Drip... Drip... Drip...
As the night grew darker, everything was silent.
One after another black birds flapped their wings across the earth and swooped down.
The clamoring wind on the plain seemed to have calmed down. A layer of black cloth seemed to cover the world.
The light of the red moon also began to dissipate and gradually hid in the dark clouds.
"Water!"
"It's water! We're saved! We have water!"
"Thank God. Thank Jesus. Thank the new..."
"..."
Countless dark shelters began to light up like stars as the sound of raindrops grew louder.
The next moment, some people rushed out of their shelters and stood under the sky, wantonly enjoying the touch of the "water".
Boom!
A bolt of lightning appeared across the sky, suddenly brightening the earth and the insane expressions on these people.
The roar that followed was like a warning, shaking the earth.
Whoosh!
As time brewed, the light rain, which had been sparse, suddenly turned heavy. The sound of rain became the only solo in the night.
The dry earth greedily absorbed the nutrients falling from the sky.
The cracks that had been exposed to the sun for days began to heal under the touch of rain.
Everything seemed to come alive again.
However...
"Ah. What's… what's happening to my face?"
The stampede was immediately stunned when the first man's face began to show holes that looked as if they had been eaten away by concentrated sulfuric acid.
In the lightning, it all happened in the blink of an eye.
The people out in the rain suddenly found:
Bare skin had been burned black. Small holes appeared. There was no pain but a different kind of numbness.
The scariest part was...
All this happened quietly.
On the World Channel, countless meteorologists and chemists, who transmigrated here noticed the acid rain's anomaly.
"Everyone, watch out. Don't let the rain touch your body. Something is wrong with the rain!"
"It's probably not sulphuric acid. I've done experiments. It doesn't corrode wood and soil at all. Those who are qualified can collect some and study with me."
"Professor Li's out sending public messages today. I'll help him out. Professor Li said this acid rain may contain a neural acid. Don't expose your body to acid rain for a long time. Once it falls on you, wipe it away quickly."
"No wonder I can no longer feel my corroded parts. Please save me. I don't want to die."
"Mom, I want to go home. I want to drink water. I don't want to stay here. Save me, okay?"
"My stomach hurts. I drank a little rain just now. It hurts. It hurts so much!"
"..."
More and more numbing speeches dominated the World Channel, causing a deathly apocalyptic panic.
Water had begun to invade the run-down house...
Water began to seep the poorly sealed underground shelter insanely...
The terrain was so low that it was beginning to collect rain like crazy.
More and more people were beginning to understand the meaning of disaster.
It was not just a small disaster. It was...
Everyone's doom!
Acid rain was so horrifying!
...
"Woof, woof, woof. Woof! Awoo."
In the dim shelter, Su Mo opened his tired eyes and looked at the manic Oreo at the head of his bed. Half of his sleepiness was immediately gone.
"What's the matter?"
Placing one hand on the bed, Su Mo instantly sat up and touched his chest.
After few days of hard work and including the injuries, he got from entering the ruin, he had recovered a lot with time.
Following Oreo's gaze, Su Mo suddenly noticed that water had seeped through the shelter's stone door, making the stone slab wet.
"Oh no. Something's wrong with this rain!"
Seeing the way Oreo bared his teeth, Su Mo instantly felt pins and needles in his scalp.
Subconsciously, Su Mo opened the game panel and checked the World Channel as he dressed.
Prompts after prompts began to ring as the game panel opened.
[Record]: "Attention all players. Attention all players. Attention all players."
[Record]: "The first disaster acid rain is coming (Novice Protection). All players, please be careful and don't be careless."
[Record]: "This disaster will last 36 hours."
[Record]: "Please note that the system announcement will stop operating after the first novice disaster."
[Record]: "Congratulations to player Su Mo. Your shelter's disaster resistance properties have been detected to be the best in the world. Do you want to make the ranking data public and simultaneously turn on the shelter's live broadcast to resist the disaster?"
[Record]: "Please note that turning on the live broadcast won't broadcast what's inside the shelter. It'll open a surround live broadcast above the shelter, only for the other players to observe the buildings on the ground!"
[Record]: "If you start the live broadcast for more than 15 minutes and survive the disaster, you'll get a random survival airdrop*1."
[Record]: "Do you want to turn it on?"
Jumbled prompts rang in Su Mo's ears like a hundred birds humming.
"Has the disaster begun? And this live broadcast?"
It took a few seconds for Su Mo to sort out what was going on.
The acid rain disaster had indeed begun, and the water seeping into the shelter was acid rain.
However, even his water-seeped shelter was ranked first, Su Mo dared not to think about how terrible the other shelters were at this point.
Ignoring the system's prompt, Su Mo chose to enter the World Channel to find out what was going on.
As soon as he got in, the overwhelming World Channel seemed to have restored its grandeur on the first day he transmigrated here.
"My shelter's going to be flooded. When will this rain end? I hate... I hate... I hate myself for not dredging the drain!"
"My feet! The rain has corroded my feet. I have no more feet. Ah ah ah ah!"
"Remember not to touch the rain with your skin, or it'll immediately corrode your body. Those who are capable can use plant fibers to absorb the water. Don't let the water touch you!"
"This is not a natural disaster. This is baptism. We humans can find the way forward in the heavy rain! Amen!"
"God, can your followers go to your heaven when they die?"
Countless numbing comments took up 99% of the chat box.
Su Mo had only read it for three to five seconds and was already speechless with shock.
There were telltale signs of the horror of the acid rain on Earth. The contents it had were as clear as crystal.
However...
According to the current World Channel, the acid in the acid rain was harmless to objects. However, as soon as it touched the human body, it corroded it violently and silently...
"It's neural acid! "
With a look of horror on his face, Su Mo suddenly recalled the black dog he had met in the ruins somehow.
The black dog's skin was covered with disgusting decaying spots, and it did not even notice it. It did not even respond when Su Mo poked it with his spear.
He turned off the World Channel and turned on the Regional Channel.
The number of members in the Regional Channel now seemed to be bleeding red, which was hard to accept.
323...
Before going to bed last night, Su Mo memorized the number of survivors in the Regional Channel. There were 645 people at the time.
In only one night, fully half of them disappeared in the rain.
The remaining 300 people were at risk.
Those who had chosen above-ground shelters were fine. As long as the terrain was not too low, at least they did not have to face acid rain flooding into their shelters for now.
Those with wits were careful to make sure that water did not pour back into their shelters with wooden shovels and buckets.
Those without brains just made simple raincoats and umbrellas out of plant fibers.
Wearing a raincoat and holding an umbrella over their head, they climbed to the roof of their wooden house shelters and made a small attic out of wooden boxes and wooden planks to escape the disaster.
Those who drank their fill of acid rain stayed in the wasteland forever, no longer living.
After observing for a while, Su Mo closed the game panel. He directed his gaze at the leak.
If the rain outside was that scary, then it made perfect sense for his shelter to be ranked first.
As an underground shelter, there was not even a puddle of water in the ground.
He had high hopes of avoiding the first wave of disaster by relying on the stone door's quality leak-resistance.
"Oreo, don't touch the water!"
After calling out to Oreo, who was baring its teeth at the leak, to stay away, Su Mo took out the cloth he had stored before the disaster and began to work on a rain-proof plan.