Linjiang City.
Yue Bay District.
Yang Fan, filled with excitement, quickly walked to the living room and placed the Thunder Branch on the table.
"Pop!"
A burst of electric sparks exploded.
A large black scorch mark immediately appeared on the tabletop.
Yang Fan jumped in fright and hurriedly picked up the Thunder Branch.
He scrutinized the black mark, his mouth twitching involuntarily: "Was it the Thunder Branch discharging that burned the tabletop like this?"
Unwilling to give up, he tried again, slowly bringing the Thunder Branch closer to the table.
When the distance was about a fist away.
A red arc of electricity sprang out.
"Pop!"
The table's surface blackened again.
Yang Fan quickly moved the Thunder Branch further away, helplessly saying: "Can't this thing touch anything?"
He was a bit puzzled: "Why am I fine holding it? Is it because I'm the owner of the Thunder Branch?"
Yang Fan shook his head: "Is there nowhere I can put this?"
Just as he spoke.
He suddenly felt the Thunder Branch move slightly, as if trying to free itself from his right hand.
Yang Fan instinctively let go.
The Thunder Branch emitted a few wisps of electric light and surprisingly hovered in midair on its own.
Clearly.
The Thunder Branch was showing him the correct way to "place" it.
Yang Fan was dazed for a moment and muttered: "Awesome!"
He then found a power strip and aimed the plug at the branch: "I'm going to plug it in!"
The Thunder Branch flashed with electric light again.
Yang Fan immediately felt as if a gentle suction was tugging at the plug.
He immediately let go of his right hand.
The plug was instantly pulled over, with the three metal prongs touching the Thunder Branch.
The next moment.
The blue indicator light on the power strip lit up.
This indicated that it was electrified.
Yang Fan chuckled: "Didn't expect I picked up a giant power bank."
A typical lightning bolt contains approximately one billion joules of energy, which translates to nearly 300 kilowatt-hours.
The red lightning is a natural disaster, possessing energy at least ten times that of normal lightning, possibly reaching thousands of kilowatt-hours.
Just now, several hundred lightning bolts erupted above Linjiang City. Assuming the curiosity absorbed only one percent, that's still thousands of kilowatt-hours.
The Thunder Branch's growth might consume most of the energy, leaving an estimated one thousand kilowatt-hours.
Even if Linjiang City was without power for months, there'd be no worry about power shortage.
Yang Fan marveled: "Absorbing a thousand kilowatt-hours in an instant, it truly deserves to be a curiosity!"
He drew the thick curtains in the living room and pulled out a laptop and projector from the Space Pearl, plugging them into the power strip.
The laptop booted up smoothly!
The projector successfully started!
Yang Fan found a sci-fi movie on the computer's hard drive and played it on the wall using the projector.
He also took out an ice cream from the Space Pearl and happily started watching the movie.
Outside the window.
The city remained shrouded in darkness.
In the living room downstairs.
A family of three was having dinner in the dark, with their mobile phones being their only source of light.
"It's the first time in my life I've seen red lightning, and it's terrifying in scale. This power outage might be very serious."
"If the power's out for several days, won't everything in the fridge spoil?"
"Sigh, I hope the power comes back soon."
In the upstairs living room.
A couple in their fifties looked anxiously out the window, their faces full of worry.
At this hour, their son should have returned home, but he hadn't and couldn't be reached by phone.
The father whispered: "With the sudden power outage in the city, there might have been traffic accidents on the road, and he could be stuck. He might be home in a while."
The mother forced a smile: "I hope so."
For many, this was destined to be a difficult night.
*
Three days later.
The entire community was filled with a foul stench.
Although Linjiang City was working hard to repair the damage, due to the extent of the damage, only some areas had power restored, and regretfully, Yue Bay District was not one of them.
After the red lightning, the temperature quickly returned to over thirty degrees.
The frozen meats stored in the fridges of the community residents, facing three days of power outage, were threatened with spoilage.
Despite emergency measures like pickling, the limited spices and high temperatures meant a significant portion of meat rotted.
It wasn't as simple as clicking a mouse a few times for salt to be instantly delivered to homes. Everyone was hoarding salt, leading to a shortage.
The rotten food was thrown into dustbins, releasing nauseating toxic gas.
In the morning, when Yang Fan opened the window to ventilate, he was immediately overwhelmed by the stench and swiftly closed the window again.
He muttered "It stinks," and sighed again.
Nowadays, everything is rising in price, and everyone's days are hard. In some time, many people might not even be able to afford meat.
So much meat has spoiled; those who throw away food must feel like their hearts are bleeding.
Yang Fan, filled with sighs and thoughts, took out the Thunder Branch to power the house.
He also took two pre-thawed steaks out of the Space Pearl, plugged in the electric stove, threw a piece of butter into the pan, and began to fry the steaks.
Paired with a glass of milk and a few pieces of bread, a nutritious breakfast was ready.
After breakfast.
Yang Fan carried a backpack, put on a mask, and took the stairs to leave his home.
Due to the power outage, the elevator was unusable, so he had to take the stairs.
After walking about a dozen steps, he saw someone busy in the green belt.
As he approached, he surprisingly discovered it was a group of elderly men and women, busily removing turf and digging out green plants with hoes.
Yang Fan pondered, "Are they planning to cultivate a vegetable garden to save a bit on buying vegetables?"
Though Great Xia is a world power, dominant on Canglan Star, the development of its over 12 million square kilometers of land is uneven.
Moreover, with a population of 1.8 billion, the largest globally, while there are many affluent, the absolute number of impoverished is startling.
Various disasters in the past six months have made life increasingly difficult for the impoverished.
This scene is just a microcosm.
*
At ten in the morning.
Yang Fan entered the Victory Street Market.
This market is located in another district of Linjiang City, a full eleven kilometers from Yue Bay District.
He took a taxi over, but not to buy groceries.
It was because—he had experienced another dream realm last night.
Yang Fan wandered around the market for a while, unsurprisingly hearing countless complaints.
"It was only five coins per pound yesterday; how come it's eight today?"
"Can't help it, the wholesale price has gone up, and we have families to feed too."
"I'll buy a pound... never mind, half a pound!"
"How much is this?"
"Fifty-three."
"Too expensive."
"I heard there was a disaster in Sanliao; they say prices will rise even more in a few days. I suggest you buy some now."
"Ugh, my child at home is clamoring for meat, so I'll just take three taels."
The faces of the customers buying vegetables all looked unpleasant.
The vendors selling vegetables were also sighing.
"This morning's income is much less than yesterday's, not even enough for the stall rent."
"If this continues, I won't be able to go on much longer either."
Besides this.
Yang Fan also saw many people picking up the unwanted vegetable leaves left by the vendors.
Most were elderly, but there were also middle-aged people in their forties and fifties.
Observing the various states of people, he sighed inwardly, "Great Xia is probably about to take action."
All signs indicate that the higher-ups in Great Xia have long predicted the disasters.
From the news, it can be seen that Great Xia is accelerating the integration of domestic resources.
The behemoth formed last year, the Central Agricultural Group, is a most typical example.
He had a feeling that something big would happen domestically soon.
Yang Fan walked to a spot, glanced around, and nodded slightly, "This is the place."
He glanced at his phone again, "That guy is coming soon."
Not long after.
Yang Fan spotted the target, "Here he comes!"
The target was a young man with floral tattoos, his hair dyed with a tuft of yellow, exuding a delinquent vibe.
Huangmao was following an attractive woman, about thirty years old, with an impressive figure.
After a few seconds.
Huangmao suddenly shouted, "Hey beautiful, you dropped something on the ground!"
The beauty instinctively turned her head.
In that instant.
Yang Fan clearly saw Huangmao's eyes flash with a peculiar glint.
The beauty was instantly dazed, her eyes confused, her body completely rigid.
Yang Fan was delighted, "It really is a superpower!"
Having ventured in the Primordial World in his dreams numerous times and seen many creatures with superpowers, he recognized it at once.
Then.
The occurrence foretold in the dream manifested.
Huangmao gave a lewd smile, put his arm around the beauty's shoulder, "Come with me, beautiful."
The beauty seemed to have turned dull-witted, following Huangmao mindlessly into a secluded corner of the market.
Yang Fan also saw Huangmao impatiently stretching out a hand to grope the beauty's rear.
Though he had seen this scene in his dream realm, witnessing it with his own eyes now, he was still greatly shocked.
Is this one of the applications of spiritual superpower?
Yang Fan, from a distance of nearly ten meters, quietly followed Huangmao, watching as he led the beauty into a small alley.
He chuckled softly, "Your superpower, I'm confiscating it!"