Forecasting Natural Disasters for Novel Natives - Chapter 9

Grandma Wei on the hospital bed slowly opened her eyes, but her gaze was unfocused, unable to center on anything. Wei Yuexin leaned closer, excited yet careful. “Grandma, can you see me? It’s Xinxin.”

Grandma Wei’s eyes moved with great effort, speaking with difficulty and unclear articulation. “Xin… Xin…”

Tears immediately fell from Wei Yuexin’s eyes. “Grandma, you’re really awake! This is wonderful!”

She wiped her tears and hurriedly pressed the call button for the doctor.

However, before the doctor arrived, Grandma Wei seemed utterly exhausted and fell asleep again.

“Overall, the patient is recovering very well, especially compared to yesterday. All examination results are quite positive. The fact that the patient can wake up is a very good sign,” the doctor said with relief, holding the newly released test reports.

Wei Yuexin nodded. “Will my grandma’s periods of consciousness become progressively longer from now on?”

“Theoretically, that should be the case. We’ll continue observing for a while.”

Wei Yuexin felt much more at ease, but looking at that stack of test report papers, she sighed inwardly.

This was all money. The fees she’d just paid yesterday—wouldn’t there be much left again?

No, she had to continue making videos.

She asked HR: 「Do I still need to continue making videos about this Acid Rain world?」

HR quickly replied: 「Not for now. You’ve provided so many clues that the players need time to digest them. Start working on the second book.」

Wei Yuexin scratched her chin. Great—she had forced herself to read through the novel all night for nothing.

She opened the second book.

Originally expecting another stomach-churning read, she was surprised. Hey? The protagonist of this world wasn’t bad at all.

This was a Torrential Rain World where rain fell continuously without end. The water level of the entire world kept rising relentlessly, reaching the height of six or seven floors within half a month.

People were displaced and lacked food. The rainfall and flooding brought disease, hunger, panic, and loss of communication. Dangerous creatures appeared in the water—insects, snakes, and worse.

People fought endlessly over living space and survival resources, baring their most vicious fangs at each other.

The female protagonist in the book died just like this—at the hands of her boyfriend.

In the early stages, she had supported her boyfriend and his family and friends. After the food at home ran out, the boyfriend’s family forced her to go out and search for more. When she couldn’t find any, they sold her to other men in exchange for food.

When the female protagonist was in despair, she discovered a space hidden within her ancestral ring. But before she could do anything with it, the scumbag boyfriend found out, stabbed her to death, and stole the space.

The female protagonist was reborn before the torrential rain began, filled with overwhelming hatred. She activated the space, frantically hoarded various supplies, and then after the torrential rain came, took revenge on the scumbag and his entire family.

It was quite satisfying to read, except the pre-rebirth version was just too foolish.

With her boyfriend acting like that, why didn’t she resist? Why did she just obey their every command?

She had finally discovered a magical space—only to let him find it?

But in her second life, she turned ruthless, cutting down gods and Buddhas alike, as if she’d become a completely different person. If she’d shown even a fraction of that ruthlessness in her previous life, she could at least have dragged the scumbag down with her instead of dying so miserably.

Wei Yuexin complained while highlighting key points for her script, then began editing the video.

*

「Torrential Rain World.」

Zhang Xiao’s eyes snapped open. She gasped for breath, looking around. She was in her rented apartment. But wait—after half a month of unending rain, hadn’t it been flooded?

After the apartment building was submerged, people had to swim away to escape. Some drowned, some died from infections after being cut by debris in the contaminated water, some were dragged under by heavy supplies they refused to abandon, some were beaten to death for their resources, and others were swept away by the floods, never to be seen again.

And she—she had been enslaved by her boyfriend Zhao Wu’s family, had stumbled upon her space, and had been murdered for it.

Remembering the pain and despair of her death, Zhang Xiao gritted her teeth, her eyes burning red with rage.

Suddenly realizing something, she rushed into the bedroom and rummaged through the wardrobe, finding a jade ring. She wept with joy.

The ring was still here! Her space was still here!

As long as she had the space, this time she would definitely live well, then kill everyone who had hurt her!

“Xiaoxiao, what’s wrong? I was just washing some fruit for you, and when I turned around you’d rushed into the bedroom.”

A concerned voice sounded. Zhang Xiao turned to see Zhao Wu standing at the bedroom doorway, and she felt an overwhelming urge to pounce on him and tear apart that hypocritical face.

Zhao Wu lived next door. During this National Day holiday, his parents and younger sister from the countryside had come to visit. He’d given his apartment to them and moved in with her.

Because of this, when the torrential rain came, this whole family was trapped here—eating her food, drinking her supplies, forcing her to search for more, knocking her unconscious and selling her to other men, and finally killing her and stealing her space!

A pack of ungrateful wolves!

Zhao Wu’s gaze suddenly fell on the ring in her hand. “This ring is made of jade, right? The quality looks quite good. How come I’ve never seen you wear it before?”

Zhao Wu reached out to take the ring.

Zhang Xiao quickly pocketed it. “I bought it while traveling before. It’s not worth much.”

The torrential rain was supposed to start tomorrow. She decided to separate from this family beforehand; otherwise, using the space would be inconvenient.

As for revenge—she’d let them owe her for now and live a few more days.

She acted as if suddenly remembering something. “I just remembered there’s some unfinished work at the company. I need to rush over immediately.”

Zhao Wu said urgently, “But didn’t we agree to treat my parents and sister to dinner? They’re all here, and you’re suddenly leaving? That’s not appropriate.”

Zhang Xiao thought of her previous life when she’d treated his whole family to dinner, resulting in a meal that cost her several thousand yuan. This time, whoever wanted to be the sucker could go ahead.

But outwardly she said, “You all go to the restaurant first and order dishes. I’ll come over after finishing work at the company. Uncle, Auntie, and your sister don’t come often. Don’t save money on my account—order the expensive dishes.”

When the time came and she didn’t show up, Zhao Wu would have to pay the bill himself.

In the early days of the torrential rain, money was still useful. She hoped Zhao Wu would become penniless, destitute from the start, unable to afford even a single grain of rice.

Zhao Wu immediately showed a moved expression. “Xiaoxiao, you’re so good to me!”

He moved as if to kiss Zhang Xiao.

Zhang Xiao almost vomited and pushed him away. “Alright, I’m running late. I have to go.”

She grabbed her bag containing all her documents, bank cards, and valuables, and headed out to shop! Stockpile supplies!

After leaving the apartment, Zhang Xiao found a public restroom, entered a stall, and without hesitation cut her finger with an eyebrow razor.

As her blood touched the ring, it emitted a flash of light and disappeared.

At the same time, she sensed a space about several dozen square meters in area and three to four meters high. For hoarding supplies, it could really store a tremendous amount!

Zhang Xiao suppressed her excitement and calculated her savings.

About fifty thousand yuan, and by maxing out credit cards and online lending services, she could gather over a hundred thousand.

It seemed like a lot, but actually wouldn’t buy much.

The first thing she wanted to hoard was, of course, food and water.

She left the public restroom and headed toward the nearby wholesale market.

However, just then, the sky suddenly darkened. It was summer and extremely hot—Haicheng had been sunny for a solid month, but now the sky was overcast.

Zhang Xiao’s heart sank. Her first thought was—Could the torrential rain be starting today?

She looked up, and her pupils dilated sharply.

Because she clearly saw that in the sky, like a scroll being slowly unrolled, a huge image appeared.

Large text appeared in the image: 「Torrential Rain Apocalypse Countdown——」

Zhang Xiao trembled all over, stumbling back several steps, her face pale.

How could this be!

What was this thing!

An apocalypse announcement?

There was clearly nothing like this in her previous life!

Having been reborn, she didn’t doubt the authenticity of the scene before her eyes for a second, nor did she think it was someone’s prank.

If she could be reborn, what was impossible now?

But—

“Why?”

She clenched her fists unwillingly. Why, when she’d been reborn and had this unique advantage, did this announcement have to appear? This was equivalent to erasing her advantage entirely!

People throughout Haicheng looked up in surprise and terror.

“Look! What is that!”

“My God!”

“Apocalypse countdown? Is today some kind of April Fool’s Day?”

[Hello, friends of the Torrential Rain World. I am the video broadcaster for this session, Weizi. You can also call me the Natural Disaster Forecaster.]

A clear and pleasant female voice descended from the sky, audible clearly in everyone’s ears.

At the same time, the image on the Sky Screen changed. The text slowly disappeared, revealing a bird’s-eye view of a city.

The distinctive topography, layout, and landmark buildings made it instantly recognizable—that was Haicheng!

*

「Acid Rain World.」

Peng Lan rubbed his weary temples. His assistant brought strong coffee. “Team Leader Peng, why don’t you get some sleep first?”

Peng Lan opened his eyes, took a sip of the coffee, frowned at the intense bitterness, and continued staring at the surveillance screen.

The assistant also looked at the screen. “We’ve assigned Shi Feizhai to disaster reconstruction work, restricted his movements, and arranged many female colleagues around him. Each one only exchanges a word or two with him, at most letting him touch their hands. He was excited at first, but now he’s extremely agitated.”

On the screen, Shi Feizhai at the construction site indeed looked very restless, trying several times to leave the site but being refused each time.

He squatted alone in a corner, working passively, muttering, “If it weren’t for the women, I wouldn’t have come. Now I’m stuck here! And none of them respond to my flirting. If this keeps up, how can I complete upgrade tasks? System, hurry, think of something!”

After confirming that the system currently couldn’t perform counter-surveillance, Peng Lan’s team had installed numerous monitoring and listening devices in places where Shi Feizhai might appear.

This ensured they could know everything Shi Feizhai did or said, no matter where he was.

Listening to Shi Feizhai’s conversation with the system, Peng Lan’s thoughts drifted to the reply he’d received from Weizi two days ago.

Weizi had quite explicitly mentioned the system and explained its operational mechanism.

Peng Lan immediately held meetings with the leadership team. Finally, everyone formulated a plan—seize control of this system while it was still weak!

But to prevent the system from escaping or causing other problems, the scientists needed to design a sufficiently secure “transfer chamber.”

Before that, they had to keep Shi Feizhai under control—preventing him from upgrading while racing against time to constantly probe his and the system’s capabilities and background.

This led to Shi Feizhai being brought to the construction site with many women around him.

Over these two days, Shi Feizhai had used every trick in the book to flirt with women.

When successful, he’d show off to the system.

He almost mindlessly produced system reward items—so far, acid-resistant coating and acid-rain-resistant film had appeared.

These items were naturally sampled for expert group research.

When Shi Feizhai failed, he’d complain to the system even more, asking it to find solutions.

From these complaints, the action team gleaned much information.

Peng Lan’s gaze moved toward the sky. The private message interface had disappeared shortly after he received the reply, and despite trying many methods, he couldn’t actively summon it.

According to investigation and statistics, only ten thousand people in all of A City had received notifications allowing them to send private messages. Most had sent meaningless private messages.

The rest, whose messaging privilege was commandeered by the authorities, received no response from Weizi to those messages.

Weizi had only replied to Peng Lan.

Though he didn’t know why, this again established Peng Lan’s current status, giving him considerable influence within the action team.

Peng Lan looked out the window, light flashing across his lenses. The Sky Screen hadn’t appeared for two days—he wondered if it would appear again.

“Team Leader Peng, the expert group says the ‘transfer chamber’ is ready!”

Peng Lan immediately stood up and headed out.

Just then, a familiar voice came from outside.

[Hello, friends of the Torrential Rain World…]

Peng Lan hurried back to the window to look at the sky.

The familiar Sky Screen, familiar subtitle format, except this time the title was 「Torrential Rain Apocalypse Countdown.」

Torrential Rain Apocalypse?

Shouldn’t it be Acid Rain Apocalypse?

The assistant looked confused, glancing at the sky then at Peng Lan. “Team Leader Peng, what’s wrong?”

Peng Lan asked in surprise. “Can’t you see the Sky Screen?”

The assistant was shocked and quickly looked at the sky, rubbing his eyes hard. “There’s nothing there!”

Peng Lan’s heart jumped. “You did see the second Sky Screen video, right?”

“Yes, I even liked and sent flowers to the second Sky Screen video.” The assistant scratched his head regretfully. “I just didn’t like or send flowers to the first video.”

Peng Lan’s frown deepened as he thought of a possibility. “Go ask others if they can see the Sky Screen.”

The assistant was stunned, quickly went to ask, and soon had results.

Most people couldn’t see the current Sky Screen. Only those who had liked and sent flowers to both previous videos could see it, and no instruments could capture it.

In other words, only about ten thousand people in all of A City could see it.

Having already suspected this possibility, Peng Lan wasn’t surprised by the result.

Looking at the Sky Screen again, it was already describing the terrible consequences caused by the endless rain. The urban landscape shown wasn’t any city he recognized.

This meant the Torrential Rain World mentioned in this Sky Screen wasn’t their current world.

It was simply that he and over ten thousand others, because they had liked and sent flowers twice, were privileged to glimpse a corner of another world.