After a while, Mayuzumi and Ling Yang, who were feeling tired, went back to sleep.
Seiji observed carefully, but the abnormal phenomenon didn't appear again.
He was delighted that his ominous premonition had been dispelled.
"Maybe I really was overthinking things," he muttered to himself.
...
With the hard work of many people, especially the maintenance staff, the communication network was gradually restored.
The police station received many emergency calls. Hospitals and ambulances were dispatched, and the fire department rushed to the scene of the fire …
Meanwhile, news and reports about the incident had already appeared on the internet, and the topic was rapidly becoming more and more popular.
The electricity and communication network in the country's capital city simultaneously went down on the eve of the New Year … This wasn't just the top story in all of Sakura Island, it was even world-class news!
The authorities were quite clear about this incident: a terrorist attack!
The culprit, motive, goal, and method were unknown … The investigation was underway.
The authorities didn't say much, but the netizens' comments were quite lively. In the most famous large discussion forum, "Channel 22," all sorts of keyboard warriors were debating about the culprit's identity and motive, as well as what method they used to achieve such a feat.
This was only in the wee hours of the morning. If the sun rose, the topic would definitely explode.
Just as the focus was on the culprit, someone posted a thread celebrating that he was finally able to go online again. He then stated with certainty that he saw something terrifying during the blackout.
"It was a demon! That was definitely Shutendoji! It wasn't cosplay!! I swear on my virginity for a lifetime that it is the real thing! I was almost killed!! "
The thread even included a picture, but there was only a blurry red figure in the picture, and it wasn't complete. He could only barely make out that it was a young man.
"The picture isn't very clear, but this is the only one I have … I was running for my life and was really scared … I immediately called the police when I could get through, but I was ignored.
"I know that this sounds like a lie, and I definitely wouldn't believe it if I didn't personally experience it. But I experienced it, and I swear that everything I said is true! I was also very clear-headed, and it definitely wasn't a hallucination!! "
The tone of the thread was fine at first, but it became somewhat hysterical towards the end, and his words were filled with intense emotions.
The netizens who had seen all sorts of strange things on the internet wouldn't easily believe such ridiculous things, so they naturally treated this thread as some sort of claptrap.
"Demon? Shutendoji? If you're lying, you should at least use something interesting. Saying something so cliché doesn't feel scary at all. "
"I agree with the person above, but if the OP wants to be ridiculed like this, then I have to admit that he succeeded."
"Compared to Shuto, I want to see Tamamo no Mae more. OP, if you go out for a stroll, you might run into her."
"Tamamo no Mae + 1."
No one believed it.
However, similar posts appeared one after another. The poster claimed that he had encountered a dog demon and that his friend had been bitten and severely injured!
"That dog looks so scary! It doesn't look like a living creature at all. It looks like a zombie dog in the game, but it feels like a monster … "
"My friend saw the same thing as me. Both of us have never seen such a dog before, not in anime or games! We're definitely not hallucinating!! "
"It's too sudden, we didn't have time to take a picture … who would have thought of taking a picture!? You can only think of running away when you encounter such a thing!! "
"My friend's left hand was bitten off … It really was bitten off …"
There were no pictures in the post, but the horror in the words was surprisingly real.
More and more similar posts appeared.
Encountering female demons, seeing strange birds, seeing dead people, hearing strange sounds, and running into invisible things … Some people only saw, some people encountered, some people were injured, and some people saw others being killed …
After these posts reached a certain number, some people were finally shaken.
It couldn't be true, right?
Most netizens still didn't believe it. However, a small number of people's attitudes changed from "disdain" to "doubt."
At this time, some people claimed that these "demon posts" were rumors created by a group with ulterior motives. They claimed that these people were actually in cahoots with each other, and wanted to create topics and spread rumors to achieve an unspeakable goal! It was even possible that they were related to terrorists.
Many netizens believed this, and looked down on these "demon posts" even more.
Some of the "demon posts" OP remained silent, while others continued to post to prove their innocence. They acted as if they were going to fight to the very end.
Even more "demon posts" appeared one after another. Rebuttal posts also appeared.
Then, there were "Spiritual Ability users" who claimed that not only did they see a ferocious demon, they even saw a middle-aged man using spells and talismans to fight against it.
"Alien posts" about humanoid creatures with strange appearances capturing humans.
"Ninja posts" about several masked people wearing different-colored ninja outfits working together to attack a gigantic monster.
"Magical girl posts" about a beautiful girl wearing a black dress and wielding a crystal staff dealing with a large group of female demons.
All sorts of posts kept appearing, and the topic section was gradually drowned out by the dancing of supernatural beings.
Which ones were lies, which ones were jokes, and which ones were true … who could tell?
Apart from completely destroying the truth, the other way to bury it was to obscure it and use a large amount of similar false information to cover it up. Or, more accurately, to distract people's attention …
After discovering that his cell phone had a signal, Seiji browsed the internet and logged onto Channel 22's topic section. He noticed that there were "demon posts" and other similar posts.
It was difficult for him to determine which one was true, but he was certain that one of them was true.
"Night of one hundred demons …?"
Not only were there demons and ghosts, there were also various other strange people and things … or should he call it a supernatural creature's diary?
His negative premonition had finally come true. Something flashed in Seiji's eyes.
Just what was the casualty rate for the entire city? Would the demons that appeared disappear after harming someone, or after a night, or would they continue existing? Was the Midnight Spell not meant to encourage the appearance of new Spiritual Ability users, but to let ordinary people know about the existence of the mystical?
Compared to the night of one hundred demons, Sensei and Ling Yang's mystical phenomenon didn't seem like much at all. Perhaps he could tell Summer Night about it?
After thinking about it some more, he decided to observe the situation first.
Then, he logged onto the knight group chat.
Tomohisa was the only one in the chat group.
"Seigo, are you alright?" Seigo immediately sent Seigo a private message.
"I'm fine, but I can't say that I'm completely fine … how about you?"
"I'm fine, but some people in our group met with a strange incident and were sent to the hospital for injuries."
Seigo's words were plain, but Seiji could sense how serious Seigo was.
Right now, he wasn't talking about the otaku Tomohisa. Instead, he was talking about the mafia organization leader's son, Tomohisa.
"Are they serious?"
"One of them is very serious. He's still in critical condition."
"… What did he meet with?"
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