Several hours had passed, after spending the night in very cold weather, Rover finally opened his eyes and woke up feeling better than before. This was also his first sound sleep since the apocalypse happened.
"That being said, sleeping in a sitting position doesn't seem quite right for me," he said while trying to stretch his body, which was starting to feel stiff in some parts.
A cracking sound was heard from the stretch.
After a brief stretch, he tried to look up at the clock on the ceiling.
It was already showing 8:43, which meant he had been asleep for almost 9 hours.
At the same time, there was a knock at the entrance door of the library that made Rover unconsciously turn to look.
"Excuse me, sir, breakfast will be ready in 5 minutes. Please come to the cafeteria soon. Thank you."
Hearing a voice that seemed to belong to a man, he couldn't help but feel a bit strange about the treatment.
There was a reason he felt that way; even though he lived in his adoptive mother's house, which was quite wealthy, they always lived simply, so Rover had never felt like he was living the life of a young master who was always assisted by their staff.
Having listened to the man comment, and made his reply, Rover soon equipped himself, and proceeded into the mess-room.
The one he went to was "damn big," even having enough seats for 300 people, although it would be standing-room-only if they were all there.
Other than that, the room he was in was not as dark and foreboding as he had expected, when he glanced around himself.
In a sense, it could even be compared to how things felt in the broader sense when they were able to go to school like normal back then.
He could see some with smiles and engaged in conversation.
He could hear a bunch of student's murmuring about something when some other were laughing too, that confused him even more.
'What is actually happening here?' While he was thinking about that, however, he heard someone calling out his name.
He quickly looked for the person calling him and saw Khyle and Ozig waving him over to their spot.
"Look, who has come this time. How are you, boss? Feeling better than yesterday?" Ozig asked, starting the conversation.
Rover only nodded in response to Ozig's question while sitting across from them.
"Mister Rover, have you thought about who will join your group?" Khyle said while continuing to eat the sandwich made by those tasked with preparing food for them.
Rover recalled Dai Yu's words at that time; he could choose a few people for his search mission and expedition.
To be honest, if asked to choose between going alone or in a group, he would prefer to go alone.
It's not that he didn't want to be with others, but he had a specific reason for that.
First, he couldn't guarantee the safety of his companions during this dangerous expedition. At the moment, he didn't know how many monsters and zombies were out there because he had been unconscious yesterday.
Furthermore, with the arrival of the snowstorm, the mission became even more perilous.
Imagine facing monsters and zombies with a weakened body due to extreme weather; it's certainly unlikely, right?
Therefore, he didn't want to undertake the mission with a group.
Another reason was that he wanted to minimize losses as much as possible.
Their current situation was not good, and if they did something that caused significant losses, it would certainly worsen the situation even more; Hence, it was better for him to go alone.
However, to realize this, it seemed a bit difficult.
While Rover was deep in thought, he suddenly heard the sound of heels approaching Roger's table in a hurry.
Rover instinctively turned around and looked at her with a confused expression.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
Upon arriving, he could see a girl who looked to be around his age now standing in front of him.
"What's wrong, do you need something?" Rover asked the girl.
"Sorry to disturb your time, Mr. Rover." The girl apologized for her sudden arrival and quickly continued the conversation, "You are requested by Miss Dai Yu to come, Miss Dai Yu is already waiting outside the door."
Upon hearing the girl's words, Rover immediately nodded in acknowledgment of the information, "Alright, thank you for the information. I will go there."
After the girl left, Rover also bid farewell to the two of them and left the place.
In a dark and cold corridor, there was Dai Yu, who was watching the relentless snowstorm from the window.
It's unclear what she was thinking and seeing, but it seemed there was something complex on her mind.
In the meanwhile, a sound was heard, and when Dai Yu turned round she saw Rover come in.
"Well, then, what do you want to talk about?" he asked curiously.
But without replying to his question, Dai Yu left straightway and almost descended to the second story.
Rover, who had nothing to go on and was consequently puzzled, could but follow her.
After a little bit, they made it to the basement, which had wires all over the place even though it was a large room.
"Now, you know, we're pretty bad right now. She was thinking just then, when she heard some one speaking, and she turned herself and it turned out to be Rover.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" she asked curiously.
But without replying his question, Dai Yu walked off abruptly, and went at once downstairs.
Rover, puzzled, with no clue save to follow her.
After a minute or so of walking at the pace of a 18 month old, they made it into the basement that looked crowded with cables coming from all directions, despite being a large room.
"You know, our current situation is really not good. There are many problems we have to face. But right now, there is one issue that needs to be resolved as quickly as possible."
"And that is electricity?" he guessed what would be discussed.
Dai Yu immediately stopped for a moment and turned to look at him.
"It seems you already understand this problem quite well," she said, turning back and continuing to walk.
Dai Yu continued, "Since that phenomenon occurred, it seems the electricity has experienced issues, making it unable to get power from the center. For the time being, we have to rely on this limited power supply. According to calculations, we only have two weeks before the electricity is completely cut off. So we need to find another alternative, which is to use thermoelectric and Peltier elements that use cold air as their source."
"I know the materials and tools needed to make it; you just need to find them and we can prevent this electrical problem," he said, handing over a piece of paper containing the necessary tools and materials.
Rover, who received it, tried to think of something with a complex expression.
* * * * * *
After that incident, 10 hours passed quickly. It was 6 pm; very soon night would enter its cloak and bring with it heightened dangers for anyone foolish enough to step out in its onset.
The strange thing was a man-there appeared a phase of panic in him while the now unheeded paper bit in his hand seemed to hasten his steps on toward the O.S.C.R., where student council meetings were normally held and where she might be found hanging around a bit, Dai Yu.
Upon reaching there, this man threw the door open, which turned the heads of those within.
And upon seeing this, Dai Yu quickly became flustered and started beckoning the man over, trying to calm him down.
After calming him down, she probed further to know what was happening.
"So what's going on?" she quietly asked with words that carried a deeper meaning.
No, he could only suppress swallowing down the hard lump and try speaking.
"Earlier during dinner, I tried to call Mr. Rover, who was in the library. But after several calls, I tried to break in and found a piece of paper on the table," he said, handing the piece of paper to Dai Yu.
Dai Yu took it and tried to read it.
After a moment, Dai Yu could only suppress her frustration and turned to look at the window in front of her.
"That idiot, what was he thinking?"