihai City was frequently plagued by floods, the ground floors of shopping malls were usually parking lots, with supermarkets and food stores starting from the second floor up. Even if a supermarket was in the basement, the building used special waterproof materials, and it was said that only a thin layer of water had seeped in, so people could still go down to scavenge supplies. Many who lived nearby directly rowed over on their wooden doors and set up camp in the malls.

The building where Lin Tu was staying also took in quite a few people. The corridors stank from the crowd, the floors were damp, and the walls and ceilings showed signs of dripping. But everyone helped each other and worked together to keep the place in order, so it wasn't all that bad.

The only bad thing was that, although water, electricity, and gas were still on and there was food to eat, the water gave off a pungent, foul odor and was murky—completely undrinkable.

The first couple of days were fine; bottled water could hold out for a while. But three days passed without the rescue workers arriving, and the bottled water was almost gone. People could only pray for the sea to recede, for the sea level to drop, and at least for the dirty water to stop seeping into the tap water.

However, after three consecutive days of heavy rain, not only did the sea not recede, but the water that had once only swallowed up the second floor was now pressing directly toward the third floor. The situation was getting worse.

On the eleventh-floor stairwell, an old woman looked pleadingly at the family of three in front of her. "Please, don't drive us away. We only need a little space. My granddaughter and I don't need much. Please let us stay here!"

Beside her, in the corner of the landing between the upper and lower stairs, there was indeed only a wooden board, barely covered with an old curtain as a base and a few summer quilts as blankets. The things that had once been neatly arranged beside the board had all been thrown onto the quilts to make room—among them were high school textbooks, a big and a small basin, two toothbrushes, a towel, a few small packets of biscuits and candies, all exuding a strong sense of daily life.

Across from her stood a man and a woman, holding the hand of a chubby boy in his teens. Beside them were two burlap sacks and a well-protected huanghuali wood frame.

"Can't you and your granddaughter squeeze in somewhere else? Why do you have to crowd here? My things are precious—who's going to pay if they get damaged? And my little treasure needs room to move. You're just an old lady... To put it bluntly, who knows if you'll even survive? Rather than taking up this space, you might as well give it up now," the woman said harshly.

The argument drew the attention of people on the floors above and below, but in the past few days, too many arguments had broken out in the building, with even worse things being said, so now, even as the crowd gathered, they just watched numbly.

"Grandma!" A little girl squeezed through the crowd, clutching a small dog. "Don't you dare bully my grandma!"

"Who's bullying? We're just reasoning with her," the man said. "What does a little girl know? Stay out of this!"

"I'm reasoning too! This spot is ours—we've been here all along!" the girl declared righteously. "Your own place got flooded, and you wanted to come up here to find a spot. Since no one else was willing to give up their space, you targeted my grandma! She took pity on the kid and gave you half the space! And now you want even more!"

Her words were clear and logical, laying out the whole story, and immediately the surrounding crowd let out a chorus of boos.

A few people recognized the parties in the standoff and couldn't help but add fuel to the fire. "Hey, isn't that the old lady from the first floor? She even helped take care of your kid! Back when the first floor was flooded and you wanted to stay on the third floor, you refused. Now the third floor is flooded, and you come to take her space? Isn't that biting the hand that feeds you, bullying the weak and fearing the strong?"

"You're full of it!" The woman, caught off guard, couldn't take it and snapped, "If you're going to side with that bastard's words, are you a bastard too?"

The boy made a mocking face, and the man, though reluctant, could only slink away. The little girl flushed with anger.

"That's too much, Brother Yu," a young man said, nudging the person next to him. "Should we go help?"

Before the man beside him could answer, a young woman pushed through the crowd, coming up from the lower floor.

She had her hair tied up neatly, dressed in a sleek black outdoor outfit with the cuffs and ankles tightened. In her hand, she carried a long blade that was half her height, and her feet were shod in a pair of heavy black combat boots. Despite all that, she moved with ease, revealing the strength hidden beneath her frame.

"Move aside, can't you hear?" Lin Tu easily pushed through the crowd to the small landing where the two parties were facing off, and planted her blade on the ground with undisguised impatience.

There were too many onlookers—it had taken her nearly ten minutes to push her way up. Lin Tu would rather climb a hundred flights of stairs than squeeze through this place reeking of trash, urine, and seawater. She was so hot that she'd taken off her glasses, and her temper was at its limit, so she simply drew her blade and cleared a path all the way up.

The little girl quickly dragged her grandmother aside to make way, but the woman stubbornly challenged, "Who says you can just tell us to move!"

"Yeah," Lin Tu said, gesturing at the completely blocked passage. At any other time, she would have patiently advised them to settle it privately, but today, having pushed her way through, she simply had no patience left.

She flicked the hilt of her blade and, without another word, swung it fiercely at the family of three with a menacing air. At the critical moment, the woman shrank back behind the man, the man pulled the woman in front of him, and their son plopped down on the ground, letting out a spray of yellow urine.

"He's killing us!"

"Help!"

A few seconds of piercing screams abruptly stopped. Three pairs of eyes stared at the tip of the blade that was inches away but never fell, and at Lin Tu, who was glaring at them with a vicious look from behind. They were filled with shame and anger, but also felt that this lunatic named Lin Tu might very well bring the blade down in the next second.

"Let's go, let's go!" The man quickly grabbed his burlap sack and reached for his wife's hand.

But probably because of the grudge from him pulling her in front of the blade, his wife grabbed their son with one hand and snatched the sack from his other hand, then rushed past him and left in a hurry.

After the two left, Lin Tu looked up the stairwell, and the crowd of onlookers, now on their own initiative, quickly cleared a path. Lin Tu smoothly made her way up to her floor.

"Sister! Sister!" A little girl carrying a dog caught up to Lin Tu. It was the girl who'd been about to lose her spot.

"Sister, thank you!" She bowed solemnly.

Lin Tu looked at her, then at the dog in her arms. The small dog, only a few years old, was wagging its tail eagerly at Lin Tu.

As if sensing Lin Tu's gaze, the girl quickly said, "I just found it. I felt sorry for it, so I decided to bring it back. It can also keep me and Grandma company at night."

Lin Tu nodded. "Come with me."

The girl was a bit confused but followed anyway. When they reached the twelfth floor, Lin Tu told the girl to wait. She went into her room and came out with a bag of Xiao Huang's dog food, then took out four cans of dog food and two chew sticks. After that, Lin Tu grabbed four or five packs of instant noodles, thought for a moment, and put half of them back, instead taking a handful of candies, two packs of dry noodles, and a bottle of cola.

In the apocalypse, dog food could be given away freely, but human supplies were not so easily parted with, especially instant noodles—high-calorie, quick-to-fill food. Though this girl with the dog was somewhat pitiable, Lin Tu had to be cautious to avoid bringing unnecessary trouble to herself or the girl.

Seeing the supplies, the girl quickly waved her hands, refusing to take them, saying she would fish for things in the water herself. But when she saw that most of it was dog supplies, she couldn't help blushing. "Sister! That's too much!"

"It's fine, just take them. My dog..." Lin Tu thought for a moment. Probably because without her glasses, her mind wasn't working as fast, she couldn't help but blurt out, "My dog died."

The girl looked at Lin Tu with a hint of guilt, took the dog food, and bowed gratefully again. "Thank you, sister! Thank you so much!"

Lin Tu shook her head.

After seeing the girl off, she was about to head inside when she heard a teasing voice from behind: "Thank you~ sister~"

Lin Tu turned in surprise and saw a familiar face. "Yu Liu?"

She asked in shock, and at the same time, the man beside Yu Liu also stared at Lin Tu in disbelief, clearly amazed that Lin Tu knew Yu Liu's name.

"Long time no see," Yu Liu said, stepping forward to shake Lin Tu's hand. "To be precise, I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon."

"You're a player too?" Lin Tu asked. "Were you a player back then?"

Yu Liu was an officer of the government army Lin Tu had encountered during her novice disaster. Back then, not even she, let alone Dong Huadan and the others, had noticed anything off about Yu Liu. Lin Tu had reason to suspect Yu Liu was a local of that world, hence the question.

Yu Liu smiled and nodded. "Always have been. It wasn't intentional to hide it from you. It's just that our organization has a special way of clearing the game, so we generally don't reveal our outsider identity. You'll understand in time."

Lin Tu nodded and got straight to the point. "Since that's the case, you deliberately revealed your identity—is there something you need?"

"Of course," Yu Liu replied. "You haven't gone out for days. Today, you went out to test the quality of the outside water, right?"

Lin Tu wasn't surprised he'd guessed right. "Yes."

It was normal for the water to be dirty after a tsunami, since it would be mixed with all sorts of trash, surface debris, and even overflowing septic tanks. But Lin Tu had sharply noticed something odd from her neighbors' descriptions and the radio announcements. Especially when she was cleaning her windows and found several black threadworms stuck to the glass.

"There's something wrong with that water, but I can't tell what it is."

As soon as Lin Tu finished speaking, Yu Liu said, "I can tell you. That water is indeed problematic—it's nuclear-contaminated wastewater."

Lin Tu frowned.

"Given the nuclear contamination, it's likely connected to the mutated creatures. But unfortunately, I haven't yet figured out what the mutated creature is."

"I... might know." Just as Lin Tu finished speaking, a scream came from downstairs—

"The rescue team is here!"