Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 17
When the zombie first slammed against the car door, every viewer’s heart leaped into their throats, with blood rushing to their heads as they collectively took another step back.
When the zombie slammed against the car door a second time, the audience felt their hearts constrict, sweat pouring out as if their hearts were about to jump out of their throats. They hugged themselves in fear.
When the zombie’s claws tore through the car door, people could no longer hold back—they jumped and screamed, the more timid ones going weak in the knees, while some children burst into wailing cries.
“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over!”
“Help!”
“Oh my God!”
“No!”
In the video, the little girl’s voice had become hoarse from screaming as she frantically threw the delivery boxes in her hands at the zombie, but in the next moment, those zombie claws still tore open the car door.
Light suddenly flooded in, but it wasn’t the light of hope—it was the light that devoured people.
With a piercing scream from the girl, the scene shifted elsewhere.
People: !!!
What happens next? Did no miracle really occur after that?
Did that little girl really die?
Parents with children couldn’t help but shed tears.
Some parents hugged their own children tightly, unable to imagine how desperate and frightened their child would be if they encountered such a situation.
In front of a row of houses, a mother holding her daughter turned pale as a sheet, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Her daughter screamed, “Mom!”
Neighbors who had been staring blankly at the Sky Screen quickly gathered around, frantically pressing her pressure points to revive her. When the mother came to, she collapsed crying while holding her daughter.
“Lanlan! My Lanlan!”
The little girl in that scene was her daughter Lanlan, and that delivery van was theirs!
She couldn’t bear to imagine what would happen if her daughter encountered such a situation. She trembled uncontrollably as she cried.
Lanlan was still somewhat confused, but seeing her mother cry so heartbrokenly, she started wailing too.
At this moment, the child’s father rushed back from outside, indeed driving a delivery van. When the neighbors saw that vehicle, they immediately recoiled, their faces turning grim and uneasy.
Now when they looked at this van, they thought of the scene in the Sky Screen—it was like looking at a coffin, making them want to stay as far away as possible.
And thinking again, the scene in the Sky Screen seemed to be on a street not far from here…
Good grief! All of this was so close to them!
Lanlan’s family would definitely have met with disaster, otherwise the little girl wouldn’t have had no one to rescue her. What about them then?
Things looked very ominous.
Their hearts were filled with panic.
“Ah hui, Lanlan!” The child’s father got out of the car too hastily and fell, quickly scrambling up to embrace his wife and daughter for comfort. “It’s okay, it’s okay, none of this has happened yet. This time we’ll definitely protect Lanlan well.”
Lanlan’s father looked up at the Sky Screen, his teeth clenched tight, his eyes bloodshot, looking like he wanted to fight someone to the death.
Were all those things in the Sky Screen events that would happen in the future?
Those damned zombies!
In the scene, a zombie was in the process of feeding, its arms visibly thickening, its nails visibly growing, scratching the ground and leaving several shallow marks.
There was another zombie that, while chasing people, became faster and faster.
A group of zombies crowded onto a bridge, and because it was too crowded, the zombies fell off the bridge one after another, but among them was one zombie that was exceptionally agile, grabbing the railing and swinging itself up.
People: “…”
You call this a zombie? Even gymnasts aren’t this agile!
[Zombies are constantly evolving, with first-generation zombies evolving the fastest. The so-called first generation refers to the first wave of randomly infected zombies, and this batch is also the most dangerous.]
[Zombie evolution also has different directions. Besides basic physical strengthening and enhanced senses like smell, there are also those evolving toward speed, agility, intelligence, and other different directions. Of course, these only account for a very small minority.]
[So the best approach is not to give them a chance to evolve—solve them as quickly as possible.]
The scene came to above the city. Looking down, the streets and alleys were filled with zombies, the ground and walls covered in black bloodstains, with barely any living people visible. The entire city had almost been occupied by zombies.
[Zombies are constantly evolving and growing stronger, and during this process, the number of zombies continues to increase, step by step squeezing out human living space.]
[Even if temporarily safe, hiding and not coming out won’t work, because humans still need to eat. Without food, they can only venture out to search, which means they must face zombies.]
[But when humans face zombies, except for those with combat experience and powerful weapons, others really have difficulty gaining any advantage.]
[In some places where military strength is relatively strong, there may still be fighting power, but people in other places have no choice but to retreat again and again. With no room for survival left in the cities, fleeing the cities and leaving their homes becomes the only choice for all survivors.]
In the scene, people were driving and cycling out of the city. When they encountered blocked roads, they had to abandon their vehicles and walk, carrying large and small bundles on their shoulders—a massive exodus on foot.
If they encountered zombies, that was it—those remaining bundles had to be abandoned too, as escaping with their lives was most important.
The unlucky ones who were caught up with were finished, while the lucky ones escaped but lost everything, having to eat grass and drink raw water when hungry and thirsty.
And those who hadn’t lost their belongings weren’t much better off—they didn’t dare rest, nowhere was safe.
Even if they encountered a village or small town, you never knew if going in would result in a zombie face-slapping surprise package, and staying in the wilderness… that was simply seeking death.
In short, there was one feeling—living was hard, and dying was hard too.
People watched with ashen faces.
Tragic! It was truly too tragic!
Someone held onto a thread of hope. “Is Yongcheng’s military strength strong?”
Others mercilessly shattered his delusion. “Wake up, what’s being broadcast on the Sky Screen is exactly the situation in our Yongcheng—getting completely overrun by zombies!”
“…Oh right, so how can we survive!”
“Don’t worry too much. Weaklings like us probably won’t even survive long enough to escape Yongcheng. We might just stay in Yongcheng and become lovey-dovey with the zombies.”
“…”
[Basically, humans are retreating step by step when facing zombies. Some people might say, humans have so many advanced weapons in their hands, how could they possibly fear zombies? Even if chaos reigns initially, couldn’t they just use heavy firearms—evacuate survivors, bomb the cities, then return to rebuild?]
Yes, that was also a solution.
“With such a round of bombing, how many zombies would be eliminated.”
“Didn’t they say humans have weapons that could blow up the entire Earth several times over? At worst, just bomb everything once.”
Tan Feng was in his garage modifying his car, looking up at the Sky Screen with a slight smile.
In his previous life, people indeed tried this, but the consequences were quite tragic.
Sure enough, the Sky Screen continued: [People have tried this, but it brought about the zombies’ frenzied retaliation, which was the appearance of zombie animals. A single wave of zombie rats directly eliminated a newly established base with hundreds of thousands of people, with no survivors.]
People: !!
This, this ..this?!
This ruthless?
[After that, humans rarely used large-scale heavy weapons, always remaining at a disadvantage, until the appearance of ability users, when humans truly began meaningful counterattacks.]
Ability users!
Just hearing it sounded powerful!
Leaders everywhere, whether watching live or via broadcast, all became serious.
People everywhere became excited.
Tan Feng also looked up.
Speaking of abilities, in his previous life he was also quite late to awaken.
Could there be a way to awaken abilities earlier?
*
「Acid Rain World.」
In a conference hall that could accommodate a thousand people, about half the seats were now filled.
And they were all relatively young people, sitting in male-female pairs.
These people were couples or married couples. Some wore military uniforms, some wore police uniforms, some wore white coats, some wore white shirts, some wore suits.
Obviously, most of these people were public servants, and among them the more outstanding and excellent ones.
In front of the conference hall, several people sat on the main platform.
Peng Lan sat in a position slightly left of center. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he asked for permission from the leaders, then took the microphone and spoke.
“We’re all here now, so let’s begin. I believe everyone knows why you’ve been selected and brought here.”
Everyone nodded—they had been informed of the general situation after being selected and had signed confidentiality agreements.
Peng Lan said, “According to the Sky Screen, there are only 18 days left until the official apocalypse arrives. Time is extremely tight. Now, we have mastered the key resources for building acid-resistant cities, but converting these resources into actual materials still lacks a very important step, and this is what you need to do next.”
Peng Lan nodded to someone, and then people went down to distribute papers.
Peng Lan continued, “The gentlemen among you need to play the role of mission-takers, while the ladies are the targets to be conquered by the mission-takers. Now, what’s being distributed to you are the scripts you need to ‘perform’ next. You’ll work in pairs with your guidance teachers to thoroughly understand the plot, then strictly perform according to the script requirements. Today, everyone must complete their tasks. Understood?”
Everyone had just received their scripts and hadn’t had time to read them yet, so they quickly responded in unison, “Understood!”
“Good, now please look at your scripts first.”
Everyone looked down to read.
What they called scripts weren’t actually that complex. What they received was basically just one sheet of paper, at most no more than two sheets.
Zhang Lili was a doctor at a hospital in A City, and her boyfriend was a security officer. The two were very honored to be selected to participate in this mysterious and important operation.
At this moment, they had received the “Hero Saves Beauty” script, about a girl being sexually harassed by a pervert, and the boy stepping forward to help her out of the situation.
First was an overview, such as what kind of scene this incident occurred in, how the girl should react, how the boy should save her, then what kind of eye contact and physical contact the boy and girl should have, and what emotions they should have in their hearts.
After that came the actual script text.
This included the expressions and dialogue of both male and female parties, as well as a tiny bit of scenes for the perverted harasser and background crowd.
However, the script wasn’t very detailed either, and the lines didn’t need to be memorized word for word. A note attached below clarified that, after understanding the plot, improvisation was encouraged for a more natural performance.
Zhang Lili and her boyfriend looked at each other, both with somewhat embarrassed expressions on their faces.
This plot, this script…
Why was it so awkward?
It wasn’t that it was poorly written—it was actually quite good. If it were a TV drama episode, it would probably be quite exciting when filmed.
If this kind of thing naturally occurred in real life, it would also make people sigh “ah, there are pink bubbles.”
But asking a real couple to deliberately act it out, why was it so awkward?
There was waist-holding, intense gazing, blushing, and averted eyes—so embarrassing!
Zhang Lili covered her burning face. This felt like cosplay, really so embarrassing.
Then when she was being harassed, she had to act both panicked and ashamed, angry yet not daring to speak up.
Could these three emotions really appear simultaneously on one person’s face?
She twisted and contorted her face, and her boyfriend couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Your face is about to cramp!”
“You’re one to talk—instead of criticizing me, you should think about how to display your three parts mysterious charm, three parts dominance, and four parts nonchalance.”
Boyfriend: “…”
Mutual destruction, huh?
The boyfriend also made a bitter face. “I’d rather fight that pervert for three hundred rounds.”
Zhang Lili thought about it. “How about we recall when we first met?”
Their first encounter was when Zhang Lili was chasing a thief, ran into the off-duty security officer, and then the officer helped her catch the thief. The next day she brought a banner to his workplace, and one thing led to another until the security officer became her boyfriend.
During the period before they made their relationship clear, it was really quite innocent—touching hands would make them quickly pull apart, then blush and have racing hearts, not daring to look at each other.
That state seemed more appropriate.
They looked at each other, and thinking about that time still made them feel a bit shy.
While thinking, they also looked at what scripts other people had received.
Eh? This couple got “Candlelight Dinner”—that seemed pressure-free.
That couple got “Walking in the Rain”—that also seemed not bad.
Diagonally in front, that one had a script that read “Male is looked down upon by mother-in-law, female firmly declares: Even if he has nothing, even if he picks up garbage, I still want to be with him.”
That girl looked at the script and just laughed, while the guy could only awkwardly scratch his head.
Behind them seemed to be someone with a “Love Betrayed” script. The female party looked at the script like an old person on the subway looking at a phone, reading the lines in a low voice. “So everything you said to me was fake? You actually have another woman! Everything was a lie! But what can I do—even knowing this, I still love you!”
The female party had an expression like she’d eaten something disgusting, pinching the flesh on her male partner’s waist and twisting hard. “I love you so much, are you moved?”
The man grimaced: “I don’t dare move! I don’t dare move!”
“Hmph, quickly get into character—someone who’s scummy but aware of it yet still thinks he’s very romantic, quickly! Scumbag!”
Man: …Sometimes I really feel very helpless.
Well, this was actually still pretty good. Zhang Lili also saw scripts for forced wall-pinning, seduction of seven people, office affairs, and as for the poor souls who got these scripts, their faces all showed expressions of being struck by lightning.
It seemed there was even a bed-climbing script. That girl stared at the script for a long while, then collapsed and covered her face with it, and under the table it seemed she was fiercely stomping on her boyfriend’s foot.
Her boyfriend maintained a cool expression, looking completely unmoved, but his ears had already turned bright red.
Oh my god, my second-hand embarrassment!
Zhang Lili screamed internally. My kind heart has already used my toes to carve out a Barbie Dreamhouse for you all!
However, there was an oddly endearing quality to these couples—no wonder they were model couples personally selected by the government.
It’s just, when they perform, can I watch on-site? This is what I deserve as a VIP.
Zhang Lili looked around and felt extremely grateful. “I think our script is actually pretty good.”
Her boyfriend agreed woodenly: “Y-yeah, at least it’s not outright ridiculous.”
On the main platform, several leaders also knew the content of those scripts. Seeing everyone’s expressions after receiving their scripts—looking like they’d been struck by lightning—they couldn’t help but cough to cover their awkwardness.
Looking at the ceiling, looking at the floor, their fidgety appearance made it seem like they were sitting on pins and needles.
So why did they have to be present here? Obviously this was a very serious matter of obtaining acid-resistant materials, but they really wanted to escape.
Couldn’t they have gotten a more normal system?
Looking at Peng Lan beside them, ah, young people indeed had stronger tolerance (thick skin). Look at that unflappable appearance, as if the person who produced those lightning-strike scripts wasn’t him.
Peng Lan calmly drank a sip of goji berry and chrysanthemum tea. The system set the tasks, the experts designed the scenarios, the scriptwriters expanded them—what does it have to do with him, Peng Lan?
As long as I’m not embarrassed, it’s others who are embarrassed.