Not to mention Coach Wang clutching his chest, he was completely distraught. The state and thoughts of the other people in the supermarket were no better than Coach Wang's.
Several young men, in particular, wore expressions of deep distress and disappointment, their eyes fixed on the wealthy beauty's high ponytail.
Why would a grown man like you wear a girl's high ponytail? It's so misleading, isn't it?
Several girls couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement when they saw the handsome face of the wealthy and beautiful man. "Someone this good-looking should definitely be a guy!"
So incredibly handsome!
However, whether someone is male or female is not important at this moment. After the initial surprise, everyone calmed down and began to think about what to do next in the supermarket.
Gou Fugui returned to the glass door of the supermarket. While observing the thick fog outside, he activated his wristwatch communication.
He had mentally prepared himself for the watch's communication to be disrupted by the dense fog, but perhaps Xie Tianlang's luck had finally improved a little after traversing so many worlds? His watch actually connected, and the voice was indeed Xie Tianlang's.
"Hey? Can you hear me? You're finally not unlucky anymore?"
Gou Fugui's voice was clearly tinged with pleasure, leaving Xie Tianlang, who was taking refuge in the mall, speechless.
"Maybe another person with both incredible luck and bad luck came in... Okay, let's not talk about that. We should be in the same city. Where are you? Without the third party's computer location, we'll have to meet up ourselves. I'm at the Times Square shopping mall in Cultural Square. Where are you... *sizzle sizzle*"
Gou Fugui was still listening attentively to Xie Tianlang when he suddenly noticed that the wristwatch communication was becoming unstable. He had barely heard Xie Tianlang's last question. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly spoke into the wristwatch:
"I don't know where I am either, but you wait there for me to come back to you!"
He didn't know if Xie Tianlang had heard his last words, but when he looked again, the communication light on his wristwatch had turned red and indicated that communication was no longer possible.
He frowned and thought for a moment, then pressed the air monitoring button on his watch. He held the watch up to the gap in the glass door for a while and saw three very obvious red exclamation marks appear on the watch face.
**Caution!** An external environment containing corrosive acid and a trace of an unknown toxin has been detected. Please take appropriate protective measures.
This was the first time Gou Fugui had detected environmental problems related to "air" after experiencing four worlds.
And obviously, the results of the first detection were terrible.
At this moment, Gou Fugui thought of the special gloves he had put out that had come into direct contact with the grayish-white fog. Upon careful inspection, he found that there were no obvious signs of corrosion on the gloves, but if he touched them with his fingers, he could feel the rough surface of the part of the gloves that had come into contact with the grayish-white fog.
The outermost smooth protective film was indeed partially corroded away.
"...This is a bit troublesome."
Gou Fugui frowned.
If this grayish-white fog is so corrosive and contains unknown toxins, it might be a bit troublesome for him to get to the Times Square shopping mall from here.
As he was thinking, he suddenly heard the voice of the woman who was buying groceries, the same voice that had reminded him to run quickly and not to stand there.
"Young man, you're going to Times Square? You can't go there! Times Square is in the western part of the city, near Cultural Square. This is the old street in the eastern part of the city. Even if you drive there smoothly, it will take you half an hour. Right now, the fog is so thick you can't see more than three meters ahead. How can you go there!"
The woman buying groceries was clearly a kind-hearted person; otherwise, she wouldn't have warned Gou Fugui to run faster in the first place. Moreover, her eyesight was quite good; when she warned him, she directly called him "young man," not assuming he was a girl.
Now, the old lady has developed a strong liking for Gou Fugui because he returned to save her at such a crucial moment. So, after overhearing Gou Fugui's conversation with Xie Tianlang, she immediately spoke up to warn him.
Gou Fugui knew he was currently in a supermarket on the old street. However, even knowing his location was probably of little use.
He wouldn't rashly enter this fog until he understood the situation.
Gou Fugui sighed helplessly, then noticed the elderly woman watching him intently as he bought groceries, and decided to ask the locals about the fog first.
"Thank you for reminding me. That is indeed a bit far and a bit dangerous, so I won't go for now."
"However, I've been doing closed training in one place before, so I haven't been paying much attention to what's going on outside. I don't know much about the toxic fog. Could you tell me about the news and information about the toxic fog that I've seen on my phone?"
As he spoke, Gou Fugui turned his pockets up and down to show the old woman: "Even my cell phone was taken from me."
The older woman didn't know what closed training was, but that didn't stop her from answering the question from the kind young man who had saved her.
"Your training has really been going on for a long time, and your coach is unreliable! He didn't even remind you about something as important as the poisonous fog!"
The older woman complained about Gou Fugui's non-existent coach, but quickly took out her phone and opened a website's column channel about poisonous fog for him to see.
"I can't explain it clearly right now, but this is the official disaster relief website. It has special reports on various disasters and rescue methods. Right now, the most attention is focused on this fog section. It has detailed reports and introductions about fog. Take a look."
"You can browse without worrying about data usage or battery life. I've downloaded all the relevant materials for the entire Mist column and stored them on my phone. And every time I go out, your auntie fully charges her phone! And this is one of those old-fashioned phones that doesn't drain the battery at all; you can browse all day without any problem!"
The middle-aged woman waving her hand with a hearty tone as she went to buy groceries, while Gou Fugui nodded approvingly while looking at his phone: "That's why I say aunties your age are really amazing! Every little detail is a good habit!"
Aunt Hu smiled broadly with great joy.
This handsome young man is not only kind and fast, but also has a sweet tongue! Oh my, I wonder if he has a girlfriend. If not, his niece would be quite nice!
Meanwhile, Gou Fugui was intently looking at the introduction to "The Mist" on the old lady's phone, and had roughly figured out some basic issues—
The grayish-white fog, whose composition has not yet been fully analyzed, first appeared two months ago.
On March 12, this acidic and toxic fog appeared almost simultaneously in a small town in southwestern Washington, a village on the edge of the Americas, and a remote area in Indiana, Africa.
At first, no one paid any attention; everyone thought that the thin, grayish-white mist was just like the thick fog that permeates the morning—just a collection of small water droplets.
Even if a child fell ill after playing hide-and-seek in the grayish-white fog, the parents didn't attribute the problem to the fog, which they would see almost every now and then.
The initial fog quickly dissipated under the sunlight, leaving no trace and fading away from any warning signs.
Afterwards, this seemingly ordinary fog appeared in different areas for varying durations. Almost every time it appeared, it caused some casualties. However, because the fog itself was so deceptive, even if some people thought that the fog might be problematic, they only thought it was a normal deterioration in air quality and did not consider whether the fog was harmful.
Until the "Mist Live Disaster" happened a month ago.
The fog appeared in Chuancheng, the cultural and entertainment center in the southwest. It happened in the late afternoon, when most people were about to leave work but had not yet left. The white fog appeared without warning and then began to thicken, covering the entire city of Chuancheng.
Because the fog was so thick and obstructed visibility, the office workers who were about to leave work were thinking about how to leave and whether to drive through the fog.
The fog came suddenly and had a significant impact, quickly becoming a trending topic and attracting the attention of a livestreamer from Sichuan.
A streamer's pursuit of viewership is like a bee chasing a ball of honey.
He was quick-witted and immediately started a live stream, saying he would walk through the fog on everyone's behalf to see which mode of transportation was more suitable for getting home in the fog.
Such a title immediately attracted the attention of those office workers in Sichuan who wanted to go back but were struggling with the decision, and millions of viewers quickly flooded into the live broadcast room of the exploratory streamer.
Then, the anchor named "Yang Dadan" walked into the fog with his phone in full view of everyone.
"Haha, everyone, I'm now inside the fog! They say fog is made up of very tiny water droplets, and it definitely feels a bit damp in the fog. My glasses are completely fogged up, haha!"
"But thankfully, I brought enough tissues to clean my glasses!"
"Let me wipe my glasses and then show you the way... You can see the visibility is extremely low in the fog. I'm standing in the fog and everything around me is just a white blur. Can you believe it, folks? I just came out of my apartment building! And now, from where I am, I can't even see that seventeen-story building anymore!"
"Hmm, the visibility is probably only about five meters?"
"I wouldn't recommend driving back in this situation! Bicycles and electric bikes are also best avoided, but if it's nearby, walking is an option if you can use your phone's navigation... Ugh, I feel a bit dizzy and my skin hurts a little?"
"Oh no, my glasses are fogged up again. My family wants me to clean them again!"
Gou Fugui looked at the preserved live stream recording and noticed that the comments from that time had been enlarged on the screen.
As Yang Dadan was wiping his glasses, his phone was filled with alarming comments.
[Oh my god, streamer, go back quickly! Haven't you noticed your face is starting to bleed?!]
[Holy crap! You idiot, what the hell are you doing?! Your nose and ears are bleeding, don't you even realize it?!]
Is this scene real?!
[Aaaaaah! This is terrifying! Let's go back quickly! What happened? Why did this happen?! Did Yang Dadan suddenly fall ill, or is there something wrong with the fog?! Why did he start bleeding as soon as he entered the fog?!]
The comments section was clearly in chaos, and it was only then that the male streamer, who was wiping his glasses in the video, belatedly realized the problem.
"Wait, something's strange. My fingernail is bleeding? Wait, why is there blood dripping onto my glasses...?"
"Hmm... I feel even more dizzy, what's wrong?"
At the very end of the video, the anchor named Yang Dadan finally realized the horror and danger, and before the screen went black, he shouted his last words in a very shrill and terrifying voice—
There's something wrong with the fog!!
There's something wrong with the fog.
These were the words a broadcaster shouted in front of everyone. He paid the price with his life, dying after half a month of unsuccessful treatment in the hospital. For the first time, he so clearly revealed the danger and terror of the "fog" to the public.
For an entire day after the live broadcast, no one in Chuancheng dared to go out until the fog dissipated. The "nation," the largest and most effective disaster response agency, also began an emergency investigation and research into the "fog" after the broadcast.
It's just that because the fog appears randomly at different times and locations, because various countries have only recently realized the terrible dangers of the fog, and because not all fog is the kind that can kill, the research on the fog by various countries has only reached a preliminary stage in the two months since it appeared.
It is now known that the fog is highly corrosive, and the extremely fine water mist particles contain trace amounts of toxins that can cause loss of consciousness.
Although the timing and location of the toxic fog are uncertain, it is expanding and intensifying in an orderly manner, with each appearance lasting longer and covering a wider area than the previous one.
Various countries have even captured photos of fog appearing at the poles, and the fog in both the Arctic and Antarctic has yet to dissipate.
Therefore, the worst predictions made by research institutions around the world are that one day in the future, fog will cover the entire world.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that one can escape from one place to another to safety. All that can be done is to immediately hide in a nearby house that can be relatively sealed off once the fog appears, until the fog dissipates.
Currently, there aren't many effective measures for preventing fog that have been published online.
Based on the corrosive and toxic nature of the fog, it is recommended that everyone wear masks and face shields when going out, and it is best to wear a cloak that combines a burlap and plastic raincoat over your clothes.
Linen material can largely counteract corrosive effects, while plastic raincoats can prevent tiny toxins from penetrating the skin.
These are the official recommendations for every household to prepare for fog prevention, but obviously when fog suddenly descends, the first thing people think of is not wearing raincoats, masks, or face shields, but screaming and running.
Another type is the full-body protective suit that the country urgently developed, which can prevent corrosion and toxins.
Firstly, these protective suits are expensive and more than 90% of people cannot afford them. Secondly, the materials used to make these protective suits become scarce or even in short supply after the fog clears. Even if the government wants to work hard, it is impossible to achieve nationwide protection in a short period of time.
Not to mention that as the fog gets thicker and denser over time, it means that the corrosiveness and toxicity will also become stronger.
Now, the time it takes to safely walk in fog in full-body protective suits, as updated on the official website, has been shortened from one hour to half an hour, which doesn't look optimistic at all.
Gou Fugui clicked his tongue twice as he looked at the description and price on the official website of the full-body protective suit. If he had arrived three days earlier, he might have been able to get a set of protective suits as well.
But now he can only prepare more soapy water, hydrogen peroxide, and towels to quickly wipe and disinfect the areas that get smudged after they become fogged up.
The country really doesn't have any good solutions to the damage caused by the fog right now. All people can do right now is frantically stockpile food and some daily necessities before the fog arrives, and then stay at home and wait for it to dissipate when it does arrive.
Gou Fugui skimmed through the information about the fog on the grocery store auntie's phone, then frowned and returned the phone.
"...So, are we just going to wait here?"
Even if enough food is stockpiled at the beginning, if the root cause of the fog's spread is not found and addressed, even the food stockpiled by the nation will be quickly depleted.
If people hide indoors and do nothing, farmland will be left uncultivated, livestock will be left unfed and without feed, and food will likely decrease drastically within six months.
Without food, people generally only have two choices—
Stay home and wait to die, or wander into the fog.
"What else can we do but wait? Sigh, maybe everyone should just hide in the supermarket, since there's ready-made food there to keep us full."
Aunt Hu picked up where Gou Fugui left off, her words tinged with a sigh, though her mood remained relatively stable and optimistic.
"Young man, don't be discouraged. Look, everyone isn't in a big hurry. This fog can't get inside the house. Just wait in the supermarket for a while, and it shouldn't be long before we can get out."
As she spoke, Aunt Hu scrolled through her phone and then showed a particular page to Gou Fugui:
"Look, the longest this fog can stay is three days. This supermarket should be able to hold out for three days!"
Gou Fugui looked at Aunt Hu's smiling face and smiled back stiffly.
"……hehe."
Auntie, do you realize that what you said carries a strong warning sign?
And the past is the past, the present is the present.
The longest time before was three days, but now... Xie Langren, the world's certified unlucky one, and Si Wuyai, the Schrödinger's unlucky one, have both come. Even with his and Song Sanchuan's little bit of luck, it's estimated that they still can't neutralize that terrible misfortune.
"……Aunt."
"ah?"
Aunt Hu was puzzled when she saw the young man with a very serious expression. Why was the young man so serious?
Gou Fugui sighed: "Let's pack some food now. Don't wait until the end, store enough for at least five days."
The woman buying groceries: "???"
Coach Wang, who had been standing by the door, openly eavesdropping, twitched at the corner of his mouth.
Oh dear, this kid, he's such a jinx!
"What are you talking about, kid! This place isn't a big provincial capital, so the fog is light here too! It'll definitely clear up in two days at most!"
Coach Wang's interruption was decisive, as if he were making a pre-match declaration.
The wealthy and beautiful woman couldn't even manage a fake smile after hearing his words.
This adds another layer of negative effects.
Then, two days passed amidst the anticipation of Coach Wang and everyone in the supermarket.
Over the past two days, Gou Fugui has intermittently contacted Song Sanchuan and Si Wuyai to confirm that they are both safe.
However, since one of them was trapped in the east of the city and the other in the south, the four of them decided to hold back for the time being and investigate the fog on their own, and then regroup when the fog cleared.
After hanging up the call, Gou Fugui thought to himself, "This is probably another bad omen."
They were practically covered in flags.
Then, on the morning of the third day, which Coach Wang was particularly looking forward to, the thick fog was still there.
There was not a trace of it spreading out.
By this time, most of the food in the supermarket had already been consumed.
Coach Wang: "..."
He looked at Gou Fugui again, clutching his chest.
The wealthy beauty: "..."
What are you looking at me for? It's not like I'm the one planting the flag!
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