Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 1

Wei Yuexin looked at the HR representative before her with confusion. “So my job is to create warning videos based on the content of novels?”

The HR representative, whose features were strikingly beautiful, smiled and said: “Yes, our project involves creating a large-scale immersive reality show game based on novels. The participants don’t know the plot, and your videos will serve as clues for them.”

“For each video that passes approval, I’ll pay you a guaranteed fee of one thousand yuan. Additionally, your video’s metrics will bring you extra income.”

Wei Yuexin felt her heart skip—this sounded simple enough.

Wei Yuexin lived up to her name—she was just a corporate drone working nine-to-five for a monthly salary. Her material desires were relatively low, and after deducting living expenses from her current salary, she could still save some money, which satisfied her.

Besides that, she was also a video editor who occasionally made film and TV mashups as a hobby. She had a small following, but it was mainly done for love, not profit.

If things continued this way, her small life would be quite pleasant.

However, life is unpredictable. Her grandmother accidentally fell down the stairs and was hospitalized for surgery. The medical expenses depleted both their savings and still wasn’t enough. She was frantically trying to raise money everywhere when she received this collaboration offer.

Although it seemed incredible that such a high-budget project would approach a nobody like her, thinking of her grandmother still lying in the hospital bed, she gritted her teeth and accepted.

Half an hour later, Wei Yuexin signed a confidentiality agreement, hugged a pile of materials, and left the interview location.

Before leaving, she couldn’t help but ask: “For such an important project, such important videos, why don’t you hire professionals?”

The HR representative’s beautiful eyes flickered. “We’re hiring professionals too, but we’re also looking for amateurs like you. We mainly want to experience the difference in technical levels to see which style works better.”

Wei Yuexin’s mouth twitched. Technical differences…

Is that your polite way of saying “amateur”?

Wei Yuexin returned home, turned on her computer, downloaded the data package, and after extracting it, discovered it contained apocalyptic novels. Each novel had a corresponding folder containing video materials.

She first looked at the video materials and was shocked. The footage was incredibly realistic, with amazing special effects that looked completely real.

Rich people really spared no expense for this game!

She opened the first novel and began reading.

The more she read, the more she frowned. The story was about a shut-in otaku who obtained a Pickup System and learned that an acid rain apocalypse was about to begin.

For every girl he picked up, he could obtain acid-resistant materials and various survival supplies, while also becoming more handsome and stronger.

So this pathetic otaku embarked on his girl-hunting journey. Using the good things he got from the system, he built the only safe acid-resistant city in the apocalypse, became a local tyrant, indulged in extreme pleasures, toyed with women, mocked the government, and treated human lives as worthless, yet was still worshipped by the world as a god.

He was clearly a worthless scum who became stronger through women, but after gaining power, he treated those women like servants at his feet, ordering them around and even casually “rewarding” them to his followers.

Wei Yuexin quit reading halfway through, wanting to gouge out her own eyes and replace her brain with one that hadn’t read this book.

“Is this kind of novel really worth making into a reality show game?” She couldn’t understand. Do rich people have such unique taste? Couldn’t they find other books?

She flipped through more materials and discovered that for each novel, the wealthy patrons would specifically create a game city with participants ranging from one hundred thousand to one million—financially powerful to a frightening degree.

She strongly suspected these novels were written by rich people for their own entertainment. Some people adapt their beloved novels into TV shows or movies, while others turn them into immersive reality games.

Whatever, money is hard to earn and shit is hard to swallow—she’d endure it.

“I need to pretend the video audience consists of the natives from within the novel, and I’m a natural disaster forecaster, right? No problem. I’ll let everyone know that a natural disaster is about to arrive so they can prepare in advance. Let’s see if this scumbag can still have such smooth sailing.”

After consoling herself, she took a deep breath and began creating the video.

That evening, the video was completed and sent to HR. It quickly passed review, and she immediately received a one thousand yuan red envelope.

HR: 「The game has already started. Please upload your video immediately.」

So her video, which was supposed to just demonstrate “technical differences,” was actually selected?

Wei Yuexin happily collected the red envelope and, following instructions, applied for a new account on DouDou, the largest video platform, and uploaded it.

“Mission accomplished. Now I just wait for the data feedback.” Wei Yuexin silently prayed, “Come on, be impressive!”

*

「The Acid Rain World」

In a newly opened discount restaurant, a short, fat man with an oily, pockmarked face looked at the woman across from him and said what he thought was deeply romantic. “As long as you follow me, you’ll live the good life from now on. I definitely won’t mistreat you.”

The woman glanced at him, her eyes immediately suffering damage, and quickly lowered her head, cursing the matchmaker in her heart for introducing her to such a blind date!

She said tactfully, “I think we might not be suitable for each other. I still have work at my company, so let’s leave it at that.”

As she tried to leave, the man quickly grabbed her hand and said urgently, “I’m serious! I will definitely become the ruler of this world in the future. As the first woman to follow me, I don’t mind giving you the position of main wife.”

Hearing this, the woman felt both disgusted and amused. She yanked her hand away. “Are you sick? If you’re sick, go get treatment! Ruler? Main wife? The Qing Dynasty ended long ago, you feudal remnant! If you miss the old country so much, why don’t you go die? Oh wait, I forgot—scum like you would have been a lifelong bachelor even in the Qing Dynasty! Even if you wanted to be a eunuch, they wouldn’t want you!”

The man was both ashamed and angry, stammering for a long time without being able to speak, only able to emit “Woman! Very good, your wealth and glory are gone” murderous glares.

His name was Shi Feizhai. Yesterday he had obtained a Pickup System. The system told him that soon acid rain would fall worldwide, 99.9% of people would die in the acid rain, crops would fail, food would be scarce, water sources would be contaminated, and there would be almost no safe places in the world.

But he could obtain acid-resistant materials and survival supplies through picking up girls.

The more he picked up, the higher quality the women, the richer the rewards. He could even use the acid-resistant materials to build a city unaffected by acid rain erosion!

Besides that, he could become increasingly handsome and strong!

Shi Feizhai was filled with excitement, completely impatient.

However, the problem before him was that he currently had no money, no looks, no job, and spent every day at home. Where would he find his first girl to pick up?

After failing countless times at street approaches, he gritted his teeth and gave all his money to a matchmaking agency to introduce him to a blind date. He believed that with just one opportunity, he could quickly win over the first woman!

When he saw this woman, he was disappointed. Ordinary appearance, ordinary figure, ordinary job, even her name was ordinary: Zhao Pingping.

Clearly not a high-quality woman.

But she was barely acceptable. Thinking that she could be considered a founding member of his grand plan, he could give her a main wife position in the future.

He didn’t expect this woman to be so ungrateful!

But he had already invested all his money.

He gritted his teeth and hurried after her, grabbing Zhao Pingping again. “You can’t leave. You took so much of my money.”

Zhao Pingping was furious and grabbed her bag to hit him. “Bullshit! When did I take your money? I came here for a blind date! I didn’t even know you before!”

The two struggled, and other people in the restaurant looked over and pointed.

Shi Feizhai was embarrassed and angry. These lowly people—when he rose to power, he’d show them!

The Pickup System suddenly spoke: “Do you want to purchase the “Devoted love” skill on credit? Using this skill on a target will make them love you deeply for the next day, be devoted to you completely, and agree to any request.”

Shi Feizhai was overjoyed. “Why didn’t you mention such a good skill earlier?”

Pickup System: …Who knew you’d be so useless that you couldn’t even handle one woman?

Then Shi Feizhai’s eyes began to burn. He was extremely excited and was about to open his eyes to look at Zhao Pingping.

But he hesitated. Using such a powerful skill on this blind date woman—wasn’t that too wasteful?

Just then, exclamations suddenly rang out.

“What’s that in the sky!”

“How can there be a screen in the sky? What kind of black technology is this?”

People rushed out of the restaurant one after another. They saw a huge screen appear in the sky, like a computer screen infinitely magnified and projected into the sky. On the screen were the large words 「Acid Rain Apocalypse Is About to Descend.」

People were immediately shocked. What was this?

An apocalypse preview?

Many people were so scared they hid behind buildings, only daring to peek.

At this moment, melodious music came from the screen, and the words on the screen gradually disappeared, replaced by images.

Magnificent skyscrapers, busy roads with flowing traffic, rivers with ships coming and going, bustling crowds…

Someone exclaimed: “Isn’t this our A City?”

“I can see the landmark Twin Towers of A City!”

“I think I see my neighborhood, West Suburb Beautiful Garden!”

“Isn’t that Happy Valley? That Ferris wheel is so distinctive! I was there just last weekend!”

Seeing familiar sights, people’s fear of the screen dissipated, and they began to think this might be some kind of high technology.

After all, everyone was modern people. Although this technology seemed overly advanced, compared to an apocalypse preview, people were more inclined to believe in science.

People raised their phones to record, and vehicles on the road stopped as drivers stuck their heads out to look at the sky.

Of course, many people looked serious, having noticed problems.

With current technology, it was impossible to project images into the sky, magnify them this much while maintaining such clarity, and the music was clearly coming from the sky, but no matter how they searched, they couldn’t find speakers or similar devices on nearby tall buildings.

These people began making phone calls to inquire with relatives and friends.

“Can you see the projection where you are? In the sky.”

“What? Only A City has the projection!”

“Neighboring B City can’t see the projection!”

“Anywhere in the open air in A City, the images and sounds seen and heard are identical!”

Some people’s homes happened to be on the city boundary line. Cross the small road in front of their house and enter A City, and they could see the Sky Screen and hear the music.

But step back, and hey, they couldn’t see or hear anything!

It was as if there was an invisible barrier in the air!

“This is really strange!” This person quickly filmed a video and posted it online.

People in other cities also learned about A City’s abnormal celestial phenomenon through social media.

Government departments immediately took this highly seriously.

At this time, a human voice suddenly came from the screen in the sky—a clear, pleasant female voice:

[Hello everyone, I am the uploader of this video. My name is Weizi, and you can also call me the Natural Disaster Forecaster.]

Whether it was the people in A City or those watching through live streams, everyone tensely listened to this voice.

“Damn, such a clear voice!”

“Really forecasting natural disasters? This is getting scary!”

[You must be wondering where this video comes from. Don’t worry about that—you just need to watch this video carefully, because it concerns your future survival. Alright, time is limited, let’s get to the main topic.]

In the A City Public Security Bureau, the director was leading several people in the courtyard, looking up seriously at the sky.

Director: “Call everyone over for a meeting. After this video ends, the city might be in chaos.”

At a technical group:

“Did you capture the signal source?”

“No!”

“What about voice source analysis?”

“We’re capturing the voice for voiceprint analysis.”

At the A City suburban military station:

“Anti-missile system activated. Currently unable to identify aerial targets!”

“All personnel assemble!”

“Enter combat readiness status!”

A team of soldiers hurried toward the helipad where helicopters were already started, waiting for orders to deploy.

On the roads, traffic lights successively turned red, and traffic officers rode motorcycles to various intersections to prevent vehicles from continuing, in case accidents occurred during the chaos.

With the appearance of a Sky Screen, A City’s response from all sectors was remarkably swift.

[I don’t know what to call you, so I’ll call you friends from the acid rain world. Here’s the key point: your peaceful times are numbered. Tonight, dozens of cities including A City, both domestic and international, will experience acidic precipitation with a pH around 3, marking the beginning of the acid rain apocalypse.]

“pH 3? That’s impossible!”

“Acid rain apocalypse? Are you kidding?”

Like a drop of water in hot oil, the crowd exploded into discussion.

Someone who didn’t understand asked, “Is 3 very high?”

“Did you go to school? Didn’t you learn chemistry? 3 isn’t too high—it’s too low! pH below 5.6 is considered acid rain.”

“Let me put it this way. A pH below 4 is classified as extremely strong acid rain, the highest level of acid rain. When water pH reaches 4, all fish and shrimp die.”

“pH 3? After one rainfall, plants will definitely die in large patches. Those shabby low houses will be gone after one rain!”

“Roads and vehicles will all be corroded away.”

“If it gets on your skin, forget about keeping your skin.”

“Forget about getting rained on—just breathing outdoor air would make your respiratory system explode! Your eyes would hurt instantly!”

“This is absolutely nonsense! Our A City always supports ecological cycles. We care about the environment so much—acid rain can’t just happen! It’s alarmist!”

In an A City meeting room, because of the Sky Screen’s appearance, the meeting was interrupted. Leaders stood by the windows looking at the sky. One asked, “Don’t we have an automatic acid rain monitoring system? Has it issued any warnings?”

Another immediately replied, “No, none at all.”

The leaders frowned and continued watching the sky.

The clear female voice became grave and solemn, and the background music also turned tense:

[After tonight, acid rain, acid snow, and hail will successively descend across the country. Each acid rain will have a pH below 3. This phase will last one month—it’s an adaptation period and also the last chance for self-rescue. After one month, acid rain with pH below 1 will fall worldwide, permanently entering the apocalypse.]

As the voice spoke, the images on the Sky Screen also changed. The originally prosperous A City suddenly had a darkening sky with dense clouds, and rain poured down.

The exterior facades of skyscrapers were corroded with streaks, road surfaces were corroded into honeycomb holes, streetlights and traffic lights were corroded and deformed, and trees and green belts quickly withered and blackened.

Cars on the road crashed together, people inside looking terrified at the outside, not daring to get out, but the car bodies were rapidly deforming under acid rain corrosion, with weak spots seeming about to be penetrated by acid rain at any moment.

People on the streets ran in terror, searching for shelter. Lucky ones made it into nearby shops, but their bodies already had many blisters.

Some people clutched their throats, gasping and coughing heavily. Others had asthma attacks. Some inadvertently used rain-soaked hands to wipe their faces, and soon their faces developed rashes and began to fester.

The unlucky ones fell while running, making large contact with puddles on the ground. They immediately screamed in pain, their clothes corroded to rags in the blink of an eye, their skin a bloody mess. Finally, amid screams, entire people were dissolved by acid rain into masses of flesh and collapsed on the ground, never to rise again.

Adults screamed, children cried, cars honked, billboards crashed down, and explosions and fires broke out in some places. The entire city suddenly fell into chaos.

People watching the screen projection were all terrified.

It was too horrible! More horrible than movies! Especially since this was happening in their familiar city, and some people even saw their own figures!

Just watching made them shiver all over, as if their skin and bones were aching.

It was simply like a disaster prophecy—so direct, intuitive, and extremely impactful.

People murmured: “This is impossible…”

“It’s fake, right?”

“Damn! Who made this video? So malicious!”

“Who put my face in there? Could I cry like such a coward? This is slander!”

Shi Feizhai stared up blankly, completely stunned. “How could this be?”

He was both anxious and angry. “System, now everyone knows the apocalypse is coming. How can I still succeed!”