Book 4, Chapter 4 - Sudden Thunderstorm

Without us noticing, the sunlight had turned a warm orange color.

When I stood up, Harry was still reading. He seemed to like the book a lot.

Suddenly, the sound of birds’ wings flapping broke the silence in the library.

I immediately became alert. The very next moment, a swarm of black beak crows swooped in from the vault above. Swarming in like dark clouds, they flew around us and landed on various perches. A few even perched on Harry too.

“What’s going on?” The black beak crows’ abrupt visit gave me a bad feeling.

Black beak crows were usually aggressive creatures. Under normal circumstances, they would attack any living things, including us humans. Yet right now, they were hiding under the racks, shrinking in on themselves like feathered balls. As if they were afraid of something.

Harry lifted his head. The robot’s face was only a featureless mask, which looked a little stupid. Looking around, he put the book away and took on an alert stance too.

In the outside world, any abnormal behavior of an animal was usually a warning of some kind of threat.

“Let me go and take a look.” With one stomp of his feet, Harry soared up into the sky, startling the black beak crows that had perched on the robot’s body. Taking wing in a flurry, they scrambled to hide in the depths of the building.

I glanced around with my guard up, readying myself against sudden attacks from the black beak crows.

Suddenly, Harry swooped down and picked me up. I looked at him in surprise. He flew out with me in his arms, before he threw me into my flying vehicle and shouted, “Hurry up and leave!”

Without hesitation, I took off the moment he threw me into my flying vehicle. The second I took off, I saw a dark cloud rolling over from the northwest direction.

It was huge, almost swallowing all the sunshine. A purplish redness twinkled from within, as though there were thunder dragons swirling within.

The dark cloud moved extremely swiftly. In the blink of an eye, the sky originally painted with sunset clouds had turned into dark night. It descended like the end of the world, pressing in from the northwest. It was so terrifying, as if the entire sky had collapsed!

Harry followed closely next to me as I sped up in a rush to return.

*Thunderclap!* A sudden flash of lightning cut through the dark, frightening me.

Looking behind, I could see the roiling darkness right behind me. Terrified, I saw that the dark cloud was far more threatening than I’d imagined. It hung so low that it was almost pressing down onto my head; I was so small before it. I felt a natural force that I couldn’t resist bearing down on me, just like when I’d encountered the snowstorm back then.

It flaunted its power and strength, telling me that it wasn’t any ordinary thunderstorm like in my own world, but a dark force that could swallow everything in its path!

*Thunderclap!* A huge flash of lightning split the darkness. It was as though the entire spacetime had been torn asunder and evil light was flowing out from the gap.

It was my first time seeing lightning this close - it was almost as broad as a wall. In the same instant it had disappeared, static electricity surrounded my flying vehicle, like long locks of purple hair swimming through the air.

“Hurry up and leave! We’ve run into a thunderstorm! The spaceship won’t be able to resist its strikes!” Harry shouted at me anxiously.

I quickly came back to my senses. I didn’t have time to be astounded by this thunderstorm. At once I began to advance through the terrifying thunderstorm!

“I’m coming to get you!” Harry called. Then, the robot next to me seemed to switch to autopilot. It no longer looked as lively as when Harry had driven it.

*Thunderclap!*

*Thunderclap!* The terrifying bursts of thunder chased closely behind me. The huge dark cloud caught up to me and hovered above me, its huge thunder roaring so loud that I was about to turn deaf. After each burst of thunder, the purplish static electricity would engulf my flying vehicle. I felt light-headed and numb all over my body, which indicated the strength of the static electricity. This was nothing like the common static electricity that we understood, but something that was almost as strong as an electric current! Plus, the nearer the thunder came, the stronger the static electricity was.

*Roar!* A sudden flash of lightning blasted past me and struck Harry’s robot!

A huge hole gaped on the robot’s chest, flickering with sparking flames, before it started dropping in freefall. I stiffened in shock as I watched it fall. Right below was Raffles City’s reservoir.

Bolt after bolt of purple lightning connected the heavens and earth in horrific silence. When the lightning struck water, reddish purple light would flash across the surface, creating violet ripples in the water.

The scariest thing at the end of the world wasn’t encountering a mutant or an enemy, but this kind of extreme weather!

“Xiao Bing! Hurry!” Harry’s image flickered before me. “We won’t be able to escape if it starts raining!”

Quickly I focused on shuttling through the purple flashes of lightning, dodging the aggressive bolts that had appeared from out of the blue!

Finally, I spotted a blue shadow among the flashes of lightning, charging straight towards me. My heart dropped. Right now I was still in the level seven radiation zone! Barging into this radiation zone, just how much damage did Harry think his body could take!

Even with Ice Dragon’s radiation resistance layer, Harry’s radiation resistance was only at level six. Any higher and he would experience the same radiation poisoning reaction that had happened to Pink Baby back then. That was why he’d used the robot to accompany me at the garden library.

Now this idiot was risking his life for me again!

“Harry! Are you crazy?!” I sped towards him, wanting to reduce how much farther he’d have to advance into the zone to reach me.

“None of your business! Focus! Otherwise, both of us can only die in here!” He charged towards me at full speed. He was much better at flying than I was. With him at the helm, Ice Dragon was like a swift petrel shuttling through the thundercloud.

*Roar!* Thunder clapped above me. The equipment and console on my vehicle instantly shorted out and stopped functioning. My eardrums and my head hurt from the impact. I fell out of the sky along with the flying vehicle. Through my blurry vision, I saw Ice Dragon plunging towards me.

“Harry…” I closed my eyes and blacked out.

“Xiao Bing… Xiao Bing… Xiao Bing…” The next thing I knew, someone was patting my face as I slowly woke up. Opening my eyes, I saw Harry’s anxious expression before me. “Xiao Bing… Xiao Bing!” His voice was muffled, as if a few layers of bulletproof glass surrounded my ears.

As he helped me up, I held my hurting head. It felt like a bomb had exploded next to me.

“Xiao Bing, are you okay?” He watched me anxiously while I was still feeling light-headed. I couldn’t focus on his face, but could vaguely feel that the surroundings were dim. Ice Dragon was by our side, and there was light in front of us.

“Xiao Bing…” He called by my ear. I felt someone hugging me tightly. I seemed to be leaning on his chest, and could vaguely hear his heartbeat.

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