27: Chapter 27 Fire Rain

"So that's how it is."

He casually opened the warehouse and glanced at the fuel reserves in the corner.

[High-purity aviation fuel: 21,500 units]

Moreover, this stuff was still earning interest from [Compound Interest], gaining over two hundred units every day for no reason.

"30 units is too little; don't die on the road."

Zhou An entered a number into the trading bar like an absolute tycoon.

"I'll give you 100 units. Consider it support for your agricultural research."

With a flash of light, the trade was completed.

On the other side of the channel, Li Muzi was stunned by this immense happiness and couldn't snap out of it for a long time.

Li Muzi: "One hundred units?! Boss... you're my real father! With these 100 units, even if I drive at top speed against the storm, it's enough for me to run seven or eight thousand kilometers! You've given me my life!"

Zhou An: "Don't be in such a rush to thank me. I just want to ask, can this output be increased? Ten thousand seeds is still too slow."

Li Muzi: "Boss, I'm really not being lazy. These past few days, I've been swept along by the main force, and I simply haven't had time to steadily force seeds to grow. Also... to tell you the truth, my vehicle is still at the LV1 piece-of-junk stage; if I lose focus even a little, it might get blown apart by the wind."

"LV1?"

Zhou An was stunned, "Of the eight hundred thousand people who survived, basically everyone has upgraded to LV2, right? You should have traded for quite a lot of materials by reselling seeds over the past few days; why haven't you upgraded yet?"

Li Muzi: "I don't have materials! The little bit of stuff I traded for isn't even enough to buy fuel! The only reason I've survived until now is because I was lucky; I was initially assigned an extremely lightweight small private jet! Although it has no armor and no firepower, its speed is extremely fast; at full speed, it can hit 300km/h! When I encounter monsters, I don't fight at all; I just floor the accelerator and run! That's why my fuel consumption is so terrifying."

"An initial plane with a speed of three hundred kilometers per hour?"

Zhou An was truly surprised this time; no wonder she could survive in the pile of monsters at the front line.

"Muzi, are you interested in working for me formally?"

Zhou An's eyes flickered.

This person was an extremely rare pure support talent. Although her [Shennong] talent was useless in the early stages, in the mid-to-late stages, once large-scale plantations were established, she would absolutely be an irreplaceable strategic resource.

Li Muzi: "Boss, are you trying to... recruit me?"

Zhou An: "Yes. I currently have an extremely safe mobile fortress with a ready-made, absolutely safe planting environment and unlimited water sources. You come over and help me specifically with seed research and forced growth. Room and board included, unlimited supply of materials; I guarantee you can walk sideways in this sky."

Hearing "absolutely safe" and "unlimited supply," Li Muzi was clearly tempted, but then fell into hesitation.

Li Muzi: "Boss, my seeds really aren't worth much right now; are you really willing to support an idle person?"

Zhou An: "Cut the crap. Give me your coordinates."

Li Muzi: "Uh... let me see. My current coordinates are... longitude 124, latitude 45..."

Zhou An frowned after hearing this. For the past few days, he had been slowly wandering behind the main force to scavenge and hit Floating Islands.

Li Muzi, that kid, relying on her speed, had actually run to the very front line, putting a distance of over four thousand kilometers between them!

Zhou An: "You're running too fast... How about this: turn around and fly back immediately. We'll fly toward each other and meet halfway. The fuel along the way is on me."

Li Muzi: "Turn, turn around?! Fly in the direction of the black fog?!" The person on the other side was clearly terrified by this crazy proposal.

Zhou An: "What are you afraid of? With your speed of three hundred, are you afraid of being caught by a black fog moving at thirty kilometers? To show my sincerity, I'll send you an advance payment first."

Zhou An didn't hesitate to allocate a full set of Level 2 materials from that massive hold of over five hundred thousand, enough to upgrade the vehicle to LV2.

[Notification: Zhou An has transferred to you: Level 2 Steel x 5000, Level 2 Composite Rubber x 2000, High-Density Energy Core x 500...]

The chat channel went instantly silent.

Li Muzi: "Boss! I'm turning around right now! Even if there's a mountain of knives and a sea of fire ahead, I'll fly back to you!"

Zhou An smiled, closed the chat box, and turned to look at Luo Ning, who was cleaning her gun.

"Get ready. In a few days, we'll have an extra logistics person on this fortress for farming."

Before Zhou An could explain the agricultural plan in detail to Luo Ning, that cold, grand, mechanical system voice appeared again.

[Important System Announcement for the Entire Zone (Area 997)!]

[The second wave of Floating Island and Material Rain resource drop events has officially ended!]

[The greenhouse cultivation phase has passed; the sky world is about to face the first round of global natural disasters—Fire Rain!]

[Natural disaster duration: 3 days, ending when the first monthly zone settlement begins.]

[Disaster countdown: Officially arrives tonight at 20:00. All survivors, please prepare your vehicles for heat insulation and collision protection to welcome the sky's wrath. Good luck to everyone.]

As soon as this announcement was made, the zone channel, which had been arguing incessantly over Level 1 materials, instantly fell into a deathly silence, followed immediately by overwhelming, despairing wails.

"They're crazy, they're crazy! They just gave us a little sweetness, and now they're immediately hitting us with this kind of destruction-level natural disaster!"

"Help! Who has heat insulation materials? I want to trade!"

Zhou An looked at the blood-red countdown on the system panel.

"This system really doesn't let anyone catch their breath for even a moment." Zhou An turned to look at Luo Ning, "The natural disaster arrives on time at eight o'clock tonight. In this kind of extreme weather, automatic driving definitely won't be reliable; someone must be focused on the radar and control panel."

"We'll work in shifts."

"The first wave of Fire Rain tonight will definitely be the most intense; I'll take the night shift tonight. Go to sleep immediately; come take over my shift tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."

Luo Ning knew this wasn't the time to be coy; this fortress was their lifeline.

She nodded extremely decisively: "Okay, Boss, please be careful; if the shield can't hold, you must call me."

After saying that, she went straight back to her room to catch up on sleep.

...

20:00 at night.

As the countdown reached zero, the originally pitch-black, deep night sky outside the window suddenly turned a strange red.

Immediately after, the clouds were torn apart.

Countless giant meteors, dragging long tails of fire, poured down from the extremely high firmament like a rainstorm! The entire sky seemed to have been ignited into a huge furnace, and the moisture in the air was instantly evaporated, emitting a "hissing" sound.

[Warning: External ambient temperature is rising sharply! Current outside temperature: 65°C... 75°C... 85°C!]

In just a few minutes, the outside temperature soared by dozens of degrees, even approaching the boiling point!

But Zhou An, sitting in front of the main console, didn't shed a drop of sweat.

The constant temperature system equipped in the LV3 Cloud Top Fortress was running at full power, and combined with the Tier 3 composite energy protective shield, it firmly blocked the scorching heat that was enough to bake a person dry outside the glass; the cabin still maintained a comfortable 25 degrees.

"This fortress was worth upgrading; otherwise, this temperature alone would have steamed ordinary players alive."

Zhou An gripped the control stick tightly with both hands, maneuvering the massive fortress to dodge through the dense Fire Rain.

"Boom!"

A burning meteor as large as a heavy truck, carrying an aura of destruction, came smashing straight toward the front of the fortress! It was too fast, too large, and impossible to dodge!

"Since I can't dodge, I'll smash it to pieces!"

Zhou An's eyes sharpened, and he slammed down on the weapon launch button.

"[Electromagnetic Rail Main Cannon], fire!"

Accompanied by a teeth-grinding sound of electromagnetic charging, a blinding blue high-energy beam shot out, accurately hitting the giant meteor.

"Bang—Rumble!"

The giant fire meteor was instantly torn apart in mid-air by the violent kinetic energy, turning into sky-filling rubble and Fire Rain that splashed in all directions.

Just as Zhou An was preparing to meet the shockwave, a burst of extremely dazzling light suddenly exploded on the radar screen. He saw that amidst the sky-filling shattered burning rocks, a cluster of brilliant golden light was falling straight down!

"That is... a treasure chest?!"

Zhou An was quick-eyed and fast-handed; he immediately controlled the bottom grappling hook and, one second before the golden light was about to fall into the abyss, firmly hooked it and dragged it back into the storage cabin.

[Ding! Destroyed 'Calamity Fire Meteorite', triggered hidden drop!]

[Obtained: golden treasure chest x 1!]

Zhou An was stunned, and then his heart began to beat wildly.

"The meteors in this Fire Rain can actually drop treasure chests?! And they're gold-tier ones at that?!"

Before he could recover from his ecstasy, the radar was suddenly covered in red dots. From the shattered meteor debris, accompanied by flames, countless Fire-Winged Birds and Lava Bats with bodies burning with magma were born! These monsters used the cover of the Fire Rain to madly pounce on the Cloud Top Fortress's energy shield.

"Bring it on!"

Zhou An was not only unafraid, but a fire of capitalism, even more fanatical than the Fire Rain outside, ignited in his eyes.

"System, full firepower!"

"[storm twin-linked autocannon array], sweep for me!"

"[high-frequency tracking cutting ray], net-style cutting!"

The fortress instantly transformed into a ruthless meat grinder. Dense armor-piercing incendiary shells and cutting rays wove into a net of death amidst the Fire Rain.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The Fire-Winged Birds were blown up in mid-air, and the Lava Bats were sliced in two by the rays.

And the moment they died—

[Ding! Killed Tier 2 Lava Bat, triggered 'War Treasure III'! Obtained: black iron treasure chest x 1!]

[Ding! Killed Tier 1 Fire-Winged Bird, triggered 'War Treasure III'! Obtained: ordinary material blind box x 1!]

[Ding! Killed...]

A drop rate of up to 40% for treasure chests, in the face of such a dense monster horde, demonstrated a terrifying, cheat-like return!

"A rain of fire? This is clearly raining money!"

Zhou An was completely crazy.

He not only controlled the autocannons to strafe the monsters but even began to actively search for those huge meteors, picking them off one by one with the electromagnetic main cannon! While others hid from this natural disaster, wherever he drove the fortress, the screen full of treasure chest drop notifications even started echoing.

...

The frenzied killing and destruction continued until 8:00 the next morning.

When the first ray of sunlight struggled to penetrate the thick volcanic ash and shone on the charred clouds, the density of the Fire Rain finally decreased slightly.

"Click."

Luo Ning yawned and pushed open the door to the cockpit.

"Morning, Boss, how is the situation... Holy crap!!!"

Luo Ning's yawn turned into a terrified scream halfway through. She rubbed her eyes, looking at the material storage area behind the main control room in disbelief.

There, treasure chests of various colors had piled up into a small mountain! The light illuminated the entire second floor like a large disco!

Zhou An slumped in the pilot's seat, his eyes bloodshot, but his mouth was grinning from ear to ear.

He was so tired his fingers were almost cramping, but looking at the loot statistics in the system backend, it was all worth it.

Ordinary material blind box: 230

black iron treasure chest: 30

bronze treasure chest: 17

silver treasure chest: 2

golden treasure chest: 1