Making Tornadoes with His Bare Hands!

"You think I don't dare?"

Captain Zhang sneered, then turned and shouted through the door, "Lao Chen!"

A squadron captain with a face full of whiskers soon came running over.

"Lao Chen! Tell the people at the mock fire ground we're running a chemical storage tank leak-and-fire drill in one hour! Equip everyone to standard, and crank the toughest scenario all the way up!"

"Captain, that setup is for the year-end assessment. The smoke volume and toxic gas simulant are both maxed out..."

"Use that one!"

Captain Zhang glared at Sing Sing. "Since somebody thinks his beanpole is more useful than my exhaust fans, we'll put them to a real test in the toughest conditions!"

Sing Sing rubbed his hands together, beaming. "You're a straightforward man, Captain Zhang! Shouldn't we discuss the stakes?"

"If you win, this man stays. What if you lose?"

"If I lose, I'll never send anyone to you again."

"And... I'll personally pay to treat your whole team to a lamb hot pot meal."

"Lamb hot pot?"

"From Inner Mongolia. Xilingol League."

"Oh, give me a break." Captain Zhang waved a hand. "I don't care about your meat. I just want a result. If he can't cut it, you take him away immediately. Don't let him embarrass himself here."

Sing Sing held out his hand. "Shake on it?"

Chief Captain Zhang slapped it hard.

Sing Sing shook out his hand, then leaned close to Riptide's ear and switched to English in a low voice. "There'll be a mock fire in a moment. Thick smoke, toxic gas, a big fire. You're responsible for blowing away all the smoke and putting out the fire."

Riptide frowned. "That's all?"

"That's all. Make it quick and clean. The more spectacular, the better. This has a bearing on how big your dorm room will be and how well you'll be treated at the cafeteria."

"How big a room?"

"If you do well, a single room with a private bathroom."

Riptide's eyes grew a little more eager.

A room with a lock on the door, a toilet all to himself.

An hour later.

The mock fire training area at the rear of the base.

It was an enclosed area surrounded by firewalls, covering about two thousand square meters.

Several iron containers resembling chemical storage tanks stood in the center, surrounded by a tangle of pipes and a dense array of valves.

Controlled combustion devices had been installed on the ground.

Several industrial exhaust fans stood nearby, each more than half a person's height, with blades over a meter in diameter.

Chief Captain Zhang stood on the observation platform, with firefighters from two squadrons lined up neatly beside him, fully equipped.

Some whispered among themselves, sizing up the tall, thin foreigner standing next to Sing Sing.

"That's the one the 749 Bureau sent over?"

"Deputy chief captain? Him? A gust of wind could blow him away."

"Shh. Look at Captain Zhang's face. We're in for a show today."

Sing Sing and Riptide stood on the other side.

Sing Sing held his hands behind his back, looking every bit a leader on an inspection tour.

Riptide stood ramrod straight, studying the layout of the facilities on the grounds.

Wind direction: east-southeast.

Low humidity.

Open ground, nothing overhead.

Good. A perfect place...

"Ignite!"

"Boom!"

The mock storage tanks were ignited simultaneously.

Flames shot three or four meters into the air.

At the same time, the smoke canisters laid out on the ground all activated, and thick yellow-black smoke billowed outward at an astonishing speed.

Mixed in was a harmless irritant gas simulating a sulfide leak.

Harmless or not, it still stung the nose and made the eyes water.

In less than twenty seconds, the entire training area was engulfed in thick smoke.

Firelight flickered in and out behind the smoke screen, and visibility fell close to zero.

This was the deadliest part of a chemical fire.

People might not be burned to death by the fire, but the deadly toxic smoke could suffocate them.

Chief Captain Zhang glanced at the stopwatch and started it.

"Exhaust team, in position!"

Four industrial exhaust fans started up at once, their blades spinning at high speed as they blasted air toward the fire ground.

But the smoke was simply too thick.

The exhaust fans worked hard, but no sooner had the airflow dispersed a little smoke than fresh clouds surged out to fill the gap.

Two minutes passed.

Less than a third of the smoke had been cleared.

The fire had grown even fiercer because of the air being fed in by the exhaust fans.

Chief Captain Zhang's expression turned grave.

This was the toughest scenario. In a real chemical fire like this, clearing the smoke alone would take more than twenty minutes.

During that time, firefighters could only enter the smoke-filled area wearing bulky breathing apparatus to do their work.

Communications were disrupted and visibility was blocked. The slightest mistake could cost a life.

He was just about to order them to put on breathing apparatus and force their way in.

"Can I go now?"

Riptide suddenly spoke, and Chief Captain Zhang turned toward him.

The foreigner had walked to the entrance, taken off his uniform jacket, and laid it on an iron barrel.

Underneath, he wore only a white T-shirt, which made him look even thinner.

Chief Captain Zhang frowned. "Put on protective clothing! No one enters a fire ground without gear. That's an ironclad rule!"

Riptide ignored him and walked straight into the thick smoke.

Chief Captain Zhang exploded on the spot. "Are you crazy?! Charging into a fire ground without protective clothing? Hurry up and pull him back! If the smoke kills him, who's going to be responsible?!"

Two firefighters fastened their masks and were about to rush forward, but Sing Sing held out a hand to stop them.

"Don't rush. Just watch."

Sing Sing's tone was a little more serious than usual. "Think of it as watching a meteorological marvel."

Amid the thick smoke, Riptide stood alone at the heart of the fire.

Beneath his feet was scorching ground; around him, toxic smoke roiled and flames danced.

Wind was instinct to him.

Riptide slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers slightly spread and his palm facing upward.

"Hummm..."

The wind shifted.

The thick smoke that had been spreading in all directions began gathering directly above the fire ground.

Riptide rotated his raised right hand.

A small tornado formed out of thin air overhead.

This was not a wild wind conjured at random.

He had created a precisely controlled vortex tube about three meters in diameter, reaching high above the training area.

The tornado sucked the thick smoke and simulated toxic gas rolling along the ground straight upward.

The yellow-black column of smoke stretched into a smoke dragon, roaring as it shot into the sky.

"Holy shit!"

A young firefighter on the observation platform blurted it out.

Everyone froze.

The thick smoke rapidly dissipated.

In less than thirty seconds, every trace of smoke had been sucked out of the training ground.

Riptide did not stop. He raised his left hand and pushed forward.

"!"

A second tornado formed. It was smaller than the first, less than a meter in diameter, but it spun at a terrifying speed.

And it was horizontal.

The tornado cut in from the edge of the fire ground and swept around the bases of the storage tanks.

The air at the base of the flames was sucked away.

Without oxygen, fire could not burn. It was that simple.

Riptide extinguished the flames at more than a dozen burning points in an instant.

An eerie silence fell over the training ground.

Riptide lowered his hands, and the tornadoes dissipated.

His expression unchanged, he turned and walked back.

Noticing the admiring looks directed at him, Riptide walked on, pretending to be calm.

I really pulled off a hell of a show.

So damn cool.

The stopwatch in Chief Captain Zhang's hand fell to the ground.

Beside him, the nozzle of a firefighter's high-pressure hose landed on his foot with a clang, making him jump in pain.

"From ignition to extinguishing..."

Lao Chen's voice trembled. "Less than a minute!"

"What was our fastest record using the exhaust fans again?"

"Twenty-two minutes."