Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 210 Intense Conflict

She wasn't walking fast, her mind racing with her next move. She had only walked a hundred meters out of the purchasing area when an unusual sound suddenly came from the upper reaches of the glacier!

What happened? Did the ice break? Or... a human conflict? A robbery? Whatever it was, the panicked flight of a large crowd inherently meant great danger, especially on this slippery ice surface, where trampling and collisions were very likely to occur.

The sound was initially faint, mixed with the wind and distant voices, almost indistinguishable. But soon it became clear, loud, and rapidly amplified—a chaotic mix of screams, roars, and cries! It was distorted by distance and voices, making it difficult to discern, and the source of the sound was clearly moving, rapidly approaching the shore!

Xu Xiaoyan's heart skipped a beat. She immediately stopped, steadied the shopping cart with both hands, and looked up.

On the dimly lit ice in the distance, a group of figures were running frantically towards them! They weren't walking leisurely, nor were they jogging; they were truly running for their lives—some were empty-handed, their arms flailing wildly; some dragged simple luggage or fishing gear, the items bouncing wildly on the ice; and many more had faces full of terror, only focused on fleeing, glancing back every now and then, as if something extremely terrifying was chasing them.

The running crowd scattered several people who were still slowly packing up their equipment. An old man was knocked down and his fishing gear was scattered all over the ground. A woman screamed and protected her bucket of fish. Two men who were packing up their tents stood frozen in place, not having reacted yet, when they were swept forward by the raging crowd.

"Run! Run!" The scattered shouts came intermittently. Her pupils contracted slightly, and almost instinctively, she quickly looked around. The collection point was only a hundred meters behind her.

She immediately pushed her shopping cart toward the back of the nearest row of shelves! There were some odds and ends and spare equipment piled up there. The location was relatively secluded and the view was blocked by the shelves. She gritted her teeth and pushed the shopping cart to the recessed corner formed by several shelves. It was darker there and farther away from the main road.

As soon as she parked her shopping cart, she heard a chaotic din and the sound of running footsteps growing closer. The sounds were no longer just panicked fleeing; they contained more complex layers—the crisp cracking of items shattering on the ice—glass containers or ice fishing gear? There were short, suppressed groans of pain, like cries forced out after someone had choked them, and even clearer roars of anger:

"Get out of the way!"

"Run!"

"They're coming!"

"My things... my fish..."

Sounds surged from all directions, creating eerie echoes on the ice. Xu Xiaoyan forced herself to calm down. The cold air rushed into her lungs, bringing a stinging sensation, but it also made her mind clearer.

There was no time to hesitate! With a thought, the fishing rod and shopping cart were silently stored in her spatial storage. Xu Xiaoyan immediately turned to the side, her back pressed against the cold, rough wall of the display case.

The chill of the metal container was still clearly felt through her thick cotton coat. She shrank herself into the shadows as much as possible. The gap between the containers was less than 30 centimeters wide, but she was already thin, and now she hunched over and her shoulders were hunched, almost blending into the darkness.

Then, she cautiously peeked out, her right eye pressed against the edge of the container, peering through the narrow gap between the two containers.

Her field of vision was limited, but it was enough for her to see everything that was happening.

The group of people at the front had already rushed onto the hard ground on the shore. It was a concrete area closest to the ice surface, which was originally part of the dock but has now become a temporary entrance and exit for the ice fishing area.

About a dozen people, mostly young and middle-aged men, ran the fastest and were the first to leave the ice. Most of them didn't look back and continued running further away—towards the base walls, towards places with lights and safety.

But three or four people stopped, still shaken, with their hands on their knees, panting heavily. White mist spewed from their mouths, forming fleeting clouds in the dim light.

One of them pointed towards the ice and shouted incoherently, waving his arms wildly. People next to him tried to pull him back, but he broke free and continued to yell at the air.

Because of the distance and the noise of the surrounding environment, Xu Xiaoyan couldn't hear the specific content very clearly. She could only catch a few fragmented words, which she could barely make out from the shape of the person's opening and closing mouth and the occasional rise in tone:

"Knives...they have knives..."

"Rob... just rob it..."

"A fight broke out...and blood was drawn..."

"Hurry up...don't look back..."

In the context of the apocalypse, these words carry a specific and heavy meaning. Many more people are still staggering and running on the ice, creating a chaotic scene. An old man was running too fast, slipped, and fell forward. The plastic bucket he was carrying flew out of his hand, scattering the fish all over the ground, which slid a long way across the ice.

He tried to get up to pick it up, but the people behind him surged forward. Some people walked around him, some didn't have time to dodge and squeezed past him, and some even stepped on his hand. The old man let out a short cry of pain, but it was quickly drowned out.

A woman ran unsteadily, nearly falling several times. Her shoes were unsuitable for running on ice, and she slipped with every step. The expression on her face was pure fear.

Another man was dragging a homemade sled piled high with all his belongings—a tent, a sleeping bag, a small stove, and half a bag of fish. The sled bounced on the uneven ice, and things kept falling off. He ran and looked back to pick them up, only to have them fall off again. Finally, he gave up, loosened the rope, and let the sled slide to one side, running away empty-handed.

Further away, in the middle of the ice, there seemed to be several groups of people gathered. Not all of them were running away—there were at least three or four small groups, each with about seven or eight people, keeping their distance from each other, but clearly confronting each other. The distance was too far and the light was too dim, so Xu Xiaoyan squinted and could only see blurry outlines.

But some details still pierced through the darkness: someone raised their arm, holding a long, thin object that reflected a cold metallic gleam in the dim light—was it an iron rod? A harpoon? Or a real knife? Another group of people spread out in a semi-circle, seemingly on the defensive, with shouts and the clanging of metal faintly heard, but the sounds were fragmented by the wind, making it difficult to discern their contents.

Has the conflict between fishermen escalated? Is it for the sake of good fishing spots, or for the sake of stealing fish? Or is someone organized to specifically rob anglers who have a good catch? Or... is it related to those rumored "winter fishing private events"?

Xu Xiaoyan held her breath. Whatever the reason, it would be unwise to get involved in this sudden mass chaos. She had no professional training, and the best option was to find a safe path and leave this place of trouble as soon as possible.

The chaotic sounds and running footsteps continued in the distance. She watched the figures fleeing in disarray, still in shock, seeing the genuine fear on their faces, and seeing the equipment and spoils they had discarded—the fruits of their labor that might have lasted a whole day or even several days, now carelessly abandoned on the ice.

A thought suddenly flashed into my mind.

Leave? Now is indeed the safest time. Take advantage of the chaos to go straight back to the city and blend into the returning crowd. No one will notice her.

Her shopping cart and fishing rod were already stored in her spatial storage. Empty-handed, she looked like an unlucky soul who had finished her mission early and caught nothing. Back at the base, back at her lodgings, she locked the door, boiled some water, ate something, and sorted out her day's catch...

However, she remembered the base forum, which had a section called "Base News" that was dedicated to sharing news, anecdotes, and rumors from inside and outside the base. There was a group of people active there—most of them were relatively safe residents of the city who didn't have to risk going out to find food every day. Although their lives were monotonous, they had basic security. They were willing to pay a small amount of points to exchange for "intelligence" or "talking points" to learn about what was happening in the outside world and to satisfy their curiosity and sense of crisis.

She had long understood the value of information in this environment. An accurate message could help someone avoid danger; a timely warning could save a life; even a thrilling story could become someone's pastime and earn real points.

"Given the current situation, it's rare to encounter such a major event..." A shrewd glint flashed in Xu Xiaoyan's eyes. "First-hand information, the chaotic scene, the vague cause of the conflict... these are all resources."

"Fortune favors the bold," she told herself. It was a cliché, but in the apocalypse, it was often a stark truth. She needed points, she needed to accumulate more leverage in this world.

Without hesitation, she quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket, swiped to unlock it, and brought up the camera app. The first thing she did was switch the camera to silent mode, as the shutter sound was too jarring in this environment, and she didn't want to attract any attention.

Then I adjusted the settings: I turned off the flash, switched to professional mode, and set the ISO to the highest level. Although this would increase noise, the light was simply too dim.

She peeked half her head out from the gap in the shipping container. This time, she raised her phone with her right hand and carefully extended the camera lens through the gap, moving slowly to minimize glare and shaking.

Click—the first photo is a panoramic view of the crowd running in terror. She zoomed out to cover as much area as possible. In the picture, at least twenty or thirty people were running away, in various postures: some leaned forward and sprinted with all their might, some ran while looking back, and some staggered and were about to fall. Various items were scattered on the ice—overturned buckets, scattered fish, discarded backpacks, broken fishing rods. In the distance, there were more figures, blurred into a moving black dot.

The composition of this photo is not perfect, and is even somewhat chaotic, but it is precisely this chaos that conveys the true atmosphere of the scene—panic, disorder, and loss of control.

Click—the second photo is a close-up. She zoomed in, focusing on a few people who had just run past the container. The main subject was a man in his forties, wearing a bulky military green cotton-padded coat. His face was covered with the marks of time. At this moment, his mouth was wide open, revealing yellowed teeth. His eyes were wide open, reflecting the faint light in the distance, as well as pure fear. His forehead was wet and shiny in the dim light, whether from sweat or melted snow, his expression was distorted, his eyebrows were furrowed, and the corners of his mouth were turned down. These were the most genuine facial muscle reactions of a person in extreme panic.

The face occupies most of the space in the viewfinder, every detail is magnified, and the fear is conveyed through the pixels, making you almost feel his rapid breathing and wildly beating heart.

Click—the third image is the source of the conflict. She once again zoomed out, focusing on the groups of figures that seemed to be confronting each other. The distance was too far, and the image quality inevitably became blurry. The figures swayed into a patch of color, but you could vaguely see that in the middle group of figures, someone had raised their arm and was holding a long, thin object, forming a dark silhouette against the gray background. Another group of people were in a semi-encircling position, seemingly approaching. At the edge of the image, there was a person lying on the ground, curled up, and it was unclear whether they were injured or trying to escape.

The blurriness actually adds to the sense of presence and uncertainty; the less you can see, the more room there is for imagination, and the more speculation and discussion it sparks.

Click, click, click... She took more than a dozen shots in a row, constantly adjusting the angle and focus. Sometimes she shot from a low angle, making the running crowd appear even taller and more imposing; sometimes she shot from the side and behind, capturing the terrified expressions on people's faces as they looked back; sometimes she deliberately shook the camera to create a dynamic effect of following the subject.

The insufficient light caused the image quality to be somewhat blurry, and some photos showed ghosting and noise. However, Xu Xiaoyan knew that these "flaws" would actually become advantages. Photos that were too clear and too perfect would seem suspicious in such a sudden situation. Blurry, shaky, and irregularly composed images were the true characteristics of the scene.

She quickly assessed the situation in her mind: three panoramic shots, four close-ups, five shots of the source of the conflict, and a few scattered environmental details—discarded fish, overturned tents, cracks in the ice—a total of sixteen photos, each with its own value.

enough.

She put her phone away, quickly glanced at the screen. The photos were arranged in the album, each one a slice of this chaotic moment. She locked the phone, put it back in her pocket, and then stepped back.

Xu Xiayu darted out from behind the container. With her head down, she quickly walked toward the container with the sign that read "Fishing Gear Rental/Sales". Inside, there was simple heating equipment, and most importantly, there was an official network access point, with a much more stable signal than outside.

Lifting the curtain, a familiar warmth mixed with the faint smell of engine oil and fish bait wafted out. In the innermost corner of the container, there was a small iron stove with charcoal burning in the firebox, emitting a dark red light that made the entire space at least ten degrees warmer than outside.