Chapter 22: After the Dense Fog, the Contaminated Zone Levels Up!

『Day 27, you asked Chen Keqing once more whether she wanted to become an Awakener; she refused and declared she would cling to your thigh until death…』

『Day 28, you asked Chen Keqing again if she wanted to be an Awakener; she thought you were tired of her and deliberately sending her to die, so she cried her heart out…』

You soothed her for half the day and promised to prepare an unimaginable birthday gift for her.

『Day 29, you explained to Chen Keqing that you kept asking because you had mastered a method with a 100% success rate for Awakening; she did not quite believe it…』

You roughly maneuvered Chen Keqing and then used healing energy on her, so she trusted you a little more than before.

『Day 30, you shot a short video with your mobile phone; in the footage you guarded a passerby undergoing a nightmare trial, and although the challenger failed, you healed him in time and saved his life…』

You showed the video to Chen Keqing, but to your surprise her focus was on why your phone still had power.

『Day 31, you took Chen Keqing to contact the pollution source』

『Day 32, with the intelligence you provided, Chen Keqing became an Awakener without a hitch』

It really worked…

It seemed that the simulated version of you had already found the true knack.

Unfortunately, the simulation did not give detailed explanations.

He wondered whether the following simulation logs would reveal the relevant information.

Anyway, there was no rush; there was still plenty of simulation time.

『Day 33, Chen Keqing asked you in advance for her birthday present; you declined and continued to keep it mysterious』

『Day 34, a conflict between Awakeners broke out inside the Safe Zone; you intervened and quelled the dispute, and a manager of your choosing suggested reshaping the order inside the Safe Zone…』

『Day 35, you killed more than 10 foreign Awakeners, and your battle record was terrifying』

『…』

『Day 38, on Chen Keqing’s birthday, you gave her the present she had longed for… you showed her Avalon and introduced the room you had designed for her…』

She was overjoyed.

You finally revealed it…

If you still had not taken it out, Su Ze himself would have begun to doubt whether something had gone wrong.

He wondered if he had accidentally broken Avalon.

That was why the simulation had not mentioned Avalon at all during the first 30-odd days.

Luckily, he was not that unlucky.

He still revealed it when the time was right.

As for why he had held it back for so long before showing Avalon,

Su Ze could think of only one explanation…

It was like the famines in ancient times: the court actually had plenty of grain but deliberately let the refugees die, then opened the granaries after many of them had perished and began to help…

Of course the court could have opened the granaries earlier.

But if the grain was distributed too early, refugees who had not truly experienced the horror of famine might not feel grateful to the court.

Some might even blame the court for providing relief too late.

However, if the grain was handed out only after many refugees had died, then all of them would kowtow and thank the court profusely…

The same logic applied here.

If Su Ze had produced Avalon on the first day of doomsday and showed it to Chen Keqing, she might not have been so thrilled and excited later.

He had to admit…

It was pretty sly.

But it was indeed something Su Ze would do.

『Day 40, following some people’s suggestions, you reshaped the order within the Safe Zone; you granted the Awakeners comparatively higher status so they could receive more supplies, but they had to be ready for mobilization at any time…』

Apart from that, you maintained the original social rules, and hardly any voices of opposition arose inside the Safe Zone.

『Day 41, order within the Safe Zone was excellent』

『Day 42, …』

『…』

『Day 51, because order in your Safe Zone was excellent, more people moved in from several nearby Safe Zones whose order was poor』

『Day 52, you killed another dozen Awakeners and completely eliminated some potential threats』

『Day 53, your Safe Zone was managed in perfect order, but the shortage of supplies still needed to be addressed…』

Chen Keqing secretly asked you why you did not take food from Avalon; you simply answered that you were a bad guy who enjoyed watching others suffer, and you led Chen Keqing astray so that she spent the whole day outside watching others suffer.

『Day 54, …』

『…』

『Day 57, when the Awakeners under your command entered a Contaminated Zone to search for supplies, they were attacked by the monsters there and took heavy casualties』

『…』

The simulation log advanced little by little.

The entire Safe Zone seemed to have fallen into the palm of his hand…

“Even Awakeners still cannot come and go freely inside a Contaminated Zone, though they no longer have to worry about the nightmare trial…”

At his desk, with one hand propping up his chin, Su Ze tapped the tabletop with his right index finger and wore a pensive expression.

Certainly, Awakeners could act more freely than ordinary people, because they no longer had to fear dying in their dreams.

But they could not ignore the dangers inside the Contaminated Zones.

For example, the mutant animals mentioned earlier in the simulation log, some of which could bite through a car’s front end with a single chomp.

Ordinary Awakeners, armed with conventional weapons, simply could not handle that kind of monster.

There were also unseen dangers, such as red-eye disease.

One could fall victim to it before realizing it, and it was even harder to guard against than the flu.

“Although there are threats, they are not as lethal as before…”

“So the endpoint of this doomsday is that everyone evolves into an Awakener and then ushers in a new era of civilization?”

Such a thought surfaced in Su Ze’s mind.

But the simulation soon told him…

This was only the beginning of doomsday.

『Day 61, heavy fog, but nothing happened』

『Day 62, you heard that the Contaminated Zones had changed; the threats that originally existed in them had taken on new forms, and you sensed that the danger seemed to have escalated, but you did not know what had happened…』

『Day 62, the Father God Listens Talent took effect, and now you knew what had happened… All of the Contaminated Zones appeared to have leveled up overnight, and every Contaminated Zone became even more lethal than before. 』

『Day 63, the route for securing food was blocked by monsters; you had to lead a team yourself and barely brought back supplies…』

『Day 64, the other Awakeners found it difficult to act, so you had to stay busy… Chen Keqing refused to stay inside Avalon and accompanied you on operations; you knew how powerful Avalon was, and if the two of you really encountered mortal danger, you could both hide inside, and as long as you did not open the door, no one could enter Avalon, not even the monsters of the Contaminated Zone. 』

Contaminated Zones could actually level up!

This piece of information surprised Su Ze.

Earlier intel had said that as long as the pollution source was not destroyed, a Contaminated Zone would not change.

Yet now, all of the Contaminated Zones had suddenly leveled up and become more threatening…

All he could say was…

Fortunately, he had Avalon.

And judging from the simulation log, Avalon was indeed the top-tier safe house he desired, completely isolating them from external threats…

If things really got desperate, he could take Chen Keqing inside, shut the door, and never come out, even if they ended up dying of old age in there.