Snow Disaster Emerges

"Shhk—"

Guan Tong unzipped his sleeping bag, sat up, and stretched deeply.

After a night's rest, he had not slept particularly soundly, but the sleeping bag had kept out enough cold, and he had gotten the rest he needed.

Squinting at the snow outside, he saw that after one night, the snow around his little campsite had risen by more than ten centimeters.

"If it's already like this on Mingdao Mountain, the city must have gotten fifty or sixty centimeters of snow overnight..."

Guan Tong did not linger. He immediately got up, put on his cold-weather gear, and rummaged through the food in his backpack.

Aside from several large bags of compressed biscuits, he also had a few cans, several packs of instant noodles, and several bags of freeze-dried food.

If he rationed them carefully and stayed half-hungry, half-full, they could barely last him a month. Besides, the previous rule, [Fasting Therapy], had trained many people's ability to endure hunger. Even if there was truly nothing to eat, going hungry for two or three days would not be a major problem.

He opened a bag of freeze-dried food and ate it with biscuits for breakfast. Then he took out the [Wordless Book] and began writing "Ascension Coins" on the second page.

He currently had seventy coins. He was still thirty short of buying the [Multi-terrain Marching Boots], so he could only use the Wordless Book himself, spending Mind Power to create enough to make up the difference.

The first time he had done this, his Mind Power Cap had been low, and it had taken him nearly half a month to create ten Binding Coins. But now, his Mind Power Cap had increased considerably, so his efficiency would improve as well.

By his rough estimate, creating thirty Binding Coins now would take around twenty days. Considering that, at his limit, he could increase his Mind Power Cap by one point every seven or eight days, the total time needed to create the coins might be shortened by another day or two.

It would take a while, but Guan Tong could afford to wait. This rule would last a full month. Even if he could only buy the boots when there were ten days left, he could still use them for ten days. That was enough for him.

After quickly finishing today's writing, Guan Tong put the book away, grabbed his shovel, and went to clear the snow outside the camp. Though a massive rock higher up the mountain sheltered the campsite from falling snow, he still needed to clear a path outside wide enough for him to pass through.

Otherwise, if he just stayed holed up in the little campsite and let the snow pile up outside, then after ten days or half a month, once the snow more than half a person tall had frozen solid, he would not even be able to leave the camp.

Guan Tong did not choose too large an area to clear. He only had a folding shovel, so clearing a wide area was impossible anyway. All he did was extend outward from the campsite, clearing a passage around forty or fifty centimeters wide.

He piled the snow he shoveled out on both sides of the path. Sooner or later, the snow on either side would pile up high anyway. As for the direction of the path, it naturally led toward the highway.

Once the rule ended, thirty consecutive days of frozen snow would not melt immediately. If the authorities cleared it, they would definitely prioritize the roads. Then, once the snow on the highway had been cleared, Guan Tong could leave his camp along the small path he had opened.

For the next three days, after using up his Mind Power writing each day, Guan Tong used his physical strength to clear the snow from the little path he had made.

During that time, he also looked around the area to see whether there was anything he could use. The result disappointed him greatly. Other than a patch of wild woods, the area around Mingdao Mountain was all barren land. There was nothing.

The woods were somewhat useful, though. Guan Tong chopped off plenty of branches and brought them back. Whether for padding things, making a fire, or sticking into both sides of the snow path he had cleared as wooden fences, they all came in handy.

After three days, the snow on both sides of the path had also grown thicker and thicker. It had now exceeded forty centimeters, taller than the tower of the desktop computer at Guan Tong's home.

Furthermore, the continuous snowfall had brought low temperatures, causing frozen layers to form within the snow. When Guan Tong tried striking it with his shovel, it made dull thudding sounds. It was extremely difficult to break apart.

That made him glad he had started clearing the path every day from the very first day. Otherwise, if he had delayed for a few days, he would not have been able to clear it at all!

"Whew..."

After working until evening again today, Guan Tong took a deep breath and carried his shovel back. He lit the campfire and sat beside it on a wooden stool he had made by wrapping branches together with tape. Holding both hands near the flames, he warmed them and eased the numbness caused by working in the cold.

"The temperature is getting lower every day. I have to be extremely careful not to get frostbite." Watching the flickering flames, Guan Tong thought, "Once it gets even colder in a few days, I'll try to work during the six hours each day when the [Thermostatic Tech Underwear] is active. Outside those six hours, I'll stay by the campfire as much as possible."

He turned his head and looked into the distance. Through the curtain of snow, he could vaguely see the hazy glow of city lights.

"The rule has been in effect for four days already. I wonder how things are in Yunhua City..."

Even Mingdao Mountain, where the snowfall had been much lighter, had accumulated deep snow. After four days of continuous blizzards in the city, the situation could only be far worse.

Even if the city had all kinds of professional equipment, countless snowplows, snow-melting agents, and so on, could those really stand against the power of nature? Guan Tong was not very optimistic.

Of course, if he had remained optimistic back then, he would not have resolutely decided to leave the city and come to this remote place to survive alone...

"Beep—beep—"

Suddenly, Guan Tong, who was warming himself by the fire and lost in thought, jolted. He vaguely heard a sound that did not belong to nature coming from afar.

"What's that sound? A car horn?"

Guan Tong immediately stood and looked toward the highway, where the sound had come from.

His gaze pierced the dim snow curtain, and he could vaguely see two thick, rounded beams of light shining in the distance. They looked like vehicle headlights.

"How did it get here?" Guan Tong clearly remembered that the highway had been blocked about ten kilometers away by a chain-reaction accident involving several cars.

Had the driver rammed those wrecked cars out of the way? It had plenty of power, and it could drive over snow this deep. It had to be a large vehicle...

Watching the headlights draw closer, Guan Tong became somewhat wary.

More than three hundred kilometers from Guan Tong, in Yunhua City.

The city had already become a city of snow.

Other than a few major roads where snowplows worked around the clock, every secondary road, side street, and sidewalk was piled high with thick snow.

The snow was generally nearly two meters deep, taller than most people. It looked like towering walls of snow throughout the city, creating a cold, suffocating feeling.

A driver in heavy winter clothes was operating a snowplow along one of the main roads. Looking at the high snow walls on both sides, he inexplicably felt his chest tighten and found it hard to breathe.

"This snow is going to kill us..."

He muttered worriedly. Only four days had passed. There were at least six more sets of "four days" ahead. If these snow walls kept piling up, would they not eventually completely block and bury the shops along the streets?

No, perhaps they already had...

Boom!

A collapse rang out from behind the snow wall. The driver was slightly startled, but quickly calmed down.

He knew that another poorly built storefront had certainly been crushed by the accumulated snow.

He had heard sounds like that two or three times since yesterday. It was not just him. Other snowplow drivers had also mentioned hearing the snow crush shops and other buildings while working on the roads.

Some collapsed instantly. Others kept making that unpleasant, teeth-grating "creak, creak, creak" sound until they passed a certain breaking point, then came crashing down.

"If these little shops collapse, then they collapse. There's no one inside anyway. As long as places where people live don't collapse." The driver muttered, "If those places collapse, the people inside... Hiss... what a tragedy."