Phantom Demon Shadow

Ronan stared at it for a long while. Once he was sure there was nothing to add or remove, he gave the completed sketch some simple 3D processing, uploaded it to the Phantom Flying Car's Smart Brain Database, then used the image-editing function to insert his work into the recorded footage.

The Phantom Flying Car's Smart Brain was certainly absurdly powerful, but this kind of professional image compositing still required professional Software. The rushed result had a completely different visual style and looked rather strange.

Yet for Ronan, this crude composite was the closest match to his memories.

At that moment, Ronan had clearly seen the enormous demon shadow emerge from the bursting flames. It stood over a hundred meters tall, roaring furiously amid the dust of the collapsing ruins.

The explosive roar struck like a heavy fist, like massive wheels rolling over him. Ronan felt his Five Viscera and Six Bowels deforming, his flesh and blood crackling throughout his body, while the air filled with the stench of blood and death...

For an instant, he truly thought he was finished.

This was the full picture of what he had seen and felt!

The Real World was not some fantasy movie. Ronan knew that what he had seen and heard was far too bizarre. So he returned to the site, compared it with the surroundings, reviewed the footage, and observed the reactions in the surrounding area.

As for the result... it was bland, normal, and completely unsurprising.

A hallucination?

Ronan slowly flexed his fingers, then closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and silently recited the Sixteen-Word Incantation. The Contemplation Graphic emerged from the void. The Regular Tetrahedron and its inscribed and circumscribed spheres slowly revolved. The first few rotations were somewhat sluggish, but they gradually regained their smooth flow.

A hallucination... The Contemplation Graphic said otherwise.

The Contemplation Graphic indicated that the "container" had suffered slight damage, but was recovering rapidly.

Years of marathon-style long-distance running had not given Ronan an especially powerful physique, but they had granted him remarkable resilience and recovery ability.

It was not a serious problem, but Ronan cared deeply about it.

In truth, Ronan's Self Logic had already given him an answer, but he did not rush to a conclusion. After thinking for a moment, he issued another command to the Smart Brain and requested the environmental data collected at the time.

The relevant data list soon appeared.

When the incident occurred, the initial "earthquake phase" had already passed. The surrounding air pressure was 104 kilopascals, basically level with standard atmospheric pressure. The explosive sound had only barely approached 90 decibels, far below the threshold for hearing damage. The instantaneous wind speed at the site was 44 kilometers per hour, roughly Force 6 winds. Aside from that, temperature, humidity, radiation levels, and all other readings were within normal ranges.

Judging by the data alone, it had merely been an ordinary, slightly noisy Great Wind day. An environment like that had scared two grown men out of their wits? What a joke.

There was one more thing...

On the analyzed video, Ronan used his finger to mark the distance. "The broken bridge was 2.9 kilometers in a straight line from the earthquake's center. The sound waves should have taken about eight seconds to arrive, but what actually happened?"

Cold data was more authoritative than memory, and even more unbelievable. It showed that the Phantom Flying Car had received the powerful sound-wave vibration seven milliseconds before the flames erupted.

The sound had outrun the light... By common sense, that was obviously absurd. Before the data, the source of the explosive sound and the flames had been Tearing apart into two separate pieces.

By this point, there was clear divergence between the flames and the explosive sound, as well as between the explosive sound and the body's reaction.

Ronan raised his head, no longer looking at any images or footage, and leaned heavily back against his seat.

A hallucination? Bullshit hallucination!

Somewhere in the unseen, there was clearly a force—a strange force—interfering with the connections between all sides and filling in what had originally been blank space!

The Burning Demon Shadow was the "manifestation" of that force.

This wasn't scientific... and "unscientific" was exactly what Ronan wanted!

The Format Theory Grandfather had established had entered the metaphysical realm from the very beginning.

Emotionally, Ronan was nearly fanatical about Grandfather's theory, to the point that he could place it on equal footing with his own life. But based on the results so far, he could not find a clear reference point.

Even methods like the "Big Eater" and "hypnotist" had surpassed ordinary human limits, but their level of ability was not decisive. At the very least, they had not reached the level of a "qualitative change."

What constituted a qualitative change in one's Self Format? What was the standard for such a change? If it was the so-called Extraordinary Power, how would it manifest?

Ronan could find no answers in Grandfather's complex and chaotic experimental records.

For five years, he had shut himself away to study and talk to himself. He seemed to be advancing step by step, yet he had never been able to solve the problem of a "standard."

But now, a reference had appeared!

The blood pumped by his heart was scorching like lava, yet Ronan merely took a deep breath in the end. With all ten fingers braced against his laptop and his chin lightly resting on them, he suppressed the pounding in both his body and heart.

It was not yet time to celebrate. That force had revealed only the tip of the Ice Mountain, and it looked as though it could return behind the world's dark curtain at any moment...

He still had much work to do.

At that moment, the vehicle's Smart Brain completed its route adjustment and changed lanes to take a detour. However, the destruction across more than ten square kilometers had severely affected city traffic. Even in the early morning, several aerial traffic layers had been temporarily closed, and mild congestion had begun. Vehicles could not pick up speed.

Ronan deleted the data automatically stored by the Smart Brain, along with the access records, to avoid exposing information about the Burning Demon Shadow and creating unnecessary complications. Then he opened a news channel and searched for reports related to this "earthquake."

Because so little time had passed, most media outlets were still issuing brief reports. Only Star Alliance News Agency displayed the clout of a world-class media organization, promptly purchasing aerial footage from police drones near the scene. Combined with satellite imagery, it had obtained firsthand information.

The video, less than two minutes long, had already been continuously boosted on social media and was drawing increasing attention.

The aerial images made things clearer. The overpass really was only on the outskirts. As for the "epicenter," it had completely collapsed. The immense amount of rubble still could not fill the Collapsed Area, exposing a massive pit where dim blue electrical light continued to dart about, especially conspicuous beneath the gloomy morning sky.

What was inside the giant pit? How many were dead or injured? No media outlet had a definite report.

By then, the municipal government and police had begun intervening, directing traffic around the perimeter. Cleanup and rescue efforts had not officially begun, but Transport Planes had already appeared overhead, airdropping various engineering robots.

Compared to usual, the government's response had been extremely swift... at least far beyond its average standard.

The flying car moved slower and slower. While directing traffic, the police were also inspecting passing vehicles. They checked one car here and another there, with no apparent standard, as though it were merely routine procedure.

Ronan happened to be one of the chosen ones.

A police officer on the roadside signaled for him to stop. Once the window opened, he made his request. "Sir, to avoid interfering with rescue operations, please turn off the vehicle radar and related equipment."

Ronan understood immediately and cooperated readily, issuing the command in front of the officer to disable the relevant system functions.

The officer waved him through.

Yet just as the car started moving, the temporary guide barriers ahead suddenly closed again. The officer hurried forward two steps and signaled for them to stop once more. This time, however, the order was not directed only at Ronan; it applied to every vehicle in the lane.

Some impatient people began shouting, "What's going on?"

"Rescue equipment is being transferred temporarily. The traffic layer near the scene is temporarily closed. Please remain calm, everyone."

The officer appeared to be around forty. He seemed steady-tempered and spoke politely. Still, no one dared make trouble in front of him, because he was a standard riot-control special officer. Wearing defensive Combat Uniform and supported by Exoskeleton Armor, he stood more than two meters tall, broad-backed and powerfully built. He could easily lift a one-ton flying car and throw it across the road.

Equipment? A batch had just been airdropped. If more came in, there probably would not be enough room in the accident area...

Ronan looked up at the sky. Daylight was gradually brightening, expanding visibility. A medium Transport Ship was indeed hovering in the air, apparently military, but he did not see any equipment being deployed.

"Things are changing!"

On the news channel, a veteran Star Alliance News Agency reporter was filming the incident area from a helicopter while describing the current situation.

"The congestion around the area is becoming more severe, and more and more vehicles are being forced to stop. So far, the government and police do not seem focused on directing traffic. On the contrary, police control measures have grown stricter, and the blockade perimeter is steadily expanding..."

Every driver stuck on the road surely felt the same way. Most surrounding roads had already turned into parking lots, and many vehicles had not moved at all for more than ten minutes.

The riot-control special officers' inspections had become even stricter. Some vehicles that had just been checked were being inspected all over again.

Compared with the complaints of the other drivers, Ronan was much calmer. His current task was to collect relevant information, and remaining near the incident site a little longer suited him perfectly.

He switched between several news channels in search of valuable information, while also checking self-media platforms, forums, and communities he frequented. He watched the news while browsing webpages, making use of the vehicle's Smart Brain, Imitation Paper Soft Screen, and even his wristband. He was busy as could be, but for the moment, he had no leads.

Less than half an hour had passed since the incident. No media outlet had produced an in-depth report, while self-media and social platforms were mostly filled with rumors. Filtering useful intelligence from it was simply too difficult.

"The news needs a little more time to spread..."

Ronan shook his head. His finger slid across the soft screen, and he absentmindedly tapped an icon. The interface opened to a familiar dark background scattered with sparse stars. It was the Secret Star Forum, where he logged in most often.

To Ronan, the Secret Star Forum was simply a source of supplies. For safety's sake, he never posted in its public sections, at most browsing topics that interested him.

Niche professional forums tended to react slowly to breaking news, and it was difficult for discussions there to gain momentum. There was little point in gathering information here.

He had entered purely out of habit.

The hot topic pushed to the front page today looked entirely devoid of news value. Its title was "Collective Nightmare, Spirit Wave Release," typical occult-style wording.

Ronan had no interest in such topics. Since he had some spare time now, he considered sending a private message to the moderator of the internal section, hoping to get his account unsealed early.

He spent several minutes carefully composing his message. When Ronan exited the private-message interface, he saw that the discussion pages for the hot topic on the homepage had multiplied several times over. It had already triggered the "Bright Star" effect, and the topic had been pulled out into its own interface, becoming a blazing star.

At that moment, perhaps because some moderator felt the original title was not specific enough, it was revised again. The topic flashed and became: "Centralized Discussion Thread on the Xia City Research Zone Earthquake Nightmare; Separate Posts Will Be Merged."

"Oh?"

Surprised, Ronan clicked into it immediately.

The original post was simple. According to the poster, uLing, he was a Xia City resident living near the Research Zone, and he had been asleep when the earthquake happened. Half-asleep and half-awake, he had a dream. In it, his entire body was engulfed in flames, and he heard an enormous roar. Shock waves crushed over his body like massive wheels, with all the feeling of being pinned down by a ghost.

That alone would have been nothing. The key was that when uLing jolted awake, his wife beside him had also been frightened awake—the couple had somehow had the same dream, with every detail extremely similar, as if they had watched a horror movie together!

ULing posted the experience on the forum, but no one paid much attention at first. He himself did not think much of it either, so he simply started live-posting earthquake news in the thread.

But unexpectedly, only a few minutes later, someone opened another topic about earthquake nightmares. The dream's content was almost identical to uLing's description.

After that, people gradually began to follow up. Some replied in the thread, while others created separate posts. In the end, the Secret Star Forum exploded that morning, launching a huge discussion.

Then again, even a niche forum's popularity had its limits. Ronan skimmed the thread rapidly and soon finished reading its discussion, left feeling unsatisfied.

"There are only two or three cases from people who actually experienced it..."

No matter how small the Secret Star Forum was, its members came from all over the world. More than seventy thousand registered IDs divided by eighty-eight did not even amount to a thousand people, and there were even fewer living near the Research Zone.

Others recognized this as well and began importing relevant discussions and materials from mainstream communities and self-media platforms.

More people meant more hands. The information Ronan had struggled to find poured forth explosively under the collective searches of thousands.

Only then did many people realize that the topic of the "Xia City collective nightmare" had already formed an undercurrent online, one that was growing stronger by the moment.

The atmosphere of discussion on the Secret Star Forum became even more heated. Even though the moderators had set the rule that separate posts would be merged, people continued opening new topics, driving the discussion deeper.

One ID, History Shredder, opened a new thread and created statistical charts for the incident. He entered every relevant case currently found online and kept updating them, quickly triggering the "Bright Star" effect as well.

Ronan felt that what he said made sense, and his data organization was excellent.

"From the diagram, we can see that the influence range of the 'Nightmare Spirit Wave' extends as far as over three hundred kilometers, covering all of Xia City. Taking the incident area as the center, I call the area within a radius of roughly ten kilometers the 'core area.' There are currently more than twenty cases online, regardless of whether the people involved were asleep or awake."

History Shredder had compiled more than fifty valid cases in total, half of them within the core area.

Outside the core area, the density of cases dropped sharply. The farther away they were, the rarer they became, and the harder they were to verify.

However, History Shredder claimed that, based on what he knew, a considerable number of those affected outside the core area were people publicly acknowledged within their circles as having "cultivated." He said he would continue updating the relevant data and hoped for everyone's help.

Later, uLing, who had made the first post, also replied there. He said that he would take his wife to the hospital for an examination shortly and would post the results on the forum, drawing a flood of comments saying they were waiting for the update.

Ronan lightly pinched his chin, then contacted his school's Medical Department through his wristband and scheduled a physical examination. He planned to use the results as a reference against uLing and his wife's examination results.

Bang! Bang, bang!

A discordant noise suddenly reached his ears. The window on the driver's side was being struck hard.

Ronan froze for a moment. In that brief pause, the person outside directly kicked the car door. The shrill voice that followed was so loud that even the thoroughly soundproofed vehicle could not block it out.

"Xie Junping, get out here!"