The glass curtain walls of Jing City's central business district gleamed in the sunlight, as if that nightmare had never happened. But upon closer inspection, each building bore traces of rust that could not be completely cleaned away—the marks left by the black fog that had once lingered.
Li Ming Hao stood in the conference room on the 32nd floor of the International Finance Center, looking down at the city struggling to breathe through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
A few days ago, this was one of the areas with the thickest black fog. Now, traffic has resumed on the streets, but there are few pedestrians. Everyone is in a hurry and looks up at the sky from time to time, as if they are on guard against the sudden return of the black fog.
Li Ming Hao also hid in the vault where the jewelry was kept, which is how he narrowly escaped disaster.
He gave a wry smile, turned to face the others in the conference room. Everyone had heavy dark circles under their eyes; some were nervously tapping their fingers on the table, while others were constantly wiping their otherwise clean glasses.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our stock price has fallen another 27% today." He pushed the tablet in front of him. "Seventeen branches worldwide are simultaneously experiencing a sell-off. The insurance company has unilaterally terminated all contracts on the grounds of 'force majeure'—who would have thought that this clause would one day be used to refer to 'supernatural events'?"
The CFO suddenly slammed the folder on the table. "This is absurd! Are we supposed to write 'economic losses of approximately 500 million due to supernatural events' in a formal financial report? The auditors would laugh themselves to death!"
"They couldn't laugh," the security supervisor said calmly. "The entire family of Director Wang from Audit Department Three has turned to skeletons, and nobody's claiming their bodies."
The CFO remained silent, only letting out a cold snort. The government might not be willing to acknowledge supernatural events. If the government doesn't acknowledge anything, then their company will have to bear all the losses themselves!
A silence was spreading, broken only by the soft hum of the air conditioner.
Supernatural events are indeed terrifying, but it's equally terrifying if a company goes bankrupt and incurs debt!
Therefore, as soon as the disaster ended, Li Ming Hao couldn't wait to convene a meeting of the company's senior management. Having barely survived the disaster, he didn't want to become penniless.
Thinking of this, Li Ming Hao rubbed his temples, wondering what the government would do next...
He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence. A cloud drifted in from the sky, obscuring the sun, and the once brilliant sunlight suddenly became dim and mottled.
Everyone's face turned deathly pale instantly; this was the omen that preceded the arrival of the black mist.
"Don't panic!" Li Ming Hao quickly reassured everyone, "It's just ordinary clouds..."
Unfortunately, it was too late. A female executive screamed hysterically, overturned her chair, and rushed towards the exit.
Then, like a chain reaction, chaos erupted in the conference room.
Li Ming Hao sighed deeply and waved his hand helplessly, "Alright, let's adjourn the meeting."
In less than ten seconds, everyone in the conference room had left, leaving Li Ming Hao alone in his sorrow.
However, he had no idea that the female executive who had seemed terrified and was the first to run out of the office had immediately regained her composure and was even taking out her phone to complain to her best friend, "Capitalists these days are more terrifying than demons! The disaster just ended, and our boss is already demanding we come back to work for a meeting. How come he didn't turn into a skeleton and die?!"
Best friend: "6"
Her best friend joined her in a scathing rant about the boss, which effectively eased the female executive's tense emotions.
She looked out at the street outside the company. There were indeed people on the street who were restless because the dark clouds had blocked the sun. Although the dark fog had dissipated, many of the survivors had developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Although the supernatural events have temporarily ended, fear has taken root in everyone's heart like a virus.
Chen Mo mechanically swiped his thumb across the phone screen, refreshing the Weibo trending topics list.
Sunlight streamed through the coffee shop's glass windows, illuminating his face, but it couldn't dispel the gloom in his eyes.
The top ten trending topics all have a deep red "hot" tag:
Jing City Supernatural Events Confirmed by Video#
#Government does not respond to the existence of supernatural phenomena#
#Black Fog Murder Scene Video#
#The end of the world is coming#
"Damn it..." Chen Mo's coffee cup slipped from his hand, spilling scalding coffee all over the table. But he didn't bother wiping it up; his eyes were glued to the video playing automatically on his phone screen.
A thick, ashy black fog was spreading across the street. Wherever it passed, pedestrians froze and fell to the ground, their skin rapidly turning ashen, until finally they stood up as bare bones.
The video was posted by a well-known internet celebrity with a good reputation, and it was posted 7 minutes ago.
"Is this... all real?" Chen Mo looked up and around, noticing that many people in the coffee shop were in the same position as him, looking down at their phones, their faces frozen in similar expressions of terror.
In the corner, a girl in sportswear suddenly screamed, "My cousin is in Jing City! He's been missing for days!" Her voice was shrill and piercing, but no one looked at her with reproach; everyone understood the fear she was experiencing.
Chen Mo opened the comments section, his fingers trembling uncontrollably:
@EvilChocolateMilk: The video might be AI-generated. It's 2025 already, can't netizens wake up? //**Reply: Idiot, open your eyes and take a look.
@Yinting Fairy: This is a sign of the Dharma-ending Age! Buddha prophesied it! Quickly recite the Ksitigarbha Sutra to save your life! //**Reply: Recite your father's sutra! The monks in temples die the most tragically!
@OriginallySheIsUnworthy: What are some stocks related to the supernatural concept? Waiting for an answer online, urgent! //**Reply: Are you even human?
Chen Mo logged out and found his WeChat Moments flooded with posts. His college roommate had posted. "I told you the 2012 doomsday prediction was wrong! The real doomsday is 2025!" The accompanying picture was of the Maya Calendar.
My high school homeroom teacher forwarded a picture of Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) along with three clasped hands emojis.
My ex-girlfriend posted a picture of a plane ticket. "Luckily, I immigrated last month."
With a "ding," a new message popped up in the family group chat. Chen Mo clicked on it and saw that his second aunt had sent a 60-second voice message. He didn't play it because his second aunt immediately sent a text message urging all the younger generation working away from home to return to their hometown for refuge.
Chen Mo locked the screen with a wry smile, looked up at the window, and saw that the convenience store's roller shutter was slowly closing, and the goods on the shelves had been snapped up.
He stood up and found his legs to be as heavy as lead.
This is just a small county town, far from Jing City. No one has witnessed any supernatural phenomena. Even though various related information has been circulating online, many people still do not believe in the existence of the supernatural.
Chen Mo didn't care about this. Whether the supernatural phenomenon was real or fake, it had almost nothing to do with someone from the bottom of society like him.
Even knowing that the end of the world was coming, he had no countermeasures. He couldn't even stockpile supplies in advance like in post-apocalyptic rebirth novels.
Because I have no savings at all.
So he chose to learn from Kapibala and give up.
In a study of a traditional Chinese courtyard house in a suburban villa area of Beijing, five people sat around a mahogany tea table. Instead of a Yixing teapot, the table held a laptop computer playing a trending video.
"Is the government's lack of restrictions on the video's dissemination a sign that they intend to publicly acknowledge the existence of supernatural events?" asked the middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses, his tone cold and hard.
"If it were to be made public, it would inevitably cause turmoil. What would happen to the economy? What would happen to the stock market? What would happen to our assets?"
"Xiao Wang, calm down." The white-haired old man sitting in the main seat took a sip of tea. "Money can be earned back, but once you lose your life, you truly have nothing."
"Old Li is right," a lady in a cheongsam next to her adjusted her glasses. "We are all survivors of this supernatural disaster. We were lucky to survive this time, but we may not be so lucky next time. The most urgent thing now is to figure out which places are safe enough. We can't stay in Jing City any longer."
Just then, there was a knock on the study door, and a young man strode in, handing over a document. "According to the latest statistics, paranormal events have occurred in almost every country in the world. The more densely populated the area, the more frequent the paranormal events; sparsely populated, remote areas are actually safer."
The white-haired old man took the document, and the others immediately gathered around. The first page of the document was a world map, with many locations marked with red dots. These were cities where supernatural events had occurred.
"A sparsely populated, remote area?" The man with wire-rimmed glasses frowned. "Are we really going to move to such a run-down place?"
"At least we won't be inexplicably dragged into supernatural events," the white-haired old man said. "The world is about to descend into chaos; survival is the most important thing."
The woman in the cheongsam frowned, "If only I could hire a superhuman as a bodyguard... that superhuman who was saving people all over Jing City the other day..."
"Stop daydreaming." The white-haired old man interrupted her, "Such powerful superhumans would definitely be recruited by the state, not hired by us."
"The situation is still unclear. Perhaps we should hide for now and wait until the government develops a stable solution for dealing with supernatural events before becoming active again. Everyone, immediately consolidate your assets, sell all real estate, divest your shares, convert as much liquid capital as possible into gold, and then leave Jing City."
Everyone nodded in silence, then got up and left the room.
The white-haired old man remained alone in the study. The laptop screen was still playing a loop of videos of the black mist killing people. He suddenly raised his hand, examined the age spots on the back of his hand, and a dark glint flashed in his eyes.
Like them, there are quite a few people who believe that Jing City is no longer safe and plan to temporarily flee to avoid the storm.
Some well-informed people with extensive connections have even vaguely heard that the essence of supernatural events is Fierce Ghosts, and that these Fierce Ghosts cannot affect gold.
This group of people bought up gold in large quantities, causing the price of gold to rise rapidly.
The Supernatural events are currently in a semi-public state, but there has been no official response.
The failure to promptly issue a "clarification" or similar response is itself a form of tacit acceptance.
In reality, the authorities are at a loss as to what to do; this is unprecedented. Too many people have died in this disaster, including leaders and cadres from many departments. Relevant departments are understaffed and have no time to address public opinion issues.
Three days after the black fog dissipated, relevant departments held an emergency meeting to address the public opinion issue.
The air in the conference room seemed to freeze. The projector in the center of the oval conference table was playing the terrifying video on a loop—black mist writhing like a living thing, turning living people into skeletons wherever it passed.
"Gentlemen, we are in a very bad situation right now." Leader A tapped on the table.
Leader B slammed the folder in front of him shut. "I propose we immediately activate the highest level of the 'Major Public Opinion Emergency Plan,' completely block related keywords online, and arrest the person who leaked the video."
"It's too late." Leader C pushed up his glasses. "Information about Jing City being shrouded in black fog has been circulating globally for over 12 hours, with related topics exceeding 2 billion views. Its popularity is second only to the Vatican's descent of the True God and America's war of the gods. Arresting people will only add fuel to the fire; it's tantamount to admitting it."
"Then say it's AI-generated," suggested Leader B. "Or say it's a panic maliciously created by foreign forces."
"Who would believe such a lame excuse? Besides, there were so many witnesses!" The leader feigned a cold sarcasm, inwardly rolling his eyes. He had no idea what was going on with this black fog; all the smart and capable people were dead, and the rest were just a bunch of short-sighted idiots!
Cheng Linzhou sat in a corner, silently observing the debate. As one of the few survivors from the Supernatural Investigation Bureau, he had been temporarily brought in to participate in the meeting, but he remained silent throughout.
He inexplicably survived, not even knowing how he escaped. The trauma was too great, and his mental state is not good.
"I have a suggestion." Ding, the leader sitting to Cheng Linzhou's right, cleared his throat. "We could adopt a 'hot response, cold treatment' strategy. Hold a press conference immediately, announce the establishment of a special investigation team, and promise to thoroughly investigate. But afterwards... slow down the pace appropriately."
A few soft laughs rippled through the meeting room. Everyone present was well aware of this tactic: when faced with major emergencies, the government often adopts a strategy of "rapid statement but slow follow-up investigation," or "hot response, cold handling."
The official response was initially high-profile, but subsequent investigations may have involved complex interests or widespread issues. The investigation results were not released for a long time, and the government delayed and downplayed the issue, ultimately resulting in a "failed news story." This is essentially a loophole caused by an imperfect accountability mechanism.
"This time is different." Leader A shook his head. "A city was almost destroyed, and the dead turned into skeletons and started walking again. This kind of thing can't be handled by simply ignoring it."
"At worst, we can just admit it publicly and announce the existence of supernatural events directly," Leader B suddenly spoke up.
"Shut up!" Leader A sneered.
"Supernatural events differ from ordinary disasters. Once publicly acknowledged, their supernatural attributes could trigger widespread social panic. If the government admits the existence of extraordinary Fierce Ghosts, it will inevitably fuel superstition, even give rise to cults, affect social stability, and only cause more trouble in the future."