I can upgrade the shelter

In the darkness and endless blizzard, Chen Xin and Qin Lan finally managed to cross the streets completely buried in snow and arrived at the entrance of the city police station.

The original guard post was now completely buried under the snow, its roof no longer visible, and not a trace of the main gate was left.

The imposing police station building seemed slightly better compared to Chen Xin's last visit. In the light from his Power Armor, Chen Xin could faintly see the glass that had been shattered due to various disasters post-meteor strike had been repaired.

However, the ground floor of the building was completely buried under snow, thick ice and snow had even piled up to the second-floor windowsill.

"With this much snow, will the entrance to the shelter be buried?" Chen Xin, looking at the snow-filled ground before him, somewhat hesitantly asked Qin Lan.

The city police station shelter was the nearest medium-sized official shelter to Chen Xin's home shelter. Hence, after leaving his home shelter and entering the city, Chen Xin and Qin Lan had arrived here.

However, looking at the snow-covered ground, Chen Xin was clearly worried about being unable to enter the shelter due to the entrance being blocked by snow.

Qin Lan was also somewhat uncertain about this but still led Chen Xin toward the police station's garage based on memory: "Let's check the garage first, it's one of the main entrances and exits of the underground shelter, and it connects to the underground highway, so it shouldn't be buried."

Hearing Qin Lan say this, Chen Xin nodded in understanding and walked with her towards the garage.

Yet, the situation was worse than they anticipated; the snow had already buried the garage, and its doors were completely covered by snow.

"Looks like we need to find another route." Chen Xin scratched his head, looking at the thick snow before them.

After all, another reason they came to the city was to find Ding Ning, who stayed at Mo Qingyan's house. Now, with the snow this thick, Mo Qingyan's home was likely buried beneath the snow, and that elevator entrance was probably unusable.

This made Chen Xin worried about the condition of Mo Qingyan's house; it might become abandoned, frozen into an ice cellar.

Although such a situation was almost unavoidable given the weather conditions, it was still Mo Qingyan and Mo Qingxin's home. Even if they were currently staying at Chen Xin's place, what if they wanted to return to their home one day?

They couldn't very well find a way to dig their own house out of the snow first, could they?

If possible, Chen Xin still hoped to find a way to protect Mo Qingyan's house.

However, before that, he and Qin Lan first needed to find a way to enter the city police station shelter so they could know where Ding Ning was now.

"Let's try finding a window to get into the building and see if there's a connected entrance to the garage that's not shut," Qin Lan suggested to Chen Xin while trying to recall the layout of the passages leading to the garage within the police station building.

Chen Xin certainly wasn't as familiar with the police station as Qin Lan was, so he could only follow her proposal.

The two of them came to the front of the building, and Chen Xin asked Qin Lan, "How do we get in? Break a window and climb in?"

"That's about our only choice now. Find a window close to the corridor and head directly in," Qin Lan replied decisively and led Chen Xin to a window.

As a SWAT officer, although Qin Lan had undergone window-breaking entry training many times, doing so at her own police station building was a first.

Standing in front of the window, Qin Lan hesitated for just a moment before taking a deep breath, raised her fist, then controlled her Power Armor to punch and shatter the window glass.

The entire pane shattered into shards immediately upon Qin Lan's punch, and although she wasn't entirely skilled with operating the Power Armor yet, her muscle memory for tactical movements allowed her to nimbly climb inside.

Seeing this, Chen Xin climbed through the window shattered by Qin Lan.

Standing in the corridor, the light from their shoulders illuminated the way, making it clear that there wasn't much snow in the corridor. However, the walls and floor were already covered in frost.

Chen Xin asked Qin Lan, "Should we head down? Or does this not lead to the garage, and we need to go into the building?"

"This staircase only goes to the ground floor; we need to enter the police station proper and use another staircase to get to the garage," Qin Lan replied after carefully identifying their surroundings.

Chen Xin merely nodded to this, then followed Qin Lan up the stairs, through a door, and into the interior of the police station building.

There was a slight hiccup as the feet of the Power Armor were evidently much larger than a regular footsteps in shoes, and the staircases in the police building were designed for regular foot traffic, giving Qin Lan and Chen Xin a bit of trouble as they ascended.

Fortunately, the Power Armor performed well, with an internal gyroscope for balance working correctly, so the two managed to ascend the stairs with some effort.

The interior of the police station was pitch-black, relying entirely on the light from their Power Armor shoulders for illumination. This environment made Chen Xin feel like he was playing some kind of adventure game, albeit one of those rated 18+ horror games.

Of course, reality wasn't a horror game, and although there was a shelter underneath the police station, it didn't have bald guys wearing green military coats, or disgusting monsters, nor would a skinned frog with a tongue that could whip out eight meters appear from the ceiling. Chen Xin himself wasn't a vehicle killer, and Qin Lan wasn't wearing a red cheongsam either.

However, thinking of this, a thought couldn't help but arise in Chen Xin's mind—perhaps someday he could try asking Qin Lan to wear a cheongsam?

Stuffing the thought away for later, Chen Xin followed Qin Lan as they quickly traversed the long-abandoned corridors and still showing some signs of use office spaces, heading to the stairs leading to the underground garage.

The police station building had been repaired and the lower floors had been put back into use, but now with the ravaging blizzards, those above-ground floors had evidently been abandoned again, with only traces of a hasty evacuation remaining.

Evidently, when the blizzards hit, those who had been working here hadn't been notified or prepared and had been hurriedly evacuated to the underground shelter.

Chen Xin and Qin Lan descended into the underground garage by the stairwell, finding that the door here was indeed sealed shut.

"Should we knock, or force it open?" Chen Xin asked, standing before a tightly closed fire door leading to the underground garage, unable to pull it open, looking to Qin Lan.

Qin Lan answered with action rather than words, directly ramming the door open.