Chapter 533 - 339: Extreme Cold, Global Freeze, Everyone Hunkers Down for Winter
Chapter 533: Chapter 339: Extreme Cold, Global Freeze, Everyone Hunkers Down for Winter
Not long after she arrived, the spatial rift collapsed.
However, Luo Feifei had already marked its coordinates. Perhaps she would have a chance to return in the future.
’So this is the Black Mist Star Realm.’ Her current location was at least several light-years away from the previous coordinates, according to the displacement record on her Space-Time Anchor.
Once the two coordinates were "lit up," a simple "Star Map" took shape. ’Well, a Star Map with only two points on it, anyway.’
Luo Feifei gazed at the churning black mist around her. It was so dark she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Fortunately, her Insight Superpower was still usable.
After reaching the Saint Tier, her Insight Superpower could easily detect any movement within a radius of dozens of kilometers.
Furthermore, her many Water and Ice Superpowers had merged, forming a single Great Lifebound Rune named "Vast Ocean Ice Extreme: Celestial Wall Return Tide." As a result, her various abilities, such as Water Escape, Ice Escape, Frozen, Yunmeng Marsh, and the Sea Heart Chain, had all been significantly enhanced.
She was currently on an ice plain. It was dark and frigid, the environment extremely harsh—at least fifty to sixty degrees below zero Celsius, completely unsuitable for human survival.
Moreover, there was no air, but there was a dense concentration of Extraordinary Particles.
As a Saint Tier, she could survive without air.
As Luo Feifei explored this new world, she soon encountered a nest of Exotic Beasts. Fortunately, they weren’t particularly powerful, and after a fierce battle, she exterminated them all.
These Exotic Beasts were the offspring of some unknown type of Space Exotic Beast. Luo Feifei didn’t recognize them, but they were incredibly ferocious. The moment they spotted her, they swarmed forward to attack, so she didn’t hold back.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have a system, so killing Exotic Beasts didn’t grant her any Achievement Points or Spiritual Medicine. Still, it was a good opportunity to hone her Martial Arts and superpowers, so it wasn’t a complete waste.
For instance, she comprehended a unique technique, the "Ice Soul Divine Needle," allowing her to simultaneously unleash ten thousand Ice Needles, each imbued with the Sharpness Superpower. While the power of a single Ice Needle wasn’t immense, it was an incredibly practical Group Attack Skill.
...
On Earth, winter arrived earlier and was far colder than in previous years.
The entire globe was frozen.
This year, Sichuan Province wasn’t much better off than the ice plain where Luo Feifei was. The lowest nighttime temperature reached around fifty to sixty degrees below zero Celsius.
It was slightly better during the day, but temperatures still hovered around thirty to forty degrees below zero.
During the first year of the great global snows, Singapore only saw light snow for a day or two, and it melted quickly. This year, however, the temperature in Singapore dropped to over ten degrees below zero Celsius, and numerous ice floes appeared in the sea. While the Malacca Strait hadn’t frozen solid, from a distance, it was already starting to resemble a frozen port.
The situation in the strait south of New Zealand and Australia was even more extreme. The ice was tens of meters thick, as if the entire Antarctic ice shelf had expanded outward by several thousand kilometers.
Massive icebergs dotted the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. The seas near the coastlines were frozen solid.
A Russian netizen posted: "Haha, let’s all go looking for ice-free ports! Let’s count how many are left. We search every year and never find any. Now everyone’s finally in the same boat as us."
Russia has a vast coastline, but unfortunately, most of its ports freeze over every winter, leaving only a handful of ice-free ones. They finally felt a sense of vindication now that everyone else was in the same predicament.
An Indian netizen replied: "So what? We still have five ice-free ports. You Russkies don’t have a single one now."
The Russian netizen shot back: "And what good are they? You dare to set sail in this weather?"
In such severe weather, ocean trade had come to a near standstill, and netizens across the globe began hunkering down for the winter together.
Netizens from the Northeast began sharing their tips for weathering the winter.
For example, there was a guide on "Heated Brick Bed Modifications."
A netizen from Liao Province, @SnowfieldHunter, posted a tutorial video on building a brick kang, a type of heated bed. Holding a shovel, he demonstrated how to use a mixture of straw and clay to pack the insulation layer.
"Listen up, folks! Remember to build the flues in a winding pattern. Burning two bundles of corncobs will keep you warm all day long!" From off-camera, his wife yelled, "The pickled cabbage stew is ready!" As she lifted the wooden pot lid, a cloud of steam fogged up the lens.
Someone immediately reported the video, because the brief glimpse of the wife’s face and her distinctive voice were suspiciously similar to "Sister Yu from the Northeast."
Soon after, the account was banned. The platform’s administrators confirmed that it was, in fact, Sister Yu.
Netizens erupted in discussion. ’Damn, does Sister Yu really need to make a living this way? It’s been years, and she still won’t quit.’
’Some of these netizens are too much. They’re dead set on reporting every new account she makes. Can’t they just let her make a living?’
A blogger from Hei Province live-streamed outdoors in -72°C weather, showcasing his "Cellar Treasure-Hiding Technique." The guy, wearing a thick fur hat, swung a pickaxe with all his might against the frozen-hard ground.
"See that? Dig three meters down, and the temperature stays at a constant zero degrees Celsius!" The camera then cut to the inside of the cellar, revealing neat stacks of Chinese cabbage and vats of kimchi. In a corner, frozen fish stood upright in an iron bucket like statues.
Netizens marveled. ’Can it really stay at a constant zero degrees?’
Then, a father and son from Ji Province were shown building a domed hut from snow bricks in their yard, which they dubbed their "Ice Fortress." The eight-year-old son, wearing rabbit-fur earmuffs, bragged as his breath puffed out in white clouds, "My dad says snow walls are better insulators than concrete!"
His father, with hands red from the cold, packed slush into the gaps between the ice bricks. Inside the hut, a pot of milk tea bubbled on a small iron stove.
Netizens from the south also shared their own unique tips for getting through the winter.
A netizen from Guangdong Province, @HandsomeAndCold, wailed on a forum: "My AC’s outdoor unit is frozen solid and on strike!" The post was accompanied by a picture of someone bundled in three layers of fleece pajamas, huddled next to an induction cooktop for warmth. A solution from a user in Jiangsu and Zhejiang quickly appeared in the comments: "Thaw it with a hairdryer, and remember to put a wind cover on it!"
A new genre of "Hotpot Saves the Day" posts emerged. A girl from Rongcheng posted a close-up video of a Chinese sausage that had frozen solid on her balcony. The video, which got a million likes, showed sparks flying as she tried to hack it apart with a kitchen cleaver. The scrolling comments were filled with jokes like, "Someone get this cleaver to the Antarctic research team!"