Video Storm and Detector

"Alright, Brother Yi, give me a sec. It's just a simple splice, won't take long."

As soon as he heard that the crystals were to be distributed later, Chen Yu's fingers flew across the screen. He quickly spliced Lin Yi's combat footage with his later instructional video.

He thought for a moment and came up with a simple, blunt title.

[Doomsday Survival Tutorial: Learn this, and monsters won't dare to come near! — Source Energy Tutorial from the front lines at Hongfu Restaurant, Helu City]

Chen Yu let out a long breath and pressed the publish button firmly with his thumb. In an instant, he pushed his Moyin account—which boasted over two hundred thousand followers and usually focused on gaming and toy unboxing—into the eye of the storm.

"Done! Everyone, search for 'A-Yu Loves Playing' on Moyin and help me share this. Send it to as many people as you can."

In the banquet hall, almost everyone subconsciously pulled out their phones, searched for Chen Yu's account, and forwarded the video before even clicking on it.

After a brief network delay, the video began to load and play.

Soon, they saw Lin Yi appear on screen clad in dark armor. Then came the dull, piercing whistle of the Black Iron Staff tearing through the air, the sound of Corrosive Abyssal Wolf bones shattering under the staff's shadow as they turned to ash, and the sight of Lin Yi strolling casually to pick up crystals and retrieve his weapon under the gaze of the surrounding Abyss Beasts.

After watching the video, Zhou Jinghua's eyes were already red.

Although she had seen Lin Yi's armor damaged twice and witnessed the pain he faced during his training, those incidents had ended safely, so the impact hadn't felt as intense.

But this time, seeing her son maneuvering and fighting for his life among a horde of monsters on screen, the image she had held for years—of a quiet, studious boy who never caused trouble—clashed violently with reality.

She felt a strange sense of terror, mixed with an indescribable surge of pride and heartache.

The others were equally stunned by the bloody, violent, yet clean and efficient combat footage. For a moment, the entire Fujin Hall fell into an eerie silence.

But soon, Chen Yu's voice broke the stillness.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Brother Yi, this... this is too intense!"

Chen Yu naturally didn't need to watch the video again, so he had been monitoring the comment section ever since he posted it. Now, he was pointing at the rapidly refreshing comments on his phone screen, incoherent with excitement.

"It's only... it's only been up for a little while, and the view count has already broken ten thousand! The comments are going crazy!"

"That fast?"

Lin Yi was also a bit surprised.

In his previous life, during the initial period after the monsters descended, he had focused on checking survival guides and information about Abyss Beasts shared by others, as well as the rescue zones of local police, after resolving his immediate crisis. He hadn't paid much attention to what internet celebrities were posting.

Later, the signal was lost and the network went down; except for those with radios, everyone essentially became an information island.

Hearing Chen Yu say this, Lin Yi couldn't help but feel a bit curious, wanting to see what kind of impact his actions would have.

This was truly outside his area of expertise.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi lowered his head, took out his phone, and clicked into Chen Yu's Moyin account.

As soon as he entered, he saw the title of Chen Yu's latest video.

Lin Yi's mouth twitched. He clicked into the comment section, and a massive wave of comments instantly expanded, filling the screen.

[What kind of game CG is this? I just woke up and saw this. The special effects look good, but when did you become a clickbait artist, A-Yu?]

[Did you sleep your brain dead from staying up all night? You're lucky as hell to be alive! Why does someone like you get to hide at home and be fine while others die?!]

[He's telling the truth! A monster killed someone at our school too, and it dropped a gray crystal. It also contained something called "Basic Source Energy Guidance Technique." We're hiding in the teaching building, and there are monsters roaming below. Coordinates: Shicheng No. 29 Middle School. Help!]

[My family is all gone. They covered for me so I could hide in the room, and the monster is scratching at the door now. Haha, I don't want to live anymore either. I'm going out to fight that beast to the death.]

[Why did these monsters suddenly appear? It's so much like a game. Are higher-dimensional beings playing with us low-level life forms?]

[Where is the military! Where are they? What about the missiles and nukes?]

[Can you explain that guidance technique in more detail? What does the 'tingling sensation like warm winter sun' actually feel like? I sat cross-legged for half an hour and my legs just went numb, I didn't feel anything.]

[To the person asking where the military is: do you think they don't want to save you? If it weren't for the military holding them back, we wouldn't just be facing these monsters right now!]

[Stop calling the police, it's useless. They're already doing their best to rescue people. You just have to pray you're lucky enough to be near a station. The right way now is to check online to see who is near you and contact them. Coordinates: No. 445 Jinling Street, Linjiang District, XX City. Anyone nearby, contact me!]

[I'm near Hongfu Restaurant! Help me, boss! There are several wolves outside! I thought I was just waiting to die, but now I feel like I can live. Coordinates: 996 Convenience Store, diagonally across from Hongfu Restaurant. Boss, please, you have to come save us!]

[Coordinates: Zifeng Tower. The military has already been beaten back three times, so don't come here. I'm waiting to die now, my state of mind is very peaceful. I hope the military learns this source energy and avenges us later. Here, look at this giant snake—[Image]. [Image].]

Lin Yi's gaze lingered for a moment on the comments asking for help and details about the guidance technique, and he sighed silently in his heart.

There wasn't much he could do right now, though the plea from the convenience store could be listed as his next target.

Lin Yi put his phone away and turned his gaze back to the round table.

Seven grayish Spirit Radiance Crystals were lying there quietly.

"Everyone."

Lin Yi's voice wasn't loud, but it drew everyone's attention.

"Seven crystals. I already knew what was inside when I picked them up. Three of them contain the Basic Source Energy Guidance Technique, three are Level 1 Source Energy Crystals, and as for the last one..."

He paused before continuing: "It's a Portable Source Energy Detector."

At the mention of this, Lin Yi's mood improved slightly.

After all, this item was incredibly useful in the early stages.

However, Source Energy Detectors were usually produced by white or green crystals; the probability of one dropping from a gray crystal was extremely low.

Although the Portable Source Energy Detector found in a gray crystal was the most basic model—with limited range and being virtually useless against true experts—it was an absolute godsend in the early stages, especially when dealing with these low-level Abyss Beasts!

Positioning, communication, and most importantly, the detection of Source Energy values in living organisms. These various practical functions made it, in the early stages, even superior to some items obtained from blue crystals.

"A detector?" Chen Yu craned his neck in curiosity.

"What's it used for?" Zhou Jianjun immediately pressed, his military instincts making him extremely sensitive to the word "detection."

Lin Yi did not explain immediately. Instead, he gripped the unremarkable gray crystal and, under the breathless gaze of the others, applied a slight amount of force.

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound rang out.

However, this time, it was not a gray mist that burst from the crystal, but a small, highly condensed ball of light flickering with tiny blue-white electric arcs.

The orb was only the size of a ping-pong ball, hovering a few centimeters above Lin Yi's palm while emitting a faint "zizzing" sound.

It seemed to be composed of liquid metal and flowing light, its internal structure rapidly rotating, assembling, and collapsing. This process lasted less than two seconds before the unstable orb suddenly contracted inward and instantly solidified.

As the light faded, a delicate object lay quietly in Lin Yi's palm.

It was a device with a highly futuristic design.

Its shape resembled an ear-hook headset, with a main body in a deep, matte black finish and a subtle, frosted texture.

Connected to the front of the ear hook was a miniature sensor module, slightly smaller than a fingernail and shaped like a flat teardrop.

The entire device looked minimalist, lightweight, and full of technological appeal.

"This is the Portable Detector?"

Zhou Yuxuan pushed up his glasses and leaned in for a closer look. "It hooks onto the ear?"

"How do you use it?" Chen Yu asked, eager to try.

Lin Yi did not answer. Pretending to be unfamiliar with this equipment, he carefully pinched the lightweight device between his index finger and thumb. He paused for a moment, as if recalling the information the crystal had transmitted to him, before gently clipping the curved ear hook onto the upper edge of his right ear.

Then, Lin Yi raised his right hand, his index finger pressing precisely onto an extremely tiny, circular button on the side of the sensor module that was almost integrated into the casing.

Beep.

An extremely faint buzzing sound, as if ringing directly against his ear bone, reached him.

The next second, a nearly transparent, pale blue light screen appeared out of thin air in front of Lin Yi's right eye.

The size and shape of this light screen were exactly like a rimless spectacle lens.

Its presence did not hinder Lin Yi's ability to observe the real world with both eyes, but the scene viewed by his right eye was now overlaid with a clear layer of information.