Luo Nan watched for a long time, confirming there was nothing to add or delete. He then took the completed sketch, simply processed it into 3D, uploaded it to the vehicle's smart brain database, and imported his work into the recorded video using the image clipping function.
While the Phantom Hovercar's smart brain functions were Heaven-Defying, this kind of professional image splicing still required specialized software. What he did on the fly was completely out of character, appearing quite strange.
But for Luo Nan, this crude spliced image was the most accurate representation of his memory.
At that moment, Luo Nan clearly saw a massive Burning Demon Shadow emerge from the bursting flames, over a hundred meters tall, roaring furiously amidst the collapsing ruins and dust.
The Shock of the roaring explosion was like a heavy punch, or a giant wheel rolling over him. Luo Nan felt as if his internal organs were deforming, his entire body's flesh and blood making explosive sounds, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and death…
For a moment, he truly thought it was over.
This was the full scope of what he saw and felt!
The real world was not a fantasy movie, and Luo Nan knew that what he saw and heard was too bizarre. So he returned to the scene, compared it with the environment, watched the video playback, and observed the reactions of the surrounding areas.
As for the result… it was bland, normal, and utterly unremarkable.
A hallucination?
Luo Nan slowly curled his fingers, then closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and silently recited the sixteen-character mantra. In the void, the visualization diagram appeared: a regular tetrahedron and its inscribed and circumscribed spheres slowly rotated. The first few rotations were slightly obstructed, but gradually became fluid and smooth.
Hallucination… the visualization diagram didn't say that.
The visualization diagram indicated that the 'container' had minor damage but was rapidly recovering.
Years of marathon-like long-distance running hadn't given Luo Nan an exceptionally strong physique, but it had endowed him with extraordinary resilience and recovery abilities.
The problem wasn't big, but Luo Nan cared deeply.
In fact, Luo Nan's Self Format logic already had the answer, but he wasn't in a hurry to conclude. After a moment of thought, he gave another command to the smart brain, requesting a copy of the environmental data collected at the time.
Soon, a list of relevant information appeared.
At the time of the incident, the initial 'earthquake phase' had passed. The surrounding air pressure was 104 kilopascals, roughly consistent with standard atmospheric pressure; the decibel level of the explosive sound was just approaching 90, not enough to cause hearing damage; the instantaneous wind speed at the scene was 44 kilometers per hour, which was about a level 6 wind. Besides these, all other data, such as temperature, humidity, and radiation values, were within normal ranges.
Judging solely from the data, it was just an ordinary, slightly noisy, windy day. Such an environment scared two grown men out of their wits? Are you kidding?
There was also one more thing…
On the analysis video, Luo Nan used his finger to mark the distance: "The broken bridge is 2.9 kilometers in a straight line from the earthquake's epicenter. The sound wave transmission should have lagged by about 8 seconds, but what happened in reality?"
The cold data was more authoritative than memory, and even more incredible. It showed that the Phantom Hovercar received the powerful sound wave vibration 7 milliseconds even before the flash of light erupted.
Sound traveled faster than light… by common sense, this was clearly absurd. The source of the explosion and the flash of light were torn into two separate pieces in front of the data.
At this point, there was a clear divergence between the flash of light and the explosive sound, and between the explosive sound and the human body's reaction.
Luo Nan tilted his head back, no longer looking at any images or videos, and leaned heavily against the back of his seat.
Hallucination? Bullshit hallucination!
In the ethereal realm, there was clearly a force, a peculiar force, that interfered with the connections between various parties and filled the previously blank areas!
The Burning Demon Shadow was the 'manifestation' of this force.
This is unscientific… and what Luo Nan wanted was 'unscientific'!
The 'Format Theory' built by his grandfather had entered the metaphysical Domain from the very beginning.
Emotionally, Luo Nan was almost fanatical about his grandfather's theory, even placing it on par with life itself; but in terms of current achievements, he couldn't find a clear reference.
Even if methods like 'Big Eater' and 'Hypnotist' had surpassed the limits of ordinary people, their level of ability was not decisive. At least, it had not reached the level of 'qualitative change'.
What was the qualitative change of Self Format? What was the standard for qualitative change? If it was the so-called 'supernatural power,' what would its manifestation be?
Luo Nan couldn't find the answer in his grandfather's complex and messy experimental records.
For five years, he had been self-isolated and self-taught, talking to himself, seemingly progressing step by step, but always unable to solve the problem of a 'standard'.
And now, the reference had appeared!
The blood pumped by his Heart was as hot as magma, but Luo Nan ultimately just took a deep breath, propped his chin with his fingers on his notebook, suppressing the dual tremor of his limbs and Heart.
It wasn't time to celebrate yet; that force had only revealed the tip of the iceberg, looking like it could return to the world's dark curtain at any moment…
He still had a lot of work to do.
At this time, the vehicle's smart brain completed the route switch, changing lanes to detour. However, the destruction of an area of more than ten square kilometers had a significant impact on urban traffic. Even in the early morning, several air traffic layers were temporarily closed, and traffic began to experience slight congestion, preventing vehicles from speeding up.
Luo Nan deleted the automatically stored data and retrieval records from the smart brain to avoid exposing information about the Burning Demon Shadow and causing complications. Then he opened the news channel to search for reports on this 'earthquake'.
Due to the short interval, most media were still in the short news broadcast stage. Only 'Starlink News Agency' showed the power of a world-class media, promptly purchasing aerial footage from police drones near the scene and combining it with satellite images to obtain first-hand information.
This less than two-minute video had been continuously promoted on social media, gaining more and more attention.
Looking at the aerial image, it was clearer: the elevated bridge was indeed just the periphery. As for the 'epicenter,' it had completely collapsed. The massive amount of debris still couldn't fill the collapsed area, revealing a giant pit where faint blue electric light still flickered, particularly striking in the dim morning light.
What was the situation inside the giant pit? How many casualties? No media had a definitive report.
At this time, the municipal government and Police began to intervene, guiding traffic in the outer perimeter. Cleanup and rescue efforts had not yet officially begun, but transport planes had already appeared in the sky, starting to air-drop various engineering robots.
Relatively speaking, the government's response was already very swift… at least far exceeding its average level.
The hovercar's speed became slower and slower. While the Police were directing traffic, they were also conducting some inspections of passing vehicles, one by one, without any clear standard, as if it were a routine procedure.
Luo Nan, however, won the lottery.
A police officer on the side of the road signaled him to stop, and when the car window opened, he made a request: "Sir, to avoid interfering with rescue operations, please turn off your vehicle's radar and related equipment."
Luo Nan understood immediately and cooperated, issuing a command in front of the officer to turn off the relevant System functions.
The police officer waved him through.
However, as soon as the car started, the temporary guide pole ahead suddenly closed again, and the police officer ran up a few steps, signaling to stop again. However, this command was not only for Luo Nan but included all vehicles in the lane.
Some impatient people started yelling: "What's going on?!"
"Temporary transfer of rescue equipment. The traffic layer near the scene is temporarily closed. Please be patient, everyone."
The Police officer was about forty years old, appearing steady and amiable.
However, no one dared to challenge him, as That one was a standard riot special forces officer, clad in defensive combat gear, supported by an exoskeleton armor, standing over two meters tall, with a broad back and strong build, capable of lifting a 1-ton flying car and tossing it to The Other Side of the road.
“Equipment?
A batch was just air-dropped; if more comes, the accident area might not be able to accommodate it… ”
Luo Nan looked up at the sky; it was gradually brightening, extending his vision.
There was indeed a medium transport ship hovering in the air, seemingly military, but he did not see any equipment being dropped.
“Things are changing!”
On the news channel, a senior field reporter from Starlink News Agency, filming the accident area from a helicopter, described the current situation:
“The surrounding congestion is getting worse, and more and more vehicles are stuck, but for now, the government and Police are not focusing on traffic control.
On the contrary, the Police’s control measures are becoming stricter, and the blockade area is constantly expanding…”
Car owners stuck on the road must have strongly resonated with this report; most of the surrounding roads had turned into parking lots, and many cars had not moved an inch for more than ten minutes.
The riot special forces’ inspections became even more stringent, with some vehicles that had just been inspected needing to be re-checked.
Compared to the complaints of other car owners, Luo Nan was much calmer; his current task was to gather relevant information, and lingering near the accident site suited him perfectly.
He switched between several news channels, looking for valuable information, while also turning his attention to self-media and frequently visited forums.
While watching the news and browsing web pages, he mobilized his in-car smart computer, paper-like flexible screen, and even his wristband, keeping himself busy, but for now, he had no leads.
Less than half an hour after the incident, no media outlets had released in-depth reports, and self-media and social software were mostly filled with rumors, making it too difficult to filter out useful intelligence.
“The news will fly for a while…”
Luo Nan shook his head, his finger sliding across the soft screen, subconsciously clicking on an icon.
The interface opened to a familiar dark background with scattered stars, which was the Secret Star Forum he most frequently logged into.
For Luo Nan, the Secret Star Forum was a source of information; for safety, he never spoke in public sections, at most just browsing topics of interest.
Niche professional forums were slow to react to breaking news and rarely generated discussion heat, so gathering information there was not very meaningful.
He entered purely out of habit.
The hot topic pushed to the main interface today seemed to have no news value, titled “Collective Nightmare, Spirit Wave Release,” a typical mystical style.
Luo Nan was not interested in such topics; now that he had some free time, he considered sending a private message to the moderator of the internal section, trying to unblock his account early.
After spending a few minutes composing his message, when Luo Nan exited the private message interface, he saw that the discussion pages for the hot topic on the homepage had exploded several times over, triggering a “Bright Star” effect, and the topic interface had been pulled out independently, turning into a burning star.
At this moment, perhaps a moderator felt the original title was not specific enough and made a modification; the topic flashed and changed to “Xia City Research Zone Earthquake Nightmare Collective Discussion Thread, Merged.”
“Oh dear?”
Luo Nan was surprised and clicked in immediately.
The content of the main post was simple: according to the poster, “U Spirit,” he was a Xia City resident living near the research zone and was sleeping when the earthquake occurred.
Half-asleep, he had a dream.
In the dream, he was engulfed in flames and heard a huge roar; the shockwave felt like a giant wheel rolling over his entire body, much like “sleep paralysis.”
If it were just that, it would be nothing.
The key was that when U Spirit awoke in fright, his wife next to him also woke up scared—the couple had just had the exact same dream, with every detail very similar, like watching a horror movie together!
U Spirit posted this experience on the forum, initially no one paid attention, he himself didn’t take it seriously, and simply started a live broadcast of the earthquake news in the post.
But unexpectedly, just a few minutes later, someone else opened a new topic, also about the earthquake nightmare, and the dream content was almost identical to U Spirit’s description.
Thereafter, people followed up one after another, some replying in the post, others opening new posts to speak, eventually igniting the Secret Star Forum in the early morning, starting a big discussion.
Then again, the popularity of a niche forum is limited.
Luo Nan skimmed through the discussion content of the post quickly, feeling quite unsatisfied.
“There are only two or three examples of genuine personal experience…”
Even if the Secret Star Forum was small, its members came from all over the world; with over 70,000 registered IDs, divided by 88, it still didn’t reach 1000 people, and even fewer lived near the research zone.
Some people also realized this and began importing relevant topic data from mainstream communities and self-media.
Many hands make light work; the news Luo Nan struggled to find was presented in a gushing manner under the collective search of thousands of people.
Many people then realized that the “Xia City Collective Nightmare” topic had already formed an undercurrent online, and it was gaining momentum.
On the Secret Star Forum, the discussion atmosphere became even more lively.
Even though the moderator had set the rule of “merging,” people kept opening new topics, also deepening the related discussions.
There was an ID named “History Shredder” who opened a new post, creating a statistical chart for this incident, importing all relevant online cases, and constantly updating it, which quickly also triggered the “Bright Star” effect.
Luo Nan felt that he had a point and that the data was extremely well organized.
“From the diagram, it can be seen that the influence range of the ‘Nightmare Spirit Wave’ extends over 300 kilometers, covering the entire Xia City.
Taking the incident area as the center, within a radius of about ten kilometers, which I call the ‘Core Area,’ there are currently over 20 online cases, regardless of whether the individuals involved were sleeping or awake.”
“History Shredder” compiled over 50 valid cases, half of which were in the Core Area.
As for outside the Core Area, the density of cases dropped significantly, becoming rarer the further away, and very difficult to verify.
However, “History Shredder” claimed that according to his understanding, a significant portion of these sensitives outside the Core Area were recognized as “cultivators” within the community.
He stated that he would continuously update the relevant data and hoped for everyone’s help, and so on.
Later, U Spirit, who had posted first, also replied here, saying that he would take his wife to the Hospital for a check-up soon and would post the results on the forum, eliciting a chorus of “waiting.”
Luo Nan lightly pinched his chin, then also contacted the school’s medical department via his wristband to schedule a physical examination.
He planned to use the results as a reference against the U Spirit couple’s examination.
“Bang bang, bang bang!”
An incongruous noise suddenly entered his ears; the car window on the driver’s side was being vigorously knocked.
Luo Nan paused for a moment, and in that instant, That one outside directly stomped on the car door.
The sharp voice that followed, even the fully soundproofed car body could not block:
“Xie Junping, come out!”
