At this moment, it was the darkest time before dawn. There was a vague mist between heaven and earth. The whole world seemed to be swallowed by a monster and fell into its rancid stomach. Only a lonely lamp in the snack stall fought against the strong darkness.
The Dream Traveler should be sleeping. Li Yao was not sure if he would be upset if he called him so early.
However, thinking about it carefully, according to the emotion analysis revealed in the Dream Traveler's words, he should also be very lonely and eager to communicate with friends who had similar experiences.
Li Yao couldn't wait any longer. He simply made up his mind and called him directly.
A melancholy and low ringtone echoed for half a minute, but no one answered. Maybe the other party had set the phone to silent mode before going to bed.
Li Yao waited for more than ten minutes. When he wanted to call again, the light hanging above the snack stall went out.
The eastern sky was vaguely blooming with a few hideous bloody colors, and the western sky was still shining with strange stars. Under Li Yao's feet, the earth began to tremble, as if it had changed from a hard solid to a broken semi-liquid. Some mysterious and terrible force was about to break out of the ground.
The owner and his wife of the snack stall, as well as the diners around Li Yao, were all shaking.
Earthquake?
Li Yao, the owner, and the diners looked at each other and didn't react for a while.
Jiangnan City was located in the eastern coastal area, not in the plate tectonic belt. In history, there had been few serious earthquakes. In the last 30 or 50 years, there hadn't even been a shadow of an earthquake.
Therefore, it wasn't until the shaking of the earth became more and more serious, and the pots and pans of the snack stall collided with each other and made a "ding ding" sound that everyone suddenly woke up.
The owner and his wife shouted and hurriedly pushed the supper stall to the middle of the road to avoid the tall buildings on both sides. Other than that, they seemed to have nothing else to do. All of them shrunk their heads and opened their mouths wide as they watched the hundreds of windows shake at the same time.
Soon, almost all the windows of the tall buildings were lit up, and there was a commotion. There were also people with disheveled clothes and sleepy eyes poking their heads out of the windows. Fortunately, the intensity of the earthquake was not too high, and people were still clear-headed. No one did something stupid like jumping down from three to five floors. However, many people ran down from the corridor, panting, and gathered in the middle of the road and the square, looking at the sky that was gradually clearing up in confusion.
The earthquake subsided, and it lasted for three to five minutes.
No, to be more precise, it was not an earthquake, but a "tremor". The epicenter of the earthquake should be very far away from Jiangnan City. Such a tremor could not cause any substantial damage.
Since dawn had already arrived, the people who had suffered a false alarm were not willing to go back to sleep. They gathered in groups of twos and threes to discuss, guessing where the severe earthquake had occurred. There were also some hot-blooded young men who smiled and stared at the girls who had been thrown out in a hurry without even wearing shoes. There was not the slightest tension in the atmosphere.
Li Yao, however, felt a cold fear for no reason.
The prophecies of the Dream Traveler were being fulfilled one by one. First, the creators of the fantasy world died, followed by various natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Li Yao stared at the news flash webpage on his mobile phone and refreshed it again and again. Sure enough, after ten minutes, the latest news came out.
"In the early hours of this morning, an earthquake measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale occurred in the western Pacific Ocean. The epicenter was very close to Edo Bay, and it has caused serious chaos in the eastern part of the islands. According to the tsunami warning issued by the Fuso Meteorological Agency, there will be tsunamis at least 15 meters high that will hit the islands one after another. The source pointed out that this earthquake may become the biggest crisis Fuso has encountered since World War II. It is even possible that this is just the precursor of a series of strong earthquakes!"
Because the news had just happened, the news was very brief.
But Li Yao knew that the shorter the news, the more important it was.
It was obvious that the Fuso Islands were a series of islands in the Pacific Ocean, while Jiangnan City stood on a solid continental shelf. The earthquake that occurred in the eastern part of the islands could be felt even in Jiangnan City, which was thousands of miles away. Was such an earthquake really only 9.2 on the Richter scale?
The news website had its own workflow, and it was impossible to respond to the earthquake so quickly. However, many short videos sent back by people far away in Fuso had been posted on social media. Through the shaking pictures, it could be seen that the largest metropolis on the planet was immersed in flames and smoke. The harsh sirens were louder and louder, as if they had returned to the bombing of World War II. There were also all kinds of rumors, true and false, flying all over the sky. It was said that at least half of the more than a dozen nuclear power plants in the eastern part of the islands had serious nuclear leakage accidents, and the radiation index had even exceeded that of Chernobyl. The situation was completely out of control.
Li Yao secretly cursed. He felt that it was calm just now, but in the blink of an eye, a storm was coming.
"Oh no!"
He suddenly shuddered and ran toward Zhang Daniu's neighborhood as if his life depended on it.
"If, if what the Dream Traveler said is true, then isn't Daniel Zhang in danger?"
Li Yao didn't care about hiding his figure and rushed between the streets like an arrow from the bow. "Although the earthquake in the Pacific Ocean can't cause any damage to Jiangnan City, 'some kind of force' with the help of the aftershock of the earthquake is more than enough to kill one or two people!"
Li Yao ran into the old community in one breath.
At this time, many people had gathered on the road of the community. Old people were light sleepers. Once they were awakened, it was difficult for them to fall asleep again. They simply gathered to discuss what had just happened and prepare for morning exercise.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Li Yao naturally couldn't use the gecko climbing skill. He could only walk up the stairs to the fifth floor. Time was running out, and the door was locked. Li Yao simply growled and kicked open the door of Daniel Zhang's house with a bang.
Fortunately!
Daniel Zhang was still crazily typing on the keyboard, making a series of dense crashing sounds. The earthquake just now didn't affect him at all. His eyes went from deep-set to bulging and were completely bloodshot.
Sure enough!
A row of bookshelves on his left, which were full of thick and heavy hardcover books and encyclopedic dictionaries, had been tilted by the earthquake. As the author used all his strength to hit the enter button, the tilting angle became more and more obvious. It was like a shaky cliff that would collapse on him at any time.
Many of these hardcover books and encyclopedic dictionaries were printed on copper-coated paper. They had sharp edges and were extremely sturdy. They were no different from bricks. If they were to hit a person's head, it was hard to say what would happen.
"Brother Niu!"
Li Yao roared and lunged at him.
At the moment he rushed over, the bookshelves, encyclopedic dictionaries and hardcover books on them, collapsed. The sharp edges and corners of the books went straight to the author's temple.
"Ah?"
Daniel Zhang suddenly shivered and was awakened by Li Yao's shout. He turned his head around in a daze.
"Go away!"
Li Yao didn't have time to block or hug him. He simply jumped up and kicked the author into the corner. He took the place of the author to bear the consequences of the bookshelves collapsing.
"Ouch!"
Li Yao and Daniel Zhang screamed at the same time.
When Li Yao finally crawled out of the mess of books, the first thing he did was not to check his injuries, but to look at Daniel Zhang in the corner.
Fortunately, he restrained his strength in time. Other than giving the author a black eye and a swollen face, he didn't seem to have injured his brain.
Daniel Zhang finally woke up.
But he was even more confused than when he was sleepwalking. He stared at Li Yao for a long time, and his expression gradually changed from confusion to pain. He rubbed his hands, head, and butt.
"What, what is going on?"
Daniel Zhang held his head and grimaced. "My head hurts. I remember that I was drunk..."
"That's right."
Li Yao crawled out of the pile of books and leaned in front of the author. He nodded and said, "Brother Niu, you were drunk. It's normal to have a headache after a hangover."
"Then why do my hands hurt so much?"
Daniel Zhang looked at his ten fingers that were swollen like carrots and found that his nails were cracked. He said in disbelief, "What, what did I do?"
"You might not believe me."
Li Yao said, "You've been sleepwalking and writing."
"Is that so? I sleepwalked again?"
It seemed that this was not the first time Zhang Daniu had done "dream writing". He was not suspicious of this. Instead, he rubbed his butt and said, "Ouch, my whole body hurts. It's so sore, especially my butt. My butt hurts so much. That's not right. The alcohol got to my head. How can my butt hurt?"
"Well..."
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "Brother Niu, you've been sleepwalking and writing since eleven or twelve o 'clock in the middle of the night. You've been glued to the chair for five or six hours without moving at all. Your blood circulation is not smooth. Your back is aching, and your butt is uncomfortable. It's all very normal and reasonable."
"Is that so?"
Daniel Zhang scratched his butt again and agreed with this statement. But he stared at Li Yao for a while and suddenly remembered something.
"You are... Oh, you are Li Yao, the senior brother of 'Little Rabbit in the Sea of Stars'. We drank together last night. But, but I remember that you left last night, didn't you? Let me think. You left right after you sent me home and even slammed the door. I have the impression that you must have left! "
Daniel Zhang reached for his phone. "What time is it now? Why are you here?"
"It's half past five in the morning. Brother Niu, you don't know. Something big happened — an earthquake!"
Li Yao said, "A magnitude 9.2 earthquake just happened in the western Pacific Ocean. Our Jiangnan City felt it. I was worried about you, so I hurried over to have a look. See, I'm just in time!"
"What?"
Daniel Zhang opened his eyes wide and suddenly sobered up. "Because there was an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, you rushed dozens of miles from school to remind me to be careful at five o 'clock in the morning … You, how did you get in?"
"Well..."
Li Yao did not know how to answer.
The two looked at each other and stared at each other. Suddenly, Daniel Zhang's muscles all over his body tightened, and his face suddenly turned pale.
"Wait, you did go back to school last night, right? Even if you didn't go back to school, you left after you sent me home, right?"
Daniel Zhang asked in a trembling voice.
"... Yes."
How could Li Yao answer?
"Well, since you've sent me home, if you're going to leave —"
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