Online Frenzy!

After learning where Commander Zhao was.

Lin Yuan headed straight for the command center.

Along both sides of the corridor.

Officers and soldiers hurried back and forth.

Every face was filled with gravity and tension.

Some clutched thick document folders as they ran.

Others shouted into communicators, verifying coordinates.

A moment later.

Lin Yuan entered the command room.

An enormous holographic projection screen occupied an entire wall.

Hundreds of red dots flickered densely across it.

Each red dot represented an emergency incident.

"Reporting to the commander!"

"In Jincheng's southern district, a stray cat grew to the size of an adult cheetah. It has been killed by Squad Three. No civilian casualties."

"Report!"

"At a farm in Yuzhou's eastern outskirts, two water buffalo broke through an iron fence and rammed a police car. They have now been subdued with tranquilizer guns."

"Reporting to the commander..."

The communications officers' reports rose and fell one after another.

The entire command room was like a pot of boiling water.

Zhao Dingbang stood before the sand table, both hands braced against its edge.

After hearing those reports.

The exhaustion from staying awake all night was instead replaced by intense exhilaration.

At least for now.

All emergencies remained under control.

"Commander."

Lin Yuan walked up to the sand table and raised his hand in a standard military salute.

Zhao Dingbang abruptly looked up.

The instant he recognized the newcomer, wild joy flashed in his eyes.

"Lin Yuan!"

Zhao Dingbang strode around the sand table in two quick steps and grabbed Lin Yuan's shoulder.

The instant his palm touched Lin Yuan's shoulder.

Zhao Dingbang jerked his hand back as if electrocuted.

Hot!

Far too hot!

It was as though magma flowed beneath Lin Yuan's skin.

"Your body..."

Zhao Dingbang's face was full of shock, his voice lowered.

Lin Yuan smiled apologetically.

He had just broken through. True Qi was still racing wildly through his body, and he could not yet control it completely.

"I did not fail the mission."

"I have reached the Peak Second-Order Stage."

As Lin Yuan's words fell.

The air in the command room seemed to freeze for a second.

Zhao Dingbang's pupils contracted.

He knew very well what those four words meant.

In the early stages of the Ferocious Beast outbreak, even the strongest Beast King was only at the Peak Second-Order Stage.

And now, less than two hours after the Spiritual Energy Revival had begun.

Dragon Country already possessed a top-tier combatant capable of matching a Beast King.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Zhao Dingbang said "good" three times in a row, his chest heaving with excitement.

With Lin Yuan as their trump card, the skies over the southwest would not come crashing down!

Just then.

The command room doors opened again.

Accompanied by heavy, powerful footsteps.

Eight sturdy men in black combat uniforms filed inside.

Aside from Lin Yuan, they were the other eight geniuses who had stepped through the gates of martial arts before the Spiritual Energy Revival.

"Reporting to the commander!"

The eight men snapped to attention and saluted in perfect unison.

Their auras were far more outwardly imposing than Lin Yuan's.

Several of their combat uniforms were even nearly torn apart by their swollen muscles.

That was the most direct sign of the massive increase in physical strength after breaking through the Skin Tempering Realm.

"How did it go?"

Zhao Dingbang turned around, his gaze sweeping across the eight men.

"Report!"

"I have successfully broken through to the Peak First-Order Stage!"

The captain standing farthest to the left, the most burly among them, spoke first.

His name was Wang Lie, and he possessed the greatest talent of the eight.

After that.

The other seven reported their progress in turn.

"Late First-Order Stage!"

"Late First-Order Stage!"

Without exception, every one of them had reached the Late First-Order Stage.

The smile on Zhao Dingbang's face could no longer be restrained.

Late First-Order Stage and Peak First-Order Stage fighters, combined with modern heavy infantry firepower, could charge through beast hordes seven times in and seven times out.

This was a truly Transcendent spearhead company.

"Alright."

"Stop standing around like fools."

Soon, Zhao Dingbang waved his hand.

He was about to assign the eight men some tasks.

Bang!

The command room's side door was violently shoved open.

The adjutant rushed in, drenched in sweat and clutching a military tablet.

"Commander!"

"Something huge has gone wrong!"

"We can keep the mutated animals in the local areas under control."

"But public opinion online has completely spiraled out of control!"

Without even catching his breath, the adjutant directly connected the tablet to the central display.

The large screen flickered.

The national map vanished, instantly split into interfaces from dozens of online platforms.

Weibo, Baidu Tieba, Douyin, Kuaishou...

All kinds of glaring blood-red headlines scrolled wildly across the screen like snowflakes.

<Shocking! My teddy bit through our security door in one bite!>

<Location: Magic City. Red mist fell from the sky, and I feel strong as an ox!>

<Why is the official drill opening fire so often? Is this counterterrorism or a biochemical crisis?>

Lin Yuan raised his head, his gaze locking onto one trending video.

The video had clearly been secretly filmed on a phone, and the footage shook violently.

The background was a downtown park.

A stray dog as large as an adult wild boar was tearing into a park bench.

The steel bench crunched like a biscuit in its jaws.

The next second.

More than a dozen fully armed soldiers rushed into frame.

Blinding muzzle flashes erupted.

Dense gunfire came through the phone's Microphone, making everyone's eardrums ache.

The giant stray dog was riddled with bullets and collapsed with a shriek into a pool of blood.

The video ended abruptly there.

But the comment section beneath it was surging madly, with thousands of new comments appearing every second.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"

"That was a dog? You call that a dog?"

"I was there! That dog's eyes were blood-red. It was horrifying!"

"Don't go outside, everyone! It has to be some kind of new rabies virus leak!"

"Stop guessing, dude above. I've read too many novels—this is definitely a Spiritual Energy Revival!"

"Spiritual Energy Revival plus one! I just did a set of Tai Chi, and it felt like there was a current of air spinning in my stomach!"

"..."

All kinds of speculation, panic, and excitement flooded the entire cyberspace.

Lin Yuan frowned slightly.

He shifted his gaze to another screen.

At that moment, the morning's strange phenomena occupied every spot in the top ten trending rankings.

The number one trend.

[In-Depth Analysis!]

[The Truth Behind the Nationwide Simultaneous Military Drills: Have We Already Been Surrounded by Aliens?]

Inside the post.

A netizen claiming to be a retired analyst was typing furiously.

"Brothers, think carefully about today's sequence of events."

"At five in the morning, an indescribable fragrance appeared in the air."

"Then all the major influencers went silent, while armored vehicles filled the streets."

"What is the scariest part?"

"It is how the authorities are treating animals!"

"I personally saw Old Wang next door's parrot, the one that could do arithmetic, get taken away by several men in black after it suddenly grew over a meter long!"

"And the local dog from Widow Li's house, which always liked biting people, was shot dead on the spot!"

"What does that tell us?"

"The authorities already knew what was going to happen!"

"..."

This post had already received over thirty million likes, and the number was still soaring wildly.

The replies below were even more varied.

"The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. The more I think about it, the scarier it gets!"

"So ordinary people do not even have the right to know?"

"So the authorities mean obedient people become livestock, while disobedient ones get wiped out?"

"Shut up, keyboard warrior. Can't you see the military is protecting civilians?"

"..."

Panic spread like a plague along the internet cables.

There were also plenty of terminally chuunibyou netizens celebrating online.

"Hahahaha! A new era is coming!"

"I want to cultivate! I want to fly on a sword!"

"Can anyone give me a cultivation technique? I'm willing to pay five hundred thousand for it!"

"Offering a huge reward for mutated pets. The fiercer, the better. I want to become a beast tamer!"

"..."

Those absurd remarks were especially glaring.

"Commander."

"Isn't the cybersecurity department going to intervene?"

Lin Yuan turned his head and looked at Zhao Dingbang, whose brows were tightly furrowed.

Given Dragon Country's usual way of doing things,

Statements likely to cause massive social unrest would normally be throttled or even banned immediately.

But two hours had already passed, and the topic was only growing hotter.

Zhao Dingbang reached into his pocket and took out a pack of special-supply cigarettes.

He pulled one out and held it between his lips, but did not light it.

"We can't interfere, and we never planned to."

"This great upheaval affects the entire world, every person on Blue Star."

"You can silence people online, but can you cover the public's eyes?"

"Who hasn't seen the strange phenomena in the sky? Who hasn't noticed their neighbors' cats and dogs mutating?"

"The higher-ups set the tone long ago."

"Better to guide than to suppress."

"Concealment will only bring greater panic and distrust of the authorities."

Zhao Dingbang's voice carried both helplessness and resolve.

He flicked the unlit cigarette with his finger.

His gaze grew profound.

Lin Yuan pondered for a moment, then suddenly understood.

Indeed.

The Spiritual Energy Revival was not a localized earthquake, but a reshaping of the entire ecosystem.

In the future, Ferocious Beasts would run rampant, and all humanity would have to fight.

If they still tried to hide the truth now,

Then when the Beast Tide truly erupted, the defenses would collapse in an instant.