Ling, Liu Lao Tou, and Lei Jian had been exploring the entire Icebound Snow Region for a long time before encountering Ye Feng. They had faced all sorts of dangerous monsters and even endured an avalanche. After meeting Ye Feng, they encountered various miscellaneous situations, especially the eerie Snow Ghosts and the troublesome Four-Eyed Ice Foxes.
To be honest, the three of them were somewhat tired, but no one spoke of it.
Now, after exerting immense effort, they had finally found a place that appeared to be the legendary City of Cold Ice. They all excitedly rushed towards the location with the plaque that Xiao Xiao had mentioned.
Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao were no exception!
This exploration of the Icebound Snow Region was, up to this point, the longest the two had spent, the one with the most twists and turns, and the most complex adventure.
In a short while, everyone arrived under the plaque that Xiao Xiao had spoken of.
Upon seeing the plaque hanging high at the entrance, their expressions all changed!
"This… this isn't the City of Cold Ice?"
Looking at the large characters on the plaque, Lei Jian immediately felt discouraged.
"Winter's Sanctuary?"
Xiao Xiao read out the words on the plaque, her expression quite puzzled.
"Uncle Liu, it seems we've come to the wrong place!"
Ling turned to look at Liu Lao Tou, her eyes showing unconcealable dejection. After all, the Everlasting Ice was too important to her.
"The City of Cold Ice… where did its name come from?"
Ye Feng pondered for a moment before speaking to Ling and the others.
"The City of Cold Ice… we learned about it through comprehensive intelligence analysis… but this intelligence is essentially passed down by word of mouth among explorers…"
Liu Lao Tou suddenly stopped midway, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Ye Feng, you mean it's highly possible that 'City of Cold Ice' was just what the explorers who discovered it called it, not necessarily the city's original name!"
Ling looked at the completely frozen scene before her and also realized this, her face filled with joy.
"Mm!"
Ye Feng nodded. "I learned from someone before that a place called a volcano might have Arcane Origin Stones. At the time, I also thought it was a place name."
"But now it seems 'volcano' was a description of the terrain, not a place name!"
As he spoke, Ye Feng scanned the surrounding environment again.
If he was not mistaken, the location they were in, including the city before them, was inside the crater of a volcano.
"Big Brother, look over there, that building's shape is the same as the energy towers we saw before!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's voice rang out.
"Let's go, we'll explore around here first," Ye Feng suggested, looking at the enlarged version of the energy tower that Ye Feng had "summoned" earlier in the distance.
"Okay!"
…
Two hours later,
"It's hard to imagine that such a prosperous metropolis once existed here. I've only seen many things in books!"
"Like that Ferris wheel, the trains formed by rows of carriages, and that airship…"
Ling marvelled at everything around them, extremely surprised.
"This… was human civilization so advanced before? Compared to now, it feels like two different worlds!"
Lei Jian was also greatly shocked.
"After the Great Cataclysm, in just 30 years, 30 years… human civilization regressed from a high-tech era to almost a primitive society…"
"Such vast changes!"
Looking at the familiar yet strange surroundings, Liu Lao Tou, who was over sixty, felt as if he were separated by an age.
"Uncle Liu, did you and Grandpa live in a place like this before? It's so advanced!"
"There were intelligent robots to help with housework, no need to go out exploring, no need to face various monsters, and you could fly anywhere for sightseeing…"
"There were not only vehicles like cars for travel, but also ocean-going ships… and even something called a submarine to dive into the deep sea. I haven't even seen what the ocean looks like since I was born."
"I heard that children were born in hospitals, with dedicated doctors to care for them, and many medicines to treat them when they were sick…"
"Unlike now, if you catch a cold, you might die if your immunity is not strong enough…"
"How could so much high-tech human civilization be almost wiped out in just 30 years!"
…
The modern everything before them formed a stark contrast with Ling and Lei Jian's previous living environment. The two couldn't help but discuss it.
Especially regarding living habits, Ling and Lei Jian found it difficult to understand, even lacking the concept.
Ye Feng, however, understood this quite well.
He remembered that during a pandemic, almost everyone was forced to wear masks. This led children born during the epidemic to believe that people must wear masks… some even wondered why the sun didn't wear a mask.
"Ling, Lei Jian, high-tech human civilization… it didn't become like this in 30 years…"
"To be precise, in less than 5 years, the entire world became the desolate scene you saw when you were born…" Liu Lao Tou recalled and said.
"What?"
Ling and Lei Jian were both aghast.
"The Great Cataclysm 30 years ago began with a sudden, global super blackout. At the same time, everything powered by electricity instantly became bricks, and almost all highways instantly turned into disaster-level accident scenes…"
"From that day on, humans began to realize how vulnerable so-called high-tech civilization was…"
"For the few days before the blackout, people were just wondering what had happened, why there was such a widespread power outage. Due to the interruption of long-distance communication powered by electricity, people didn't know that the whole world was experiencing a blackout…"
"You know, communication back then wasn't like now, where communication relied on shouting, and carrier pigeons were already advanced… The old world used something called a telephone to communicate over thousands of kilometers…"
"Most people thought the power would be restored soon, and many were even happy to not have to go to work… but to this day, apart from lightning-attribute Arcane Origin Stones and existing power supplies, no one has heard of anyone being able to produce even a single watt of electricity."
"A week, two weeks… the power still hadn't been restored, and the electronic payment system that humanity relied on collapsed directly. Bank cards, savings books, and securities became scrap paper; only cash could still be used… People gradually became anxious, fearful, and all sorts of rumors began to spread…"
"Three weeks, four weeks… panicked people began to queue at shops to buy daily necessities with cash. Shops became crowded and chaotic… eventually, looting began, and riots broke out…"
"Two months, three months… cash became waste paper, and doomsday rumors began to spread. People started looting shops and warehouses for food, riots erupted everywhere, and small-scale conflicts were ubiquitous. At first, people tried to manage it, but later they couldn't, and the unrest intensified…"
"After a few more months, the stored food was depleted, and widespread famine began to appear. People died of starvation constantly… As medicines could not be produced, medicines were scarce, and sick people began to die in large numbers…"
"A large number of dead bodies could not be processed in time, and epidemics began to spread… Epidemics led to more diseases… More diseases led to more deaths… More deaths led to more epidemics…"
"Almost simultaneously, everywhere in the world, there were many incidents of people crazily biting each other… meaning, what you know as zombies. After a large number of humans were bitten by zombies, they became more zombies, and more zombies led to more people being bitten, more people bitten…"
"You think this is the Great Cataclysm?"
At this point, Liu Lao Tou paused.
"No, this was just the beginning!"
…