Cave Refuge

The temperature outside continued to drop. All the relatives of the Dong family had already entered the Refuge Center yesterday. The initially somewhat vacant U-shaped area was now filled to the brim, reminiscent of the days in the 1950s and 1960s where entire families would live in a single small room.

Fortunately, they were well prepared. Some curtains hung in the middle as partitions. While they couldn't provide soundproofing, at least they offered some private space.

The next day, when Mr. Thompson walked out of the subway station early in the morning, even though he was well-prepared and had purposefully put on warm clothing, he could still feel a chill seeping into his body.

By this time, many people had come to realize the implications of building a Refuge Center, so they voluntarily moved there, though they received no notification from the officials in the streets.

Even those who didn't realize it on their own, witnessing the actions of their neighbors often led them to follow the crowd and join in.

Only the overtly clever ones who stubbornly believed this abnormal weather wouldn't last long chose to hunker down in their warm beds, unwilling to disrupt their comfort.

As the saying goes, good advice is lost on a wilful man. At this time, the street officials were all busy in the Refuge Center and didn't have time like during the virus outbreak to knock on each door to notify residents.

Dong Tianyu, wearing short sleeves, stood at the entrance of the Refuge Center on a platform, feeling the gradually falling temperature. He exhaled gently, a cloud of white mist emanating from his mouth.

"Feeling a bit chilly, practicing Qi Level 3 doesn't seem to make me immune to cold and heat. I need to dress more warmly when I go back.

Today's temperature is still bearable. But I wonder if anyone would venture out in a few more days."

In two days, the outdoor temperature had dropped to below -20 degrees Celsius. What surprised everyone was that the soil beneath the ground hadn't yet frozen.

However, the cold air drifted through the entrances of the Refuge Centers, causing the temperature inside to gradually decline. Many of these centers were planning to seal off their entrances, leaving only the ventilation openings for air exchange.

Only at this time did Dong Tianyu leisurely cycle down the mountain on his mountain bike.

The village at the foot of the mountain was deserted, all the villagers had left. Dong Tianyu had no interest in the village, as the local saying goes, "Rabbits don't eat grass near their burrow."

The purpose of his venture was simple, to help officials clear the roads.

When the electromagnetic pulse occurred, it destroyed all electronic devices on the planet instantly, including moving vehicles.

The drivers in the city center were relatively lucky. The cars were not moving fast within the city. Even if the electronic devices malfunctioned, they could easily slow down and stop by hitting a curb, or using a flowerbed as an emergency brake if necessary.

However, those on the highway were not so fortunate. Even if they reacted correctly, others may not have, resulting in severe accidents on the highways.

When he reached the third ring road, Dong Tianyu put his bicycle into the Shadow Space and then walked to the center of the road.

At this time a large number of cars were parked on both sides of the road. Dong Tianyu casually absorbed them into the Shadow Space and then released them inside the Refuge Center. After that, he used the basic absorption function to decompose them into materials to integrate into his Cave mansion.

Looking at his survival points which hadn't decreased at all, Dong Tianyu sighed helplessly, wondering how many vehicles he would need to absorb to satisfy the consumption requirement for upgrading his Cave mansion.

At this moment, Dong Tianyu was like a moving black hole. As he passed sections of the road, he would leave no vehicles behind. Areas that were once somewhat congested became completely empty after Dong Tianyu left.

Even though Qi Level 3 was just the beginning of his cultivation, he was no longer an ordinary person. Despite walking for the entire morning, Dong Tianyu didn't feel tired at all.

Looking at the entrance to the subway station on the West Third Ring Road not far ahead, Dong Tianyu didn't hesitate to turn around and leave. It was not yet time to enter the official Refuge Centers.

In just one morning, Dong Tianyu didn't know how many cars the Cave mansion had absorbed. His survival points had only decreased by fifty points during a break.

At this rate, Dong Tianyu would need at least fifty more days to benefit from the upgrade. He couldn't tell if this was a high or low efficiency.

Touching things and absorbing them into the Shadow Space,

Transferring things from the Shadow Space into the Cave mansion,

Using the ability of the Cave mansion to decompose and absorb the items.

In just one morning, Dong Tianyu had become proficient in this process, reducing the time from 10 seconds to about 1 second. He had turned it into an unconscious, mechanical movement.

When the Cave mansion absorbed cars, it not only reduced the survival points needed for the upgrade but also increased the type of mineral deposits in the Earth veins. It increased the quantity of mineral deposits in the Earth veins and even increased the amount of gasoline and diesel stored there.

Also, during the road clearance, Dong Tianyu did not ignore the petrol stations along the road. Although he didn't know how to operate the petrol pumps, Dong Tianyu could move the pumps directly to the Cave mansion for decomposition and then find the oil storage to absorb it instantly with his hand.

Of course, he didn't spare the convenience stores at the petrol stations either. Whether it was the glass doors and windows, the merchandise inside, or the warehouse outside, Dong Tianyu cleaned them all out. After all, the Cave mansion never turned down anything.

As for the scenes in other novels, where the main character enters a community or villa, they could trigger side plots, finding a beauty companion, or minor villains.

Dong Tianyu had no interest in these at all, he had no intention of scavenging inside the communities.

Joke.

Cars were everywhere on the road at present, he could only scrape together some food and condiments in the communities, which holds no appeal for Dong Tianyu, who had an abundant supply of resources.

What about those who hadn't entered the Refuge Center and were still living in the community?

For people who seemed to have issues, Dong Tianyu had no intention of messing with them, let alone bringing them into the Cave mansion. Even beautiful women wouldn't do, they would only speed up the consumption of resources in the Refuge Center.

Although Dong Tianyu was rather well-stocked, he believed that the best approach to people who seemed to have issues was to keep a respectful distance and avoid antagonizing them.

In fact, even if Dong Tianyu didn't help clear the road, the officials would try to clean up the main road leading to the Refuge Center.

Now, the food stored in most Refuge Centers would only be enough for the designated population to survive for one to three months.

However, according to Dong Tianyu's memory, the duration of this disaster was not short, and the food prepared in advance in most Refuge Centers was definitely not enough.

The reason none of them stored enough food was thanks to the 'experts' who made the suggestions.

According to their analysis, the weather anomalies caused by the magnetic field disruption would only last ten to twenty days. Therefore, most of the Refuge Centers, in order to guard against accidents, had stored some extra backup food.

Unfortunately, these 'experts' made a mistake in their calculations. They never considered that the cold temperatures would last so long, resulting in inadequate food reserves in all Refuge Centers.