Barometer, Omen of Great Chaos!

With the experience of mastering skills, this time it was Lv.2 talent, and Cheng Ye didn't dare to be careless at all.

Before entering the Main Urban Area, he called Uncle Dong in advance to ask if there was any more Nutrient Paste.

Perhaps it was because the morning rush to grab goods had nearly caused a major disturbance, but in the afternoon, the Public Works Department had, unusually, restocked the goods and strictly ordered all shops to sell at the price of 2 coins. Once caught reselling at a higher price, the penalty would be ten times the fine, or cancellation of the sales license in severe cases.

"I have six boxes here, don't worry, there's plenty."

"Okay."

Uncle Dong's voice on the phone seemed a little strange, but Cheng Ye didn't have time to think about it.

Because as soon as he reached the entrance and exit between the suburbs and the Main Urban Area, he saw sandbags blocking the road tightly again, leaving only a narrow gap.

But when he looked up, the dark clouds in the sky were slowly dispersing, and it didn't look like it was going to rain heavily.

Something's wrong.

Cheng Ye walked closer quickly, his heart sinking slightly.

The previous road closure was just to control traffic flow, and the guards at the entrance and exit were only for deterrence.

But now, there were six guards armed to the teeth standing ready in plain sight, and more guns were positioned behind them. The dark muzzles were hidden in the gaps of the sandbags, exuding a chilling aura of "keep out."

"Halt."

Seeing Cheng Ye running over, the guards exchanged glances and immediately stepped forward.

"Curfew in the Main Urban Area, no one is allowed to enter or exit."

"Anyone?" Cheng Ye asked expressionlessly, taking out his Identity Badge from his pocket. "Does that include me?"

The guards were stunned for a moment, then quickly took the badge and swiped it on their Defense Communicator.

Seeing the information displayed, their tense expressions instantly relaxed. "Inspector, please enter. Of course, you can come and go as you please."

"What happened?"

"We don't know. It was an order from above."

The guards hesitated and pointed towards the Inner City. "And it was a Sudden Order, given half an hour ago."

"Sudden?"

No wonder there were no sandbags blocking the road when he was taking a car to the Chemical Plant Residential Area earlier.

Could something major have happened?

Passing through the cordon, Cheng Ye quickened his pace again, realizing something was amiss.

As he returned to the entrance of the residential compound, the Big Meat Canteen had unusually closed early. Not only were there no ingredients prepared for the next day, but the two windows had also been reinforced with sheet metal, like preparations made in coastal areas before a typhoon.

Uncle Dong's Convenience Store was lit, but the rolling shutter was only halfway down, leaving an opening just large enough for half a person to enter.

"Uncle Dong," Cheng Ye said, knocking on the rolling shutter.

"Don't just stand there, get in quickly."

His voice was tinged with obvious nervousness.

Cheng Ye ducked and slipped inside, then pulled the rolling shutter closed behind him.

The water-damaged counter had been reset, and it was empty. The water-damaged goods had been cleared away.

Uncle Dong sat behind the counter, with three guns on the surface.

One long and two short.

The long one was a rifle, the short ones were a shotgun and a pistol.

The rifle was currently disassembled, with an opened bottle of gun oil next to it, emitting a pungent smell.

"What's this..."

Cheng Ye was taken aback. This was the first time in three months he had seen Uncle Dong like this.

His usual kindness was gone, replaced by a fierce, murderous aura.

"Did Station Chief He from Central Station sacrifice himself?"

"You know already?"

Cheng Ye wasn't surprised. The sacrifice of a station chief at a checkpoint in the Buffer Zone was no small matter. Even if the news could be temporarily suppressed, with so many eyes and ears, it could only be kept secret for a day or two at most.

It wasn't strange for a veteran like Uncle Dong to have channels to find out in advance from other sources.

"It happened at noon, attacked by an Unknown Infected."

"That Infected that attacked Station Chief He. Did they catch it?"

"Huh?"

Now it was Cheng Ye's turn to be stunned. "This kind of thing would be announced after an investigation. I assume they caught it."

"If you don't know, then they didn't."

Uncle Dong's gaze was as deep as an ancient well, his voice trembling slightly. "The last time a station chief sacrificed himself was thirteen years ago. After that, the Buffer Zone was in chaos for two months, and at least over a hundred Infected broke through."

"And they were all Unknown Infected."

"Don't scare yourself."

Cheng Ye's heart leaped, but he said reassuringly, "I'm on duty at North Station today. How could I not know if any Infected snuck in?"

"It's different. You guys are outward-facing, but this is inward-facing."

Uncle Dong spoke as he opened his Defense Communicator, switching to the message interface.

Cheng Ye glanced over and was immediately stunned.

[Cold Winter-4]

[Ghost knocking on the door, suppressed. See you at the Venue.]

[June 28, 21:07]

?

6.28 was today.

21:07?

That's not...?

A scene immediately flashed through Cheng Ye's mind. After seeing Dai Zun off onto the vehicle, he had casually glanced at his Defense Communicator.

It had seemed to be 21:02?

"Sent by an Old Comrade."

Uncle Dong wasn't surprised by Cheng Ye's reaction, merely sighing deeply. "Just over an hour ago, Happiness Gate was attacked by Infected."

"What?"

Cheng Ye's heart was shaken. His first reaction was disbelief, naturally.

But the next second, the hairs on his body stood on end. A chilling sensation, like needles pricking his back, instantly shot through his limbs.

Memories rapidly flashed back.

When he had taken Dai Zun to Happiness Gate, there were indeed many prying eyes in the shadows. He had even glared back at some of them. Could the owners of those gazes not have been ordinary Refugees, but...

"They couldn't break in, but it's highly likely many Infected have already mixed in."

Uncle Dong spoke to himself, his movements assembling the gun barrel not slowing at all. "You understand the principle of Darkness Under the Lamp. When it comes to external checks, no one is more professional than you Inspectors. But when it comes to the slightest disturbance within the Buffer Zone, we old guys who fear death understand better than anyone, and we know the consequences."

"Mhm. Although many people in the Buffer Zone are envious of the Inspectors' status, everyone actually knows in their hearts that the Inspectors are the Barometer of the Buffer Zone. Once you start suffering casualties, this place... chaos will likely come very soon."

Click.

The rifle was assembled. Uncle Dong aimed it in the air and gestured towards the corner by the entrance, "Six boxes. Take as much as you want. It's on me, same as always. There's a key in the top box. It's for my shabby shop. Take it. If anything goes wrong, you can hide there. I've reinforced the basement. It can hold out for a while, enough for you to call for help from the checkpoint."

"Also, under the fourth floor tile in the basement, there are six high-explosive grenades. They're specially made. They can even blast the Big Meat Canteen next door. Don't throw them around unless it's a truly dangerous situation."

"You're going out to hide?"

Cheng Ye was taken aback. He turned to look at the door, and indeed, a long-handled key was placed on top of the boxes.

"I'm not hiding. I'm going to settle some unfinished business."

Putting down the rifle, Uncle Dong sighed. "I'm old. Usually, I'm terrified of dying, but when it really comes down to it, I'm not afraid anymore. I might have to close shop for a long time."

He returned to his room with three boxes of Nutrient Paste.

Cheng Ye locked the door from the inside. However, the flimsy Bull Lock on the door frame rattled, offering no sense of security at all. Instead, it made his skin crawl.

"Damn it, why is the Wasteland so chaotic since I transmigrated here!"

"It's only my first day working at the Quick Checkpoint, and I'm fine, but why does it feel like the sky is falling in the Buffer Zone?"

Cheng Ye cursed under his breath, but he knew in his heart that this mess had nothing to do with him.

The celestial phenomena had been chaotic long before he transmigrated. Tracing back to the last period of chaos, it coincided with the sacrifice of the Station Chief on duty thirteen years ago.

The wisdom passed down by the Ancestor was indeed correct: every time a Natural Disaster strikes, great chaos inevitably follows.

Xingfu City's Migratory Bird Mode could indeed attract the attention of most Infected in Summer and Autumn by utilizing the Factory Area, leaving only a small portion to be brought by the Refugees to impact the Buffer Zone.

But once a Natural Disaster descended, this mode would immediately become ineffective. And because many people had let their guard down, a great chaos would erupt suddenly.

Whoosh.

A gust of wind blew past, hitting the windows and making creaking sounds.

Normally, Cheng Ye wouldn't have paid it any mind, but at this moment, he felt an inexplicable chill. He subconsciously tightened the short knife at his waist, his mind flashing back to the greedy eyes lurking in the shadows by the city gate.

This damned Buffer Zone was truly not safe at all. No wonder everyone wanted to squeeze their way into the Inner City.

It was fine during peaceful times, but when danger arose, everyone became jumpy.

"This won't do. Tomorrow, I need to buy materials to reinforce the doors and windows."

Cheng Long was a workaholic. He usually ate and slept at the checkpoint and didn't own any property.

This single room was allocated to him by the checkpoint, and the previous owner hadn't made any modifications.

Before, Cheng Ye was busy preparing for the Assessment and hadn't even considered reinforcing the house.

But now, it had to be put on the agenda!

With 3 Action Points in hand, reinforcing other objects might not be enough, but it should be sufficient to fortify the door and window.

Cheng Ye moved the table to block the door, then called Luo Xiaoxue again to explain the situation.

"Then do you want to move in with me? Brother B has reinforced my place many times, it's absolutely safe."

"No need. If things really get chaotic, we people have to go on duty and inspect. Moving in and out frequently would just make it easier to lead Infected to you and Yiyi."

Luo Xiaoxue didn't try to persuade him further. It was clear she also knew Cheng Ye was telling the truth.

If it were just her, it wouldn't matter. But with Yiyi at home, having people coming and going was indeed unsafe.

After hanging up, Cheng Ye thought for a moment and decided to move the bed behind the door as well.

This way, if any Infected tried to charge in while he slept at night, he would be immediately alerted.

"Iron Physique. You better hold up!"

Cheng Ye thought to himself as the Collector Panel automatically expanded, switching to the personal interface.

Looking at the bottom first, the Evaluation hadn't changed from before.

Only behind the Skill Slot, a small purple box emitting a faint glow had appeared.

"Equip, Iron Physique!"

The moment the Thought landed, the small purple box suddenly burst with light, leaping from the standby slot to the Skill Slot.

Hmm, even the lv.2 talent didn't react?

It wasn't like a skill. Equipping it suddenly forced a memory into his mind, creating wisps of illusion.

Equipping a talent was like Beast Intuition, subtle and silent, with no apparent changes.

But this didn't bring any Bonus either?

Cheng Ye was momentarily distracted, his gaze suddenly catching the reflection in the window.

In the reflection, his still somewhat youthful face was now burning crimson, as if lava was surging beneath his skin!

Veins bulged densely, connecting from his neck all the way to his scalp.

It made him look less like a normal person and more like an Infected, like a ferocious Red-skinned Monster!

"What is this?"

There was no time to think, let alone feel the changes in his body.

BOOM!

A muffled boom exploded within his body, like millions of tons of dynamite detonating simultaneously.

Far from the peaceful feeling of equipping a skill.

Cheng Ye felt his vision spin and the surrounding scenery shatter into blurry light and shadow.

It was as if he'd been thrown into the eye of a storm, his internal organs being violently shredded and reassembled.

But.

Did it hurt?

No!

Was it exhilarating?

Exhilarating!

An indescribable sensation washed over him in waves, like riding a kayak tumbling back and forth in the surf.

Under this extreme impact, strands of strange illusions surged like a tide:

He saw a clear spring suddenly erupting from beneath a dried, cracked pond, nourishing every inch of the parched land.

He saw the ground tremble violently, soil churning and rising, a hill slowly arching out of the surface like a sleeping behemoth.

He even saw, deep within the soil, a tender sprout pushing aside rubble, inch by inch upwards, tenaciously breaking through the hard surface!

Everything was different now.

Deep within his genes, a part of him seemed to have been awakened.

The insurmountable chasm between a Talented Person and an ordinary mortal, he could now easily cross with a single step.

"The changes brought by the Iron Physique are truly more exaggerated than I imagined."

A moment later.

Cheng Ye pushed himself up using the bed frame, his face a little pale. All the unusual phenomena had vanished, leaving only waves of heat continuously steaming from him.

At this moment, the sensation of pain had been compressed to only one-tenth of its original intensity, and his dullness to pain had almost completely disappeared.

He had expected to feel unaccustomed to this, but in reality, it was the opposite. The nerves originally used to process pain seemed to have been stripped and reassembled, now capable of capturing and processing other information. His five senses had become unprecedentedly sharp.

For example—

He reached out and picked up the Training Dagger beside him.

The instant his fingertips touched the hilt, a wondrous sense of "oneness" surged from his mind.

With a slight turn of his wrist, the short blade drew a Silver Arc, slashing upwards fiercely. The Cold Light burst forth along the trajectory of the slash, sharp and frosty.

The Blade Momentum moved entirely with his will, as if an extension of his arm.

An unprecedented sense of exhilaration surged straight to Cheng Ye's mind. It felt as if he had wielded this blade for over a decade, every angle of its swing, every trajectory of its force etched into his genes, as familiar and natural as breathing.

"Is this the world of geniuses?"

ps: Here's 3.8K, don't say I'm short anymore. Please give me Votes, please Follow-up Reading!!!

ps2: The new book period really doesn't allow for explosive updates. I'm limited to two chapters a day at most, so I can only expand the length as much as possible within those limited two chapters. Reader Lords can definitely see that each of my chapters has many more words than other new books, with some chapters almost double.

ps3: The Author primarily focuses on correcting mistakes. If there are any common sense errors, feel free to point them out, and I'll definitely modify them immediately, never being stubborn~