Binhai International Airport.
At 6:01 p.m., the airport was ablaze with lights.
"Dear passengers, flights CZ3101, MU5109, KN5955, CA74... have been canceled today due to circumstances beyond our control. Passengers on these flights should proceed to the service counters for refunds or rebooking..."
"Attention passengers: Flights CZ3101, MU5109, KN5955 and CA74 have been cancelled today..."
The announcements repeated endlessly, but the gentle female voice could not soothe the crowd's panic.
Chaos gripped the airport, and the electronic departure boards behind the crowd lit up with a dense array of red indicators.
Inside the terminal, terrified people pounded on the glass doors, crying and screaming to be let out.
"A monster is eating people! Let us out! Hurry, let us out!!"
Despite the crowd's panic, the fully armed soldiers outside the airport simply hurried to put up cordons, while dozens of armored vehicles surrounded the airport.
On the runway, special forces in heavy biohazard suits cautiously approached three bodies on the ground.
As an olive-drab attack helicopter descended onto a cleared roadway, a middle-aged man in a black administrative jacket stepped out briskly under the protection of a group of soldiers.
The rotor wash battered them, the spinning blades creating a deafening roar and whipping their jackets up and down.
Looking at the thousand-meter-wide Light Curtain suspended above the airport, the middle-aged man turned to the officer accompanying him and strained to shout over the noise:
"What's the situation now?"
"Can we determine when the monster appeared?"
Faced with the middle-aged man's anxious questions, the officer gestured for him to enter the hastily erected command center first and answered quickly:
"Minister Huang, the Special Response Department has entered the scene, but the details are still coming in."
"The target appeared about ten seconds after the screen did. That monster materialized on