Cave Refuge

Looking at the occasional thunderstorms in the sky, Dong Tianyu didn't feel strange since he had fully experienced such unusual weather in his previous life.

Although the flood had submerged Pengcheng, its harm was not as severe as imagined. A lot of materials were submerged in flood, but these things, when salvaged in a short time, could still be used somehow.

Even the food soaked in water, though it would quickly spoil, could still be eaten directly in the next few days.

The waterline of the flood submerging Pengcheng did not spread to the platform outside the cave as Dong Tianyu had planned. The waterline was still about ten meters away from the platform at the entrance of the cave.

During the incessant rain, Dong Tianyu was not idle, but gave himself a manual task to make a pedal boat out of timber.

This type of boat was similar to a bicycle that floats on the water, with wooden boards on both sides to maintain its balance. It has a large wheel at both ends and a pair of rudders installed nearby the tail section, which controls the boat's direction of travel.

The driver can control the progression of the boat just by stepping on the pedal. However, all the speed of the boat relies solely on human power. It merely consumes two steamed buns for every hundred kilometers.

The load capacity of this pleasure boat is average, suitable for one or two persons under normal circumstances, and cannot carry goods. The only place to sit on the boat is the bicycle chair, which can be found in many scenic spots.

The overall structure of the pedal boat is straightforward, easy for ordinary people to imitate. The only complicated part of the entire ship might be the pedal gear and chain, which is hard for ordinary people to manually manufacture.

Actually, now that Dong Tianyu has the "Wave Strider," he does not need a pedal boat to go to Pengcheng to visit relatives. After all, this can only carry people on the water, just like a bicycle without a basket or a back seat.

With the backpack he initially used to enter the underground refuge, Dong Tianyu undertook his first journey to visit his family after the flood.

From his previous position on the platform, Dong Tianyu didn't notice that once he got on the water and started riding, the seemingly calm surface of the water was always flowing.

The current basically flowed from the southeast of Pengcheng to the northwest.

The Cave mansion is located in the southwest of Pengcheng, and the office buildings where my parents work are in the West District of Pengcheng, that is, the northeast direction of the Cave mansion.

Though this journey to visit his family was not downstream, it wasn't against the current either. So it was not too hard to sail.

At this time, there were occasional showers in the continuous gloomy sky, but this weather could no longer stop the survivors who wanted to go out.

If Dong Tianyu's pedal boat could still be considered a relatively normal means of transportation, then the varied transportation means floating on the waters of Pengcheng were exceptionally diverse.

Even Luffy's first sailing vessel paled in comparison to the vehicles moving about among the survivors.

Some raft made of pure-water barrels can be said as simple. The vessels made by combining several wooden doors can just move forward and sink simultaneously.

After the rains gradually subsided, the difference in altitude between the water surface and the ground had exceeded twenty or thirty meters. If there is no intuitive concept about this height, one can imagine that the entire ten floors of the ordinary residential building have been completely submerged.

However, most of the new residential areas are more than thirty floors high, and the height of office buildings is not much different. So although there are not many buildings in Pengcheng sticking out of the water, their positions are quite evenly distributed without a distinctly blank area in any region.

Of course, as several mountains in Pengcheng, their altitudes are all above one hundred meters, which can also be a good refuge area.

There are two mountain ranges located in the West District, one is Jade Dragon Mountain, next to Jade Dragon Lake, and the other is Nine Miles Mountain to the north of Jade Dragon Mountain.

The Nameless Mountain where Dong Tianyu built his cave mansion is not within the city, but in the suburbs. Although it is a suburb, it was bustling during the day before the disaster due to the nearby water amusement park.

However, after the Cold Catastrophe fell, there were no underground areas built nearby, so the villagers around moved into the underground refuges in the city.

There were extremely few survivors outside the West District of Pengcheng, maybe just Dong Tianyu alone. Other survivors had moved into the urban shelters when the Cold Catastrophe fell.

Different from Dong Tianyu, who occupied the Nameless Mountain alone, even when the flood had just fallen, the survivors hid in the surrounding high-rise buildings, but public spaces couldn't accommodate everyone.

Some lucky ones might get accepted by acquaintances or neighbors and live in a room, while those survivors who didn't have personal connections could only rest helplessly in public spaces.

When the outdoor rain gradually decreased, the officials began to transfer survivors trapped in residential buildings to the mountain ranges that weren't submerged in batches.

Of course, these survivors being transferred in batches are those who had their houses submerged. And for those whose houses were not submerged, they could also be relocated under the same conditions, provided they voluntarily give up the right to their homes, or else they will be left in their own houses.

Some wise people might think of exploiting this loophole, wanting to be moved with the majority without giving up their residence rights.

However, the officials are not foolhardy. They initially moved all willing survivors, then went door-to-door. When they encountered no response, they had the locksmiths in charge of unlocking the doors.

The living environment on the mountain and in the residential area are very different, but because there are a concentrated number of people living on the mountain, the officials will unquestionably prioritize them.

Although the comfort of living in a residential area is better than that on the mountain, due to the large number of people, unless there are enough supplies at home to wait for official support, it is still better to go to the mountain with others.

Although the flood submerged the warehouse that stored supplies, many foods, after being soaked in water, only have a short shelf life, and the taste is compromised. That is not to say they are inedible, so food will not be a concern for a short period.

However, this only applies to those survivors who live concentrated on the mountains. More survivors living in residential areas can only try to remodel the furniture at home into water transport, and go out to search for food.

That's why when Dong Tianyu just entered the city of Pengcheng, he saw so many different water transport vehicles on the water.

The whole city was flooded, and they knew that it is tough to find any remaining materials now. Their actions were just trying to find the shelter established by the officials and get some food from there.

In plain words, they did not want to live in the crowded centralized shelter but wish to stay at home and enjoy a comfortable living environment, nevertheless they also wanted to get the emergency supplies distributed by the officials.