HLM – Chapter 159 The Great Earthquake

The tremor didn’t last long—it came swiftly and left just as fast. By the time Wang Bo had reached the inner courtyard, the castle had already stopped shaking, and the agitated Zhuang Ding and the Queen had calmed down.

“Is everyone alright?” Charlie asked as he looked around.

Wang Bo gradually calmed down too. The castle was unscathed—not even a single stone had fallen. He said, “Looks like this wasn’t a serious earthquake. Bowen, call the guys down below and check how they’re doing.”

The others began to relax as well—especially Bartier and Kobe, the local New Zealanders who had lived in the country for decades and had grown numb to earthquakes.

New Zealand is famously earthquake-prone. Situated between two major tectonic plates, it lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a fault zone where the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate collide and subduct into a superheated, high-pressure region called the mantle.

According to statistics, New Zealand experiences around 20,000 earthquakes a year—most are imperceptible, and only a few are strong enough to be felt. This was Wang Bo’s first time experiencing one.

So, once everyone had calmed down, Kobe reached out his hand and grinned. “Hey, boss—welcome to one of New Zealand’s signature thrills. Did the quake shake you up good?”

Wang Bo gave a wry smile. “Shook me up so much I nearly twisted my back.”

Just then, Bowen said a bit nervously, “Boss, I tried calling twice—couldn’t get through.”

Although the castle was halfway up the mountain, the nearby city of Oakville had a telecom tower, so cell signal was usually strong. If calls weren’t going through, the base station was likely affected.

Wang Bo wasn’t sure what this meant, but Bartier gave the towering castle a thoughtful look and said, “Wang, this quake might not have been a small one.”

He knew that any quake strong enough to disrupt a cell tower and shake a mountain castle likely wasn’t minor.

Aftershocks usually follow a quake, but there didn’t seem to be any here. Wang Bo jumped into the Marauder with Charlie, Bowen, and the others, heading toward the ranch.

The situation on his property was chaotic—prairie dogs and wild hares darted across the grasslands, and flocks of greyish-yellow pheasants and wild ducks flapped around near ground level in panicked flight. The farther they got from the mountain, the more severe the chaos became.

Wang Bo had to slow the Marauder down—hitting one of those animals could easily cause an accident.

The ranch had the most animals, but surprisingly, things were calmer here than elsewhere. The herds of cattle and sheep remained fairly quiet—only the deer were running around in alarm, though they still stayed within the ranch’s boundaries.

Wang Bo figured the Heart of the Ranch might have had a calming effect on the animals. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be this composed.

The six cowboys were all safe and standing in an open area, though visibly shaken. Understandable—some of the newly built block houses on the ranch had sustained damage, fences had toppled, and a window had even fallen out.

Seeing that the cowboys were unharmed, Wang Bo and the others finally relaxed. He asked, “You guys alright? No one hurt?”

Ian came forward and said, “Thanks to God, boss. We were just about to go inside and grab a drink when it hit. That was an earthquake, right?”

Like Wang Bo, these rough-and-tumble cowboys from Texas were experiencing their first quake.

What had panicked them was worry for Wang Bo and his team—not for themselves.

Once they confirmed everyone was fine, the thick-skinned cowboys got excited. They ran off to take selfies with the fallen fences, planning to post them on Twitter once the internet came back to show their friends and family the power of an earthquake.

With the cowboys accounted for, Wang Bo urged them to stay cautious and then drove toward town to check on things there.

He’d already checked the town layout using the sandbox system—the buildings were fine, and the block houses undamaged. But the gas station, still under construction, had an issue—the canopy that had just been installed had collapsed, likely delaying the project.

Several local residents were gathered along the road—currently the safest open space available.

At a crossroads, Hani stood anxiously scanning northward, his phone gripped so tightly it was slick with sweat. When he saw the Marauder, he rushed onto the road, waving his arms and shouting, “My son! What about my son?!”

Wang Bo climbed out, dragging Little Hani with him, and barked, “Your kid’s fine—you were the one nearly hit by our car!”

Hani hugged his son tightly, lips trembling. “God bless, God bless, God bless! Thank heaven you’re okay. Thank heaven!”

Little Hani, stiff in his father’s embrace, slowly relaxed. In a low voice, he asked, “Hey old man… you alright?”

Wang Bo found the soldier and his son and asked, “Benjamin, you two okay?”

Benjamin, the burly soldier dad, grinned—his beard quivering. “Couldn’t be better. Honestly, we were inside and barely felt a thing. We only came out when we heard people yelling.”

The usually silent young Gerald actually spoke up for once. “That was a weird quake. We’re fine here—but the tremors near the gas station were terrifying.”

Wang Bo knew it wasn’t the quake that was odd—it was the Heart of the Homestead. That device reinforced the foundations of all block houses, making them much more resistant to shaking.

Anderson brewed a huge pot of coffee and came over, pouring cups for everyone. “Have some coffee and calm down. You’ll get used to it here in New Zealand—these little tremors are common.”

But this wasn’t a small quake—Bartier had guessed right.

About an hour later, Wang Bo finally got a call through. Sheriff Smith’s urgent voice came through: “Wang, are you there? Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine. What about you? And hey, the telecom tower’s fixed already?”

“Screw the tower!” the sheriff barked. “We’re in deep trouble here—6.5 magnitude earthquake! Worst one the South Island’s had in five years! Are you sure everything’s okay over there?”

Wang Bo replied that everything was in good shape.

“Good,” the sheriff said. “Buddy, we need your help with disaster relief! Bring everyone who can lend a hand—get over to Wanderer Town ASAP. Damn it, it’s the epicenter! My God—get here fast!”

After hanging up, Wang Bo immediately gathered Charlie and the others.

“Little Hani stays. Hani, get in—head to Wanderer Town. That’s the epicenter. It was a 6.5 magnitude quake.”

“Shit!”

“How can it be that serious?!”

“We’re over a hundred kilometers away and barely felt it!”

Everyone was stunned to hear it had been a magnitude 6.5 quake.