Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 13
Wei Yuexin muttered a few complaints about this female lead actress, then put the matter aside.
After all, she hadn’t suffered any real loss. She couldn’t expect everyone to like her videos—with so many people giving dislikes, was she supposed to get upset over each one?
What she didn’t know was that an interface invisible to her was refreshing data.
[Torrential Rain World sealing in progress, plot reversal 30%, rescue effect—four stars, Star Power gained +1.]
A beam of starlight invisible to the human eye descended upon Wei Yuexin.
Wei Yuexin shivered involuntarily, glanced behind her, found nothing, and continued burying herself in work.
Somewhere in the city, atop a tall building, two sharp-mouthed, monkey-faced individuals crouched like animals on the edge of the rooftop, overlooking the entire city.
“Seems like Star Power descended again. Who could it be?”
“That old woman surnamed Wei is already half-dead, isn’t she? We didn’t find the Divine Key on her.”
“Why don’t we investigate the people around the old woman again.”
Just as the two were about to get up and leave, a red flash suddenly appeared. Both froze simultaneously, then their heads neatly slid from their necks and fell to the ground, eyes wide open, dying with everlasting regret.
Behind them appeared a woman in a red dress. The wind blew her skirt high, making her devastatingly beautiful.
If Wei Yuexin were here, she would recognize this red-dressed woman as HR.
A red thread floated in the air for a moment before merging into her red dress.
She glanced disdainfully at the ugly heads. “Tsk, what an eyesore.”
The next moment, black smoke rose from both corpses and heads, and the bodies transformed into two dead rats.
“Puppetry. What a hassle.”
HR leaped from the tall building, landing lightly on the ground the next moment. The road bustled with people and traffic, but no one seemed to see her.
She arrived at the hospital and entered Grandma Wei’s room.
Looking at the person lying on the hospital bed, she frowned. “Tsk, Qingli, you were so beautiful before. You really turned yourself into an old woman. All these years, changing your appearance, hiding your identity—if it weren’t for this incident, I still wouldn’t have found you.”
She sat by the bedside, casually picking up an orange to peel. “Black Dog’s sense of smell is indeed sharper than mine. He locked onto you one step ahead of me. You’d rather die than expose your identity, wanting to pass away as an ordinary old woman to avoid dragging your precious granddaughter into this mess, right?
“And you actually succeeded—you really fooled him. However, I still found the Divine Key you hid and passed it to Wei Yuexin. She has your power within her; only she can use the Divine Key.”
After eating a segment of orange, she commented, “It’s just that this child was probably overprotected by you. Terribly naive, but she’s quite capable. She just earned another point of Star Power.”
“It seems the day she avenges you isn’t far off.”
The old woman’s eyes trembled slightly on the bed, as if desperately trying to wake up, and the curves on the nearby monitor became rapid.
HR chuckled softly, patting her. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you look after your granddaughter.”
The old woman settled back into peaceful sleep, as if the small episode had never happened.
When the caregiver entered, the room looked exactly as she had left it, except that there seemed to be one orange missing from the table.
She rubbed her eyes, thinking she must have miscounted.
*
In another city, a beautiful woman who appeared to be only in her thirties knelt on the ground. Before her floated a mass of black mist.
A rough, angry voice emerged from the black mist. “Useless! That foster mother of yours isn’t the person I’m looking for at all!”
Wei Ruochu’s body trembled. “My lord, my foster mother indeed had supernatural abilities.”
She pointed to a scar on her forehead. “When I was little, I accidentally hit my head and bled profusely. Everyone said I was beyond saving. She touched my head with her hand, and the bleeding stopped. I saw green light in her hand.”
“Are you questioning my judgment?”
Wei Ruochu didn’t dare speak.
“I helped you find your biological parents and gave you immense wealth. Is this how you repay me?”
“Ruochu is entirely at your disposal, my lord.”
“Recently, some peculiar videos have appeared on your human internet. Find the publisher behind them.”
The black mist gradually dissipated. Wei Ruochu—no, the woman who had now changed her surname to Qiao Ruochu—only then dared to straighten up and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Green light that could bring people back from the dead—how could her foster mother not be the person the black mist was seeking?
Even if childhood memories could be wrong, what about when she gave birth to Wei Yuexin years ago? That was purely to rebel against her foster mother’s control. She actually didn’t want the child at all. She coldly watched the child cry on the bed, its voice growing weaker and weaker until it finally fell silent.
It was her foster mother who rushed in, slapped her across the face, and took the child away. Not long after, the child was making sounds again.
Could it be that the child hadn’t actually died back then?
Qiao Ruochu’s expression shifted as she took out her phone. “Make arrangements. I’m going to Jinjiang again… Just acquire the company where Wei Yuexin works directly.”
*
Wei Yuexin went straight to the hospital after work.
“Did Grandma wake up today?”
The caregiver shook her head. “No.”
Wei Yuexin couldn’t hide her disappointment. She washed her grandmother’s body, massaged her limbs, and chattered about the day’s events while she worked.
The old woman on the bed remained in the same unconscious state.
Wei Yuexin propped her chin on her hands, looking at her grandmother and sighing. “Grandma, when will you wake up? But don’t worry—by the time you recover, I’ll have made lots of money. Your granddaughter is really capable now.”
She took out her phone. “Let me see what the next project looks like. Zombie apocalypse, male lead rebirth… wow, thrilling.”
As she read, her face gradually scrunched up with concern. She even felt sympathy for the male lead in this novel—his story was too tragic. Would she get another dislike from this male lead’s actor?
*
「Zombie World」
The last zombie fell with a wail. The ground was littered with zombie corpses and the bodies of fallen comrades.
Tan Feng leaned on his long blade, gasping for breath. The blade was covered in mottled nicks and sticky tissue fragments, vaguely reflecting his blood-stained face.
After a long while, Tan Feng slowly stood up, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. But it was soaked through with blood and wouldn’t light no matter what. He could only hold it in his mouth as he staggered toward the base gate.
Yet even as he approached, the gate remained shut, showing no sign of opening. No one came out to greet him.
He looked up at the people on the city wall.
“Don’t let him in! He was bitten by a zombie!”
“He’ll turn into a zombie soon! Who could stop him then?”
“Kill him! Now!”
“Anyway, the last large wave of zombies is dealt with. We don’t need him anymore.”
For the first time, Tan Feng felt his hearing was too sharp—he caught every whispered conversation.
His vision had also become extremely keen. Even from dozens of meters away, he could clearly see the expressions on each face.
Disgust, fear, schadenfreude, cold indifference, those who couldn’t bear to watch but turned their heads away…
Among them were his parents and relatives, his sworn brothers, the woman he was supposed to marry, superiors who valued him, subordinates who respected him, and ordinary base citizens who viewed him as a hero.
Before he set out, they had been reluctant to let him go, urging him to return safely. But now that he was back, this was the reception he got.
Tan Feng suddenly felt this world seemed utterly absurd.
“Ah Feng! Go away! You were bitten by zombies—you can’t come back! Go far away!” his mother cried out through tears.
“No! We can’t let him leave! Once he turns into a zombie, he’ll be a huge threat to the base!”
The cannon barrels on the wall immediately swiveled, aiming at Tan Feng.
Tan Feng looked down at his left arm where a zombie had bitten off a chunk of flesh, gave a self-mocking laugh, then laughed louder and louder.
He hadn’t actually planned to enter the base—he just wanted to see everyone one last time before he died. He never expected to be struck such a devastating blow.
Hahaha, how ridiculous! He had fought desperately for this base, risked everything for these people, and this was the result.
All those years of sacrifice seemed like a complete joke.
Something seemed to shatter in his chest. The boiling blood in his veins instantly froze to ice.
He raised his head again. Those faces above—familiar and unfamiliar—the killing intent radiating from them all proclaimed his stupidity and absurdity.
His good brother shouted loudly, “Everyone, should we let him in?”
“No! No!”
“Should we kill him?”
“Kill him! Kill him!”
The mountain-shaking, sea-overturning roar, people’s excited faces distorted by shouting—it seemed the voices of the entire base surged toward him, converging into poisonous arrows eager to devour him.
Tan Feng laughed heartily, raising his blade to point at everyone. “I was wrong! I was wrong! You trash deserve to die! Heaven is wise—this world should be destroyed, yet I foolishly tried to stop it all, protecting a bunch of garbage! Retribution! Hahaha! This is my punishment! Hahahaha!”
“He’s lost it! He’s mutating! Fire the cannon!”
With a great shout, cannon fire surged toward Tan Feng. The next moment, flames and heat waves overwhelmed everything…
Tan Feng sat up abruptly, drenched in cold sweat, breathing heavily.
He supported his forehead, slowly calming down, and glanced at the time—3 AM.
He had been reborn for two days now, and the apocalypse would arrive the day after tomorrow.
Remembering the moments before his death in his previous life, he sneered, even feeling somewhat expectant about the apocalypse’s arrival. This world deserved to be destroyed, purified, reshuffled.
When the time came, he would watch wide-eyed as those who had lived so comfortably under his protection in his previous life struggled and wailed in the apocalypse.
He lit a cigarette and smoked. His eyes suddenly brightened as if a beam of light had descended.
He looked up. Through the wide floor-to-ceiling window, he could see what looked like a huge hole torn in the sky, with light pouring through eagerly.
Oh? A different way to end the world this time? The sky collapsing?
Soon, a massive oval-shaped frame with irregular edges appeared in the sky, releasing light bright enough to illuminate most of the sleeping city.
Then four trembling, cartoonishly horror-styled large characters appeared in the frame: 「Zombies Are Coming!」
A green skull perched on top of the word “zombies,” then fell down with a crack.
Tan Feng’s pupils contracted. It wasn’t the sky collapsing, but rather—
A clear, young woman’s voice rang out. [Hello everyone, I am the video publisher, Weizi. You can also call me the Natural Disaster Forecaster.]
[The disaster we’re discussing today is zombies. Yes, the world you are in is about to experience a zombie crisis.]
[Let’s start with the conclusion. Right from the beginning, at least one-tenth of the population will be randomly infected and turn into zombies. For these people, I can only regretfully say that your time is running out.]
Cigarette ash fell onto his finger, but Tan Feng didn’t notice. He just squinted at the sky, and after a moment, let out a light chuckle. “Interesting.”
*
「Acid Rain World」
Peng Lan lay on the hospital bed and slowly opened his eyes.
This appeared to be an isolation room, surrounded by transparent glass, with leaders and experts standing outside.
“He’s awake! He’s awake!”
“Peng Lan, how do you feel? Can you move? Is your consciousness clear?”
“Peng Lan, can you sense that system?”
Peng Lan took a long while to gather his thoughts, finally remembering what happened before he lost consciousness.
They had brought Shi Feizhai into the transfer room and interrogated him continuously, even using some extreme measures, while comprehensively monitoring his physical responses, especially brainwave changes.
They also tried to communicate with the pickup system inside Shi Feizhai, promising many benefits.
Although Shi Feizhai was foolish, he had a certain stubborn streak and refused to give up the system no matter what.
He threatened and intimidated them, sometimes begged for mercy, but the next moment would use incomprehensible methods. Even though everyone present was male, they nearly fell under his spell. He could even conjure weapons from thin air, causing injuries to their personnel.
After a three-day-and-night stalemate, Shi Feizhai finally ran out of tricks. He cried and begged for mercy, shouting loudly that he wanted to unbind from the system.
The moment he shouted “unbind,” all the instruments in the transfer room shrieked, the magnetic field went haywire, and Shi Feizhai desperately clutched his head and screamed, violently banging it against the ground.
Seeing that he was about to kill himself, Peng Lan requested from the leaders: “Let me go in and try.”
The leaders hesitated. The previous few people who had face-to-face contact with Shi Feizhai had all mysteriously fallen unconscious and still hadn’t awakened.
Peng Lan said, “If that system really wants to leave Shi Feizhai, it might need a new host.”
The leaders team finally agreed.
Peng Lan approached Shi Feizhai without any protective measures.
The next moment, he felt something crash into his mind with tremendous force. After that, he knew nothing.
Now he had no time to answer the leaders questions because a mechanical voice rang in his mind: “I am the Pickup System. Host, please complete the newbie task immediately to obtain energy, or face elimination. Countdown: three minutes.”
A screen hovered before him, clearly stating: 「Hug a woman and whisper ‘You smell so good’ in her ear, and receive her shy, coquettish response: ‘Oh, you awful flirt!’」
Peng Lan: “…!”