Chapter 226 The Changing Situation
In the evening, Steven threw a big welcome dinner for Cindy and Aubrey.
They hadn't had such good food in forever. Even though they were top students from a fancy school, they quickly forgot their manners and dug in.
Steven quietly put down his fork.
Watching the two girls eat was pretty entertaining for him.
Nora and Elinor felt a bit sorry for them and handed over more food, asking how they were managing at Innovation Academy.
With a big piece of chicken in her mouth, Aubrey scooped up a large bowl of tomato soup and mumbled, "There's plenty of food at school!"
"Our school only has about three hundred students, but there are twelve cafeterias of various sizes. The warehouse is packed with more food than we can eat. Plus, there's an internal supermarket," she explained.
Steven smiled faintly. He couldn't quite picture such a prestigious school and could only imagine it through Aubrey's words.
Aubrey swallowed the chicken and looked at Steven gratefully, saying, "But thank goodness you came to rescue us! Otherwise, in this cold weather, no matter how much food we had, we wouldn't have lasted long."
Steven smiled and said, "Luckily, you were underground with a lot of people, so it wasn't as cold."
Snow and ice are actually good insulators; they block the wind.
After the houses in Cox Village were buried in snow, it was thanks to Earl building them shelters out of ice and snow that they could maintain their current way of life.
"Work well here, and you won't go hungry," he added.
Aubrey's personality was very much to Steven's liking. Not that he had any romantic interest in Aubrey, but he liked dealing with straightforward people.
Aubrey kept nodding. "Thank you, Mr. Rogers!"
Elinor and Nora looked at Steven, exchanged glances, and finally felt a weight lifted off their hearts.
They had been very worried that Steven would see the two newcomers as burdens.
After all, with two more people eating, the household's supplies would be consumed much faster!
But they didn't know how much stuff Steven had stored in his Extradimensional Space.
The resources wouldn't run out even if the five of them ate and drank freely for two hundred years.
Moreover, Steven could go out and find frozen supplies, so there was no need to worry about food.
After dinner, Nora took the initiative to clean up the dishes.
Lately, she had taken on almost all the household chores.
Even when Elinor was around, Nora would take over the tasks.
Nora's attitude towards Steven had shifted from initial wariness to trust, and now she even felt a bit guilty.
In this household, Elinor was a doctor, Cindy was a computer genius, and Aubrey was a mechanical genius.
And Nora?
What else could she do besides keeping Steven company?
Although Steven had never said anything to her, Nora was a strong-willed woman who didn't like feeling useless.
At the dinner table, Steven ate while discussing the rules of the shelter with Cindy and Aubrey.
The harmony among them made Nora feel a bit lost.
She also wanted to be someone useful.
Ideally, she wanted to be as irreplaceable as Elinor and the others.
After dinner, they all rested on the couch, watching TV.
Steven leaned back on the couch, with Elinor and Nora sitting beside him. Because the younger girls were present, their posture wasn't too intimate.
However, Cindy sensed something was off.
She didn't say anything, knowing this kind of stuff was common in a post-apocalyptic world.
Only Aubrey sat cross-legged on the bed, barefoot, glued to the big TV.
These days, the only things to watch were pre-stored movies, TV shows, or official news from around the world.
Domestic news was pretty useless, lacking any real info.
As they watched, the living room got tense.
Today's news brought some heavy and unsettling updates.
"The snow disaster hasn't let up for over a month, temperatures are still freezing, and most global regions are losing connectivity."
"This has led to fiercer competition for resources, especially between countries and regions."
"The extreme weather has caused many official authorities worldwide to lose control. Most armed groups have risen and started using force to control resources and surviving humans."
This news made everyone feel pretty down.
It meant the world had officially entered a chaotic era.
And it meant armed forces would lose their restraints.
"This is getting tricky," Steven muttered, crossing his arms.
Nora looked puzzled. "Hasn't chaos already started? I just didn't think it would get this bad."
She sighed, once hoping the world would go back to normal so she could be a star again.
Now she hardly dared to hope for that.
"It's different," Steven said. "Before, even if some armed groups wanted to act up, hey were held back by the fear of higher powers."
He continued, "But after a month of extreme cold, they realized the Ice Age isn't ending soon. Now, armed groups won't worry about consequences. They'll act without any scruples!"
Cindy chimed in, "It's like rules in some organizations. They exist, and while not everyone follows them, their presence makes people cautious. But now, there's no order left!"
"Not entirely." Steven glanced at Cindy. "The most powerful forces still belong to the highest authorities. It's just that due to the extreme cold, they can't effectively control other regions. This has led to the rise of local warlord-like forces."
He continued, "And other regions are governed by existing local armed forces. Unless the apocalypse ends, this situation will persist for a long time."
Cindy nodded, agreeing with Steven.
Nora blinked and smiled, "Isn't that a good thing? It won't be much different from before. At least they'll still have some fear!"
Steven laughed. "Of course not!"
"Why not?" Nora asked.
"Because in the past, all power belonged to the highest authorities. Now they have to delegate control to local armed forces," Steven explained. "This means the era of regional warlord conflicts might be coming!"
Steven took a deep breath. "We're entering an age where human life is as disposable as a scrap of paper."
While skirmishes between ordinary people resulted in limited casualties, the involvement of psychics escalated the death toll dramatically. Even then, it paled in comparison to the brutal carnage unleashed by armed forces.
Steven once spent a month wiping out over a thousand people in a community.
But when local armed forces started fighting for resources, the death toll would be unimaginable.
And the safety of ordinary people would be even less guaranteed.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
