Chapter 120: Chapter 120: We Want to Go Out
Jason Sterling returned to his spot, crestfallen.
Now, even Wyatt Sterling was berating him. "I told you to hold onto Sue Lawrence long ago! Look what you did. You broke up with her? Well, look at you now. She won’t even give you the time of day, will she?"
"Hmph. I can see you just don’t have the Ability to lead. We might as well switch to Jayden!"
With that, Wyatt Sterling turned his head. "Jayden, you’re in charge from now on."
"Dad, is that really a good idea?"
Jayden Sterling glanced at Jason Sterling and, sure enough, saw his older brother’s expression darken instantly.
"Once this flood is over, we’re going back to our own base!"
Wyatt Sterling snorted and fell silent.
After the flood, the natural disasters would subside, allowing everyone to steadily build up their own power. They could make good use of their own mine then.
Jason Sterling finally sank into complete despair.
He couldn’t understand how he had ended up in such a state.
He had thought that without Sue Lawrence, he would thrive in the apocalypse. Who would have guessed that things would only get worse? It was even worse than his previous life. In his last life, he had at least led a small team. But now, Jayden Sterling had taken his place, and he was...
"From now on, you’re a regular team member. You’d better perform well. Otherwise, you can stay a regular team member forever!"
Wyatt Sterling’s words were crushing. Miles Finch and Adam Zane heard them too, and they both looked at Jason Sterling with complicated expressions.
"Jason, things shouldn’t be this way. Just forget Sue Lawrence!"
"Yeah, she’s the one who wronged you. That son who just appeared out of nowhere is the best proof of that!"
"That’s right, don’t be foolish. Tiana Lynch is the best and most suitable person for you."
The two tried to persuade him, but Jason Sterling just kept his head down, utterly silent, the very picture of a man who had lost his will to fight.
The two exchanged a glance. ’This Sue Lawrence is a persistent ghost,’ they thought. ’Hmph. If we get the chance, we’ll teach her a lesson. What an infuriating woman.’
’She’s not even here, but she’s still destroying the team’s unity.’
Meanwhile, the weather outside could only be described as catastrophic.
A torrential downpour, bucketing from the sky.
This wasn’t just a rainstorm; it was like the sky itself was being poured out!
The entire base was immediately sealed to prevent flooding. In areas that couldn’t be sealed, a water circulation system was activated, diverting the water directly underground.
With the comprehensive protective barriers in place, Marcus Morgan wasn’t worried about flooding.
He was, however, far from optimistic about the weather to come.
The large screens continuously displayed live feeds of the outside. The sheer scale of the storm silenced everyone.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared. The violent storm and extreme temperature shifts made the weather outside utterly devastating.
Witnessing this, the people grew even more terrified, and a low, oppressive atmosphere settled over the base.
The torrential rain continued for over half a month, and the floodwaters in the city steadily rose.
Everyone grew more and more anxious, until one day...
"Aaargh! Water! A flood!"
Someone’s roar cut through the hot, tense air, instantly sparking a commotion.
An image had just flashed across the main screen: a scene of a levee bursting.
Though it was only for a moment, someone had seen it.
In the control room, Marcus Morgan frowned and looked up at Silas Hawthorne. "What do we do? They saw it."
"Then keep playing it. It’s time to give them a lesson. It’s good for them to know what the apocalypse is really like."
Silas Hawthorne gave the command with composure. A moment later, the image on the main screen flickered and switched back to the scene from before.
It wasn’t a flood; it was a wall of water crashing down upon the world. A torrent from the mountains, a murky, monstrous flow thick with tree roots, garbage, and abandoned vehicles, cascaded downwards.
It began with a deep, rumbling crack from the base of the flood barrier.
The levee, first fractured by ice expansion during the deep freeze and then baked with a web of cracks under the extreme heat, was now brutally ripped open by the floodwaters, creating a gap a hundred meters wide. The flow was no longer a rushing stream but a churning, roaring liquid behemoth. It tore through the city’s defenses and poured into the already paralyzed streets.
The low-lying old district was the first to fall.
Old wooden houses, like a child’s building blocks, were swept away in an instant. Beams slammed into reinforced concrete piers, exploding into a spray of splinters that filled the air.
The asphalt, already softened by the heat, was churned up by the torrent. Earth and water mixed into a viscous sludge that dragged trapped cars below the surface, leaving nothing but a string of bubbling vortexes.
Soon, the crest of the flood submerged the overpasses.
The steel piers that supported the highways, their foundations scoured away by the current, buckled with a groan like snapping toothpicks. Scraps of debris—discarded air conditioning units, sheet metal from billboards, plastic shards melted during the great heat—became deadly projectiles in the torrent, slamming into the remaining structures with a cacophony of CRACKS and BANGS.
The high-rises became the last islands of refuge. The skyscrapers’ glass curtain walls, already spiderwebbed with cracks from the heat, gave way. Water poured through the fissures, flooding the floors and churning desks, chairs, and files into chaotic tangles.
Walls, saturated and unsupported, collapsed in their entirety, kicking up waves dozens of meters high. The crests of these waves crashed against the buildings opposite, leaving deep, dark water stains in their wake.
The sun-baked, fractured earth from the great heat now served as channels for the deluge. It wasn’t groundwater that gushed from the cracks but the flood itself, tearing the ground into wider chasms. Water spewed from the new fissures, carrying the foul stench of ruptured sewer lines as it swallowed the sidewalks and the once-thriving commercial district.
The water level rose relentlessly, submerging the tops of streetlights, then the signs of shopping malls, and finally, the spire of the clock tower.
Everything was devoured by the flood, transformed into a chaotic, yellow-brown expanse.
The rain kept falling. Rotting plants and shattered wreckage floated on the surface. All that remained between the sky and the earth was the roar of the water. A world that was already broken had now, in this sudden cataclysm, descended into a new kind of desolation.
Everyone fell silent.
No one had ever expected to witness such a scene with their own eyes.
The deep freeze had merely encased the world in ice; at least the buildings remained intact, and you could still recognize the shape of home. The great heat was scorching, shattering glass and melting roads, but the shadow of the city still remained. This flood, however... this flood had truly destroyed their homes for good.
"That was my home... It’s gone! It’s gone!"
Someone’s cry erupted, followed by desperate sobs. Nothing was more painful than watching your home be destroyed before your very eyes.
Soon, crying could be heard all around, some even breaking into crazed screams.
"The great flood! It’s the great flood! We’re all underground! We’re going to... we’re all going to drown! No one can escape!"
In that instant, the color drained from everyone’s faces.
It was only then that it dawned on them. They were underground. Was underground safe? Of course not!
Water flows downward. It was only a matter of time before it flooded the base!
"We have to get out! We have to get out!"
It’s unclear who shouted it first, but a second voice followed, then a third...
