RHWHEG – Chapter 87 A Vast Expanse of White

“Alert. Extreme-danger–level catastrophe detected. Jiangbei City Shelter entering emergency state—”

In the city-center residential district, the gigantic crocodile slowly crawled to the edge. Under the command of the various factions, the people behind it split into different teams.

The joints of Eight-Legged Frostfall’s legs emitted a chorus like chirping crickets, or fingernails scraping across a blackboard—piercingly shrill. The next second, it began to lift its legs and move! To it, those enormous long legs were no heavier than sheets of paper, stamping rapidly up and down like a tap dance. In theory, it lifted five legs while three provided support. But because it had yet to realize it was missing one leg, it would jam and stutter at certain moments.

“The catastrophe is leaving!”

Seeing how quickly Eight-Legged Frostfall was moving, with each stride covering a huge distance, some residents couldn’t help but breathe a long sigh of relief. It looked as though it would soon leave their living area; as long as they hid well, survival might not be impossible.

But with seven long legs and one short leg interlacing, Eight-Legged Frostfall did not leave quickly. Instead, it began circling the Fourth Ring Commercial Center! Missing a leg made its body unbalanced, greatly slowing its turning speed. Yet the dust it kicked up while “dancing” had already muddied the air of the entire Jiangbei City. Its enormous silhouette was hidden in the gray haze, accompanied by thunderous booms, like an invincible myth.

It circled the commercial center to hunt.

It had no brain. Its innate instincts told it that anything edible should be swallowed into its air sac, then hidden high in the sky for a good sleep. One more nap and it would grow even bigger. It sensed something very tasty nearby, but not knowing the opponent’s attack power, it circled to probe. If there was no response, it would gulp it down in one bite!

What Eight-Legged Frostfall sensed was, naturally, the system’s game entity.

It wasn’t picky. In its previous life, it sensed things inside the shelter, so it circled the shelter, indirectly burying many people under the rubble. Now it wanted to eat the Fourth Ring’s game entity even more—after that, it would find the Klein bottle, and then all the lower-level catastrophes. Not a single one of them would escape.

A howling gale swept in, snapping the clothes of everyone watching from the border zone. Many faces were covered with a layer of ashen bewilderment. They knew they couldn’t retreat anymore—but what were they supposed to do?

For Yu Qunqing, it was merely repeating something he had already done once before—and this time it would be easier.

“I’ll go deal with the Parasitic Book. Otherwise our logistics won’t be able to keep up,” Yu Qunqing assigned tasks on the spot. She Lulang was extremely fast; Lin Luyi could link into the mental network, making him perfect to go to the residential district and take command. The others stayed in the shelter to manage the somewhat chaotic residents, grouping them by housing units into squads, then assigning them to formations with different functions. Those high-level ability users who’d been idle the past few days formed a separate team, ready to rush to the Fourth Ring at the right moment.

Yu Qunqing had already written the plan to subdue Eight-Legged Frostfall while in the residential district. Now he was simply issuing tasks in order. He didn’t need everyone to trust him—only the few people he was commanding to listen.

The researchers equipped them with precious wireless pagers, which they had been modifying with the AI these past few days. At last, the entire command network was complete.

People came and went around Yu Qunqing. She Lulang appeared from the crowd and tossed him a weapons case. They were not only lovers who understood each other without words, but comrades fighting side by side.

Moved, Yu Qunqing said softly, “You have to come back safe.”

She Lulang felt a stir of emotion. “That doesn’t sound like you. You said you wouldn’t think too far ahead.”

Yu Qunqing had his own logic. “Just because I said that before doesn’t mean I never thought about it. I was worried that saying it out loud would turn it into a reverse prophecy, so I used that to comfort myself. Now I’m saying it because I’m afraid that if I don’t say it, you’ll disappear. I still have to say it so you can hear it…”

“Then you have to remember this too,” She Lulang said, pulling Yu Qunqing’s thoughts back on track. “You have to come back safe.”

Everyone’s tasks were heavy; there was no time for idle chatter. Fate was in such a hurry—yesterday they had been wandering about, and today disaster struck. No one could say where the next move on destiny’s chessboard would land. They could only trust each other, believing there would be a different future…

“Emergency state now in effect. All survivors, please prepare for combat. Administrators will assign tasks to everyone. Refusal of tasks will be regarded as betrayal of humanity, and all shelter rights will be revoked… May humanity win the dawn amid catastrophe.” The AI’s voice echoed through the shelter.

Yu Qunqing put on his cold-weather gear, grabbed the weapons case, and set off. He requisitioned a heavy shelter motorcycle and activated Mountain Road Motorcycle. Only he could go out so conveniently—and he was the best suited to deal with the Parasitic Book.

“It wants to eat my hardware! I’m furious!” Yu Qunqing finally had time to listen to the system’s chatter. “Watch me take it down! Contra! Beat Up Little Kids! Super Smash Celebrities!”

Yu Qunqing: “Are these new games you released?”

The system said shyly, “Uh… not that complex yet. I learned them from the AI database.”

“If Eight-Legged Frostfall attacks Match-Three Server Two with its legs, will you get hurt?” Yu Qunqing asked with concern. “Or can you move the game out of the way?”

“If a player uninstalls, the game hardware will disappear and can’t be downloaded again,” the system said. “But I still have learning成果. Please wait…”

Yu Qunqing rode alone through the wind and snow.

“Ding-dong! Game plugin! Enemy HP bar display! Download successful!”

“Players can now see enemy HP bars within ten kilometers outside the game, making it easier to allocate combat power more reasonably. Enjoy your game!” the system said with a hint of pride—this was an original plugin of its own! It was amazing!

Thus, above the rapidly moving Eight-Legged Frostfall, a long red bar suddenly appeared, almost spanning the entire Jiangbei City. As Eight-Legged Frostfall moved, the red bar swung left and right with it, dancing fiercely across the sky!

For a moment, Yu Qunqing didn’t know how to comment. The system meant well—but why did it make Eight-Legged Frostfall look even more terrifying?

The system explained its reasoning: “I found that all action mini-games have HP bars. Even though I can’t create action mini-games, I can give players the atmosphere of one!”

Yu Qunqing: “The atmosphere is definitely there…”

He scanned the surroundings and spotted another small HP bar in the distance, immediately realizing it was the Parasitic Book. This time his praise was more sincere. “You’re really starting to have the style of an original classic masterpiece.”

The system was very happy.

Yu Qunqing stopped not far away and chose a fire axe from the weapons case, convenient for prying doors open at any moment. All around him, the wind and snow howled. Here, the wind masked everything; hearing was completely useless. He could only rely on experience and on-the-spot reactions.

At last, he drew very close to the Parasitic Book’s HP bar.

After lifting a door panel, he saw… Han Shuzhu, whose head was blooming open.

Han Shuzhu’s face was no longer recognizable. Fine threads wove white flower patterns across it, with specks of phosphorescence inside. The Parasitic Book decided to enter dormancy first, transforming into the appearance of a disaster stone to escape Eight-Legged Frostfall this time. It was adept at concealment and would surely survive to the end.

In its previous life, it couldn’t even defeat Yu Qunqing when he was at a sliver of HP! Seeing Yu Qunqing now, the Parasitic Book became extremely wary; its first reaction was to immediately control the host and flee.

Yu Qunqing blocked its escape route and knocked Han Shuzhu down in a few swift moves. The Parasitic Book attempted a dying attack, springing straight toward Yu Qunqing’s face as white threads exploded outward to parasitize him. Yu Qunqing casually swung his axe—and the Parasitic Book splatted onto the ground.

It expressed disbelief. Translated, it meant: “Impossible! I implanted so many past tragedies into your mind! How are you still conscious?!”

Yu Qunqing said, “I remember these pains every single moment. I never woke up.”

He weighed the axe in his hand, gauging its heft and material, then released his ability. Amid flashing electricity, the catastrophe’s main body—only palm-sized—was crushed into powder.

He stared at the powdered remains for several seconds, seeming to think but actually spacing out. Before long, he calmly looked away, as if he had merely dealt with an ordinary catastrophe. The war that belonged to him was still very long.

Unexpectedly, Han Shuzhu still had faint signs of life. Yu Qunqing no longer cared, deciding to leave Han Shuzhu’s fate to providence. He hung Han Shuzhu up, then strode quickly toward the Fourth Ring.

In both the residential district and the shelter, the people who had been brainwashed by the Parasitic Book’s virus were finally freed. They regrouped and resolved to launch a final charge against Eight-Legged Frostfall. More than twenty thousand shelter residents and over four thousand residents from the district would fight for their own fate.

From the shelter to the Fourth Ring, residents were divided into squads as required, forming a long logistical line to supply ammunition and medical aid to the front. From the Fourth Ring to the residential district, several major factions led armed units along the direct transport road to the vicinity of the Fourth Ring, facing Eight-Legged Frostfall head-on. The enormous catastrophe seemed capable of shattering their courage with nothing but its footsteps.

She Lulang moved upstream along Crocodile River, directing the residential district’s people to detour toward the wetlands park.

In the closest combat zone, there were only a handful of Level-2 ability users. Fearful and confused, they wondered whether such low-level strength could really stand against such a colossal catastrophe. Then a long red bar suddenly appeared above Eight-Legged Frostfall’s head—what was that?! But if they fled, there was nowhere to retreat!

Suddenly, the pagers issued to them received a message. The new pagers had a very short signal range—this meant Yu Qunqing was nearby. Unconsciously, they felt more at ease and focused all their attention on listening to Yu Qunqing’s commands.

“Testing—can everyone hear me?”

Multiple overlapping lines came through Yu Qunqing’s pager. Fortunately, he had the system’s voice-to-text function, so he confirmed everything quickly—being even a second late could have caused panic.

“Sun Min, has your trap reached its destination?”

Building on the plan from his previous life, Yu Qunqing had optimized many details. Some of the group formations were inspired by city-level traps—after all, he had personally verified how practical those traps were.

Sun Min was assigned to the Level-1 trap division. Under her were twenty-two subgroups, each further divided into squads—the largest manpower pool. Their shared trait was that they were all LV1 ability users: no special combat skills, but strength far beyond normal humans.

“We’re moving into position. Waiting for the Eight-Legged Frostfall to pass…” Sun Min said. “Stop advancing—”

The Eight-Legged Frostfall thundered past a section of the Fourth Ring. In the next second, countless people sprang out from the sides. Small figures sprinted across the ruins, chains and pulleys in hand, rapidly assembling compound levers and locking them onto a massive steel plate on the ground. They were going to pry this collapsed wall completely open!

The Eight-Legged Frostfall moved extremely fast. Enduring the pressure pounding their eardrums, people heaved in rhythm, dragging the steel plate aside.

Beneath it lay layers of pipelines—and the deepest subway tunnel.

The Eight-Legged Frostfall was coming!

Everyone scrambled back behind hastily dug trenches, nearly blasted away by the震动 of its footsteps. The creature raised four legs at once, then stomped down hard—two of them jammed straight into the subway tunnel. The trap team exerted force again, sliding the steel plate back and locking those two legs firmly in place. Missing a leg, the Eight-Legged Frostfall staggered, as if reconsidering which leg to step with next; its severed limb flailed uselessly in the air.

“Ranged team! Open fire!”

Tons of ammunition poured onto the creature’s two legs. From a human perspective, they were aiming as high as possible—but to a calamity thousands of meters tall, human attacks were no more than a manicure.

“This monster isn’t reacting at all…”

After the first volley, only wisps of white smoke lingered on the surface of its long legs.

“No—there is a reaction!” someone shouted, pointing at the sky. “I know what that thing above its head is! It’s a health bar!”

Everyone looked up. That red bar stretching almost across Jiangbei City—did it look a little shorter?

What did it mean to have a health bar?

It meant the Eight-Legged Frostfall could be defeated!

Realizing this, the residents were instantly invigorated, as if injected with a stimulant. This nightmare would end!

“Don’t stop attacking,” Yu Qunqing reminded them. “The Eight-Legged Frostfall has no pain doesn’t mean it can’t be injured.”

“Continue the assault—”

“Bad news! It’s breaking free of the trap!”

At this scale, few things could fully restrain such a calamity—but Yu Qunqing had prepared more than one measure.

“Prepare the next round of control!”

060 swam out from the neighborhood’s formation, getting as close to the Eight-Legged Frostfall as possible. She tried to link with its brain, but connected only to emptiness. Left with no choice, she brute-forced her ability, flooding output until the creature noticed her insignificant presence, began to think—and froze.

“Eight seconds! I can only hold it for eight seconds!” 060 shouted.

A team of high-level ability users unleashed their attacks, aiming to cripple the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s mobility.

Eight seconds was far too short. Exhausted, 060 withdrew, and the creature began to move again. The Mind Library team stepped in. Fascinated by the novel “thoughts” suddenly appearing in its “brain,” the Eight-Legged Frostfall paused for another fifteen seconds.

Its health bar ticked down bit by bit. Seeing this change, morale soared.

“The system’s original content really is useful,” Yu Qunqing said.

The system always appeared as a blue screen. It replied, “Multiple game friends detected with sufficient mental strength. They have in-game difficulties and wish to seek assistance—but…”

Its tone shifted, becoming oddly human. “When this system transitioned to original games, it lost the ability to stitch together mini-games…”

“Then get some proper rest,” Yu Qunqing said. “Sleep early, grow tall.”

System: “One day I’ll download this whole place into myself!”

The Mind Library’s fifteen-second restraint ended.

The Eight-Legged Frostfall stirred, stirring up vast clouds of icy mist. From afar, a human figure climbed a high ruin, flipped the monster the middle finger—and leapt.

In the next instant, vines exploded outward, like a sinister wave blooming atop the ruins. Deep green stood out vividly against the gray fog, the vines once more binding the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s movements.

“Lin Luyi can only hold for six seconds!” Sun Min shouted. “Prepare the next attack—there are already many breaches on it!”

Now the Eight-Legged Frostfall had only seven legs left. The long legs flanking the severed limb were humanity’s targets—one assigned to the neighborhood, one to the shelter. The neighborhood had previously tried drilling holes into the creature’s remains; even tiny ventilation holes had taken ages. They knew better than anyone how terrifyingly hard this body was. To punch holes through those legs in such a short time—they had to go all out.

But their weakness was obvious: too few people. Many elderly and weak were still handling logistics. Just as the frontline began to feel exhaustion, reinforcements arrived.

“The shelter people are here too!”

“Damn—you’re still alive!”

They recognized acquaintances on both sides, emotions surging at the reunion—joy that they were alive, sorrow at how uncertain survival still was. Without a word, the two sides exchanged logistical support. Li Yue-bai drifted between the neighborhood and the shelter factions, and no one found it strange.

Lin Luyi exhausted himself back into human form, and Sun Min rushed to retrieve him. After that, there were no more long-duration control methods. The remaining ability users could only buy time second by second. Even so, the Eight-Legged Frostfall continued to struggle violently.

“There’s no time!” Dong Changxin shouted. “I’ll blast it first!”

She raised her sniper rifle, aiming at a damaged spot amid the storm. Pulling off her mask, frost instantly formed on her face as she rapidly judged the wind. In the gale, she pulled the trigger. A fifteen-centimeter conical bullet spun out, embedding exactly where she intended.

“So cold, so cold, so cold!” She ran to the rear, activating her ability on a specially made oversized cone.

The massive cone soared into the air, breaking the sound barrier over an extreme distance, as if heaven and earth were smashed by a colossal hammer. It pierced through the leg that pinned the Eight-Legged Frostfall, further restricting its movement.

Trailing from the cone’s tail was a long iron chain, extending all the way to Crocodile River. A dedicated team melted the ice, releasing torrents of water downstream. The chain was connected to heaps of steel scrap.

Yu Yanlan had overused her ability and was utterly drained. She could only speak to Tang Qianjiang beside her. “Is Yu Qunqing our shelter’s new administrator?”

“Almost forgot—Yu Qunqing is your brother,” Tang Qianjiang replied, unable to shut up. “You’ve got the credentials to slack off now.”

He was nervous too, words spilling nonstop. “This is my first time sustaining my ability for so long. How about the name ‘Tidal Surge’? Don’t think I don’t know you secretly call me Qiantang River. But this ability fits Qiantang River way too well, so I’ll endure it. Don’t let me down, big brother Ability…

Don’t let humanity down again…”

His murmurs scattered into the wind.

At last, Tang Qianjiang’s ability stacked to a terrifying magnitude. With a gentle push, the heap of steel scrap surged like a great tide, thousands upon thousands driving it downstream.

Gray ice shattered piece by piece. Thousands of tons of river water burst through the Quanzui Weir, roaring downstream while lifting the racing chain, accelerating it further. Crocodile River came alive!

The chain snapped taut in a straight line. Empowered by countless forces, it finally dragged the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s main body sideways. Its remaining five legs kicked high—it was going to fall!

“We did it!!!”

The cheers of over twenty thousand people tore through the blizzard, striking every heart. No matter how cold it was, hot blood surged endlessly from their hearts—every inch warm.

At this moment, half of the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s health bar was gone.

Pulled by irresistible gravity, it slowly—slowly—toppled to one side.

“Phase One complete. Initiating Phase Two,” Yu Qunqing’s voice remained calm amid the celebration.

The Eight-Legged Frostfall’s true body was a fuzzy, balloon-like mass. It fell so slowly because it was inhaling, filling itself to float again. The temperature had already risen noticeably. Once it finished inhaling, it would rise back to ten thousand meters, regrow all eight legs, and turn Jiangbei City into a furnace.

But having inhaled too much gas, its interior had become a terrifying high-pressure bomb. A single poke would plunge Jiangbei City—and dozens of nearby cities—into an ice age. Only detonating it on the ground could minimize the damage. To reach this point, they had already paid too high a price.

“Phase Two—everyone, run for your lives. Keep warm.”

From here on, sheer numbers could no longer solve the problem.

Yu Qunqing slung his bow case over his back, mounted a heavy Harley, and rode toward the calamity. Snow and wind swallowed his figure; no one knew as he passed by them.

The Eight-Legged Frostfall took more than ten minutes to finally hit the ground, landing softly with barely a sound. Its main body still stubbornly inhaled, eager to fly again.

Up close, its fur was covered in scales—its hardness evident.

“At this distance, with such a big target, I shouldn’t miss… right?” Yu Qunqing drew his bow. This arrow was special—one and a half meters long, as thick as a wrist. An ordinary person would feel back-breaking strain just holding it.

He thought he might have something like a victory speech to say—but nothing came. His mind was full of hoping She Lulang was safe; hoping this giant wouldn’t crush the system’s physical game core, or the system would definitely demand paid repairs; vaguely craving lamb hotpot—random thoughts. Unable to squeeze out a single dignified line, he gave up.

His lightning element ability was fully warmed up. Before the sky-blotting body of the calamity, a single spike carrying thunderous force gently pierced a hole. The Eight-Legged Frostfall’s air sac began to collapse, caving inward like a red blood cell. Then it rebounded—and exploded into fragments.

Within three seconds, a world-splitting roar like Pangu opening the heavens swept the land. Heat waves, snow waves, and steel torrents followed in succession—before calamity, even the strongest life was insignificant.

…

Twenty minutes later, Jiangbei City had been scoured clean inside and out by ice and snow. Heaven and earth were a vast expanse of white.

…

The remains of the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s main body were extremely thin. Like a hot-air balloon, once deflated it left only a bit of framework and skin. But at its center was a conspicuous bulge.

A perfect dodecagon, three hundred meters in diameter and twelve meters high.

It was the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s calamity stone.

“Ah—mm.”

A blue, unknown object suddenly appeared, struggling to expand itself, and swallowed the calamity stone in one gulp.