Apocalypse: After Being Reborn, I Stocked Up on All Supplies-Chapter 183 - The Strongest Smog in History

Chapter 183: Chapter 183 The Strongest Smog in History

Hua Bao, who had gained several new vines after upgrading, climbed onto her shoulders as nimbly as a spider in just a few moves.

The large head, as usual, rested on her shoulder.

The only difference was the soft vines hanging on her back, which had increased significantly, resembling the Six-tailed Fox.

Fortunately, since it had become transparent, it hardly weighed anything.

Nonetheless, Jiang Yan couldn’t help but be amused and exasperated by the oversized ornament:

“Hua Bao, can’t you shrink into a more delicate little bracelet or something?”

Hua Bao bared its teeth for a second, then shook its head seriously with a solemn expression, insisting earnestly,

“Jie jie jie!” No way, Mom! As the saying goes, to see further, one must stand on the shoulders of giants!

Jiang Yan: “…”

At 1.68 meters tall, with Hua Bao over 7.8 meters, who really was the giant?

But now was not the time for idle chat. Jiang Yan looked outside the dark cave, furrowing her brows slightly:

“What’s going on outside? Why is it so dark?”

On the endless surface of the water, it was pitch-black, and visibility was barely one or two meters.

But it was evident that some of the darkness was due to the early, cloudy time of day.

Another part was the air, which seemed to have been suddenly filled with dense, black particles.

The concentration was as if several dozen tons of finely ground coal ash had been scattered down from the sky.

Jiang Yan spread out her hand, and within a few seconds, a small black dot had appeared on her fair palm.

A gentle press of her thumb and the black particle crumbled.

It was like black powder.

Jiang Yan inwardly gasped in shock for a second.

Song Qian observed for a while and said, furrowing his brow, “It’s smog, looks to be the strongest ever recorded.”

“The strongest smog ever recorded?!” Jiang Yan, hearing his words, subconsciously reached into her pocket and took out her protective goggles to put them on.

The city of Anming, where she had lived before, had hardly experienced smog.

At most, during winter, the city’s sky would look a little hazy for a day or two.

She had seen plenty in movies and news reports, however.

But even the most severe levels of smog she had seen were nothing compared to the present scene.

What puzzled her, though, was the continuous heavy rain and low temperatures of the past few days.

It was expected that fog would form over the water.

But haze is made up of tiny solid particles.

With all the rain and surrounded by water, where did these particles come from?

They surely couldn’t just appear out of nowhere.

“We can’t stay like this—my throat and nostrils are starting to feel uncomfortable. I need to put on a mask first; wait for me,” Sun Jingtao said as he covered his face with his sleeve, then leaped off the bank and dashed down to the inflatable boat with one hand.

He came back quickly with a supermarket shopping bag containing N95 masks.

These were secured at a high price from a hospital friend by Su Dai during the mask crisis.

They had stored these N95 masks temporarily when medical masks became widely available at the cost of one or two yuan apiece.

They didn’t know they would become so useful now.

Visit ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience.

“Here.” Sun Jingtao passed one to Jiang Yan first.

“Thanks, I don’t need it; mine seems to protect against particles just fine,” Jiang Yan quickly waved it off politely.

“Thank you.” The others accepted and donned their masks in turn.

Su Dai and Kong Wu had also awakened by now.

Sun Jingtao distributed the masks to both of them.

Jiang Yan deliberately fumbled in her backpack for a while and produced a pair of protective goggles for Su Dai.

As for Song Qian and Kong Wu, they had their own gear, though not as effective as Jiang Yan’s.

Once fully equipped, the group gathered around the fire to discuss their strategy.

Besides, the potatoes and sweet potatoes they had left in the charcoal fire the night before were now perfect for breakfast.

They ate them without reheating, simply peeling them and biting in.

According to Song Qian, the smog had appeared about half an hour earlier.

It was spreading fast.

Before that, there was only some grey mist over the water.

Luckily it was not yet as thick inside the cave.

But at this pace, it wouldn’t be out of the question for the inside of the cave and the outside to reach the same concentration soon.

“So what do we do now? Should we stay or go?” Su Dai asked after hearing Song Qian’s words, her voice almost breaking.

They had just survived an earthquake, only to face smog now.

It felt like these natural disasters were relentless.

“Don’t be afraid, wife.” Sun Jingtao gently patted Su Dai’s back.

As much as he comforted her, the sight of his wife in such a state was also distressing for him.

Su Dai had come out of the tent directly after hearing the conversation among Jiang Yan and others, thinking something was amiss.

Her hair hadn’t been properly tidied.

And now with black coal dust on her lips and hands, she looked like a refugee fleeing disaster.

It was hard to imagine that just a few months ago, she was a fitness instructor with impeccable style, an excellent figure, who loved all kinds of beauty and fitness regimes.

The others were also disheveled.

Ye Qing had the longest hair, almost covering his ears.

The sports headband with red and white stripes against a black background now showed red and grey stripes.

They actually had manual razors in their bags.

But given the cold, they treated their unshaven beards as an extra layer of warmth and couldn’t be bothered to clean up.

“If it comes to it, we’ll just stay here a few days and see if the smog clears,” Sun Jingtao retracted his gaze and suggested.

For them, whether they were heading to East Mountain or elsewhere, the goal was simply to find a relatively stable sanctuary.

This cave was just for the few of them; without earthquakes, they might temporarily live in peace.

As for the mutant scorpions, based on last night’s incident, they posed no threat.

And they even provided an invisible food source.

Song Qian didn’t speak, his expression bearing an unprecedented solemnity.

He glanced towards Kong Wu: “Is the compass working properly now?”

Kong Wu, whose hair looked like a bird’s nest, finally caught on and muttered “Oh oh,” pulling the compass out of his pocket and peering at it, then exclaimed joyfully:

“Heaven hasn’t abandoned us! The compass is working again!”

Everyone instinctively leaned in.

Indeed, the needle on the compass had returned to normal.

“But the problem we now face isn’t just the lack of the sun for orientation, but also issues with visibility,” said Ye Qing, who had been silent until now.

Both he and Sun Jingtao had protective goggles gifted by Jiang Yan, equipped with night-vision capabilities.

Those goggles, under normal dense fog, would allow them to see forty or fifty meters without a problem.

But if the current situation involved highly concentrated particulates, the effect would be significantly reduced.

That would be akin to them blindly navigating an unknown sea in the dark, with the dangers and risks self-evident.

Song Qian put down his baked sweet potato, swept a glance at the group, and said: “But we can’t just sit here and wait for death. I suggest we set off immediately, after all—”

“What?”

They all looked up sharply at him when he seemed to know something yet hesitated to speak.

“It’s nothing; hopefully, I’m just overthinking it.” Song Qian shook his head, his gaze growing stern.