Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 129

—— They are lying.
This is a statement, not a question, nor is it a doubt.
She is 100% certain that they are lying.
Having experienced so many worlds, Ya Tong now possesses all kinds of skills, items, and cards.
Most of the items and cards are for offense and defense, but occasionally she also gets some special items. These items do not have offensive or defensive functions and are mostly useless, but in certain special situations, they can be particularly useful.
When they were on the cable car with Qu Yichen’s parents, Ya Tong instinctively activated the lie detection function attached to her weapon.
This is the effect of the “Lie Detection Card” attached to her weapon. It can be activated up to ten times. Once activated, it defines a range and performs lie detection on all subjects within that range, with a duration of five minutes.
If someone is lying, the weapon with the lie detection card will emit a vibration alert. A minor lie causes a light vibration twice. Conversely, the more people within the defined range are lying, and the greater the lie, the stronger the vibration.
Just a few minutes ago, while they were speaking, her weapon, hidden at her waist, kept vibrating. This meant that not only were they lying, but it was a massive lie—none of it was true.
…
The helicopter made a total of four trips, rescuing all the survivors it could find from Luyuan Peak to the hotel area.
However, this number was a third less than the previously ed missing persons.
When the relatives of the missing passengers started losing control, angrily demanding that the helicopter go back for another rescue, the weather had already grown darker, and visibility was low. Even if they went back up, it would be pointless.
In the end, the helicopter carried a few seriously injured passengers and left the scenic area, heading straight for the hospital below the highlands, while the agitated passengers surrounded the hotel front desk, where they had been in contact with the rescue personnel, continuing to demand answers.
For individuals, family and friends are certainly the most important. But the current situation makes it impossible to cater to everyone. Family members who were unlucky enough to be missed became the cause of this out-of-control behavior.
In the neighboring hotel, the parents who had just been heartbroken and crying in front of “Qu Yichen” now sat in a room, their faces dark and filled with tension. The atmosphere was eerily silent.
Although a night had passed, the scenes and sounds from yesterday were still vivid in their minds. Every time they recalled it, they broke into cold sweats.
“What should we do? You all saw Qu Yichen’s expression and gaze earlier, that kid doesn’t seem to believe it…”
“Who cares whether he believes it or not! It’s already like this, why are you still saying these things!”
“But… what if he digs into it further?”
“With no evidence, what can he do? This is a natural disaster, plenty of people died anyway…”
“Sigh, but those were people we knew… if only we had opened the door back then…”
“Shut up! No one is allowed to bring this up again! My son still has to go to college! This absolutely cannot be affected! You all too, if anyone doesn’t keep their mouth shut… no one will be able to get out of this!”
“……”
The room fell into a suffocating silence once more.
Meanwhile, at the other hotel, after the three returned to their rooms, Yu Xi and Ya Tong found an opportunity to talk alone in the hallway near the door.
“Does your mission have anything to do with the families of the world’s characters?” Yu Xi was more concerned about this, since it’s uncertain whether Qu Yichen’s parents are still alive. If Ya Tong’s mission is related to the character’s family, she would inevitably need to go to the mountaintop.
But given the current situation, no one could predict when the next typhoon or heavy rain would come, or how severe it would be.
“It’s unrelated. My mission is to investigate the chaotic truth of the disaster, choose the appropriate location, and establish a human base.”
Tasks in S-level worlds are mostly like this—they focus on larger-scale objectives and cannot only prioritize one’s own survival. She had done similar tasks several times, so she was very experienced, and her equipment was well-prepared.
She knew that many taskers, upon entering the world and becoming a part of the original world’s characters, would lose their sanity and kill the original owner’s family if those people were irrelevant to their task. They did this just to avoid complications.
Ya Tong has her own principles when it comes to doing things, and she helps the original owner’s family when she can.
“The truth behind the disaster’s disorder?” The conversation had been interrupted earlier, so Yu Xi had not yet had a chance to share her speculations about the world fragments with Ya Tong.
The first guess is about the complete storm world. If the world she is currently in is just a fragment, what about the other fragments? Based on past experience, the other fragments may have merged with other apocalyptic worlds.
So the question arises: in her first beginner world, there was a fusion of a tsunami and low temperatures. At that time, it wasn’t clear which merged with which. If the tsunami world is a fragment, could it be the part that split off from this storm world? The super typhoon here seems to have happened without cause, but it’s actually not without reason; it’s just that the cause lies in the part of the world fragment that split off.
Originally, the difficulty of the storm world was low-level. The merged part retained that low difficulty, while the separate fragments, due to the broken world and spatial imbalance, evolved into a mid-level difficulty.
The second guess applies only to fragment worlds. Before losing consciousness in the time loop zone, she saw only text from the world fragment, which looked like fragments of a book. So, she had previously thought that this apocalyptic world (or perhaps all apocalyptic worlds) was one world.
A one-dimensional world is a line, and a two-dimensional world is a plane, with writing on the plane. That’s why it’s often referred to as a “2D world.”
From a scientific perspective, the term “2D world” is simply another way to refer to a two-dimensional world, which doesn’t only include things like comics, games, or anime—it encompasses them as well.
To put it another way, if the world exists, it exists in a two-dimensional space.
People from the two-dimensional world cannot comprehend the three-dimensional world, just as people from the three-dimensional world cannot understand the existence of higher-dimensional worlds. Higher-dimensional worlds, in addition to lines, planes, and height, also incorporate more complex elements.
In her cognition, Yu Xi’s original world is a three-dimensional world (or a four-dimensional world if you consider time). She can clearly see everything in a two-dimensional world, but the people in the two-dimensional world cannot perceive the three-dimensional world.
In the three-dimensional world, it is generally believed that everything in the two-dimensional world is fake.
But is there a possibility that the two-dimensional world is a real world?
Just like the three-dimensional world is perceived by higher-dimensional worlds, perhaps the entire universe in the three-dimensional world is merely a “book” placed on a shelf, or a “file” stored in a computer…
But to the people of the three-dimensional world, the world they live in is real.
Because perception determines everything.
If this guess is true, then could Ya Tong’s previous meteorite world also be a two-dimensional world?
The system tower, perhaps, transcends the two, three, and even five-dimensional worlds, which is why it can easily do things that, in their concept, would be impossible.
For example: binding people to the system and making them task takers.
For example: traversing worlds in different ways and earning points (star coins).
…
There is a widely circulated saying: The end of science is theology.
But after going through all of this, Yu Xi increasingly feels that the end of science is the starting point for the science of another world. Things that people cannot understand or accomplish are labeled as theology, simply because they haven’t yet reached a high enough vantage point.
The mysteries of the universe, the end of time and space—there must be another science waiting there.
“So, the system tower might come from a high-dimensional world, and we could just be test subjects.” Ya Tong, having experienced many tasks, had a faint sense of this. She just hadn’t thought that her original world could possibly be a two-dimensional world. “According to the theory of fragment worlds, the task world we are in now is incomplete, filled with time-space black holes everywhere. Once the natives step in, there is almost no chance of them coming back. So, the reason why the disaster in this world is chaotic can also be explained, because the world is broken, and time-space is disrupted.”
After Ya Tong finished speaking, she seemed to pause for a moment, staring into the void. Then she smiled at Yu Xi. “I just submitted my first task, and sure enough, the reason for the chaotic disaster was because of this.”
She had originally thought that among the several tasks, this would be the most difficult one, requiring the combination of multiple data points to reach a conclusion. However, after meeting Yu Xi, who had already been to the time loop area and even made some judgments, Ya Tong found that Yu Xi had taken a shortcut.
The concept of “fragmented worlds” had never appeared in Ya Tong’s previous task worlds.
Looking back now, some of the worlds she had visited in the past might have also been “fragmented worlds,” because strange and inexplicable things had occurred, but at the time, she had no concept of this, so she could only classify them as unsolved mysteries.
From Ya Tong’s explanation, Yu Xi also realized that the System Tower and the Star House were indeed vastly different. At the very least, when traveling through worlds, the Star House system provided very intuitive world data, whereas the System Tower provided nothing, leaving the task takers to explore on their own.
It was truly a world where the strong prey on the weak.
The only commonality was the system issuing tasks and the task takers completing them, so the Star House system must also be a high-dimensional world product, very likely from the same world as the System Tower.
But what is the purpose of binding task takers to perform tasks in these two systems?
Thinking about it, so far, most of Yu Xi’s tasks had been survival tasks or personal rescue tasks.
As for the System Tower, from Lin Wu’s task in the Acid Rain World, Lou Rui’s task in the Zombie World, and this time, Ya Tong’s task in the Storm World, it seems that the main goal was collective rescue and world restoration.
But Lin Wu had also said that the direction of the task could be chosen by the task taker, and besides rescue missions, there were other types of tasks.
Combined with the inner and outer tower settings, the rest rewards in peaceful worlds, and the encouragement of fighting, Yu Xi guessed that the System Tower’s ultimate goal might be to cultivate high-intensity individuals, much like raising poison creatures.
As for what these high-intensity task takers were ultimately meant to do, that remains unknown. However, it certainly doesn’t feel like a good thing.
As for the Star House—leaving everything else aside, just the fact that it could shield the System Tower from causing her original world to fall into a task world was enough for Yu Xi to label the Star House system as “good.”
Especially for this task of building a shelter, which, in her imagination, would be fraught with difficulties, but now that Ya Tong was here, their tasks overlapped, and they could work together—what could be better?
Ya Tong said, although her current task had nothing to do with the world’s inhabitants, she still had to investigate the situation with Qu’s parents, even though she suspected with 80% certainty that they had already been killed…
“You’re going up the mountain?” The night fell especially quickly today, and with the time spent searching, it was no longer suitable to go to the mountaintop.
“I have ways even without going up.” Ya Tong smiled, with a hint of meaning.
Both of them were used to being straightforward, and Yu Xi understood immediately. “Wait a bit. I’ll go with you.”
After talking for a while, Yu Zhenzhen had finished her shower in the hotel bathroom. Seeing that “Qu Yichen” was still there, she didn’t rush him out like yesterday. Instead, she asked the two if they were hungry and whether they wanted to go get dinner.
Currently, the hotel provided free breakfast and dinner, and although Yu Zhenzhen really wanted to eat the food from Yu Xi’s space, she couldn’t take it out with “Qu Yichen” present. To avoid eating instant noodles, she suggested going to pick up the meals.
“I’ll go.” Yu Xi sighed and decided to take the opportunity to pack some of Yu Zhenzhen’s favorite food into her bag, so she wouldn’t have to worry about exposing her “space” if she wanted to eat.
However, they would be staying together for a long time, so she still needed to find a way to reveal her “space” to “Qu Yichen” soon, so it would be convenient to take out things when needed.
…
Near midnight, the rain outside still hadn’t stopped.
Wang Fen followed her husband and son as they cleaned up the mess caused by the typhoon inside the room, urging the hotel staff to come and repair the broken windows. Exhausted and sleepy, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The window was only temporarily repaired with cardboard and rubber-like material, but their room was on the seventh floor, so there was no need to worry about anyone breaking in.
However, tonight, they had an unexpected “visitor.”
…
After Yu Zhenzhen fell asleep, Yu Xi locked the door and followed Ya Tong, moving quickly into the hotel.
Both of them had reached an astonishing physical level, and climbing up to the seventh floor was nothing more than a small task.
They were perfectly in sync—one checked the window of the room, the other silently broke the window; one caught the falling cardboard and rubber, the other swiftly entered; one knocked out the husband and son, while the other covered Wang Fen’s mouth and dragged her into the living room.
Wang Fen, already sleeping uneasily and plagued by nightmares, opened her eyes to see “Qu Father’s” enlarged face staring at her, causing her soul to nearly leave her body.
“Hello, you made it down safely? Why didn’t you bring us along?”
In the quiet night, seeing the face that had just appeared in her nightmare, now smiling and speaking to her, Wang Fen was so scared she nearly wet herself!
“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me! I wasn’t the one who closed the door, don’t come after me, go find Zheng Kun and the others! They were the ones who closed the door!” Panicked, Wang Fen didn’t even notice that there was another person in the darkness of the living room.
Yu Xi stood silently to the side, holding her phone without making a sound, carefully avoiding showing Ya Tong’s face in the frame.
Ya Tong’s facial-altering card was better than her [Disguise Lipstick], because it could change her appearance based on a photo, but it only lasted for an hour.
However, based on Ya Tong’s observation in the afternoon, and combining it with Qu Yichen’s prior memory, this woman, Wang Fen, was an easy breakthrough due to her personality.
With her current “face,” she barely had to ask before Wang Fen spilled everything.
The situation was just as they had imagined.
After they reached the mountaintop yesterday, the cable car station indeed declared that the cable cars were no longer operating, as the cable car line was too long, and the cable cars were older models. If they had been stranded in mid-air when the typhoon hit, it would have been a death sentence.
With no other choice, the group had to walk down the mountainside.
The path was narrow, and due to the different scenic spots, there were several forks. The group’s pace was uneven, and one of the parents twisted their ankle and fell, slowing everyone down. Soon, their group got separated from the main party, and before they reached the midway point, the typhoon and heavy rain arrived.
Luckily, there was a small shop built along the mountainside, which was off the main path and required crossing a bamboo suspension bridge. The shopkeeper had already evacuated, locking the door behind them. The group spent time breaking the door to enter, and due to the wind direction, they managed to safely avoid the typhoon and heavy rain.
Later, the rain stopped, the typhoon passed, and everyone was eager to go down, but Father Qu didn’t agree. He still felt uneasy.
However, without a good reason to stay, he couldn’t convince the others. In the end, only he and Mother Qu remained at the small shop, continuing to reinforce the windows.
Not long after, the eye of the typhoon passed, and the rain started again, with strong winds picking up. Father and mother Qu saw the other parents and children, who had left earlier, now returning through the wind and rain, followed by several strangers.
On their way out, they had met some travelers coming down from other mountain paths. These travelers were well-informed and spoke about the typhoon eye, speculating that there could be an even larger hurricane and rainstorm.
However, the place they had been hiding was a cave without doors or windows to shield them from the wind and rain. If the wind came from the opposite direction, they wouldn’t have been able to safely hide. So, they had been looking for a better shelter nearby.
The parents mentioned the small shop’s location, and since it was in a mountain hollow and had doors and windows, it was the best place nearby to take shelter. The group hurried back, but they were still too late—the typhoon had already arrived.
While crossing the suspension bridge, halfway through, half of the ropes snapped, and the group was left swaying dangerously on the bridge.
At that moment, although Father and Mother Qu were safely inside, they couldn’t bear to see the other parents and children in danger. In the end, Father Qu opened the door, which had already been sealed with cabinets, and went out to rescue them.
At this point, it was already difficult to move in the typhoon. The rain had made everything slippery, and Father Qu struggled greatly to reach the bridge’s edge, risking his life to secure the broken rope.
The parents, with their children, desperately ran across the bridge towards the small shop. The strangers following them were about to cross when the rope on the other side snapped again. Father Qu, who had originally planned to return to the shop, turned back to continue helping the others secure the ropes.
The wind speed rapidly increased, and branches torn from trees slammed against the small shop’s doors and windows. Glass shattered, the door flew open, and the furious wind and rain, along with broken branches and debris, pounded the shop.
Everyone scrambled to block the windows with cabinets, then dragged larger cabinets to block the door. Mother Qu spoke up to stop them, saying that Father Qu and the others were still outside, and they should wait before sealing everything.
But several parents and children were injured, bleeding heavily, and fear of death clouded their minds. They couldn’t hear anything else, only thinking about blocking the door and windows to protect themselves from the terrifying storm and flying debris.
In the chaos, Mother Qu pulled one of them aside and rushed outside to help Father Qu. But when she returned with Father Qu and several strangers, they found that the people inside refused to move the furniture blocking the door to let them in.
The second wave of the typhoon had reached an incredibly terrifying level. Tree trunks were torn from the ground, and rocks rolled down the mountainside. The debris rained down like stones hitting the shop’s roof, and the people inside desperately pushed against the furniture, huddled together in the small shop, trembling in fear.
Someone suggested moving the furniture to open the door and let the people outside in, but they were immediately silenced by others.
The man who spoke was injured, and his child had been struck in the head and was lying unconscious beside him. Hearing the suggestion to open the door, he yelled back like an enraged dog.
“If you want to die, go crash into the wall! Don’t drag us down! I still want to live! My son is going to survive and go to Huaxing University! He can’t die! I can’t die!” At that moment, Zheng Kun had lost his sanity.
“Yes, my daughter is only eighteen! She can’t die!” Another person, struggling to hold the cabinet, looked at his wife, who was huddling in the corner with their trembling daughter, gritting his teeth and agreeing.
Many people who appeared polite and well-mannered in peacetime now revealed their most primal instincts in the extreme life-or-death situation.
Some bravely tried to save others, while others, in order to survive, abandoned their conscience.
They had no idea whether the shop could withstand the disaster. In such a situation, asking them to open the already unstable door to help others was simply impossible…
A few people who strongly opposed the idea stood their ground, and the others comforted themselves, saying it wasn’t their fault. They were just helpless, unable to stop it…
They didn’t witness the tragic scene of Father and Mother Qu’s death, but they clearly heard the screams from outside—desperate cries for help, calling their names. Every word was painfully clear to them.
Later, the small shop finally managed to withstand the typhoon. When they moved the furniture and pushed open the broken door, they saw that everything outside had changed beyond recognition, unrecognizable from before.
Tree trunks had fallen, rocks mixed with mud and debris scattered everywhere, and faint bloodstains could still be seen…
The people they had left outside were now gone. Not far from the mountain hollow, there was a slope and a cliff. In such strong winds, even if people weren’t swept away, they could still be struck by the tree trunks and debris.
“They died on their own. It’s not our fault… we didn’t kill them…” In the eerie silence, someone began to absolve themselves.
“Yes, yes, it’s the typhoon. They were killed by the typhoon…” Soon, others echoed.
“They should have found another place to hide, not stay outside…” Then a third person spoke.
…
They spent the night in silence in the small shop. The suspension bridge had completely broken, and they were trapped in the mountain hollow.
The next day, after sunrise, they all aligned their stories, and in the afternoon, they received rescue from a helicopter…
“I really didn’t want it! I couldn’t stop them, it’s not my fault! Don’t come after me…” Wang Fen cried like a madwoman, sobbing as she explained. She was knocked unconscious by Ya Tong.
Yu Xi put away her phone and stepped forward to ask how they planned to deal with these people.
Ya Tong, having lived on the edge of life and death countless times, found killing easy, but for people like this who refused to admit their wrongs, death wouldn’t make them feel the pain they truly deserved.
She looked at Wang Fen, who was so terrified she had wet herself, and sneered. “Killing them is simple, but it’s too easy for them. Let’s destroy what they care about the most. But we need more than just her video. Let’s go, we’ll have Father Qu ‘visit’ some others.”
The next day, several videos were repeatedly played on the hotel district’s advertisement screens and several websites.