Chapter 279: Low Temperature

Chen Ling watched the figure busy behind the counter with his sleeves rolled up, lost in thought.

To be honest, Aurora-kun felt completely different from what he had imagined. When he first saw him at the base, even without opening his eyes, he radiated an indescribable “divinity.” But now that he had awakened, “humanity” seemed to have reclaimed his body.

Even though every gesture still carried the temperament unique to Aurora-kun, the two were cleverly combined, with “divinity” and “humanity” coexisting perfectly.

Aurora-kun looked back. “What would you like to drink?”

“……A latte is fine.” Chen Ling replied with a strange expression.

“Alright.”

“……” Chen Ling hesitated for a moment, then couldn’t help but ask, “Aur… Dr. Yang, do the people at the Aurora Base know you’ve left?”

“They don’t, but they probably know by now.”

Hearing this, Chen Ling could already guess how chaotic the base must be… Aurora-kun had vanished into thin air. Both the base and the Enforcer headquarters were likely searching for him like madmen. But who would have guessed he was leisurely brewing coffee here for a “World-Ending” Calamity?

“Why did you leave the base?”

“No reason.” Aurora-kun was silent for a moment, his gaze passing through the frost-covered window to look outside. “I… just wanted to come out for a walk.”

Seeing this, Chen Ling was about to ask something else when Aurora-kun’s expression suddenly changed!

“Cough, cough, cough, cough—”

He abruptly dropped the grinder and began to cough violently. His aged lungs heaved like a broken bellows, emitting a hoarse, weak coughing sound that echoed through the empty coffee shop.

At this moment, although Aurora-kun’s face still looked like that of a young man in his twenties, his voice sounded like that of someone in their eighties or nineties.

Chen Ling stood up immediately and saw Aurora-kun’s white hair disheveled on his shoulders. With his violent coughing, strands of dull, dim blood flowed from between his fingers, dripping onto the floor…

……

The Courtyard.

A bonfire burned in the courtyard, its roaring flames dispelling some of the cold and dotting the frost-white yard with a touch of red.

Chu Muyun sat by the bonfire, holding a few pieces of firewood, tossing them into the flames from time to time, causing them to crackle and pop.

As a figure swept over the courtyard wall, the burning flames suddenly swirled with the wind. Chu Muyun seemed to sense something and turned his head to the side, only to see Bai Ye standing there with Jian Changsheng, having arrived who knows when.

Chu Muyun’s eyes lit up slightly when he saw Jian Changsheng.

“You’re back? Where’s Heart 6?”

Jian Changsheng’s mouth twitched, his expression somewhat gloomy. “……I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Weren’t you acting together?”

“That guy, he seems to have sold me out……”

Jian Changsheng recounted the sequence of events, and Chu Muyun became thoughtful.

“Heart 6 shouldn’t be that kind of person… hmm… though it’s hard to say……” Chu Muyun sighed. “Anyway, you’re still not sure if he made it out of the base, right?”

“Right.”

“Do you need me to go take a look?” Bai Ye leaned against the wall and spoke slowly.

“……No need. That kid has plenty of skills; he shouldn’t be in trouble. But if you go and happen to alert *that* person, none of us can beat her.”

“The legendary leader of the [Asura]?” Bai Ye thought for a moment. “That would indeed be troublesome.”

Chu Muyun tossed the remaining firewood into the flames all at once, then slowly stood up and walked to the other side of the courtyard. He plucked all the branches off the trees one by one, turning the previously beautiful large trees into bare poles.

“Speaking of which, why are you starting to burn your own trees?”

“Scientific regression. Aurora City’s heating system has failed. If you want to keep warm, you have to find your own way… There are people buying coal everywhere outside now; it’s total chaos. Anyway, I can’t take the things in this yard with me, so I might as well burn them.”

“Heating failure?” Jian Changsheng was shocked. “In such cold weather, without heating, people will freeze to death……”

“Quite a few have already frozen to death, and the temperature is still dropping……”

Chu Muyun sighed, his gaze looking past the courtyard wall at Aurora City, which was completely covered in ice and snow, as if recalling something. “Another hell on earth is about to be born.”

“The temperature drop came too suddenly, and the aurora is clearly starting to become unstable……” Bai Ye looked up at the sky and pulled the brim of his cap down, his expression unreadable. “The time is almost up.”

“Yeah… it’s about time for it to end.”

Jian Changsheng listened to their cryptic conversation and couldn’t help but ask, “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing. In a while, you’ll know naturally.”

“……”

Jian Changsheng scoffed and turned to walk out the gate.

“Where are you going?”

“Just going out for a stroll.” As soon as Jian Changsheng finished speaking, he pushed the door open and left.

Bai Ye turned to look at Chu Muyun. “Is it appropriate for him to be running around outside at a time like this?”

“What’s inappropriate about it?” Chu Muyun shrugged.

“He’s so hard to kill, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Bai Ye: ……

After Jian Changsheng stepped outside, a cold wind blew past, making him shiver uncontrollably.

“So cold… people are really going to die.” Jian Changsheng silently hunched his shoulders and headed in a certain direction.

He wasn’t just going out to freeze for no reason; he was bored out of his mind. Aurora City was in total chaos, and there were people he cared about in this city. If he didn’t go check on them, he wouldn’t be able to rest easy.

However, he had only taken a few steps when he saw several figures stumbling toward him.

“Young man… young man!”

“Young man, do you have any coal at home?”

“If you have coal, please share some with me… my son is about to freeze to death!”

“Me too! Share some with me first! My husband is sick in bed, and we can’t survive without something to keep warm……”

“We’ve burned everything we could at home… the tables, the chairs… except for the clothes on our backs, we really have nothing left……”

“I beg you, I really beg you… coal, wood blocks, anything… just give me something!! Young man, this auntie will kowtow to you……”

This was a group of elderly women. They grabbed the hem of Jian Changsheng’s clothes and began to plead bitterly. The water droplets on their eyelashes had frozen into tiny ice particles, and their faces were as pale as the snow beneath them.

Jian Changsheng was stunned. He saw one of the women plop down onto her knees and immediately said:

“Don’t… don’t! I don’t have what you’re looking for either… you should go look elsewhere.”

Hearing this, a look of despair appeared on the women’s faces. They turned around in a daze and began to walk mechanically toward the distance, as if they had no direction…

Thump.

One of the women swayed and collapsed into the snow.