Chapter 3

The shelter is located on the third and fourth basement levels of the building. The crowd entering the shelter can quickly access it through the elevators, parking lot, and public access通道.

A few hundred meters is not far. Xia Anping moved quickly, and in less than two minutes, he rushed to Qingyun Central Road's Tieyun Building, guided by the navigation system. He was carrying a two-year-old boy and was accompanied by a middle-aged woman with a pale face. They entered the building's shelter through the rapid access通道.

The passage was flashing with red lights.

"Everyone, please enter in an orderly manner, do not crowd..."

"Everyone, please enter in an orderly manner, do not crowd..."

Several security guards in uniform were shouting through megaphones in the passage.

The surroundings were filled with panicked people. Xia Anping saw several female office workers who had lost their high heels while running and entered the shelter barefoot.

Several overweight men were sweating profusely, having undone their ties and shirt buttons.

When Xia Anping ran here, he saw a middle-aged woman with a child from a private car who couldn't run fast. He picked up the child and ran in with the woman. The child wasn't heavy, not much heavier than a food delivery.

Thanks to advanced technology, the space intrusion safety app can issue a warning five minutes before the monitoring satellites detect any gravitational anomalies. In the city, the distance to the nearest shelter assigned to each person by computers and big data is within a five-minute walk. As long as you enter the shelter within five minutes, you are likely to be safe.

However, there are always exceptions, and nothing is perfect. If there is no shelter near your location, or if a space intrusion occurs near you, or if, in rare cases, some space intruders can break through the shelter's sturdy defenses, or if you don't enter the shelter within five minutes, you can only rely on your own luck.

As soon as they entered the shelter, Xia Anping handed the child he was carrying to the pale-faced middle-aged woman.

"Thank you, thank you..." The woman tightly hugged her child, tears of gratitude streaming down her face.

"You're welcome!"

The underground shelter was like a large isolation chamber. The Tieyun Building's underground shelter was divided into four sections. The crowd entering the shelter was分流ed at the entrance and entered four isolated shelters.

This design was to ensure the safety of the people in the shelter in case of an emergency. For example, if a monster could break through the several meters thick concrete protective layer and the steel safety door of the shelter, it would only be able to enter one isolation chamber at a time, leaving the other isolation chambers safe. This design is similar to the watertight compartments in a ship, where one compartment flooding does not sink the entire ship.

Xia Anping and the middle-aged woman entered Shelter No. 2. Shelter No. 2 was brightly lit, about the size of four basketball courts, but the ceiling was not high, only about three meters. People kept entering, and in a short while, about five to six hundred people crowded into Shelter No. 2.

"The shelter passage is about to close, the shelter passage is about to close..."

When the five minutes were up, the steel door of the shelter slammed shut, isolating the shelter from the outside. The people inside the shelter breathed a sigh of relief.

To prevent rumors from causing panic, all cell phone signals were cut off in the shelter. There were screens inside the shelter to relay messages and notifications from the National Order Committee and the government. Everyone had to wait for the announcements.

People could only leave after the space intrusion was resolved.

The shelter was chaotic, and it was difficult to calm down. Some people were sobbing softly, while others were looking for their lost wallets, phones, and shoes...

Xia Anping found a secluded corner, leaned against the wall, and sat down, waiting quietly.

When the space intruders would be eliminated and when they could leave depended on the severity of the intrusion. It could be a few hours, a few days, or even longer, which would be a complete disaster.

Public shelters generally have food and water reserves to sustain people for half a month to a month.

Large public shelters are even connected to the supply warehouses of large supermarkets and underground emergency passages.

In just a few minutes, Xia Anping heard faint explosions from outside. As soon as the sound came, the noise in the shelter stopped instantly, and the entire shelter fell silent. Even those who were sobbing softly and those looking for their belongings stopped.

"Unmanned drones, it must be our drones that arrived first, already clearing the space intruders outside..." A man in his forties sitting next to Xia Anping swallowed and whispered, seemingly experienced in dealing with space intrusions. "In the city, the Order Committee's drones can arrive at the scene of a space intrusion and launch the first wave of attacks immediately..."

"The explosion was so loud that it could be heard in the shelter. It might have been a high-altitude thermobaric bomb, the sound coming from the sky..." A man with glasses pushed his glasses up and whispered, "Drones won't drop high-explosive bombs in densely populated urban areas or areas prone to fires. If it's in the city, drones will use more precise blade missiles..."

"Everyone will be fine..."

Just as the man finished speaking, the lights in the shelter flickered, and the entire shelter plunged into darkness, causing some people to scream.

Two seconds later, the dark red emergency lights in the shelter turned on, and a voice came from the loudspeaker.

"Everyone, please don't panic. To prevent fires, the public power supply in the city has been cut off. The emergency generators in the shelter have been activated, and everything is normal. Please wait patiently..."

The commotion in the shelter finally subsided.

Xia Anping, sitting in the corner, closed his eyes and focused his attention. In just a few seconds, a clear image appeared in his mind...

It was the scene outside the building.

In just a few minutes, the streets outside the building were empty. Cars were parked everywhere, and it was still raining. Dark red clouds were rolling in the sky, like tornadoes and octopus tentacles, extending from the sky to the ground...

Swish...

A shrill whistling sound filled the air.

Two drones flew past the building's rooftop, one on each side, heading toward the swirling dark red clouds in the sky.

After flying a kilometer, the drones' wings flashed, and two missiles streaked through the air, heading toward the rolling dark red clouds.

Two huge, blinding explosions erupted in the dark sky, and the sound of the explosions echoed through the city, like thunder. The glass in the windows of a distant high-rise building shattered.

The two cloud tendrils extending from the dark red clouds were severed by the explosions.

Red rain and chunks of flesh fell from the sky.

After a dozen seconds, the sound of the explosions reached the shelter.

...

Amidst the thunderous explosions, on a street about a kilometer away from the Tieyun Building, dark red clouds were rolling. After the clouds dissipated, over twenty magic rats suddenly appeared on the ground.

These magic rats were larger than lions, with a body length of nearly two meters, excluding their tails. They had blood-red eyes and sharp teeth...

The magic rats paused for two seconds, surveying their surroundings, and then scattered in all directions.

One magic rat charged like a rhinoceros, smashing a parked car and disappearing down the city street in a blink.

Two magic rats broke through the doors of a nearby hotel and rushed inside...

One magic rat was a bit slower. Just as it had taken a few steps, a whistling sound came from the sky, and a blade missile struck it, slicing it into a pile of blood and flesh, leaving only a crater on the ground.

Several helicopters flew in from the distance. As they hovered in the air, they dropped ropes, and teams of black-clad, fully armed special forces rappelled down.

One team entered the hotel, while others pursued the other magic rats.

More helicopters kept arriving, dropping teams of fully armed special forces in the area where the magic rats appeared.

Xia Anping saw a man in a black leather coat and sunglasses, in the midst of the rain, jump from a helicopter about ten meters above the hotel roof without holding onto a rope, landing steadily on the roof and then vanishing into the hotel.

A few seconds later, intense gunfire erupted from the hotel.

A short while later, the window of a room on the third floor of the hotel shattered, and a magic rat leaped out, landing on the ground.

The man in the black leather coat and sunglasses, who had been chasing the magic rat, leaped from the third-floor balcony, firing his black short-barreled hunting rifle in mid-air.

The magic rat's body erupted in blood, its skin torn open.

Seeing the man approaching, the magic rat turned to flee.

"Fire..." The man, still in mid-air, pointed at the magic rat with his free hand and shouted a single word. A fierce flame suddenly erupted on the waterlogged ground, engulfing the magic rat.

The magic rat screamed, turning into a burning torch, and the surrounding water vapor instantly evaporated.

The man in the black leather coat and sunglasses landed steadily on the waterlogged ground. The burning magic rat turned to ashes in an instant.

Suddenly, the ground bulged, and chunks of brick and soil flew into the air...

A monster, about five to six meters long and as thick as a gasoline drum, with a worm-like body and a head full of sharp teeth, emerged from the ground, opening its mouth to bite the man in the black leather coat and sunglasses.

The man fired his large-caliber pistol, the bullets striking the monster and sparking, but the monster was unharmed. Its skin was covered in a thick layer of quartz, like armor.

Seeing the monster's mouth open, the man leaped backward with incredible agility, landing on the second-floor balcony of the hotel. He then raised his hand and shouted, "Slave Soldier!"

A flash of light appeared on the ground, and a naked-footed, red-glowing, fur-clad, spear-wielding, muscular ancient warrior appeared in front of the worm-like monster.

The summoned warrior swung his spear, and the spearhead pierced the monster's body, green blood spraying everywhere. The blood corroded the ground, creating pits, and even corroded the roof of a nearby car.

The monster turned and swallowed the summoned warrior whole.

A few seconds later, the monster's body began to convulse, rolling on the ground and destroying the hotel's flower beds. But before it could roll far, a dagger pierced its abdomen, and with a slash, the monster was cut in half, falling to the ground.

The summoned warrior, covered in green blood, emerged from the monster's belly, took a few steps, and then dissipated into red light, leaving only the monster's corpse on the ground.

...

By the time the team that had rushed into the hotel withdrew, only seven of the ten members who had entered came out, three of them injured and covered in blood, one with a severed arm carried by another member.

A helicopter landed, picked up the injured members, and quickly left.

The rain intensified...

As the man in the black leather coat and sunglasses led his team to pursue another magic rat, he suddenly stopped, turned, and looked in Xia Anping's direction.

This glance felt like a direct encounter, and Xia Anping felt that the man in the black leather coat and sunglasses had seen him.

Xia Anping was slightly startled.

Still in the shelter, Xia Anping opened his eyes and whispered, "Is this a summoner? So strong, he can even see me..."

Xia Anping closed his eyes again, and a few seconds later, Xia Ning's face appeared in his mind. Seeing that Xia Ning was indeed in the school's shelter, he felt relieved.

Xia Anping opened his eyes again and then closed them, truly resting against the wall, waiting for everything outside to end.