I can equip strange items

Chapter 65 Thirteen Thousand?

"A city-wide evacuation? Is this to avoid the eerie streetlights?"

Li Yuan frowned slightly as he looked at the urgent notification from the official source on his phone screen.

The notice was brief but unusually serious, advising all citizens to evacuate Donghe City in an orderly manner before 6 p.m.

The government will allocate all available transportation and set up temporary shelters in surrounding cities.

"It's gotten to this point already, is it possible that the authorities can't resolve the strange streetlight issue anytime soon?"

Li Yuan was secretly surprised.

The city-wide evacuation involves too many things.

With hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated at the same time, transportation, supplies, security, and medical care—every aspect presented a tremendous challenge.

At that time, countless human and material resources will inevitably be lost.

But since the authorities have made this decision, it means that the situation has become so serious that such a measure is unavoidable.

Inside the Chengfeng Hotel, order has been restored, but the atmosphere is still somewhat oppressive.

Although the receptionist was still on duty, her expression clearly showed exhaustion and lingering fear.

A few guests were scattered around the lobby; some were talking in hushed tones, while others stared blankly at their phones.

However, some people are packing their bags and preparing to leave.

When Li Yuan returned to his room, he found that everything was still there, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

He first leaned the lapis lazuli bamboo stick against the corner of the wall, then placed the thunder scepter he had just exchanged on the table and examined it carefully.

This scepter is about forty centimeters long, entirely black, and its surface is covered with fine silver patterns.

The patterns resembled some kind of ancient runes, or perhaps naturally formed lightning cracks.

Holding it in your hand, you can vaguely feel a weak electric current pulsating on your skin, bringing a stimulating sensation that is both exciting and unsettling.

Yin-Yang Double Thunder — Yin thunder and Yang thunder, I don't know how effective they are in practice.

Li Yuan secretly looked forward to it.

However, now is not the time to conduct research.

Moreover, what he really needs is the dictionary entry, so whether he studies the scepter or not is irrelevant.

He took out his phone and scrolled to a familiar name in his contacts—Meng Jinyu.

The female college student he first met had given him a white tag during the Nancy City Department Store incident.

Although the two exchanged contact information, they have not been in contact since the other left Nancy City.

We don't even know if the other person is still alive.

Li Yuan tried making a video call, but no one answered.

So he tried sending a message.

There was no reply.

Hopefully, it's just that my phone ran out of battery.

Li Yuan put away his phone and took a deep breath.

There's no use thinking about it now; he has his own things to deal with.

Just as I was about to put my phone away, the screen suddenly lit up and a new message popped up.

He looked down at Lu Jiayin.

The female investigator from the Bureau of Abnormal Affairs finally replied to the message.

[Lu Jiayin: I was busy looking for strange streetlights last night and didn't have time to check my phone. How's it going on your end?]

Li Yuan's spirits lifted, and he quickly replied.

[Li Yuan: I'm fine. Last night I took down dozens of rotting corpse puppets and even managed to retrieve a strange item. By the way, have you found the strange streetlight over there?]

The message was sent out and received a reply very quickly.

[Lu Jiayin: There's a trail, but we can't say we've found it.]

[Li Yuan: What do you mean?]

[Lu Jiayin: By analyzing the residual energy in the forest area last night, we roughly located the source of the strange streetlights in an abandoned factory area in the old city of Donghe City. But when we arrived, the area was empty, leaving only some lingering eerie energy.]

[Li Yuan: They ran away?]

[Lu Jiayin: Uncertain. It might have moved to a different location, or the area itself might be mobile. We're far from understanding its rules; currently, we only know that its triggering conditions are related to "streetlights" and "nighttime." It won't appear during the day, but at night, as long as there are still streetlights on in the city, it might reappear.]

Li Yuan frowned upon seeing the message.

He had personally experienced the eerie power of that streetlight.

If he hadn't possessed an equipment panel that allowed him to directly devour and obliterate rules, he himself would have been in danger, and it would have been very difficult for him to walk out of that forest alive.

Of course, his situation was special. At that time, he was affected by the annihilation rule in the human body next to him and was subconsciously sensing that rule. As a result, he accidentally paused for more than ten seconds.

[Lu Jiayin: By the way, I suggest you leave Donghe City first. The city-wide evacuation has begun; you should have received the notification by now.]

[Li Yuan: Received. But I'd like to stay a few more days; I have quite a few mission points here.]

Li Yuan guessed that not everyone would evacuate immediately.

For example, official combat personnel, especially the Bureau of Abnormal Affairs and even the Exorcist Association, would probably not evacuate immediately.

The reason he received the evacuation information was simply because he was just another ordinary citizen, nothing more.

The reason he wanted to stay was because he had another plan: to continue absorbing the eerie obliteration rules of that streetlight and strengthen himself.

I just don't know if that streetlight's bizarre elimination rule is endless.

The other party was blocked after I devoured a rule of annihilation last night. I don't know if they were injured.

[Lu Jiayin: No matter how many points you have, you still need to be alive to spend them. Last night's disaster caused by the eerie streetlights has already resulted in the loss of at least 130,000 residents. They all died without proper burial; their bodies may forever remain within the eerie realm of the streetlights.]

Li Yuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

"100,000...130,000?!"

He almost dropped his phone.

Although he already knew that many people had died last night, the number 130,000 still far exceeded his expectations.

It's important to know that Donghe City isn't actually that big, with a total population of just over one million.

One-tenth of them disappeared overnight?

And this only includes those that have already been counted; what about those that haven't been counted yet?

What about those missing persons who live in remote neighborhoods, whose disappearances went unreported and undiscovered?

What about those who were killed by the rotting corpse puppets, murdered by thugs, or possibly buried by collapsing buildings?

The final death toll will likely be even higher.

[Li Yuan: What are the official losses?]

[Lu Jiayin: It's a long story. Eleven members of the Donghe City Exorcist Association were killed in action, over two hundred soldiers were killed, even more ordinary police officers were killed, and a large number of medical personnel perished during the rescue efforts—this disaster has been a devastating blow to the entire official force of Donghe City.]

Li Yuan fell silent.

He recalled how exhausted Sun Changwei and the others looked when he saw them last night.

As far as he knew, there were only about thirty exorcists in the entire Donghe City at present.

Those exorcists, who were originally the backbone of the fight against the supernatural, lost nearly a third of them overnight.

[Li Yuan: What are the official plans? Is it just an evacuation?]

[Lu Jiayin: This is the only way for now. The strange influence of the streetlights should only affect Donghe City, because the people in the suburbs were clearly not pulled into that forest last night. We speculate that its boundary may be related to the urban built-up area. Theoretically, as long as we leave Donghe City, we will no longer be targeted by it.]

[Li Yuan: What happens after the evacuation? Are you just going to abandon Donghe City like that?]

[Lu Jiayin: Of course not. The Bureau of Abnormal Affairs is already contacting higher-level combat support. It's said that several experts at the Inner Core Realm will be transferred from the provincial capital, along with a catastrophic-level bizarre item. They are preparing to launch a raid after thoroughly understanding the rules of the streetlight anomaly.]