Volume 2: Winter’s End
The continuously scorned Lie Yang silently swallowed the questions he wanted to ask. Even if he disliked using his brain, Lie Yang realized that the places mentioned by this little creature were likely the most valuable locations for clues in Micro City. However, plagued by shortages of supplies and energy, they had focused most of their attention on places with material value, such as supermarkets and granaries. The sudden discovery of the survivor had captured his initial focus even more.
Shu Xun continued to earnestly lie on the edge of the pocket and said, “The Traffic Management Department controls the entire Micro City’s road surveillance. Perhaps after the ultra-low-temperature blue light, these devices lost their function. However, if we can repair them or modify them with psychic abilities, at least we can see Micro City before the arrival of the ultra-low-temperature blue light. There’s even a great chance to witness what happened at the moment the disaster struck. This way, we can determine the cause of the mass death of intelligent life forms.”
Pausing here, Shu Xun stopped for a moment. In fact, Shu Xun also wanted to see what had happened at the entrance toll booth of Micro City. Perhaps it was the intuition of being a treasure-seeking mouse, but Shu Xun always felt that the clues at the toll booth were no less valuable than the vast Micro City downtown area.
“As for the Meteorological Department, the coming of the desperate winter must have some signs. Ordinary people may not have noticed or sensed these signs, but those engaged in meteorological work will definitely have records and discover something. The internal data of the Micro City Meteorological Department will be very detailed, even having some analysis and inferences about the desperate winter. It’s just a pity that it couldn’t save this doomed planet. And the library is the best way to understand a city and a country. There, a large amount of past cultural history will be stored, as well as recent trends in the country or even the world. About the research institute and the enforcement agency, intuition tells me that these two places are worth a visit.”
In fact, for the last two locations, the reasoning would also be feasible, as once the Meteorological Department or other agencies discover anomalies before the desperate winter arrives, they will surely report to the enforcement agency, and the enforcement agency will issue regulations for the research institute to study. However, for Shu Xun, such reasoning is obviously not as reliable as his own intuition.
Lie Yang seemed to have finally found an opportunity to restore his image and confidently smiled, casually saying, “Intuition? Little guy, let me tell you from the experience of a high-end god-level player, intuition in the gaming world is almost equivalent to an illusion.”
Shu Xun snorted again, tilting his little head slightly. “Rest assured, my intuition is far more valuable than your intelligence.”
Lie Yang: “…” Where does this inexplicable confidence come from? And why does he feel like if he refutes, he’s going to be embarrassed? If Shu Xun knew what Lie Yang was thinking at this moment, he would probably snort calmly and add a sentence: “Oh, look, your intuition is quite accurate, isn’t it?”
The confident little ball of fur didn’t need much explanation. Instead, he continued to sway his small head to observe the surroundings, attempting to discover more clues. Along the way, they also searched several street-facing buildings one after another and found that the situation was not very good. Almost all resources had been depleted, indicating that Micro City had already fallen into some kind of turmoil before the disaster suddenly struck, causing an imbalance in the pace of life. Some shops were even directly vandalized, with their contents smashed and looted clean.
Up to now, Shu Xun’s specific time references for everything still come from Qing Mo’s notebook. Indeed, within the notebook, before the desperate winter arrived, Qing Mo’s emotions suddenly fell into a state of chaotic and intense turmoil. The notes were filled with prolonged panic and fear until relief came after taking stimulants.
If the situation in the notebook corresponds to Micro City, does it mean that Qing Mo’s state of panic is not an isolated case? Perhaps something similar happened within Micro City, leading to significant chaos among the people living here.
While Shu Xun was pondering this, Ye Qian and Nuan Dong simultaneously halted their steps, and Lie Yang, who was following beside, naturally stopped too. “It’s still quite far from the central street,” Ye Qian commented.
Shu Xun followed Ye Qian’s gaze and saw a road sign hanging high under a streetlight in the distance. The sign indicated the directions at the upcoming intersection, and the arrow pointing to the right prominently displayed the words “Micro City Traffic Management Department.”
Lie Yang, also following the line of sight, felt mentally exhausted. Indeed, high-powered races are troublesome. Can’t they just say it directly? Lie Yang wearily walked along with the others toward the Traffic Management Department.
Following the guidance for a considerable distance along the street, gradually moving away from the bustling district, the street appeared somewhat desolate. Finally, they could see their destination from a distance: the office building of the Micro City Traffic Management Department. A building with over ten floors, its top covered in sea-blue glass material, still stood out prominently in the snowstorm.
Entering the compound of the Traffic Management Department, the building’s door was in a locked state, indicating that no one had been working there since the disaster. With three high-level players present, whether it was a mechanical lock or an electronic lock, it couldn’t stop their steps. They easily broke the door lock and entered the office building.
On the ground floor lobby, there was a layout diagram of the entire building. After studying it for a moment, the group decided to split up. Nuan Dong, with the highest psychic power, would be responsible for checking the entire building’s routes to see if they could be restored. Such functional agencies usually have their own energy supply systems to ensure the basic operation of the entire city. Ye Qian and Lie Yang would check from the bottom and the top respectively, collecting supplies and usable clues. As for She Xen, he expressed that he would take charge of commanding.
Things progressed smoothly. The technology of the cosmic era far surpassed the modern background. Nuan Dong’s exceptionally high psychic power allowed him to accurately repair the faults in the building’s routes. In the moment the lights in the building came on, the other three stopped their actions. Shu Xun, who was about to check documents in the archives, immediately threw away the archive box, jumped off the table, and headed straight for the control room.
Waiting for Shu Xun to bounce into the monitoring room with his short legs, the others had also gathered. The monitoring room responsible for the entire Micro City was quite large. Upon entering, three walls were filled with screens, but at this moment, all these monitoring devices were nonfunctional. Although Nuan Dong could use his psychic power to repair the office building, he couldn’t do anything about the surveillance cameras outside of Micro City.
Shu Xun pattered over to the others and then, using Ye Qian’s clothes, climbed up and finally sat on Ye Qian’s shoulder, watching as Nuan Dong operated the monitoring equipment.
“The storage devices are fine. The records can be viewed up to October 15, 2333. I must emphasize that this recovery state won’t last too long. Soon, these devices will lose their function again. I haven’t found the reason yet, perhaps due to the extremely low temperature,” Nuan Dong explained, continuously clicking the touchpad to organize the surveillance video data.
“How long can the recovery last?” Shu Xun asked, pulling at his hair.
“At most two hours. I suspect that the cause of the electronic devices failing in this world is not only the low temperature. Otherwise, the devices wouldn’t lose their function again so quickly,” Nuan Dong said, wearing a somewhat solemn expression.
Shu Xun nodded in agreement, then said, “Now, let’s check the video records of the last day, October 15. It’s the date recorded in Qing Mo’s notebook when he saw the blue light, and it seems likely to be the day Micro City fell into ruin.”
Although Lie Yang didn’t know who Qing Mo was in Shu Xun’s statement, he didn’t interrupt, evidently agreeing with Shu Xun’s speculation.
Soon, Nuan Dong opened the surveillance records for October 15, adjusted the playback format, and a clear image appeared on the screen. The recording started at midnight when Micro City was still shrouded in a dense night. However, the bustling city had not yet fallen asleep. Bright, shimmering lights and swiftly passing vehicles gave the initial impression of normalcy. However, almost immediately, everyone noticed something unusual—the streets were crowded with people!
Keep in mind, according to the records in Qing Mo’s notebook, Micro City should have been in a low-temperature state for over a month at this point, with nighttime temperatures nearing minus fifty degrees Celsius. Were the residents of Micro City all insane, lingering outside in such severe cold?
Even if it were normal temperature, the number of people was abnormal. It was as if the residents of Micro City didn’t need to sleep, gathering in pairs or threes along the streets, parks, and residential areas—all places where they could take a break. However, when the image was zoomed in, everyone’s behavior seemed oddly harmonious, as if they were communicating with each other peacefully.
Nuan Dong fast-forwarded the footage, and this situation unexpectedly persisted until 3 a.m. Some people slowly returned to their residences, and the number of people on the streets decreased slightly, but not by much. A significant portion of the population still remained outside.
Such a strange phenomenon ignited a fervent discussion in the livestream chat:
“Are you sure the intelligent life race in the game’s background is human? Why do I feel a bit creepy?”
“Do people on this planet not need to sleep? Is this their daily lifestyle?”
“Logic seems dead. Waiting for Shu Xun’s reasoning.”
“Do you feel that the people in the surveillance footage look fake? There’s a strange feeling that’s hard to describe.”
“Even awakened beings need sleep. Do these unevolved humans only need three hours of sleep a day?”
“Stimulants! Stimulants! Who remembers the stimulant bottle Shu Xun and Ye Qian found? Feels like I’ve touched on something! But I can’t figure it out, aah!”
Someone in the chat asked, “Why are you so excited upstairs? What does this have to do with stimulants?”
The surveillance footage continued, and soon the night faded away, dawn broke, and the entire Micro City bathed in sunlight. The people wandering or lingering on the streets gradually dispersed, returning to their homes, and the morning streets gradually quieted down.
Lie Yang watched with confusion. “When did your human sleep schedule get reversed?”
“It’s not a reversed sleep schedule. I’m afraid there’s something in the night that they fear,” Shu Xun explained. He glanced at the remaining five hours on the monitoring timeline. It indicated that within these five hours, Micro City turned into a dead city. Qing Mo’s notebook didn’t record the specific time the blue light appeared, but it seemed consistent. Could it really be that the blue light caused the death of Micro City? But why did the expressions of the corpses uniformly show confusion?
The surveillance footage continued to fast forward. Around 8 a.m., the streets still appeared somewhat empty, with only a very few people present. At 9 a.m., the number of people on the streets increased, but they all seemed to be in a less-than-optimal mental state. At 10 a.m., suddenly, a large number of residents poured out of the south half of Micro City, frantically fleeing, seemingly terrified of something.
Around 10:30 in the morning, the south half of Micro City was desolate, with not a soul in sight. The north half, on the other hand, was exceptionally crowded, experiencing traffic jams—exactly the situation they initially encountered when entering Micro City.
Lie Yang shrugged. “This is what I meant by the stark difference between the north and south halves. With Central Street as the dividing line, the streets in the south are empty, while the north is filled with corpses. So, that’s how it came about.”
As time continued to pass, at around 11 a.m., a heated argument erupted among the crowded residents in the north city. It escalated into chaos, with many people entangled in violent conflicts, as if they had lost their sanity. However, the surveillance footage still showed no sign of the blue light.
An hour later, over a dozen people were bound and transported to the south half of the city, thrown over Central Street. These individuals included men and women, young and old. As Nuan Dong enlarged the image, he discovered the unique commonality among these dozen people: they all had a pair of blue eyes, the same shade as Qing Mo’s distinctive blue eyes.
