So strong?

The power outage in town and the arrival of the military did not cause much of a stir in this secluded community; they believed that someone would eventually handle such matters.

Therefore, everyone went about their business as usual. Most people, feeling a sense of crisis due to the power outage at home and the unusually fierce winds from the previous night, began to flock to the town's only supermarket to stock up on supplies.

Seventy or eighty people crowded into the small supermarket at once. Most of them were neighbors who saw each other every day, so the sound of greetings and idle chatter became the main melody of the place.

Having dealt with a stranger trespassing in his backyard and crushing a toy car just yesterday, David was a bit worried about his son, so he brought him along to the town to shop, and even gave a ride to his Black neighbor with whom he had a financial dispute.

In truth, he didn't particularly like this Black neighbor, but today the man's tree had smashed their small boat dock. When he went to discuss compensation, he saw that the classic car he had somewhat envied was also crushed by the tree, and he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

Seeing Brent Norton readily agree to the compensation and witnessing his pitiful state without a car, David suppressed his laughter and drove Brent to the town supermarket.

While selecting the food they needed inside the supermarket, David took the opportunity to make a payphone call, but the result was the same; the signal here seemed to be blocked, making it impossible to contact the outside world.

Returning to the supermarket, David greeted the female cashier at the front desk and headed toward the entrance.

As an outlier in the town, where the average monthly income was only a few hundred dollars, David could earn tens of thousands a month through his talent-dependent work as an artist, giving him a very high profile in the town.

Having lived in the town for so long, he had become familiar with the supermarket staff over time.

One of the staff members, a short, chubby man wearing small glasses named Ollie, was someone he had a good relationship with.

After he remarked on the rare spectacle inside the supermarket, Ollie, who was responsible for bagging items for paying customers, replied, "Because of the storm, everyone wants to stock up. We've been this busy since we opened the doors."

David nodded and chimed in, "A lousy day."

Although he was talking about the busyness of the supermarket, Ollie was smiling because he liked the lively town. "Everyone is having a lousy day today, aren't they! Good morning, Mrs. Carmody~!"

The person Ollie greeted was another well-known figure in town, a fanatical religious believer who usually liked to wrap herself in a white headscarf and gloves, never finishing three sentences without mentioning God or five without quoting the Bible.

She always gave people the impression of being a deranged woman; she looked only in her thirties, yet her speech always felt eerie.

"With so many people in line, I really don't know if it's good or bad, but let's just make do for now."

When others greeted her, the superstitious Carmody only leaned close to Ollie, said something strange, and walked into the supermarket.

Watching Carmody leave, Ollie and David looked at each other and both shrugged.

Bidding farewell to the busy Ollie, David soon found his son and his Black neighbor, Brent, between two aisles.

"Your wife should be a doctor. With handwriting like this, she could definitely make a fortune in Manhattan." Brent held David's shopping list in his hand, taking the opportunity to praise his wife's "beautiful" penmanship.

However, David was extremely vigilant about this. Certain tags from special publications involving wives, uncensored, and Black neighbors flashed through his mind, causing his heart to skip a beat. He impolitely snatched the shopping list from Brent's hand and laughed, "Yeah, you have to look at it for a long time to understand it..."

How could he let others ogle his blonde, beautiful wife!

Get lost!

Then Brent held the shopping basket, gave David a meaningful look, and walked away.

David didn't take it to heart, but little Billy was more concerned about the relationship between the two, as he had seen them arguing before and, with his simple mind, wanted to ease the tension between his father and the neighbor.

"Have you and Uncle Brent become friends?"

Unfortunately, it is difficult for a child to understand the way adults think. David shrugged, "Not really friends. It's hard to say."

The shopping time ended, and many people were waiting in line to check out. Three people in military uniforms also appeared in the supermarket. Occasionally, some soldiers would come to town to purchase items, so most people just went about their business.

But just as they were being so leisurely, the white mist drifting from over the mountains had already shrouded most of the small town and was continuing to spread rapidly toward them.

Because the communication system had been completely cut off, the people in the supermarket were still completely unaware of the existence of the white mist.

Several police cars and fire trucks suddenly sped past the parking lot in front of the supermarket, heading in the direction of David's home. The people in the supermarket were attracted by the sirens of the fire trucks and looked up toward the outside.

It had been a long time since an accident requiring fire trucks had occurred in the small town. They doubted whether those old fire trucks could even start, but since both fire trucks had been dispatched this time, something major must have happened, right?

The people in the store began to discuss it, and Billy also looked up to ask his father if something had happened to his mother.

David's expression also showed some worry, but he still smiled and comforted Billy, saying it was fine. Just as he finished speaking, the town's air-raid siren echoed across the sky...

A man walked out from the corner of the street outside the supermarket, followed by a thick white mist. He was only a dozen meters away from it, and as he walked, the mist followed behind him like a ghost that wouldn't leave his side.

The people in the supermarket recovered from the shock of the air-raid siren and noticed the thick, impenetrable white mist that had appeared outside the glass wall.

They stopped talking and looked at the mist outside and the stumbling middle-aged man, all guessing what had happened outside.

Everyone temporarily put down the goods in their hands and walked to the glass wall of the supermarket to look out.

Some looked worried, others covered their mouths, wondering if the white mist outside was a chemical gas leak, the kind often reported in newspapers.

The middle-aged man, who kept looking back every few steps, had bloodstains on his face and T-shirt; it looked like a nosebleed from a fall. Upon seeing the group of people in the supermarket, he was slightly startled, then ran toward the supermarket, the white mist spreading in behind him.

After entering the supermarket entrance, the middle-aged man immediately shouted urgently, "There's something in the mist!"

The sudden shout startled the quiet people in the supermarket.

The middle-aged man seemed not to notice, continuing to say that there was something in the mist, "That thing dragged John Lee away!"

"Dan! Catch your breath first!"

Ollie knew this middle-aged man. Seeing his urgent and terrified appearance, he quickly stepped forward to comfort him, helping him sit on a large bag of dog food to the side.

Seeing an old acquaintance, the middle-aged man looked at Ollie with some sadness, his eyes brimming with tears as he said, "That thing in the mist dragged John Lee away! I could hear his screams... Close the door! Close the door quickly!"

After he sat on the chair and saw the mist behind him approaching, he hurriedly asked the people around him to close the door.

Several quick-witted and enthusiastic townspeople obeyed and closed the two glass doors of the supermarket, but some still didn't believe it; they pushed the doors open again and ran out of the supermarket, wanting to drive away from this godforsaken place.

The crowd watched as those people rushed into the mist without stopping them, but not long after, several screams of terror and despair echoed from within, frightening the still-hesitant townspeople into quickly closing and locking the supermarket's glass doors.

Li Wei felt very lucky to have found an American black bear in the nearby forest that was in the middle of hunting down a few cubs. He saved all the cubs and assimilated the adult black bear.

He then randomly picked the cub with the smoothest fur and flew back to the town, intending to shove the returned money and the black bear toward Anna; he had no idea if a brown bear plushie turned into a real black bear cub would be enough to fool her.

But... could someone tell him why the town was shrouded in white fog?

Was some giant smoking in there? Why was it so thick?

Huh...