End of the World Cycle

The cold wave came at night, July 2024, 7. The time was terrifyingly punctual. The sun set, and the temperature gradually dropped at the usual rate. At twelve o'clock, the temperature dropped to 1 degrees. Spots of rain fell.

People who were still awake rushed out of the house like crazy. It was pitch black outside. When the warm raindrops hit their skin, everyone burst into laughter and then started crying.

In the past six months, drinking a sip of water was a luxury. People were visibly decadent. Everyone looked dirty. One corpse crystal could only be exchanged for one liter of water. Except for those powerful psychics or powerful teams who would exchange a few liters of water to wipe their bodies, almost everyone had never taken a shower.

The rain gradually became heavier and everything that could hold water was taken out.

When people felt cold, it was almost dawn. Xie Qin looked up at the thermometer on the wall. It was 21 degrees. The highest temperature during the day yesterday was 61 degrees. It dropped by degrees in just ten hours. The temperature continued to drop. The speed was very fast, dropping by one degree almost every half an hour.

People with a strong sense of crisis have realized that something is wrong. First it was the rainy season, then the dry season. Now the temperature is dropping so fast that people have to wonder if a cold wave is coming.

At dawn, almost everyone washed themselves clean in the rain. The rain gradually stopped, and Xie Qin asked Zhou Lili to send someone to the town to deliver a message. Just say that a cold wave might be coming, and let them prepare.

After a year of extreme weather changes, they had to prepare for the worst. Xie Qin had no intention of going out. The temperature would continue to drop, and it would drop below zero before the sun set today.

Those who were still holding on to a sense of luck also took action after hearing the news that Li Chao had brought his men down.

Lijia Town is located in a mountainous area with many trees. Almost all of them died during the drought. People took out all the knives in their homes and went out to chop trees and collect firewood.

Those who are capable and have cars will go a little further to cut down trees and collect some usable supplies.

The people in the villa area on the mountain were all cutting trees on the mountain, and they didn't go far. Because it was close to Xie Qin's home, the rent of the villas on the mountain was high, and basically those who lived there were those superpowers or people with abilities. I had already exchanged a few solar panels with Xie Qin, and when I rented it out, Zhou Lili built an extra fireplace in the living room. As long as they have enough firewood, it shouldn't be a problem to survive this cold wave.

Looking at the things in the warehouse, Xie Qin felt a little troubled.

"Don't worry. Someone will come to exchange it soon. Think about it, what else do you want besides the corpse crystal?" Zhou Lili seemed to see Xie Qin's worry, patted Xie Qin on the shoulder and said.

“Diesel, gasoline.”

"We'll leave after the cold snap, right?"

"Yes, after the cold wave, I will take you to find your family. If necessary, I can also take you to find two more trucks of supplies. It will be considered as your salary."

"Thank you. Since we don't need the things in the warehouse, most of them are expired foods. We can't take them away when the time comes. How about selling them at a discount?"

"It's up to you. The more corpse crystals and diesel the better."

"clear."

Ten minutes later, a huge "-50%" appeared on the price list outside the courtyard. All goods were half price. At daybreak, people started going up the mountain. There were quite a few people coming.

This time, no one came to exchange water. Rice, flour and oil were their main exchange materials. The temperature gradually dropped, and the people who came up the mountain gradually put on cotton clothes.

It started to drizzle at noon, and the temperature had reached 7 or 8 degrees. At around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the temperature dropped below zero. And the temperature continued to drop.

When those who didn't have corpse crystals heard the news of the half-price on the mountain, they were not afraid of the cold and organized several groups of people to go to towns a little further away to hunt zombies. It wasn't that they wanted to go so far, but they had already killed all the zombies around them in the past two months.

It took two days to go back and forth. When we returned on the third day, the temperature had dropped to minus twenty degrees. A team of three or four hundred people came back from all directions, wrapped up like a ball, pulling several carts of firewood and some hard-earned supplies. They kept all their corpse crystals close to their bodies for fear of losing them.

The first thing we did when we got back was to go up the mountain. It started snowing again around noon. The snow was getting heavier day by day, and the mountain road was so icy and slippery that it was impossible to drive up. A group of about ten people came up the mountain in groups of seven or eight.

In just one day, almost all the things in the warehouse were replaced.

Seeing Zhou Lili bring back nearly 10,000 corpse crystals and a dozen second-level corpse crystals, Xie Qin couldn't help but sigh at the power of humans. The zombies that used to scare them to death were now chopped up like cabbages.

Zombies are not really a scary existence in this apocalypse. After the extreme weather and several natural disasters, various plants and animals begin to mutate, and the surviving ordinary zombies also begin to evolve and mutate. That is when the real nightmare of mankind begins.

The moment it got dark, Zhou Lili called Zhang Mingfang to drive the RV into the warehouse, wrapped the engine with cotton wool, and surrounded the car several times with prepared straw mats, sealing the entire warehouse to prevent the car from being frozen in the cold weather.

Zhou Lili counted all the supplies again. Food, clothing and daily necessities for a family of five, and a pile of firewood in the back yard. Diesel generators, various heaters, and solar panels were functioning properly. After confirming everything, Zhou Lili was the last one to enter the house.

The temperature outside was already minus 30 degrees. The fireplace in the room was burning brightly. The temperature was kept at around 15 degrees even though the heater was turned on without the air conditioner.

Zhou Lili took off her coat and changed her shoes. When she walked through the entrance, she saw four people sitting neatly in front of the French window in the living room, watching the snow. All four of them were wearing furry home clothes, which looked very warm. Zhou Lili's coming in did not affect them, so she went straight back to her room to change into looser clothes and cook.

The room was a bit colder than the living room. But when I saw the things on my bed, I felt warm inside. It was a set of furry home clothes. It was obviously the same style as the four of them.

After changing into clothes and feeling the warmth all over her body, Zhou Lili couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she hadn't met Xie Qin. Would she have really frozen to death in this cold wave?

After changing clothes, Zhou Lili walked out and spoke to the four people who were still sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Let's eat hot pot today!"

When the four heard the word hot pot, they all turned around and said in unison, "Okay!"

Zhang Mingfang and Xie Qin also got up and went to the kitchen to help. Liu Bo obediently went to the attic to get the ingredients. Xie Ran sat at the dining table and peeled garlic seriously.

"Why are you all sitting in front of the window? What are you looking at?"

"Look at the snow. We are from the south. We have never seen such heavy snow."

“It’s a pity it’s too cold, otherwise we could experience making snowmen and having snowball fights.” Zhou Lili said with a smile.

"Yeah." Hearing this, Xie Qin also found it interesting and raised her head with a smile on her face. Zhou Lili was stunned. This was the first time she saw Xie Qin smile so defenselessly.

That smile was very innocent. She only remembered the look of Xie Qin killing someone, but she forgot that the girl was only fourteen years old.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"I'm looking to see if you've grown taller."

"It seems so."

"You are too thin and you are still growing. I will give you some nourishment while you have nothing to do."

"Okay."

In the following days, there would be a heavy snowfall every night. Every morning, Liu Bo would sweep the snow off the solar panels. It was only for a short while, and sometimes if you didn't pay attention to protecting your skin, you would get frostbite, and you couldn't get out of the door at all.

Taking advantage of the slightly higher temperature at noon, the family wrapped themselves up tightly and trotted to the back of the yard to move all the firewood into the house.

Fortunately, the house was big, and I cleared two-thirds of the space in the living room and dining room. I piled the firewood layer by layer until it almost reached the roof before I could move all the firewood.

Even without electricity, this firewood should be enough to keep their fireplace burning until the cold wave ends.

The next morning after we finished moving firewood in the cold snap, goose-feather-like snow began to fall. It was so heavy that I couldn't even see what was outside. The temperature dropped from minus 30 to minus 40 degrees in an instant. The air conditioner had stopped working. A small part of the solar panels seemed to be broken. The snow outside had piled up nearly two meters high, and it looked like the snow was about to cover the first floor. The temperature inside was also slowly dropping.

This is definitely not an option. It's only minus 40 degrees Celsius now, and the temperature in places above the second floor where there is no fireplace is almost below zero. Under such circumstances, I definitely can't live alone in the bedroom.

The solar panels were not functioning properly and could not provide heating and air conditioning for the four bedrooms. After discussion, everyone decided to move to the living room on the first floor. The living room had a fireplace, so they only needed to separate the staircase on the second floor and take care of the doors and windows of the small room on the first floor. They only needed to ensure the temperature of the dining room and the living room.

All the firewood was moved to the second floor. The first floor was vacated. The mattresses in the four bedrooms were moved to the living room. They were placed near the fireplace. The prepared insulation boards were taken out and surrounded the living room and dining room. It instantly became much warmer. The wool blankets covered the floor of the living room, and the extra ones were all spread on the mattresses. Instantly, the four beds became fluffy little nests. They looked very warm.

The foot-kicking heaters didn't use much electricity, so Xie Qin prepared a lot of them. They were just enough to surround the square living room. The remaining solar panels could still run at the same time. If that didn't work, she also prepared thirty battery storage boxes and diesel generators. They would definitely be able to get through this cold wave comfortably.

Zhou Lili was a thoughtful person. He took down the curtains and put them around the beds to create privacy curtains. There was a toilet in the bathroom, which was sealed with a disposable bag. After use, they could just throw it behind the courtyard wall through the small window in the attic. There would be no smell.

There are several bamboo poles hanging on the wall above the fireplace. Although it is not beautiful, it provides a place for the family to hang clothes.

Zhou Lili has planned out a dressing room, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, dining room, and activity area in an area of ​​about 80 square meters. Although it is small, it doesn't feel crowded at all.

They were afraid that everyone would get sick from being trapped, so even though they couldn't see anything from the outside world, the family still lived in an orderly manner. They had three meals a day on time, and essential group entertainment activities, such as board games and chess and card games. They also had one hour of exercise time every day. Xie Qin, Liu Bo, and Xie Ran would also add an hour of practice on their own abilities.

The rest of the time, Zhou Lili took Xie Ran and Liu Bo to study. Xie Qin looked at books about biological research and various experimental videos. She began to learn about biological research. She planned to see if she could enter the research institute after going to the first base.

After all, in the end times, it is too easy to forge an identity. As long as you have the relevant knowledge, it should not be too difficult to get close to the famous Lu Chaoyun.

This is her first target, and the first person to change the situation of the end of the world. In the book, he is both good and evil. Although he is not a superpower, he is more powerful than any superpower.

It was he who successfully transplanted the crystals of the superpowers into the brains of ordinary people through countless studies. Later, based on the structure and characteristics of the crystals, he also made artificial crystals. Although they were not as powerful as the crystals of the superpowers, they also allowed many ordinary people to have superpowers. It was also he who developed the superpower replenishment fluid, which could increase the power of superpowers in a short period of time. He even created an artificial double superpower with the help of the dignitaries of the First Base.

However, this person's ending was not very good, because the experiment required a large number of superpowers as guinea pigs, and accidentally captured the heroine's best friend. When the heroine brought her small team to rescue people, she discovered the secret of the human experiment in the first base, and felt that it was inhumane, so she destroyed the laboratory, killed Lu Chaoyun, and took away Lu Chaoyun's experimental results.

In their eyes, it was a punishment for evil, but the heroine and hero later created the strongest base because of this experimental result. In short, Lu Chaoyun was the biggest stepping stone on the road to success for the hero and heroine.

What Xie Qin wanted to do was to get these secrets before them. And the best way was to become a member of the research institute. There were countless superpowers sent from all over the world. This was much better than aimlessly looking for a superpower that suited him.

Therefore, before going to the First Base, she had to make herself capable so that they would naturally recruit her into the laboratory.