Within the territory of Jianghe City, along the Kuang River Basin.
Beside the frost-covered No. 6 communication signal tower stood a six-story military fortress.
Liu Yi, wearing headphones, stayed in his warm dorm room.
He gazed intently at the girl standing at the center of the spotlighted stage on his phone screen, the focus of everyone's attention.
Even several minutes after the girl had left the stage for more than ten seconds,
He finally sighed with reluctance, snapping out of the lingering resonance of her song.
"If only I could have been there to hear it live,"
"The effect would definitely be much stronger."
Liu Yi felt a sense of longing but not much regret.
Because this concert, held eight floors underground in a farmhouse courtyard,
Had tens of thousands of tickets distributed through an online lottery.
He had tried his luck using his registered resident status in Jianghe City but didn't win.
This meant that even if he weren't stationed hundreds of kilometers away from the farmhouse courtyard,
He still wouldn't have qualified to enter the concert venue.
Naturally, there was nothing to regret.
However, although he couldn't experience it live,
There were still other things he could do.
Switching apps on his phone,
Liu Yi, as expected, found concert-related merchandise in the shopping mall.
A commemorative badge, polished to a shiny metallic finish.
On it was a cute chibi-style girl drawn in a cartoonish manner,
Her expression vaguely resembling the girl on stage.
Above and below the image,
Were engraved the words "1st Concert" and "Xinyue."
Don't be fooled by the simple materials of this badge.
Before the apocalypse, its cost might not have exceeded ten cents.
But in the mall, even with the added value of being concert merchandise and a commemorative item,
Its price was still exorbitant.
It required the equivalent of 15 Workday currency or an equal amount of Contribution Points.
For the average person, buying this would be quite a heartache.
Liu Yi also hesitated for a moment.
But then, gritting his teeth, he placed the order.
After all, because he was stationed far from Jianghe City on the surface,
He received substantial daily subsidies.
Purchasing such a badge was somewhat easier for him than for the average person.
After paying the Contribution Points,
Liu Yi noticed he was the 8,129th purchaser.
He pursed his lips and muttered,
"There are really a lot of rich people."
This commemorative item, which only went on sale after the concert ended,
Had already sold nearly ten thousand units in just these few minutes.
It showed that there were quite a few people like him with disposable income.
But complaints aside,
Liu Yi's mood was still quite good.
This hot-selling scene
Vaguely gave him the illusion of returning to the peaceful and prosperous times.
If it weren't for truly being well-fed, living a stable and affluent life,
There wouldn't be so many people pursuing these practically useless commemorative items.
At the same time, this also meant
That Liu Yi was serving a prosperous and powerful shelter.
He didn't have to worry about life-threatening dangers like those outside.
"Crisis."
Thinking of this,
Liu Yi swiped his phone and opened a small forum he frequented.
This was a place where survivors from small and medium-sized shelters in the southern part of East Continent gathered to exchange information.
Compared to the prosperous and peaceful online community of Jianghe City,
This place seemed like an entirely different world.
The main topics on the forum, besides discussing how to use limited resources to maintain basic survival,
Were about the frequent appearances of Amethyst Crystal Entities on the surface.
It was here that Liu Yi first saw surveillance videos of different types of Amethyst Crystal Entities killing humans.
"Previously, we only had to overcome the loneliness and cold of the surface."
"Now, we also have to guard against these deadly creatures hidden in the ice fog and blizzards."
"It's really not easy."
Recalling those videos that could be described as collections of humans being hunted and slaughtered,
Liu Yi felt some sympathy for the people in the civilian shelters and official shelters below the second-tier cities.
For them, the current living environment was nothing short of hell.
At that moment,
A muffled explosion penetrated the fortress's windows and thick walls, faintly reaching the dorm.
Liu Yi instantly became alert.
He put down his phone and quickly walked to the window.
Through the thick, specially treated anti-cold glass, he looked outside.
But there, aside from the snowflakes rapidly swirling in the cold wind and the white ice fog,
He could see nothing else.
Liu Yi could only carefully recall the direction from which the explosion had come.
Then he guessed that it was probably a landmine they had deployed a few hundred meters away, which had been triggered.
"Landmines don't get triggered for no reason."
"The threshold we set was very high; even if someone stepped on it, it wouldn't explode."
"So most likely—"
Images of various evolved forms of Amethyst Crystal Entities flashed through his mind.
Liu Yi's heart tightened.
Not daring to delay, he immediately put on the Exoskeleton Armor placed nearby.
Then he quickly descended the stairs.
He arrived at the activity hall on the first floor of the fortress, which also served as the wartime command center.
The hall was already filled with a dozen or so comrades.
Everyone was fully armed and looked serious.
After briefly glancing at them,
Liu Yi quickly focused his gaze on their captain, Yang Wei.
Yang Wei was sitting in front of a radar controller.
Fine-tuning the scanning direction of the radar installed on the fortress roof.
"Captain, what's the situation outside?"
Liu Yi walked over quickly and asked in a low voice.
Yang Wei didn't answer immediately.
Only after fiddling with the controller for a while did he play an audio clip.
The howling wind and intermittent strange roars clearly echoed throughout the hall.
Making everyone instinctively shiver.
"We're surrounded by Amethyst Crystal Entities."
"The exact number is unknown."
"But there are probably no fewer than a few thousand."
Yang Wei announced the bad news in a low voice.
"How could that be?"
"We're in the wilderness."
Liu Yi first instinctively disbelieved it. But then he quickly realized.
Currently, all of Jianghe City's population, because the official shelter had been destroyed in a disaster several months ago,
Had been transferred to the farmhouse courtyard in Jianghe City.
So, in this vast area of nearly twenty thousand square kilometers,
Aside from them,
There were actually no other humans left.
If the Amethyst Crystal Entities that
had entered Jianghe City
Wanted food,
Their only choice was to come here and hunt them.
"We are the last human stronghold in Jianghe City."
"The resources needed for the Amethyst Crystal Entities to grow are only available here."
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
"This fight is unavoidable."
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