That afternoon, the screams on Frost Street had barely stopped.
Yet Chen Ling, the instigator behind it all, sat quietly beneath a tree with his head propped on one hand, watching the drama with the surrounding crowd... while keeping an eye on the changes in [Audience Expectation].
At first, whenever Uncle Zhao smacked Zhao Yi's backside, Audience Expectation rose a little. But after several hits, the increase stagnated, eventually settling at 48%.
After watching for quite a while longer, the Expectation Value actually dropped by 1%, becoming 47%...
It seemed the Audience had grown tired of it too.
"Could all the viewers in my head be thrill-seekers?"
Chen Ling could not help thinking.
Through this experiment, Chen Ling had confirmed that the Audience's Expectation Value changed according to his actions. If the events he was going through were exciting enough, the Expectation Value would rise. But once there was nothing entertaining for too long, it would decline as time passed...
Did that not mean that if he wanted to keep the Expectation Value above 20%, he had to continuously create "exciting developments"?
Zhao Yi had provoked him first today, and the guy was a Frost Street bully, so teaching him a small lesson was understandable... but he could not keep doing this every day, could he?
If this kept up, was he destined to become some great demon tyrant who plagued the world??
Thinking of that, Chen Ling felt exhausted...
Chen Ling's only lifeline now was the [Doctor] in Aurora City whom Doctor Lin had mentioned. Perhaps that person could remove whatever Calamity contamination was inside him and save him from this life path of being a "passive source of amusement."
Just as Chen Ling was deep in thought, a low bell toll rang out from afar!
Clang—clang—clang!!
The three chimes seemed to pierce through space, echoing through every corner of heaven and earth.
The moment they heard the bells, the surrounding crowd's expressions changed. Even Uncle Zhao, who was chasing down Zhao Yi, stopped and stared into the distance in shock.
"Three Calamity Bell chimes?!" An old man's face turned incomparably grim. "How is that possible?"
"The Calamity Bell ringing is a warning signal from the Enforcers. It means they have found traces of a Gray Realm Convergence within the district. A Calamity has invaded..."
"Wasn't the Aurora Domain protected by the aurora, making Gray Realm Convergences nearly impossible? There have been no more than three Calamity appearances in the past ten years..."
"Where is that Calamity now?"
"Who knows... Just hurry home! Don't come out unless you have to!"
At the sound of the three Calamity Bell chimes, everyone's faces went pale. Zhao Yi, who had just been howling after being whipped, had his legs give out beneath him and dropped straight to his knees.
The ground beneath his feet trembled faintly. Chen Ling turned and saw more than a dozen fast horses racing toward them from afar.
Each horse carried a figure clad in a black-and-red uniform. Holsters hung diagonally at their waists, and their expressions were equally grave.
"A suspected high-risk Calamity has appeared! The Third District is under complete lockdown! No one may enter or leave!!"
"Watch for any suspicious signs around you, such as roads or buildings appearing out of thin air, strange-looking mysterious creatures, or even humans displaying abnormal behavior!!"
"If you discover anything unusual, report it to the Enforcers immediately!!"
"Everyone, cooperate with the investigation!!"
The Enforcers' voices echoed through Frost Street and every corner of the Third District. Accompanied by the lingering chimes of the Calamity Bell in the sky, an inexplicable tension shrouded the world.
No one was in the mood to watch drama anymore. Everyone hurried home, and even after Zhao Yi received a hard slap across the face, his father dragged him indoors while cursing.
Chen Ling stood alone beneath the tree, preparing to head home as well. Then, two lines of text flashed amid the fallen leaves—
[Audience Expectation +18] [Current Expectation Value: 65%]
Chen Ling froze when he saw Audience Expectation surge.
The next moment, a hair-raising thought abruptly leaped into his mind...
"They... aren't here for me, are they?!"
Third District.
Enforcers Headquarters.
Dim sunlight filtered through the hemispherical glass dome, refracting into mottled rays that illuminated the interior.
A flag over ten meters long hung high from ropes at the center. Against its pitch-black background, two cyan six-pointed starbursts overlapped, like shining stars in the Arctic night sky.
At that moment, beneath the flag, more than a dozen Enforcers in black-and-red uniforms stood solemnly in a neat line, facing the headquarters entrance as if waiting for something.
As the doors opened, five Law Enforcers in black coats walked in side by side.
Among the five, Han Meng walked in the center. Four silver stripes were embroidered on the hem of his coat, while the other four had only three. At their arrival, all the Enforcers present snapped to attention.
"How are things?" Han Meng asked in a low voice.
"The Calamity Bell has already rung, and the Third District is currently under complete lockdown, but there is still no trace of that Calamity..." After hesitating for a moment, one Enforcer could not help asking, "Brother Meng, what does it mean that the Calamity Pointer self-destructed?"
"There are only two situations in which the Calamity Pointer self-destructs," Han Meng said calmly.
"The first is that a special Calamity has appeared nearby, one whose abilities happen to disable the Calamity Pointer... but that explanation exists only in theory. So far, no such Calamity has ever been found."
"The second is that a Level Nine... commonly known as a World-Ending Tier Calamity, has invaded nearby. Its residual energy fluctuations exceed the Pointer's tolerance limit, causing it to explode automatically."
"W-World-Ending Tier??" Everyone went pale.
"No need to be so nervous... You do not seriously think a 'World-Ending' Calamity has descended, do you?" The Law Enforcer beside Han Meng chuckled.
"A World-Ending Tier Calamity is something capable of wiping out an entire Human Domain. There are only a few in the entire Ash Realm... If a World-Ending Calamity truly descended, let alone the Third District, even Aurora City would likely turn to ash the instant it arrived."
Hearing that, everyone finally let out a breath of relief...
"So it should just be a special Calamity?"
"That is the only explanation for now."
"But with the Calamity Pointer broken, how are we supposed to assess its tier?"
"We cannot assess it." Han Meng shook his head. "Unless it appears again and we fight it... The most important thing now is to mobilize all available personnel and conduct a carpet search. We must find it before it takes the initiative to hurt anyone."
"A carpet search... But we may not have enough manpower."
"Then temporarily call in the Reserve Seat Enforcers first. Didn't the written exam end a few days ago? Gather those who passed and tell them this is the Martial Trial."
"Yes!"
Before you continue