But as a game contestant, Gu Ji couldn’t afford to care about these things.

Fortunately, this “Vidi” had pretty good living conditions and carried a lot of cash. He first went to a store to buy a lot of easily consumable, storable food like biscuits, canned goods, and various essential items. Then he went to a nearby hardware store and spent a lot on buying waterproof underground work suits, rubber boots, safety ropes, a waterproof backpack, and an 18-inch 8-in-1 Stanley fire axe.

This thing comes with a demolition head that can be used for pounding, breaking, valve twisting, and the back can also be used as a crowbar and a spanner for opening and closing fire hydrants. It’s truly a home emergency escape artifact.

Besides these, he also bought three high-power flashlights, candles, a whistle, and some brightly colored flags.

At crucial moments, these things could serve as communication tools and send signals, making it easier for rescue teams to spot. To prevent the phone from dying, he also bought several power banks as a backup, in case of communication interruption.

As for survival equipment, he didn’t find a portable respirator like the one in the underground building level.

He only bought two life jackets, a rubber swim ring, binoculars, and a map of Assam.

He found all these only after running around the entire town, showing that Assam’s economic level is actually quite backward. Even though Dis布尔 is called a county, in terms of administrative division, it’s equivalent to a provincial capital city in the domestic setting, but the urban construction level is really equal to a domestic county, even slightly worse than some large counties in the south.

Most of the buildings in the entire city are three to four-story low-rise buildings, and they are somewhat dilapidated. However, the walls are painted with various colors, blue, yellow, making the place seem full of vitality. Outside the town center, there are large areas of shantytowns, and on the streets, you can see locals sleeping anywhere. They are dressed in ragged clothes, wearing flip-flops, with dark skin and disheveled hair, all are locals of Assam.

The city’s transportation facilities are also varied, from bicycles, motorcycles, tricycles, to taxis and buses, all crowded, with black wires tangled everywhere, like a music score woven in the sky.

Gu Ji scanned with his eyes and saw many safety hazards.

During the shopping, it seemed that colleagues called several times, but he had no memory related to “Vidi” in his mind, so he simply left them unanswered.

Finally, he bought two barrels of diesel, and it was already late dusk.

“Splish splash…”

Gu Ji walked out of the gas station as the rain outside got heavier. From afternoon drizzle, medium rain, to heavy rain, it quickly turned into torrential downpour like a water bucket poured down, with bean-sized raindrops hitting the ground, splashing like tiny fountains.

He put the oil in the trunk and entered the car, with the back seat already piled with various supplies. He started the engine, and the front windshield wipers moved rapidly. But the fierce wind whipped the torrential rain like countless whips, lashing the glass windows hard with a crackling sound, combined with the town’s imperfect lighting facilities, visibility was extremely poor.

Buzz!

At this moment, the phone suddenly vibrated.

He swiped to see, and the meteorological station finally released the first message.

“Blue Rainstorm Warning Signal: In the past 4 to 6 hours, the rainfall in Assam Bandisbur, Gauhati, and other central areas has reached 20 to 45 mm, with 1-hour rainfall reaching over 20 mm; it is expected that in the next 4 to 6 hours, there will be 20 to 40 mm of rainfall; please pay attention to traffic safety, prevent flood risks and its secondary disasters; Assam Meteorological Department on October 10, 2024, at 17:37 issued (source of warning information: National Early Warning Information Release Center).”

Gu Ji hurriedly dialed the meteorological station’s number, wanting to inquire about the rainfall situation, but no one answered, so he dialed the Ministry of Water Resources, trying to ask about the reservoir levels in rivers, but it was also in an unmanned state.

“Looks like they’ve gotten off work.”

He stepped on the accelerator, recalling the daytime street strolls, preparing to find a hotel at the highest elevation to stay overnight.

But as the vehicle just turned into the main road, illuminated by the headlights.

Several giant black shadows suddenly appeared in Gu Ji’s line of sight, tall and wedge-shaped, with sturdy limbs, a pair of large horns like sheep’s horns, spiral-shaped and exceedingly sharp.

A cattle herd!!

“Damn!”

Seeing the large cattle herd about to collide, Gu Ji quickly swerved the steering wheel and stopped tightly on the right side of the road, quickly turning off the car lights, as the bright light stimulation would make the cattle herd more frightened.

“Thump thump thump…”

“Moo——!”

He watched as the cattle herd passed by, among them, one, perhaps due to the slippery road in the rain, or panicking, “boom,” hit his driver’s door and B pillar, causing the whole vehicle to sway right, and the rear-view mirror hit the wall.

Gu Ji fastened his seat belt and forcibly stayed calm in the car.

Not until the cattle herd completely left did he push the car door open to check the door as the current vehicle was Gu Ji’s only escape and rescue tool, so he had to be extremely careful.

Fortunately, as a hardy off-road vehicle, the car’s materials were solid enough.

Apart from dents in the door panel and paint damage, there were no major issues. Gu Ji used the 8-in-1 fire axe to knock on the deformed door frame, ensuring smooth door opening.

By the time he reached the hotel front, it was already past six in the evening.

There were three hotels in the vicinity, he chose the one that looked the newest in building construction, and with few surrounding power poles, and no high-voltage pylons.

Gu Ji took out his backpack, packing all the most valuable necessary supplies into it, as these needed to be carried, to escape the car at any time should it encounter problems or be flooded.

The only slightly mistaken thing in this challenge was bringing that Ghost Server.

This thing wasn’t like a laptop that could be put in the inventory and used for online access through the game system; once brought into the challenge, it became a mainframe requiring a keyboard and screen for use, which was very impractical. He thought might use it in a public health checkpoint or some special events to contact game characters or look up information.

Unexpectedly, this challenge so far didn’t involve human conflicts, only pure natural disasters, rendering it useless here.

Luckily, the size of this thing is about equal to an Apple Mini-mainframe, so it doesn’t take much space. Otherwise, carrying a full mainframe would indeed be quite “stupid.”

Upon entering the hotel, Gu Ji booked a room on the fourth floor rooftop for three days.

Perhaps due to his skin color, the innkeeper clasped his hands together, led him upstairs respectfully, and carefully explained the room’s items and facilities.

The accommodation environment here is basically equal to a domestic train station hotel.

He wasn’t picky, placed his luggage on the floor, picked up the hotel’s bottled water, and gulped down some.

Before a real rain disaster happens, avoid touching the backpack supplies as much as possible.

Especially bottled water.

Once a flood occurs, drinking tap water can be very dangerous, and bottled water must be consumed as much as possible, and no tap water should be used to wash any items, especially food that is to be consumed, because water after a flood is the best transmission channel for infectious diseases, even if conditions don’t allow it, it’s crucial to ensure the drinking water is boiled.

So, Gu Ji specifically bought a filtration water bottle and an aluminum kettle to boil water.

After eating and drinking his fill, Gu Ji lay on the bed clothed, ensuring he could quickly respond and flee upon discovering a disaster or receiving warning messages.

He opened the phone’s weather app to browse several key pieces of information:

Precipitation intensity, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.

Especially the latter, as a significant and dramatic pressure change could predict weather changes, for example, a pressure drop might indicate an incoming rain or snow, whereas the opposite signified an improvement in the weather, and these data are updated in real-time by phone app providers based on national meteorological services’ data.

The screen showed the current pressure value at 998 hPa, considered quite low.

Just as Gu Ji refreshed the app.

The 998 figure suddenly changed to 991!

Meanwhile, buzz!

“Orange Rainstorm Warning Signal…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep