A massive flow of thick, viscous mud and jagged rocks surged in from every direction, the sound a low-frequency grinding that vibrated through the soles of Jing Shu's boots. It looked as if the deluge was about to swallow the entire area in a single, suffocating gulp, but that was only an illusion. The real danger wasn't the mudslide itself. That part was just a trick of the eyes, a chaotic foreground to a much larger catastrophe.
Jing Shu relied on her night vision, her eyes adjusting to the darkness to see the reality beyond the swirling brown soup. The New World Tower wasn't sinking; it was being cut away from the earth like a fresh piece of land. She watched as the foundation groaned and snapped, the entire structure lifting and beginning to drift. It was floating off, separated from the stationary world.
The whole tower felt like a lonely island pushed out into a violent, subterranean sea. It drifted away with a speed that didn't make sense, the momentum carrying the massive weight of the building as if it were nothing more than a cork. The scenery around it shifted and blurred until everything looked strange and unfamiliar, the landmarks of the district vanishing into the gloom.
Even with ten years of the apocalypse under her belt, Jing Shu didn't fully understand the physics of what she was seeing. She only knew this had to be the plate shift phenomenon that started in the second year of the end times. The plates were either random or controlled by something unknown, moving entire mountains or patches of land like pieces on a game board. They scrambled the map so badly that what used to be a city center could end up in the middle of a wilderness overnight.
Unfortunately, the ground under Jing Shu's feet happened to be one of those plates, and it had started moving with a relentless, heavy purpose.
Jun Jia pulled out her phone, the screen casting a pale light on her stressed face, and cursed under her breath. "Someone reported a massive mudslide heading our way and said it might flood the New World Tower. We were preparing to push a notification to evacuate everyone, but the signal in this remote place got blocked. We sent every emergency alert we could, and that's when I knew something was wrong. Then the cracks started spreading. Every exit road broke off one piece at a time."
Jing Shu pulled out her own phone. There was no signal, just an empty bar and a searching icon. She asked, "After the signal got blocked, did you send anyone out to ask for help?"
"Come on, let's check if Wang Miao managed to get anyone out before the break." Jun Jia kicked the tire of a nearby off-road vehicle in frustration, the metal echoing in the tense silence. She led several people to the other side of the loading bay and shouted, "Wang Miao, how is it? Did anyone escape?"
Wang Miao, who handled administration and logistics, looked miserable, his uniform rumpled and stained with dust. "There wasn't enough time to evacuate. Only three convoys made it out before the gap got too wide. One vehicle got swallowed by the mudslide before we could even try to save it. As for the remaining two, I don't know if they managed to outrun the initial surge."
Jin Baba stared in shock, his car's headlights sweeping across the churning liquid surroundings. Only then did he realize they weren't in the suburbs anymore. It felt like they were drifting on a massive ship. The mud and debris kept pushing the skyscraper along, the water level rising against the lower floors. It was unreal, a completely dreamlike nightmare.
The tower was basically a tiny ship, and an enormous river of mud carried it away into the night.
"All signals are blocked. We tried using the long-range signal transmitter earlier, but it didn't work at all. It's like the atmosphere itself is interference." Wang Miao sounded completely defeated. They couldn't even call for help.
Everyone went blank for a moment, the weight of their isolation settling in. When they planned this event, they had accounted for every possible risk, even sudden disasters or riots, but none of them imagined something like this. The entire tower getting cut loose and floating in a sea of mud—what kind of nightmare was this?
"Not even movies dare go this far," Jin Baba muttered after a long while, his voice barely audible over the sound of the rushing mud.
Jun Jia patted Wang Miao's shoulder, her hand shaking slightly. "We have got so many important people missing. The higher-ups won't ignore this. Just hang on, we will get rescued. If only we had a helicopter. Seriously. Even a single bird could tell them where we are."
If they had one, at least they would have a way to pinpoint their location and get emergency help fast.
Wang Miao sighed again, looking out into the void. "The biggest problem is we can't locate ourselves. I have no idea where we are drifting. There's not a single landmark left in sight. And the people who escaped don't know which direction we are floating toward. Searching for us under these conditions is almost impossible."
The wind whistled sharply around the corners of the building, a cold, biting draft that proved how fast we are moving. Jun Jia frowned. "We have got to be going dozens of miles an hour. Let's just pray it stops soon."
The constant change in direction only made rescuing them harder, as they aren't moving in a straight line.
Li Yuetian rushed over with a team of armed personnel, his breath hitching in his chest. "I have sealed off the tower's main entrances. No one is getting out or jumping. Our people are stationed at every section of the perimeter. I will have people set up a boundary with flares so no one falls if parts of the building collapse. Let's get together and draft a plan before we announce anything to the guests."
Lan Shao quietly let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing an inch. Good, at least it wasn't a robbery or a violent takeover. Even though the whole building got dragged who-knows-where, Jin Baba was here along with so many elites. The higher-ups would definitely organize a massive rescue effort to save their own children. For now, all they had to do was wait.
"Sit tight and wait for rescue. Keep everyone calm. Don't let anything happen before help arrives. No injuries, no internal fights, and certainly no panicking." Jun Jia spoke firmly, her voice regaining its command. She held the highest administrative authority here, after all. She was part of Wu City's leadership, and she knew how to manage a crisis.
"Yes!"
"Got it!"
Jun Jia continued, turning to her logistical head. "Wang Miao, gather the list of all attendees for the elite auction, tally everyone present, and discuss food and lodging with the logistics supervisor. Figure out which supplies we still have and what we are missing. Report the shortage and we will find a way to manage it."
Jing Shu frowned the entire time, her eyes narrowing as she watched the mud churn below. Something felt off. It was too familiar, too similar to stories she had heard in the dark.
This was probably not as simple as waiting for rescue. Plate shifts completely scrambled all known geography. It happened in America, and it happened in the mountains during the great tremors. For all she knew, they weren't even within the borders of Wu City anymore.
Wang Miao pulled up his phone and looked at the registration data. "We have got a thousand attendees for the elite auction, three hundred service and security staff, over a hundred administrative and logistics personnel, and six hundred armed personnel, totaling two thousand people. But the original developer, Boss Lü, brought more than two hundred people who have been living upstairs in the penthouse and service rooms."
He added, his voice dropping an octave, "We planned for a two-hour auction, so we didn't prepare much food or water. What we have now might last these two thousand people for a day or two at most. Everything stored in the parking lot got separated when the plate split. Boss Lü probably has some food, but water is a serious problem. If we are stuck in this tower for more than seven days..."
In other words, the supply depot in the parking lot didn't come with them. Only the bare tower, stripped of its external stores, drifted away.
"Boss, Accountant Liu!"
A driver rushed over from the interior of the loading bay, his chest heaving and his face splattered with mud. "That scared me to death. While we were transferring supplies, the ground over there cracked open like a giant mouth. Thank god our truck was already inside the service ramp or we would have never made it."
Xiao Liu's eyes lit up with a sudden, intense relief. She nodded quickly, pulled the driver aside, and asked him a few more questions in a hushed tone.
Which meant Jing Shu's shipment of Red Nematode Patty carts was still here.