The truth could not stay hidden forever. After the Government of Japan had no choice but to officially lay its cards on the table, it immediately caused an uproar around the world.
Even all the major news from Japan in recent years-the change of era name, the Tokyo Olympics, and the former Prime Minister being slain-multiplied tenfold could not match this bombshell.
Even looking back over the last century, only a handful of events that changed human history, such as the world wars, the rise and fall of the Red Empire, and the Apollo moon landing, could compare.
The world's major mainstream media outlets raced to report it. In less than half a day, the news had spread around the globe like wildfire.
Even people overseas who had missed the press conference because of work, school, or time differences were soon left dumbstruck by the barrage of news and word of mouth from friends and family.
It had that overwhelming sense of unreality, like waking up to hear that World War III had broken out.
After all, apart from Japan, which had actually suffered disasters and was teetering in the storm, no other country or region had been ravaged by supernatural catastrophes.
Even those whose worldviews, built over decades of life, made them instinctively want to dismiss such nonsense saw that their own countries' authoritative official media were not debunking it. Instead, they tacitly acknowledged it and even fanned the flames.
They could not help shifting from scoffing to half believing, then to uncertain acceptance.
Of course, some countries had done this deliberately.
It was a gradual conditioning process, intended to prevent them from being caught off guard in the worst-case scenario.
Although supernatural incidents had occurred only in Japan since Heisei 19, and Japan and the United States had