Gu Zhe paid no attention to his next-door neighbor's "melancholy."
Instead, after finishing the news, he opened various forums and started browsing.
Despite the mix of true and false information on forums, anyone sharp enough could always pick out a few clues.
For example, this one:
[Guys, the more I think about this, the scarier it gets. Do you believe the stories in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio?]
The poster described someone from his hometown who claimed his soul had entered a land of tiny people, where he experienced something bizarre.
There were also some dubious theories:
[Heh, military drills, knights, all this growing emphasis on cold weapons. What I'm saying is, could we be entering an age of superhuman martial arts?]
[What goes through your head all day? Superhuman martial arts, seriously? I think they're preparing for social regression and a collapse of science after a nuclear war.]
[Makes sense, makes sense. Nukes can't destroy the Earth, but wiping out humanity would be a breeze. Everyone had better get ready to return to a savage, feudal age.]
[In that case, the tighter the government's restrictions get, the more we ought to stock up on weapons. Just in case.]
[I looked through the international news. Something does seem off. I'm ordering food supplies right now.]
[Stock up, my ass. You're an idiot. My neighbors stockpile food, I stockpile guns. My neighbors are my pantry.]
[Ahem, well, you know... after a world war, when civilization collapses, would those gorgeous celebrities be willing to do it for a single steamed bun? Ahem... you know what I mean.]
[Good point. I've seen that plot in novels too...]
People online really had a way with words. Every last one was a talent.
If Gu Zhe hadn't personally entered the Netherworld and seen ghosts himself,
he would have found the world-war theory more plausible too.
After all, if the major powers entered an all-out conflict, humanity might not go extinct, but technology would certainly regress. If things got bad enough, a rollback of several centuries in productive capacity wasn't impossible.
But.
Now.
Gu Zhe knew the logic behind all this news wasn't international conflict, but changes to the world itself.
Still.
One question remained.
Why were so many countries emphasizing cold weapons like blades and spears?
Were cold weapons the only things that could fight ghosts and monsters? Or was there another reason?
He kept browsing forums and channels for unofficial news.
Suddenly, a post caught his eye:
[Top-secret news! Top-secret news! According to my cousin overseas, firearms-no, kinetic weapons, to be precise-are slowly losing their power. The more you think about it, the scarier it gets!]
"First reply: OP, no way. There was a shooting in the United States just a couple of days ago. People died!"
"The OP said they're slowly losing power. Your reading comprehension needs work!"
"It's probably true. A classmate of mine abroad said the police have all switched to more powerful weapons. Thinking about it now, could that be because their old weapons got weaker?"
"That makes no sense. It defies all logic!"
"Exactly, it makes no sense. I just made a bow, and it hasn't gotten any weaker. The OP is making things up."
"Could it be a spiritual energy revival? Bows and arrows are infused with your will and conviction, uh... I can't keep this up. I can focus my will on a gun too..."
"Let me try. Whatever the OP heard must have gotten distorted along the way. Maybe another world is invading, changing physical parameters and gunpowder and stuff. Uh, that has holes in it too!"
Gu Zhe read their wild theories.
He couldn't resist tagging the person above him.
"@previous poster, could you have gotten part of it right? Myths returning, supernatural horrors reappearing, rules changing, even the stars and oceans transforming... Also, a personal suggestion: if any of your relatives have passed away in the last few years, you could sincerely burn incense and make offerings to them. Sincerity is all that matters when burning incense. The other ceremonial trappings are optional!"
"Pfft! What are you talking about? Your relatives are the ones who died in the last few years! Mine are all alive and healthy!"
"Heh, think bigger. If you're burning incense, shouldn't you burn a paper Mercedes for them too? A BYD will do if that's too much. You can't make your relatives walk everywhere down there!"
"You're like a peasant imagining the emperor carries a golden pole. Ever heard of a spaceship?"
"If we're talking offerings, I know all about that. You need sacrificial livestock, endless bows and kowtows, and then you chant... Mighty Heavenly Dragon... laughing.jpg!"
Gu Zhe wasn't surprised at all.
He shook his head.
These netizens' beliefs were much like Schrödinger's cat. Their belief and doubt existed in a state of quantum entanglement. Tell them something was unscientific, and they would bring up spiritual energy revival. Announce that ghosts had appeared, and they would tell you to trust science.
But have firearms really gotten weaker? Is supernatural interference changing the rules of the living world? Or is there another reason...
If it's true, the knock-on effects will be enormous. What I saw in the Netherworld already proved that the supernatural isn't just a rumor. It's really appearing...
After thinking for a while,
Gu Zhe resumed cutting out paper figures.
Grind, grind, grind...
Meanwhile.
Somewhere in Shuzhou.
Hills abounded beyond the basin.
There were plenty of tunnels along the highways too.
At that moment, outside one such tunnel,
countless roadblocks had already been set up.
Countless police cars were parked at the entrance, with military vehicles visible among them.
Police officers and soldiers stood on full alert, watching the dark tunnel.
The flickering lights inside seemed obscured by fog, making it impossible to see anything clearly.
At the very front of the tunnel entrance,
a group of people stared gravely into the darkness.
One was a burly, fierce-looking man in military uniform. His shoulder insignia marked him as a major.
Another was a middle-aged man in a suit, his temples slightly gray and his brows tightly furrowed. He had a commanding presence.
Beside them were three more people and a dog.
The three were two women and a man, but their bearing didn't fit with the two obvious leaders.
A teenage girl with dyed blond hair and piercings in her ears, lip, and nose looked around, her expression rebellious and indifferent.
An elderly woman glanced between the tunnel and the people around her, looking rather pleased with herself, though fear and worry occasionally crossed her face.
A middle-aged man was dressed reasonably well, but his weathered, honest-looking face and callused hands made it obvious he was either a farmer or a migrant laborer. He timidly clutched a rope attached to an imposing yellow dog. The dog stared into the tunnel with an eerie gaze, baring its teeth and growling in agitation.
Apart from these five people and the dog,
there was also a man with gold-rimmed glasses, a backpack, and an open notebook in his hand. Looking every bit a secretary, he was giving a report.
"Director Yan, thirty-eight minutes. A total of thirty-seven vehicles and 104 people are trapped inside, including the two highway maintenance teams that went in afterward."
"No one expected anything like this. First, the toll station on the other side noticed that not a single vehicle had come through for half an hour, so they asked whether an accident somewhere had caused a traffic jam. The highway administration checked and found no accident reports. Then data analysis revealed that no vehicles had emerged from the opposite exit. That took another eight minutes..."
The middle-aged man in the suit nodded.
His voice was calm.
"That's already quite good. Fortunately, information technology is advanced enough now for us to discover this in just over thirty minutes and stop anyone else from entering. That's acceptable. As for the maintenance workers who went in afterward, who could have anticipated something like this?"
The burly man in uniform beside him sighed as well.
"This world is getting stranger and stranger. That rumored Netherworld hasn't even drawn near yet, and reality is already experiencing Gaia's tremors. Humanity's collective consciousness in the void, which has existed since ancient times, is changing. Secret realms are forming, weird realms are erupting, tendrils of the Netherworld are descending... Who knows whether humanity will be able to cope with what comes next."
Director Yan patted the major on the shoulder.
"Don't worry. People make their own paths. Humanity can keep adapting to its environment too. Intelligence will always endure, as long as we stand together."
"Heh, stand together? Humans have never been united. Just look at the United States, Europe, Japan, Goguryeo, Siam, and the rest. Humanity has always been shortsighted."
Director Yan didn't reply.
Instead, he turned toward the man and the two women.
"Humanity has its pioneers too!"
"You three, please!"