Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Couldn’t Be Better
However, before anyone could dwell on it, the extreme heat apocalypse descended.
[BEEP! The Extreme Heat Cataclysm has arrived.]
It was the same mechanical voice. A voice Sue Lawrence swore she had heard when the extreme cold apocalypse descended.
’What, does it make an announcement every time a disaster hits?’
Sue Lawrence didn’t understand the point. The announcement came as the cataclysm was already happening, giving them no time to prepare.
Then, the temperature, which had been holding steady around twenty-three or twenty-four degrees Celsius, suddenly changed.
Temperature: Twenty-six degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Twenty-eight degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Twenty-nine degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Thirty degrees Celsius.
At first, it was a slow climb. People only gradually began to feel the heat.
Thirty degrees Celsius wasn’t unbearable, but the heat was definitely noticeable.
The base activated more ventilation systems, and people felt some relief.
Some people still went out to scavenge for supplies, hoping to earn more Points. But most remained in the base, living off the Points they’d already earned—in other words, just lying flat.
But one night, everyone was jolted awake by the heat.
It was the kind of oppressive heat that made you toss and turn, unable to sleep. Even if you were dead tired, so exhausted you couldn’t keep your eyes open, your brain was constantly screaming, ’It’s so hot! It’s so hot!’
A commotion rippled through the crowd.
"Why is it so hot?"
"Did they close the air vents?"
"Ugh, someone go ask what’s happening. We’re going to cook in here."
People muttered amongst themselves until someone glanced at the corner of the large screen. It displayed the current outside temperature: forty-one degrees Celsius.
"Forty-one degrees? Has the world gone mad?"
Someone shouted it out, and many people turned to look. They saw the temperature reading just as it jumped another degree, cutting off their gasps of shock.
Forty-two degrees Celsius.
Now, everyone was in a panic.
Negative eighty degrees was an abstract concept, but everyone understood what positive forty-two degrees meant.
Didn’t the high-temperature warnings every year talk about the hottest days being over forty degrees?
Many were even reminded of those videos of eggs frying on the pavement, or of people’s shoe soles melting and sticking to the asphalt.
"My God, people will die in this heat!"
People hadn’t reacted this way during the extreme cold, but now they were scared to death. Extreme heat could genuinely kill you. And what about heatstroke? That could definitely be fatal.
As panic spread, Victor Keller quickly appeared with a team to move everyone again.
They had only just returned to the initial assembly area, and now they were already being moved down another level.
It was, admittedly, cooler here. The moment they arrived, everyone felt a significant drop in temperature.
’Good, now we can get back to sleep.’
Everyone went back to sleep. Deep down, they all shared the same thought: ’Surely, we can ride out the apocalypse here.’
But a few days later, they were once again woken by the heat.
A glance at the outdoor temperature showed it had surpassed fifty degrees.
"It’s over fifty degrees?"
"This... this is unimaginable. It’s terrifying."
People could die at forty-two degrees. Over fifty... this was beyond anyone’s experience. No one knew what it was like outside anymore.
But the temperature was still climbing.
Temperature: Fifty-three degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Fifty-six degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Sixty-one degrees Celsius.
Temperature: Sixty-six degrees Celsius.
The base personnel moved down another two levels, but it was still hot. Soon, they had all been relocated to the very bottom level.
They had survived the extreme cold on this very level, but now, with the outside temperature approaching seventy degrees, they still felt hot.
’Has the entire mountain been cooked through?’
No one dared to imagine what the conditions were like outside.
But Silas Hawthorne and his group knew exactly what it was like. Especially Reincarnators like Sue Lawrence.
What was it like outside?
Outside was hell.
The moisture from the melted snow of the extreme cold hadn’t fully dissipated when the high temperatures hit. That moisture instantly turned into steam. It wasn’t the temperature itself that was the direct killer, but the steam!
In other words, the outside world was now a giant steamer!
Ever heard of slow cooking?
With temperatures approaching seventy degrees, this was the most agonizing form of torture.
Sue Lawrence quietly played with her older brother’s daughter.
The little dumpling was soft and adorable, now over four months old.
She couldn’t roll over yet, but she loved lying on her tummy, lifting her head to gaze at the world around her.
Unfortunately, this was just an air-raid shelter. All she could see were the technologically modified walls and lights, without a speck of green in sight.
People could still venture out during the extreme cold, but in the extreme heat apocalypse, not a single person dared to leave.
Protective suits were useless.
Thick fog, searing steam, and newly formed swamps made it a death trap.
Even Marcus Morgan could only order everyone to subsist purely on existing supplies to wait out the extreme heat. As a result, the meals in the base became smaller and blander.
There was no other way. With so many people and resources only being consumed, not replenished, supplies had to be distributed more rationally.
However, this life of hardship was for others. Sue Lawrence and her family were still eating very well.
Because they had more than enough Points, they had exchanged them for a private room right next to Silas Hawthorne’s. His quarters were guarded by soldiers, and outsiders couldn’t get in at all, yet Sue Lawrence and her family could come and go as they pleased.
Jason Sterling saw this but didn’t say anything. He knew Sue Lawrence had met with Silas Hawthorne alone, carrying that black supply crate. ’The supplies inside must have been extremely rare,’ he thought, ’She must have traded them for this special treatment.’ He’d asked around; the rooms in that area were even more expensive, costing three thousand Points a month. Neither he nor the Sterling Group could bear to spend that much.
Yet Sue Lawrence’s family moved in openly, as if it were their right.
And so, once the door was shut, the family switched into feast mode.
Too hot?
Time for everyone to have a popsicle.
Her older brother liked chocolate fudge bars, Vincent Lawrence preferred classic ice pops, Vivian Young liked the fruit-flavored ones, and Jenny Norris and Mia Keller were digging into tubs of ice cream.
With the door locked, the whole family feasted to their hearts’ content.
"Ah, this is the life!"
Elliot Lawrence was in heaven.
Eating ice cream in this heat was pure bliss!
"There’s also watermelon."
Sue Lawrence pulled a watermelon out of her Storage Space and sliced it open. The refreshing scent filled the air as the family dug in.
This was amazing!
It was cooling and quenched their thirst perfectly!
The base’s water supply was now much tighter than during the extreme cold. Back then, water was everywhere. Now, collecting and purifying it was a hassle.
But they had plenty!
When they finished the watermelon, they didn’t throw away the rind or the seeds. The seeds could be collected to see if Silas Hawthorne wanted them—after all, seeds were a resource too.
The watermelon rind was saved for later to fertilize their vegetable patch. Yes, nothing went to waste.
Sue Lawrence tossed the ice cream wrappers into a garbage bag and tucked it away in her Storage Space. In short, the main principle after eating was to destroy all evidence. No one was going to find a single trace of their feast.
Besides sapping your strength and killing your appetite, the worst part about the heat was trying to sleep.
Everyone else was too hot to sleep, but Sue Lawrence’s family slept like logs. That’s because Sue had hoarded a massive supply of waterbed mattresses.
Those things were both comfortable and cool to sleep on. It was absolutely heavenly!
