189: Chapter 189 The Great Xia Official's Supreme Red Announcement

Year 2030, light rain.

On this day, the gears of history completely veered off their original track in a violent manner.

Great Xia, Yanjing, Core Command Center 300 meters underground at the Bureau of Abnormal Phenomena Management.

Wang Hai, Chief of Division Four of The Ninth Bureau, bore dark circles under his eyes deeper than those of a panda.

Holding a cup of stone-cold strong tea in his hand, his eyes were glued to the massive holographic monitoring screen in front of him.

His hands trembled like a leaf in the cold wind, completely unaware that the tea in his cup was splashing onto the expensive military tactical carpet.

"Chief... we can't suppress it, we really can't suppress it anymore!"

A technical operator, sweating profusely, turned around from the console, his voice filled with a despair that verged on tears.

"Over the past twenty-four hours, twelve massive supernatural tides have erupted worldwide."

"Sakura Country's Mount Fuji Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, the Western Continent's ancient glacier god awakening, Southeast Asia's Taming Tame Blood Sacrifice... the overseas internet has completely collapsed."

"These videos are spreading like a virus through undersea optical cables and satellite signals, madly flooding major domestic platforms! Douyin, Weibo, Tieba, even matchmaking apps are full of live streams of various supernatural incidents!"

The technical operator swallowed hard, pointing at the densely packed red warning dots on the screen.

"Our Division Four's 'Mengpo Soup' public opinion scrub system has already exceeded its computing capacity by three hundred percent."

"Even if we burn out the entire server motherboard right now, we can't erase the memories of hundreds of millions of netizens! Not to mention..."

He pointed in the direction of Jiangzhou City, where the red warning was glowing a deep purple.

"Sakura Country's cruise ship, [amaterasu], packed full of powerful demons, has already docked at Jiangzhou City, and a blood-red demon mist has enveloped half the port."

"Thousands of eyewitnesses are live-streaming with their phones. How can we scrub this? Even scrubbing with bleach wouldn't work!"

Wang Hai closed his eyes in agony.

As the Chief of Division Four of The Ninth Bureau, specifically responsible for cleaning up supernatural incidents and wiping memories,

the thing he had done most in his life was fabricating bullshit excuses like 'biogas leaks causing mass hallucinations,' 'aurora refraction creating mirages,' or 'film crews forgetting to clear the set late at night.'

The citizens of Great Xia had been fooled by him for five whole years.

But today, that fig leaf was burned completely clean by the blaze of global supernatural outbreaks.

"Crack!"

The ten-ton solid steel door of the command center was pushed open.

An old man with graying temples, wearing a crisp Sun Yat-sen suit, strode in with long strides.

Director General of Great Xia's Ninth Bureau, Director General Chen Zhan!

This old man, who had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, carried an iron-blooded aura tempered by vicissitudes.

The moment he stepped inside, the panicked atmosphere in the entire command center was instantly suppressed.

"Stop trying to scrub it."

Director General Chen Zhan walked up to the console, his eyes calmly sweeping across the screen filled with red warnings, his tone steady.

"Paper cannot wrap fire."

"Since all the gods, demons, ghosts, and monsters under heaven think now is a good time to return to the mortal realm, then we, Great Xia, shall face them head-on, fair and square."

"Issue my highest order."

Director General Chen Zhan turned around to face all the operators present, his voice powerful and ringing with authority.

"Cut off all regular entertainment broadcast signals! Take over highest authority of the three major telecom operators! Turn on air-defense broadcasts in every city across Great Xia!"

"Issue the highest-level red notice to all 1.4 billion citizens across the country!"

"Tell them the truth, exactly as it is!"

...

8:05 PM.

It was prime time, when households across Great Xia were finishing dinner, sitting in front of TVs watching shows, or lounging on couches scrolling through short videos.

In a rented apartment in an old residential area of Jiangzhou City.

Li Qiang, a programmer who had just finished working overtime, was holding a mouthful of instant noodles, watching with relish a video of a suggestive female streamer swaying her hips on Douyin.

Suddenly, the screen lagged for a moment.

The female streamer's fair, long legs instantly disappeared.

Immediately following, a blood-red background appeared.

In the center of the screen, a solemn National Emblem of Great Xia appeared.

"Holy crap? Did my phone get a virus?"

Li Qiang froze for a second, just about to exit and reopen the app.

Suddenly, a deep, solemn official broadcast voice came out of his phone speaker.

Not only his phone, but the air-defense alarm loudspeakers on the street outside, the next-door auntie's TV, the downstairs old man's radio...

At this moment, every audio device across the country was broadcasting the exact same audio clip in sync.

[Greetings, all citizens of Great Xia.]

[This is Great Xia's Bureau of Abnormal Phenomena Management. The following broadcast contains declassified national top-secret information. Please remain calm and listen carefully.]

[Since 2027, Earth has entered a tide of spiritual energy recovery. Strange lifeforms slumbering in ancient texts, myths, and folklore—wandering souls, fierce ghosts, zombies, and demonic specters—have been proven real and have begun reviving on a large scale.]

[In recent years, the nation has been secretly containing and suppressing them to maintain social stability, but early this morning, global supernatural barriers completely collapsed.]

[From now on, please discard your old materialistic concepts.]

[Ghosts are real.]

[Great Xia has entered a State of Level-1 Combat Readiness. Citizens are advised to minimize going out at night. If you encounter inexplicable supernatural phenomena, dial the special emergency hotline immediately: 404.]

[The nation and the military will defend the safety of the people to the death. As long as Great Xia stands, the flame will never extinguish!]

...

This announcement, lasting only a few short minutes, was like a nuclear bomb detonating directly in the minds of Great Xia's 1.4 billion people!

After a brief, dead silence—

The entire internet of Great Xia fell into an unprecedented frenzy!

Servers for Weibo, Tieba, Zhihu, and major forums crashed five times within ten short minutes, only to be forcibly pulled back online by official technicians using backup servers.

Every single top ten trending topic was dominated by a blood-red "EXPLOSIVE" tag!

#Government Official Admission of Ghosts and Monsters Existence#!

#What Kind of Divine Department is The Ninth Bureau#!

#Is the End of the World Really Here#!

#Who Dares Turn Off the Lights to Sleep Tonight#!

#What Happened to No Spirits Allowed After the Founding of the PRC#!

After the initial shock and panic, the ingrained habit of Great Xia's netizens to "join in the fun" and "share everything" completely conquered their fear.

In major forums, countlessly terrifying posts asking for help and sharing personal encounters flooded in instantly.

Usually people read these as horror stories, but now with official backing, everyone knew these were very likely real!

In a pinned mega-thread on Tieba titled "National Ghost Encounters Exchange Center,"

chilling experiences were refreshing at a rate of thousands of posts per second...