Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 8
「Acid Rain World.」
It was nighttime here as well.
Jiang Ying had already returned and was wiping her face with a warm towel.
When they parted, Shi Feizhai had sneakily kissed her cheek, leaving her still feeling uncomfortable.
“…That’s how it went. He kept crowding closer to me, and ever since he went to the restroom, he became inexplicably confident. His words carried this tone like I’d be getting the better deal by being with him.”
Peng Lan nodded. “You’ve worked hard. Go rest now.”
A short while later, two more people returned. They carried a tightly wrapped object that, when unwrapped, revealed a bluish-green hollow brick—larger than a standard brick but much lighter in weight.
“After Jiang Ying left, that Shi Feizhai rubbed his hands together excitedly and went upstairs. We climbed in through the window and saw him materializing these bricks out of thin air. We snatched one while he was in the bathroom.”
Peng Lan touched the brick and asked, “Did he notice it was missing?”
“There were many of these bricks. His rental apartment is a complete mess, like a dog’s den. During the previous acid rain, several places leaked, so he used these bricks to patch them up. He probably won’t notice.”
Peng Lan instructed, “Have this tested.”
Soon, the test results came back. The brick showed no reaction whatsoever when placed in concentrated sulfuric acid—its acid resistance was exceptional.
Beyond that, its compressive strength and wear resistance were incredibly high, over a hundred times that of ordinary building bricks.
It was also waterproof, fireproof, and no harmful substances had been detected so far.
Everyone drew a sharp breath. Acid-resistant, pressure-resistant, waterproof, fireproof, and so lightweight—it was practically a construction engineer’s dream material.
If houses were built with these bricks, they would fear nothing from the acid rain.
For a moment, everyone looked at the brick with burning intensity.
Peng Lan dismissed everyone to rest and took the brick to report his findings.
Late at night, the leadership team convened again. This time the team had expanded further, as many more officials had arrived in A City during the day. Now the mayor of A City could only sit in a small corner—and that was only because he was the local mayor; otherwise, he wouldn’t even have that spot.
This time, the leadership team split into two factions.
One faction believed Shi Feizhai should be apprehended immediately.
The other faction argued they should maintain the status quo, sending more women to interact with him and extract more materials first.
“What good will that extraction do? The real apocalypse is coming. Are we just building a house or two for ourselves while abandoning the entire nation?”
An elderly official was furious. “Today it’s holding hands and a kiss on the cheek. What if that Shi guy demands intimacy tomorrow? Do we agree to that too? The apocalypse isn’t here yet, and we’re creating our own disaster first!”
The stabilization faction hurriedly replied, “Of course that cannot happen. It’s just that we still know too little about Shi Feizhai. Acting rashly could have unpredictable consequences. After all, whatever he possesses is the key to human survival—we must proceed with caution.”
This time Peng Lan remained silent. During such decision-making moments, his opinion didn’t carry much weight yet.
Suddenly, his expression changed. A line of text had appeared before his eyes out of nowhere:
[Since you have liked and sent flowers for both warning videos, a private messaging channel has been opened for you. You may send one private message to the video publisher.]
Peng Lan’s heart jumped, then began pounding furiously as he looked around at the others present.
No one else seemed to see the text.
That made sense—after all, most people here had come from other places. Some hadn’t even caught a single Sky Screen broadcast, let alone had the chance to like and send flowers for both videos.
Peng Lan glanced at the mayor, whose expression was also calm. Noticing Peng Lan’s gaze, he looked back questioningly.
Peng Lan whispered, “Did you like and send flowers for the Sky Screen?”
A City Mayor: “Only liked it. Did you discover something?”
Their hushed exchange caught others’ attention. One official asked, “What are you two discussing? Is there new intelligence?”
Everyone looked over. Peng Lan said, “Leaders, a line of text has appeared before my eyes.”
He reported what he had seen, and the room filled with surprise, delight, and regret.
Only those who had both liked and sent flowers for both videos could send private messages? They were out from the start.
They looked at A City’s mayor, who shifted awkwardly. “I didn’t send flowers. I can’t see that message.”
Everyone’s eyes immediately filled with reproach and frustration. What a great opportunity! You had already liked it—how hard would it have been to send flowers too?
However, being able to send private messages to the Sky Screen publisher was tremendous news!
“Ask her where these disasters really come from.”
“Better to ask the key question—what exactly does Shi Feizhai possess?”
“Let’s search the entire city for people who can send private messages to the Sky Screen. There must be more than just Xiao Peng.”
Of course there were more than just Peng Lan, but the numbers weren’t huge.
During the first video, due to everyone’s lack of preparation and skepticism, likes only reached 110,000 and flowers sent were only 50,000. Among these numbers, some people only liked, others only sent flowers.
Those who both liked and sent flowers numbered fewer than 30,000.
And among this group, those who also did both for the second video were even fewer. At most, just over 10,000 people.
So that night, over 10,000 people in A City saw floating text suddenly appear before their eyes.
They were thoroughly startled at first, then overjoyed. Some, overcome with excitement, immediately sent questions:
「Why is there suddenly an apocalypse?」
「Where exactly is the Acid-Resistant City
?」
「Is this world an illusion?」
「Will the acid rain apocalypse really come?」
Many who sent messages in the heat of the moment discovered they couldn’t send a second one.
“You can only send one message! Damn, why did I waste it on nonsense!”
Many others were more level-headed, carefully weighing their words before sending their most pressing questions, then staring intently at the air, waiting for answers.
However, their eyes grew sore from staring, but no answers came, because—
Wei Yuexin’s backend had exploded!
When the first private message appeared, she was startled, feeling like she’d received a creepy text in the middle of the night.
「Who exactly are you?」
These five words combined together were inexplicably unnerving.
But the next moment, she had no time to be scared.
Looking at the thousands of private messages flooding in all at once, she was completely stunned.
Are people really this enthusiastic?
These private messages were mostly questions. Oh, and there were insults too. Before she could even react, a backend alert popped up: [Offensive language detected. Sender has been blacklisted.]
Then hundreds of messages instantly vanished.
How advanced!
Wei Yuexin looked through the private messages. Some asked about the world’s truth, some about when the acid rain would end, and others about when the next acid rain would hit A City.
Wei Yuexin murmured, “They’re really taking this seriously, aren’t they?”
These people must be reality show participants, right? The questions they asked felt so genuine. Some even addressed her as “Great One” or “Master,” while others pleaded for help, saying their homes were destroyed by acid rain and they could only live in underground passages, begging her to save them.
There were also private messages full of asterisks, probably containing banned words.
They were really too immersed. No wonder it’s called an immersive game.
She even saw several people using character names from the novel.
Like this one called Peng Lan.
Having just read the novel, she had a strong impression of this name. Peng Lan was a government official in A City, where the story unfolded. Keenly observant, he was the first to suspect Shi Feizhai and began secretly investigating him.
The investigation went quite smoothly initially, since both Shi Feizhai and that pick-up system were quite foolish at first.
Later, Shi Feizhai completed a mission that created something like a crisis detection system—it could sense nearby danger or hostility. This device then detected Peng Lan as a “high-risk individual.”
Shi Feizhai panicked and engaged in a battle of wits and courage with Peng Lan for some time. Peng Lan nearly exposed his secrets, but in the end, Shi Feizhai used a system-provided “Blind Devotion” skill to control a female security officer, making her shoot and kill Peng Lan.
Although the novel portrayed Peng Lan as a hypocrite coveting the system’s power, since Wei Yuexin despised the male protagonist, she had favorable feelings toward this early mini-boss who nearly toppled him.
So was this game participant assigned Peng Lan’s character script? It couldn’t be just a coincidence of names, could it?
She looked at his private message content:
「Hello. May I ask why Shi Feizhai can materialize acid-resistant materials out of thin air? How can we obtain what he possesses to build more acid-resistant cities?」
Wei Yuexin raised her eyebrows. They’ve already investigated Shi Feizhai?
Can reality show games really make things appear “out of thin air”? Has the simulation reached this level of realism?
She thought for a moment, then replied seriously: 「Shi Feizhai possesses a pick-up system. The system assigns him missions to pursue women, and upon completion, he receives system rewards. The system is initially foolish and weak, gaining energy through the host’s completed missions to upgrade itself.」
Wei Yuexin pondered further. Later, the system desperately wanted to upgrade and proposed letting Shi Feizhai enable a subordinate mode—developing subordinates who could share part of the system’s functions, having them complete missions to accumulate energy for the system.
However, by then Shi Feizhai had become somewhat clever. Having been a local tyrant for so long, his personality became increasingly domineering. Worried the system might break free from his control or change hosts, he refused to agree.
But this indicated the system could develop subordinates and could change hosts.
She continued typing: 「You could try becoming its new host before the system develops further, then have it enable subordinate mode to develop more subordinate hosts.」
Remembering how the male protagonist and system had trampled over so many girls, only to suddenly have an “epiphany” and switch to a pure love mode—this shameless whitewashing method was like a serial killer putting down his butcher’s knife to become Buddha after killing enough people. It disgusted her thoroughly.
「More than physical relationships, the system truly needs the nourishment of genuine love. Only sincere love is the most powerful force in this world.」
After writing this sentence, she shuddered at her own cheesiness.
Send!
Character limit exceeded?
She deleted and revised until it was concise enough, then sent it.
She didn’t know that shortly after this private message was sent, an interface appeared in her backend that she couldn’t see:
[Acid Rain World plot reversal 50%, Rescue effect—four stars, Star Power gained +1.]
Below that were many, many more worlds waiting to be operated.
The next morning, Wei Yuexin was awakened by subtle movement beside her. Opening her eyes, she saw her grandmother was awake.
She sat up abruptly, overjoyed. “Grandma! You’re awake!”