Apocalyptic Reincarnation: Start with a 30-million Bonus

The weather is getting colder, and people are becoming weak and sluggish, except for those on duty and those engaged in daily task arrangements.

Everyone basically spends the daytime in the underground plantation base and returns to their rooms to sleep at night.

The three young wolf puppies, their condition has been improving lately, looking quite lively compared to when they were nearly at death's door.

One day, while Li Yu was in the duty room, he stepped out with a thermos in hand and couldn't help but pour some water on the wall. In less than a few seconds, the flowing water slowed, gradually congealing into ice.

"Ice!" Li Yu seemed to have thought of something.

If we sprinkle water on the walls and let it freeze, it could actually increase the walls' defensive capabilities, ice is slippery after all!

If someone were to come by, trying to sneak up under the solid and slick ice walls would undoubtedly be much more difficult.

Having thought of it, he discussed it with Second Uncle and others, and everyone found the idea to be good. The only issue is that the temperature is really low now, and the water in Mountain Pond Reservoir has already turned to ice.

It looks like they'll need to figure something out.

With such a long stretch of wall, to have the entire surface freeze over, if they were to rely on carrying it bucket by bucket, the efficiency would be painfully low.

Besides that, with the temperature so low, transporting water slowly like this, it's bound to freeze in transit.

Finally, they came up with a solution—they still had a lot of water pipes, but transporting water was a problem.

Now everyone was using heated hot water. If they could concentrate all this heat-supplied water, directly channeling hot water from the residential areas to the walls,

even if the water cooled during the transit, it wouldn't freeze into ice so quickly.

The real issue is maintaining a constant flow of hot water, but thanks to the large water heater that Li Yu built initially, if they turned on all sorts of heating devices to the max, they should just manage to keep up the supply.

Since they were prepared, they began the operation.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, things went extremely smoothly!

In the evening, Li Yu stood atop the wall, looking down at the ground below where the ice had solidified, reflecting a unique glow under the dim yellow sunset, and he felt a lot calmer inside.

....

The temperature had now dropped to minus ten degrees, getting even lower during the night.

Dozens of kilometers away from Li Yu and his group, in a county town, there was a small squad made up of women huddled in a tiny house.

In the center of the room, some wood was burning, illuminating the entire room and casting silhouettes of the people around the flames against the walls.

Six or seven women were very close to the fire, so close they might as well be burning; it seemed they could only feel the warmth of the flames this way.

"Sister Bai, we've collected almost all the wood around here. We've also chopped up the wooden furniture upstairs to burn as fuel," a slightly older woman said.

"Okay, I know. We'll go out again tomorrow to see what else we can find," Bai Jie said.

These people were Bai Jie and others who had left Jiefang City some time ago, and now they had reached Xin City.

"Cough cough cough!" A series of violent coughs echoed.

"Xiao Yan, hold on a little longer. We'll definitely find you some medicine tomorrow. Sigh," Bai Jie said, looking towards a young girl, only in her teens.

Wrapped in thick clothes, the girl's face was pale, her lips white, too, yet her forehead was beaded with sweat. Despite that, she felt extremely cold. Even by the fire, bundled up in so many layers, her body couldn't stop shaking uncontrollably.

"Sis, I'm fine, I can hold on," the girl said sensibly, her weary expression tugging at the heartstrings.

A flicker of guilt crossed Bai Jie's eyes. It was she who had led them out, and now everyone was struggling to survive in this apocalyptic world, which weighted heavily on her.

In the center of the flame hung a stove. Bai Jie took it down, poured some hot water, and handed the cup to the girl, saying, "Drink some water to warm up. Have more later, but be careful, it's hot."

"Thank you, sis. Cough, cough, cough."

The room was small, as one that was too large would lose heat too quickly.

Most of the room's space was taken up by stacks of firewood. Apart from these, the next room was also filled with firewood.

Bai Jie didn't directly sleep on the floor; instead, she had arranged some bedding on top—after all, the ground was very cold.

The windows were tightly shut, but because firewood burned within the room, some gaps were left open. Cold air whooshed through these small slits. Bai Jie, who was near one of these gaps, felt another draft on her back and frowned slightly, pulling the blanket closer around her.

Looking at the crack, she thought for a moment, then got up and narrowed it slightly, lightly covering it with a piece of breathable cloth.

This allowed fresh air into the room and also kept the cold wind from blowing directly on her.

The room was very quiet, aside from the occasional violent coughing.

It wasn't really quiet—it was just that the sounds had become more simple and pure. Outside, the sound of the wind could be heard due to the small gaps letting in noise.

Then there was the sound of the burning firewood, crackling and popping.

Crackling and popping...

...

Bai Jie and her companions were just a microcosm of this wintry apocalypse. Similar situations were happening in many places.

But, the living conditions of many people were not even as good as those in Bai Jie's small house.

At least, they had enough firewood to burn!

Ordinarily, people would be comfortable inside a warm room during the cold winter.

But most nights in this apocalypse, they faced the deadly prospect of freezing.

This is the South, where many people haven't seen snow in their lifetimes or felt temperatures below negative 10 degrees Celsius. Not to mention negative 10, even sub-zero temperatures are rarely experienced.

Now, without heating, without electricity, without a safe place, survival in such cold weather is incredibly difficult.

Food was already scarce. Being cold and hungry was the state for most.

Not everyone had the strength to search for things to stay warm, nor could everyone find a safe place.

In this cold weather, they had to keep warm to avoid frostbite and also be on alert for zombies.

Amidst this atmosphere of despair, many people, unable to withstand the pressure or the cold, ended their lives by jumping from high buildings.

This cold winter seemed to freeze people's warm hearts, leaving them unable to feel warmth or hope.