Two hours later, in the afternoon, in the **Farmhouse Shelter**, underground level 5, deep within the garden. Su Wu lay with his head resting on **Chen Xin**'s lap, listening to her gently reading a story from a book. In the lazy, relaxed atmosphere, he gradually drifted into a semi-conscious state.
Just as he was about to fully fall asleep, the light in the garden, which had been simulated to resemble the afternoon sun, suddenly shifted to a deep red. Then, a sharp alarm pierced through the calm, snapping Su Wu out of his drowsiness completely.
He quickly sat up, grabbed the tablet from the bag next to Chen Xin, and checked the system. A few seconds later, his expression hardened, a look of caution crossing his face. The artificial intelligence reported that an unknown infectious virus had been detected when a transport vehicle full of supplies entered the **Farmhouse Shelter**'s exit passage. The system had already followed preset protocols and completely sealed off both ends of the exit passage. The shelter's ventilation system, drone lift platforms, and independent transport passages used by the engineering team had all been locked down.
"Is **Chen Yue** still in the dance studio practicing?" Su Wu asked as he turned to Chen Xin.
Chen Xin nodded softly, her face showing a hint of concern. She had also seen the warning on the tablet.
"Tell her not to leave the living area."
Su Wu gave a simple command, then continued to think for a moment, adding several more orders. He paused the extraction of underground water, shut down all internal sealed doors of the shelter, and instructed the virus sample collection and analysis to begin at the exit passage. The **Manufacturing Center**'s ongoing tasks were halted, and production would resume only after the virus analysis results were available, at which point portable testing and disinfection equipment would be produced.
Minutes later, with these commands in effect, the entire **Farmhouse Shelter** transformed into a fully sealed world. Almost all the metal doors in the shelter's passageways were closed, dividing the interconnected spaces and ventilation systems into isolated zones. Even the floor where Su Wu and Chen Xin were staying was now separated by transparent glass-like isolation walls, isolating the fountain, garden, lawn, sheep pen, and the still-growing artificial trees.
"Let's wait here for a while," Su Wu said quietly as he watched the isolation walls descend, taking a deep breath. In that short time, the air quality had noticeably dropped. This was due to the temporary shutdown of the shelter's air circulation system. If the isolation continued much longer, the oxygen levels would drop, and the backup oxygen generation equipment would need to be activated, worsening the air quality even further. However, compared to the safety of their lives, this was a small concern.
Su Wu lowered his head, continuing to operate the tablet. He removed the warning mode, and the garden's light returned to its usual brightness. Then, he opened the central control system and issued commands to cut off the power transport network and trade network and to forcefully shut down all external passages to the subsidiary shelters.
As for the shelter residents still stranded outside, Su Wu gathered them into a medium-sized shelter that had repaired parts of its structure. This shelter had been one of the few he selected from those abandoned due to flooding, a shelter that he planned to convert into a vegetable plantation. At present, it only had basic water, electricity, and ventilation systems. While it wasn't much, getting people inside was safer than leaving them exposed outside.
After sorting out the matters regarding the subsidiary shelters, Su Wu hesitated for a moment, then posted a brief announcement on his internet platform regarding the discovery of the infectious virus. The announcement didn't contain much information yet, as the testing results had not been completed, but it would at least assure Su Wu that he had done his part to inform others. In the coming days, many might die, but at least their deaths wouldn't be because Su Wu failed to report the situation.
With everything in place, Su Wu had nothing more to do but wait for the virus analysis results.
Outside, as Su Wu slid his fingers across the tablet to send orders to the subsidiary shelters, a massive storm, set to change the course of many lives, began to take shape.
In the depths of the **Jianghe City** ruins, a medium-sized hovercraft carrying more than 80 workers slowly approached the port of **Jingyuan Shelter**. These workers had been sent to work at **Qingning Shelter** and were now returning to **Jingyuan Shelter** after being promised two days off and receiving various allowances for their trip. Inside the ship's cabin, the atmosphere was lively. Some workers even organized a chorus, expecting that their performance would coincide with the moment the hovercraft docked at the port.
Just as the last notes of the song began to fade, the ship suddenly jolted. The ship, which had been on course to dock, began to slowly reverse.
"What's happening?"
"Why is the ship moving again?"
Confusion spread throughout the workers as the atmosphere shifted from celebration to bewilderment. One worker noticed that the once brightly lit port had suddenly gone dark, vanishing into the rain and darkness.
"What's going on?" a worker exclaimed, causing the room to fall silent.
The workers turned to look at the port. Based on the distance and timing, they should have been only two or three hundred meters from the port, but the lights were gone, and the silhouette of the port had disappeared into the darkened storm.
Suddenly, as they looked around through the clear cabin windows, they realized they had become a small, abandoned island in the middle of a vast, stormy ocean.
A sense of foreboding settled in. It felt as though they were closer to home than ever, but the possibility of never returning was looming.
At the same time, in the western part of **Jianghe City**, in a deep-water area, a medium-sized hovercraft docked above a shelter. **Jiang Zhe**, feeling a bit bored, sat in the pilot seat, looking out the side window as spider robots continued to carry supplies to the ship.
Suddenly, the spider robots stopped going into the water and crawled onto the deck, motionless. A new command came through the wireless headset.
"Head to **Jiewei Shelter**."
"Where is that?" Jiang Zhe thought, perplexed.
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