My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 587: Chapter 363: City No. 03’s Enviable Mid-Autumn Spectacle

His grandmother was over eighty, but her body was still hale and hearty. Naturally, Li Xiang hoped she would live a long and healthy life.

While no one knew what the future held, Earth wouldn’t be destroyed for at least the next two or three years. He knew this because in his past life, he had survived four years of the Apocalypse, and during that time, no Divine King Realm beings had emerged.

Li Xiang estimated he could reach the Divine Tier this year. When he did, he planned to make another trip to the Moon. ’Hmm, once I advance to the Divine Tier, I might have a chance to contend for control of the Moon.’

Kanna was leading her team and a large shipment of supplies toward an Underground City in Southeast Asia. She was on a support mission and had no time to participate in City No. 03’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration.

However, her people, who were living and working peacefully in the city, got to experience it firsthand. ℴℴ𝘮

Kanna’s uncle, Rajiv, squatted by a Spiritual Energy irrigation channel in City No. 03’s underground Farm Sector B, his fingertips stroking a Moonlight Dandelion Leaf cultivated by Zhao Xueqing’s team. Through the dome’s holographic shield, a hundred-meter-tall virtual moon cast its silver glow upon automated harvesters. He suddenly recalled his home, a different Underground City, where he had once used Exotic Beast Blood to carve a crude crescent moon onto a drainage pipe. There, even the rust stains on a ventilation grate were called ”a skylight untouchables like you don’t deserve to gaze upon” by the Upper Caste guards.

Before a floating stall on the commercial street, fifteen-year-old Tanya clutched the ”Guanghan Fragrance” mooncake voucher she had just redeemed, a sharp pang suddenly hitting her nose. The sweet osmanthus-scented molecules, a creation of Jiang Cai’Er’s team, reminded her of her mother. Just before being frozen into an ice sculpture by an Ice Claw Soul-Devouring Beast, her mother had shoved half a moldy pastry into her hand.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional and highly important holiday for the Chinese Race. Other Underground Cities across the country held their own celebrations, but none could compare to the splendor of City No. 03.

Urumqi Underground City.

A decommissioned military projector cast an image of the Moon with jagged edges onto the central plaza; the power team shut it off every thirty minutes to conserve energy. The food factory used synthetic starch, provided as aid from City No. 03, mixed with sheep bone meal to press ”mutton-flavored mooncakes.” The laser-engraved image of Chang’e on the surface was warped and blurry due to the material expanding.

A hot post in the comments section: ”The mooncake I just received smashed three mutant cockroaches. I recommend we classify it as a defensive weapon!”

”We’re in the same country, so why are the mooncakes from City No. 03 so damn appetizing?”

Chang’an Underground City.

A Qinqiang opera troupe performed ”Chang’e Fells the Osmanthus Tree” in costumes stitched from Exotic Beast pelts. The stage was lit by thirty modified miner’s headlamps. Peddlers weaved through the audience selling ”Moonlight Dandelion Tea,” which was actually just dried, mutated jasmine flowers discarded by Zhao Xueqing’s team.

Pinned post on the local forum: ”An Earth Vein Passage Envoy transport team dropped a bag of flour as they passed by, and I caught it with my face! Made five flatbreads tonight to offer to the Moon!”

Shanghai Dungeon.

The remaining investment banking elites in the financial district held a ”Resource Exchange Moon-Viewing Party,” projecting a silhouette of Chang’e onto the ceiling of an air-raid shelter using a collage of can labels.

At an auction, half a Spiritual Energy-infused mooncake that had come from Jiang Cai’Er’s team sold for the high price of 1,200 Heat Coins. The winner posted on their social media: ”The moment I took a bite, I hallucinated the fragrance of osmanthus. Totally worth three months’ worth of my nutrient paste rations!”

Someone commented below: ”In City No. 03, mooncakes like that are common fare for ordinary families. We used to be *the* Shanghai... How times have changed. Our glory days are over.”

”City No. 03 is the one setting the trends now.”

Jiang City Energy Forum: ”The holographic moon on City No. 03’s dome can stay on for 72 hours straight! We have to ration our artificial sunlight! If I could, I’d immigrate to City No. 03 in a heartbeat!”

A Certain Dungeon in the Northeast: ”Did you see the holographic Hanfu the kids in City No. 03 are wearing? My mom’s meticulously sewn ’Mid-Autumn Limited Edition’ has ’Fourth Batch Anti-Exotic Beast Serum Trial Volunteer’ printed on the back—it’s made from a damn repurposed, decommissioned work uniform!”

”The mooncake wrappers from City No. 03, brought by the Earth Vein Passage Envoys, are selling like crazy on the black market! They say the residual Spiritual Energy particles can help a Low Tier Extraordinary Being break through a bottleneck. I licked three wrappers and almost got killed by the energy backlash when I tried to break through!”

”Is it really that exaggerated? Are their Spiritual Energy particles sweeter or something?”

Videos of City No. 03’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration spread across the web to other Underground Cities around the globe, sparking widespread discussion.

Forum from an Underground City in Vietnam: ”My god, they actually have enough power to launch sky lanterns! We just had our water purification chips stolen... When was the last time I even saw the Moon? I’ve forgotten.”

”My newborn has never even seen the Moon!”

Penang Underground City, Malaysia: ”My grandmother used her last half-bag of glutinous rice flour to make Teochew-style mooncakes, but the patrol confiscated them for ’unauthorized use of fire.’ In the video from City No. 03, there’s a little girl in a Hanfu, and the filling is practically spilling out of her mooncake.”

In Singapore, the Jurong Underground City shut down its holographic festival module due to energy rationing. For the Mid-Autumn Festival, they simply distributed military-issue cans with the character for ”Moon” stuck on the label.

In Yangon, in the slums converted from the underground drainage system, a Burmese Race shaman tried to pray for blessings using an Exotic Beast skull in place of a statue of the Moonlight Bodhisattva. He was dispersed by an armed group for ”inciting a public assembly.”

In Bangkok, inside the Shelter converted from Suvarnabhumi Airport, an antique mooncake mold hoarded by a wealthy ethnic Chinese merchant was listed on the black market for the price of a Tier Two Crystal Core. The buyer left a comment: ”I’ll let my kids feel the patterns on it. That’ll be our festival.”

Beautiful Country, Los Santos dark web forum: ”The Ice Soul Sect just took thirty percent of our supplies as an ’offering to the Immortal Master.’ Then I opened the City No. 03 livestream and saw kids with their own mechs. My eight-year-old son asked me why we can’t have robot pets.”

Berlin Underground City Energy Forum: ”We were just forced to shut down our artificial sun system for 12 hours to save power. And Country C’s City No. 03 is using helium-3 fusion to power a hundred-meter-diameter holographic moon? That’s enough energy to run our entire base for three months! (Energy comparison chart attached.)”