The next day, local morning news and trending local posts were all about the wolf escape incident from the suburban zoo the previous night.

S City’s suburban area boasts a large wildlife park where visitors can drive through and enjoy a variety of animals. The park is not only expansive with multiple zones, but also home to a diverse array of species. The wolf enclosure, in particular, is designed to closely mimic the wild with natural elements like grass, rocks, and trees, allowing the wolves to roam freely.

Despite the high iron fences surrounding the wolf area and the wide, deep trench between the wolves and the fence to ensure they stay confined, two wolves managed to escape last night. Reporters stated that as of the time of their report, the wildlife park had not explained how the wolves managed to leave the enclosure.

Zoo staff were baffled as there were no signs of damage or breaches in the enclosure, and they couldn’t determine which path the wolves took to exit the wolf area and the park without being caught on camera. The night shift staff only realized something was wrong after the wolves had escaped and started howling.

The staff urgently contacted higher authorities and deployed professional wildlife capture vehicles, eventually recapturing the wolves in the suburban area after a half-night chase. Fortunately, the incident occurred in the middle of the night in a sparsely populated suburban area with newly built but unoccupied residential buildings, resulting in no human injuries.

However, when zookeepers checked other animal areas the next day, they found many rabbits in the petting zoo had been killed, likely by the escaped wolves. While there have been past incidents of tourists being attacked by lions in wildlife parks, this incident was particularly frightening. The wolves had reached the streets, and if the park hadn’t been far from the city center, they could have easily injured or killed pedestrians.

Online, many residents near the suburbs reported hearing the wolves howling last night, initially thinking they were hallucinating. They couldn’t believe it was real. Others mentioned that their dogs started barking strangely in the middle of the night, raising goosebumps and unable to be calmed, disrupting everyone’s sleep. It was likely because the dogs had heard the wolves howling.

Yu Xi didn’t sleep well in the latter half of the night. After watching the news in the morning, she took Fan Qi to a shooting club. Her membership card still had unused sessions, so from today, she planned to bring Fan Qi for two hours of practice daily. Initially, Fan Qi was puzzled. What did wolves escaping from the zoo have to do with her? Had her daughter gone mad? Even if Yu Xi perfected her shooting, what could she possibly do if she encountered a wild animal on the street? Use a water gun and go “biubiubiu”?

Initially, Yu Xi had planned to buy Strong Anti-Glycation Pills for her parents to enhance their physical fitness, ensuring they could handle any situation.

But now she was left with only 48 star coins, and with the regular apocalypse mission approaching, she didn’t dare to use any star coins yet. The Strong Anti-Glycation Pills were effective and definitely worth buying.

At this moment, she could only hope that the apocalypse on G Blue Star wouldn’t come too soon, at least allowing her to complete one more regular apocalypse mission. Although the apocalypse mission could be started early, the difficulty was unpredictable, and the information might not be comprehensive, unlike the regular monthly apocalypse missions.

In just a few months, when she was forced to bind with the Star House, she never imagined that one day she would be looking forward to the apocalypse mission world arriving earlier so she could earn more star coins.

After leaving the shooting club, Yu Xi took Fan Qi to a nearby sporting goods store to buy some fitness equipment. They bought easy-to-use items such as arm strengtheners, pull-up bars, dumbbells, and a Roman chair for abdominal and back exercises—a piece of equipment she bought for herself.

Because the chair was slightly larger, Yu Xi left her address for delivery and then took Fan Qi to a shopping mall near Yu Feng’s workplace.

“Mom, my royalties have arrived again. It’s from that project I mentioned before, where I redesigned characters for ‘Shan Hai Jing’ for the publisher. I got a six-figure final payment, so today, you can buy whatever you want. Don’t worry about saving money for me.”

“Alright, I won’t hold back then.” For parents, the happiest moment is probably hearing their children say this. However, in reality, Fan Qi was reluctant to spend her daughter’s hard-earned money on random things. In the end, she still bought quite a few clothes for Yu Xi and Yu Feng.

Afterward, Yu Xi herself took Fan Qi to buy the latest model of a massage chair—Fan Qi had practiced dancing for many years, leading to overuse of her back. Now that she was getting older, her back muscles were prone to strain, and using a massage chair for relaxation would be very comfortable.

She estimated that there was still some space in the Star House to store the chair. When the time came, they could stay in the Star House, one enjoying a glass of wine and reading a book, the other lying on the massage chair watching shows. The place might be small, but it didn’t matter.

Because Fan Qi liked watching shows, Yu Xi had already had someone download all the available dramas and movies from the internet, categorizing them onto several large-capacity external hard drives. When the time came, all they needed to do was connect to a computer to watch them. With so many dramas and movies, it would probably take a lifetime to watch them all.

Yu Feng liked reading books about martial arts, detectives, and wars. She also downloaded many famous books of these genres from ancient to modern times onto a tablet, so he could read or listen to them anytime.

She had already downloaded offline maps of all the major cities in the country, proving that maps were very useful. She planned to spend the next few days downloading maps of foreign countries as well.

She also bought various leisure items like chess and board games. In case the outside world became too terrible to go out, at least they could have some entertainment inside the Star House, preventing them from getting bored and sick.

Thinking of this, she bought several massage guns from the store, leaving her address for delivery as usual.

Afterward, Yu Xi fully demonstrated her ability to splurge. As long as Fan Qi lingered in a store for a while or showed interest in an item, Yu Xi would promptly buy it.

Fan Qi couldn’t stop her and, amidst the admiring and complimentary gazes of the sales clerks, gave Yu Xi’s waist a playful pinch. Once they left the store, Fan Qi unilaterally declared the shopping session over and insisted on going home immediately.

“Mom, I want to drink bubble tea. Let’s buy three cups, then pick up Dad from work and go to the grilled fish restaurant across from home for dinner.”

Fan Qi: …

Unable to refuse, and even feeling a bit excited. It seemed like it had been a long time since the three of them had gone out for a meal together.

Finally, Yu Xi’s wish was fulfilled. They bought three cups of milk tea with different flavors and some snacks like sugar-roasted chestnuts and salted cashews. Holding an umbrella and linking arms, they walked to the nearby Metrology Bureau to pick up Yu Feng from work.

Although it had been raining these past few days, the air was much fresher than before. When the sun came out for a few hours, the sky seemed clearer and bluer than before, with the scent of grass and trees in the air.

Even water quality experts on TV mentioned that the rivers were cleaner than before, and some algae problems in coastal areas had improved. Some experts suggested that this might be the planet’s way of self-adjusting. Though this explanation seemed strange, it was ultimately a good thing, and the public welcomed it.

Yu Feng had been a bit down during lunch since he ate leftovers alone at home, but his spirits were quickly lifted in the evening. Not only did he see his wife and daughter as soon as he stepped out of work, but they also brought him milk tea and bought him a lot of clothes.

The three of them enjoyed a delicious dinner together and then headed home happily.

Over the next two days, Yu Feng joined in the shooting practice sessions. After each session, Yu Xi would come up with various excuses to drag Yu Feng and Fan Qi to bustling shopping centers.

S City was vast, with many newly opened shopping malls they had yet to visit. The variety of new and unheard-of delicacies was eye-opening.

Fan Qi never imagined that milk tea could be made in so many ways, even incorporating avocado and chestnut, and wondered what on earth a thorn pear was.

Yu Xi followed behind her parents, watching them chat about their drinks while occasionally getting distracted by nearby stores. She felt both warmth and melancholy.

These relatively peaceful moments felt stolen, and even one more day was precious.

She regretted that she had been too busy building her career in the past few years, filling her schedule and rarely spending time with her parents. She always thought that she could accompany them after achieving a stable financial foundation. Then, with enough money, they could travel anywhere, fly business class, stay in five-star hotels, and hire personal guides for international trips.

But now, just as her wishes were about to come true, the apocalypse was approaching…

People often don’t appreciate what they have until they are about to lose it and realize the regrets they still hold.

Late Sunday night, nearing midnight, Yu Xi quietly went downstairs and opened the bathroom door.

There were five minutes left until December 6th at midnight.

At the stroke of midnight, a new world mission arrived.

Fourth Apocalypse World:

Difficulty Level: Medium-low.

World Type: Natural disaster, category: meteorite.

World Time:

World Identity: Fashion model.

World Tasks:

World Task Failure: Death.

Yu Xi frowned, catching a key piece of information: Task 2 required her to safely bring the world identity’s sister back to the country, implying that the sister was abroad at the start. Or perhaps both the world identity and the sister were abroad?

If the starting point was indeed abroad, then the [Translation Gum] would be a necessary purchase. Despite its numerous bugs—like the automatic translation function only working when she spoke her native language, rendering any foreign language she accidentally spoke as it was in the ears of others, and only functioning for a single target, making it useless if she was facing two people from different countries—its price of only 2 star coins made these issues negligible.

Yu Xi bought the [Translation Gum], leaving her with 46 star coins.

She knew about meteorite disasters; many movies had depicted such scenarios, though most of them portrayed world-ending events where a single meteorite could destroy the entire planet. She suspected that the world she was entering wouldn’t be so extreme since the difficulty was labeled as medium-low. Additionally, the phrase “first meteor shower” suggested multiple showers, not a single world-ending impact. If it was referred to as a “shower,” the meteorites were likely small in size but numerous, possibly covering a large area.

Even if it wasn’t a single world-ending event, the task was still daunting. Small meteorites could destroy a town, while large ones could devastate a city. Moreover, the aftermath could include earthquakes, tsunamis, and dust clouds covering the sky, all potential consequences of a meteorite disaster.

She checked her star gear: the [Healing Foundation] had only been used once and still had plenty left. The half bottle of [High-Temperature Perfume] was unlikely to be useful in this world. The newly bought [Instant Cleanset] had eight uses left, but its usefulness in this world was questionable. The [Air Hair dryer] also hadn’t been used much but seemed of little value here.

After taking stock of her star gear, she opened the Star House Mall, which hadn’t refreshed with any new items. She longingly eyed the [Ice Control Skill] but ultimately focused on the [Strong Anti-Glycation Pills], considering boosting her physical abilities by another fifty percent. However, with only 46 star coins left, she decided against it for now.

She would decide whether to buy it after entering the mission world.

Returning upstairs, she set a 6 AM alarm, planning to wake up early and research meteorite disasters to prepare thoroughly.

The next day, the city remained shrouded in continuous drizzle, with fine raindrops covering everything. The weather forecast indicated even higher temperatures than before, ranging from nineteen to twenty-seven degrees Celsius during the day.

Carrying her laptop downstairs, she saw that her parents, Yu Feng and Fan Qi, were still asleep. She poured herself a glass of milk, grabbed a sandwich from the fridge, and sat at the dining table to start her research.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she heard a strange flapping sound, like something beating its wings. Turning her head towards the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, she noticed that the rain had stopped.

The city was bathed in a faint sunlight, which should have cast bright morning light. However, the room remained dim, as if the sunlight was blocked by something. She heard exclamations of surprise from the neighboring houses, as if people had discovered something shocking.

Letting go of the mouse, Yu Xi slowly moved to the living room and saw that the sky over the entire city was covered by dark, oppressive clouds.

No, those weren’t clouds. Clouds didn’t move like that. It was—a massive flock of birds, filling the sky!