"Boom!"
In the pitch-black sky, a sudden bolt of lightning streaked across.
The pale electrical light, like a sharp sword, pierced through the darkness in an instant, illuminating the entire land.
Under the brief glow, what met the eye was an endless expanse of water, with scattered houses abruptly emerging above the surface.
Like isolated islands in the water, large shadows occasionally flashed and disappeared.
After the lightning, the sky, filled with torrential rain, instantly returned to darkness.
This is Linjiang City's High-tech Zone.
The torrential downpour had been going on for six months!
The entire Linjiang City had been completely submerged.
With the rise of the sea level, Linjiang City's low-rise buildings were entirely submerged.
Buildings below ten floors were basically submerged underwater.
Only floors above ten were still desperately holding on above the water.
By the window of the top floor of building 66 in Meidu Garden, after the lightning and thunder, a figure stood there gazing out.
"Six months already."
Liang Yuan frowned, yet he was also lucky that he had bought this thirty-second floor top unit back then.
Even though when he purchased it, the top floor had lots of problems like leaks and poor insulation.
At that time, he really went everywhere to find the property management and developers to get a different house.
But no one paid him any attention.
At that time, he was truly desperate.
He had spent half his life savings on this house.
Not only that, but he also took out loans of over a million, becoming a slave to his mortgage.
He thought he could marry his girlfriend with this house.
Unexpectedly, after moving in, his girlfriend quarreled with him more than ten times in just three days.
The apparent reason was that his girlfriend was dissatisfied with the house.
But the deeper reason, of course, was that she didn't want to share the heavy mortgage burden with him.
What broke Liang Yuan completely was his girlfriend's mother asking for a dowry of three hundred thousand.
Liang Yuan was frantic. Linjiang, being a city in the south, had a dowry rate of a hundred thousand, which was already high. His girlfriend's mother demanded three hundred thousand, which made him argue fiercely with his girlfriend.
He later found out that his girlfriend had a younger brother who had just graduated and was also dating.
But his girlfriend's brother's dating partner was from Akalin Province, and everyone had heard about the dowry rates there.
But Liang Yuan hadn't expected that her brother would count his dowry demands under him.
There was nothing more to say. Liang Yuan decisively broke up.
This kind of family, this kind of woman, whoever wants can have them.
The three hundred thousand saved in the bank could yield nearly ten thousand in a year.
Not expecting that he broke up in May, and in June, Linjiang City entered the rainy season.
Then the heavens went crazy, and this rain continued without stopping for a full six months!
In the first month, people didn't really notice.
Just felt that the rainy season this year was excessively rainy.
But soon the news reported extraordinary floods here and there, causing deaths in numerous places.
Linjiang City had not yet faced danger at that time, and everyone just took it as news, continuing to go to work as usual.
Until the second month, the torrential rain didn't stop and continued falling.
Linjiang City also faced extraordinary flooding, with sea water backflowing into the city.
The whole Linjiang City panicked and immediately organized rescue efforts.
In the Meidu Garden community where Liang Yuan lived, all ground-floor and underground garages were submerged.
Residents on the first floor were terrified and rushed to ask their upstairs neighbors for shelter.
Initially, it was still okay, but the torrential rain continued for another week, flooding the second floor, causing everyone to panic completely.
People without a place to stand continuously climbed upstairs.
A month without buying supplies made everyone even more anxious.
Until a news report stated that sea creatures had appeared in the floodwaters.
And it was a kind of mutated creature never seen before!
This piece of news shook the world!
The age of the great flood officially began.
Six months later, everything below the tenth floor in Meidu Garden was completely submerged. At that moment, tents were set up in the stairways and corridors.
And each household above the tenth floor had its doors tightly shut, with no one daring to take in outsiders.
Liang Yuan did the same, because two months ago, a household on the ninth floor took in a group of people.
The next day, the entire original family's bodies were floating on the water, hooked by the clothesline on the balcony, swollen and rotting.
The news had spread entirely in the community's property group, so no one dared to take in outsiders anymore.
Moreover, everyone could not afford to take others in, as their own supply reserves were running low.
Liang Yuan was grateful countless times for stockpiling a large amount of food in the first month when he sensed the bad situation, which allowed him to survive till now.
Standing by the window, he picked up the last piece of wood and nailed the window shut to prevent anyone from climbing down from the upper floors.
He then raised his hand and looked at his watch, which showed that it was nine eighteen in the morning.
At this time, it should be bright outside, yet it was pitch dark, with not a trace of light to be seen.
"Sigh, when will this rain ever stop?"
Liang Yuan couldn't help but sigh, worried that if the rain continued, even his thirty-second floor top unit would eventually be submerged.
"Knock-knock-knock—"
Suddenly, a series of intense banging sounds came from outside the door.
Liang Yuan's face changed instantly, and he rushed to grab the nail gun on the table and ran to the security door.
Through the peephole, he saw three middle-aged people banging on his security door.
He recognized them as residents from the ninth floor, people he used to meet often in the community, occasionally nodding to greet each other.
These people seemed to be part of a jogging group in the community, who exercised regularly and had good physical fitness.
During the six months of the great flood, some former neighbors had turned into devils wearing human skin.
The three in front of him were undoubtedly such people.
At the moment, the middle-aged man leading the group held a fire axe and cursed, "Open the door, open the door for me!"
Thud-thud-thud!
The axe struck the security door with a rumbling sound.
Liang Yuan said nothing, aimed the nail gun through the peephole!
Boom!
The nail gun instantly fired, and a metal nail shot out.
"Ah—"
Screams came from outside.
"Old Wu!"
"Oh no, President Wu, President Wu!"
"Quick, run, they have weapons in there!"
Immediately following were sounds of rolling and crawling away.
Liang Yuan stood by the door, listening for a while, and still not feeling reassured, grabbed the mirror from the entryway cabinet.
Using the reflection from the mirror, he observed the situation outside the door through the peephole.
With one look, he saw another middle-aged man holding a thin iron rod, placing it at the peephole!
Liang Yuan's heart tightened immediately, thinking how lucky he was!
If he had directly used his eye to observe through the peephole, his head would've been pierced instantly by the iron rod!
Thinking of this filled him with a surge of rage.
Grabbing the nail gun, he aimed it at the peephole and fired!
Bang!
"Ah—"
Another scream came from outside; the man holding the iron rod had his hand impaled by the nail, bleeding profusely.
Liang Yuan cursed through the door, "Fuck you all, trying to plot against me. Come on, try wandering around my door again. I'll nail you all into a beehive with these!"
"Damn you, you little bastard, just you wait. I don't believe you'll never come out!"
The people outside cursed back defiantly.
Another person, enduring the pain, also cursed, "Kid, just stay in there if you can. Let's see how long you can survive with your supplies."
"Fuck your mother, you better die in there. If you come out, I'll skin you alive!" Another person roared, clearly on the edge.
Liang Yuan smirked, "Idiots, my nails were soaked in the toilet and rusted. You're dead."
Those words terrified the three people outside, who scolded him but didn't dare come near his door.
One of them said, "Old Wu, let's go back and bandage it first. I remember there's a first aid kit on the twelfth floor, with povidone-iodine."
"Yes, yes, clean the wound first. Damn it, this guy's tough. Let's get Brother Erlong to deal with him later."
Then came the sound of them retreating downstairs.
Liang Yuan listened for a while longer, then felt a slight relief.
This was the fourth attempt to break in this week.
If he hadn't bought a lot of renovation tools when decorating the house, he wouldn't have been able to fend them off.
Putting down the nail gun, he walked to the bedroom. Seeing the many empty boxes piled up, anxiety filled his heart again.
"Not much supplies left."
His gaze revealed worry.
"Ding, you killed a mutated sardine. You gained 1 point. System initiating..."
Suddenly, a strange message burst into Liang Yuan's mind, making him freeze.
"What's this?"