Cave Refuge

The violent shaking immediately brought Zachary to his senses, and without hesitation, he gathered the dining table in the room, along with the dishes that had yet to be finished, and the chairs, and stowed them away in his "Storage space."

He then promptly grabbed Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and dragged them to the edge of the room where there were handrails, "Mom and Dad, hold on to the handrails now."

At this moment, they were inside Mrs. Thompson's "Companion Spiritual Treasure," so there was no need to leave the house and look for open areas to take refuge in, as one would during an earthquake in a regular building.

One should know the resilience of a "Companion Spiritual Treasure" far exceeded those steel-reinforced concrete constructions built before the "Natural Disaster." Even if cracked open, the "Companion Spiritual Treasure" where they were located would at most sink into the ground and not collapse and divide as ordinary buildings would in an earthquake.

Zachary pulled his parents to the edge of the house precisely to provide them with a stable support point to prevent potential injuries due to the "Companion Spiritual Treasure's" constant trembling causing them to lose balance.

After making sure his parents were settled, Zachary immediately left the cabin, and when he reached the deck, the first thing he saw was the collapse of the villa next door.

After all, the villa had weathered the erosion of lightning and torrential rain as well as flooding, and although it had survived those rounds of "Natural Disaster" and might not show any signs of issues on the surface, its foundation had been compromised. Without the earthquake, the building could have possibly stood for a while longer; however, this time the intense shaking that accompanied the earthquake caused the Thompson villa to collapse instantly.

Besides their villa, the situation wasn't much better for the other family villas in the vicinity. After all, the previous rounds of "Natural Disaster" weren't only targeting the Thompson villa; almost all structures in the camp were left in a state of disrepair after the fierce shaking just moments ago.

Although the ground had only shaken once, the violent movement from the quake not only brought down most of the buildings in the camp but also caused deep, invisible cracks to appear all over what was once smooth terrain.

There were cracks of varying sizes on the ground, but without exception, all of them were so deep that the bottom couldn't be seen by the naked eye.

It wasn't until Zachary used "Sword Flight" to ascend into the sky and overlook the camp from above that he was shocked to discover that just one shaking of the ground could instantly turn a gradually stabilizing camp into ruins.

Zachary had just spoken with his parents during dinner about moving away from the camp, but he was still hesitant about when to leave and had not made up his mind to move immediately.

But seeing the camp now in such a state, Zachary knew that even if they didn't want to relocate, Madeline would probably not choose to rebuild the camp.

In fact, constructing a new small camp is much more convenient than rebuilding one. The simplest reason is that with the addition of an "Awakener," all one needs to establish a new camp is to find suitable flat land, and the "Awakeners" could then use their "Super Abilities" acquired from awakening to quickly construct buildings.

But rebuilding a camp, although not complicated for the "Awakeners," would require first expending a great deal of manpower to search the ruins for valuable items, then arranging for the "Awakeners" to clear and level the ground, and finally reconstructing buildings on the now flattened land.

Any rebuilding project, whether using construction machinery before the "Natural Disaster" or relying on the "Super Abilities" obtained by "Awakeners" after the disaster, always comes with a significant cost.

Using construction machinery consumes fuel, whereas "Awakeners" expend their own "Life Vitality" when using their "Super Abilities." Although the life force can be replenished through dietary means as long as it's not overused, not all consumed "Life Vitality" can be perfectly restored through nutrition; inevitably, some life vitality is expended for nothing.

One should know that for the majority of people, "Life Vitality" signifies lifespan, and the excessive usage of life vitality is essentially using it up prematurely.

However, the life vitality consumption by "Awakeners" using their "Super Abilities" is akin to smoking affecting lifespan: while everyone is aware of the ultimate outcome, during the prime of life, such minor depletion does not cause much concern.

After all, compared to a careful and prolonged existence, many prefer to make their fleeting lives brilliantly shine.

It was for these reasons that Zachary concluded that, facing a camp nearly reduced to ruins, Madeline was left with only two choices: either relocate and rebuild a new camp elsewhere or cut her losses and withdraw in time.

Based on Zachary's previous understanding of Madeline, being a qualified businessman, she was actually very calm. That's why Zachary was certain that Madeline would choose to leave in the face of this situation.

After surveying the entire camp in its current state, just as Zachary was about to return to the "Companion Spiritual Treasure" where his parents were, he suddenly noticed numerous slender black shadows that were climbing out from the cracks that had just appeared on the ground, flowing like a black torrent from the crevices continuously.

Upon closer observation using his "Divine Sense," Zachary quickly determined that those black shadows continuously emerging from underground were actually the same black snakes that had invaded the camp from the wild and attacked the survivors when the floodwater had spread.