State of Decay - Chapter 387

[Chapter 382 Extreme Cold (Part 2)]

When Lin Wu brought the pumpkin candy water, the lights in the bonfire room had been turned on, and everyone was packing up. It turned out that two more mahjong tables were to be set up. It wasn’t arranged like this before, first because it was too crowded, and secondly, there were always people going out to do things. Now the temperature has trapped everyone in the campfire room, and the entertainment is very simple, either playing cards or reading a book.

Everyone can borrow a book from the library. There are no popular novels in the library, only classics or professional books. Except for Maya, who can hold a book for a day, no one else can do it.

Card playing entertainment has been carried out many times, and the stakes have always been insurmountable, but it is better than no entertainment at all.

The rearranged dormitory has been transformed from the original dart board into a row of large shops. The area of the dormitory has not been reduced much. After all, the dart board is a waste of space. The advantage of the dart board is that it is fair and the temperature of each bedding is the same. However, due to the different cold resistance values of winter clothing, it is actually unfair.

Lin Wu had no objection to this. He and Maya were assigned to the extreme left and right positions against the wall. Lin Meng, who has the second lowest cold resistance value, is Lin Wu’s neighbor, and Shana is Maya’s neighbor.

The purpose of this trouble is to find something to do so that everyone can reduce the time they spend sleeping, because there is too much sleeping time. Xuedan and Xiaodao, who had gone to move tables and chairs on the first floor, came back and immediately rushed to the bonfire to warm their hands. This frightened the others: “Is it so cold?”

Xuedan described: “I could still bear it when I first went out. , I felt like my blood was about to solidify when I got to the first floor.” After saying that, he touched his face and took out some crushed ice.

Xiaodao agreed: “My hometown is in an ice area, and the lowest temperature in winter can reach minus 40 degrees. It feels completely different.”

Su Shi said: “Have you ever seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow? The cold air can freeze the flag. I I remember it was minus 100 degrees in the movie. If we were hit by a cold wave with such a low temperature, we would have to seal the door of the only campfire room and have to rely on fire to survive.”

Lin Wu thought about it: “We can build a cinema, Maya and I I brought back a lot of movie posters from the Science and Technology City.”

Shitou reminded: “Now there is only one big grid on the rooftop. Are you sure you can endure the cold and watch the whole movie? Hey, I also need a set of tables and chairs.”

Lin Wu He said: “I’ll go, I’ll go, you have dinner, hurry up, it will freeze in a while.” After

playing mahjong for a long time, everyone yawned again and again, and by the afternoon, even the knife felt dull. Everyone went to take a nap, had an early dinner, and used two barrels of fuel to go to the safe house for four hours of entertainment. This stretch of tens of meters made everyone feel the power of winter.

Before everyone left the safe house and returned to the bonfire room, Lin Wu went to the bonfire room to light a fire. After the announcement, everyone quickly walked back to the bonfire room, crowded towards the bonfire, and danced while warming themselves.

After the lights were turned off at ten o’clock in the evening, no one was sleepy and chatted about one thing or another. So Su Shi started telling ghost stories. This is considered a traditional repertoire of dormitories. It’s a pity that Su Shi’s ghost story is not scary. After listening to it, it feels a little funny. While everyone was laughing, Maya said: “I will tell you a supernatural story that I have personally experienced.”

Maya’s story was very plain and the description was very straightforward, but the content of the story was extremely exciting. Most importantly, there were several people present who had heard of the legend of Apartment 13. There have been repeated supernatural incidents in Apartment No. 13, but officials have failed to refute the rumors. Some people think it is an official conspiracy, while others think it is a powerful person deliberately covering up the facts of the crime. The authorities were forced to have no choice but to invite the most credible security guards to Apartment 13 to solve the mystery.

What makes everyone really surprised is that after a week of being stationed in Apartment 13, the Guards evacuated Apartment 13 without making any conclusions or reports. They had only one sentence to deal with the media: We are not capable of drawing conclusions.

What made Apartment No. 13 even more legendary was that on the third day after the escorts left, officials demolished Apartment No. 13 by blasting and buried all the construction waste 200 meters underground.

Maya did not explain it to everyone, she just talked about her own experience. She concluded that there were masters at work, and she did not rule out the possibility of Fortress Company being involved, because only Fortress Company could lay out such a sophisticated puzzle to confront the escort.

Lin Wu asked: “What’s Shuguang’s attitude?” This guy knows everything.

Maya replied: “Shuguang believes that the whole matter has nothing to do with human safety, and she will not get involved in this matter.”

Shana said: “That means Shuguang has already reached an accurate conclusion about Apartment 13.”

Maya: “That’s right.”

Xiao Dao He said anxiously: “You guys don’t want to discuss it. Maya, what happened to you when you heard the singing on the third night?”

Maya said: “That was the singing coming from the end of the passage in the apartment on the 13th floor. I wore a night vision goggle to see It is very clear that the 18-meter passage is clean. After scanning, not to mention no one, not even spiders were found. About 10% of the apartment residents are left. There are three households on this floor, except for their door. , all other doors were opened, and the officials removed all the belongings.”

Why are there still 10% of residents? These residents have been bribed, and many Internet celebrities have spent money to live in their homes in the name of relatives and friends to conduct live broadcasts of explorations. In those one or two months, the adventure in Apartment Building 13 was the biggest hit on the Internet. With the mysterious deaths of several Internet celebrities, the atmosphere in Apartment Building No. 13 becomes even more bizarre.

Shitou reminded: “Maya, you don’t need to explain these situations, just tell a story.” “

I understand, but this is not a story. What I am talking about is my personal experience.”

Maya continued to speak, and the whole dormitory was shocked. Not to mention the two little girls Lin Meng and Xiaodao, even Shitou felt terrified. The most terrible thing about the whole story is that everyone knows that the story told by Maya has no artistic elements. With Maya’s description, everyone feels like they are in Apartment Building No. 13, feeling infinite terror.

Don’t think too hard. Lin Meng did not push in the direction of Lin Wu, but slept with Xiao Dao.

…

On the second day of extreme cold, the temperature dropped again by about two degrees, and Shi Shi, who was helping in the kitchen, suffered severe frostbite in many places. Since the temperature in the ward is low, there are two options. The first option is to light a fire in the ward for an hour and use the stone to complete the treatment. The second option is to break Shitou’s legs to make him eligible for hospitalization. After the doctor gives the order, he can move freely and stay in the campfire room for 24 hours.

Stone choice one. Xiao Dao, Lin Wu, Su Shi, Xue Dan and Lin Meng hammered the cloth, and Lin Meng won. Lin Meng took the stick and insisted on choosing one with the stone, but everyone held him down. Lin Wu held the painkiller in his hand: “Choose one and there is no painkiller.”

“Choose two, let’s do it.” Shitou said tragically.

Lin Meng shocked himself after knocking it down with a stick. She couldn’t do it, and although the stone screamed, it was far from broken. When Lin Meng was about to come for the second blow, Shitou asked for a substitution: “Replace that bastard Lin Wu.”

“Huh?”

“Uncle Lin Wu, let’s have a good time.”

So Lin Wu broke Shitou’s legs and dragged Shitou to the ward. Doctor Shana arrived at the ward at the speed of light and ran away, while Lin Wu and Maya carried the stones back to the bonfire room.

In addition to injuries caused by stones, many people fell ill that day, all of which were due to frostbite and colds caused by the cold. She had no choice but to light a fire in the ward, where Maya, a general practitioner, took care of her. This stone makes a provision: Anyone who wants to get sick must get sick together.

On the fifth day of extreme cold, no one played mahjong anymore, and the meals became very simple. Basically, it’s roasted sweet potatoes, roasted radishes, roasted potatoes, etc. This is because even Maya and Lin Wu can’t stay in the kitchen for a long time. There are two happiest times for everyone every day, which are half an hour of hot bath and four hours of safe house.

In addition, everyone spent all the time in the campfire room, either reading books or chatting in low voices, and the laughter was significantly reduced. Xuedan and Su Shi asked the three commanders: “Can I have a drink? Have a glass of wine?”

Shadow has always strictly controlled alcohol, and occasionally everyone has a drink, but most of the time they prohibit alcohol. Although everyone is in the game, alcohol, like tobacco, is something that is easy to quit physically but extremely difficult to quit psychologically. Long-term drinking in the game can lead to alcohol addiction.

After discussion, the three commanders decided to start a mahjong competition with wine as the prize.

First place Shana drank half a bottle of whiskey, crying and laughing. The second place, Maya, drank half a bottle of vodka and fell into a deep sleep. The third person, Xue Dan, drank half a bottle of brandy. He insisted on showing that he could fly and had to perform for everyone. The fourth person, Lin Meng, drank half a kilogram of khaki wine and then beat Lin Wu violently, leaving Lin Wu with teeth all over the floor. The fifth person, Su Shi, secretly drank Shana’s remaining whiskey and sang at the top of his voice. Lin Wu raised his gun three times, twice trying to kill him, and once trying to kill himself.

Five drunkards, but the unlucky ones were three sober people: Lin Wu, Xiao Dao and Shi Shi. Shitou was glad in his heart that Xiao Dao was not drunk. Once Mang Xiao Dao drank, it was not impossible to demolish the entire base or even crush a few people’s heads.

Lin Wu dragged Maya to her own bed, covered her with a quilt, and finally got it done. When he turned around, Lin Meng grabbed his hair and punched him hard, saying, “Everyone is responsible for destroying the devil.” Tired from the beating, Lin Meng lay down on the ground and rolled around muttering to himself, not knowing what to say. I got closer and heard a sentence carefully: You can hit him only by adding agility. If you click wrong, your strength will kill him. Where is the reset?

Shitou was responsible for taking care of the flying snow egg and would not let him open the window. Not only was he afraid that he would fly out and fall to death, but he was also afraid that everyone would freeze to death if the window was broken. Xiaodao had a heart-to-heart talk with his close sister Shana, talking and talking, and the two cried together. As for Su Shi, forget it, he was just a magic attack, and it passed by Ren Ren.

After struggling for more than an hour, I finally got rid of these drunk cats, and Xiao Dao also slept with Shana. Lin Wu yelled: “Whose bad idea?” He kicked Lin Meng. The girl was so cruel that she pulled out a lot of her hair. This is me. At Shituan’s age, if you pulled out his hair, he wouldn’t be able to risk his life with you, right?

Shitou sat aside: “Stop scolding and take a rest.”

Lin Wu sighed and continued to clean up the mess, covering everyone’s bed and picking up the mahjong that had flown everywhere.

Shitou said: “I think back then, it was not my ex-wife that I liked, but another girl.”

“Is it related to wine?”

Shitou did not answer, and continued: “One day, my ex-wife said that it was her birthday today, and no one around her knew it. I think she’s quite pitiful.” He slapped himself.

Shitou said: “I invited her to a late-night snack and drank two bottles of beer. She got drunk after two beers. She kept saying: I want to go home, I want to go home. What can I do? I can only send her away. Go back to the apartment where she lives.”

Lin Wu asked curiously: “Then what?”

“Then she said it was hot and started to take off her clothes.” Shitou paused for a few seconds and slapped himself again: “The past is too painful to look back on.”

Lin Wu gloated. Shitou said: “It was arranged by someone, right? But it’s quite fun.”

“Haha, yes, it’s really interesting when I think about it now.” Shitou said: “I didn’t expect that the person I thought of the most in the past six months was her. People are very strange. I know very well that if I continue to live with her, the ending will be very dishonorable. But after we separated, I couldn’t help but miss her.”

Lin Wu: “You didn’t drink, did you?”

“No.” Shitou glanced at the scraps on the table. Wine: “This little drizzle is not enough for me to rinse my mouth. Don’t you drink too?”

“No.” Lin Wu said: “When I was in middle school, there were some bad boys who drank secretly, and one of them was my best friend. , he had a dog. One time they had a party at location X, and I went with them. Location Throw it out on the 21st floor: Go ahead, I’ll give you the freedom you want.”

Lin Wu said: “The next day he couldn’t accept the fact that his dog died. After I told him the truth, we had a fight. He said Break off our relationship with me.”

Shitou asked: “What happened next?”

Lin Wu said: “The counselor arranged for him to transfer to District 16 and said that he suffered from some syndrome due to the death of the dog. In the following years, I have been In reflection, I was the only one who saw this scene soberly at the time. If I had said that the dog jumped by itself, he would not have gotten sick. Even if he suspected that someone else or himself had killed the dog, it was just suspicion.”

Shitou waved his hand: “Okay, only old people like me can recall the past, but you should still look forward to the future.”

System broadcast: As of now, there are 700 surviving players.

Lin Wu: “These 100 people have been reduced really fast.” According to Shana’s understanding, the fewer people left, the smaller the reduction should be. It took nearly a month to go from 1,000 to 900. It took more than a month to go from 900 to 800. It only takes about a week to go from 800 to 700.

Shitou: “Is the speed of attrition due to the severe cold or other reasons?”

On the fifteenth day of March, the tenth day of the extreme cold wave, the total number of surviving players dropped to 500. In just five days, the number of people dropped by 200. According to system information, the extreme cold wave will continue for at least 5 days. The current lowest temperature is only minus 65 degrees, which means that the next 5 days will be even colder.

After discussion, it was decided to light a fire in the kitchen for an hour while everyone worked on the ingredients together. Wash all potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., wrap them in tin foil, and then throw them directly into the campfire for roasting. Slice pumpkins and other seeds, remove the seeds and process them cleanly to make it easier for chefs to cook. Except for the third dish, there were only some green vegetables left in the kitchen freezer. I washed them all and put them in a pot. After adjusting the flavor, I took them outside the headquarters so that I could use the campfire to cook hot pot at any time.

In the end there were more than 20 cans, ten of which were canned herrings. The above is all the food in Shadow. Of course, eggs and vegetables are still produced every day. However, because they cannot go out to dig for worms and there is not enough leftover food, the egg-laying rate of the chickens, which can only rely on themselves, has been greatly reduced.

(End of chapter)