Chapter 50

To avoid drawing too much attention, Lin Tu didn't take out her motorized assault boat, so the group had to row by hand. Fortunately, the library wasn't far—it took just over twenty minutes to reach the vicinity.

Lin Tu dropped off the others at the mall, then followed Yu Liu's directions to the library alone to search for information.

The library was almost empty—cold and devoid of food, so few people bothered to come. Lin Tu quickly found the main hall. To her surprise, even with half the library submerged, the power was still on. The computers hummed to life with just a couple of clicks.

Using the library's search function, Lin Tu soon located the shelves holding the Noah's Ark base station documents. There was quite a lot of material. She simply tore open a Single-Use Backpack coupon and stuffed everything into it.

With time to spare, Lin Tu wandered through the library. She couldn't grasp the science and engineering texts, but in finance, she noticed that many of these books on big data in investment decisions were far ahead of anything in her world.

Driven by curiosity, Lin Tu circled around to the fiction section and grabbed some romance, mystery, and sci-fi novels—she wanted to see how this world's stories differed. At the retail section, she found waterproof paper and pens, along with souvenirs from the floating city. She swept them all into her bag.

At six o'clock, Lin Tu met up with Yu Liu as scheduled—or rather, they were about to part ways. Though everyone wondered why Lin Tu wasn't transferring with them, they couldn't change her mind.

Away from the others, Yu Liu asked, "Did you get the invitation?"

Lin Tu immediately understood he meant the God's Nightmare Space. She gave a slight nod. Yu Liu had killed plenty of zombies too, so he must have gotten caught up in this as well.

"To avoid losing contact, let's add each other as friends. We can look out for one another later. After all, the words 'Nightmare Space' are something no one wants to see. They only mean four words..." Yu Liu sighed heavily. "A narrow escape from death."

Lin Tu hadn't heard that saying, but it didn't stop her from cursing the so-called god repeatedly in her mind.

"I hate to say it, but I hope to see you in the Nightmare Space!" Yu Liu waved.

After adding each other, it was time to separate. The little girl rushed up to Lin Tu and hugged her waist tightly, mumbling a thank you. When she ran off, Lin Tu pointed at her pocket. The girl opened it to find two boxes of waterproof pens and three blank notebooks that Lin Tu had rolled up and stuffed inside.

Lin Tu had noticed earlier that the girl often took out high school math exercises to look at but never wrote in them, likely lacking the supplies.

That drive reminded Lin Tu of herself. They were both like single blades of grass without parents, needing to study harder than others to take control of their own fates. Only, Lin Tu was born in a world where the gaokao still existed, while this world was already submerged by the ocean.

But who knows—maybe this world could get better. People have to hold onto hope, right?

"Study hard, and good luck on your exams! From now on, those bad people won't be able to bully you." Lin Tu waved at her.

The little girl clutched the paper and pens tightly, nodding vigorously and waving back. "Okay, sister! Thank you, sister! Goodbye, sister!"

The little girl's grandmother, Yu Liu, his teammates, and Lin Tu waved their goodbyes, and the two groups split up.

Yu Liu and his group headed to a warehouse-style supermarket where people were still gathered, but thanks to the abundant supplies, they managed to take plenty. Most of the rubber boats were inflatable, taking up little space once compressed. Each person carried a pile of supplies, and one boat was enough to hold it all.

With their goods in hand, everyone stayed vigilant. They were about to make it home and complete the mission successfully—they didn't want some random person to rob them now, or for someone to be foolish enough to drop something into the water and ruin everything at the last step.

Just as they were on high alert, Lin Tu, sitting at the front, suddenly reached out and grabbed sharply at the water.

Has she lost her mind?—the others were terrified, but then came a splash. Lin Tu's arm stretched out far beyond the boat, holding a big green fish thrashing desperately—as long as a child's thigh.

The others were speechless. Catching a big green fish with bare hands!

This looked like an expert move, but was now the time for fishing?

Liu Ge keenly noticed the flesh-colored rubber glove on Lin Tu's hand and relaxed a bit, telling the others not to worry.

The big fish struggled fiercely. Lin Tu held it at arm's length, wanting to inspect it up close but afraid of getting splashed. It seemed she was skilled at catching fish but not familiar with some common sense.

One person on the boat, worried Lin Tu might regret keeping the big fish, quickly said, "Miss Lin, that fish can't be eaten!"

Ever since the elders' time, there's been a saying that fish after tsunamis or floods are the reincarnation of people who drowned, sent to claim lives. There was some logic to it—after disasters, the water is full of garbage and corpses, badly polluted, and the fish may well be contaminated, becoming potential sources of poison.

Lin Tu naturally knew the fish wasn't edible—after all, Yu Liu had just told her about nuclear contaminants in the water. "I just want to check if there's anything else inside it."

She had spotted the fish the moment it swam past, because amid the black thread worms drifting in the water, such a clean fish was unusual.

"I'll help you!" The man who had spoken pulled a fish-cleaning knife from his waist and said, a little embarrassed, "I sell fish at RT-Mart. I brought my tools along since this trip was dangerous."

Lin Tu didn't let him come over—he wasn't wearing gloves. She, who had never cleaned a fish before, took the knife, asked where to cut, and struck hard at the fish's head.

With a splash, the head fell into the water. The black thread worms swarmed it, covering it in an instant, even piling up thickly, making everyone's skin crawl.

"Whoa! Nice cut! Right on target!" The man applauded. "Miss Lin, you're a natural at fish-cleaning!"

Lin Tu: "..." No need for that. She'd honed her skills entirely by chopping zombies and mutant plants.

She tossed the fish into a bag and was wiping the knife when her phone suddenly buzzed.

Lin Tu instantly went on alert. Not bothering to return the knife, she wiped her hands clean and opened the phone—

[From Anju: Congratulations on discovering the new material "Low-Grade Special Steel"; you can now unlock the new Anju feature "Level 2 House";]

[Level 2 House: One more room, one more dose of happiness. Spend a certain number of points to unlock a new room, and you can also choose its function. Anju will provide basic furniture suited to the room's function~]

[To unlock "Level 2 House": Low-Grade Special Steel*30kg; Low-Grade Special Wood*30kg; Low-Grade Special Stone*10kg;

Note: Steel, wood, or stone of any function can be used.]

The special steel naturally referred to—Lin Tu looked at the fish-cleaning knife in her hand and asked, "What's this made of?"

"Waterproof steel," the man said casually, a bit puzzled. "Miss Lin didn't know? In coastal cities, lots of buildings, even electrical wires, are made of waterproof steel. It's not that rare. But most people don't use waterproof steel for knives—I only did because it's handy for cleaning fish. That might be why it's uncommon."

No wonder the residential buildings kept power for so long, and the library was still running despite being half flooded—it was because of the waterproof steel.

So it seemed that everywhere in this city was waterproof steel, and 30kg wasn't a difficult target.

Delighted at the chance to unlock a new Anju feature, Lin Tu added collecting steel to her itinerary, then picked up the big green fish again.

It was obvious that black thread worms liked to suck blood, yet this big fish had no worms on its body, inside or out. Under the Fish Butcher's guidance, Lin Tu carved open the belly and pulled out the intestines. When she cut into them, she found chewed-up black thread worms inside.

So it seemed the black thread worms could only attach to soft skin—they couldn't even parasitize. Recalling the D+ grade disaster, the dandelions that could bore through steel and parasitize, Lin Tu couldn't help thinking these higher-level mutants were oddly weak.

Was there something she was missing?

Just as she was mulling it over, the boat arrived at the residential building. Many were waiting, overjoyed to see them return safely. Liu Ge and the others stayed to hand out the rubber boats and discuss heading to Sa City.

Lin Tu put away her rubber boat and was the first back to her house. Once inside, she took out the documents she'd collected and started leafing through them.

There were decades of Xihai City meteorological records, staff rosters, and most importantly, photocopies of the scientist's original predictions, plus some information on Noah's Ark.

[*The following is the will of the Oracle* All Noah's Ark staff must memorize and recite every word*]

[*Song of the Dark Night* Author unknown*]

[The global tsunami will drown this damned world, and 15/66 will die in the flood* A plague of evil will spread across the world, and before that, a plunge in temperature will kill 15/66* Of the survivors, 15/66 will die from illness and suffering* Of the survivors, 15/66 will die from their own nightmares* Those of us left will stay aboard the unsinkable Noah's Ark, welcoming the arrival of a new world.]

Lin Tu, with her keen eye for numbers, immediately realized that subtracting four times 15/66 left 6/66. In some cultures, 666 signified the devil.

The eerie, cult-like song made Lin Tu frown. She read it carefully, skipping over the death-related details. The predictions about disasters—tsunamis, temperature drops, plague, disease, and the so-called 'nightmares'—seemed to match what was happening now.

How did that scientist do it? Was he one of the so-called outsiders? What was his connection to this disaster?

Lin Tu racked her brain but concluded there were too few clues to reach an answer. She grabbed some tape and stuck the original document on her wall, deciding to think it over once she had more leads.

As for Noah's Ark's location, there was no information here at all.

But Lin Tu knew where to find it—Sa City.

Lin Tu tapped the address on the pamphlet lightly—that was the Western branch of Noah's Ark on some street in Sa City. It seemed she'd need to consider a trip to Sa City.