Chapter 63 Shifting Targets

Shi Jun cleared his throat and addressed the crowd, "Blocking the hallway like this is pointless. We absolutely cannot take you in. I'll give you some advice—go find people in the empty apartments in this building and try to share with them."

"We already tried that. The people who took over those empty places have strength in numbers and refuse to let us in."

Shi Jun felt utterly exasperated by their lack of initiative. "If you band together, you can do it. Those doors on the empty apartments aren't sturdy. Sooner or later, you'll be able to force one open. Instead of wasting time here begging door-to-door, you should unite. At worst, if the water level keeps rising tomorrow, there will be more homeless people joining you. Your numbers will grow slowly. What's there to be afraid of!"

"Enough." Seeing that they were about to start arguing again, Bai Xiao spoke up to stop them. Her voice wasn't loud, yet this seemingly insignificant sound actually made everyone present fall silent, as if they had been waiting for her to speak.

"I also suggest you listen to Shi Jun. Unite and fight for the right to live in those empty apartments. If you're unwilling to fight for it, I can take you to a taller office building nearby tomorrow evening. It's high and currently unoccupied. Think about it."

Her words weren't entirely devoid of pity, but more than anything, they were a choice made freely within the scope of her current abilities.

She had always believed that as a person's abilities grew stronger, the ideal wasn't necessarily to become more isolated, nor was it to become excessively sociable. Some could be decisively ruthless, others could remain kind and soft-hearted. As long as you possessed the capability to match your choices, you could do whatever you wanted, even if it wasn't accepted by societal morals.

The hallmark of freedom should be the ability to make the choices you desire, as you please, without fear of so-called consequences.

Regarding the matter at hand, first, she didn't want to let these people continue causing a commotion in the hallway. It was too noisy.

Second, there were still two and a half days until the next game. Judging by the current rate of the water level rising one to two floors per day, she couldn't be sure if the 12th floor would be threatened by the rising water on the night she entered the game. But she couldn't take the risk. So, she genuinely wanted to leave, to go to the empty office building she had scouted last time. She had already identified several safe rooms. She just needed to pick one, lock herself in, and ensure she faced no threats when entering the game.

For her current self, these people in front of her weren't a burden worth considering, because the scope of what she could control was vast. If they were smart and obedient, she could take them along—no different from bringing along a cat or a dog. If having more people led to disputes and became a burden for her, she had a gun and a sword. Leaving on her own would be easy.

As for the supplies in her current room, she would store the moisture-sensitive items in her storage space and swap them out with items that weren't afraid of getting wet. If the game went smoothly and she earned points to expand her storage slots, she could always come back to collect the rest.

After Bai Xiao finished speaking and saw everyone remaining unmoved, she coldly added another sentence.

"Did you hear me clearly? If it's clear, leave the 12th floor now. Otherwise, I might change my mind at any time."

The families pleading for accommodation seemed not to have expected this kind of solution. After hearing it, they stood frozen in place. Seeing her displeasure and her threat to change her mind, they didn't dare stay any longer. They all left, wanting to consider it first.

With them gone, it was finally quiet, but Zhao Fangzhe, Shi Jun, and the others were still standing there stunned, unable to process it.

"You're leaving?" Zhao Fangzhe murmured.

Towards them, Bai Xiao didn't want to use the same casual attitude she had with the strangers. She simply said the floor was too low and would be submerged in a couple of days, so she needed to relocate. As for taking people with her, she didn't really care. Taking someone was taking someone. If it were them, she was more willing to lend a hand.

"If you also want to leave, I can take you with me. Think it over carefully."

After saying that, she moved the supplies inside and closed the door, not bothering to check their reactions further.

Back inside her home, Bai Xiao began disinfecting the rubber boat.

To be honest, since she started using the rubber boat to go out, the daily sanitation issue had become her biggest headache.

The city was flooded, rainwater pooled on the ground turning it murky yellow and filthy, with various floating debris from time to time. That wasn't the worst of it. What she feared most was the water containing feces, urine, or animal carcasses and other filth.

As was well known, once urban flooding submerged the lower floors, although the upper floors were temporarily safe, they would gradually face an unavoidable problem—sewage backflow.

Especially after the power and water outages two days ago, as the water level rose, Bai Xiao knew it was only a matter of time before not only the lower floors but also the higher floors experienced sewage backflow.

She had sealed all the drains in her home before the backflow could happen—the toilet, floor drains, faucets, even the kitchen ones were thoroughly blocked.

This solved the sewage backflow problem, but a new issue arose.

With the toilet blocked, normal physiological needs couldn't be met. Fortunately, she had stockpiled a lot of plastic wrap, ziplock bags, and garbage bags earlier, so she could use them as substitutes for the time being.

Each time she used one, she tied it tightly to prevent odors and, more importantly, to stop bacteria from breeding and spreading. These used bags were all placed together in a single thick, heavy-duty bag. Since her home had two bathrooms, she set aside one specifically for storage.

Even someone like her, with ample living space and relatively abundant supplies, found dealing with basic personal needs quite troublesome. It was even harder to imagine how ordinary people managed waste, not to mention the daily garbage simply from being alive.

Recently, she had seen people throwing things into the floodwaters below more than once. One could easily imagine what those things were.

Therefore, whenever she went out and used the rubber boat, even though she knew heat and odors wouldn't transfer within the storage space, it still bothered her psychologically. If she didn't clean and disinfect it thoroughly, she absolutely couldn't bring herself to store it in the storage space.

...

The morning was unusually quiet. Following her plan, Bai Xiao trained and then began studying potential relocation routes. The office building was just a temporary refuge, not a place to stay long-term. Finding a higher, sturdier location was the better strategy.

Yunzhou City was a coastal city. The east faced the sea directly, a large river lay to the north, continuous mountains stretched to the west, and hills were to the south. Therefore, Yunzhou's terrain was high in the southwest and low in the northeast.

Now, with continuous heavy rain and rapidly rising water, crossing the river was clearly impossible, and crossing the sea was out of the question. The only options were heading west or south.

Yunzhou was economically developed and coastal, a nationally famous tourist city. What was even more remarkable was that it wasn't just known for the sea; its hot springs were also very famous. The surrounding mountains had many hot spring Hotels and resorts, attracting people from all over the country.

Bai Xiao set her sights on Mian Mountain. Mian Mountain was the gateway from the southwest into Yunzhou City and the mountain range with the most hot springs. The mountainside had clusters of guesthouses, Hotels, and restaurants. Further up the ridges were several private villas and hot spring resorts, making it a famous leisure and tourist destination. Not only did locals enjoy going there, but many tourists also entered the city from that direction, first experiencing the hot spring services before heading to the beach.

The city center was relatively southeast, about over forty kilometers from Mian Mountain. Bai Xiao recalled that going to the business district just five kilometers away the day before yesterday took over an hour by boat. Now, with over forty kilometers, unknown road conditions likely to be complex, plus having to travel in the rain and needing to stop to rest a few times in between, she wasn't sure if she could make the transfer in a single day.

But there was no other way. The heavy rain showed no signs of stopping. If it kept pouring, residential buildings would eventually be submerged, and other tall buildings in the city would be no exception—it was just a matter of time.

Otherwise, once the city was flooded, surviving here would be no different from being on an isolated island in a vast ocean. By then, trying to relocate, having lost the surrounding landmarks and reference points of the city, navigating solely by map on the endless water, would be even more difficult.