Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

With a metallic cracking sound, the crossbeam supporting Lin Yuan's feet suddenly broke in the middle.

This caused him to instantly lose his support from below, and his body plummeted downwards.

This sudden turn of events left Lin Yuan momentarily stunned and unable to react.

He climbed along the route he had previously explored, and the steel support structure he chose should have been reliable. How could this have happened?
But Lin Yuan didn't panic. At the critical moment, he grabbed a rusted steel pillar on the lower left with his right hand.

The rough climbing gloves rubbed against the steel column, leaving a cluster of orange-red rust powder.

The broken steel beam beneath his feet had just plummeted from the sky, creating a meter-deep crater in the sand.

"Lin Yuan! Status report!" Meng Tao's voice boomed in the earpiece, mixed with the sharp alarms of the monitoring equipment in the background.

"It's nothing, just a minor accident."

"You have 3 minutes and 8 seconds left," Meng Tao announced.

He only has 4 minutes for this segment, and he has already used up a quarter of his time.

"We must speed things up!"

Lin Yuan spat out the rusty taste in his mouth, raised his head, and observed the climbable points above.

His hand was about to extend when it froze in mid-air.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck, and he saw the honeycomb-like corrosion marks on the metal surface—like an anthill hollowed out, the seemingly intact shell already riddled with holes.

"The eleventh crossbeam is scrapped," he said in a low voice, a hint of bitterness in his tone. "The oxidation depth exceeds 8 millimeters, and the load factor is below the safety threshold."

Originally, when moving from the eleventh crossbeam to the twelfth crossbeam, there were only a few usable steel structure support points.

It could even be said that this path is unique.

But with the collapse of that section of beam, he no longer had a safe place to climb upwards.

Lin Yuan didn't know how the climbing path, which originally looked very sturdy, could suddenly become so fragile.

Perhaps he had already reached the breaking point under the fierce winds and scorching sun of the desert, and it just so happened that he encountered it.

But in any case, it's pointless to think about that now; the objective fact is that he has lost the path to climb upwards as originally planned.

“Then we’ll have to abandon the filming. Lin Yuan, come down. We’ll resume filming after we reinforce the support frame,” Meng Tao said.

“But how long will it take to wait for the next thunderstorm? We’re unlikely to encounter another super thunderstorm like this in the next ten years!” Lin Yuan shook his head and refused.

"So what are you going to do? You can't just fly up there, can you?" Meng Tao's tone was also a little impatient.

Lin Yuan's gaze shifted to the outer frame.

Under the headlights, the four main support columns gleamed with a cold, hard metallic luster.

It has a frame made of special manganese steel, and thirty years of wind and sand have only left it with superficial scratches.

“I’ll try going up from the outside!” Lin Yuan said.

"Are you crazy?!" Meng Tao exclaimed, accompanied by the loud crash of the equipment tipping over. "The outside is completely exposed to the electrostatic field! Do you know what the potential difference is now? 1.2 million volts!"

Lin Yuan has begun to move laterally.

His fingertips brushed against the rusted steel plate on the inner wall, bringing down a layer of brownish-red oxide flakes.

“Monitor the probability of a lightning strike in real time.” He calmly instructed, “I need 15 seconds to cross the danger zone.”

The drilling rig he was climbing was a four-cornered iron tower shaped like the Chinese character "回" (hui).

The outer metal frame provides overall structural support, hence the use of a thicker steel frame.

The inner layer provides the drill bit's point of contact, and all four corners are connected to the outer frame of each layer.

When Lin Yuan was climbing, he chose the internal frame, but this part was so badly rusted that it could no longer support him to continue climbing.

Therefore, he had to consider going through an external framework.

He can only return to the interior after he has crossed the twelfth crossbeam.

No wonder Meng Tao was so eager to stop him.

"15 seconds?" Meng Tao's voice became extremely agitated: "Do you know what 15 seconds means on a lightning scale? Enough for three pilot discharges to occur!"

Lin Yuan did not answer.

His body had already protruded from the inner frame, and the desert wind immediately began to tear at his protective suit.

At this altitude, the wind speed reaches 22 meters per second, equivalent to a Force 9 gale.

He had to be like a rock climber, searching for every tiny foothold in the raging wind.

“Listen!” Meng Tao warned solemnly, “Although the outer frame is sturdy, it is completely exposed to the electrostatic field.”

If lightning strikes, the electric current will turn you into a human-shaped fuse.

He paused for half a second: "And without the protection of a Faraday cage, the electromagnetic pulse would directly cook your central nervous system."

"It's okay, just give me a heads-up and I'll be careful."

As he spoke, Lin Yuan had already quickly climbed to the outside of the drilling support.

At this point, saying anything was useless. Meng Tao could only roar, "The entire technical team, give it your all in technical analysis! Anyone who dares to mess things up at this crucial moment, I'll kill them!"

"Attention everyone!" Meng Tao switched to the public channel, his voice filled with a desperate resolve: "Activate the S-level protection plan! Launch drones for guidance, prepare cardiac stimulants and defibrillators!"

"Lin Yuan..." Meng Tao stared at the small dark figure on the iron tower: "Are you really willing to risk your life for a single shot?"

At this moment, Lin Yuan couldn't hear Meng Tao's question; he was focused on climbing upwards.

Every second counts; perhaps 0.5 seconds could determine his life or death.

At that moment, Meng Tao's voice came through his earpiece: "Attention, a discharge channel has formed. The probability of a lightning strike in the current area is 67%, and it is increasing by 5.8% per second. Take precautions!"

From a meteorological perspective, this is already a suicidal risk.

"Avoid risk?"

Just as Lin Yuan was about to climb back up the internal support structure, a bolt of lightning struck five kilometers away, illuminating Lin Yuan's sharply defined profile.

"Wasn't it supposed to be a 67% probability? How come it just suddenly split open like that?" Lin Yuan complained as he quickly climbed.

He tried to avoid danger, but it was all for naught. Before he could even react, lightning struck.

Fortunately, the lightning strike did not hit the drilling rig, otherwise it might have been charred.

"No lightning prediction is ever 100% accurate! You were lucky this time, but you might not be so lucky next time!" Meng Tao roared.

"Then I can only speed things up a bit."

Lin Yuan estimated that it would take him about 12 seconds to climb to the twelfth crossbeam.

Why is the distance between the crossbeams of this damn drilling support so large? Lin Yuan thought to himself.

At this moment, Lin Yuan's body was completely suspended on the outer frame.

At this moment, he was like a leaf in a storm, with the pitch-black night sky behind him and the rusty steel behemoth before him. Every movement had to be precisely calculated in the gale, because any mistake would send him into freefall.

"Six seconds!" Meng Tao's countdown sounded like a death knell: "Genting potential has exceeded the critical value! Take evasive action!"

Lin Yuan was preparing to take cover when he suddenly stopped.

Three meters directly above him, a section of the outer frame that should have been intact had undergone a strange deformation—not caused by corrosion, but by some kind of massive stress distortion.

Under the light of his headlamp, he saw the truth: the steel section had hidden cracks when it was installed thirty years ago, and now it was finally on the verge of collapse.

MD!

I was ripped off by a substandard construction project that used shoddy workmanship!
"It's too late!" Faced with this desperate situation, Lin Yuan's voice remained calm: "Node E11 has a structural flaw. I can't relocate it in time!"

A sharp gasp came through the communicator: "Retreat! Immediately! Wait, what did you say? The E11 node has a structural flaw?"

Meng Tao practically screamed, "Radar shows a lead channel is forming in the clouds above!"

Lin Yuan looked up at the dark clouds.

Ordinary thunderclouds are chaotic, but the clouds above his head now exhibited a strange fibrous structure—a sign that a super lightning bolt was about to form.

Those drooping cloud filaments are actually pilot channels formed by ionized air, which may connect to the ground at any time to complete the discharge.

"It's too late," Lin Yuan said softly.

His gaze was fixed on the inspection ring above the twisted steel frame.

That was the only option—a metal ring less than 20 centimeters in diameter, swaying in the gale like the Grim Reaper's noose.

In other contexts, this thing that looks like a gallows would give people an extremely ominous feeling, but at this moment, for Lin Yuan, it was his only hope of survival.

Unlike the other metal components, the ropes connecting it are made of Kevlar-carbon fiber composite material—the only insulator in the entire steel tomb!
At the moment of a lightning strike, the entire external frame will be filled with electric current, but the sling will not.

As long as we can grasp it, there is a glimmer of hope.

"What are you trying to do? No—" Meng Tao's warning was cut off by a piercing static noise.

Lin Yuan's legs burst forth with maximum force, and the steel frame groaned under the reaction force, unable to bear the strain.

His body shot into the black night sky like an arrow, his thin coat trembling violently in the 25-meter-per-second gale.

In the instant of weightlessness, his right hand stretched forward, his five fingers spread to their limit.

The wind pressure tore at his protective suit, and sand grains pelted his mask like bullets.

In mid-air, Lin Yuan reached out his right hand towards the suspending cable, trying his best to hold on to it firmly.

The fingertips are getting closer and closer to the sling:
1.5 meters!
1.3 meters!
90 cm!

……

20 cm!

At this distance, Lin Yuan could clearly see the laser engraving of "DuPont™ Lightning Protection" on the surface of the rope.

But that's all it will ever be; the distance doesn't continue to close, but instead begins to grow further apart.

25 cm!

The distance was simply too far. Even with just a jump, the closest Lin Yuan could reach was 20 centimeters. Then, as he began to fall, the distance widened again.

The world suddenly slowed down, and we plummeted in a dizzying crash.

Lin Yuan watched his falling body, the maintenance ring receding into the distance, and the deadly blue light shining through the dark clouds.

Deep within his consciousness, a voice told him that this was the end.

But his superhuman reflexes saved him. In the 0.37th second of his fall, his left hand flashed out of the rope gun at his waist and he threw it out!
This was the last safety measure Lin Yuan had prepared for himself, to prevent falling from a great height.

With a whooshing sound, the rope gun sliced ​​through the static-filled air, and the high-modulus polyethylene fiber at the end glowed blue under ultraviolet light.

After a flight time of 0.8 seconds, the gun head, with the rope attached, precisely passed through the buckle of the sling, then wrapped around it several times, securing it firmly to the sling.

After gaining a foothold, the rope suddenly tightened, pulling Lin Yuan in mid-air. All the kinetic energy of his fall was converted into centripetal acceleration, and his body drew a breathtaking arc at a height of 217 meters above the ground.

The tactical belt, secured by a rope, withstood a 9G overload, causing the lumbar spine to creak and groan.

It's definitely better for a man's waist to be a little firm!

"boom!"

Just then, the world was illuminated by an intense light, as bright as day, and the ultimate lightning strike struck.

It's not lightning that strikes the earth from the clouds, but rather lightning that strikes the clouds from the earth in reverse.

The entire drilling rig was transformed into a giant particle accelerator, where electric current ionized nitrogen in the air into purple plasma.

Lin Yuan's figure, suspended in mid-air, became an X-ray-like silhouette in the bright light.

When the light faded, only the static noise of static remained on the walkie-talkie.

"Lin Yuan? Lin Yuan!" Meng Tao's cry was filled with a desperate tremor.

After a long three seconds, a hoarse voice responded: "...Are you screaming like you're giving someone a funeral? Your ears are going to bleed from all that yelling, even thunder can't keep up with your voice."

Close-up shot: On the twisted and deformed steel frame, Lin Yuan is digging his bleeding fingers into the gaps in the metal.

Before anyone knew it, he had swung back onto the support frame, and he looked to be in good condition, with the insulated ropes fluttering behind him like a triumphant flag.

Those eyes remained bright, fixed on the last three meters above.

"One minute and 42 seconds left..." Meng Tao's voice seemed to come from afar, "Do you still want to continue?"

"Of course, that's enough!"

Lin Yuan quickly moved upwards, his fingers gripping the edge of the twelfth crossbeam—the inner, intact part.

We've finally crossed that line between life and death!

The remaining distance was only about 20 meters, which was not a problem for Lin Yuan at all.

He followed the internal frame upwards and soon arrived at the platform area at the top of the drilling support, where he retrieved the black box that "Immortal Joe" had hidden there.

The titanium alloy casing of the black box gleamed coldly in the lightning. Lin Yuan's fingers, which were typing in the password, were as steady as a rock. When the mechanical click sounded, the crew camp erupted in cheers like a tsunami.

Even the rumbling thunder seemed to be suppressed.

"This one's a pass! It's...unbelievable..." Director Miller was completely won over.

I never expected that making a movie with Lin Yuan would be like this.

"Don't you know how to express your excitement?" Meng Tao asked, patting his shoulder.

Director Miller nodded vigorously, truly too excited to speak.

"What's most admirable about this guy isn't just his willingness to risk his life, but that after each desperate effort, he delivers a miraculous performance, proving to you that no one but him could pull off such a feat!" Meng Tao said.

Meng Tao raised his hand, pointed at Lin Yuan who was sliding down from the drilling rig, and continued:
"What's even more admirable is his relentless pace. Having just brushed with death, he didn't need to stop and calm himself; instead, he immediately set off again." (End of Chapter)