Apocalypse Showdown: Carrier Conquest

Chapter 21: The Fall of the Island Nation

At Sun Chenghao's house, Ai Bing waited impatiently, but there was still no sign of Zhou Lin, nor any phone call or message. This lack of communication left her seething with anger, but a nagging feeling also crept into her mind—something was off. Could it be that he had figured something out?

She glanced at Tang Yili and Sun Chenghao, who were busy playing games. Compared to Zhou Lin's family, who had been preoccupied with preparations for days, Ai Bing couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

It was already noon, yet the sky only bore a faint light. The once bright July sun had been obscured by thick clouds, looking as cold and distant as the moon, like a forgotten duck egg yolk.

Bored, Ai Bing scrolled through her phone and noticed that the posts about the apocalypse were now all over the internet. Just a few days ago, similar posts would have been deleted, but now they were left unchecked and free to spread.

"Could it be...?" Ai Bing thought back to the recent actions of Zhou Lin's family. "Had they already started preparing?"

If that were the case, Ai Bing realized she needed to go to Zhou Lin's house as soon as possible for her own safety.

"Ice, are you hungry? Let's go out for a meal," Tang Yili finally put down his phone, feeling a bit hungry.

"Go out for a meal?" Ai Bing pointed at the window, "With the weather like this, do you think any restaurants are still open?"

In fact, no restaurants had been open the night before. Meat, vegetables, and grains were either under strict control or completely sold out. No ingredients meant no restaurants, and that was the reality.

"No worries, I still have instant noodles at home." Sun Chenghao, the quintessential single guy, had stocked up on quick meals. But Ai Bing wasn’t interested. "It's unhealthy, bad for the skin."

Looking at the instant noodles Sun Chenghao brought out, Ai Bing couldn’t help but think of Zhou Lin's family’s farm. The pigsty and chicken coops she had once dismissed now seemed like a lifeline. They must have plenty of food!

She exchanged a glance with Yang Kiki, and the two girls' thoughts aligned perfectly.

"We're leaving," Ai Bing said, unable to wait any longer for Zhou Lin to call.

She had sent a message earlier but received no reply. Growing anxious, Ai Bing felt more urgency. As a woman who prided herself on being sharp, she knew when to assess the value of someone—right now, Zhou Lin's family, with their big house and farm, was far more valuable than Tang Yili. When it came to momentary pleasure versus filling one's stomach, Ai Bing knew which was more important.

But Tang Yili wasn’t happy. He had traveled all the way from Shenzhen, and now he was being tossed aside for a single night.

"Just stay for two more days. If you’re craving food, I’ll go out and buy it!" Tang Yili insisted.

Ai Bing didn’t have time to stop him, and what she didn’t expect was that just as Tang Yili left, Sun Chenghao moved closer to her. If Yang Kiki hadn’t gone to the bathroom, Sun Chenghao surely wouldn’t have dared to be so bold.

"Ice, your voice was so nice last night," Sun Chenghao said with a smirk.

"What do you want?" Ai Bing’s voice turned cold.

"What can I want? Old Tang and I are brothers. You're his woman. How can I do anything to you?" His words might have sounded harmless, but his face betrayed his intentions.

Ai Bing didn’t care much about those kinds of things. What she cared about was value. Every action had its cost, and if she couldn’t gain anything from it, she wouldn’t give anything away for free.

And what could Sun Chenghao offer?

Meanwhile, Tang Yili, having just left, soon regretted his decision.

It was freezing!

He hadn’t felt it so much indoors with the windows shut, but once he stepped out onto the street, the cold hit him like a ton of bricks. It was as if he wasn’t wearing clothes at all. His hands and feet were rapidly growing numb!

Despite it being July, it felt like the middle of winter.

He cursed the place. He thought he was in the wrong, blaming Jiazhou for being so cold, but in reality, Jiazhou had never been this cold before. In fact, Shenzhen, the city he came from, was even colder.

The global atmospheric circulation had been completely disrupted, and surface temperatures were no longer dropping due to northern cold fronts. Coastal cities, like Shenzhen, were no longer protected by the warming air currents from the sea. Had he contacted his friends back in Shenzhen, he would have known that the temperature there had already plummeted to below freezing by noon the day before!

Not just Shenzhen, but nearly all coastal cities were experiencing unprecedented low temperatures. A massive meteorological disaster had taken shape, and emergency rescue operations were now the primary task for governments worldwide.

However, the island nation was by far the hardest-hit country in the world.

Due to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and heavy rainfall caused by intense convective weather, most cities outside the capital had been completely crippled. Ordinary citizens were left to fend for themselves with no assistance. Self-rescue efforts, however, proved largely ineffective.

Thirteen cities had been entirely submerged by flooding caused by the heavy rain, with three-quarters of the population either missing or presumed dead.

Three smaller cities near the mountains had been completely wiped out by mudslides, and no one had managed to escape.

Around Mount Shifu, the air was filled with toxic volcanic ash, and the poisonous gases made it impossible to breathe. Anyone or any animal that failed to escape this region was guaranteed to perish, and the island's government could do nothing to help.

Rumors circulated that the royal family of the island nation had shamefully evacuated. Instead of fleeing to the most powerful countries, like the Beautiful Nation, or the wealthiest parts of Europe, they had fled to the most impoverished regions of Africa.

This confirmed the earlier rumors that the island nation had made extensive plans in Africa—likely due to the unique natural environment of the island, which led many people, particularly the elite, to prepare for the apocalypse.

With the eruption of Mount Shifu, the royal family had evacuated the day it happened, most of them heading to Europe, using properties they had secretly acquired there. They had even dispatched most of the island nation's military forces to sea, likely seeing this disaster as an opportunity.

A mysterious cold wave, which began yesterday morning, hit the island nation with the intensity of a real-life "Ice Queen" moving from south to north. The temperatures dropped as much as 50°C in some areas.

There was once a movie that depicted the destruction caused by strong convective storms and subzero temperatures, and people had thought it was an exaggeration. But now, it was happening for real, and the world was watching closely to see how much destruction this cold wave would cause.

Footage from cameras still operational revealed the chilling effects of the cold wave—how it instantly froze rivers, crystallized entire buildings, and turned people walking on the streets into ice sculptures.

Experts speculated that the center of this cold wave could be as low as -100°C. Even the hardiest Eskimos would not survive in such extreme conditions!