Chapter 48

All three locations were in Lou Yuncheng: Xiufeng in the western suburbs, Sun Garden in the southern suburbs, and Mufeng Farm in the eastern suburbs. According to the map, Mufeng Farm was the closest to her current location.

Shu Fu immediately entered the coordinates for Mufeng Farm into her phone’s navigation system. The system showed a distance of 20 kilometers. Although it didn’t seem far on the map, she was currently on a hill, and driving down required detours. The winding roads would prevent her from driving fast, meaning it would take some time.

She quickly put on her outdoor clothes, stuffed her phone and tablet into her backpack, got off the raft and stored it away, then activated the storage mode on her wristband to pack up the few daily items she had in the guesthouse room.

With the backpack now on her front, she changed into waterproof boots, put on a baseball cap and mask, grabbed her car keys, and fully geared up before heading out.

The guesthouse was situated on a highland in the hills, with an open-air parking lot right outside. However, after the onset of disastrous weather, the rescue team had reinforced a large restaurant nearby and converted it into a temporary indoor parking area.

Shu Fu’s car was parked inside. It took her barely one or two minutes to get from her room to the car.

She jogged the whole way, feeling as though the 100% progress bar penalty was gripping her by the throat. She wished she could sprout wings and fly straight to Mufeng Farm.

Once in the car, she started it smoothly and placed her phone in the holder. She focused on these small tasks to keep herself from panicking and making mistakes, which would only waste more time.

She fastened her seatbelt and slowly backed the car out of the indoor parking lot. The navigation system kicked in. As she drove out of the guesthouse gates, she glanced at the eastern sky—it was overcast. The sun that had been visible not long ago was now shrouded by thick clouds.

She had plenty of guesses swirling in her mind, but she forced herself not to dwell on them. Everything could wait until after she completed the task.

The car descended the two-lane road winding down the hill. The hills of Lou Yuncheng had been well-developed—though it was a two-lane road, it was flat and spacious. The trees that had once lined the road had long been pruned into bare trunks, as wind and rain frequently broke their branches, leaving debris scattered across the road.

There were also two iron gates installed at the bends going up and down the hill. Only cars with registered license plates could pass through. When Shu Fu moved here over a month ago, Han Lan had helped her get this set up.

This was also why the hills remained safe and quiet even after chaos began spreading through the city. It was the reason she stayed behind after turning off her phone and removing the SIM card.

If not for this sudden task today, she could’ve holed up in the guesthouse on the hill for a long, long time.

Normally, driving 20 kilometers would take just 30 minutes—but that was under ideal conditions on flat city roads. Even in the city, if she hit rush hour traffic or red lights, 20 kilometers could easily take 40 minutes or even an hour.

While the suburbs wouldn’t have traffic jams, the winding mountain roads meant she couldn’t drive too fast.

The only silver lining was that after two days of dry weather, the mountain roads weren’t as slippery, and there was no heavy rain or strong wind to make driving more difficult—for now.

However, about ten minutes into her drive, as if responding to her thoughts, a clap of thunder exploded in the sky behind her. She glanced at the rearview mirror—the east. The sky that had been merely overcast earlier had now darkened significantly. Thick, heavy clouds gathered in the sky, with flashes of lightning illuminating them from within.

By the time she finally descended the mountain and left the hills, the rain began pouring down, hammering the car as the clouds moved overhead.

She still had 12 kilometers to go, and the countdown timer on her phone showed 1 hour and 20 minutes remaining.

As long as the roads ahead stayed clear, she’d make it.

The sky darkened further with the downpour. Shu Fu turned on the headlights, windshield wipers, and hazard lights, keeping one eye on the navigation system and the other on the road conditions ahead and behind her.

Driving in this kind of weather required not just watching the road and other vehicles to avoid collisions or rear-ending, but also keeping an eye on the cars behind to avoid reckless drivers crashing into her.

On the way from the hills to Mufeng Farm, she had to pass by several shelters, which still housed many refugees.

The relocation announcement in early March had actually been favorable for these people—transportation tickets were cheap, and there were generous rental and home-buying discounts in the thirty designated cities. Life there would be far better than in Lou Yuncheng.

Since early March, rescue team members had been visiting the shelters, trying to persuade people to relocate. But even now, many refugees were unwilling to leave.

Shu Fu had a good idea why—they were hoping to take advantage of the situation. As rescue teams were gradually reassigned, the eastern part of the city closest to here began descending into chaos again. With Lou Yuncheng’s original residents relocating, many homes were left vacant, and some refugees had seized the opportunity to occupy these abandoned houses.

With fewer people in the shelters, those who stayed behind had more living space and were even less inclined to leave.

As Shu Fu drove past the roads near the shelters, she saw figures wandering in the rain along the roadside.

She had seen some news online a couple of days ago, posted by civilians, reporting that the areas around the suburban shelters were in disarray. People were stopping cars to beg in broad daylight. A few unlucky drivers had even had their car windows smashed and were dragged out and beaten just for refusing to give handouts.

The person lamented that it felt as though they had suddenly traveled from a civilized society to a chaotic war-torn era. In the end, their car was stolen, and they had to flee in the rain, limping desperately, barely escaping with their life.

After returning to the city, they went to the police to report the incident, only to find the station filled with people like them, all there to file complaints after falling victim to similar crimes. The resettlement efforts clearly impacted law enforcement as well.

While their reports were taken, whether any follow-up action would occur remained uncertain.

Shu Fu pulled her thoughts back, her expression tightening slightly. She fixed her eyes on the road ahead, not slowing down but instead pressing harder on the gas pedal. The jeep sped forward, racing past before any of the figures on the road could step in her way.

Two people, moving quickly and standing closer to the road, were near enough for her to glimpse their angry faces through the heavy rain as she drove by.

At that exact moment, a loud clang echoed from the rear of the jeep, sounding like someone had struck it with a metal rod or similar object.

Shu Fu had anticipated something like this and wasn’t startled. As long as the car wasn’t forced to stop, there was nothing to worry about.

The sky continued to worsen. Beyond the torrential rain and thunder, the wind also began to pick up. Shu Fu focused entirely on driving and successfully found the turnoff indicated by the GPS.

There was still an hour left on the countdown, which gave her some relief.

The condition of the side road wasn’t great, so she slowed down slightly, driving about a kilometer further until she saw a damaged gate and fence at the end of the road. The sign above the fence was mostly destroyed, but the character “丰” (Feng) could still be faintly made out.

Since she had entered the coordinates into the GPS, the display showed the destination was less than two kilometers away.

She didn’t act recklessly. Activating her personal shield, she jumped out of the car and quickly pushed open the damaged iron gate of the farm. The entire process was fast, but it still took about forty seconds.

The personal shield could only be activated with a level 4 raft. Using it now meant depleting precious resources, but no matter how reluctant she felt, she had to ensure nothing went wrong before completing this task.

This was her first time using the shield during a natural disaster, and she realized it protected against both rain and wind. Even though the trees around her were bent from the force of the wind, she felt no resistance while running.

The car entered the farm, and she continued driving according to the GPS.

The farm had been destroyed during a past storm, hail, or strong winds. Near the entrance, there were remnants of tent houses, glass greenhouses, and damaged RVs.

Shu Fu quickly passed through the agricultural camping area, circled around a patch of trees, and found herself in front of a large lake.

The area was wide open, with no buildings or signs of human modification—completely natural scenery.

Shu Fu gradually understood why the task had specified these particular checkpoints: there were no surveillance cameras here, no suitable living conditions—completely uninhabited zones. She felt more at ease and followed the GPS to the end of the route, where the coordinates pointed to a spot by the lake.

She stopped the car, packed her backpack and phone, and glanced around the interior, stowing away the only supplies—some spare tissues and biscuits—into her bracelet’s storage space. Then she reactivated her personal shield.

Pushing the door open, she quickly walked to the lake. As she surveyed the surroundings, her fingers worked swiftly and expertly to deploy her raft onto the water.

Without hesitation, she stepped through the wet lakeside terrain, took a large stride onto the raft, and once under the front canopy, she deactivated the personal shield. She then bent down to quickly remove her waterproof boots, ran barefoot into the raft’s cabin, and used the control screen behind the door to activate the raft’s invisibility shield, making it completely undetectable.

She hadn’t used this feature since arriving at the Lou Yuncheng shelter. Now, she had two experience cards left—one with 5.5 hours remaining and the other with 13 hours, more than enough for her current needs.

With the shield activated, Shu Fu finally let out a breath of relief, though she didn’t rest immediately. She pulled out her phone and recalibrated her current coordinates, triple-checking to ensure everything was correct before finally relaxing.

She had completed the task of marking the raft at the designated location within the required time. In an hour, if the task was successfully verified, the raft would be upgraded to level 3.

A level 3 raft would officially unlock the invisibility shield feature and extend the daily usage time. She wasn’t asking for much—if it increased by another seven hours, like the upgrade to level 2, she’d be satisfied.

Even a five-hour increase would be good enough.

Her luck with recent draws had been so bad that she no longer had high expectations.

Shu Fu changed out of her outdoor clothes and collapsed onto the sofa, finally realizing how sore and exhausted she was. Even though she’d been driving most of the time, her body had been tense from the constant focus and vigilance.

Now, in the completely safe raft cabin, the relaxation brought on an overwhelming sense of fatigue.

She hadn’t turned off the countdown on her phone. After resting for a bit, she saw there were still 30 minutes left. Shu Fu had originally planned to have barbecue for lunch, but with the task incomplete and the raft in a location unsuitable for long-term stays, she obviously couldn’t indulge in something that complicated.

After thinking for a moment, she took out a pack of spicy shredded chicken and a serving of cold mixed vegetables from the storage shelf. Then she grabbed a can of cola from the kitchen fridge—she needed the fizzy drink to help relieve some of her stress.

The fridge had no power, so the cola was at room temperature. Fortunately, she had previously stocked a few buckets of ice using the ice maker. Adding some ice cubes to her glass made the cola just as refreshing.

Shu Fu sat at the dining table, holding chopsticks in one hand to pick at her food, while the other hand continued to scroll through her phone, reviewing the three locations involved in this task and replaying her earlier speculations.

When she reached key points in her analysis, she would set down her chopsticks to jot notes in her notebook.

First, these three locations were situated in different directions around Lou Yuncheng. If connected by lines, they roughly formed a triangle that encompassed most of Lou Yuncheng.

In other words, when this task appeared, no matter where she was in Lou Yuncheng, she could reach one of the locations within the designated time.

If she hadn’t moved to the dormitory on the hill and was still living in the original Jixing neighborhood, it might have been even quicker to drive to this Mufeng Farm.

In summary, the task itself wasn’t particularly difficult. As long as she didn’t deliberately waste time or encounter unexpected incidents on the road, she could reach the designated location and place the raft within the allotted time.

But why?

For the first time in history, the wristband displayed a penalty of 100% progress rollback for an incomplete task, yet the task it provided seemed urgent but not difficult. The placement locations were in uninhabited areas, even accounting for details like avoiding surveillance or being seen while placing the raft. It felt as if the sole purpose was to ensure she was at this specific location within the given time.

What was special about this place? Shu Fu tilted her head, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window. The lake was vast, surrounded by grasslands with no buildings in sight. The hills were in the distance, and the area was wide open and flat.

If she had to pinpoint something unusual, it would be the “emptiness” of the place.

Was… something about to happen?

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The shredded chicken and cold veggies were finished, the cola was gone, and the countdown hit zero.

There was no response from the wristband, and outside the cabin, aside from the torrential rain and thunder, nothing new seemed to be happening.

Shu Fu cleaned up the trash, opened the cabin door, and stood under the eaves for a moment. After confirming that there were no signs of movement or people nearby, she went back inside and temporarily deactivated the drift bottle shield.

She had been cautious earlier to avoid complications, but now, having passed the required two-hour mark, even if someone did show up and saw the raft, it wouldn’t matter. She had already moved the raft to drift to the center of the lake, where no one could reach it.

Besides, in a place like this farm, having a small raft on the lake didn’t seem out of place.

The shield had less than 18 hours remaining, and she still didn’t know when the task would officially be marked as complete or when the raft would level up to 3. The shield’s time had to be saved for when it was most needed.

Once the shield was off, the sound of the wind and rain outside grew louder. Shu Fu felt a little restless. She curled up on the couch and browsed the internet, checking the situation in Lou Yuncheng. The latest flood updates yielded nothing new, so she turned on some music via the Bluetooth speaker and got up to use the rowing machine, burning off the shredded chicken from lunch.

She hadn’t been exercising for long when several streaks of lightning flashed outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. This time, aside from the rolling thunder that followed, Shu Fu sensed something unusual.

She stopped, reached for her phone on the floor, turned off the music, and stood at the window.

On the hills across the lake, under the gloomy sky and pouring rain, countless dark shapes seemed to be flying out from the woods.

Birds?

Flocks of birds, of all shapes and sizes. Normally, in such stormy weather, animals would follow their instincts and seek shelter deep in the woods or in caves. But now, despite the heavy rain, the birds were frantically flying out from the forest, soaring over the lake, heading toward the other side.

Shu Fu’s heart pounded like a drum. She wasn’t sure if it was from the recent exercise or the bizarre scene unfolding before her.

The birds were flying from east to west. Was something coming from the east?

That’s it—animals behaving abnormally often signals a major disaster.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight shudder in the cabin. The raft was drifting on the lake, and due to the protective features of the floating island house, the outside storm and thunder hadn’t affected it at all.

But now, the tremor was coming from the entire lake beneath the raft.

An earthquake!

The moment realization struck, Shu Fu darted to the control screen behind the door and reactivated the drift bottle shield.

Sure enough, once the shield was up and the raft’s protection was enhanced, the tremors from the lake vanished instantly.

Shu Fu pressed against the floor-to-ceiling glass, noticing that the lake outside was now shaking even more violently. It was like water in a pot being constantly jostled, with waves surging toward the shore.

So, was the earlier task designed to get her out of the dorm building and into this safer, open area?

Shu Fu frowned. Something still didn’t feel right. Although the lake was trembling, it wasn’t nearly strong enough to collapse buildings. Besides, if it was just an earthquake, there was no need to bring her here specifically. Simply getting her out of the building to a nearby open area would’ve been sufficient.

What else?

She glanced down at her beeping phone again, now flooded with earthquake warnings and notifications.

Lou Yuncheng wasn’t the epicenter—it was only affected by the tremors. The instruments indicated the epicenter was in Shanyang City, Guanyu County, Fuyang City, Caoshan County, Meishan City, and Quyu County—all cities in the flood zone east of Lou Yuncheng.

Wait a minute!

Shu Fu quickly noticed that none of the cities listed in the alerts were the same, and the affected areas covered an incredibly wide range.

This meant that earthquakes were occurring simultaneously in multiple locations. Given Huagou’s current flood disaster, such a series of quakes would trigger an unprecedented super wave!

Sure enough, minutes later, tsunami air raid sirens echoed throughout Lou Yuncheng.

Shu Fu stood at the floor-to-ceiling window, her eyes locked on the eastern side of the lake. There was a hill—not very tall, but completely blocking her view. She couldn’t see the dam, nor could she see what was happening beyond it. All she could hear was the shrill, continuous blaring of the sirens, going on for more than ten minutes without stopping.

The sound made her eardrums ache, and her heart was pounding with unease.

The lake, which had calmed after the earthquake, began to ripple again. Faintly, she could hear a roaring sound in the distance, like thousands of horses galloping, mingled with the sharp, grinding clash of fast-moving water.

Shu Fu opened the cabin door and stood under the eaves, staring toward the eastern sky.

She had never known water could make such an immense sound. Even with the protective shield of the drifting bottle, and even though the waves were still far off, the roar drowned out every other noise around her.

Soon, she saw mist rising above the hill on the opposite shore. The mist surged over the slanting rain, resembling both clouds and waves suspended in midair by some supernatural force.

Shu Fu had once described the giant wave that first struck Lou Yuncheng’s dam as covering the sky and blocking out the sun. That wave had been over forty meters high—about the height of a fourteen-story building—and it had been the most terrifying wave she’d ever seen.

But at this moment, the wave surging from beyond the hill defied all description.

It was a scene so horrifying, it robbed her of words.

The hill on the opposite shore was at least 250-260 meters tall, but the incoming wave towered even higher. Water vapor blanketed the sky and earth, while fierce winds howled like sharpened blades.

She could hear the deafening crash of collapsing structures in the distance, but she couldn’t tell whether it was the dam—which had once proudly withstood multiple waves—or the buildings protected behind it.

In the face of such an enormous wave, it didn’t matter whether it was a sturdy dam or fragile architecture—everything would be smashed to pieces under the water’s pressure.

If she had still been in the guesthouse building at this moment, she would’ve faced the full force of the super tsunami immediately. There were too many buildings and trees there, and the hills would turn the waves into countless high-speed waterfalls and whirlpools.

Moreover, it was too close to the dam. The shattered walls of the dam would be carried by the floodwaters, crushing everything in their path. Even if the raft’s protective shield was activated, if it were pinned down by massive chunks of the dam, no amount of high-tech gear could get her out.

So this was the real reason behind the extreme task.

Shu Fu stood under the eaves, watching as the hundreds-of-meters-high wave crashed over the hill, sending up even larger splashes and mist, then swallowing the hill entirely before surging toward the lake where she was.

She felt a brief moment of disorientation, unsure whether she was in reality or trapped in a nightmare.

But as the hill in the distance completely vanished beneath the waves, she suddenly sprang into action. She rushed back into the cabin, slammed the door shut, switched the status from docked to drifting on the control screen, and quickly activated the bracelet to collect any remaining fragile items like glassware into storage.

Remaining docked would increase the raft’s resistance against the waves, making it harder to withstand the impact. Drifting with the current would better disperse the pressure.

She didn’t know the exact limits of the raft’s protective shield, but she trusted the task the bracelet had given her.

If the shield couldn’t withstand this disaster, it wouldn’t have directed her here to an open area. It would’ve told her to drive west immediately, as far from the flood zone as possible, toward the higher elevations of the southwestern mountains.

But even if the shield could bear the water pressure, in the face of an apocalyptic-level super tsunami, the raft would never stay put.

Her heart pounded wildly. After quickly securing all the loose items in the cabin, she scanned the room one last time before settling on the cushion by the floor-to-ceiling window.

The drifting island house wasn’t like a plane or a car—there were no seat belts to secure her in place. The thick, soft cushions would help absorb the shocks from the raft’s violent movements.

She pressed herself against the window, staring intently at the towering wall of water that blotted out the entire sky. One hand hovered over her bracelet, ready to activate her personal protective shield at any moment.

If the raft was overturned by the wave, even if the protective shield kept it from breaking apart, she would still be in serious danger inside.

Shu Fu didn’t dare blink. She stared at the encroaching water wall, her heart in her throat.

The moment the wave swallowed the edge of the lake, she activated her personal shield.

In just one second, everything around her vanished, replaced entirely by the towering wave.

All she heard was a buzzing sound as the raft was completely swallowed by the wall of water.