Chapter 54
When he woke again, a faint, soft light was glowing somewhere nearby. Was he dead? He blinked groggily and saw that apart from the light at his side, everything else was pitch black and silent. A wave of terror gripped him. Had he fallen into hell? But shouldn't he be lying comfortably at home right now...
Slowly, his senses returned. He remembered the tsunami, the spreading flood, the monsters—and realized he really might have died. He scrambled to sit up, but as he turned over, he tumbled heavily to the floor.
"What the hell!" someone cursed nearby. "Don't you know what time it is? Go to sleep!"
Despite the scolding, hearing a human voice was like being pulled back into the world of the living. Instead of anger, he felt a surge of relief and asked urgently, "Where is this?"
"Sa City temporary shelter! You don't know where you are?" The curtain on his left snapped open, revealing a stranger's face. The man looked curious. "You're the one who was dumped at the shelter entrance at noon, aren't you? Do you remember how you got back?"
Sa City, temporary shelter... those words jolted his memory fully awake. He looked down at his bandaged arm and realized he'd been saved. The only one who could have saved him was that girl he'd met in the sunken plaza.
"Where is she?" he asked quickly.
"The one who brought you here?" The man nodded knowingly, even more curious. "When we found you, you were lying there alone. Who brought you here? Why didn't they come in themselves?"
The man shook his head; he didn't understand either. He recalled the terrifying creatures underwater and the girl diving in with a knife, still finding it unbelievable. "Could that young girl really have taken down a dozen monsters all by herself, come out perfectly intact, carried my unconscious self onto the inflatable boat, and delivered me to the shelter?"
Just saying it out loud sounded impossible, let alone to a listener.
Another sharp rustle—the curtain on his other side was pulled open, and his "roommate" from the right stirred awake: "You hungry, pal? There's a big piece of bread here. Take it and eat. Stop talking nonsense in your sleep." With that, he tossed a bread roll onto the man's bed.
"Pfft—" the left-side roommate couldn't hold back a laugh. "Don't mind his grumpiness. He just worried you'd be hungry after sleeping all day, so he saved it for you at noon."
The man looked over at his right-side roommate and said a grateful thank you. The other grunted in acknowledgment and drew his curtain shut.
"Don't overthink it. Maybe someone else showed up midway to help you both, and you just didn't know since you were out cold. Get some rest, pal," the left-side roommate offered a few words of comfort, then pulled his own curtain closed when he saw the man had enough strength to climb back into bed.
Returned to darkness, the man felt deeply at ease. Being rescued against all odds gave him a sense that even at the end of the world, he could still taste happiness. He wolfed down the bread, chugged a large bottle of water, and lay back contentedly.
If he ever got the chance, he would thank that young girl properly. Though his two new acquaintances didn't think it was her, the man knew—he clearly remembered that graceful figure swimming through the water. Could any ordinary person dare—and manage—to swim like that through a swarm of monsters? It must have been her.
Staring at the ceiling, the man, who'd only slept three or four hours a night for days, felt drowsiness creep in. He didn't know why she'd done a good deed without leaving her name, but that didn't stop him from quietly gazing at the ceiling and whispering to the empty corner, "Thank you..."
.
After delivering the man back to the temporary shelter, Lin Tu gunned it and sped all the way from Sa City back home.
At that moment, in the [Anju] app on her phone, the side mission [1. Enter Noah's Ark] had indeed changed—[Side Mission Progress 1/3: You have successfully obtained Noah's Ark's location. You can now view Noah's Ark's exact position in Anju. (You may now claim the reward for Side Mission 1/3)]
And Noah's Ark's location, as shown in the app, was over four thousand kilometers due north of her current position. That meant she'd need to sail quite a distance after entering the Arctic Ocean to reach Noah's Ark. Based on houseboat speed, Lin Tu would have to travel day and night, spending two full months on the boat.
Although only four or five days had passed and she still had nearly three months to plan, Lin Tu didn't want to wait a single second longer. More precisely, she couldn't afford to wait—
She had to leave immediately. The reason was simple: her house had flooded!
Not long ago, Lin Tu had received an urgent message from the Butler—"From Anju Butler: Bad news, Master! The flood is here! It's taller than our house!"
At the time, she had just finished off the giant leech in the sunken plaza and entered the Noah's Ark branch. The place seemed specially built as a waterproof space; the building inside was bone dry. When Lin Tu pulled out her phone to check her earned points and saw the Butler's message, the worry that had hung over her all day finally settled into dread.
"From Anju Butler: A lot of stuff got washed away, but our house didn't get swept away! And it's not leaking or flooding inside! It's just that the water has risen to halfway up the windows. Master, come back soon—I'm worried it can't hold out! Also, Xiao Huang is scared too! (Xiao Huang scared.pdf)"
Lin Tu packed everything from Noah's Ark into her Single-Use Backpack as fast as she could. Only when she'd searched down to the lowest basement workstation and heard the mission completion chime did she hurriedly make her way back to ground level, desperate to get home.
Lin Tu raced back to the area around her house in just over forty minutes.
The place had transformed completely—now it looked like a vast open sea, with only a few old high-rises poking their heads above the water like scattered low reefs.
More importantly, the closer she got, the more Lin Tu noticed the shift in temperature.
Logically, Xihai City being south of Sa City should have meant warmer temperatures, but it seemed an unknown cold front was spreading from south to north. All of Xihai City was a good twenty degrees colder than Sa City.
On the water's surface, Lin Tu could even see thin sheets of ice—such freakish weather was not a good sign.
Lin Tu hadn't brought any extra warm clothes, so she could only shiver as she followed the Butler's coordinates to find her little house, which was just showing half a window above the water.
No one else was around. As she approached, Lin Tu selected the function—"Transform Form."
Then, the system deducted 400 points. A flash of white light passed over, and Lin Tu felt her little house seem to rise. The floor became the boat's deck, the walls became the hull's side rails, and the roof and ceiling merged into part of the houseboat.
When she blinked again, a wooden boat appeared before her. The bow was pointed, the side rails were wooden fences, and the deck was laid with planks—an area of roughly four square meters.
In the middle sat a rectangular cabin of about seven square meters, with windows on both sides shaped exactly like those of Lin Tu's little house. The cabin had a double door facing the bow for easy entrance and exit, and a small lockable door at the stern.
The stern was flat, also enclosed by fencing, with just over one square meter of space. At the very tail end, one section of fence was removed and replaced with a wooden ladder, convenient for getting on and off the boat.
Xiao Huang was already whimpering behind the door. Lin Tu couldn't wait to climb aboard, peel off her soaking wetsuit, and change into a sweater, quilted pants, and a down jacket—finally shaking off the chill.