“Please, let some new guests arrive soon.”
The hotel’s main door was wide open. Su Su had moved her chair to the entrance, sitting just inside. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go out, but rather that it was simply too hot outside. Even the interior of the hotel was heating up, though it was still much better than the outdoors.
Because the wall clock Su Su had purchased earlier featured a temperature display, she noticed that between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM—the hottest part of the day—the interior temperature reached a staggering 40°C. It hadn’t been this hot yesterday.
The most frustrating part was that the hotel was already the coolest place in the vicinity. To test her theory, she took the clock off the wall and stepped out onto the platform. The temperature instantly spiked to 45°C. Determined, she braved the blistering heat and walked down the stone steps to place the clock on the shabby little wooden boat the system had gifted her.
The temperature hit a terrifying 50°C. The air felt like licking flames against her skin; within thirty seconds, her flesh began to sting.
Can humans even survive in this world?
Su Su felt a wave of despair as she hurried back up. The moment she stepped inside the hotel, she collapsed into her chair, limp from the heat. She twisted open a bottle of water and gulped down more than half of it in one go.
“Air conditioning… I need air conditioning,” she muttered.
Opening the mall, she quickly browsed through the cooling equipment. A basic wall-mounted unit cost 500 points, while installing air conditioning for the entire hotel would cost 10,000 points.
The price gap was massive. Su Su read the description carefully and realized that the central air system covered the entire hotel’s future expansions. Even if the hotel had a thousand rooms in the future, she would only need to buy this system once. In the long run, central air was more cost-effective, but she was broke—she couldn’t afford it.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and settled for the next best thing: she spent 500 points to install a central fan system.
The moment she confirmed the purchase, a large fan suddenly appeared on the lobby ceiling. Without needing a switch, the fan began to whir automatically. Instantly, Su Su felt the surrounding air cool down significantly. She glanced at the clock in her hand; the temperature had dropped to 30°C.
It seemed the fans could lower the temperature by at most ten degrees. Although 30°C was still high, Su Su was satisfied compared to the suffocating heat from before. She hung the clock back up and went to the bathroom to splash some water on her face.
When she came back out, the system reappeared, sounding exceptionally excited.
Host, guests are here! Go quickly, there’s quite a few of them!
Someone’s here?
Su Su was even more excited than the system. She flicked the water off her hands and rushed outside to the platform’s railing, completely ignoring the furnace-like heat. Shading her eyes from the blinding glare, she saw a wooden boat made of various patched-together parts.
She could tell it was a patchwork craft because although it was eight or nine meters long and three or four meters wide, the colors of the hull materials were wildly different—some dark, some light. It didn’t look like anything built in a proper shipyard.
The boat stopped about thirty meters from the lighthouse, refusing to come any closer. A makeshift canopy of black-brown oilcloth hid the occupants, but a few pairs of eyes were peeking out toward her.
“Why did the boat stop? Is there no one inside?”
Su Su scratched her head in confusion. However, her desire for the upgrade forced her to endure the sun and shout toward the vessel.
“This is a hotel! You can stay the night and shower! We also have fans, it’s very cool inside! Capacity is limited, first come first served!”
Su Su felt exhausted after shouting, her throat parched and stinging. As if to prove the lighthouse actually contained resources, she picked up a bottle of water and started drinking.
Gulp, gulp. The water level dropped instantly.
“So refreshing!” she yelled exaggeratedly, ensuring the people on the boat could hear her.
“Captain, should we go?”
Seeing Su Su drink water, one of the watchers couldn’t help but swallow their saliva, feeling even thirstier. They felt that the water in her hand must be delicious.
“Wait and see.”
The man addressed as Captain was a middle-aged male in his forties. Like most people in this world, his skin was tanned dark, and he was emaciated to the point of being skin and bones. His deep-set eyes looked as though they hadn’t seen a full meal in a long time.
Su Su stood on the platform like an idiot for five minutes, sweat pouring down her face like a waterfall. She wiped her forehead and flicked the sweat away. She gave the boat one last look and turned to go back inside, deciding not to wait any longer.
“Hey, why is she leaving?”
Seeing Su Su turn away, the watchers grew anxious.
“Captain, let’s not waste time and just leave. I bet that person is bait sent out by scammers. Look at the world we live in—a lighthouse? A hotel? It must be those pirates.”
“That can’t be right. Didn’t Yingfeng Base say they’d already driven the pirates out of this area?” a weak female voice countered softly.
“That’s because you don’t know how cunning those pirates are. Maybe they disguised themselves to avoid capture and are lurking around us, waiting for naive people like you to take the bait.”
The boat’s crew argued for a long time about whether to dock. An hour later, they finally reached a consensus: regardless of whether it was a trap, they had to check it out.
By this time, Su Su had finished another shower and changed into new clothes she’d “purchased” for zero points from the system. She sat behind the checkout counter, enjoying the breeze.
The ceiling fan was strange; even though it only occupied the center of the lobby, wind seemed to come from all directions as long as you were in the room. Su Su gnawed on a steamed bun while listening for footsteps. Since the hotel door was open, she could easily see if any silhouettes appeared outside.
She had learned her lesson. Having lived in a peaceful era, she had forgotten this was the apocalypse—a world of extreme scarcity where people were homeless and lived in constant peril. Her enthusiastic welcome hadn’t attracted guests; it had only made them suspect she had an ulterior motive.
Anyway, whether guests came or not, she didn’t need to worry about survival. Relaxing, she prepared to browse the mall to see if she could buy a massage chair for herself. She was tired of living such a hard life.
The crew left a few people to guard the boat while the rest disembarked and climbed the lighthouse. The moment they stepped onto the stone stairs, their expressions turned to shock.
For ordinary people like them—without superpowers or background—their greatest asset was their sensitivity to nature. To kill low-level sea monsters and escape dangerous waters, they were extremely attuned to subtle changes in weather and environment. The moment they stepped onto the stairs, they felt the shift in temperature.
The captain of the wooden boat pulled out a portable thermometer, and his pupils shrank.
Five degrees! It had dropped by a full five degrees.
At 3:27 PM, the ambient temperature was 47°C, but the thermometer in his hand read 42°C. This lighthouse was definitely strange!
“Captain, could this be some new type of sea base?”
Only a few large-scale sea bases could change non-indoor temperatures by placing air coolers every few meters. But the cost for such a feat was astronomical. Since the land vanished and the world became an ocean, humans had to find new energy sources to keep equipment running. Fortunately, after the tireless work of countless researchers, people had found a new energy source within sea monsters.
The captain looked up at the lighthouse. Compared to a gargantuan sea base, the lighthouse was small, but the fact that it could achieve this showed that the owner behind it was no ordinary person.
Three days ago, to escape a sea monster pursuit, they had to dump most of their belongings into the sea to increase the boat’s speed. Among the discarded items were food and water. Their current supplies wouldn’t last until they reached the nearest medium-sized sea base.
Whether the person behind the lighthouse was good or bad, they had to try.
“Everyone, be careful. Watch your tone and attitude; don’t offend anyone.”
After the warning, they finally climbed the stone steps and set foot on the lighthouse platform.