An Nuan woke up with a muddled mind.
She dreamt of her parents taking her to the zoo and amusement park when she was little, and of her grandmother making sugar candy for her.
A mess of dreams tangled in her head, giving An Nuan a splitting headache.
"Xiao Nuan, when you grow up, I'll come back with eight horses and a hundred-person sedan to marry you, just like in the TV shows you love to watch."
"Big Brother, you won't lie to me?"
"Mm, I won't lie to you."
"Big Brother, let's pinky swear..."
An Nuan's lips parted slightly.
Big Brother? Who was Big Brother? Why couldn't she remember?
But she must have met him before, he felt so familiar.
"Xiao Nuan, Xiao Nuan, are you awake? Don't scare me!"
"Sis, if you don't wake up soon, Hai Ge will die!"
Whose voice was that?
So familiar...
An Nuan mustered all her strength and opened her eyelids just a sliver. She saw many small, glowing orbs floating into her body.
"She's awake! Xiao Nuan is awake! Hai Changfeng, I'm giving you ginseng today, keep pushing!"
Hai Changfeng gave a wry smile.
That would probably require a thousand-year-old ginseng to recover.
Hai Changfeng sped up, continuously injecting vitality into An Nuan.
An Nuan gradually regained consciousness. A deep blue light circle erupted from her chest, and a wave of energy shook the villa a few times.
She stood up and found herself outside the house, within a circle two and a half meters in diameter. All the snow had melted, revealing a patch of ground.
The water reached her chest and was very hot.
It felt like a sauna inside.
An Nuan couldn't remember what had just happened, only that she was full of energy, brimming with power from within.
"Xiao Nuan, hurry and come up!"
Luoluo dropped a vine, and An Nuan grabbed its end, being pulled up.
Chang Kaitong and Chen Wenjing blushed instantly and shyly turned away.
An Nuan noticed their strangeness and was bewildered.
"What's wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"
"Xiao Nuan, put on some clothes first, we'll talk slowly."
Luoluo quickly wrapped her in clothes.
She had only been wearing a casual tank top and shorts when they put her in the snowdrift. After soaking in the icy water for two hours, they were thoroughly soaked.
She already had a good figure, with not an ounce of excess fat on her stomach or thighs.
A beautiful woman in a revealing state was something no man of any age could resist.
Luoluo whispered in her ear teasingly.
"Xiao Nuan, you have the qualifications to be a femme fatale!"
"Stop messing around! Let's talk about something serious, I've advanced to Tier Three!"
Everyone didn't react immediately.
An Nuan snapped her fingers, and several pits appeared in the snowfield.
They easily swallowed the accumulated snow in the yard.
"I can now activate five Devouring areas simultaneously, and I don't need to be close. I can reach anything within a thousand meters!"
"Sister Nuan, you're amazing! I admire you so much!"
An Nuan smiled sheepishly.
"I didn't expect to level up across tiers either. I've never heard of it before!"
"That's why Sister Nuan is so amazing!"
"Amazing what!"
Luoluo kicked Chang Kaitong angrily.
Although she understood her younger brother's excitement, she was still very angry.
"If it wasn't for Hai Changfeng protecting you with his life force, your CPU might have been fried! We're doing well now, let's proceed steadily and don't take any more risks!"
After saying that, Luoluo hugged An Nuan.
Everyone fell silent.
Juanzi also came over and licked her fingers, rubbing her head against her.
An Nuan felt a lingering fear after hearing about her upgrade process.
Crystals were indeed very suitable for her, but the danger of a leap upgrade was far greater than she imagined.
Perhaps the black smoke trusted her abilities when making that choice, but An Nuan decided not to take such risks again.
What would happen to these children if she made a mistake and died?
An Nuan also felt indebted to Hai Changfeng.
She brought a pile of health supplements – velvet antler, ejiao, ginseng – and stuffed them all into Hai Changfeng's mouth.
Hai Changfeng never imagined that he would experience the feeling of being force-fed supplements to the point of nausea one day.
An Nuan took a shower and changed into comfortable pajamas.
When she came out of the bathroom, the weather had already changed outside.
First, there was a period of acid rain, which wasn't very destructive. It didn't even damage ordinary walls much.
However, most of the snow had melted.
When four to five meters of snow melted instantly, the impact was significant.
Especially in low-lying areas, a small tsunami immediately followed, submerging entire buildings.
Ordinary televisions were rendered useless, but satellite TV still had a signal.
The news no longer spoke of stability and peace. Instead, it displayed place names and route maps, encouraging survivors to head to certain locations.
"The Seven Great Bases."
"Xiao Nuan, what are the Seven Great Bases?"
"Survivor concentration camps, mostly built by former leaders and powerful figures. They have weapons and resources, so it wouldn't be difficult for them to establish fortified bases in relatively safe areas."
"Then these seven bases that are being announced now must have been built by those vultures. Damn it, I don't believe such a massive natural disaster could have happened without any warning!"
Hai Changfeng was right.
Such a bizarre natural disaster must have had warning signs.
Although they could say they didn't announce it to avoid panic, who would believe that bases could be built so quickly?
Those were bases, not Lego constructions. How could they be built in such a short time?
The news anchor on television began urging people to seek refuge in the bases.
The slogans were also very appealing.
"XX Base: Guarantee your family's safety, build a new home for you and me."
They also showed some partial environmental maps.
There were mountains, water, and food.
Such an attractive environment was a lifeline for everyone, and they would do their best to seize it.
But was it really that good?
Hmph.
An Nuan let out a cold laugh, which said it all.
If it were really that good, why would so many small groups have built their own fortresses and bases in her previous life?
An Dong had gone into one for a while and then found an opportunity to lead people out and establish their own.
Even poisonous snakes couldn't survive in such places. Ordinary people would be lucky to just get by, let alone talk about building a home.
Luoluo turned off the TV. "The official propaganda is like a pyramid scheme. It just makes me angry for no reason."
"Sister Nuan, if everyone goes there, should we consider going?"
"The current entry fee is five catties of rice per person. In a month, it will probably be ten catties per person. There's no need to provide rations to those in power."
Hai Changfeng chewed on ejiao. "Brother, have you watched The Hunger Games? In these kinds of groups, the lower strata will always suffer the most. You won't understand the extravagance of the upper class!"
Chang Kaitong nodded, becoming even more enlightened today.
An Nuan knew that the villa couldn't stand indefinitely in the apocalypse.
It was fine against a thousand zombies, but it would be finished against a thousand superhumans.
However, the villa was safe for now. They had food and drink, and Black Smoke was helping them from behind.
If it truly came to a point where they had to hide in a base or fortress, they would just snatch one and become the boss themselves!