"Can the meme on the Hunter be replicated?" Sun Hang asked.

"Why are you asking me?" Yang Lian gave him a look and replied irritably, "I don't even have the clearance to enter the Tianfu City's research institute. Do you think I can answer that kind of question? You should ask the people at Dubhe Tower."

Just as Sun Hang was about to ask something else, his phone suddenly rang.

For ordinary people, the communication network in Tianfu City hasn't been restored yet, but Sun Hang knows that as early as the second day after the arrival of eternal night, each signal base station had been mostly repaired, it's just that those originally used to maintain the civilian communication network base stations have now all been repurposed for military use.

The call was from Yang Qi. Under Yang Lian's gaze, Sun Hang pressed the answer button.

"Hello? What's up?"

"Where are you right now?"

"In the bathroom, taking a dump." Sun Hang gestured 'shh' to Yang Lian, "Just ate too much, got a bit of a stomach issue."

"I know you don't want to participate in the conferment ceremony, so I've already declined it for you." Sun Hang could hear the obvious sigh on the other end from Yang Qi, "There's just something I need to inform you about. We have to fly to Chunming City tomorrow to attend the semi-annual 'Hunter Ascension Trial'... Originally, this trial was only for regular hunters with more than three years of service, but because of your performance during this action, they've decided to open the trial qualification to you exceptionally."

"Trial? What's it for? Is there any benefit?" Sun Hang asked bluntly.

"Those who pass the trial can become federation-certified 'Rank Hunters', divided into ranks one to five based on trial performance, with one being the highest, five being the lowest... But even the lowest rank five hunter has far better treatment and authority than an ordinary registered hunter."

"So the hunter ranking system is that complicated?"

The corridor was very quiet, so Yang Lian could clearly hear Yang Qi's words from the other end of Sun Hang's line. She quietly said, "The difference between these two types of hunters is akin to the difference between an accounting qualification certificate and a certified public accountant certificate."

"Tsk, that difference is indeed big." Even someone as unaware as Sun Hang had some understanding of the significance of a certified public accountant.

"Huh? Did I just hear my sister's voice? Are you really in the bathroom?" Yang Qi suddenly asked.

Sun Hang quickly covered Yang Lian's mouth and said, "You must have heard wrong. I'm really in the bathroom."

"Impossible..." Yang Qi's tone was full of suspicion, "Are you with my sister right now?"

"No." Sun Hang denied immediately, "Maybe she's also in the bathroom, and just happened to be on a call."

"Are you in the men's or women's restroom?"

"Ahem... Maybe the wall between the men's and women's restroom is thin, and the soundproofing is poor." Sun Hang pleaded, "Okay, if there's nothing else, I'll hang up now, bye."

Saying this, Sun Hang hung up the phone at a lightning speed.

"Why are you so afraid of my sister knowing you are with me?" Yang Lian was slightly dissatisfied, wiping at the lipstick Sun Hang accidentally smudged on the corner of her mouth, puzzled.

"I'm afraid she'll come and drag me back." Sun Hang said, "I've already enjoyed the food, if I don't leave now, the next part would be like being in jail or something."

"True." Always loathing bureaucratic customs and formalism, Yang Lian nodded in agreement, "So where do you plan to go now? Home?"

"I'd like to, but the soldiers won't allow it." Sun Hang pointed to the soldiers standing guard, "Aren't you in charge of the security on this floor? Can you tell them to let me slip out?"

"Even if you wanted to leave, no one could stop you, right?" Yang Lian pointed to a nearby fire escape, "The staircase is this way. For the elevator, just follow the corridor to the end — feel free."

"Thanks." Sun Hang gently patted her shoulder before Yang Lian had time to react, then directly opened the window in front of him and jumped out.

Compared to stairs and elevators, skydiving is definitely faster.

"This guy… Can't he just walk properly?" Yang Lian couldn't help but complain, but in the next second, it's as if she thought of something and reached for her ear.

Damn, that guy forgot to return the earphone!

...

With the help of the fungus and Ji-2796, Sun Hang lightly landed in the hotel parking lot, turned back to look at the hotel behind him. Except for the banquet hall on the top floor and the central kitchen on the first floor with the lights still on, the entire building was almost completely dark.

Not only the Jinxiu Grand Hotel, but the surrounding buildings also had no lights on—this area that should have been brightly lit, suffering severe light pollution, now appeared to be a silent concrete jungle.

Sun Hang wasn't sure if he preferred the lively scene of the past more, or the silent atmosphere now... No, to be accurate, it should be a cold silence.

The eternal night has lasted for nearly a week, the average temperature in the Shuzhou Region has dropped below zero degrees Celsius—the government appeals to the public to save electricity not because power plants and transmission facilities have been destroyed, but because it's necessary to store these energies in advance for a centralized heating project under construction.

Shuzhou Territory is located in the south, and every household has air conditioning installed, but almost no one has heating installed—everyone knows that in terms of heating, whether in efficiency or cost-effectiveness, air conditioning falls short compared to traditional heating.

If residents in Shuzhou could go online now, then all major e-commerce platforms would certainly receive a flood of orders for heating equipment from the Shuzhou Region.

Only those who have truly endured the cold understand how important this thing is in a freezing environment.

A thin layer of frost had already formed on the ground of the parking lot. A week ago, people had just taken out short sleeves to welcome the arrival of early summer, and now they had to pull out the long johns and down coats they had stuffed into the closet bottom not long ago.

Of course, the federation can't possibly install floor heating and heating panels in every household, so the measures they're taking now are to build heating belts that generate a lot of thermal radiation around residential areas, and then use the city's inherent heat island effect to try to raise the temperature in the urban areas to a barely acceptable level.

As for those in remote towns and those living in the countryside, they can only fend for themselves.

However, the federation also anticipated a large influx of refugees suffering from hunger and cold into the city, so several sizable temporary camps have begun construction in the west and south of Tianfu City, and the citizens who lost their homes in the Dragon Rock Fortress incident will also be settled in these camps.

This will be a prolonged battle, where people's main "enemy" isn't the anomalies, but the extreme environmental conditions emerging under the influence of the eternal night.

Low temperature, disease, food, and energy shortages... just the problems Sun Hang can think of are endless, and in places he hasn't thought of, the problems will only be more, not less.

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