Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 261

The man let out a desperate, terrified scream, but it was useless.

Soon, his body and arms gradually turned into wood and branches. Finally, his head…

He had become a tree, standing in the snow, unable to move his feet. But the most horrifying part was that he could still sense the outside world. He could even make sounds and wave his branches.

“Help… help… cold…” He stood alone in the snow, his words breaking into fragmented syllables. But as time passed, he could no longer even form those.

Everything he wanted to say turned into eerie wailing, sounding like mournful cries to anyone who heard them…

—

Yu Xi shook off the ice and snow from her Tang blade, then suddenly turned toward White Bird Mountain. From the other side of the mountain, near White Bird Lake, she thought she heard a familiar sound.

“What is it?” Ya Tong, who had been standing guard nearby, stepped forward. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I just thought I heard something.” Yu Xi tilted her chin slightly in the direction of the noise. “It sounded like the crying we heard on the platform.”

“Crying?” Yu Zhenzhen came closer. “The crying from the platform? The ones who turned into trees?” When Yu Xi nodded, the three of them looked in the direction she had indicated and held their breath to listen.

However, of the four, Yu Xi had the best hearing. Just because she could hear something faint didn’t mean they could.

But they all knew—Yu Xi never heard things wrong.

Lin Wu spoke up. “Everyone, be careful. Whether it’s digging for treasure boxes tomorrow or opening them, never act alone. At least two people should always be together. This station may seem like it’s full of rewards, but it’s nothing but hidden traps.”

Everyone nodded. Since they had all finished opening their treasure boxes, they returned to their nearby ice-and-snow campsite. Stepping over the half-meter-high ice wall, they lifted the flap of the transparent tarp and sat down in their camping chairs.

Snow had started falling again, and as night approached, the temperature had dropped to around minus thirty degrees.

Yu Zhenzhen activated the shield on her electric baton, covering the entire ice platform.

With the cold air blocked out, the temperature inside the shield slowly climbed from minus thirty degrees upward.

Yu Zhenzhen was very familiar with using the shield and planned to maintain the temperature between zero and minus five degrees. That way, they wouldn’t feel too cold while eating and sleeping, but their ice walls and ice platform wouldn’t melt either.

Yu Xi retrieved the power bank she had lent Yu Zhenzhen earlier and handed her a new one to continue charging. Then, she told everyone to take out their personal washbasins and filled each with warm water so they could wash their hands and faces.

They planned to eat dinner while discussing their blind box results, compiling a list of challenges they had encountered, including weaknesses of the monsters and strategies for clearing them.

As Yu Xi pulled out a notebook and pen, Yu Zhenzhen suddenly voiced a question that had popped into her mind. “New travelers arrive at this station every day, and old ones leave. But for those who missed today’s treasure hunt activation, doesn’t that mean their only option is to steal boxes?”

Yu Xi had considered this as well but believed the station would maintain some level of fairness. “I don’t think it works that way.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so either,” Lin Wu added. “The previous notification said, ‘The current activation slots for Snowfield Treasure Hunt mode have been filled.’ It’s like a lottery. If there’s a ‘current’ activation, then there must have been a ‘previous’ and there will be a ‘next.’ The word ‘snowfield’ was also in parentheses, which suggests that aside from the Snowfield Treasure Hunt, there are probably other treasure hunt modes as well. They might not happen daily, but they could be triggered by major events.”

“This method of triggering different treasure hunt modes through events is probably the main mission line of this station,” Yu Xi stated firmly.

The other three looked at her. Seeing their expectant gazes, she smiled and continued. “The rare treasure box I opened contained a valid train ticket for one station.”

The rest of the rewards were smaller—an additional inventory slot, a fire axe, a box of bottled water, and a small pack of antibiotics.

From the ordinary treasure boxes, the rewards leaned heavily toward food, daily necessities, weapons, and medicine—likely because resources were relatively scarce at this station, and these were the things regular travelers needed the most.

“I got a ticket upgrade for a single-person sleeper!” Yu Zhenzhen couldn’t hold back anymore and immediately announced her good news. “Just one, but it came from an ordinary treasure box! That means the chances of getting more must be pretty high!”

Lin Wu followed up. “A rare treasure box gave me a lightweight flamethrower. It’s a modified version that can be refueled with gasoline after the fuel runs out.”

As he spoke, he pulled out the flamethrower and immediately used his previously obtained duplication skill, creating a second identical flamethrower.

Yu Zhenzhen gasped in amazement, and Yu Xi praised him as well.

After all, her High-Temperature Perfume was limited—she had only brought two bottles, and now one was already partially used. One had been given to Yu Zhenzhen as a backup self-defense item, while the other had only about a quarter left.

Lin Wu, on the other hand, had nearly exhausted his own High-Temperature Perfume and had been lacking a ranged attack weapon.

He kept one flamethrower for himself and handed the other to Yu Xi for safekeeping, so that whoever needed it later could take it.

With that, three of them had reported their findings. They all turned to look at Ya Tong.

Ya Tong was debating whether or not she could smoke inside the shield. Seeing her teammates’ expectant gazes, she finally spoke. “Two rare treasure boxes. One contained a team sleeper upgrade ticket, and the other… a mystery fragment.”

“Whoa—”

This time, the other three were the ones exclaiming in unison.

Yu Xi promptly pulled out a gasoline generator and a dual-purpose electric grill and hotpot stove. “To celebrate our first successful blind box opening, let’s have barbecue and hotpot tonight!”

Yu Zhenzhen clapped enthusiastically. “Mom, you’re the best!”

Lin Wu: …

Ya Tong: …

—

The sun had set.

For the ordinary tourists at White Bird Lake, this was a long and painful day. Some had survived the terrifying avalanche, but they had lost everything.

When their beloved family members were finally dug out, their bodies were already stiff and lifeless. The survivors held onto their deceased loved ones, crying in anguish, wishing they could have died together.

They couldn’t understand—just hours ago, they had been having a happy and joyful vacation. Why had it all come to such an abrupt end?

They hated themselves. Why had they chosen to come to White Bird Lake for skiing? There were so many other destinations, so why did they have to pick this one? Why, when they saw the snow, did they insist on staying in the mountains? Why couldn’t they have just squeezed into the lower areas with other tourists, even if it meant roughing it in a shop for a few days?

Why hadn’t they been more cautious? Why didn’t they have even the slightest awareness of disaster preparedness?

Why, out of so many people, was it their own family that had to die?

Why? Why…

So many unanswered questions.

And they would never know—their earth-shattering grief might have been nothing more than a pre-programmed event in a game, and they themselves might have been NPCs whose fates had already been predetermined.

But how could those trapped in this reality ever realize that?

Just as Yu Xi and the other travelers stood apart from the native inhabitants of the station, for them, this catastrophic disaster that had crushed the locals’ spirits was merely part of a mission.

Some travelers might sigh or feel pity for what had happened, but they could never truly empathize.

And from the travelers’ perspective, they were fighting desperately to survive, killing each other over train tickets, forsaking their humanity for resources…

But who was to say that beyond the world of the Endless Train, there wasn’t an even higher existence watching over them?

—

While the tourists mourned, some of the travelers were facing their own troubles.

Lu Yong stood with his gun raised, shielding his wounded teammate—who had taken a bullet to the shoulder—as he stared warily at the two men a few meters away, their own weapons drawn.

They had once been his teammates. Before this morning’s avalanche, they had all been in the same group. The avalanche had struck suddenly and with terrifying force. When they got the warning, they had rushed up from their rooms on the fifth floor, trying to reach higher ground.

But the stairwell had been packed with tourists, slowing them down. The two men had always been ruthless in their decision-making—they had pulled out their guns and attempted to kill the civilians blocking their way.

Lu Yong had stopped them.

Moments later, the avalanche struck, burying them under layers of ice and rubble. All of them had been injured to varying degrees, and one of their weakest teammates had died.

When they finally dug themselves out, Lu Yong saw the devastation around them and joined in the effort to rescue survivors.

The two men, however, had refused to help and had blamed the teammate’s death on Lu Yong. They argued that the tourists were going to die anyway, and if he hadn’t interfered, they could have shot their way through, clearing the path. Maybe, they said, the entire team would have made it out safely.

At a moment of life and death, there was no time for hesitation. Lu Yong’s hesitation, in their eyes, made him unfit to be their leader.

So they left the team and descended the mountain early.

By the afternoon, they had heard about the treasure hunt and realized they had missed out on something important. Overhearing other travelers, they learned that treasure hunt mode was activated by digging in the snow for fifteen minutes.

At that moment, they thought of Lu Yong and the rest of the team.

When they had left, Lu Yong and his teammates had still been digging in the snow—rescuing survivors. That meant they must have unlocked treasure hunt mode.

Realizing they had made a mistake in leaving, they started searching for Lu Yong and the others, hoping to claim some of their treasure boxes.

But how could that be possible?

They watched, envious, as Lu Yong’s team unearthed box after box. But they had been the ones who chose to leave. Now, Lu Yong’s group had more people, and they knew they couldn’t win in a head-on fight.

So they decided to ambush them instead.

They waited and watched until one of Lu Yong’s teammates was alone and had just dug up a treasure box. That was when they made their move.

But luck was not on their side.

Since the treasure hunt was nearing its time limit, Lu Yong had gone to check on his scattered teammates. He arrived just in time to witness the ambush, leading to the current standoff.

The tense standoff didn’t last long. More of Lu Yong’s team members arrived, breaking the deadlock. In the end, Lu Yong personally eliminated his former teammates.

He was not someone who enjoyed killing, but when it had to be done, he never hesitated.

At the same time, this incident made him realize something important. The travelers were in chaos, and his team—all of whom had access to the treasure hunt—were a prime target. With over forty days left until the countdown ended, staying in a crowded place was far too dangerous.

Originally, they had been staying in a store in the leisure area. The indoor heating was good, but space was limited, and they had to sleep packed together on the floor.

Now, Lu Yong had decided to leave the buildings altogether, circle around White Bird Mountain, and find a more secure location in the vast ecological zone.

His remaining teammates were all people he had carefully chosen. They trusted his judgment. They feared the cold, but they feared death even more. Without hesitation, they packed up their supplies and set off through the heavy snow, bypassing the lake and heading toward the backside of White Bird Mountain.

Before they even found a suitable place to settle, one of his team members spotted a familiar group.

“Brother Yong, isn’t that the team that stayed in the sleeping compartment next to us on the train? How did they get all the way out here so fast?”

“Wait, they actually built their own foundation and ice wall?”

“Boss, this is outrageous. They’re eating hotpot again!”

“You idiot, look carefully! It’s not just hotpot. They’ve got barbecue too! Damn it, that looks like the grilled skewers from the hotel’s barbecue restaurant—lamb skewers, crispy bones, chicken wings… I’m starving. Why were we so dumb? Why didn’t we think to pack some food in our storage space?”

“You’re the dumb one! We were saving space for more important supplies.”

“Forget the storage space. Those two traitors, Chen Shu and his buddy, died and didn’t even drop their storage space when they went. Now we’ve only got Brother Yong’s space left, and our supplies are cut in half…”

Lu Yong hadn’t thought much of it before, but after hearing his teammates complain, he realized that he had indeed been a bit foolish. He had assumed that with fifty-five days at this station, no matter how the missions unfolded, as long as the well-stocked hotel was there, food and water would never be an issue. But who could have predicted such bad luck—that the hotel would end up completely buried by an avalanche?

“Alright, we still have plenty of food. This place is actually pretty good. There’s a forest on the outer edge that provides cover, it’s far from the mountain, so another avalanche won’t reach here, and there are plenty of large rocks nearby that will work well for a camp. Let’s get to work. We’ll build an ice foundation, raise the ice walls higher, and add a platform for lookouts. If anyone’s too afraid of the cold, we can even build an ice house.”

With their leader giving the orders, the team members got to work immediately.

Lu Yong glanced at the glowing light behind the ice wall across from them, then walked over to greet the neighboring camp. He made it clear that his team would be setting up nearby but promised they wouldn’t cause any trouble. It was simply a courtesy visit to show they had no ill intentions.

Yu Xi had overheard Lu Yong’s team’s entire conversation. If they had no ulterior motives, they would have done what they did before—acknowledge them from a distance with a nod and then go their separate ways. But now, it was clear they were interested in establishing a friendly relationship.

Still, since she had previously traded with them, she knew exactly why Lu Yong was approaching but chose not to call him out on it.

Lounging in her camping chair, she gave him a polite nod from behind the ice wall and shield.

It wasn’t until Lu Yong got closer that he noticed the semi-transparent protective barrier around their camp. What surprised him even more was that, despite being this close, he couldn’t smell a single trace of the hotpot or barbecue. The barrier must have completely sealed in the scents.

He was aware that some travelers received shield-type items as rewards—these were even more valuable than attack-type items. The fact that they could keep the shield activated even in a non-combat situation showed just how well-equipped they were.

Lu Yong’s desire to build a good relationship with them grew even stronger. However, he also knew that being too eager would only make them wary. So after greeting them, he quickly returned to his team.

That night, it was Lin Wu’s turn to stand watch.

The three women used the gaps between the large rocks and tents to set up a temporary restroom. Yu Xi then took out two brand-new portable toilets, letting Yu Zhenzhen and Ya Tong each claim one and store it in their spaces for future use.

She also reassured them that they could use as much water as they needed—her space contained twenty cubic meters of warm purified water, and she still had an untouched 50,000-liter metal-encased drinking water reserve.

Ya Tong had been used to roughing it in the past, but that was only because she never had the space or resources to live comfortably. Now that she finally had her own storage, and with Yu Xi’s meticulous stockpiling, she could afford to enjoy some luxury.

Bathing was too much of a hassle, but wiping down with hot water and changing into fresh underclothes was an easy solution.

The three women laughed and chatted in the makeshift restroom while Lin Wu, to avoid any awkwardness, had Yu Zhenzhen temporarily deactivate the shield and stepped outside the ice wall.

When Yu Xi finished washing up and stepped out, she saw a lone figure standing in the snow.

The heavy snowflakes swirled around him, his silhouette slightly hunched against the icy wind.

For some reason, a familiar piece of background music played in her head.

Yu Xi: …

She was speechless at herself.

—

That night, the snowfall was so heavy that the recently cleared mountain road was blocked again.

Only a portion of White Bird Lake’s tourists had managed to evacuate—those who were lightly injured or had lost loved ones in the avalanche. The rest, who were healthy and unscathed, understood the situation. Since they were getting free lodging in the lakeside villas, complete with heating and food, they were far better off than the survivors of the disaster. Compared to them, their complaints about being trapped in the park suddenly seemed trivial.

The snow continued for another two days. At night, temperatures dropped to minus forty degrees Celsius. The blizzards were so intense that helicopters couldn’t enter the mountains. However, because of the avalanche, the outside world was closely monitoring the situation at White Bird Lake.

With the roads still impassable, concerns arose over whether the park had enough supplies to sustain the trapped tourists. In the end, they resorted to using drones to airdrop large bundles of supplies—mostly cold-weather clothing, but also medicine, food, and water.

Some newer, weaker travelers—those who had missed out on the treasure hunt activation—chose to blend in with the tourists, lining up to receive distributed food and survival gear. They were managing well enough.

Meanwhile, the stronger veteran travelers continued to fight fiercely over treasure boxes.

That afternoon, every traveler’s phone received a new notification.

“Notice: The current activation slots for the Ice Lake Treasure Hunt mode have been filled. Good luck to all participants.”

Clearly, another treasure hunt had been triggered. Once again, a new group of travelers had gained treasure hunt qualifications. This time, however, the hunting area was much smaller—after all, White Bird Lake had only one lake.

Yu Xi and Lin Wu happened to be out digging for treasure boxes at the time. They had stuck to a strict two-person system over the past few days—never acting alone, and always leaving someone behind to guard the campsite.

Curious about the notification, they headed toward the lake.

There, they saw several people sitting on the ice, fishing rods in hand, dropping lines into freshly carved ice holes.

To ordinary tourists, they looked like a bunch of bored people wasting time, spending an entire day fishing and catching nothing.

But to the travelers, every time they reeled in their lines, a treasure box dangled from the hook—sometimes black, sometimes silver.

Yu Xi suddenly asked Lin Wu, “Do you think there are treasure boxes even more valuable than ordinary and rare ones?”

“Possibly,” Lin Wu replied, though he couldn’t say for sure. After three or four days of treasure hunting, they had only obtained one or two silver boxes per day at most—sometimes none at all. Their usual ten-box limit was almost always filled with ordinary black boxes.

But just as the treasure hunt was about to end for the day, Yu Xi dug deep into a thick layer of ice and unearthed a golden treasure box.

The golden surface gleamed, embedded with beautiful diamonds.

When she lightly touched it, her phone screen changed.

“Congratulations! You have obtained a rare treasure box! (Remaining rare treasure boxes in Snowfield Treasure Hunt: 2)”

“Treasure Box Count: Ordinary (7), Rare (1), Epic (1)”

Yu Xi: !!!