Doomsday Cat City Lord - Chapter 27.1

Pushing open the doors of the refuge point, the biting cold wind howled and lashed against the big cat’s cheeks. Within the range of its vision, the banyan trees swayed as if about to collapse. Before Mi Miaomiao could see the situation further away clearly, a fine, crisp tapping sound suddenly appeared in its ears.

The next instant, white ice particles pelted the big cat’s face along with the gale.

“Achoo! Achoo!”

“So cold, how could the temperature drop so fast?”

The hail was blocked outside the refuge point by the big cat’s body, but the storm tore through the gaps, bringing with it a shrill wailing that made its eardrums ache. The perceived temperature dropped rapidly.

Looking up, one could see white frost crystals condensing within the passageway, climbing toward the ceiling at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon to spread toward the living area.

“Miaomiao!” Close the door quickly!

Orange Fatty curled into a ball. Beside it, the two husky puppies and the three small antelope cubs couldn’t be woken up no matter how much they were called; their bodies felt icy and stiff to the touch.

Mi Miaomiao used its body to push the door shut, extending its claws to hook onto the latch. As it retreated to leave, a heavy tugging sensation came from its body a thick layer of white fur was left stuck to the metal door panel.

The outside of the triple-layer aviation glass windows was piled high with white ice particles; even if they didn’t frost over, the scene outside was invisible.

Opening and closing the door took no more than a minute in total, but the indoor thermometer had already dropped to -23°.

Mi Miaomiao walked into the hall. Many of the elderly, young humans, and animal cubs had already fallen into a coma.

“Difficulty breathing… head hurts a lot!” An old man clutched his neck, speaking with difficulty under the support of those beside him.

“My heartbeat is very slow, I can’t see clearly.” A middle-aged woman in poor health clutched her chest, her pupils dilated as she gasped for air unconsciously.

“Quick, help them warm up! This is a loss of blood pressure control, hypothermic coma, or even heart failure caused by the rapid temperature drop!” Hang Qiushi trembled as she helped an old lady with her father. As she spoke, a cloud of white mist exhaled from her mouth and nose. She had previously been a manager at a seven-star hotel; such emergency and first-aid common sense was always kept in mind, and she had to be re-assessed every year.

Everyone worked together to transport the uncomfortable humans and animals into a closed, small room, spreading carpets and thick quilts. Some rubbed their limbs, some performed CPR, and some hurriedly moved a heater inside.

After being plugged in, the electric heater emitted the sound of crackling electric sparks, but the screen didn’t light up; it remained slow to heat up.

“It’s not working, the heater can’t be used!” Sang Xuan pressed the adjustment button hard, so anxious that she didn’t realize her knuckles had been frozen into a bruised black by the metal.

Mi Miaomiao catalyzed the honeysuckle branches; the white petals curled up due to the cold. The healing energy entering the patients’ bodies could only alleviate bodily damage; it couldn’t retrieve the temperature gradually being lost from within.

Just then, the giant heater in the center of the hall clicked, quickly turning from red to black, and the lights overhead flickered a few times before slowly extinguishing.

In the suddenly dim space, two luminescent pasture grasses planted in advance emitted a faint white glow.

The thermometer on the wall displayed fluorescent green characters: -25°

Immersed in the darkness, anxiety and uneasiness were magnified; for a time, only the sound of rapid breathing could be heard.

“Woof-aow!” Everyone get away!

A ball of orange fire spread rapidly from a small point, and the room temperature rose sharply. A husky with a scar on its face stood up spiritedly, a flickering flame on top of its head. It shoved aside the crowded animals and humans, lying down beside the cubs with a proud posture.

The husky lowered its head to lick the fur of the cubs. After a moment, the little lion was the first to wake up, letting out a “chirp!”

After Cheng Feifei woke up, she turned her head to look at her mother the first chance she got. When she was about to touch Cheng Jin’s belly, she remembered that her hands were very cold and hurriedly put them back into the quilt.

Cheng Jin hugged her daughter tightly, tears of lingering fear slipping from the corners of her eyes.

The door to the small room was closed tight. In the hall, everyone found firewood prepared in advance and set up outdoor folding stoves near the ventilation ducts. The chimney was connected to the vent, and with the crackling sound of burning wood, the orange firelight warmed everyone’s stiff, pale faces.

The frost on the walls melted into water droplets, refreezing into ice as they slid down.

The indoor temperature rose slowly to -16° and didn’t move any further.

“Although the temperature has been dropping lately, I didn’t expect the temperature to drop like this. It really is the apocalypse; anything is possible. I wonder if we can survive this?”

“Don’t say disheartening things. We are well-prepared with winter supplies; we’ll be fine after tonight. The speed of the temperature drop has slowed down already. In the northernmost parts of Central Province, the average temperature in winter is minus 50 or 60 degrees. Before there was collective heating, humans all survived. We’ve even carried through the monster tide; how can a tiny drop in temperature stump you?”

A sturdy-looking woman of about fifty stood out, silencing everyone with a few words. Suddenly, they felt that their current situation really wasn’t that bad at least everyone had survived this sudden cold snap.

Lu Jiming nodded repeatedly, looking at the outdoor thermometer that the big cat City Lord had just hung up, which showed -26°. He wasn’t worried about his own safety, but he thought of his son who was on duty on the city walls. The more he thought, the more anxious he became. Unable to sit still, he stood up and suggested:

“I saw earlier that the winter supplies prepared for the duty station weren’t abundant. The lines are cut now, and we can’t get news from them. Why don’t we organize some people to see how things are at the foot of the mountain and send some heating supplies by the way?”

Several young people looked at each other and stood out voluntarily.

“No need for you to go. The hail outside is becoming increasingly dense; I’ll take a group of animals down to see.” A youthful voice, clear and pure to the point of being ethereal, suddenly sounded in the hall. The crowd was attracted by the strange voice, turning to see the giant cat City Lord walking out from the depths of the refuge area, carrying a large bundle on its back.

“Animals can choose to take on a human form after reaching Level 5; I gained the ability to speak ahead of schedule.” Mi Miaomiao nodded at everyone. Without translation and with unstable communicator signals, it was most efficient to speak out loud.

It felt fortunate that it had eaten a lot of crystals in recent days; there seemed to be signs of it growing up. Its voice wasn’t as youthful as it had been at the beginning it was slightly hoarse, as if it had entered the voice-change period.

Looking in the direction where it had come from, it could perceive the energy fluctuations from the advancement even from such a great distance. Xuan Yu’s aura was stable, and it could advance smoothly without Cheng Ningye’s assistance.

But for the time being, it couldn’t let anyone disturb it.

With just a glance, Grandpa Feng understood the cat’s meaning. It called out the three-colored cat and the gray tabby; the three cats took their respective cat beds and ran to guard in front of Xuan Yu’s door.

Xiao Tian, the ragdoll cat with thick fur, was the first to come to Mi Miaomiao’s side. Orange Fatty also shook its fat and stood up shakily: “Meow!” Your Orange Uncle also has the potential for fire-type ability! Wait for me to overcome the cold burn, burn, little flames!

The border collie Dongfeng, the two huskies, and the other few remaining animals all stood out.

Mi Miaomiao only let Dongfeng, the two cats, the two huskies, and a giant white poodle follow. The other animals either hadn’t reached Level 2 or were born with thin fur and simply couldn’t adapt to the extreme low temperature outside.

“You stay behind too; wait until the temperature stabilizes!” Holding down with one paw the husky that wanted to walk out of the small room, Mi Miaomiao and the animals changed into cold-proof and warm coats specially modified for them.

The tree wall blocked the passageway at the other end. Mi Miaomiao carried the supplies on its back and, with the animals, pushed open the door, rushing into the biting hail.

“Mom, the City Lord and the big doggies can both turn into humans. Are they the fairies from the storybooks?” A four- or five-year-old boy snuggled in his mother’s arms, his eyes fixed on the husky that was exposing its belly, tongue lolling out, and eyes rolling back.

“They are the best fairies, or kind elves angels guarding the baby.”

After the boy’s mother finished this sentence, she suddenly saw the lethargic husky quietly retract its face, lying on its side like a leader of a stray wolf pack majestic and domineering, yet tenderly licking the panda cub that had crawled to its leg to keep warm.

At this moment, only about ten minutes had passed since Mi Miaomiao opened the door to check the situation, but a layer of thick, small hail had already accumulated on the ground. Walking on it made a crunching sound, and one wouldn’t even sink into it.

The oncoming cold wind felt as if it were scraping through the marrow. Orange Fatty shivered its feet; its paw pads had been frozen numb.

Mi Miaomiao turned back to stuff the short-haired Orange Fatty into the luggage bag on its back. The remaining five animals were reasonably well-adapted to the temperature of minus twenty degrees.

With the big cat walking in the very front to block the cold wind, the one cat and four dogs followed by its side, walking slowly toward the foot of the mountain.

Hail particles the size of soybeans beat densely against the hard rubber hoods, sliding down the edges of the hoods. The view was jumping and blurred, and with every breath, cold air rushed in; every respiration felt like blades cutting through the nasal cavity and throat.

Mi Miaomiao used vines to weave a mask for itself and the other animals. Although breathing was still difficult, their sensitive noses wouldn’t be hit by the ice particles again.

On both sides of the road down the mountain, the roots of the banyan trees were wrapped in a layer of ice shells, which instead made them more stable in the gale.

With the protection of the trees, the team’s speed suddenly increased. In about five minutes, the firelight shining from the stone house at the city gate could be seen.

Dongfeng had just breathed a sigh of relief when everything before its eyes suddenly turned white. The sound of impacts on their hoods ceased, and large, goose-feather-sized snowflakes scattered in the gale.

The sound of the wind in their ears became increasingly shrill. Snowflakes swirled and landed on their bodies; there was no time or temperature for melting, directly condensing into a layer of ice crystals on their clothes and fur.

“Pick up the speed!” Mi Miaomiao frowned, increasing its pace. It directly used vines to tie the cats and dogs around it, not letting their feet touch the ground.

It wasn’t an accident; the cold wave had indeed appeared early. In its past life, it was clearly after the geomagnetic storm that the temperature suddenly dropped a week later.

[Host, I received a message from the world consciousness. After leaving behind the energy that could shroud the great banyan tree for 10 years, He prepared to use the remaining energy to weaken the power of the magnetic storm, but an accident caused the cold wave to arrive early. To express His apology, from now on, He will notify us one week in advance before the end of large-scale natural disasters that He can foresee.]

As long as the world consciousness wasn’t intentionally pitting them, Mi Miaomiao turned to think of something else even while facing the cold current that wanted to freeze it to the ground, it could still smile and reply to the system in its mind: “The world consciousness’s goal has actually been achieved. Under such low temperatures, the damage caused by the great geomagnetic storm will really be halved.”

012: […]

Still more than ten meters from the stone house, the wooden door suddenly opened from the inside. Lu Jia stood outside the door and beckoned them nervously. In just a fleeting moment, her hair and eyelashes had condensed a layer of frost.

Mi Miaomiao rushed into the stone house. Lu Jia wanted to close the door but discovered that her body had already been frozen in place.

“Cit…”

Mi Miaomiao set down the frozen cats and dogs. Vines wound around Lu Jia’s body, pulling both her and the wooden door into the house.

More tree vines blocked the gaps in the wooden door. The old Monkey King walked out from a small hut and quickly lit the extinguished fireplace.

Panda Luoyun hugged the cats and dogs into its arms, gently patting the frost off their bodies with its bear paws. As the room temperature rose, Lu Jia was the first to recover. She turned her head to look at the big cat.

Mi Miaomiao’s limbs and tail were hung with a thick layer of ice and snow, and its paw pads couldn’t be seen at all.

“Hoo! It’s fine, it can be cured immediately after the ice melts; it’s just some frostbite.” Mi Miaomiao took off the large bag on its back, moved with difficulty to the side of the fireplace, and explained again that animals could speak and turn into humans.

As the room temperature rose, the humans and animals hiding in the small room next door walked out one after another. Mi Miaomiao took a look the humans and animals were all there; it was just that the number of ants was uncountable, and it didn’t know if any were missing.

“Brought you clothes and charcoal; don’t skimp on it, keep the fire burning brighter tonight.” Knowing that firewood was scarce here, Mi Miaomiao had taken an extra pack from the warehouse midway. It was now enough for them to burn for two or three days.

Everyone helped the City Lord chip off the ice on its body with enthusiasm and gratitude, feeding it water and handing it food.

Communication was entirely cut off, they were trapped in the stone house and couldn’t leave, and there were swarms of monsters outside the city walls. Everyone had previously been filled with anxiety and despair.

Therefore, seeing the City Lord and the animals from the mountain risking danger to send them supplies at the fastest speed, the shock and joy of that moment were indescribable—it would likely be etched in their memories for a lifetime.

·

Watching the outdoor thermometer drop from -26° to -37 degrees, Deng Huai clutched a cup of hot tea, wrapped in a thick quilt, shrinking beside the fireplace. It took a long time for his numb feet to return to normal.

Ke Yi finished adjusting the data on the instrument and pressed the acceleration button, but the machinery didn’t move at all. He shook his body and checked the assembly line from beginning to end, finally saying puzzledly and helplessly: “The circulating water for cooling has frozen! And there’s antifreeze in here, too?”

“At this temperature, there shouldn’t be any need for cooling. Try heating it first; if that doesn’t work, remove this part of the process.”

Inside the mountain belly, to accelerate the artificial meat petri dishes, a large amount of heating equipment had been arranged. At this moment, all equipment was turned on, maintaining an average temperature of -5°. The reason Deng Huai was just frozen into questioning life was because he had insisted on going to the cave entrance to look at the hail.

Cheng Ningye took out a new batch of finished meat, glanced at the thermometer, and decided that the refrigerator wasn’t needed. He turned off the refrigerator’s power to save energy for the heater.

He turned to push a small cart outdoors for rapid freezing. Deng Huai, who had just recovered, leaned over to look again.

He pushed the cart out, pulled the cart back it took no more than 5 seconds. A cart of fresh meat, still with residual warmth, had become frozen meat harder than stone.

Deng Huai questioned life: “How low will the temperature eventually drop? Returning to the Ice Age—can humans really survive?”

“Minimum -55°.” Cheng Ningye was truly so annoyed by this person that his ears were about to grow calluses. After saying the answer, he looked at his shocked expression and felt great!

“No, how do you know that?!”

Sitting back down before the instrument, Cheng Ningye pulled up his scarf to cover half his face, bent down, and took a palm-sized geomagnetic measuring instrument from the cabinet—actually from the warehouse and threw it to Deng Huai.

“Magnetometer? Temperature change is related to the magnetic field? Why?” Getting the clue to the answer, Deng Huai collapsed even more!

Cheng Ningye closed his eyes, leaned against the back of the chair, and sighed comfortably!

[7 days until the magnetic storm arrives.]