RHWHEG – Chapter 70 Auxiliary AI

Above Shajia Ancient Town, the massive air vent of the Eight-Legged Frostfall faced the tiny humans below. Even knowing it was not an eye, the survivors on the ground still felt a bone-chilling dread, as if they were being stared at.

There were so many people gathered in the open area that there was barely room to stand. Some turned back and discovered that the café on the slope had vanished, which shocked them even more. If they hadn’t all been holding cups of coffee, they might have thought the café had been nothing but an illusion.

“We need to leave quickly and find somewhere to shelter from the cold—and… it’s almost dark…”

“The subway has returned to its original state; there’s no way through. Our best option is to head to the downtown community mentioned in the broadcast.”

“Vellu City action teams, stay close—don’t fall behind!”

The most effective way to fight the cold was to move together. After several rounds of trial and error, people quickly found the most efficient formation. They split into groups of a hundred, moving in near-circular formations. One cruel reality was that there were no elderly people or severely injured patients within the groups—those who couldn’t survive the disaster strikes or the low-temperature explosions had already died. Those who remained all had decent physical fitness. Thus, everyone—regardless of gender—took turns rotating to the outermost layer to resist the cold. Ability users were evenly distributed across each layer. Only the children at the very center were the safest. If a small society had no children, the group within would soon collapse.

The other survivors from Jiangbei City also quickly banded together. Without such clearly defined roles, they used “pointing out directions and leading the way” as bargaining chips to exchange for some shelter from Vellu City.

The route from Shajia Ancient Town to the city center had been cleared many times. During the period of extreme heat, people had needed to move while hiding in building shadows, severely hindering travel. Now that temperatures had dropped—and the farther from the Fourth Ring, the warmer it became—by the time they reached the Second Ring, temperatures were already above freezing. The available paths were much wider. With many companions traveling together, courage grew with numbers; those who could walk did so as quickly as possible, and the crowd forcibly trampled a road through the ruins.

Meanwhile, Yu Qunqing and his group had yet to set off. Lin Luyi pulled out two battered heaps of scrap metal. Yu Qunqing almost couldn’t recognize them as cars, but he still chose to place them in the first workshop of the repair factory to see just how powerful its repair capabilities were.

The first workshop was the cleaning bay. The lift platform carrying the wrecked car rose half a meter, and numerous pipes extended from the sides, spraying water uniformly over the vehicle and washing away heaps of dust. Then cleaning foam submerged the scrap entirely, while brushes of various shapes scrubbed off stubborn grime. After that, over a dozen mechanical claws extended from the workshop, using professional instruments to dismantle all the vehicle’s parts, beginning rust removal, disinfection, drying, resurfacing, and repainting. In no time, a pile of scrap metal was transformed into clean individual components.

A machine nearby spat out a long list:
“Detected excessive missing components in this vehicle. Would you like the repair factory to supply the missing parts? If yes, payment of 32,565 building materials is required. If no, the repair will be terminated.”

Yu Qunqing had already promised to run an event, and now he had plenty of money, so he naturally chose to pay.

The pile of parts was quickly sent into the second workshop for assembly.

After passing through all six workshops of the repair factory, a brand-new Volkswagen was slowly lifted to the ground by the platform. Yu Qunqing then began repairing the next wrecked car.

During this time, the Klein Bottle barged in to join the fun. Yu Qunqing grabbed it by the back of its neck—its “neck of fate”—to keep it from interfering with work. He suddenly recalled the previous performance of the Mind Library and felt that these people might still be useful. Perhaps they weren’t meant only to serve as cat servants.

But if he wanted to use them safely, he would have to break them up.

And to make those sixteen people obedient, he would have to take the Klein Bottle away. The Klein Bottle was too dangerous; it had once harmed community residents, and bringing it into the community would only cause unnecessary panic. So Yu Qunqing bought the house next door, planning to place the Cat Villa there and restrict the Klein Bottle’s movements at the same time.

He converted the Cat Villa into a kitten box, then packed the Klein Bottle inside. Once everything was done, he finally bid farewell to Server Two and followed behind the last of the four thousand people together with She Lulang and the others.

All disasters along the road had been thoroughly cleared, so they traveled leisurely. Yu Qunqing opened the game and casually played a round or two along the way. Perhaps it was the confidence that came from spending money—he felt that the match-three levels were nothing special. One step short of completing a clear? He had money. He’d already bought one extra-moves pack but miscalculated and needed to buy another? No problem—he had money. A bad opening that looked hard to clear? He still had plenty of money.

At first, Yu Qunqing had intended to be frugal, but once spending started, that impulse—that joy—could turn any player into a devil. Mediterranean Butler: Match & Clear finally became Players Love Spending.

Massive spending brought massive amounts of hexagrams. Yu Qunqing took the opportunity to refurbish the community again while on the road.

The next area to be developed was a small plaza near the central fountain. The fountain no longer sprayed water; ice covered its basin, with only a trickle of living water still flowing. Following the direction of that water, a new landscape emerged in the community: a large lotus pond. A winding covered corridor was built over the pond, with an octagonal small plaza at its center. A two-story building in an antique style had been newly constructed there.

The downtown community was originally positioned as a high-end residential area, so it had many flashy but impractical features. This two-story ancient-style building had originally been nothing more than a bland photo spot. Yu Qunqing felt that his buildings couldn’t be wasted like that, so he converted it into the Property Management General Office and Broadcasting Room. Now the crocodile had one more place to bask in the sun, and broadcasters from various channels no longer had to crowd into research rooms or their own homes.

The surrounding lotus pond presented a strange “icy lotus pond” scenery. Broken ice mixed with flowing water rolled over the muddy ground, while the lotus leaves remained lush and thriving. If the crocodile wished, it could roll around freely inside without being noticed.

Beside the property building plaza was a wide driveway, leading down to an underground parking lot. Alongside the driveway were shared electric scooter stations and charging piles. Residents could use the scooters to quickly traverse Square Snake Avenue. The plaza beside the driveway was neat and square, extremely spacious, with several large streetlights scattered around. At the very end of the plaza were tiered seating steps. This had once been the community’s event venue, with no additional functions—clearly, the game had no intention of adding more decorations.

By this point in the renovation, over half of the community’s ten-thousand-plus square meters of gardens had been completed. From the eastern gate to the central fountain in sequence were the café, small clinic, trading center, children’s entertainment area, reading nook, property building, and square plaza. They were not arranged in a straight line; instead, hills and water channels lay between them, creating varied distances and winding paths.

“But with over four thousand new people… the community’s residential buildings don’t seem sufficient,” Yu Qunqing thought of another issue.

The downtown community had only four residential buildings, each thirty-three stories tall. After deducting four floors of public areas and rooms used as shared research labs, the number of livable rooms wasn’t that high. The rooms were fairly large—cramming in a dozen people was easy—but everything had its limits. What about the rest?

As Yu Qunqing pondered this, he collected crops from the Penguin Farm, replenishing the community’s warehouses.

At this moment, the hundred-person action group at the very front had already spotted the silhouette of the community. They detoured slightly to avoid an area with an obviously extremely low temperature—apparently, low-temperature explosions weren’t limited to just one place. They felt a bit worried, but upon seeing clear signs of human habitation, they quickly relaxed.

“Their barricades are really solid!” someone said, even without seeing the community yet, as if to encourage themselves.

Outside the community were super-long barricades built by residents, studded with many barbs—not only blocking disasters but also deterring ill-intentioned humans. They followed the barricades toward the eastern gate.

Some community residents, knowing there was a hundred-strong refugee group outside, immediately rushed over to introduce the community to them. After all, introducing a new resident came with crocodile subsidies!

The residents of Vellu City were moved to tears by such a warm welcome, touched that such warmth could still exist in the apocalypse.

One of the refugees asked, “Who is your shelter’s administrator? Where is your AI, and when can we register our information?”

“Shelter administrator? Uh… Crocodile Immortal?” The community residents hadn’t visited real shelters much and didn’t quite understand what the Vellu City people meant. They casually pointed and said, “He’s pondering by the fountain.”

When the people from Vellu City saw the giant crocodile clearly, their expressions changed.

More people noticed how unusual this community was. It actually had greenery? And the renovations were well-preserved, as if someone were maintaining them regularly.

“This style that preserves the pre-apocalypse look… it’s very similar to the café near the Fourth Ring!”

Some sharp-eyed people had already spotted it. The plaza closest to the eastern gate was the café plaza. And the café’s icon—two fishtails encircling a game console—was extremely eye-catching, exactly the same as what the Vellu City survivors had seen near the Fourth Ring.

As evening approached, most community residents had returned. They met the second wave of Vellu City survivors at the gate and enthusiastically guided them inside. Some residents who failed to “grab” new arrivals complained loudly, while the Vellu City survivors told them there was still a large group behind them.

“That’s good,” the community residents said, still unaware of just how massive the incoming crowd was.

When the second group of survivors entered through the central fountain entrance and heard the community rules, they found them unbelievable. Vellu City had no strange crocodile beliefs, so they were skeptical for the moment.

Then a survivor with a bulging backpack spotted the charging piles nearby and immediately ran over, shouting, “There’s power! Our AI can wake up!”

“What AI? What did you bring into the community?” The community residents also found these outsiders strange and quickly called over the leaders of their respective factions to take a look.

The Vellu City survivors produced a spherical machine, half a meter in diameter and looking quite heavy. It was one processor of the shelter’s auxiliary AI. The AI’s main body was enormous, about ten meters in diameter. After the Vellu City shelter was breached by disaster, some people could only dismantle and carry away the more important processors while fleeing, hoping to find a new place to reestablish a camp.

Before everyone’s eyes, the Vellu City survivors used the car charging piles to fully charge the AI. Purple light flashed from the spherical machine, and a cold mechanical voice spoke:

“Shelter auxiliary AI has booted. Serving the survival of all humanity. May humanity forever maintain unity, rationality, and hope.

Multiple functions damaged. Initiating self-check. Self-check failed.

Initiating environmental scan. Please wait—”

“What are you all crowding around here for!”

The leaders of several small factions finally arrived: the Foundation’s Fishman and Two-Faced Man; the Student Council’s Yao Linlin and Gu Tian; and two powerful ability users from the Polar Bear Company. Everyone present clearly heard the auxiliary AI’s broadcast:

“Scanning disaster density within a 1-kilometer radius.

F-level: density 0%.

G-level: density 0%.

H-level: density 0%.

Unmeasurable-level disaster detected. Density 100%. Nearest distance: 0 m. Danger confirmed. Please evacuate immediately. Initiating shutdown—”

“Beep—shutdown complete.”