Cave Refuge-Chapter 270 - 266: Escape Choices_1

The days during the hiatus of the catastrophe were incredibly tranquil. With the effects of the electromagnetic pulse almost entirely eliminated, if it weren’t for the dilapidated appearance of the buildings, everyone seemed to have returned to the peaceful and steady life before the disaster.

However, now smartphones and computers that can operate normally have become luxuries. Although many factories have resumed production and the number of delivery vehicles is steadily increasing, it is somewhat challenging to restore the previous ubiquity of these sophisticated electronic devices in a short time.

Internet cafes that were originally declining are now resurging. Although it’s unknown where their computers came from, the revival of the internet made everyone overjoyed.

It was at this point that Dong Tianyu realized that the Cave wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Since it was currently in a state of chaos, it couldn’t receive electronic signals from the great empire of Summer. Additionally, since it was disconnected from the Blue Star, it couldn’t use ethernet cables for wired transmission either.

As neither wireless nor wired connections could be used, the Cave had to remain offline.

However, this situation didn’t have much impact on the Canaries, who had been offline for many years.

Firstly, when they were living in Peach Blossom Paradise, to prevent them from fantasizing, they were allowed to access the internet only in designated rooms. Then, following the arrival of the disaster, the electromagnetic pulse destroyed most of the electronic devices - meaning they couldn’t even watch TV, let alone access the internet.

After Dong Tianyu took them back to the ship, although they had access to computers and televisions, there was still no internet connection. They could only watch movies or play single-player games.

The situation in the Cave was much the same as on the ship. The Canaries, who had not interacted with the internet, wouldn’t have been overly engrossed with it even if they could use it now.

After all, there was quite a bit of work to do in the Cave, such as tending to the animals, which took up a lot of their time. Added to that, they also had to cultivate as well as spend their evenings with Dong Tianyu, playing the role-playing games. This left them with almost no free time to use a computer.

If it weren’t for Dong Tianyu teaching them the mysterious Yin Body Casting Method and setting them on a path of cultivation, they would have found it hard to keep up with this kind of life with practically no leisure time.

The concentration of Spirit Energy in the atmosphere outside has been gradually increasing. Even if one didn’t have a specific method of cultivation, their physical condition would also improve slowly.

The concentration of Spirit Energy within the Cave remained constant. Unless Dong Tianyu upgraded the Cave, its Spirit Energy concentration wouldn’t increase like that of the outside world.

However, if the density of Spirit Energy in the outside air was 0.0000001%, then the density of Spirit Energy in the Cave was 0.01%. So, even though the Spirit Energy in the outside air was constantly increasing, it was unlikely that it would match or surpass that of the Cave.

After all, the Cave was directly nourished by Dong Tianyu, so it was normal for the Spirit Energy concentration to be slightly higher.

Therefore, Dong Tianyu didn’t like to go out when he had nothing to do. After all, the speed of cultivation in the Cave was much faster than the outside world. Even though his cultivation method would still operate automatically when he was outside, the discrepancy in the Spirit Energy concentration made a significant difference in how Dong Tianyu felt.

Living and cultivating in the Cave wasn’t boring. Apart from playing role-playing games with the Canaries at night, he also enjoyed having idle fun with the few pets at home during the day.

Black Dumpling (the black panther) was raised from a young age, so it was very close to humans and barely had any beastly instincts. Moreover, even the Canaries were cultivators, so even as Black Dumpling gradually grew, it still felt like a toy in their hands which they could fiddle with at will.

As for the Black and White Dumplings (panda), it was an entirely different story. These adorable creatures had essentially been living on board the ship since the Canaries began taking care of them.

Under the care of the Canaries, these little creatures began to grow wider rather than taller. Considering that they were well-fed and didn’t need much exercise, this was quite normal.

Dong Tianyu didn’t find the tranquility of life distasteful. He was not a person who enjoyed seeking thrills, therefore he wished that the current times were not just a lull in the catastrophe, but the real post-catastrophe time.

This tranquil life lasted for a year or two. Just when most people were convinced that the disaster had truly ended and they could return to their normal lives,

A sudden loud noise caused everyone to panic.

Immediately the ground began to shudder slightly. Those living in high-rise buildings panicked and everyone rushed towards the fire exit to get down quickly.

Honestly, if you lived above the 20th floor, rushing down the fire exit isn’t necessarily safer than using an elevator during an earthquake.

Without nitpicking, the primary reason people think using an elevator is dangerous during an earthquake is that they fear the elevator cables will break during the earthquake, causing the elevator to lose control and crash into the ground.

Actually, if the magnitude of the earthquake is relatively small, the odds of elevator cables snapping are very slim. Compared to everyone escaping through a fire exit, the risk of a stampede actually makes taking the elevator safer.

If the earthquake is severe, taking the elevator becomes more dangerous, but consider being on the 20th floor or above. Compared to getting to the ground floor in about a minute by elevator, even without congestion in the fire exit, it’s nearly impossible to get to the ground floor in three to five minutes.

If an earthquake did occur, congestion in the fire exit would be inevitable, so if you’re on a high floor, quickly reaching the ground floor through the fire exit would be extremely challenging.

Everyone tells you after an earthquake, it’s safer to take the stairs, not the elevator. But they’ll never tell you that if there really was an earthquake, if you’re really on the 20th floor or higher, taking the elevator downstairs might be faster and safer than the stairs.

Initially, the reason it was recommended to take the stairs and not the elevator was that early elevators didn’t function based on full capacity. They had no overload warning nor restrictions when full.

When danger struck, everyone indiscriminately crowded into the elevators, and the cables controlling elevator movement could not bear the weight, leading to cable failure and frequent loss of elevator control.

Modern elevators have overload alerts. When the elevator reaches its load limit, it will emit a warning and stop operation, so accidents resulting from overload are highly unlikely.

The second reason early elevators were discouraged was simple: they lacked intelligent control. Regardless of the number of passengers, if someone called for the elevator on their floor while it was descending, it would stop on that floor, even if it was at full capacity.

Not to mention how stopping on each floor affected escape time, but also, once the elevator doors opened in a crisis situation, the survivors waiting at the door would scramble to squeeze inside.

With this happening, the same problem arose: due to overloading, the cable broke under the immense weight, leading to the elevator falling.

However, modern elevators are different from their predecessors. Firstly, they have an overload warning, which ensures that the cable won’t break due to overloading. Secondly, they function based on full capacity; even if someone calls the elevator on another floor, it won’t stop there while it’s at full capacity, and it will only resume normal operation when it’s no longer at full capacity.

This means that during a crisis, once the elevator is at full capacity, it won’t stop at every floor like it used to when someone called for it.

If you were to enter an already full elevator on a floor above the 20th, you could take the elevator swiftly to the ground floor and calmly exit the building.

Previously, the advice was to take the fire exit instead of the elevator in times of danger, given the risk of the aforementioned issues with old-style elevators on lower floors. Hence, the public advisories.

But now, with floors numbering in the twenties and thirties and elevators undergoing multiple upgrades to improve safety measures, these drawbacks have been resolved.

At this point, advocating exiting via the fire escape in times of danger, regardless of which floor you’re on, has different implications that perhaps don’t need any further explanation.

Just like in public service advertisements, celebrities remind us that "when the buying stops, the killing can too". Still, even without restrictions, when it comes time to make a purchase, we would hesitate for a long time.

After all, to satisfy an appetite for a meal, we may need to spend a month’s or even half a year’s salary which is difficult for many to accept.

Public service advertisements depict endangered animals as threatened because of our reckless buying habits. But they fail to recognize that even if buying those animals wasn’t illegal, ordinary people like us wouldn’t financially afford to do so. Those who can purchase such animals aren’t ordinary by any means.

Like the published captive population of pandas this year that had been increasing steadily but suddenly stopped increasing last year and this year, more than a hundred have disappeared again.

Where have these pandas gone? Surely, you can’t say that we ordinary people ate them all.

We are constantly advised to save water, yet the sinks in wealthy households, left on for aesthetics, can use up to nearly nine hundred tons of water a month.

They criticize us, ordinary people, for wasting water, but who doesn’t pay for their water? Ordinary people don’t generally waste water on purpose.

Many households, in an attempt to save money, use water from washing hands to mop floors, and then the mop water to flush toilets.

Despite this, ordinary people are still being taught to save water.

The more we know, the more it feels like past public advisories were hoodwinking ordinary people.