NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Wildfires Spread Across the Globe
"Well said, I'll remember you, Wang Xinning. If you need help next time, feel free to find me."
The official guard cracked a smile.
The middle-aged man, Wang Xinning, nodded humbly, carefully carrying the rest of his belongings as he returned to his six-person dormitory.
Thankfully, his roommates were all out working, sparing him some unnecessary trouble.
Placing the lettuce, sugar, chocolate, and medicine neatly on the table, Wang noticed a photo frame in the bag—something that wasn't part of the trade.
He picked it up, and the image of a little girl with a faint, gentle smile stared back at him.
It was his daughter.
"Thank you," Wang Xinning whispered, his eyes slightly red. He gently brushed his fingers across the photo frame and then let his hand rest on the dewy lettuce leaves.
These items, the only resources he currently possessed, would become the foundation of his survival and his ticket to reunite with his daughter in the future.
---
Elsewhere, Su Wu no longer paid attention to the medium cargo truck returning from the transaction.
Among the hardware materials he had received as a bonus, he found unexpected components. These items, combined with the chips he had just acquired, perfectly filled the material gaps in his shelter's upgrades.
The previously daunting task, which would have required over 1,200 hours, was now reduced to less than 20 hours.
"What a kind soul," Su Wu mused, recalling the photo he had passed along. He found himself with a favorable impression of the middle-aged man and his stunningly beautiful daughter.
He decided that if the opportunity arose in the future, he might lend him another hand.
---
With the shelter's upgrades underway, there wasn't much to say.
Like watching a game, Su Wu let time pass as he browsed forums, caught up on news, and took naps while the automated process unfolded.
Meanwhile, as the upgrades progressed, the system interface showed his shelter's progress bar quietly advancing. It rose from 76% to 100%, officially upgrading to "Livable Personal Shelter (0%)".
This upgrade didn't increase his daily survival point income but rewarded him with a one-time bonus of 50 survival points during that evening's settlement.
With this windfall, Su Wu's savings were replenished, leaving him financially secure once again.
---
June 14th
The surface temperature rose to an average of 57°C.
The number of humans still active outdoors dwindled to an extremely rare few. Many ordinary vehicles could no longer function on the roads.
On this day, Su Wu stayed indoors, spending the entire day idling on forums and chatting in groups.
While it seemed unproductive, it kept him updated on the outside world's conditions. It also allowed him to grow closer to a girl named Chen Xin, who he had encountered before.
Chen Xin wasn't a stranger. She was the same person who had sought advice in the doomsday chat group and had followed Su Wu's casual suggestion to transfer from a coastal city to the inland region—coincidentally ending up in Jianghe City.
---
June 17th
The surface temperature hit 60°C.
Wildfires erupted worldwide, sparing neither region except for the polar ice caps.
Thick, toxic smoke billowed into the sky, forming dense clouds. In areas near forests where the fires raged most intensely, the skies turned an eerie shade of fiery red.
In the outskirts of Jianghe City, near Su Wu's farmhouse, the scenery had drastically changed.
By midday, the skies were murky and dim, shrouded in gray haze. Even high-beam headlights couldn't illuminate more than a hundred meters ahead.
No exception was made for Su Wu's surroundings.
The raging global fires reached the nearby mountains surrounding his farmhouse. Unlike the smaller forest fire from over a week ago, this inferno engulfed the entire mountain range, devouring anything combustible in its path.
The fire even showed signs of creeping toward the city itself.
"Severe conditions."
From the control center on the shelter's second level, Su Wu remotely controlled the rooftop cameras installed on his farmhouse. Through these cameras, he observed the situation outside.
The footage showed the distant mountain range beyond the gravel fields engulfed in a sea of orange-red flames. The scale of the fire was so immense that even the thick smoke couldn't fully obscure its terrifying power.
It felt as if Su Wu was witnessing an ancient wooden sailboat facing a vast ocean storm for the first time.
Before such overwhelming forces of nature, Su Wu had no doubt that even an aircraft carrier would be reduced to ashes if thrown into the inferno.
---
The terrifying fire raged for more than ten hours, burning through day and night until dawn broke over the scorched horizon.
But instead of subsiding, the situation grew worse.
The clouds of smoke in the sky became heavier, and strong winds swept burning debris into the air, scattering them over distant villages and factories.
Sparks began falling in the city itself. At first, they were scattered embers, but soon they ignited lines of fire, which expanded into sprawling infernos.
In less than half a day, the entire city had turned into a fiery furnace.
"Warning: Toxic gases detected."
"All external hatches sealed. High-power purification systems activated."
Thanks to the gravel field surrounding his shelter, Su Wu's farmhouse narrowly avoided the fire spreading from the mountains and city.
However, it couldn't escape the toxic smoke carried by the wind or the falling ash.
The dangerously high concentration of toxins in the air pushed the shelter's ventilation system to its limits, triggering constant alarms in the control center.
Sitting in the control center, Su Wu felt the central air conditioning's breeze intensify—a subtle but unsettling indication of the external environment's pressure.
He knew this shift was a reaction to the crisis outside.
At this moment, the surface above the shelter had become completely uninhabitable. His only sanctuary was the small, enclosed space within the shelter.
---
Su Wu held his breath and waited for several hours.
Eventually, as the toxic dust settled and the air quality gradually improved, the shelter's purification system returned to normal operation.
Finally, Su Wu's tense nerves relaxed.
He downed a glass of ice water, calming his frayed emotions before instructing the idle construction team to resume digging the shelter's third level.
After delegating the task, Su Wu returned to the internet to gather more information.
---
Only then did he realize that while he had been battling his own dangers for hours, others hadn't fared any better.
Large-scale internet outages were reported worldwide, with more than three-fifths of the globe losing connection.
In Jianghe City, nearly all urban shelters were offline, with only a few located in remote suburban areas still maintaining activity on the internet.
But even being online didn't guarantee safety.
One individual from a suburban shelter reported surviving only because their shelter had a stockpile of oxygen tanks and a functional oxygen genera
tor.
However, they were the sole survivor.
Every other occupant of the shelter—hundreds of people—had succumbed to suffocation or toxic gases.