Exploring The Mountain

A few minutes later, the reconnaissance drone entered the mountainous area.

The once lush forest was gone. Now, the landscape was a dark wasteland, with only the occasional tree, burned to charcoal, still standing stubbornly.

From time to time, wisps of gray-black smoke rose from the ground—remnants of a mountain fire that had not yet been completely extinguished, smoldering in the ashes.

A strong gust of wind swept through, causing the reconnaissance drone to sway violently in the air.

Sensing the danger, the artificial intelligence in the shelter immediately took over control, forcing the drone to descend quickly to avoid the turbulence.

After more than ten seconds, the drone stabilized.

Now, it was flying just a dozen meters above the ground.

At this altitude, everything below became clearer.

"There seems to be a shelter here," Su Wu muttered, his eyes narrowing as he spotted something unusual on the screen.

He immediately guided the drone toward it.

A few hundred meters passed in an instant.

Soon, a shelter appeared on the screen. Its door was curled and blackened by fire.

Su Wu observed carefully and noticed a crack about ten centimeters wide at the edge of the door—just enough for the reconnaissance drone to squeeze through.

"Go in and take a look."

Without hesitation, he made the decision.

If he were there in person, he wouldn't be so reckless. But since it was just a drone, there was no reason to hold back.

Switching the drone to autopilot, he watched as the artificial intelligence guided it through the narrow gap.

Suddenly, a charred corpse filled the screen.

Su Wu's breath caught. For a moment, his heart pounded—but as the drone ascended inside the shelter, his tension eased.

It was just another victim.

The body happened to be near the entrance, its blackened remains frozen in its final moments.

Without lingering on the corpse, Su Wu turned on the drone's searchlight and scanned the interior.

The shelter appeared to have been converted from an ordinary cave.

After passing through an irregular tunnel several meters long, the drone entered a spacious cavern, roughly 200 square meters in size.

Inside, burned debris covered the ground. Only a few large metal-framed pieces of furniture remained intact.

"This fire was intense," Su Wu murmured.

He could easily imagine the scene—when the wildfire swept through, this place must have been hell on earth.

Clearly, the metal door and the several meters of mountain wall weren't enough to protect the people inside.

After searching the cave for a while and finding nothing valuable, Su Wu wasn't disappointed. He commanded the drone to leave and continue its exploration.

For the rest of the day, except for returning a few times to recharge, the reconnaissance drone scoured the mountains. Inch by inch, it searched the 30-kilometer radius around Su Wu's shelter.

The results weren't bad.

He found two abandoned shelters and four that seemed to still be inhabited.

He also discovered a cave filled with a large amount of steel.

"The survival rate is higher than I expected," Su Wu mused.

"I underestimated humanity's ability to endure."

"As for that cave full of steel… I wonder if its owner is still around."

Silently, he marked the four occupied shelters and the steel-filled cave on his map.

A part of him was tempted to act immediately, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

He wasn't in desperate need of steel, so there was no rush to take risks. He could wait, confirm the situation, and decide whether to trade or claim it later.

For the first time in days, the haze in the sky began to clear.

At noon, sunlight occasionally broke through, casting direct rays onto the ground.

But this wasn't a sign of improvement. If anything, the environment was plunging further into hell.

At 2:27 in the afternoon, the temperature in Jianghe City officially hit 70°C.

Even with special cooling gear, workers still outside could barely function. One by one, they were forced to retreat into shelters.

The world aboveground was almost completely silent.

Two hours later, a storm arrived—an overwhelming force that darkened the sky.

Howling winds tore through the city, ripping apart streetlights, signs, and even some weaker buildings.

A torrential rain of sand and gravel followed, battering the earth.

Inside the underground shelter, on the second floor, Su Wu rushed to the control center.

An artificial intelligence alarm had warned him of the approaching disaster.

Seated in front of the console, he stared at the surveillance feed, his expression grave.

Beyond the shelter walls, the world was chaos.

The distant mountains had vanished behind a wall of swirling yellow sand.

On the gravel beach nearby, fist-sized rocks were being torn loose from the ground, rolling wildly in the wind.

Occasionally, the strongest gusts sent them flying like bullets, slamming into the farmyard walls and leaving shallow marks.

Then—

Snap!

A sharp crack rang out.

A camera mounted on the residential building had been struck by a falling stone.

Under the impact, the lens shattered instantly. The video feed cut out, leaving only the audio—an endless transmission of the howling storm.

"The wind force is approaching Level 11," Su Wu muttered, his gaze shifting to another intact camera feed.

His concern deepened.

After a moment of thought, he decisively sealed off all passages to the outside.

He also ordered the engineering team on the fourth underground floor to halt all excavation work.

With their small, toy-like transport vehicles, stepping outside now would be suicidal.

One strong gust could send them tumbling—or worse, lift them straight into the sky.

Better to wait it out.

As for the steel and cement stacked in the yard, the old appliances, the van parked in the makeshift carport, and the various materials stored in the two-story residential building…

There was no time to secure them.

They would have to rely on luck.

"I hope they make it through this," Su Wu murmured to himself.