Sync by pressing Y

Tom rode on Wood as the ant controlled by him went in another direction, leaving behind pheromones for "prey" to follow in this direction. Along the way, he encountered two crickets. These hopping creatures showed interest in him, but after Tom scolded them a couple of times, they retreated far away, appearing non-mutated. As for the mosquitoes buzzing overhead, Tom couldn't do anything about them, and they couldn't penetrate the iron armor he wore.

After enduring the occasional buzzing sound for a while, the mosquitoes finally gave up and left. Tom arrived at a large open space in the community, where there were some sports facilities for the elderly and children to exercise. In the center was a fountain pool. Tom approached and looked around, finding the pool full of water, which felt somewhat strange to him, but he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

Next to it was a large square with garbage strewn all over. Tom judged that this was most likely the location of the shelter. So he commanded Wood to climb over and circled around, but found nothing unusual. Considering how cautious these people were, the shelter naturally couldn't be too conspicuous. Otherwise, with so many people here every day, if a lively child accidentally stumbled upon it, it would be exposed prematurely.

It was now 5:18 PM. Tom arrived at a lamppost on the adjacent lawn. He had seen this type of lamppost before: cylindrical with a cover at the top, hollow inside. LED lights illuminated the cylinder from within, and soft light was scattered through multiple colored glass holes around the cylinder, creating a faint glow.

Tom smashed a piece of glass, crawled in, and then took off the Old Street armor. He could finally relax. The scorching heat of June made the armor, with its layer of cushioning fabric, very hot to wear, even though it was safe.

He ate some biscuits, drank water, and fed Wood the two thin branches hanging on its back. It was dinner time. This was where they would stay next. They just needed to wait quietly for midnight to arrive.

As time passed, Tom stayed undisturbed in the lamppost until around 9:30 PM, when it lit up outside. He poked his head out and saw not the square in front of him, but another place with higher terrain, which surprised him.

"It seems that the shelter is not built in the square but elsewhere. But the shelter must not have opened yet. I have to wait until midnight." So he chose to continue staying in this undisturbed place.

Until midnight, when the bell rang, Tom knew that the Redeemer Shelter had opened.

Tom had already put on the Old Street Zero armor in advance. After walking out of the lamppost, he walked around the square perimeter a few times, confirming that there were no biological attacks nearby. Then he called Wood out and rode it up to where the lights were bright.

No wonder Wang Sanli could see such bright lights. This shelter not only had several super-bright lights but also brought up the underwater lights in the fountain pool, making it even brighter from a distance. Moreover, the fountain in the water was also working, spraying water columns up and down, sometimes straight into the sky, sometimes spinning and jumping, making it look beautiful in conjunction with the flashing colored lights.

What surprised Tom the most was that the shelter rose from the center of the fountain pool, and four directions of the pool rose together, forming a long road straight to the central island. Walking along the path, Tom marveled at the colorful rainbow formed by the constantly changing colored lights projected onto the water mist, feeling as if he were in a magical glass fairyland.

"This organization is too bold. Fountain pools often need maintenance. Aren't they afraid of maintenance personnel discovering the secret of the shelter?"

The city's power grid had collapsed within two weeks of humans being shrunk, and the entire Shenchuan City had been without power for two months. Only these mysterious shelters continued to operate once every seven days. From the projected large lights to the magical mechanisms inside the shelter and even the lifting and folding of the entire shelter, all required electrical power. So, did these shelters have a super battery at the bottom, and how long could this battery last?

If it were just a set of shelter systems, it would be fine. But now, they even activated the entire fountain pool. It's worth noting that besides the lights, the most power-consuming part of the fountain pool is the more than a dozen nozzles, which require powerful electric pumps to achieve such effects.

With current battery technology, it's unlikely to have such a high power output unless it's a generator. But even so, it's even more unlikely.

As he walked, Tom gained a more comprehensive understanding of the technological capabilities of this Darwinian fanatic organization... They indeed possessed more advanced technology than Earth's. Since this was a residential community fountain pool, its size was not large, about ten meters in diameter. But to Tom now, it looked like a lake over two hundred meters wide. He walked to the center of the lake, and the brightly lit metal shelter appeared before him.

The metal structure was slightly smaller than the one Tom had seen in the urban village, about 90 centimeters wide and two and a half stories high. Considering it was integrated under the fountain, Tom thought it was normal for it to be smaller. However, despite its size, the overall appearance of the shelter was better than the previous one, likely due to improvements in technology over the past decade.

The entrance was the same automatic door. As long as it wasn't locked from the inside, outsiders could open it by placing their hands in the sensor area. Inside, the layout of the exhibits was similar to the previous one, but the overall appearance was better, with a few more sofas and coffee tables.

Tom noticed bloodstains on the floor, most likely left by survivors who had entered before. This was normal; survivors struggled for survival under the hunting of rats and cockroaches, and the purpose of the shelter was to provide them with a temporary refuge where they could catch their breath. Even though the shelter only provided 9 hours of refuge, it was safe enough, with provisions of food and water, as well as adequate medical assistance, which was a great relief for survivors who were physically and mentally exhausted.

Tom placed his hand on the table in front of the globe, and a female artificial voice immediately sounded.

"Waker number E39A001, add 4 hours of refuge time!"

"Waker awakens the second ability, adding 2 hours of refuge time!"

"Waker awakens the third ability, adding 3 hours of refuge time!"

"Waker awakens the fourth ability, adding 4 hours of refuge time!"

"Waker awakens the fifth ability, adding 5 hours of refuge time!"

"Waker awakens the fifth ability, adding 6 hours of refuge time!"

The countdown jumped from 08:46 to 32:46, adding 24 hours at once. Without looking at this, Tom didn't realize he had so many abilities. He thought for a moment: strengthening arm strength, enhancing leg explosive power, communicating with animals, increasing body defense, mimicking invisibility, and later, metal shaping.

With as many as six abilities, each adding an extra hour on the original, naturally, it reached 24 hours. However, only arm strength and leg explosive power were useful for combat. The former belonged to enhanced offense, while the latter increased running speed.

The ability to enhance skin defense required both red and blue crystals. Although the defense was high, it was not as useful as the former two against most mutated creatures.

Apart from training geckos and rhinoceros beetles, communicating with animals was now used to mislead ants.

Regarding invisibility, it was more of a mimicry ability because he couldn't move much without being exposed. So, apart from evading tracking and ambushing enemies, its practical use in actual combat was limited.

It was the ability to shape metal that became the greatest help in enhancing his overall combat power. Compared to others like Liu Lian, Bo Zai, Iron Scraps Old Man, who had one or two abilities, he had as many as six, but he wasn't as proficient as them.

He wasn't as fast as Bo Zai, and the efficiency of metal shaping wasn't as good as Iron Scraps Old Man. He felt like a hodgepodge. However, being a hodgepodge meant being a hodgepodge. He didn't have the strongest ability, but it depended on whether he could make good use of it.

Tom always felt that these six abilities could be combined, although he didn't know how. But his intuition told him so. Tom usually trusted his intuition, so he was confident that he would eventually explore the combined effects of these abilities, provided he could survive until then.

Just as he was pondering, the smartwatch on his wrist started vibrating again. He looked down, and the screen prompted him, "Please follow instructions to go to the location!"

He followed the direction indicator on the screen to a corner room where the floor opened, revealing a passage, proving to be another shelter room. Tom glanced back at the hall, where Wood stood motionless, either asleep or pretending. He walked down.

It was still a white room, with spacious lounge sofas and a display screen for the exchange system. In addition, there was unexpectedly a double bed. This surprised Tom. Since only the sheltered could enter the shelter, what was the point of having a double bed?

Putting these thoughts aside, he walked up to the exchange display. A line of text popped up: "Welcome Waker E39A001, synchronizing your information."

In addition to the title of waker given to him outside, this shelter also assigned him the title of sheltered, with both sharing the same number. But the latter seemed more mysterious. The system even reminded him not to let others know about his sheltered identity to avoid being hunted.

Who was hunting? Tom thought of the two men in black, one of whom was so strong that he could knock down a mutated Haba dog with one punch.

Only such powerful people could talk about "hunting" in this perilous world! As Tom pondered, the screen continued to prompt: "Because your shelter points are only 1 point, and have not reached the minimum exchange standard, there are no items available for exchange."

"Please press the Y key on the watch to synchronize and synchronize the information of surrounding survivors with the mainframe."

Press Y? The entire watch had only one screen, and there wasn't even a physical key, so where did the Y key come from? Tom was stunned, but a yellow circle immediately appeared on the watch screen, inside of which was a large Y in uppercase.

"Well, press Y to synchronize!" Tom sighed. Why did it feel so much like a game?