Acid rain coming

Drip... drip... drip-drip-drip...

As the night deepened, all was silent. Flocks of black birds soared across the sky, swooping down towards the earth. The wind that had been whipping across the plains seemed to have calmed, as if a dark cloth had been draped over the world. The red moon's glow began to fade, gradually hiding behind dark clouds.

"Water!"

"It's water! We're saved! We have water!"

"Thank God, thank Jesus, thank the new life..."

"..."

Countless dark shelters, as the sound of raindrops grew louder and louder, gradually began to light up with the flicker of flames.

The next moment, some people excitedly rushed out of their shelters, standing under the sky, wantonly enjoying the caress of the "water."

Boom!

A lightning bolt that seemed to split the heavens appeared in the sky, suddenly illuminating the earth, and also illuminating the manic expressions of these people. The ensuing thunderous roar was like a warning, shaking the world.

pitter-patter! (onomatopoeia for the sound of heavy rain)

As time passed, the initially sparse rain suddenly became torrential. In the pitch-black night, the sound of rain became the only soloist.

The parched earth greedily absorbed the nutrients falling from the sky. The cracked ground, baked by days of scorching sun, gradually began to heal under the caress of the rain. Everything seemed to be revitalized.

However...

"Ah, my face... what's wrong with my face!"

When the first person's face began to show pockmarks as if corroded by concentrated sulfuric acid, the crowd that had rashly rushed out was instantly dumbfounded.

In the fleeting light of the lightning, they caught a glimpse of a horrifying sight.

The skin exposed to the rain had been scalded black, with tiny holes appearing. It didn't hurt; instead, there was a strange numbness.

The most terrifying thing was...

All of this happened silently.

In the world channel, countless meteorologists and chemists who had crossed over were also discussing the abnormality of the acid rain.

"Everyone be careful, don't let the rain touch your body, there's something wrong with this rain!"

"It might not be sulfuric acid, I did an experiment, it doesn't corrode wood or soil at all, those who have the conditions can collect some and study it with me."

"Professor Li has used up his daily limit for messages , I'll speak for him: Professor Li said this acid rain may contain a neurotoxin, don't let your body come into direct contact with the acid rain for a long time, if you get caught in it, wipe it off quickly."

"No wonder the places where I've been corroded have lost feeling, please, help 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, please help me."

"My stomach hurts so much, I just drank a little rainwater, it hurts so much, it hurts so much!" 

"..."

More and more numb messages filled the world channel, bringing a sense of doomsday panic.

Water droplets began to seep into dilapidated shacks...

Poorly sealed underground shelters started to flood...

Depressions in the terrain began to accumulate rainwater...

More and more people began to understand the meaning of disaster.

It turned out that this was not just a disaster for a small group of people, but...

An apocalyptic disaster for all!

Acid rain, so terrifying!

"Woof woof woof, woof! Awoo"

In the dim shelter, Liam opened his tired eyes and looked at Oreo, who was barking frantically at the head of the bed. His sleepiness instantly vanished.

"What's wrong?"

Propping himself up on the bed with one hand, Liam sat up and touched his chest. After a few days of recuperation, the injuries he sustained from entering the ruin, coupled with the exhaustion from recent days, had finally healed a lot.

Following Oreo's gaze, Liam suddenly discovered that quite a bit of water had seeped in through the stone door of the shelter, soaking a patch of the stone floor.

"Oh no, there's something wrong with this rain!"

Seeing Oreo baring his teeth, Liam instantly felt his scalp go numb. Subconsciously, as he got dressed, he opened the game panel to check the world channel.

As the game panel opened, a series of notification sounds rang out.

[Record]: "Attention all players, attention all players, attention all players"

[Record]: "The first disaster, Acid Rain, is about to arrive (Newbie Protection), please be cautious and do not be careless"

[Record]: "This disaster will last for 36 hours"

[Record]: "Please note that system announcements will cease operation after the first newbie disaster ends"

[Record]: "Congratulations to player Liam, your shelter's disaster resistance attribute is currently ranked first globally, do you want to publish the leaderboard data and simultaneously start a live broadcast of your shelter's disaster resistance?"

[Record]: "Please note that starting a live broadcast will not show the interior of your shelter, it will only open a surround-type broadcast above the shelter, allowing other players to observe the ground structures!"

[Record]: "If you keep the live broadcast on for more than fifteen minutes and successfully survive the disaster, you will receive a random survival airdrop *1"

[Record]: "Do you want to start the live broadcast?"

A cacophony of notification sounds bombarded Liam's ears.

"The disaster has already started? And this live broadcast?"

It took Liam a few seconds to understand the current situation. The acid rain disaster had indeed begun, and the water seeping into the shelter was undoubtedly acid rain.

However, even his shelter, which was already leaking, was ranked first. Liam couldn't imagine how miserable the situation was for other shelters.

Putting aside the system notifications, Liam chose to check the world channel first.

As soon as he entered, the overwhelming world channel seemed to have returned to the bustling scene of the first day he crossed over.

"My shelter is going to be flooded, when will this rain stop! I hate, I hate, I hate that I didn't dig a drainage system!"

"My foot! My foot has been corroded by the rain, I don't have a foot anymore, ahhhhh!"

"Remember not to touch the rainwater directly with your skin, otherwise it will immediately corrode your nerves, if you have the conditions, use plant fibers to absorb the water, don't let the water touch you!"

"This is not a natural disaster, this is baptism, in the heavy rain, we humans can find the direction to move forward! Amen!"

"God, can your believers go to your heaven after death!"

Countless numb messages occupied 99% of the chat window. Liam was speechless after just looking at it for three to five seconds.

No matter how terrifying acid rain was on Earth, it was still traceable, and its material composition was clear.

However...

According to what was being said in the world chat channel, this acid rain contained an acid that didn't harm objects, but once it touched the human body, it would cause severe corrosion, and it did so silently...

"It's actually a neurotoxin!"

With a look of horror, for some reason, Liam suddenly thought of the black dog he had encountered in the ruin.

The black dog's skin was covered in disgusting festering spots, but it itself was completely unaware, and even when Liam poked it with his spear, it didn't react at all.

Closing the world channel, he opened the regional channel. The number of members in the regional channel was now a shocking, blood-red number.

323...

Before going to bed yesterday, Liam had specifically remembered the number of survivors in the regional channel; at that time, there were 645 people.

In just one night, half of the people had disappeared in this rain.

The remaining three hundred people were also in imminent danger.

Those who had chosen ground shelters were better off. As long as the terrain wasn't too low-lying, at least for now, they didn't have to face the hellish scene of acid rain pouring into their shelters.

Those with brains were carefully using wooden shovels and buckets to ensure that the water wouldn't flood into their shelters.

Those without brains simply used plant fibers to make makeshift raincoats and umbrellas. Wearing raincoats and holding umbrellas over their heads, they climbed onto the roofs of their wooden shelters and then used wooden boxes and planks to build a small attic to avoid the disaster.

Those who had hoped to drink their fill of the acid rain were forever left in this wasteland, never to breathe again.

After observing for a while, Liam closed the game panel and his gaze focused on the leak.

If the rain outside was truly this terrifying, then it made perfect sense that his shelter was ranked first.

As an underground shelter, there wasn't even a puddle of water in the ground at this time.

Relying on the good sealing of the stone door, there was a high chance of surviving the first wave of the disaster!

"Oreo, don't touch that water!"

After warning Oreo, who was baring his teeth at the leak, to stay away, Liam took out the rags he had stored before the disaster and began to work on a rain-prevention plan.