Boom!
Lightning snakes across the sky, and rain falls like beads.
The longer warm, humid air brewed, the more violent the downpour became when it finally broke.
In the middle of the night, Cheng Ye suddenly jolted awake and sprang up, recalling the Pendant that was charging with a thought.
"Did the power go out?"
When the Collector suddenly sounded an alarm, Cheng Ye's first thought was that a thief had broken in.
Fortunately, when he checked the panel, it was only an alert that Energy Input had been interrupted.
Click!
He reached up and tugged the Bedside Lamp Cord. Nothing happened. It seemed all the power lines had gone down.
Cheng Ye picked up the Defense Communicator beside his pillow and checked the time. It was four minutes to six.
Since he was already up, he decided not to try to get more sleep. He got dressed and swung his legs out of bed.
"Damn, that's a lot of rain!"
He went to the window and glanced outside. Cheng Ye was stunned.
The rain formed a white curtain that blotted out the sky, far more extreme than any downpour he had ever seen.
It had only been raining for six or seven hours, yet water had already gathered in the Electronics Factory Residential Area's courtyard, deep enough to reach his calves.
In the darkness, he could make out a dozen or so people shining flashlights as they cleared the courtyard drains.
But their efforts had little effect. The streets outside the residential area were just as badly flooded.
Whoosh.
It was like a small river rushing wildly down the street, sweeping leaves and debris along with it.
As the downpour washed everything away, the Buffer Zone's carefully maintained veneer of peace crumbled, revealing the old, weather-beaten reality beneath.
At the end of the day, this was still a civilized wasteland left behind by the Old Era a century ago.
When the area was first planned and built, no designer could have imagined that a hundred years later, several times the originally expected population would move here to settle down.
If I ever have the means to build a settlement, I'll make sure the drainage is done right from the start.
Cheng Ye mused as if in a dream, his thoughts drifting far away.
If he hadn't glimpsed the tip of the iceberg of Supernatural Power and discovered the wonders hidden beneath the Wasteland's ruins, he would have spent his whole life tucked away in his position as an inspector, clinging to his secure job in Xingfu City!
But now that he knew what was out there, how could he be content to stay here?
If he had to die, he would die pursuing Supernatural Power and freedom.
Rubbing the edge of the Pendant, Cheng Ye called up the panel. Its Charge Value in the upper-right corner had just passed 50% before the power went out.
That meant if he found a target at the Fast Track, he could improve his strength again at any moment.
Seven o'clock.
The rain eased slightly, but the flooding grew worse.
Cheng Ye changed into a raincoat and wrapped another strip of tape around the top of his High-Waisted Rain Boots to keep the floodwater out.
But no one could have expected that the moment he stepped downstairs, his foot would plunge straight into a hole deep enough to reach his knees.
"Shit!"
The old Apartment Blocks had been built with high doorsteps, a quirk inherited from the older buildings.
That meant once the water got inside, it couldn't get back out. It just kept rising, eventually submerging the first-floor steps as though the building were a fish tank.
"Haha, buddy, I was just about to warn you."
A man burst out through the security door beside the stairs, carrying a blue plastic bucket.
Cheng Ye leaned over for a look. Good grief—the man's place was practically a fishpond, and he was still laughing.
"The place is flooded, so we don't have to go to work today, and they'll still pay us!"
The man seemed to realize Cheng Ye was puzzled, so he quickly explained, "Also, I heard the Engineering Team in the Inner City is discussing renovating Apartment Blocks like ours after the storm."
"Renovating?"
Apart from tearing them down and rebuilding, Cheng Ye didn't think renovations would make these Apartment Blocks much better than they were now.
But if they could repair the drains, upgrade the power facilities, and preferably replace every resident's wiring with six-square-millimeter cables, that would be fantastic!
"You're going to work, right? Come on, I'll carry you out!"
Seeing Cheng Ye hesitate by the stairs, the man put down his bucket and came over.
"Don't be polite with me, Old Sun. We live in the same building. Besides, you're going to work to contribute to the Buffer Zone. That's a lot better than someone like me, drawing a salary without doing any work."
For some reason, Cheng Ye got the impression Old Sun was rather proud of his cushy job.
"Then... thanks!"
"Stop fussing and get on."
With Cheng Ye on his back, the man picked his way out of the residential area through the water.
By the time he dropped Cheng Ye off at the entrance, the water at its deepest point had risen above his thighs, and yellow mud coated his legs below the knees.
"I'm heading back. If you come back tonight, I'll carry you again."
Old Sun left him with that and waded back the way they had come.
Watching his energetic figure, Cheng Ye suddenly felt that people in the Wasteland might not be as bad as he'd thought.
The bad ones might be worse, but the good ones hadn't disappeared completely.
Meanwhile—
"Good grief! Take it easy, you lot! Don't knock my shelves apart!"
Uncle Dong's cries rang through the rain.
Cheng Ye stood on tiptoe and glanced over. The water in the shop had also risen to their calves, and four or five workers were bent over, bailing it out with basins.
Someone's elbow had struck the shelf against the wall. Plastic bottles and jars of canned food clattered to the floor. Uncle Dong was so distressed he slapped his thighs and stamped his feet, looking ready to rush in and save them himself.
"Uncle Dong, you're too old for this. Don't get involved."
Cheng Ye walked over and grabbed the old man.
"If you fall and get hurt, the clinic will charge you more than you'd make selling all this stuff."
"Little Cheng..."
Uncle Dong turned around. His slightly graying hair was plastered to his forehead, making him look just like an old hen drenched by the rain.
"If I hadn't been quick-witted last night, I might've drowned in this shop."
"It was that bad?"
"You bet. I was sorting stock in the basement. I was tired, so I closed my eyes for a moment. I never expected the water to come rushing in. In less than half a minute, it was almost up to my neck!"
The row of shops by the entrance to the Staff Residential Area followed the old style, each with a basement for storage.
Cheng Ye's eyelid twitched. "You really shouldn't use the basement anymore. By the way, if you don't have anywhere to stay tonight, you can come to my place."
"How could I? If I don't keep an eye on this shop, how am I supposed to sleep?"
Uncle Dong shook his head and pulled half a box of Nutrient Paste from the goods they had salvaged.
"Thirty packs. They just came in yesterday. I saved them for you. If this strange rain keeps up, people will be fighting over these."
"Thanks."
Cheng Ye opened the box, packed the Nutrient Paste into his backpack, and handed Uncle Dong a handful of coins worth 10 Happiness Coins each.
A pack of Nutrient Paste currently cost 2 Happiness Coins, and he had at least twelve or thirteen coins in his hand.
Uncle Dong, unusually, didn't protest.
With the Natural Disaster of a downpour, the price of Nutrient Paste would only climb. It wouldn't be hard to stock up and resell each pack for five coins.
More importantly, having money didn't guarantee you could buy anything once people started fighting over it!
And, sure enough, as Cheng Ye walked toward the North Station Checkpoint, long lines had formed in front of nearly every shop selling Nutrient Paste.
He didn't see Chu Yunfeng's family, though. He didn't know whether they had found a place to stay or managed to stock up on Nutrient Paste in advance.
Huh, why am I thinking of Chu Yunfeng the moment I've saved up enough for another search?
Cheng Ye felt tempted.
Compared to gambling on what he might find at the Checkpoint, it was obviously more worthwhile to milk a Golden Legend like Chu Yunfeng!
He had thirteen level-one skills. Setting aside the noncombat skills that weren't useful for the moment, Basic Perception and Quick Draw sounded very practical just from their names.
But he also knew that with how cautious the family was, showing up without a good reason might not get him a Cooperation Degree of 50%.
His best bet was to wait until he ran into them at the Checkpoint again.
Cheng Ye had a vague feeling that someone with Chu Yunfeng's abilities wouldn't be content to keep doing menial labor in the Buffer Zone. Leaving aside whether he could support his family, if things continued like this...
"Prices are up! Prices are up! Five coins a pack for Nutrient Paste!"
Shouts came from the roadside. The scalpers who had spotted a chance to profit from the downpour were waiting on street corners, already selling Nutrient Paste at inflated prices.
Someone cursed and pushed their way out of the line, but in the end they had no choice but to grit their teeth and pay the scalper a little more than double for a crumpled pack.
There was no helping it. Demand for Nutrient Paste was enormous, its unit price was low, and it was difficult to tamper with using cheap additives.
In hot weather, it kept for five days at most. It also took a day to ship from the factory to the Buffer Zone's distributors.
On top of that, most people had neither the energy nor the savings to stock up after a day of hard labor.
That was why whenever any kind of Natural Disaster struck the Buffer Zone, prices immediately began to fluctuate.
"Are the Xingfu City Officials not going to step in and regulate prices? They should arrest all these damn scalpers and execute them!"
"Exactly! These heartless bastards are profiteering off a disaster. I'd better not catch them in the ruins!"
"Don't be naive. Where do you think the scalpers get their stock?"
"Where else? Are you saying the big shots at the Logistics Department hand it to them to sell?"
"One listen and I can tell you're new here. Remember this: in the Buffer Zone, you can eat anything you like, but you can't say whatever you like. If the patrolling guards heard what you just said, they'd drag you to the Public Security Office and beat you half to death."
"..."
Cheng Ye hurried through the crowd, surrounded by curses and chatter.
He didn't know why, but last night, when he'd thought about going to the Quick Checkpoint, he'd been full of apprehension. Now, he could barely contain his excitement.
Especially when he heard and saw the displaced people fretting, despairing, cursing, and giving up!
He could feel the easygoing, go-with-the-flow attitude he'd inherited from the Civilization Era rapidly slipping away with each step toward the North Checkpoint, fading from his very genes.
In its place, the Wasteland's savage brutality was awakening in his blood, along with a thirst for conflict and violence.
This wasn't a New Era in which everyone had hope and civilization was on the road to recovery.
This was a Supernatural Wasteland Era where life and death hung in the balance, and the strong sought to dominate everything!
"The Collector opened a path upward for me, giving me the chance to keep growing stronger."
"Brother B protected me when I was at my most vulnerable, giving me the ability to stand my ground."
"Now!"
"At last, it's this world's turn to welcome me!"
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