Chapter 273: Imperial Ranking War: Staying Inside

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The Nuclear Fallout Calamity had finally entered its last and most dangerous stage.

Ren knew it before the anybody noticed it.

The changes outside the Rock were becoming too obvious to ignore. The sky had become darker, the radiation had intensified, and the polluted environment was making everything worse. The pollution had never disappeared in the first place, and now the fallout was reaching its peak on top of it.

This was exactly why Ren had already ordered the hunting teams to stop going outside.

There was no point risking lives for resources when they already had enough.

The Heavenly Bronze Team had been collecting food, water, materials, and other supplies since the beginning of the Imperial Ranking War. Their stockpile was large enough that they could comfortably wait through the most dangerous part of the calamity.

It wasn’t worth sending ten people outside just to bring back more food when those ten people could instead spend their time resting and preparing.

Besides, the situation outside had become ridiculous.

Even with the temporary runic formations, going outside now was asking for trouble.

"Nobody goes out."

That was Ren’s final order.

And surprisingly, nobody argued.

They had all seen what happened to Sieg.

If that was what the environment was like before the final stage, nobody wanted to find out what it was like now.

So, just like their routine in the past calamities, the Heavenly Bronze Team stopped worrying about hunting.

They simply stayed inside.

And this was where the difference between them and everyone else became almost laughable.

Outside the Rock, the world was falling apart.

Inside it, life continued almost normally.

The contrast was staggering.

The Rock remained clean, warm, and brightly lit.

The air was filtered continuously by the formations Ren had installed, removing the pollution and radioactive particles before they could accumulate. The river surrounding the base was still clean as well, protected by the formations that extended their influence over the water.

There was no terrible smell.

There was no poisonous air.

There was no contaminated water.

There were no mutated monsters wandering through the streets.

For the people inside the Rock, the Nuclear Fallout Calamity was almost becoming something they could forget.

Almost.

Because they could still see the outside.

From the observation areas, they could look beyond the river and see the changes happening to the world.

The sky was darker now.

The forests had become almost unrecognizable.

Some trees had completely withered while others had mutated into grotesque shapes. The ground was covered in patches of strange growth, and occasionally, something would move in the distance.

Nobody went close enough to find out what it was.

There was no reason to.

They were safe.

That was enough.

With hunting suspended, everyone suddenly had more free time than they knew what to do with.

Some used that time to train.

The team didn’t need to hunt monsters every day to improve. In fact, many of them welcomed the opportunity to focus on their martial arts without having to worry about conserving energy for an expedition.

The training grounds were almost always occupied.

Some were practicing their techniques.

Some were sparring.

Others were simply working on their physical conditioning.

The sound of fists striking training dummies could be heard throughout the day, mixed with the occasional shout whenever somebody pushed themselves too far.

The stronger members often sparred against one another.

Not because they needed to determine who was stronger, but because fighting against someone with a different style was one of the easiest ways to find weaknesses in their own techniques.

Others chose to relax instead.

The Rock had never been designed to become a vacation resort, but after Ren’s preparations, it was comfortable enough that some people had begun treating it like one.

People gathered together to eat.

Some played games.

Others talked.

A few simply found somewhere quiet and read.

The Lifestyle Guild members had even started experimenting with different ways to use the ingredients they had collected before the calamity became this bad.

The world outside was becoming increasingly hostile, yet inside the Rock, people were discovering new recipes.

Someone even complained that they had too much meat.

That statement would have sounded ridiculous under normal circumstances.

Here, however, it was completely true.

Their stockpile was large enough that they could afford to be picky.

Now, during the Nuclear Fallout, the Heavenly Bronze Team was sitting comfortably inside a fortress with enough resources to wait things out.

Again, Ren’s paranoia had saved them.

Nobody was complaining about it anymore.

Even those who had once thought he was over-preparing had long since stopped saying anything.

There was a certain peace that came from knowing that the outside world could become as terrible as it wanted and it still couldn’t reach them.

The formations were working.

The walls were standing.

The river was clean.

The stockpile was secure.

And Ren was constantly monitoring everything.

There was nothing else they could reasonably ask for.

Even Diana had begun spending more time training with the others rather than worrying about the situation outside.

Aria, meanwhile, had been spending much of her time checking on Sieg.

As Ren predicted, he had woken up after roughly two hours.

And, as expected, he had immediately asked for food.

That had caused more than a few people to laugh.

The man had nearly been poisoned by radiation, yet the first thing he wanted after waking up was food.

Sieg was still recovering, however.

He wasn’t allowed to train seriously, and Aria had made sure he followed Ren’s instructions. His only practice was the Green Lotus Core Technique in the morning and evening.

The rest of the time, he rested.

It was probably the first time in a long while that Sieg had been forced to slow down.

Oddly enough, he seemed to be taking it well.

Perhaps being nearly killed had given him enough reason to listen.

Ren didn’t bother checking on him personally every hour.

He already knew Sieg was recovering.

The Green Lotus Core Technique was doing exactly what it was supposed to do, and his body’s natural resistance was steadily clearing the remaining contamination.

There was no need to interfere.

Ren had other things to worry about.

The Nuclear Fallout was still reaching its peak.

And while the people inside the Rock could relax, Ren knew that the outside world wasn’t nearly as peaceful.

The calamity had become violent.

Radiation storms occasionally swept across the landscape, forcing even the mutated monsters to seek shelter.

Some areas of the forest had become completely dead.

Others had become something else.

The monsters were changing as well.

Ren’s sensory network picked up movements that he couldn’t properly identify anymore.

Some creatures had become so heavily mutated that even their original species was difficult to determine.

Others had simply become stronger.

Much stronger.

The longer this continued, the more dangerous the realm became.

But none of that reached the Rock.

That was the important part.

Inside the base, somebody was laughing.

Someone else was arguing over food.

The training grounds were still active.

The kitchens were still operating.

The formations continued humming quietly in the background.

It was almost absurd.

The world was ending outside, and people inside were debating whether they wanted to have another serving of dinner.

Ren occasionally found the whole thing surreal.

He would stand near the observation area and look outside, seeing a landscape that looked like it belonged to another world entirely.

Then he would turn around and see somebody practicing martial arts.

Or somebody carrying food.

Or a group of people sitting together and talking.

The difference was almost comical.

But Ren wasn’t going to complain.

This was exactly what he wanted.

Survival didn’t mean that everybody had to suffer every second of the day.

If they had prepared enough to remain comfortable during a calamity, then they should enjoy that comfort.

There was no reason to deliberately make their lives miserable just because the world outside was miserable.

That was especially true because nobody knew what would happen after the calamity ended.

The realm had already broken the pattern they had come to expect.

There had been no reset after the Extreme Pollution.

Instead, the pollution remained and the Nuclear Fallout was layered over it.

Who knew what would happen next?

The next calamity could be even worse.

Or perhaps something completely different could happen.

Ren didn’t know.

Nobody knew.

That uncertainty was the only thing preventing him from fully relaxing.

Still, for now, the Heavenly Bronze Team was safe.

They had food.

They had clean water.

They had shelter.

They had formations protecting them from the outside environment.

They had enough people to defend the Rock if something somehow managed to reach them.

And most importantly, they had time.

Time to train.

Time to rest.

Time to recover.

Time to prepare.

Outside, the Nuclear Fallout Calamity was reaching its most violent stage.

The polluted realm was being ravaged by radiation, and the creatures living within it were changing alongside the environment.

Inside the Rock, however, the Heavenly Bronze Team simply waited.

They watched.

They trained.

They ate.

They laughed.

They rested.

For once, there was no need to fight.

Ren looked outside one more time before turning away from the observation window.

The world outside could rage as much as it wanted.

It couldn’t reach them.

Not yet.

And until the next change came, that was more than enough.