"Woo woo woo woo woo woo——"
The ambulance's piercing siren echoed through the main road, pulling to a stop in front of Lihua Hotel.
Several medical personnel wearing heavy windproof winter coats, anti-slip shoes, and goggles got out of the vehicle, looking toward the hotel entrance.
They saw that using the hotel steps as a base, a circular ice wall over four meters high stood erected, completely sealing off the main entrance, making it utterly impossible to enter or exit.
The medical staff exchanged glances, feeling puzzled, when suddenly they heard shouting from above.
"Hey, over here! Over here!"
Hearing the voices, they looked up and were astonished to see some people standing at third-floor windows, waving down at them.
One medical worker shouted, "What's going on?"
Someone by the third-floor window shouted back, "The hotel's glass doors shattered, we can't clear them, the snow wall blocked us in and we can't get out!"
Another person leaned out and scolded, "What took you so long to get here? Several people have died from illness here, you know that?!"
"We're short-staffed!" the medical worker yelled. "There are too many medical emergencies across the entire city every day, we simply can't handle them all!"
Another medical worker asked, "Are there still patients inside needing emergency care?"
"There are several! We'll wrap them in bedsheets and lower them down!"
The people on the third floor then busied themselves, tying over a dozen thick bedsheets into ropes, wrapping several patients in them, and slowly lowering them down from the windows.
The medical staff caught them and immediately brought the patients into the ambulance. At that moment, someone from the third floor shouted, "We've been without water for ten days here, is anyone going to do something about it?!"
"That's not our responsibility, call the Emergency Management Bureau!"
The ambulance quickly drove away, leaving only a stream of furious curses from the people on the third floor.
Meanwhile, on the first floor of the hotel lobby, garbage covered the floor everywhere.
Food wrappers, empty water bottles, and even some disgustingly suspicious traces of what appeared to be vomit and excrement.
From June 9th when the hotel's water supply was cut off, until today marked ten days without restoration. And it was estimated it wouldn't be restored before the rules ended.
During these ten days, the several hundred people in the hotel had used up all stored water. Although the Livelihood Security Department had delivered supplies once during this period, they only provided essential drinking water and food for survival.
Due to the continuous heavy snow, not only were ordinary people's lives severely affected, but many water-intensive factories had inevitably suspended operations.
Under these circumstances, while needing to supply food and water for the city's population of tens of millions, the Support Department had to budget carefully and couldn't distribute resources recklessly.
This resulted in the hotel residents being neither thirsty enough to die nor hungry enough to starve, but that was the extent of it. There was no extra water for washing hair or bathing, and after the water cutoff, they couldn't even flush toilets.
If living outdoors, one could simply find a spot to relieve themselves and then cover it with snow.
But in a hotel housing several hundred people, when toilets couldn't be flushed, the resulting situation was predictable.
To maintain some semblance of dignity, everyone had to use numerous plastic bags. After urinating or defecating inside, they would seal the bags and collectively throw them into the hotel swimming pool.
Even so, as time passed and things fermented, combined with most windows being sealed shut by heavy snow and unable to open, the smell throughout the hotel was imaginable, tormenting many people to the point of mental and physical exhaustion.
Moreover, the sick person situation remained unresolved. Many people had fallen ill since ten days ago, and during this period, several cases of death from illness had occurred.
Some suggested throwing the corpses outside the hotel, but this was strongly rejected. Eventually, all bodies were moved into a large guest room for centralized storage.
The low temperatures actually proved somewhat useful here—they prevented the corpses from decomposing quickly, representing a rare benefit.
Otherwise, if the bodies had rotted within days, everyone in this enclosed hotel space would have worried about epidemics spreading.
Another three days passed like this. On the 22nd, after another power outage in the hotel, large-scale unrest erupted in the lobby.
"Power rationing again! Damn it! We're almost freezing to death!!!"
"Screw the Emergency Management Bureau! Those bastards are definitely living comfortably in 24-hour air-conditioned rooms!"
"It's already minus twenty to thirty degrees Celsius indoors now! Cutting power at this time is trying to kill us!"
After days of people dying from illness, water and power cuts, and being so cold they couldn't sleep properly, everyone finally reached breaking point. They began shouting loudly and causing disturbances.
A young man in his twenties, seeming to have gone mad, grabbed a plastic stool, rushed to the hotel entrance, and started violently smashing it against the snow wall.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
Seeing many people on the verge of losing control, several Armed Squad members who had been sleeping on floor mats in a hotel corner could no longer remain seated and stood up. The squad leader shouted loudly, "Everyone calm down!"
"Calm down your mother!" the young man smashing the snow wall with the stool turned and cursed.
The squad leader's face darkened, "What did you say? Say that again!"
"I said calm down your mother! I'll fuck your uncle! So what if you have guns, go ahead and shoot me dead, shoot me dead ah ah ah!"
The young man roared furiously, actually raising the plastic stool and charging toward the Armed Squad leader. Several squad members, shocked, all raised their guns, but the leader quickly said, "Don't shoot yet!"
After speaking, he waited until the crazed young man got close, then delivered a precise, powerful hook punch that knocked him to the ground, using his knee to forcefully press down on the young man's abdomen to prevent him from getting up.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
The young man struggled wildly, clawing randomly with both hands. Left with no choice, the squad leader had to deliver a hard rifle butt strike to the former's chest!
"Stay down!"
The young man, having taken a heavy blow to the chest, immediately grimaced in pain.
Thinking he had successfully subdued him, the squad leader just relaxed when suddenly he heard a squad member's exclamation.
"Leader, watch out!"
Huh?!
The leader abruptly looked down and saw that the young man pinned beneath him had somehow produced an expandable baton in his hand, swinging it upward fiercely, striking him directly in the face.
It was a Mind Power item!
"Leader?!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Hearing gunshots, the squad leader who had solidly taken the baton strike ignored the pain and blood flowing from his forehead, looking down.
He saw several bullet holes had appeared on the young man's face, beginning to bleed. The Mind Power expandable baton also dissipated with its owner's death.
The leader looked at the squad member who had fired, who said righteously, "He threatened the leader's life, I deemed it necessary to eliminate him!"
"...Mm!"
The squad leader nodded, covering his forehead wound, and suddenly noticed the lobby had fallen deathly silent. Turning to look, he saw the previously agitated crowd had become completely hushed after the young man was killed, thoroughly intimidated.
The squad leader took a deep breath and issued a loud warning, "Everyone listen up! We only have to endure a few more days until the rules period ends! Anyone who engages in dangerous behavior again will face serious consequences!"
...
In stark contrast to the frequent and volatile situations within the city, Guan Tong, currently staying at his campsite at the mountain's base, stood out for being completely detached from worldly conflicts.
He steadily wrote the final stroke on the second page of the [Wordless Book], watching as the text transformed into data streams entering his body, and couldn't help but exhale a long breath.
"Finally saved up enough. Personal Terminal."
[Name: Guan Tong]
[Nickname: Shadow]
[Title: Order Keeper]
[Mind Power: 75 (121)]
[Ascension Coins: 100 (30 bound)]
[Comprehensive Biological Information Evaluation: Excellent]
In less than twenty days, his Mind Power upper limit had increased by another 2 points, reaching 121 points. With eleven days remaining in the rules effective period, and based on the current average improvement rate of 1 point every 8 days, his upper limit should reach 123 points by the time the rules ended.
As for Ascension Coins, through his diligent and unceasing creation efforts, he had finally saved up enough.
He opened the Ascension Store and purchased the [Multi-Terrain Marching Boots] priced at 100 coins.
Like the [Constant Temperature Tech Underwear], the boots allowed for customizable appearance. Guan Tong, not wanting to stand out too much, set their appearance to resemble an ordinary pair of shoes.
After changing into them, he immediately went outside the camp, walking up onto the snow layer via a "snow staircase" he had dug out beside the camp path.
Not digging this staircase really wouldn't do, because although the snow around Mingdao Mountain was somewhat lighter, it still fell continuously 24 hours a day. After nearly twenty days, the accumulated snow on both sides of the path was already over two meters high; without digging steps, it would be truly difficult to get up.
Now, wearing these [Multi-Terrain Marching Boots], Guan Tong jogged and jumped on the snow, finding them comfortable, non-slip, waterproof, exceptionally lightweight, and offering a kind of "barefoot feeling" like carbon-plated shoes—the overall experience was nearly perfect.
"Truly worthy of being Terminal-made, the 100 Ascension Coins weren't wasted." After testing them for a while, Guan Tong was very satisfied. With these boots, he no longer had to miserably dry his shoes by the campfire every night.
After finishing his tests, he returned to camp and opened the [Wordless Book]. Looking at the blank second page, even though his Ascension Coins were now zero, he temporarily had no plans to create coins.
"Let's follow the experience from writing 'Guan Tong' on the first page." He intended to proceed with his earlier plan: first write the character for "gun" on the second page and see the reality transformation result.
If the transformed result wasn't the gun he wanted, he would then add characters in front of it. This approach would save time and Mind Power as much as possible, reducing trial-and-error costs.
Additionally, Guan Tong hadn't abandoned the idea triggered earlier based on Chen Na's [Perception Domain], namely the attempt at "Shadow domain-ization."
During his reflections over these days, he had again conceived a plan to add characters to "Guan Tong." Previously, it went from "Guan Tong" to "Physical Form Guan Tong." This time, he planned to slowly add two more characters in front, namely "Transformation."
The final result would be "Transformation Physical Form Guan Tong."
The reason for wanting to add "Transformation" was partly based on the concept of domain expansion.
On the other hand, if successful, the intangible Shadow would also be able to exist in forms other than human. This would enable movement in a more flexible, concealed manner and unlock more combat methods.
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