Just as Chen Hao bent down and his fingertips touched the handle of the shovel, the wind suddenly picked up.

He didn't straighten up, but propped himself up on his knees and looked up at the sky. The clouds that had been gray-edged just moments before now pressed down like the bottom of a pot, their color a deep, dark black. The air was stifling; even a breath felt suffocating.

Nana's tablet was already lit up, and she was swiping away rapidly with her fingers, her brows furrowed.

“The atmospheric pressure dropped too quickly,” she said. “It dropped by 15 percent in ten minutes, and the humidity was close to saturation.”

Susan placed the rolled-up cable on the ground: "What does this mean?"

"The downpour is coming soon." Nana closed her tablet, her voice rising an octave. "Everyone, get inside! Now!"

No one asked any questions. Carl tossed the steel plate against the corner of the wall, turned, and ran towards the main control area. Susan grabbed her tool bag from the ground and picked up a hammer. Chen Hao tried to pick up a shovel, but his legs buckled and he almost knelt down. He simply kicked it away and limped after him.

The wind grew stronger and stronger, blowing open the burlap sacks on the training ground. Several pieces of moss were lifted up, spun twice in the air, and then slammed against the wall with a thud.

"The grain outside!" Chen Hao shouted, then suddenly stopped.

"Never mind that!" Carl yelled back at him. "If you get blown away, we'll have to find someone else!"

"We can't just ignore this!" Chen Hao turned and ran towards the warehouse. "The three sacks we moved yesterday are all ruined if they get soaked!"

He ran unsteadily, his legs still aching, each step feeling like walking on cotton. But he still managed to reach the pile of goods, ripped open the waterproof cloth roll, shook it out, and covered the sacks with it.

The wind wouldn't let him work properly. He had only laid out half the cloth when a corner was lifted up, flipped over with a whoosh, and almost knocked him over.

"Damn it!" He knelt on one knee, gripping the edge tightly, and with his other hand, he touched the half-section of wire on the ground, bent it, and stuck it into the soil.

Susan arrived just then, carrying several pieces of discarded cargo plank. Without saying a word, she simply nailed the planks diagonally into the ground, creating a low wall that blocked the sacks.

"This can only protect against water erosion, not rain," she said.

"First, make sure we don't get swept away!" Chen Hao gasped for breath. "We'll deal with the rest when the rain comes!"

Carl had already climbed onto the roof, holding a long pole, and was poking at the ventilation vents. The area had been cleaned a couple of days ago, but debris blown in by the wind had piled up again. As he poked, he cursed, "This damn weather didn't even give us a forecast! Is the system asleep?"

Nana brought up the monitoring screen at the console, pointing her finger at the screen: "The weather module was updated last night, but it didn't trigger the warning threshold. This time the change was too fast, exceeding the prediction model."

“Then shut it up.” Carl tossed the pole aside. “My biggest concern right now is whether the drain is clear!”

Before the words were even finished, a loud boom came from the sky, and raindrops began to fall.

It wasn't just drops, it was the entire sky pouring water. One second you could still see faces clearly, the next your vision blurred, everything outside turned into a white blur, and the rain pounded against the metal walls, making a crackling sound like popping beans.

"Chen Hao is still outside!" Susan suddenly stood up.

Nana immediately switched to the external camera. The image shakiened slightly, but she could barely see Chen Hao squatting at the warehouse entrance, tying the last piece of waterproof tarpaulin with a rope. The wind was too strong, and he was pushed against the wall, causing several knots in the rope to come undone.

“He’s not coming back.” Nana stared at the data stream. “The wind speed is over level twelve and the visibility is less than five meters. Going out now is suicide.”

“I’ll go around through the side door.” Susan grabbed an old coat, draped it over her head, and turned to walk into the passageway.

"Are you crazy?" Carl jumped down from the ladder. "You want to be swept away too?"

"What if he got hit?" Susan didn't stop walking. "That pine plank on the roof was going to fall sooner or later. If we had been two seconds later, he would have been finished!"

Nana suddenly spoke up: "There is a sheltered area below the second ventilation opening on the east side, about three meters long and one and a half meters wide. Go out through the side door and walk along the wall to avoid the prevailing wind direction."

"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Carl grabbed a short tube and shoved it at Susan. "Here, just hold it up in case something falls on your head!"

Susan nodded and rushed into the rain.

The rain outside didn't feel like it was falling on the ground; it felt like it was exploding upwards from the ground. Every step she took caused water to splash back, and mud climbed up her trouser legs. She lowered her head, held onto the wall, and slowly moved to the corner.

Chen Hao was still there, his face stung by the rain, his hands still tying the rope.

"Enough!" Susan grabbed his arm. "If you keep going like that, you'll die!"

“So close…” he gritted his teeth, “just one knot short…”

"Life is more important than a sack!" she said, pulling him back.

He had only taken two steps when, with a loud crash, a rusty metal plate slid down from the roof, grazing Chen Hao's shoulder and hitting the ground, splashing mud all over his face.

The two froze simultaneously.

"...Luckily, it didn't hit me." Chen Hao wiped his face, his voice trembling slightly.

"Go!" Susan didn't give him time to react and forcefully pulled him toward the side door.

They practically tumbled into the house. The moment the door closed, the room became much quieter, save for the continued sound of rain pounding against the walls.

Chen Hao slumped to the ground, soaked to the bone, his hair plastered to his forehead, and water dripping from his clothes. He caught his breath a few times, then suddenly laughed: "Didn't I almost die just now?"

“You almost became the base’s first wet corpse.” Susan took off her coat and shook off the water. “Don’t be so reckless in the future.”

“I’m not showing off.” He slowly sat up straight against the wall. “I’m just afraid that all the food we’ve worked so hard to save will be gone in a rainstorm.”

Nana came over and handed her a dry cloth: "External monitoring was interrupted. The last footage showed the west fence collapsing and the south drying rack structure damaged. The energy compartment is currently stable, but the drainage ditch is starting to fill with water."

“In other words, it’s not over yet.” Carl pulled a flashlight out of his toolbox. “I’ll go check if the circuit has gotten wet.”

"Wait a minute." Nana stopped him. "I just switched to emergency power. The main line load is normal, but the backup interface has a slight fluctuation. I suggest checking the internal distribution box first before deciding whether to go out."

“If you won’t let me go out, you have to let me do something else, right?” Karl glared at her.

“You can check the junction box in the basement,” Nana said without changing her expression. “That’s where water is most likely to seep in, and temporary sealant was used during the last renovation.”

Carl snorted, picked up his tools, and left.

Susan went to the supplies area, turned on a few emergency lights, and began to check which bags had been flooded. One burlap sack had a wet corner, so she quickly cut it open, poured out the moss inside, and spread it on the table.

"Luckily we found it early," she told Chen Hao. "Ten minutes later, this bag would have been moldy."

Chen Hao squatted down beside him, wiping the mud out of his shoes with a cloth: "You know, how come the weather comes like this so suddenly? It was perfectly fine just two days ago."

“Nana said that climate cycles are regular,” Susan said without looking up. “It’s just that we haven’t encountered any major ones before.”

"And what about next time?" Chen Hao asked, wringing out his socks. "If there's another earthquake next time, will we have to practice crawling under tables again?"

Nana stood in front of the control panel without turning around: "Based on historical data, the average interval between extreme weather events is twenty-three days. This one occurred earlier than expected, which may be related to geomagnetic disturbances."

"So we're just unlucky?" Chen Hao smiled wryly. "They came down to the real thing right after we finished physical training."

“It’s not luck,” Nana finally turned around. “It’s inevitable. The longer we stay here, the higher the probability of encountering something unusual.”

The rain outside showed no sign of letting up; in fact, it intensified. A flash of lightning illuminated the entire room, followed by a deafening clap of thunder that made the tool rack on the wall sway slightly.

Chen Hao looked up at the ceiling: "This lightning... it sounds like it's striking overhead?"

No one answered.

Nana looked down at the screen again, her fingers swiping rapidly. Her screen was divided into four sections, displaying air pressure, wind speed, humidity, and power load. The air pressure curve was steadily declining, showing no signs of bottoming out.

"The eye of the storm hasn't arrived yet," she said.

Susan stopped what she was doing: "You mean, this is just the beginning?"

Nana nodded.

Chen Hao slowly stood up and walked to the window. The glass was completely covered in rainwater, and he couldn't see anything. He reached out and touched it; it was ice-cold.

"I'm saying," he said, his back to the people in the room, "Can our training tomorrow... still proceed as scheduled?"

Carl poked his head out from the stairwell: "You still have the mind to think about training?"

"I don't care about training." Chen Hao turned around, his face expressionless. "I want to know, at a time like this, are we preparing or just wasting our energy?"

The room fell silent for a moment.

Nana looked at him, and after a few seconds spoke: "The system is learning. We must evolve too."

Chen Hao grinned, but didn't say anything.

He walked back to the corner, picked up the shovel he had just kicked away, and forcefully shoved it into the sandbags by the wall to stabilize the swaying frame.

The rain is still falling outside.

The wind lashed against the wall, making a dull thud.