Chapter 3  : The State of Emergency Lifted

Xia Ping’an’s nap turned into a deep sleep. Even though the shelter couldn’t provide any comfortable beddings, he still slept soundly. All of them stayed a whole night in the shelter. They stayed there for more than 14 hours.

Throughout the night, everyone in the shelter waited anxiously. The same message repeated itself over and over on the electronic display of the shelter.

[The situation outside is under control. The creatures responsible for the dimensional invasion are gradually being eliminated. Please wait patiently.]

The next morning, at 7 a.m., a different message was finally displayed on the screen.

[Order is being restored in Xianghe City. The state of emergency is lifted.]

Green lights lit up on the safety door of the shelter as the door opened. Everyone dragged their feet and left the place. They could finally heave sighs of relief.

[The dimensional invasion this time was Level F+. The invaders were demonic rats and giant peanut worms. There were a total of 137 demonic rats and five giant peanut worms. The National Order Council has killed 133 demonic rats and five giant peanut worms. Four demonic rats have escaped via the river. We have sent out a team to chase after the invaders. The public is welcome to provide any information regarding the escaped invaders.]

[The state of emergency in Xianghe City is lifted. The water and electric supply are restored, and other public services are gradually being restored too. Some regions are still sealed off, and aftermath anti-epidemic and sanitary disinfecting treatments are being carried out. Thank you for your cooperation.]

[Regarding the casualties and injuries sustained during this dimensional invasion, it is still being calculated. Please await the details in the follow-up press release.]

[National Order Council of the Great Flame Republic]

The instant he left the shelter, Xia Ping’an’s smartphone vibrated once again. He took out his phone and saw this message sent through the dimensional invasion security app.

Then, just as Xia Ping’an finished reading the message and stepped out of the security passageway onto the street, his phone received another message. It was from his boss.

[Yesterday, demonic rats broke into our shop. The company has received a notice from the management that it will be sealed off for today and tomorrow for disinfection and epidemic prevention operations. Work will resume on Sunday. Everyone, get some good rest. If there are any matters, please contact the management.]

When he finished reading the notification, Xia Ping’an’s phone rang again. It was a call from Xia Ning.

“Elder Brother, are you alright?” Xia Ning asked worriedly.

“I am fine. Don’t worry. How about you?”

A sigh of relief could be heard from the other end of the line. “I am fine. Yesterday, once we received the notification, the school immediately arranged for everyone to enter the shelter.”

“That’s good. I will be resting at home today. I will whip up something nice at home. You can come back home for dinner.”

“Alright. You’re the best!” Xia Ning said gleefully over the phone. She seemed completely unaffected by the dimensional invasion this time around.

After the call ended, Xia Ping’an put his phone away and took a long breath.

There were certainly casualties and injuries during yesterday’s dimensional invasion. However, that was life. Most of the time, one had no time to mourn over others and could not foresee when accidents would happen.

Every country hoped to minimize the effects of the dimensional invasion on cities and regions. Hence, all the announcements were made calmly. They did not hide anything nor exaggerate the pain and loss.

Each dimensional invasion was reported on the news as though it was an avalanche or traffic accident.

As for deaths, people were dying in hospitals every day. A small-scale dimensional invasion would have fewer deaths than the daily deaths in the city hospitals. In the Great Flame Republic, the number of people who died in traffic accidents was far greater than those who died during a dimensional invasion.

Many people who walked out of the shelters returned to their cars in a daze. If the cars that were parked on the roads did not leave in a matter of minutes, the owners would be fined a hefty amount.

Traffic police and tow trucks gradually appeared on the streets. They began to coordinate the traffic and clear off the obstacles on the roads. The traffic in the city slowly returned to normal.

If people weren’t paying attention, they would usually not discover that there were some changes in their surroundings. The injured and dead were taken to the hospital or removed by other people. The corpses of the demonic rats had been cleared off. Not a strand of hair was left behind.

Only in some special places were police lines drawn up to cordon off the area. Shattered glass still littered the floor, and there were holes in the ground that had yet to be fixed.

Occasionally, officials wearing anti-pandemic attire, and their vehicles could be spotted on the road. The municipal office had already patched up the damage in the street. Damages to vehicles would be covered by insurance companies. Ambulances and fire engines were passing by with their sirens on full blast. Everyone would quietly make way for them.

Many of the people who had hidden in the shelter for a night yesterday would most likely need to continue working today once they came out.

It was not that the people had grown numb to this. Instead, they needed to get used to such a lifestyle...to dimensional invasions.

Xia Ping’an got on a tram on 11th Street. After waiting on the tram for a while, the driver returned, and the tram began to move once again.

...

More than 20 minutes later, the tram on 11th Street arrived at an old area on the south side of Xianghe City. The tram stopped at a shabby bus stop, and Xia Ping’an got off. Before he headed home, he bought noodles, soy sauce, and some other ingredients for dinner in a small market at the side of the road.

Xia Ping’an and Xia Ning were living in an old neighborhood. The environment was nothing fancy, but it was quite convenient. The neighborhood was lively, and the rent was not too expensive.

The more important thing was that there was a police station right at the entrance of the neighborhood. Police patrolled the area frequently, so the place was secure. After their parents passed away, Xia Ping’an settled here with Xia Ning.

Xia Ping’an’s parents were immigrants. In the past, when they first migrated to the Great Flame Republic in the Northern Light Continent from Huaxia, they paid the down payment and bought a house. However, after they died in an accident, the bank took the house.

The Social Welfare Department of the Great Flame Republic had once arranged for Xia Ping’an and Xia Ning to be adopted by other families. However, both of them rejected to be adopted since they did not want to be separated.

After their parents passed away, Xia Ping’an dropped out of school and went to work in a car shop. For the past few years, they struggled to make ends meet. The apartment Xia Ping’an rented was only a 60-square-meter unit with an attic. Before this, the attic had some leaking problems. After pestering the landlord a few times, the landlord finally got someone to fix it. However, it needed some touch-ups every two years.

Xia Ping’an supported Xia Ning in studying art. However, studying art was costly.

Xia Ping’an’s wage was their only source of income.

Thankfully, the welfare of the Great Flame Republic citizens was decent. It cost almost nothing for Xia Ning to go through middle school and high school. They were covered by health insurance too whenever they went to see a doctor. As citizens who were born in the Great Flame Republic, Xia Ping’an and Xia Ning were entitled to receive monthly child benefits from the day they were born until they were 18 years old. When Xia Ning enrolled in college, she also received an education allowance.

...

Xia Ping’an greeted the security guard stationed at the lobby of the apartment and headed up using the stairs. The paint on the railing of the stairs was peeling off. Xia Ping’an carried his groceries and climbed to the seventh floor. He pulled out his key, opened the door, and entered.

The 60-square-meter unit came with some old appliances from the landlord. The unit consisted of a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. Xia Ning had the main bedroom while Xia Ping’an stayed in the small attic. The siblings kept their tiny home clean and orderly.

The living room was decorated with many colorful paper cranes made by Xia Ning. On the wall hung many animal portraits and landscape images painted by her too. These decorations made the house cozy.

Xia Ping’an was starving. His last meal was almost 20 hours ago. The first thing he did upon returning home was to enter the kitchen and cook himself a bowl of noodles.

After eating, Xia Ping’an felt that he had finally regained his vigor.

From the window of the living room, he could see the picturesque mountain range. The peaks of the mountains were covered in snow. Xia Ping’an would never get bored of looking at this seemingly normal view for others. He even felt somewhat surreal.

This surreality could only be appreaciated by Xia Ping’an.

Xia Ping’an ate his normal bowl of noodles while enjoying the spectacular mountain view. The meal became especially scrumptious.

The mountain range outside was the Thousand Dragons Mountains of the Great Flame Republic. The reason it was called as such was it was formed from many smaller mountain ranges. The Thousand Dragons Mountains spanned more than 4,800 kilometers and ran through most of the Northern Light Continent. The best ski resort in the Great Flame Republic was located within the Thousand Dragons Mountains.

For Xia Ping’an, these Thousand Dragons Mountains had another name: the Rocky Mountains.

In 1421 A.D., the fleet of the Divine Continent led by Eunuch Ma discovered this new continent and named it the Light Continent. For hundreds of years, each time the Divine Continent encountered natural or man-made disasters, had turbulent political situations, or when dynasties changed, a large number of Huaxia citizens would migrate over to this continent to seek a new life and thrive.

The earliest group of people who arrived on this continent was the gold miners. The legend of striking the jackpot by finding gold in the Light Continent had influenced countless people.

There were numerous cases of people who came over to the continent, dreaming of mining gold.

After hundreds of years of vicissitudes, the Great Flame Republic currently had territory spanning 2.278 million square kilometers of land, almost covering the entire Northern Light Continent. It was a powerful nation with a population of 680 million people. The Great Flame Republic was also one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The Divine Continent was still the Divine Continent. Huaxia was still Huaxia. However, the world beyond Huaxia had already changed drastically.

In the past, Eunuch Ma encountered a deep abyss where the river cut through the land and he suspected that the sun rose from there. He named the canyon in the Light Continent the ‘Glorious Canyon’. [1] That place was actually the Grand Canyon.

To this day, the Glorious Canyon still had the carvings left behind when Eunuch Ma first discovered it.

While gazing at the Rocky Mountains, Xia Ping’an finished eating his noodles. As he was washing the dishes in the kitchen, the doorbell rang.

Ding dong!

“It was too early for the landlord to come and collect the rent,” Xia Ping’an muttered and wiped his hands in the kitchen. He walked towards the door. He didn’t peep through the hole. Instead, his vision directly passed through the door, and he had a look outside.

Xia Ping’an’s heart quivered the moment he saw the person outside the door.

Standing behind the door was the man who wore sunglasses and a black leather windbreaker. He seemed very cool.

When Xia Ping’an saw this man, he recalled the man’s image when he hunted and killed the demonic rat and the peanut worm. This man was a summoner under the National Order Council.

The man removed his sunglasses, revealing his chiseled facial features. He was in his 30s and had deep, dark eyes. Across the thick door, his gaze calmly met Xia Ping’an’s.

Author’s note: [1] Paraphrased from the Pale Ink, written by American patent attorney, Henriette Mertz.