Chapter 71 - 64: All Beings on the Run

Chapter 71: Chapter 64: All Beings on the Run

The thought of needing a reliable vehicle to carry his special "door" instantly cleared Xu Mo’s sluggish train of thought. That was it. As long as he solved the transportation problem, moving around with a door, though still conspicuous, would at least become physically feasible. He could strap it to a car roof, or find a way to stuff it in the trunk or on a roof rack. Wouldn’t that be much easier than lugging it around by hand?

However, to be cautious, Xu Mo decided to perform a crucial test first. He found some tools and carefully removed the security door from its frame. The heavy metal door leaned against the wall, and Xu Mo opened it again.

The faint light appeared as expected, and the portal opened smoothly. Xu Mo eagerly looked inside—the cans and biscuits he had placed there before were still sitting there, undisturbed.

"Excellent!" Xu Mo let out a long sigh of relief as the last great weight was lifted from his heart. Changing the door’s physical location didn’t affect the exclusive space it was connected to. This meant that as long as he protected the door itself from damage, his "mobile warehouse" was stable and reliable.

The next step was acquiring a suitable vehicle. This was not an impossible task for Xu Mo, who possessed the "door" ability. He wouldn’t even have to risk his life searching aimlessly through the ruins like an ordinary survivor, nor would he have to deal with potential vehicle malfunctions, dead batteries, or fuel shortages.

’Once the snow melts, I’ll just find a large warehouse and slap a "Garage" or "Car Showroom" sign on it. It’ll be a piece of cake.’ Xu Mo already had a clear plan in mind. He even began to daydream about whether it would be better to get a high-performance off-road RV, or to find a car that was more spacious, tougher, and more durable.

Of course, that was a plan for later. The most important thing right now was to systematically transfer all the supplies he had hoarded in this second-floor shelter into his exclusive space.

This was a tedious project that required a great deal of patience. The door had a 48-hour cooldown, and each time he opened the "Exclusive Door," it only stayed open for a brief 60 seconds. Xu Mo had to meticulously plan every move.

He first inventoried and sorted all his supplies, assigning the highest priority to weapons and ammunition, various tools, precious medicines, and core survival kits to ensure they were moved first. Then came the large quantities of food and fuel, which were the cornerstones of survival. After that were all kinds of spare supplies, clothing, bedding, lamps, batteries, and so on.

The process was monotonous. Every two days, Xu Mo could only conduct a one-minute "moving session." He needed to organize the supplies he planned to move and stack them by the door in advance. Once the door opened, he had to pass them into the space behind the door as quickly as possible and in the most logical order.

During this process, Xu Mo also had to try his best to arrange the items neatly, leaving pathways for easy access later.

At first, Xu Mo was a bit flustered. Sixty seconds passed in a flash, and it felt like time was up before he had moved much of anything. But as he repeated the process, he became increasingly proficient, even able to mentally plan out his every move down to the second, significantly improving his transport efficiency.

Even so, it still took Xu Mo a considerable amount of time to transfer all the supplies, which had filled nearly half the floor. When the last box of spare batteries was sent into the exclusive space, Xu Mo looked at the now-empty room, and an indescribable sense of "lightness" rose within him.

The space once occupied by all sorts of boxes and supplies was revealed again, making the entire second floor seem exceptionally spacious. Only a few supplies needed for the near future remained outside. This "light-packed" feeling was completely different from the previous state of being "rich but bloated" while surrounded by supplies. Xu Mo felt both his body and mind become lighter.

During these days focused on "moving house," Xu Mo wasn’t completely cut off from the outside world. He remained vigilant, often observing his surroundings from the rooftop.

Xu Mo noticed that on the distant "road" leading toward Jiang City, the moving points of light had become more frequent than before. He could often see small groups of survivors, and even convoys of vehicles, all heading in the same direction. Against the eternal, ink-black background, the glow of their headlights seemed both minuscule and resolute.

These scenes silently told a story: after nearly a year of the apocalypse’s cruel baptism, many small shelters and survivor groups were likely no longer able to sustain themselves under the combined pressures of resource depletion, internal conflicts, and external threats. They had finally faced reality, understanding that going it alone or holing up in one place was not a long-term solution. They were beginning to seek refuge with larger shelters that possessed greater strength, more stable order, and more abundant resources.

Jiang City’s "Everlight Project" and the powerful military projection capabilities it had previously displayed were like a lighthouse in the darkness, attracting these long-wandering survivors. This was perhaps a huge gamble—a bet that they wouldn’t meet with annihilation on the way to Jiang City, a bet that Jiang City could provide the shelter and order they yearned for. But clearly, more and more people thought it was a risk worth taking.

Xu Mo watched all of this in silence, his heart calm. He understood the survivors’ choice.

After finishing his training and before lying down to sleep, Xu Mo didn’t immediately drift off. Instead, by the warm glow of the bedside lamp, he gazed out the window at the eternal ink-blackness, his thoughts churning.

He carefully calculated the time. From the official arrival of the Eternal Night, when the sky was completely shrouded in inky blackness, to the present, he roughly estimated that more than two months had passed.

"Winter should be ending soon, right?" Xu Mo muttered to himself. This was a reasonable deduction based on his previous knowledge of the world.

However, the arrival of the Eternal Night had long since thrown all natural laws into disarray. The end of winter didn’t mean the return of light. The official broadcasts had only predicted that the temperature would rise after the Eternal Night ended, but no one knew how long the Eternal Night itself would last.

’Since something as unnatural as an "Eternal Night" has appeared, could its opposite, an "Eternal Day," also exist?’ The thought naturally surfaced in Xu Mo’s mind.

Polar nights and midnight suns were natural phenomena in the planet’s high-latitude regions, but if they were to occur across this land, or even globally, it would be another kind of catastrophe. Imagine the sun never setting, constantly baking the earth—what a terrifying scene that would be. The Eternal Night tested one’s spirit and endurance against the cold; an Eternal Day would likely test one’s heat tolerance and water resources.

At this thought, Xu Mo’s brow furrowed slightly. From extreme weather, his thoughts shifted to temperature changes.

’This winter is so cold, with temperatures often dropping to dozens of degrees below zero. If summer comes, will there be extreme high temperatures too?’ It was a terrifying question the more he thought about it. The cold could be resisted by adding more clothes, finding shelter, and building fires for warmth. As long as fuel and supplies were sufficient, there was always a way. But extreme heat? In an apocalypse, likely without effective cooling methods, sustained high temperatures would lead to dehydration and heatstroke. Food would spoil more easily, water resources would evaporate faster, and it could even trigger large-scale fires...

Xu Mo could almost feel the suffocating, scorching heat. He subconsciously glanced at the drinking water stored in the corner of the room, then touched the tough skin on his body. The Cowhide Realm might give him stronger resistance to ordinary heat and cold, but against potentially extreme high temperatures, it probably still wouldn’t be enough.

’Cooling methods, more water, a well-ventilated shelter... I need to consider all of these in advance.’ Xu Mo realized that the challenges of survival might constantly be changing form. After surviving the crisis of severe cold and the Eternal Night, the next test might be extreme heat and drought. He couldn’t afford to be caught off guard when the problem arose.

Temporarily suppressing these chaotic thoughts, Xu Mo zipped up his sleeping bag and, under the reassuring glow of the lit desk lamp, slowly closed his eyes. No matter how the outside world changed, sufficient rest was the foundation for everything.