After sending it, he clicked on Shen Man’s chat.
Shen Man’s messaging style was completely different from the others.
First message, 12:00 AM: “Hangzhou is in trouble. Are you awake? Forget it, you’re definitely sleeping.”
Second message: “The Magic Cave seal was broken by the Blood Eye Cult. I heard all nine layers are open and the Shadow Abyss Wolf King is Tier 9. Not sure if it’s true, but just don’t go running around.”
Third message: “I’m in Magic City, seven hundred kilometers from Hangzhou. I’m boarding a rescue shuttle now, should be there before dawn.”
...
Messages four through twelve were repetitive: “Awake yet?” “Reply.” “Damn it, answer me.” Mixed in were some voice notes Lin Yuan didn’t dare listen to.
He sent a reply: “Awake. Was sleeping. A Tier 2 Shadow Abyss Wolf smashed through my neighbor’s room and buried me under the wall.”
Shen Man replied instantly: “Shit, you’re actually alive? Where’s the wolf?”
“Sister, do you want me dead that badly? I just killed it.”
“Then stay put at the hotel. Magic City Academy’s support will arrive by dawn at the latest.”
Lin Yuan thought for a bit and typed: “Okay.”
Then he opened Bai Li’s messages.
Bai Li’s messages started from 12:30 AM.
First message: “Senior, where are you? A lot of monsters suddenly appeared in the city. Xiaxia and I ran out of the dorms.”
Second message was a photo—half of the Hangzhou No. 7 High School dorm building had collapsed, with flames and smoke billowing from the windows.
Third message, 1:00 AM: “We’re at a temporary shelter in the south. The teachers from No. 7 High brought us here. It’s safe for now. Where are you?”
...
Sixth message: “I’m very worried about you.”
Lin Yuan replied to Bai Li: “I’m fine. At a hotel downtown, just killed a monster. I’m heading to meet you now.”
Bai Li replied instantly.
A simple “Okay,” followed by “Stay safe.”
Lin Yuan looked at the message and smiled. He could almost imagine her expression when she typed it.
Then he opened Jiang Ran’s messages.
Jiang Ran had sent several starting from 1:00 AM.
The gist was that there was a safety point in the southeast where transport planes would soon evacuate Tier 1 and lower ability users and civilians.
He told Lin Yuan to get there quickly and not to head west. The west had already fallen! Head southeast!
Lin Yuan replied that he was on his way and turned off the screen. The cold white light of the phone reflected on his face.
He sat in the hotel room with a massive hole in it, leaning against a half-destroyed wall.
Messages were all answered.
Su Qingyue was blocked halfway, Shen Man was flying in, Bai Li and Xiaxia were at the south city shelter, and Jiang Ran and Song Zhiyi were still alive.
Everyone thought he was sleeping...
Well, he had been sleeping, right up until that Tier 2 Shadow Abyss Wolf crashed through the room next door.
He switched his phone to the news page.
The local Hangzhou channel was down. The homepage displayed a red emergency announcement in glaringly large font: The Abyss Magic Cave seal is completely out of control. All citizens must head to the nearest shelter immediately.
The live feed from the National Ability User Association’s main channel flickered as it loaded.
It was a drone’s panoramic view of Hangzhou from high above.
Lin Yuan looked at it, his pupils constricting slightly.
Hangzhou was burning.
Not just a street or a few buildings, but most of the West District.
Flames soared into the sky in the West District, and thick smoke loomed over the city.
The South District was relatively intact, but Shadow Abyss Wolves were everywhere on the streets.
Further away, from the direction of the dense forest, monsters were flooding into the city like a tide—Green-maned Wolves, Thorny Boars... even several massive Rock-armored Great Lizards were rampaging through the streets.
Lin Yuan gave a small smile and pocketed his phone.
He stood up and dug his dark gray casual jacket out from the rubble.
It was covered in dust. He slapped it a few times; it was barely wearable.
Lin Yuan took out his phone to message the hotel front desk.
A red exclamation mark popped up next to the message bubble—Failed to send. The recipient’s phone is off or out of the service area.
“Damn.”
Lin Yuan cursed, “I’m a hotel guest, aren’t I? They ran off without telling me? What kind of service is this? Not even a wake-up call. One star. I’m definitely leaving a bad review once I get out of here.”
What Lin Yuan didn’t know was that the girl at the front desk actually had come to knock on his door.
She had knocked for three full minutes, screaming until her voice went hoarse, but there was no sound from the room.
At the time, Lin Yuan was dreaming about a steaming hotpot.
The knocking had turned into the sound of the hotpot shop owner chopping bones—thump, thump, thump—very rhythmic.
He had just rolled over and slept even deeper.
Now he was awake.
In the entire hotel, from top to bottom, he was the only one left.
Within a hundred-meter radius, there wasn’t a single living soul.
The streets were empty, save for the distant flames and the occasional howl of a monster.
Lin Yuan shouldered Purple Lightning and stepped out of the hotel entrance, treading over broken bricks and glass shards.
Standing in the middle of the empty street, he first checked his status.
Source energy: full.
Four bottles of Source Recovery Pills, two bottles of healing spray. On the system panel, his ability point balance was 2480.
Hangzhou was a living hell right now.
But for him, a hell full of experience packs was just a leveling zone.
Although Shen Man mentioned a Tier 9 Shadow Abyss Wolf King, Lin Yuan was a hundred percent certain she was pulling his leg.
If there were a Tier 9 wolf, Hangzhou would have been leveled already; the situation wouldn’t be like this.
Looking at the videos on his phone, the highest-tier monsters on the front lines were only Tier 5 Shadow Abyss Wolves.
The adults were holding off the Tier 5 wolves; they wouldn’t reach his position.
As for the lower-tier wolves below, every single one was a walking pile of ability points.
Monsters from the Magic Cave gave significantly more ability points than those on the surface. This was probably the only good news in the coming hours.
He needed ability points.
He was still far from the five-thousand-point threshold for D-rank, but every kill brought him one step closer to Tier 2 lightning.
If he could break through to Tier 2 during this catastrophe, combined with his Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering foundation and S-rank Space-Time Ruler, he might even be able to hold his own against monsters below Tier 3.
But Lin Yuan’s primary goal now was to reach the safety point. Staying alive was the most important thing!
Then, Lin Yuan took out his phone and looked at the safety point location Bai Li had sent him while he ran.
The GPS showed he was currently in the western part of Hangzhou. He had chosen this hotel specifically because it was close to the exam center, allowing him to sleep in a bit longer.
Now, the price of that extra sleep was being closest to the monster tide.
“Damn it,” he cursed. “I shouldn’t have been so greedy for those twenty minutes of sleep.”
...
Southeast direction, Hexagon Building, about 13 kilometers away.
Normally, it would only take about ten minutes by maglev car, but given the state of the streets and the broken maglev tracks, walking was faster than driving.
In front of the convenience store across the street, three Tier 1, Level 8 Shadow Abyss Wolves were tearing at the corpse of an ability user.
Hearing the sound of him landing, the three wolves looked up simultaneously. Their eerie green pupils were chilling, with bits of flesh and blood still in their mouths.
Lin Yuan didn’t stop.
He spun Purple Lightning in his hand, pivoted, and slashed.
“Thunder Walk Through Nine Heavens, Second Form—Thunder Arc.”
Rate on N.U.
