The official app's layout was exceptionally clean.
The homepage featured only four simple sections:
【Report Anomaly】, 【Accept Quest】, 【Instance Intelligence】, and 【Player Forum】.
【More features under development...】
At the very top of the homepage hung a permanently pinned official announcement. Bolded in bright red, it was exceptionally eye-catching:
[Emergency Announcement: Supernatural disasters have become normalized nationwide. All citizens must remain highly vigilant and report any anomalies immediately.
Do not believe or spread rumors, do not touch supernatural entities without authorization, and prioritize personal safety above all else!]
[Official Benefits: All registered players receive lifetime free supernatural physical examinations, free special training, free data access, free emergency rescue...]
[Disciplinary Public Notice: Ordinary citizens are strictly prohibited from capturing, keeping, or trading supernatural entities. Violators will be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.]
Song Mo's gaze lingered on the word “keeping” for a moment before she began browsing the functional sections one by one.
She was already familiar with reporting anomalies, so she skimmed through that part quickly.
The quest acceptance section, however, was quite interesting.
Aside from official public welfare quests, there were actually high-risk bounty quests and regional patrol quests.
—It was practically like an adventurer's guild hall in a video game.
Although completing quests currently only rewarded points, the Special Investigation Bureau had opened a channel to exchange points for cash.
Consequently, she could see that many players had accepted real-world quests.
How long had it actually been? In less than half a year, the officials had already set all of this up.
Presumably, once the officials acquired more items in the future, the selection of things redeemable through quests would grow.
Next was the Instance Intelligence section. Currently, the only Instances available for lookup were 【Taiping Cemetery】, 【Campus Ghost Stories】, and 【Old Lady Huang's Birthday Celebration】.
Song Mo estimated that the officials were still compiling data on the death train Instance, which was why it hadn't been uploaded yet.
Each Instance was categorized by difficulty and rank, and every rule added to them was backed by a bloody lesson.
For example, under the 【Old Lady Huang's Birthday Celebration】 Instance, players warned: “Never get off the bus midway,” “Do not refuse quests handed out by the villagers,” and “Absolutely, under no circumstances, try to exploit bugs to clear the Instance”—
Looking at those avatars and IDs, Song Mo found them strangely familiar.
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As for the Player Forum section, the number of active users there was noticeably higher.
The moment she clicked to enter, a dense wall of new, hot, and pinned posts refreshed.
The page scrolled at an extremely rapid pace, with dozens of new posts updating every second. Its activity level rivaled that of the top social media platforms on the entire internet.
Aside from the thousand or so registered players, Special Investigation Bureau staff and public servants nationwide had also registered.
With so many people, there were always meme-filled and gossipy replies under the supernatural threads—instantly dissolving the original, eerie dread.
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【Help! An aberration occurred in my rural hometown! All livestock have gone strangely out of control! Enter with caution, lots of pics】 (Official Certification: Real Anomaly)
Poster: Anonymous Player
Post Time: 06:12 AM today
Popularity: 120k likes, 19k comments, 9k saves
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【Urgent help from all the veterans!
I live in the countryside, located in rural Northern Jiangsu. For the past half month, something has been off with our village. Weird things of all sizes are happening every day, and it's scaring us to death!】
【At first, it was just missing poultry. The free-range chickens, ducks, and geese kept disappearing.
At night, the elderly in the house heard strange noises in the yard. When we got up in the morning, there was nothing left but a pile of duck feathers. We searched the entire village and couldn't find any carcasses.】
【Initially, the family thought weasels or wild cats were stealing them, so we didn't take it seriously.】
【About a week ago, a family at the east end of the village started losing sheep, all of which were newborn lambs.
Anyone from the countryside knows that newborn lambs are kept indoors, eating and sleeping with people, out of fear that they might die.
Yet, the next day, the lamb vanished into thin air. The windows were completely intact, with no signs of damage whatsoever. It was so bizarre!】
【The most terrifying part is my family's big white pig. It's a year-end pig weighing over two hundred pounds, raised for almost a year. It's usually very docile, eating whatever we feed it, and has never bitten anyone.】
【My mom said that a month ago, our pig stopped eating anything and just lay in the corner of the pigsty all day.】
【Yesterday afternoon, this pig went mad. It rammed straight through the pigsty fence and bit off half of a neighbor kid's face!】
Below the post were three high-definition photos, carrying a powerful visual impact.
The first picture was a shot of the pigsty.
A big white pig weighing over two hundred pounds lay in the corner, its white hair filthy and matted.
The most bizarre part was its blood-red, bloodshot eyes, with the sclera completely black.
The second picture was likely a shot of the bitten child's wound. The laceration was gruesome and torn, the flesh turned inside out to reveal stark white bone.
The third picture was a shot of the sheep pen floor, littered with fine lamb wool and dried black blood.
Within just a few hours of being posted, the thread exploded across the forum.
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【What kind of pig can bite off a kid's face? That's terrifying. How am I supposed to eat pork in the future?】
【It sounds like a weasel, but with the windows shut tight, how did the lambs go missing? Could it be a thief?】
【I don't think so. Hearing the poster's description, the whole village feels off. Did they report it to the Special Investigation Bureau?】
【Hijacking this thread, rookie player who cleared one Instance looking to be carried!】
【Friend above, DM me. Gale Player Squad, sponsored by the Lu Group, escorted by mercenaries. Safety is absolutely guaranteed!】
【Didn't the heir of the Lu Group die in an Instance?】
【You guys are getting off-topic. The pig is the biggest issue here.】
Anonymous Player Comment 1 (Gold-certified): 【First, after reading your analysis, all I can say is: Run!
Look at your pig. It went on a hunger strike a month ago and still hasn't lost any weight. That alone explains everything.
You raise pigs, so you should know that if a pig isn't fed for two days, it drops weight—so guess what your pig has been eating instead of pig feed?
Furthermore, once a beast tastes human blood, it cannot be kept. Normal feed and grains no longer hold any appeal to it; it only craves living souls and flesh! OP, kill it quickly, deal with it overnight. Keeping it will definitely lead to disaster!】
Hot Comment 2:
【There really have been a lot of weird things happening in rural Northern Jiangsu lately. Someone just reported a local anomaly last week.
Fellow Daoist, hurry up and ask the Special Investigation Bureau to handle this. This pig spirit has been completely aberrated by yin energy, turning into the lowest tier of supernatural beast. If you keep it for a few more days, it will gain sentience and harm people (doge)!】
【Oh my god, that's so scary! Is the countryside really this dangerous now? Thank goodness I moved to the city early. I'm never going back to my hometown again!】
【That's a lie. The city is even more dangerous. Just last week, a haunted house was exposed where a buyer's family of four all died—】
【Looking closely at the photo details, this pig's tusks have grown longer, and there's dried black blood at the corners of its mouth. It has definitely eaten some living creature!
OP, report it to the Special Investigation Bureau immediately. Don't try to face it head-on. Aberrated livestock are incredibly strong; ordinary people stand no chance!】
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OP's follow-up update (07:05 AM today):
【Dealt with! Thanks, everyone! The Special Investigation Bureau's field team just responded to the emergency and shot the aberrated white pig dead on the spot with riot firearms!】
【When they pried open the pig's mouth, everyone present was scared out of their minds. My god, my hands are still shaking.
At some point, three full rows of human teeth had grown inside its mouth. Human teeth!! It was so SAN-draining; basically everyone who saw it threw up (picture)】
【This absolute bastard, it ate the lambs too. The Special Investigation Bureau reconstructed the scene. It leaned against the window, opened it with its hooves, and then mimicked a sheep's bleating to lure the little lambs over—】
【I literally pissed my pants.】
【Too scary, too scary.】
【I don't think I'll ever dare to eat pork again.】
【And my dad dug up the pigsty. Hidden underneath was a ground full of chicken and duck heads, and lamb skeletons.
They were all gnawed completely clean, leaving only the skulls... This beast was sneaking out at night to catch ducks and chickens, while pretending to go on a hunger strike to deceive us for half a month!】
【Now the whole village is in a panic. Everyone has registered and is waiting for the officials to inspect the entire area!】
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【Help! The community's artificial lake has undergone an aberration. Human shadows are frequently dragged under late at night. Suspected water ghost territory】 (Official Certification: Real Anomaly)
Poster: Anonymous Player 45123
Post Time: 23:46, half a month ago
Popularity: 150k likes, 18k comments】
【Location: A high-end residential community in Nanhe Province, at the central artificial scenic lake.】
【At first, property owners taking night walks frequently saw human figures swimming beneath the lake's surface, but they thought it was an illusion.】
【A month ago, a property owner drowned in the artificial lake.】
【Let me describe it to you guys. The deepest part of that scenic lake is barely over a meter. It's the kind of depth where standing up absolutely guarantees you won't drown.】
【The deceased owner was 1.9 meters tall, yet he drowned. When they fished him out, he looked just like a giant frog. (picture)】
【Then last month, a brat took a dump in the scenic lake and drowned.】
【Half a month ago, a Rottweiler kept by one of the owners drowned.】
【About seven days ago, another old man out for a walk drowned.】
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【It's too bizarre, do you guys understand? Setting aside how people drowned in such shallow water, it's impossible for the patrolling security guards not to have noticed. There wasn't a single sound.】
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OP's latest post: 【Yesterday when I came home from work, I felt like there really was something in that water. It felt incredibly eerie.】
【Anyway, I've already reported it to the Special Investigation Bureau. Just sitting back and waiting for the outcome.】
The comments were a solid wall of “waiting for the outcome.”
Rate on N.U.
