The Road Out of the City

"Call the people at the factory later. Have them come quickly and move all the supplies."

Several pharmaceutical factory workers guarding the warehouse entrance were discussing it.

"With the supplies in this warehouse, we can definitely last through this month even without rescue!"

"Team leader, do you think the security officers will come after us later?"

"So what if they do? This is an emergency. I've read the law—this is called Emergency Avoidance. It's not illegal at all!"

"Huh? Really?"

"So that's how it is! Then—"

Thud!

Before the pharmaceutical factory worker could finish speaking, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of his face. An overwhelming force struck him, and the next moment, he crashed to the ground and fell into the sleep of a child.

The other factory workers froze. Only then did they notice that a hooded figure wearing a scarf and face mask had punched their companion unconscious.

"Who the fuck are you?! Looking to die?!"

"Damn it, get him!"

"You actually dare hit someone?!"

These pharmaceutical factory workers had never expected anyone to dare fight them, and their anger flared. The passersby who had yet to leave were also stunned. They had not expected a real hero to step forward and teach these thugs hoarding the supplies a lesson.

Six or seven pharmaceutical factory workers surrounded him at once. Yet to everyone's amazement, the attacker seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Two men tried to ambush him from behind, but he dodged them both.

He was fast and incredibly strong, his movements clean and decisive. With three punches and two kicks, he had already knocked out five people. The remaining three or four immediately panicked, realizing that this masked man might be a trained fighter. They were no match for him.

The minor boss whom the other workers called "team leader" flashed a vicious look. He raised the iron pliers in his hand and smashed them hard at the man's head!

A wave of cries rose from the crowd. If that landed solidly, someone could die!

Thud!

The man dodged in time, avoiding the blow to his head. The iron pliers only struck his shoulder.

The team leader's face lit up. Those pliers were heavy—one hit to the shoulder alone should have been unbearable!

But in the next instant, his face filled with terror.

The man who had taken that heavy blow to the shoulder looked completely unharmed. There was not the slightest sign of injury. Not only had his body not so much as swayed, he had not even groaned in pain. He remained utterly silent.

That eerie silence filled the team leader with immense fear.

Clang!

The next moment, the gloved man snatched the iron pliers from his hand, then swung them back and knocked him to the ground with a single blow.

When the surrounding people saw the team leader collapse bleeding, they were terrified and shouted, "Something happened! Someone's dead!"

The crowd scattered in all directions. The remaining two pharmaceutical factory workers were so frightened that they threw down their weapons and turned to flee for their lives. Moments later, only the "hero" remained.

Shadow returned to the milk tea shop where Guan Tong was hiding. After turning intangible, the clothes on his body fell off. Guan Tong put them on, entered the supplies depot warehouse, and quickly found and took everything he needed.

Food, flashlights, batteries, sleeping bags, a multitool, windproof lighters, electrical tape, small stove gas canisters, a compact filter, a portable first-aid kit, personal hygiene items, and so on.

Guan Tong packed everything into two backpacks, tied the sleeping bags to them, and carried them on his back. After thinking for a moment, he picked up the team leader's "iron pliers" as well. Shadow had handled them quite smoothly just now, so they could be useful.

He immediately left the supplies depot and headed to a nearby shared vehicle station.

In Guan Tong's world before crossing over, the sharing economy had already been highly developed. In this world, it was even more advanced. The station had everything from bicycles and balance scooters to cars.

He casually picked out a black SUV, scanned the code to unlock it, and placed his backpacks in the back seat. Sitting in the front, he removed his hood, which was covered in snowflakes, opened the navigation map, and set a point near the edge of the city as his destination.

After pressing the "Go to Destination" option, the shared SUV automatically began following the navigation route.

From Guan Tong's own experience, this world's technological level was around ten or twenty years ahead of his original world. Autonomous driving could already function normally within cities that had detailed electronic maps.

So he did not need to drive himself for now. Once he set the city's edge as the destination, the car would take him there automatically. When he reached the area outside the city where autonomous driving no longer worked, he would take over and drive to his destination: Mingdao Mountain.

The vehicle began moving. The rules had only taken effect about half an hour ago. Although the snow was falling heavily, not much had accumulated on the roads yet, so vehicles and pedestrians could still get around without much trouble.

Quite a few vehicles were still moving through the streets. They were probably people heading toward the gathering points they had chosen.

About ten minutes later, Guan Tong suddenly heard the rapid whirring of helicopter blades. Leaning toward the window, he saw helicopters circling overhead and scattering something onto the roads below.

"Is that snow-melting agent, or some chemical that slows snow accumulation?"

Guan Tong wondered. Then he saw a convoy coming down the opposite lane. It was an open-topped armed convoy!

Through the windows, he saw the open vehicles packed with fully armed soldiers carrying loaded weapons. They sat upright, gripping their guns tightly, as if they had received orders to carry out a mission.

After a little thought, Guan Tong understood. With so many people gathering in large numbers this time, trouble could easily arise. If large-scale conflicts truly erupted, there would only be many unnecessary casualties.

But if every gathering point had some armed personnel with guns stationed there, at least no one would dare openly cause trouble.

Just like the self-service supply storage point earlier. If armed guards had been there with guns, even if those pharmaceutical factory workers had been given twice the courage, they would not have dared use wrenches and axes to claim all the supplies for themselves.

As Guan Tong thought, he took out his phone and connected to the internet.

He searched for the keyword "snowfall amount." Sure enough, in just over half an hour, someone had already discovered the Hidden Rules.

A netizen whose IP address showed Nalgeemu had posted a short video showing the snowfall where he was.

Across a vast gray-white landscape, snowflakes drifted weakly, barely there at all. Compared to the blizzard blanketing major cities such as Yong'an and Yunhua, it could only be described in four words: peaceful and serene.

The netizen filming said in the video, "Wait, is the snow really that heavy where you inland people are? Ours seems pretty average. It's not even as heavy as normal winter snow."

The video already had over ten thousand comments, and the number was still rapidly climbing.

"This is fake, right???"

"Is this real?! Does anyone know where Nalgeemu is?"

"I remember Nalgeemu being that uninhabited area in Southern Xinjiang... Wasn't there news last year about a convoy of hikers trying to cross Nalgeemu, only to disappear..."

"What the hell? Some places have heavy snow while others have light snow?!"

"Holy shit! Why is the Fire Thief so evil? (crying with my head thrown back) We get such heavy snow here, while you get so little over there!"

"Does snowfall vary by region? Has the government confirmed it?!"

"I just called the official hotline! The staff said they were already aware of the situation and were urgently investigating!"

Seeing this, Guan Tong turned off his phone screen to save battery.

He knew the authorities must have noticed this by now. He just did not know what they would do.

Would they immediately make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn on the policy of gathering people for rescue and instead disperse them, or would they continue firmly carrying out the original policy?

But no matter what the authorities did, Guan Tong knew he had already made his decision.

He checked the battery level of the shared vehicle. At full charge, it could travel up to a thousand kilometers continuously. Mingdao Mountain was over seven hundred li away. Even factoring in battery loss caused by the cold, it would definitely be enough. He would not need to recharge midway.

He just did not know what conditions were like around Mingdao Mountain.

Guan Tong thought. The reason he had chosen Mingdao Mountain was that it was an undeveloped wilderness mountain. Aside from a few hikers who enjoyed trekking through wild mountains, very few people went there.

After the Apocalypse Rules descended, even fewer people should go there.

So, with Yunhua City as the center, within the radius Guan Tong could reach by car, Mingdao Mountain was definitely the place with the lowest population density. Other county towns and villages had far more people.

"I hope the snow isn't heavy there," Guan Tong thought. "That way, there'll be enough food, and if water really runs short, I can filter melted snow for drinking. And with Shadow as a 'laborer with limited existence time but unlimited stamina,' surviving for a month shouldn't be much of a problem."