Windmill

Bi Shenghua sat on the sofa watching TV, which was broadcasting the latest news about the whirlwind " Windmill ".

For Bi Shenghua, "whirlwind" is a relatively unfamiliar new term. It feels completely different from "typhoon" or "hurricane," and is more likely to evoke images of "invincible whirlwind kick" or "whirlwind boy."

However, cyclone is indeed another name for typhoon and hurricane. They both refer to tropical cyclones with wind speeds of 32.6 meters per second or higher. They are just given different names due to differences in language and cultural habits.

Tropical cyclones that form in the western North Pacific Ocean are called typhoons.

Tropical cyclones that form in the eastern North Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea are called hurricanes.

The word "hurricane" is said to originate from the indigenous Caribbean Sea word "Hurican," while others say it comes from "Hurakan," the Maya god of thunder and wind. Regardless of which it is, it sounds like " Huracan."

The word "typhoon" originates from Typhon, the Children of Gaia in Greece mythology. He was the father of evil, had a hundred heads, and all the children he had with his wife Echidna were terrible demons.

Some scholars believe that Typhon is the Ancient Egypt Set. He is one of the Ennead of Heliopolis, symbolizing power and storms. His father is Geb, the Egypt god of the earth, which is closely related to Gaia, the Greece goddess of the earth.

Cyclone is the term used in the South Pacific and India Ocean regions.

Because of the different distribution of land and sea on Earth, the tropical radiation belt appears south of 5° south latitude. Therefore, there are far fewer tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere, and their intensity is also much lower. This is probably why tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere are simply called cyclones, rather than named after gods like those in the Northern Hemisphere, and thus they sound less imposing.

However, this whirlwind " Windmill " is an unprecedented super whirlwind.

The Windmill formed south of the Bass Islands, at approximately 150°W and 30°S. Within just two hours of its formation, it intensified from a tropical depression into a tropical storm, and within 24 hours, its pressure dropped by nearly 200 hPa to 850 hPa. The wind speed near its center exceeded 300 km/h, and the diameter of the wind field expanded to 2,000 km.

Before the Joint Typhoon Warning Center could even issue a warning, the Windmill had already developed to an intensity comparable to Typhoon Tip, the strongest Tip in history in 1979.

Each tropical cyclone has its own naming rules: except for typhoons in the North Pacific Ocean, which are named by fourteen countries in a cycle, the naming of other cyclones is relatively simple, with the designated country responsible for naming them according to the location of occurrence.

The Windmill were built south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the naming rights belong to New Zealand.

New Zealand named it " Windmill " because it has been spinning in place since it was formed, as if it were firmly fixed in place like Windmill.

Immobility is more terrifying than movement.

Because you never know when it might suddenly strike and destroy your home.

This giant " Windmill " monster sits in the South Pacific, yet no " Don Quixote " dares to fight it. Humanity's current technological level is powerless against such a natural disaster.

A few dozen square kilometers sounds like a lot, but in the context of the Pacific Ocean, it's just a leaf lying on the surface.

When a Force 17 gale hit the island, large trees were uprooted, and the already fragile houses were torn to shreds. Waves tens of meters high surged in like mountains, with the crests exceeding the elevation of the island's highest point.

People cried out in despair, but those island nations had no armed police, no soldiers leading the charge to form human walls in the floodwaters, and they had no way out; they were surrounded by the sea, with nowhere to escape.

Life seems so fragile in the face of Windmill.

However, the " Windmill " cyclone has attracted worldwide attention not because of the disaster suffered by the islanders of the Southern Islands, but because such a strange tropical cyclone has never been encountered in the known history of Earth's environment.

Its center position remains constant, yet its intensity and diameter continue to increase, which completely contradicts the principles of atmospheric motion. Where is there still wind?

Various speculations have circulated online regarding the formation principle of Windmill, with the most discussed being the nuclear explosion theory and the extraterrestrial civilization theory. This is because several countries and organizations have observed a flash at the center of the Windmill, but electromagnetic detection satellites have not detected any unusual radiation in the area.

Some say an alien spaceship crashed into the South Pacific Basin, and the explosion caused the disaster. Others say the United States invented a new nuclear fusion weapon more terrifying than a hydrogen bomb and tested it in the South Pacific Basin.

Logically, the best way to deal with such rumors is to ignore them. However, the United States government stepped forward agitatedly, accusing some countries of conducting secret weapons tests and framing them.

Several days later, news came out that when the Windmill formed, a US Pacific Ocean Third Fleet aircraft carrier was patrolling there. The aircraft carrier, which could normally withstand a Category 5 hurricane, was unable to escape from the center of the Windmill.

This further convinces people that this whirlwind was not simply a natural disaster, but rather a man-made event.

News reports were filled with coverage of the scale of the Windmill, with experts analyzing their possible formation. Speculation about new weapons finally overshadowed the alien spaceship theory, and governments around the world began using the media to hint that a new arms race might be about to begin.

The shadow of war loomed over the Pacific Ocean along with the Windmill.

Bi Shenghua always found it strange that everyone was concerned about politics and the power of weapons, but no one cared about the people who were still struggling to survive in this storm.

A super cyclone with a diameter of over 2,000 kilometers is anchored over the South Pacific Ocean. The Bass Islands, Tubuai Islands, and even further north, the Cook Islands and Tuamotu Islands are all within the range of the Windmill.

She could imagine what it would be like when a Force 17 gale, carrying giant waves, crashed onto the island—that wasn't wind, that was a demon!

Bi Shenghua turned off the TV, walked out of the room, and went to the rooftop.

There wasn't a breath of wind outside.

This made her feel as if people on Earth didn't actually live in the same world.

The city lights twinkled in the distance, while Liuying Lane remained pitch black.

The demolition work proceeded smoothly. Apart from the building where the Ruhua Bar was located and the old willow tree, all other buildings had been demolished, and the entire Liuying Lane had become a ruin.

In the distance, the black silhouettes of several excavators stood like monsters.

Whether it was frogs or toads croaking incessantly, they filled the darkness to the brim, yet only amplified the stillness and emptiness.

Bi Shenghua looked up and saw a few scattered stars in the sky, not as bright as the city lights in the distance. But she knew that the city lights could only illuminate the path beneath her feet, not the distance. Only the stars above her head were the eternal hope that illuminated the future.

However, in some areas where crowds gathered, you could still see the stars!

Mei Yiqiu sat in his spacious office, a pipe dangling from his lips, his eyes fixed on the electronic screen on the wall.

The screen is split into two views: one is a world map with flashing lights, representing the distribution of players in the Dream Guide game; the other is a real-time satellite cloud image over the South Pacific, showing a huge white spiral cloud with a dark hole in the middle.

"Finally here!" the professor muttered to himself, his pipe dangling from his lips trembling, white smoke billowing from his mouth like clouds. "The second one already? Will we be too late...?"