Chapter 15 Explosion
2023-05-02 Author: Yue Shang Xintou
"What happened?!"
The aftershock of the explosion made the two in front of the hotel stagger.
Snapping back to reality, Smith saw the surrounding glass shattered from the impact and the crowd screaming and scattering. Driven by the keen instincts of a media professional, he quickly turned on his camera and aimed the lens in the direction of the explosion.
"It's the Thunderbolts!"
Through the camera's magnified view, the cameraman saw the situation in the distance. Amidst the billowing smoke, the flickering image of a Phantasm was faintly visible, accompanied by intense artillery fire and furious roars.
Recognizing the Phantasm's identity, Smith stabilized the camera's angle and looked over at Colin, awaiting the reporter's instructions.
Sensing the cameraman's expectant gaze, Colin made an immediate decision.
Of course, the reason for Colin's decisiveness had nothing to do with any journalistic ethics. He was more interested in using this as an opportunity to make contact with members of the Thunderbolts and obtain more [Time Shards].
"What's happening, Colin?"
Although the newspaper had been bought by business tycoon Dexter Bennett, the basic structure of The Daily Bugle hadn't changed much. When the studio received the live feed from the reporter on the scene, the host immediately responded.
"Sorry to interrupt your report..."
As he hurried toward the site of the explosion, Colin began describing the scene through the camera lens.
"...but just a few minutes ago, a massive explosion occurred in a block not far from the Hilton Hotel. We can still feel the aftershocks from here. At the moment, we're still unsure what happened, but from some of the footage we've captured, it appears that members of the Thunderbolts are fighting on the scene... We'll need to get to the site of the explosion for more details..."
In sync with Colin's report, the cameraman panned the camera toward the block where the explosion occurred, giving everyone in the studio a more direct view of the situation on the ground.
"Colin, can you hear me?"
"Are you safe right now? Do you need to evacuate?"
Back in the studio, hearing about Colin's situation, the host immediately asked.
"We're safe for now..."
Colin and his team were about two blocks away from the explosion.
By the time the studio host finished speaking, they had more or less arrived.
Pausing to catch his breath, Colin looked at the police cars parked on the street and continued his report.
"As you can see, the police have already arrived on the scene. The specific number of casualties from the explosion is not yet known..."
Following behind Colin, Smith recorded the scene with his camera.
The dense smoke from the explosion turned everything gray and hazy. After just ten-odd seconds, a thin layer of dust had already coated the camera lens.
It wasn't just the camera lens; Colin and Smith were covered in it, too.
Witnessing the immense destruction caused by the explosion, both Colin and the cameraman instinctively grew more cautious.
Walking cautiously through the street's wreckage, Colin answered the studio host's questions while surveying his surroundings.
"...At present, we can still hear the sounds of fighting, which indicates the battle is quite intense. We will do our best to report as much as we can from the scene while ensuring our own safety."
"Alright, safety first, Colin."
The live broadcast captivated not only the host in the studio but also the audience watching the news on television at home.
[Faith (269/1000)]
Meanwhile, on the scene, Colin saw it.
The [Faith] points in the text, originally fixed at 268, had silently increased by one.
It seemed that acquiring Faith wasn't limited to just selling newspapers in the Main World.
It was also possible to increase Faith in the Anti-World.
"But why does the Faith increase in the Anti-World seem so much slower than in the Main World?"
In terms of the scale of the media and the speed of information dissemination,
the legs of a Newsboy during the Great Depression could never hope to outpace the internet.
However, the current growth trend of his Faith clearly told Colin that this wasn't the case.
"Could it be that with the development of the internet and media, although people have more convenient channels for receiving information, they've also become less patient with the news? Everyone wants the latest, first-hand information, and they no longer study every article in the newspaper word by word like they used to."
Of course, this was all just Colin's speculation.
It wasn't necessarily the truth, especially since he hadn't even figured out the specific function of Faith yet.
"...How is the situation on the ground, Colin?"
On his end, Colin was lost in thought over the change in his Faith.
On the other end, in the studio, a brief silence passed.
The host spoke up again, questioning him.
"Colin, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you..."
Snapping out of it at the cameraman's prompting, Colin glanced at his surroundings and said, "Actually, we've walked some distance into the blast site now. You can see the explosion has caused severe damage to the surrounding block, and the streets are littered with debris from the fight. Fortunately, however, we haven't seen any injured civilians so far..."
Colin didn't believe for a second that an explosion like this would have zero casualties.
So the only possibility was that someone had evacuated the injured civilians immediately.
And so, they continued to walk cautiously, the camera filming their every step.
The image on the camera grew increasingly gray and hazy.
"It's no good, we won't be able to film anything if we go any further."
Smith, who was handling the filming, stopped and called out to Colin, shaking his head.
"Looks like we'll have to pull back."
Considering his own safety, Colin had no choice but to abandon the idea of pressing forward.
He'd only just gotten out of the hospital; he had no desire to go back so soon.
"Sorry, everyone. Considering the danger on-site and the low visibility due to the thick smoke, we have to turn back the way we came..."
He turned and offered an apology to the camera.
Just as Colin and the cameraman were about to head back the way they came, his eyes inadvertently caught sight of a blurry figure in a large trench coat moving through the dense fog in the distance.
However, before he could say anything,
the figure was swallowed by the dense fog, vanishing without a trace.
(end of chapter)