169: Chapter 169 Power Bureau: Something Sneaky Is Stealing My Electricity?

It kept raining.

The Jiangcheng Eastern Suburb Substation.

Su Ming braved the rain and crept to the base of the transformer tower, looking up at the warning sign hanging on the wire fence: "High Voltage Danger, Electric Shock Means Death."

That was his menu!

"110 kilovolts, main line current approximately 600 amps..."

For a secondary substation in a D-level city, the incoming high-voltage transmission line is generally 110kV.

According to the power formula P = UI, the pure energy flowing through here every second is as high as 66 million joules.

What does that even mean?

If this energy were released, it would be enough to instantly electrocute any conventional carbon-based Awakened below Tier 7 into charcoal.

But who was Su Ming?

He was a "Silicon-based Fusion" life form!

Conductivity was something that was naturally suited to his body.

Su Ming walked a circle around the outer wall of the substation. The security in the high-voltage equipment area was not tight.

No one dared to come here usually; climbing over the wall was just asking for death.

The substation itself had a large number of surveillance blind spots.

He crept to a blind spot for the cameras. In this suburban area, only one high-definition camera was installed.

Su Ming picked up a stone as if it were nothing, and lightly flicked it at the power cable of the camera base.

"Pop."

With a barely audible sound, the power indicator light went out.

The camera's lens also turned toward the pitch-black night sky, where rain was pouring down.

After finishing all this, Su Ming vaulted over and landed steadily in the equipment area. He walked straight toward a huge transformer, where several high-voltage busbar terminals as thick as an adult's thigh lay across.

Su Ming rubbed his hands together, excitement bordering on madness dancing in his eyes.

He did not dodge or avoid it, but thrust his hands forward fiercely, locking them tightly onto that bare 110kV high-voltage busbar.

"Bzzzz..."

The moment they made contact, blue electric arcs exploded in his palms.

There was no excruciating pain or paralysis as imagined.

Instead, a tingling sensation instantly spread from his palms through his entire body.

[Kinetic Siphon, activated!]

[High-frequency, high-voltage electromagnetic kinetic energy detected!]

[Energy purification and conversion started...]

[mass points + 100!]

[mass points + 100!]

[mass points + 100!]

...

The System notification sound, like a symphony, rang in his mind at a frequency of once per second.

The massive current flowed along his arms and was guided and absorbed by [Kinetic Siphon].

That feeling...

It was like enjoying the highest-level deep muscle massage, plus a full-body warm electric therapy SPA.

Every cell was cheering and leaping, and every inch of muscle was being nourished by electric energy while slightly swelling.

"Holy crap...!"

"I've found the correct way to unlock this!"

Su Ming couldn't help but let out a moan of comfort, leaning his whole body against the iron tower, his hands gripping the high-voltage line, and began to close his eyes and rest.

100 points per second, 6,000 points per minute.

He only needed to stay here for twenty minutes to reach his total goal of 120,000!

This place was his true "heaven on earth"!

...

Meanwhile, at the Jiangcheng Power Bureau building.

On the huge electronic screen in the dispatch center, the power curve representing the 110kV Eastern Suburb line jumped vertically upward without any warning!

The busbar voltage curve, however, plummeted like a cliff!

"Beep, beep, beep—!!!"

The ear-piercing alarm sound echoed throughout the hall, and red warning boxes frantically flooded the screen, dazzling everyone's eyes.

"What's going on?!"

The duty director threw down the files in his hand and rushed over.

The young duty officer's fingers were typing frantically on the keyboard, his voice trembling.

"The Eastern Suburb line... the Eastern Suburb line load has exploded! The voltage has fallen below the baseline!"

The director's first reaction was that a terminal factory had suddenly added an illegal load, or that the rain had punctured an insulator, causing a line short circuit to ground.

"Quick! Immediately remotely check the status of the circuit breakers at the Eastern Suburb station!"

The result left him completely dumbfounded.

"Director! All switches are closed normally! Not a single one has tripped! The protection devices have no action records!"

Another duty officer also shouted: "I checked the fault recording, there's nothing! The waveform is as smooth as a textbook! Insulation detection is all green! I can't find the short circuit point!"

Now, the entire dispatch room went quiet.

The duty director stared at the numbers on the screen and scratched his head. Having worked in electricity for over a decade, he had never encountered such a bizarre event.

The line load had increased out of thin air by sixty or seventy megawatts, equivalent to the electricity consumption of a small town, but the System couldn't find any faults.

Where did... this electricity go?

"Retrieve the metering data for the whole line!"

The duty director roared, sweat already visible on his forehead.

The data was retrieved quickly. Everyone watched the screen, and the more they looked, the colder their hearts became.

The output power at the start of the substation had increased by a large chunk out of thin air, but the total load at the ends of all users along the line remained completely unchanged.

"The electricity... it evaporated... in the middle of the line?"

A young dispatcher said, stuttering.

Someone is stealing electricity?

What kind of deadly joke is this!

Who could steal electricity from a 110kV high-voltage line?

Stealing from a household's electricity meter is understandable, but this is like sticking a straw directly into the main artery!

The duty director made a prompt decision and grabbed the communicator on the table:

"Operation and Maintenance Team One, Team Two! Everyone put on insulated explosion-proof suits and immediately rush to the Eastern Suburb substation to investigate!"

Several people got up and walked toward the locker room.

He paused and then added:

"Directly request the City Defense Guard to cooperate! Bring weapons! Tell them, it is highly likely that a high-level lightning-type Source Beast is gnawing on the power grid lines!"

This was the only reasonable explanation he could think of.

But if it really was a high-level lightning Source Beast... that would mean a disaster!

...

The maintenance team's pickup truck, with sirens wailing, rushed frantically toward the suburbs in the pouring rain.

The director of the dispatch room did not dare to delay at all and immediately called the bureau chief.

Jiangcheng Power Bureau Chief Director Wang Gang was having a sweet dream in his bed when he was suddenly Awakened by a series of life-threatening calls.

After seeing the number with sleepy eyes, he sat up abruptly.

As the bureau chief, there was only one possibility when this ringtone sounded!

The remnants of the Tongyuan Society had revived and were attacking and destroying urban infrastructure!

He grabbed the phone.

"Speak! What happened!"

"Chief Wang! Something major happened on the 110kV Eastern Suburb line! The line lost sixty or seventy megawatts of power out of thin air, and we can't find any reason. The equipment didn't trip, and there's no short-circuit waveform! We suspect a high-level lightning Source Beast has invaded the substation!"

"What the hell?!"

Director Wang Gang's blood pressure skyrocketed instantly! There was no trace of sleepiness left.

He was a Tier 3 Awakened, and he understood the terror of this data.

He didn't even have time to change his pajamas; he grabbed his coat and rushed downstairs.