Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Lin Yuan looked up at the towering drilling rig, its steel frame gleaming with mottled rust in the sunlight, like the remains of a giant eroded by wind and sand.

He took a deep breath, loosened his knuckles, then grabbed the first crossbeam and leaped upwards.

His movements were clean and efficient, like a ibex that had been climbing for years; muscle memory was far more reliable than visual judgment.

Fingers dug into the rusted grooves, the toes of boots precisely stepping on the structural seams, each step carrying a cautious yet decisive rhythm.

The desert winds, carrying coarse sand, swept past my ears, and the metal supports hummed in the wind, creating a thrilling atmosphere.

Seeing Lin Yuan's agile movements, director Miller, who had been worried about Lin Yuan's physical condition, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems that Lin Yuan has recovered very well and is not forcing himself to go on set.

Lin Yuan nimbly climbed upwards, completing the 50-meter ascent in less than 5 minutes and reaching the middle of the support tower.

Lin Yuan stopped at this location.

My gaze fell upon a section of heavily oxidized support above—the metal surface there was riddled with honeycomb-like pits of rust.

"Be careful going any higher..." he muttered to himself, pulling a small hammer from his tool bag and gently tapping the steel beam in front of him.

The dull sound was mixed with subtle crackling sounds, a sign that the internal structure of the metal was damaged.

Most steel supports are designed with a larger bottom and a smaller top for stability.

This means that the steel support below is denser and more resistant to corrosion.

However, as Lin Yuan climbs to the middle of the support structure and goes higher, the steel structure becomes more fragile due to corrosion.

Lin Yuan's purpose in climbing the steel support structure was not simply to check for severe rust.

Because there's no need to even consider this question; the answer is definitely: yes!

What he needs to do is to find a safe climbing route, avoiding sections of rusted support that make them impossible to climb.

However, those small areas of severe rust can be used to create thrilling effects during actual filming.

Most importantly, Lin Yuan must select a point where he can quickly enter and exit the stent at certain key nodes.

This was practically a matter of life and death for him; it was no joke.

The voltage intensity of lightning generally starts at 2000 million volts, and in Brazil, a super lightning bolt was even monitored that was over 709 kilometers long.

Scientists estimate that the voltage exceeds 1 billion volts (10 GV) and the peak current exceeds 50 amperes.

This terrifying lightning had a channel temperature of 30,000°C, which is five times the surface temperature of the sun!
Even if we don't actually encounter such a violent super lightning bolt, just one-tenth of its energy would be enough to turn Lin Yuan into charcoal instantly.

Faced with natural disasters that humans cannot resist, Lin Yuan's only reliance is the "Faraday cage" formed by steel supports.

The so-called "Faraday cage" is a closed or semi-closed structure made of conductors.

When a strong electric field (such as lightning) is present outside, the free electrons on the surface of the conductor will quickly redistribute, canceling the electric field inside the cage, keeping the potential of the internal space at zero, and preventing them from penetrating the inside of the cage.

Many science museums in cities have this "Faraday cage" demonstration effect, which allows children to experience this amazing phenomenon.

Therefore, Lin Yuan did not need to worry about the risk of lightning strikes when climbing along the inside of the steel support.

However, he was unable to climb the entire inner side, especially as he approached the top of the tower, where large sections of the support structure suffered severe corrosion and even breakage due to the stronger winds and sun exposure at higher altitudes.

This meant he had to climb outwards, or even leap into the air and swing to a distance using chains.

During this process, his chances of being struck by lightning will greatly increase.

Therefore, Lin Yuan had to choose a suitable route to minimize the time he was exposed to the lightning strike zone.

Lin Yuan looked up and saw that the steel frame structure from seventy meters up was visibly more severely corroded.

The silvery-gray hue of the industrial era has long since faded, replaced by a sickly rusty red, a color sculpted by years of sandstorms.

Perhaps a few years later, this steel behemoth would have collapsed under the erosion of time.

Lin Yuan continued climbing, with reddish-brown debris constantly falling from between his fingers.

Suddenly, the support structure beneath my feet emitted a teeth-grinding groan.

Unlike the elasticity of new steel, the deformation of aged metal is irreversible.

Lin Yuan could clearly feel the steel plate under his boots slightly denting, as if he were stepping on the decaying bones of some giant creature.

He switched to using his toes to exert force, distributing his weight to the rivets at the structural joints.

These 1930s-style rivet heads have been worn down to smooth hemispheres, but at least they haven't rusted through.

Lin Yuan took out his small hammer again, gently tapped the steel pillar, and put his ear to the support to listen.

The dull echo was mixed with faint "clicking" sounds.

This is the sound of metal shavings falling, meaning that some load-bearing joints may have turned into rusted honeycombs.

The good news is that the degree of corrosion is still within an acceptable range.

"It's sturdier than I expected," Lin Yuan concluded.

When he reached a height of 75 meters, he encountered the first deadly trap.

The transition platform that was supposed to connect the two sections of the vertical ladder has completely collapsed, leaving only a few twisted steel bars sticking out like broken ribs.

Lin Yuan hung on the ladder, looking at the two-meter-diameter gap in front of him.

Hot air howled through the cavity, bringing with it a swirling vortex of rusty smell.

He reached out and grabbed the overhead beam, and immediately felt the "rustling" sound of leather rubbing against rust on his fingertips.

"Oh no, it's going to collapse!"

A thought flashed through Lin Yuan's mind, but his body reacted faster than his brain, and he immediately swung away.

As he swung past, he heard an ominous creaking sound beneath his feet.

The entire side ladder suddenly tilted at a 30-degree angle, and seven or eight rusty bolts bounced and fell onto the sand like bullet casings.

Lin Yuan's calf muscles tensed instantly, and he threw himself onto the opposite support frame before the ladder completely fell off.

A series of agonizing metallic groans echoed from behind as a five-meter-long steel ladder disintegrated in mid-air, crashing to the ground and raising a cloud of reddish-brown dust.

"Lin Yuan, are you alright?!"

Meng Tao and the others below shouted anxiously, but in the strong wind and at a distance, Lin Yuan couldn't hear what they were saying at all.

Sensing their worry from their actions, Lin Yuan waved to the people below, indicating that they could rest assured that he was perfectly fine.

After calming the people below, Lin Yuan refocused his attention on continuing his climb.

"Great! I've eliminated a potential problem beforehand!"

His body continued upwards, and soon he reached a height of 90 meters. The climbing support was becoming increasingly rusted.

The last fifteen meters of steel structure underwent a strange deformation.

The constant temperature difference between day and night for ten years caused the metal to develop memory fatigue, and the originally straight load-bearing column is now twisted into a pretzel shape. Lin Yuan has to dig his fingers into the raised, scaly rust on the steel plate, just like a rock climber searching for a crevice.

While climbing a short distance, he had just transferred his weight onto a sloping beam when the entire rusted steel plate suddenly shattered like an eggshell, revealing a sponge-like cross-section corroded by salt crystals inside.

The most dangerous part is the final five meters of vertical sprint.

Lin Yuan alternately used a hammer to test the reliability of each grip point, but the rust layer was too thick, and the echoes were all vague.

As he grabbed onto the highest section of the guardrail for leverage, the entire steel pipe suddenly bent in his hand!

It wasn't a mechanical deformation, but a crisp break like a wafer biscuit. Caught off guard, Lin Yuan's body suddenly leaned backward.

In the fractions of a second before he fell backward, his body reacted before his consciousness could.

With lightning speed, he pulled the rock spike from the safety rope with his left hand and slammed it hard against the steel pillar behind him.

Amidst the flying sparks, a temporary fulcrum was miraculously carved out of the rusty metal.

Using the force of the swing, he hooked his right leg onto the edge of the maintenance platform, completely stabilizing himself.

When Lin Yuan finally climbed onto the platform, the rock spike, still trembling, was still stuck in the steel pillar behind him.

Sunlight streamed through the dense rust holes, creating countless shimmering spots of light inside the platform. These spots shone on Lin Yuan's face, giving it a mottled and eerie appearance.

He walked to the dusty workbench, ready to place the movie prop, "Immortal Joe's" black box, on it.

The film crew hadn't come up here, so he was the only one who could complete the setup of these props beforehand.

Suddenly, Lin Yuan felt as if he had stepped on something that had been crushed.

He looked down at the ground and saw half a snake molt, weathered into the shape of pottery, hooked in the gap of the iron frame.

Lin Yuan laughed. Rather than believing that the snake skin was blown up by a strong wind, he preferred to believe that a desert viper had climbed the tower and completed its molting and rebirth in this metal tomb.

Traces of life can still be found in this forbidden zone that humans have been unable to reach for many years.

Many viewers and seasoned film critics will likely appreciate this imagery and expression.

Lin Yuan plans to incorporate this shot into the final film shoot.

Indeed, brilliant strokes of genius often occur unexpectedly.

Having completed the arduous journey of exploration, it's time to return to the surface.

Unlike climbing a mountain where going up is easy but coming down is difficult, climbing a metal support structure is actually easier to descend.

With the help of ropes and other tools, Lin Yuan quickly returned to the ground.

"Are you alright? We were all terrified when we saw you slip and fall," Meng Tao said.

"Have some faith in me, okay? You've seen me go through so many challenges. If I were to get into trouble just because I'm climbing a tower, wouldn't that seem absurd?" Lin Yuan retorted.

"That's hard to say. Many people have weathered great storms, only to capsize in a small ditch," Meng Tao said without any restraint.

Lin Yuan: "..."

Director Miller, standing to the side, watched the two talk with envy.

I wouldn't dare say that unless our relationship is extremely good.

"Let's go to the last location. Once we've confirmed everything's okay, we can start filming." Lin Yuan decided to ignore his mischievous friend Meng Tao and headed west first.

To the west of the abandoned oil field lies a continuous sand dune with a downward slope, stretching for more than 5 kilometers.

Here, Lin Yuan will use a dilapidated steel door panel as a surfboard to glide at high speed across the desert, shaking off the War Boy's pursuit.

When the group reached the slope of the sand dune, everyone was stunned by what they saw:
The westward-sloping sea of ​​sand presents an unusual geometric beauty, as if it were not a chaotic land sculpted arbitrarily by the wind, but a natural slide that has been precisely calculated.

The five-kilometer slope appears to have been measured by an invisible ruler, maintaining a constant inclination of 32 degrees with an error of no more than plus or minus 1.5 degrees.

The entire sandy area is composed of sand grains of three strictly sorted sizes:

The surface layer consists of 0.2-0.3 mm spherical quartz, the middle layer consists of 0.5 mm hematite particles, and the bottom layer consists of 1 mm amphibole fragments.

This layered structure forms a natural drag reduction system, as if countless millimeter-scale ball bearings were specially installed for smooth gliding.

The sandy surface gleamed with an eerie metallic sheen under the midday sun.

When hundreds of billions of sand grains coated with a thin film of iron oxide rub against each other, they generate an aerosol layer 0.01 millimeters thick—a "superfluid-like phenomenon" that can only be observed in the heart of the desert.

When any object comes into contact with the sand surface, it will sink for 0.5 seconds before gaining anomalous lift due to the activation of the aerosol layer.

Geologists call it the "magic carpet effect of sand".

"Wow! I can't believe what I'm seeing. It was such a wise decision to give up filming in Australia. If we hadn't come to the Taklamakan Desert, we wouldn't have been able to film such a spectacular action scene of gliding across the sand." Director Miller exclaimed once again.

Countless facts have proven that the conditions in the Taklamakan Desert are far better than those in the barren Gobi Desert of Australia.

Neither the quicksand fighting scene from a few days ago nor the scene we're about to film can be completed in Australia.

"This desert is so exhilarating, it's practically a paradise for dune bashing. I can't wait to go for a dune bashing myself!" Meng Tao exclaimed.

"You can do sandboarding?" Lin Yuan asked disdainfully.

“I can surf! There shouldn’t be much difference in terms of maintaining balance, right?” Meng Tao said, sticking out his neck.

"What about other aspects?" Lin Yuan continued to press.

"..." Meng Tao choked.

After a while, he reluctantly admitted, "The difference is still quite significant."

In short, dune bashing has three unique phenomena:

The first is the avalanche-like effect: when the speed is greater than 40 km/h, the surface sand particles will form a fluidized layer of 2-3 cm thickness, producing a floating sensation similar to gliding through powder snow.

The second is electrostatic levitation: the friction of dry sand particles generates an electrostatic field of >5kV, which can briefly form a millimeter-level air cushion.

Thirdly, there is thermoplastic deformation: during high-speed gliding, the bottom of the sandblasting plate will heat up due to friction. When the temperature reaches above 60℃, the sand surface will soften, and an instantaneous sand mold will form on the bottom of the plate to reduce friction.

Combining these three points, the most intuitive conclusion is that sandboarding is faster than surfing!
This conclusion is counterintuitive to many people.

But that's the reality; the fastest surfing speed ever recorded in the Nazaré Big Wave area of ​​Portugal is 93 km/h.

The world record for the fastest dune bashing is 121 km/h, set in the hard sand dunes of Namibia.

It can be said that the speed of sandboarding is one-third faster than surfing.

During such high-speed travel, the human body has no protection whatsoever.

If even the slightest accident were to occur, the sandboard would overturn, and Lin Yuan would crash into the sand pile at an extremely high speed...

The likely outcome is that all we'll be left with are scattered pieces of meat.

The thought of that scene sent chills down director Miller's spine once again. (End of Chapter)