Chapter 78 - 71: Snow Melts

Chapter 78: Chapter 71: Snow Melts

On the first day after the Eternal Night ended, the sun lingered in the sky for about five hours before slowly sinking in the west.

The sun’s reappearance sent the whole world into a frenzy—at least, that’s how it was on the radio waves. ℯ

Whether it was the Jiang City Shelter or the Rock Shelter, their broadcasts ran almost nonstop for the entire day. The announcers, their voices nearly hoarse with excitement, repeatedly confirmed the return of daylight, cheered the retreat of darkness, and bolstered the morale of all survivors. They also restated the shelters’ outlooks for the future and recruitment information over and over again. Xu Mo could clearly feel their exhilaration, even through the radio.

At first, Xu Mo was also relieved by the return of the light, but listening to the ceaseless, repetitive broadcasts eventually became grating. He needed a quiet environment to train and think. Finally, shaking his head in resignation, Xu Mo reached out and turned off the radio. The shelter was instantly quiet again.

"Only five hours, but it’s a good start." Xu Mo gazed at the sky outside his window, which was gradually dimming but now showed the distinct colors of sunset. ’The days will get longer,’ he thought, certain of it.

Sure enough, on the second day, the sun stayed up for nearly seven hours from sunrise to sunset. This was already close to the normal length of a winter day in many high-latitude regions.

In the following days, the daylight hours stabilized at around ten hours, and the intensity of the sun’s rays grew noticeably stronger. The sky was no longer the heart-stopping ink-black of the Eternal Night, nor was it the splendid glow of dawn; instead, it revealed a long-forgotten, clear blue.

Although thin clouds still drifted by occasionally, the sunlight now had considerable penetrating power and heat.

Xu Mo didn’t pay much attention to the ceaselessly optimistic reports on the radio. His focus was drawn to a more realistic and pressing problem.

The ground floor, which had been cold but fairly dry during the Eternal Night thanks to its concrete floor and his thorough sealing, was now facing a new issue. As the sunlight intensified and temperatures rose, the snow began to melt. At first, damp condensation appeared on the walls and in the corners, making the floor feel moist. But now, the situation had clearly worsened.

In some of the lower-lying corners, muddy water had begun to seep in slowly. This water, carrying dirt and impurities from the melted snow and ice, was pooling on the floor in small puddles. These puddles were slowly but surely expanding, and the air was filled with an earthy, musty odor.

’The snow is melting faster than I expected...’ Xu Mo crouched down and dipped a finger into a puddle. The water was ice-cold.

Moreover, Xu Mo knew this was only the beginning. As the temperature continued to rise, and with the possibility of rain, the snow would melt even faster, and the resulting surface runoff would become more turbulent.

The risk of "flooding and waterlogging" warned about on the Jiang City Shelter’s broadcast was no exaggeration. Although the three-story building he occupied was on relatively high ground, it wasn’t completely safe. If large-scale flooding occurred, it was highly likely the first floor would be submerged.

’Good thing I prepared early.’ Xu Mo felt a surge of relief for having thought ahead and gotten his hands on that assault boat. He immediately sprang into action, heading outside to the boat, which he had carefully covered with a waterproof tarp.

He carefully inspected the assault boat’s condition. The hull was intact, with no damage from being moved or stored. He had also performed some simple maintenance on the outboard motor, ensuring no critical parts were frozen or rusted solid.

Next, Xu Mo found a few sturdy, long ropes and dragged the assault boat to a relatively high spot next to his shelter, close to his second-floor window.

He firmly secured one end of the ropes to the boat’s towing ring. He split the other end into two lines, tying one to a sturdy second-floor window frame and the other nearby. This was a double precaution; even if one anchor point failed, the boat wouldn’t be washed away. At the same time, this position would allow him to board the boat directly from the second-floor window in an emergency.

After securing the boat, Xu Mo didn’t stop. He went back inside and began to further inspect and package important supplies that absolutely could not get wet—especially weapons, ammunition, and precious medicines—to minimize losses even if the house was briefly flooded.

Since most of his supplies were already stored in his personal dimension, Xu Mo was able to handle the situation with much more composure.

Having done all this, Xu Mo went up to the roof to once again gaze out at the horizon.

The scene before him had undergone a dramatic transformation compared to the dead silence of the Eternal Night and the days immediately following its end. As far as the eye could see, vast expanses of snow were melting under the sun at a visible rate. The world, once covered by a thick blanket of snow, seemed to be shedding its winter coat, revealing its scarred and broken face beneath.

In the distance, large pools of water had already formed in low-lying areas, shimmering under the sun.

The air was filled with the unique, damp, and chilly scent of melting snow and ice, and he could hear the soft THUD of snow sliding off rooftops.

’At this rate, most of the snow will be gone in a few days. The real test will probably be during the peak of the thaw,’ Xu Mo assessed, realizing he had to stay vigilant and ready for any surprises.

As the sun shone down and the snow melted, many buried details began to emerge. Suddenly, Xu Mo’s gaze froze, fixed on the edge of town in the direction of the area where he had previously encountered the agile zombies. His brow furrowed instinctively.

There was a snowdrift on slightly higher ground there. Because it was in the shade, it was melting more slowly than the rest, but it had still shrunk by more than half.

And within the remnants of that snow, a few discordant patches of color stood out, completely different from the ice and mud—the colors of clothing. Faintly, he could also make out the outlines of what looked like limbs.

When the snow had been deep, Xu Mo would never have spotted it. But now, as this "white shroud" of ice and snow receded, some buried truths were quietly surfacing.

Xu Mo took out his binoculars, adjusted the focus, and peered carefully in that direction.

The view snapped into focus, presenting a clear image—it was five people. They lay in the slush of melting snow and mud, their bodies twisted and rigid. They wore tattered winter clothes and were covered in a mixture of half-melted snow and mire. Their bodies were stiff, their faces a deathly pale.

However, it wasn’t the discovery of frozen corpses that made Xu Mo’s brow tighten, but the fatal wounds on their bodies.

Through the binoculars, Xu Mo could clearly see a distinct bullet hole in one person’s chest, the clothing around it frozen stiff with soaked-in blood. Another had a gruesome hole in their forehead. A third was shot in the back. All the fatal wounds pointed unmistakably to firearms.

Xu Mo’s heart sank. Zombies and Mutant Beasts couldn’t use guns, nor could they inflict such precise gunshot wounds. The answer was obvious: these people had been shot and killed by other people.

Xu Mo instantly recalled the trade he’d had with that well-equipped team of survivors. He remembered remarking, "Everyone seems to be quite orderly," and the bitter, hesitant smile that had appeared on the face of their middle-aged leader.

At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, assuming it was just a lament about the hardships of surviving the apocalypse. But now, seeing these five bodies—shot and abandoned in the snow—that bitter smile seemed to take on a whole new meaning.

It wasn’t a sigh about the difficulty of survival, but a silent protest against the evil in human nature, against the bloody rules lurking beneath the veneer of order.

Several possibilities flashed through Xu Mo’s mind. A double-cross during a fight for supplies? An internal purge and betrayal within a group? A powerful party of survivors preying on and slaughtering the weak?

But no matter the reason, it all pointed to one cruel fact: on these ruins, the light may be returning, but the darkness of human nature had never left. So-called order probably only existed in specific situations and within certain groups—between equals, or under the threat of a stronger power.

In the wilderness beyond the reach of radio signals, on the long roads of migration, in corners starved of resources—the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, was still being played out in its rawest form.

The order and cooperation promoted by the official shelter broadcasts were perhaps the ideal, the direction for rebuilding human civilization, but they were by no means the complete picture of the current apocalyptic landscape.

In this transitional period of brilliance and mire, man-eating shadows still lurked in the places the sun could not reach.

Xu Mo slowly lowered his binoculars, his expression grave. He was once again reminded in the starkest terms that in this world, he could never let his guard down, never trust strangers easily, and most certainly never be fooled by a superficial "order."

The incident was a wake-up call, ringing alarms in Xu Mo’s mind. He glanced at the assault boat secured below, then at the cold binoculars in his hand. His gaze grew sharper, deeper.

The sun continued to shine brightly, accelerating the melting of the snow and ice, while also ruthlessly tearing away the white disguise that had covered a brutal reality.