novelAn Outlandish Inciden
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While Chen Fan was still recovering, he saw from the corner of his eye the electric eel jump out of the water unexpectedly towards him. Unconsciously, he held out his hands and prepared himself to catch the poor creature before it fell to the ground.
Chen Fan had obviously forgotten how dangerous the creature in front of him could be. The moment his hands touched the electric eel, he immediately felt an extremely powerful charge spreading across both of his palms and channelling through his whole body.
Although the voltage of an immature eel was not as powerful as a fully grown one, letting out 300 to 500 volts of electricity was easy for the meter-long fish.
"Uh..."
Chen Fan only managed an involuntary groan before he froze, as though placed under a spell that immobilized him. He fell towards the ground with stiff limbs, without loosening his grip on the eel.
Due to his rotten luck, instead of falling forward or backward, Chen Fan felt numb as he fell to the right. From the direction he was falling, he was definitely going to land on the switch that turned on the water pump.
As expected, after about five seconds of electrocution, Chen Fan fell on the switch.
We all know that water conducts electricity. After a few seconds, water dripped off of him and into the switch.
"Ah!"
The combination of the electricity from the eel still jerking about in his hands and the constant electrical conductivity of the pump were like powerful bolts of lightning striking Chen Fan's body.
Lying on the floor, an intense numbness struck Chen Fan's brain and took control of his body, making him shudder erratically! Not only that, but electricity from the switch kept flowing through his body and was continuously transferred into the electric eel he was still gripping.
As if blatantly provoked, all of a sudden the electric eel let out an even higher voltage discharge of electricity, trying to compete with the voltage of the switch.
How could the housing voltage compete with an electric eel that lets out 500 volts of electricity if its own electrical strength was only 220 volts?
Due to the constant current flow of the positive and negative voltage, a very strong energy arc would be transmitted as the free electrons with differing intensities collide. This would occur if different electrical loads that are carrying free electrons meet.
Boom! After being hit by the strong energy arc transmitted, Chen Fan shuddered vigorously and blacked out silently with the electric eel still gripped in his hand.
Usually, household power terminals are equipped with circuit protection systems. If voltage instability or a short circuit is detected, the electrical connection is cut off automatically until the switch is turned on again.
Although it seemed that a long period of time had passed, in actuality it was merely three to five seconds after Chen Fan caught the electric eel that he fainted.
Without realizing how much time had passed, Chen Fan woke up.
When Chen Fan woke up, all he saw was pitch black. He felt like he was breathing in a pile of burning ash, causing his throat to feel uncomfortably like it was being pricked with needles. It was as though the surrounding air was filled with dust.
Am I in hell? Chen Fan was only able to speculate strenuously as he had lost all of his energy. He didn't even have the strength to open his eyes and observe his surroundings.
"Wait, what's happening?" Chen Fan was terrified about ten seconds later when he realized that there were two completely different sensations in his mind!
Although both feelings made him very weak, the pricking in his throat was not as uncomfortable as the sensations in his mind. The previous difficulty with breathing was definitely better compared to whatever was happening now.
After trying to open his eyes with all his might, Chen Fan was alarmed when he finally did and saw that he was sprawling on someone's arm.
Things got creepier. He looked up to find a very ordinary looking face that looked exactly like him!
"Ah! Ghost!" Terrified, Chen Fan screamed at the top of his lungs.
At that moment, Chen Fan felt as though his consciousness was suddenly switched with something else. He felt as if he had just been jolted awake from a dream and was finally able to let out his inner scream.
Then things got even creepier...
All Chen Fan saw was the sudden drastic change of view in front of him.
Due to being in a desperate situation, Chen Fan quickly threw away the black and slimy electric eel that was in his hands and stood up abruptly.
"Ah!" Chen Fan felt a sudden pain when he saw the electric eel fall to the ground. As though somebody had hit him with a hammer, he felt an intense pain that spread rapidly throughout his body.
Still reeling from the striking pain and burning breath, Chen Fan calmed down gradually and realized the electric eel lying stationary on the ground was the root of the problem.
Without further contemplation, Chen Fan instinctually picked up the electric eel and put it back into the fish tank.
"Ah... This feels good..."
Once it was in the tank, Chen Fan immediately felt extremely relieved. He felt as though he had finally cleared phlegm that had been stuck in his throat for four to five hours.
"Oh god, are you kidding me?" Looking at the electric eel in the fish tank, Chen Fan slapped his forehead in dismay and asked, "Can somebody just tell me what's going on?"
After some experiments, Chen Fan discovered something even more absurd than the body-switching. After being electrocuted by the eel, he could actually take control of the its mind!
Chen Fan couldn't explain the feeling... it was as though there was another body that you could control freely even when you were still consciously aware.
Even after racking his brain, Chen Fan still couldn't come up with an explanation. Although he used to indulge himself in reading fantasy novels, it was still quite difficult for Chen Fan to accept this situation when something as outrageous as this had actually happened.
However in reality, life is harsh. Things will still unfold in the way they are supposed too even if you can't accept it.
He chewed over this matter for the whole afternoon, and finally decided to accept this preposterous incident for the time being.
After taking a stool and sitting in front of the fish tank, Chen Fan and the electric eel looked at each other with consternation through the glass. Apparently a mind was able to control two bodies and could switch back and forth between these two bodies without any difficulty at all.
When his mind was concentrating on the eel's body, his point of view immediately switched to the electric eel's perspective.
With a stroke of inspiration, Chen Fan tried swaying his body left and right like the tail of the electric eel to swim about in the fish tank.
Using human movements to control an aquatic creature is obviously not suitable and did not work out well. The long and slender snake-like body of the electric eel wiggled aimlessly like a rope in the water because he couldn't figure out the correct technique to swim forward.
After trying for a while, Chen Fan discovered an interesting fact.
Our lungs can breathe in air involuntarily regardless of species. However, the electric eel has an extra involuntary ability to generate electrical charges.
The way the electric eel generates electrical charges is not complicated. It is actually associated with the special muscle tissues on both sides of the abdomen. There are thousands of stacked electroplaques in special muscles, and each transmits a certain voltage. The voltage accumulated by the electroplaques produces a high voltage that can kill or stun prey on contact.
This voltage discharge function is similar to breathing, as it constantly transfers weak voltage to the eel's surroundings. The electric eel can then induce its surroundings by interpreting the electromagnetic waves when a certain voltage is produced.
Being able to sense the surrounding without using eye sight is not something strange. Snakes can trace small amounts of chemical elements in the air with their tongues, and bats use sounds to judge their surroundings.
However, Chen Fan felt that the electric eel's ability was more amazing than snakes and bats because it could not only use it to detect its surroundings but could also use this ability on itself too. This effect was many times more powerful than the visualization practice of the masters in martial arts novels.
Possibly because the whole body of the electric eel was filled with electromagnetic waves, when Chen Fan intentionally tried to feel his own body, what he perceived was astoundingly precise. It was like the high definition three dimensional image of a specimen placed under an electronic microscope that has the power to magnify something two thousand times.
This level of precision was only apparent when he thought of his own body. That being said, though the results were not as miraculously precise as before, his field of vision was still three hundred and sixty degrees without any blind spots when Chen Fan inspected his surroundings. This is even more efficient than a radar detector.
There are a few specialized cells in the central nervous system of the electric eel that can detect the emission of weak voltage. After surveilling and analyzing its surroundings, the electric eel is sensitive to its aquatic environment.
Somebody conducted an experiment a long time ago. Two electrical conducting rods were placed into a pitch-black pool of water with an electric eel in it. They discovered that the electric eel swam around the rods without making any contact. Once the current was switched on, the eel quickly swam away from the rods. This proved electric eel's ability to judge its surroundings based on not only its sight but also its sensitivity toward electricity.
On top of that, the electric eel can also decompose the water in its body into oxygen gas and hydrogen gas. The oxygen gas oxidises the blood by diffusing straight into the bloodstream. Because of this technique, the electric eel can live even in the shoals. The hydrogen gas diffuses into the gastrointestinal tract and is expelled out of the body through its mouth.
Night fell and Chen Fan was still continuously switching his mind between himself and the electric eel while lying on his bed. He still couldn't fully accept this outlandish incident, but his mind constantly reminded him that everything was real.
"Oh my. What a complicated situation."
Feeling as though his brain was about to burst, Chen Fan pulled up the blanket and decided to hit the sack to soothe his physical and mental pain.
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