He opened his phone and started searching online.
Qin Hao's goal was now clear: he needed a relatively independent place with free electricity and where he wouldn't be easily disturbed by outsiders.
"Small warehouse for rent?",
"Factory space for sublet?",
"Abandoned courtyard in the suburbs?"
Information scrolled past his eyes, but after sifting through it for a long time, none met his requirements.
Just as he was deep in thought,
"Boom—!"
A thunderous clap of lightning suddenly struck outside the window, making the windowpanes hum.
Qin Hao jumped in fright, instinctively Shrink his neck, and quickly went to the window to look outside.
The sky, which had been relatively clear, was now covered in dark clouds, a heavy, oppressive blanket, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
The wind howled, swirling dust and paper scraps from the ground.
Jagged bolts of lightning constantly ripped through the dim sky, weaving through the dark clouds, accompanied by deafening thunder.
"Damn, the weather changes so fast!" Qin Hao clicked his tongue, watching the lightning and thunder outside.
It was clearly going to rain.
Suddenly, an exceptionally thick bolt of lightning, like a silver snake dancing wildly, illuminated half the sky.
Qin Hao's gaze sharpened, and it was as if a bolt of lightning also struck through his mind!
"Lightning... isn't that the purest, most massive form of electrical energy?"
A crazy thought uncontrollably surged from the depths of his heart.
The system had prompted him that energy points could be replenished by contacting a power source. So, would lightning count as a super-sized "power source"?
The moment this thought appeared, it was like a spark igniting a prairie fire, instantly setting all of Qin Hao's thoughts ablaze.
He had seen some popular science articles online before, stating that the energy contained in a single ordinary lightning bolt could reach hundreds of millions, or even hundreds of billions of joules.
Converted to electrical energy, that's thousands to tens of thousands of kilowatt-hours.
If he could attract this energy, wouldn't he take off?
And, this stuff... it's free! No need to worry about the electricity meter!
"I'll risk it!"
A look of determination flashed in Qin Hao's eyes.
He immediately started rummaging through his small rented room.
Soon, he found a thin, somewhat rusted iron rod, about a meter long, that the landlord had left there previously, and then he removed a section of wire with a plug from an old power strip.
He stripped the copper wires from one end of the cord and tightly wrapped them around the top of the iron rod. The plug at the other end was cut off, similarly exposing the copper wires inside.
"I hope this works!" Qin Hao looked at his crude "lightning rod," feeling a bit nervous.
No matter how he looked at it, this thing seemed unreliable.
He took a deep breath, put on his raincoat, held the iron rod in one hand, and the other end of the wire in the other, then carefully opened the door.
Seeing that no one noticed him, he immediately headed to the rooftop.
The buildings in the urban village were generally not tall, and the one he lived in was only six stories. The rooftop platform only had a few iron frames, which were normally used for drying clothes.
By now, the rain was pouring down, and a strong wind was blowing. The heavy rain pelted Qin Hao's face, making it almost impossible for him to open his eyes.
He wiped the rain from his face, chose a relatively open spot, and raised the iron rod, hoping to attract the lightning.
Looking at the bare wire in his hand, Qin Hao's heart pounded, and his palms were sweating.
He knew it was dangerous; one wrong move and he could be struck by lightning and turned into charcoal. But he had no choice.
"Damn it, for energy, for the future, I'm going to take a big gamble today! If I die, I die. It's better than screwing screws for the rest of my life!"
Qin Hao gritted his teeth, steeled his heart, and wrapped the copper core of the wire in his hand around his right hand, which was trembling slightly from nervousness.
He was gambling that the system would absorb all the energy from the lightning!
Time passed by, second by agonizing second, each one feeling like a century.
The dark clouds hung even lower, and a suffocating sense of oppression filled the air.
"Crack—rumble!"
Another bolt of lightning exploded not far away, the blinding white light stinging Qin Hao's eyes.
He nervously swallowed, the sweat and rain on his palms mixing, feeling sticky.
Just as he was about to give up and retract his hand—
"Boom! ! !"
A huge, stark white, dazzling bolt of lightning, like an angry whip from a god, tore through the sky, striking the raised iron rod with devastating precision!
"My life is over!"
Qin Hao only had time for this thought to flash through his mind before he instinctively closed his eyes.
The expected sharp pain and numbness did not come.
Instead, in his mind, the system's notification sound rang out like popping beans:
【Warning! Detecting ultra-high intensity energy influx! System automatically activating high-power absorption mode!】
【Energy converting... Energy converting...】
Qin Hao only felt an indescribable suction coming from the palm of his hand holding the wire,
as if the iron rod was connected not to the sky, but to a bottomless black hole, madly devouring the power of the lightning.
That power surged along the wire into his body, but it was instantly redirected by an even stranger force to an unknown dimension, causing him no harm whatsoever.
The entire process lasted only a brief two seconds.
When everything settled, Qin Hao trembled as he opened his eyes.
He was alive!
He looked down at his hands, perfectly intact, just a little pale from extreme tension.
Then he looked up at the iron rod, its tip already blackened from the electricity.
"I... I'm really okay?" Qin Hao panted, rain streaming down his cheeks, indistinguishable from sweat.
He quickly called out to the system in his mind.
The virtual panel instantly popped up.
Ignoring other information, he looked directly at the energy column.
【Remaining Energy Reserve: 3452 points】
"Three... three thousand four hundred and fifty-two points!"
When he saw this number, Qin Hao's breathing quickened, and his eyes widened.
Before, he had struggled to poke the socket with his finger, only charging 100 points in five or six minutes. But that single lightning strike just now, in a mere few seconds, had directly boosted it by over three thousand points!
Three hundred and eighty points of energy were enough for him to replicate one gold bracelet. These three thousand-plus points... were enough for him to replicate nearly nine!
"Hahaha! I succeeded! I succeeded!"
Qin Hao could no longer suppress the ecstasy in his heart, his face filled with relief and excitement.
The energy of lightning was indeed terrifying!
And how heaven-defying must a system capable of absorbing such energy be!
This was millions of times more efficient than painstakingly "stealing electricity" from an outlet.
And he didn't have to worry about electricity bills or someone checking his meter!
"Heaven, send a few more lightning bolts! Come and strike me quickly!"
So Qin Hao quietly called out to the sky.
It must be said that Qin Hao's luck was quite good. By the time the heavy rain gradually stopped and there was no more lightning in the sky, he had been struck a total of three times,
and his total energy points reached 26,500 points. This made him immensely happy.
Back in his rented room, Qin Hao looked at the 26,000-plus energy reserve on the system panel, his heart still stubbornly pounding.
"Twenty-six thousand five hundred energy points... A single bracelet is three hundred and eighty points,
that's enough for me to replicate... nearly seventy of them?"