"The typhoon rains are coming again. Things are getting increasingly urgent."
Li Dong sat in the car, watching the torrential rain outside. The sky had darkened almost instantly.
This was just the precursor to the typhoon's landfall.
The gale winds continued to howl, bending nearby trees nearly double.
Trash cans along the road were blown over, with some garbage and leaves being swept up into chaotic dances through the air.
This typhoon would make direct landfall at Pengcheng in Guangnan Province, with even stronger winds than last month's storm. That's why Li Dong had decided not to return to Dongjiang City.
Mainly to avoid any potential accidents.
Although Li Dong possessed superhuman physical abilities, that didn't mean he was invincible.
Any carbon-based lifeform would be shattered by a large-caliber artillery shell—unless they were lucky enough to only be grazed by the shockwave.
An unprotected fall from dozens of stories up would still be fatal.
"Take me directly to Dragon Whale Mountain Villa District. You know the way, right?" Li Dong said to the hired driver in front.
"I do," the driver nodded in response.
"Then let's go. In this typhoon weather, the rain will only get heavier," Li Dong said before picking up his phone to scroll through videos, killing time.
This driver was a veteran in the local chauffeur industry, frequently taking jobs to high-end residential areas and villas, including Dragon Whale Mountain Villa District, so he naturally knew the route.
For ordinary drivers to get these premium assignments, they needed not only excellent service attitudes but also spotless records—only then would the platform assign them such jobs.
Each chauffeur job paid handsomely.
A single assignment could easily earn several hundred or even over a thousand yuan—much easier than factory work.
But such jobs weren't available to just anyone. The ride-hailing platform would specifically assign them to certain well-reviewed, local veteran drivers.
The local driver couldn't help thinking to himself, [Tch, another rich second-generation kid. Dragon Whale Mountain Villa District—a single villa there costs hundreds of millions now. It's not just about having money; you need special purchase qualifications too.]
[Sigh, these things are all about fate. If you're not born with it, it's nearly impossible to obtain later.]
About half an hour later.
The chauffeur dropped Li Dong off at Villa A103 in Dragon Whale Mountain Villa District.
Emerging from the garage and opening the villa's main door, Li Dong found his mother Xu Yajun wasn't home—she probably hadn't returned yet.
In Pengcheng, this villa served as the Li family's temporary residence.
When Li Dong's father originally bought this villa, it cost less than ten million yuan. Now it was worth hundreds of millions—whether that counted as a loss was debatable, though it might be considered a minor one.
Over time, while villa prices would rise, currency would also inflate.
Simply outpacing monetary inflation could already be considered a major win.
Whooo—
The typhoon winds howled outside the house.
"Mom, you're not back yet?"
After playing several rounds of games in the living room and feeling somewhat bored, Li Dong sat on the sofa and directly video-called Xu Yajun.
"Not yet. I'm currently handling some matters at Skyhua Supermarket."
"You shouldn't go out during a typhoon unless absolutely necessary. It's dangerous outside."
"Mm, I know, dear."
Their video call lasted about half an hour before ending.
Li Dong could roughly guess why his mother hadn't returned.
Xu Yajun needed to ensure that the supplies at Skyhua Supermarket were sufficient, avoiding any shortages or stockouts.
After all, this typhoon wasn't going away anytime soon.
With the typhoon making landfall, people couldn't go out and wouldn't be working, so they naturally had to stock up on enough food to ride out the storm.
Due to the incoming typhoon, all companies and schools in Pengcheng were forced to suspend operations and classes.
The meteorological department predicted this would be a Category 17 typhoon—far stronger than the one that had recently hit the neighboring province.
Major media and video platforms were quick to release news about the typhoon's approach.
Some live-streaming platforms even broadcast the typhoon in real time.
On certain platforms, footage emerged of reckless citizens venturing out during the storm.
For instance, someone was leisurely riding an electric scooter as if the typhoon meant nothing to them.
Another person was jogging in the pouring rain.
The barrage of comments on one live stream exploded at the sight.
[?]
[? Who the hell goes jogging in weather like this?!]
[Wow, look, it's Electric Scooter Guy!]
[Wow, it's Jogging Guy!]
[LMAO, Electric Scooter Guy and Jogging Guy…]
[Absolute legends!]
[That's some heavy rain—ahh, some places are too dry, others too wet.]
[If only this rain could fall in our Yu'nan Province! The last artificial rainfall wasn't nearly enough.]
[Hey, no way—if rain this heavy hit our drought-stricken land, it'd definitely cause floods. The soil can't absorb it.]
[With wind and rain this strong, it must feel pretty cool, right?]
[Yeah, yeah, super cool—the typhoon blew my windows right off. How's that for cool?]
Li Dong watched the live stream for a while but soon grew bored and closed it. He then pulled out a stack of documents from his briefcase and began reviewing them.
Lately, due to his frequent dealings with various companies, Li Dong had sensed a part of the Great Xia government's machinery at work.
An invisible hand was swallowing vast quantities of supplies, insatiable as a glutton.
On his way from Dongjiang City, Li Dong had seen construction crews and machinery everywhere, enclosed by metal sheets—though he had no idea what they were working on so frantically.
Overnight shifts, around the clock.
Many construction companies were hiring en masse—anyone with experience as a laborer, willing to endure hardship, was welcome.
Even those without skills were hired—once on-site, they'd surely learn.
The number of unemployed in society was rapidly declining.
Some factories, overwhelmed with government orders, were operating at full capacity.
Ordinary people might not feel it deeply, but Li Dong keenly sensed the urgency.
The Great Xia government was reinforcing existing Shelters or building new ones—likely preparing for the possibility of failing to intercept the Meteorite a year later.
Subway stations, underground malls, air-raid shelters, underground parking lots, and civil defense projects nationwide were being renovated.
Many of the workers involved had no idea what they were really working on.
They thought it was just routine reinforcement.
"The occurrence of this situation is most likely due to high-level calculations predicting the failure to intercept the meteorite, leading Blue Star into an ice age." Li Dong had considered other possibilities, but apart from this reason, he couldn't think of any other plausible explanation.
Destroying an asteroid meteorite with a diameter of nearly ten kilometers is practically impossible.
Even altering its trajectory is extremely difficult.
This is because it isn't a solitary meteorite—it has accompanying meteorite escorts.
As a result, human attempts to land on the asteroid become even more challenging.
Beyond that, nuclear explosions would need to be detonated on one side of the asteroid to alter its trajectory and push it away from Blue Star.
Honestly, given current technological capabilities, this is a near-impossible feat.
The failure rate is far too high.
However, if altering the trajectory isn't feasible, there remains a slim possibility of splitting the ten-kilometer-wide asteroid into two meteorites—or even more, smaller fragments.
But the odds are still low.
In Li Tiang's future memories, the three superpowers attempted something along these lines.
They split the asteroid into two meteorites, then further fragmented those and other accompanying meteorites into even smaller pieces. This way, the destructive force and explosive impact of the meteorite fragments falling on Blue Star would be significantly reduced.