Chapter 56: Chapter 55: Chaos and Purchase
WEE-WOO, WEE-WOO, WEE-WOO—
The piercing wail of an ambulance siren echoed down the main road before the vehicle came to a stop in front of the Li Mei Hotel.
Several paramedics in heavy, windproof winter coats, anti-slip boots, and goggles stepped out and looked toward the hotel entrance.
There, built up from the hotel’s front steps, stood a circular ice wall over four meters high. It completely sealed the main entrance, making it impossible to get in or out.
The paramedics exchanged confused glances. Just then, they heard a shout from above.
"Hey! Over here! Up here!"
They looked up at the sound and were surprised to see people standing at the third-floor windows, waving down at them.
One of the paramedics shouted, "What’s going on?"
A person at a third-floor window shouted back, "The hotel’s glass doors are shattered, and we can’t clear the way! This snow wall has us trapped inside!"
Another person leaned out, their voice accusatory. "What took you so long? Do you have any idea how many people have died from sickness in here?!"
"We’re short-staffed!" a paramedic yelled back. "The whole city is calling for medical help every day! We can’t keep up!"
Another paramedic asked, "Are there any more patients inside who need immediate medical attention?"
"There are several! We’ll wrap them in bedsheets and lower them down!"
A flurry of activity followed on the third floor. The group tied a dozen thick bedsheets into a rope, secured several patients with it, and began lowering them bit by bit from the windows.
After catching the patients, the paramedics immediately carried them into the ambulance. Then, someone on the third floor shouted again, "Our water’s been out for ten days! Is anyone going to do anything about it?!"
"That’s not our department! Call the Emergency Management Bureau!"
The ambulance quickly drove away, leaving the people on the third floor to erupt in a volley of curses.
Meanwhile, on the first floor of the hotel lobby, garbage was strewn everywhere.
Food wrappers, empty water bottles, and even disgusting traces of what looked like vomit and excrement littered the ground.
The hotel’s water had been cut off since June 9th. Ten days had now passed with no sign of it being restored. It was estimated that service wouldn’t return at all before the rules ended.
In those ten days, the several hundred people in the hotel had used up all the stored water. Although the Logistics and Support Department had delivered supplies once, they only provided the bare minimum of food and drinking water necessary for survival.
The incessant snow hadn’t just severely impacted the lives of ordinary people; many factories that were heavy water consumers had also been forced to halt production.
In such times, the Support Department had to be meticulous about supplying food and water to a city of tens of millions, meaning they couldn’t afford to be generous with their distributions.
As a result, while the people in the hotel weren’t dying of thirst or starvation, that was the extent of their comfort. There was no extra water for washing their hair, showering, or even flushing the toilets after the water was shut off.
If you were living in the wild, you could just find a spot to relieve yourself and bury it under the snow.
But in a hotel with several hundred people, it was easy to imagine what happened when the toilets stopped flushing.
To maintain a shred of dignity, people had resorted to using plastic bags. After relieving themselves, they would seal the bags and collectively toss them into the hotel’s swimming pool.
Even so, as time went on and the contents of the pool began to fester, the stench was unimaginable, especially since most windows were sealed shut by snow and couldn’t be opened. The oppressive atmosphere wore many people down, leaving them mentally and physically exhausted.
Furthermore, the problem of the sick remained unsolved. A large number of people had fallen ill ten days ago, and in the time since, several had already died.
Someone suggested throwing the bodies outside the hotel, but the proposal was vehemently rejected. In the end, all the corpses were moved into a large guest room for storage.
The low temperature, at least, served a purpose here, preventing the bodies from decomposing quickly. It was a rare silver lining.
Otherwise, if the bodies started to rot, everyone trapped in the sealed hotel would have to worry about a potential epidemic.
Three more days passed. On the 22nd, after another power outage hit the hotel, a massive commotion broke out in the lobby.
"Another power cut! Son of a bitch! We’re going to freeze to death!!!"
"Fucking Emergency Management Bureau! Those bastards are probably lounging in their cozy, 24/7 climate-controlled rooms."
"It’s already tens of degrees below zero in here! Are they trying to kill us with these power cuts?!"
After days of watching people die from illness, dealing with water and power shortages, and being too cold to get a decent night’s sleep, the crowd finally reached a breaking point, their shouts and clamor filling the air.
A young man in his twenties, as if driven mad, grabbed a plastic stool, rushed to the hotel entrance, and began smashing it against the snow wall.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
Seeing that many people were on the verge of losing control, the members of an armed squad who had been camping on the floor in a corner of the hotel could no longer sit idly by. They all rose to their feet. The captain shouted, "Everyone, calm down!"
"Calm your fucking ass!" the young man smashing the stool at the snow wall roared, turning his head.
The captain’s face darkened. "What did you say? Say that again!"
"I said, calm your fucking ass! Fuck you! Think you’re hot shit with a gun? If you’ve got the balls, then shoot me! Go on, shoot me! AHHHHH!"
The young man screamed, charging at the squad captain with the plastic stool raised. His squadmates, stunned, all raised their rifles. "Don’t shoot!" the captain ordered quickly.
As the frenzied young man closed in, the captain threw a clean, powerful hook that knocked him to the ground. He then pinned the man down, pressing a knee firmly into his abdomen to keep him from getting up.
"AHHHHHH!"
The young man struggled wildly, his hands flailing. Left with no choice, the captain had to brutally strike him in the chest with the butt of his rifle.
"Stay down!"
The man winced, grimacing from the sharp pain in his chest.
The captain thought he had him subdued and had just let out a sigh of relief when he suddenly heard one of his squadmates cry out in alarm.
"Captain, watch out!"
’Huh?!’
The captain snapped his head down and saw that the young man he had pinned to the ground was now holding a telescopic baton that had appeared out of thin air. With a sudden flick, the man swung it upward, striking the captain squarely in the face.
’It’s a Psychic Power item!’
"Captain?!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Hearing the gunshots, the captain ignored the stinging pain and the blood streaming from his forehead. He looked down.
The young man’s face now had several new bullet holes, from which blood was beginning to pour. His Psychic Power baton also dissipated with its owner’s death.
The captain looked at the squad member who had fired. The latter stated with righteous conviction, "He posed a threat to your life, Captain. I deemed it necessary to eliminate him!"
"...Right!"
The captain nodded, pressing a hand to the wound on his forehead. He suddenly realized the lobby had fallen deathly silent. Turning his head, he saw that the once-rowdy crowd was now completely still, stunned into silence by the young man’s death.
The captain took a deep breath and issued a loud warning. "Everyone, listen up! The rules will be over in a few more days. Anyone who pulls another dangerous stunt will be dealt with severely!"
...
In stark contrast to the volatile chaos in the city, Guan Tong was the picture of tranquility in his camp at the foot of the mountain, completely unconcerned with the affairs of the world.
He calmly finished the last stroke of writing on the second page of the [Wordless Book]. Watching as the words on it transformed into a stream of data and flowed into his body, he couldn’t help but let out a long breath.
’Finally saved up enough.’ He thought, looking at his personal terminal.
[Name: Guan Tong]
[Nickname: Shadow]
[Title: Orderkeeper]
[Psychic Power: 75 (121)]
[Sublimation Coins: 100 (30 bound)]
[Overall Bio-Information Assessment: Excellent]
In less than twenty days, his maximum Psychic Power had increased by another 2 points, reaching a cap of 121. With eleven days left before the rules expired, at his current rate of gaining 1 point every 8 days on average, his cap should reach 123 by the end.
And after his tireless minting, he had finally saved up enough Sublimation Coins.
He opened the Sublimation Store and purchased the [Multi-Terrain Marching Boots] for 100 Coins.
Just like the [Thermoregulating Technology Underwear], the boots’ appearance could be customized. Not wanting to stand out, Guan Tong set their appearance to that of a normal pair of shoes.
After changing into them, he immediately went outside his camp. He walked up a "snow step" he had carved out beside the camp’s path and onto the surface of the deep snow.
Carving the step had been necessary. Although the snow on Mingdao Mountain was lighter, it still fell 24 hours a day. After nearly twenty days, the accumulated snow on either side of the path was over two meters high, making it impossible to get up without a step.
Now, wearing the [Multi-Terrain Marching Boots], Guan Tong jogged and jumped on the snow. He found them comfortable, non-slip, and waterproof. They were also exceptionally light, giving him the "barefoot feeling" of wearing light cloth shoes. The overall experience was perfect.
"As expected of a product from the terminal. One hundred Sublimation Coins well spent." Guan Tong was very satisfied after testing them for a while. With these boots, he would no longer have to spend his evenings miserably drying his old ones by the campfire.
After finishing his test, he returned to camp and opened the [Wordless Book]. Looking at the blank second page, he decided not to engage in Coinage for the time being, even though his Sublimation Coin balance was now zero.
’I’ll follow the experience from writing "Guan Tong" on the first page.’ He decided to stick to his original plan and first write the character for "gun" on the second page to see what it would manifest as in reality.
If the materialized object wasn’t the gun he wanted, he would add more characters in front of it. This would save as much time and Psychic Power as possible, lowering the cost of trial and error.
Additionally, Guan Tong hadn’t given up on the idea derived from Chen Na’s [Perception Realm]—his attempt to turn his Shadow into a Domain.
In his recent days of contemplation, he came up with a new plan to add characters to "Guan Tong." Previously, he had gone from "Guan Tong" to "Solid Guan Tong." This time, he planned to slowly add two more characters in front: "Transforming."
The final result would be "Transforming Solid Guan Tong."
He wanted to add the word "Transforming" for two reasons. Firstly, it was based on his concept of domain-ization.
Secondly, if successful, his ethereal Shadow could exist independently in non-human forms. This would allow it to act in a more flexible and covert manner, unlocking a wider range of applications.
