The more Yang Yang tried to hold back, the clearer Jing Shu could hear the excitement buried in his voice. She wasn't thrilled though. It felt like ten thousand wild horses were stampeding across her chest, leaving her breath short and her nerves tangled in knots. Her fingers tightened around the cold casing of her phone until her knuckles turned white.
According to her plan, she was supposed to wait at least a month or two before going to America with Yang Yang's group. That way she would be fully prepared and feel safer making the trip. She had envisioned a methodical departure, checking every piece of gear and every ounce of rations twice over.
The real issue was that the quakes in year three had only just begun. No one had figured out the pattern yet. It reminded her of when the floods first came. Everyone thought it would only last a few days, or maybe a month at most, but hidden dangers just kept piling up beneath the surface.
This year was full of accidents. In her past life, Su Yiyang's whole family had died in a quake, buried under the weight of a collapsed high-rise. In this life, she absolutely couldn't let that happen. Luckily, that tragedy was still half a year away, a time when people had already become hardened survivors. She believed her judgment, but she would have to keep that specific date etched in her mind.
The way things were now, every few days they had to evacuate again. The family shifted shelters like they were fighting a guerrilla war against the earthquakes, dragging their belongings through the mud and sleeping with one eye open.
She wanted to use the next couple of months to teach her family how to judge danger properly during quakes. She wanted them to recognize the specific vibration of the floor or the way the air shifted before a big jolt. Sure, after a few months of practice everyone would pick up survival skills on their own, but she wanted them ready sooner to give them another layer of safety.
She didn't want to go to America and come back to find her family wiped out. If that happened, living through the apocalypse would mean nothing. The thought made her stomach twist. On top of that, her parents' sudden job transfers made the third year feel even more unpredictable.
In her past life, at least she had known where the real dangers were, which let her act like she could foresee disasters with perfect clarity. This time, she had already changed the main storyline, so everything had shifted into unfamiliar territory. The butterfly effect was a jagged blade.
How could she feel comfortable leaving China for America under those conditions?
Another problem was her Cube Space hadn't leveled up yet, which meant she couldn't carry as much as she needed. The threshold felt like a physical wall she kept slamming against. Without enough supplies, she couldn't prepare properly for the unknown. If she was going to risk such a trip, she had to come back with significant gains. But if she got there and still couldn't upgrade the space, she would go insane with frustration.
All these worries kept her silent. The cold wind whipped around the base entrance, but she didn't feel it. After a long pause, she finally asked, "Didn't you say the beginning of the year? The new year has barely even started."
Her classmates around her perked their ears, listening to every word that slipped from her lips. Even though they were freezing, their breath coming out in white plumes, none of them dared to stomp their feet or make noise. They stood like statues in the grey light, afraid of disturbing her.
"Because the whole world is shaking," Yang Yang's voice was persuasive. "America's quakes have turned the place into chaos. When the enemy is in chaos, that's the time to strike. Miss this chance, and once things calm down again, we won't be able to stir the waters."
She had to admit, he had a point. Right now, in these first days of quakes, the whole world was in disarray, China included. China's plan had been simple: recover, plant crops, and make sure everyone could eat.
But with the quakes, farming was out of the question. First came disaster relief, then constant evacuations, all while the government still had to find a way to feed the people. Just thinking about the logistics made her realize how swamped the officials must be.
Russia, proud of its reputation as a nation of warriors, had actually organized squads to catch wild polar bears with their bare hands. They planned to either eat them or breed them for heavy labor. Then came the quakes.
Snowcaps collapsed with a roar that could be heard for miles. Avalanches buried border cities under tons of ice, and the polar bears were lost under the rubble. Goodbye to the bare-handed bear-catching plan.
And Japan? That poor island nation was already on its last legs. Less than one percent of its people were hiding in deep bunkers under Mount Fuji. The quakes threw their survival plan into chaos, the earth beneath the volcano groaning with tectonic pressure.
Rumor had it they were flying a perpetual motion aircraft built just for the apocalypse, staying in the air 24/7. They lived in the sky now, the metal hulls of the planes circling at low altitudes to dodge the massive lightning strikes that arced across the clouds.
So what about America? The people were out on the streets with banners, their shouts echoing against the skyscrapers as they demanded the president be replaced and that food be distributed. The brand-new president was scrambling to grab power and clean house, his authority crumbling before it even solidified. Local governments were busy fighting landowners. Unlike China, America's grain wasn't nationalized. It was all in the hands of private farm owners who sat on their hoards like dragons.
The farm owners? They were busy forming gangs, fighting the government, fighting the people, and fighting anyone who looked at their grain the wrong way. The conflict had exploded because the government tried to suppress food price hikes, cutting into the farmers' profits. In response, the farmers simply refused to sell, letting the silos sit full while the cities starved.
America had already been torn apart by two years of apocalyptic civil war. Even half-dead, the camel was still bigger than a horse. They hadn't been short on food yet, but the distribution had failed. Year one was a power struggle, and year two was about profit. Just when things had settled a little, people turned around and rioted about food again.
The public knew from the news that most of the world was starving, but developed nations with smaller populations and stronger industries were still okay. In America, plenty of farmers had hoarded stockpiles and even set up private armies. There hadn't been food shortages yet, and prices had stayed steady thanks to capital's control, but now even with money, ordinary folks couldn't buy a single bag of grain.
The people didn't care about the economics. They demanded the president give them food, no matter what the farm owners did. Otherwise, they would replace him. The new president hadn't even warmed his chair before he was buried under the weight of public outrage.
To make things worse, waves of Mexican and Cuban refugees were flooding in, their boats and trucks arriving in the dead of night. America tried all kinds of measures, but the sheer numbers made it impossible to stop them. In the darkness of the apocalypse, sneaking across the border was child's play.
So now, America was seeing endless robberies and murders every single day. The streets were a gauntlet of broken glass and spent shell casings. This was the most chaotic time in its history, capitalism's selfishness laid bare for all to see. If you didn't own a few guns and know how to use them, you couldn't even leave the house.
Compared to that, China's half-year of inhuman cruelty was nothing but child's play. Domestic chaos was like a third-rate martial arts flick. Abroad, it was full-on sci-fi gunfights with no rules. It wasn't even the same genre of disaster. But it proved one thing: China's security system was holding strong. Right now, America was the fattest sheep around, and plenty of neighbors were eyeing its resources hungrily. If they didn't go now, when would they?
"Alright," Jing Shu finally said, her voice serious. "Tell me the time. I will get ready as fast as I can."
"The earliest is the morning after tomorrow," Yang Yang replied, the static of the line crackling against her ear. "First we will head to the capital and meet with the main squad, then set off from there."