Luo Nan gazed at it for a long time. He determined that there were no areas that needed to be added or deleted. Then he did some simple 3D processing on the completed sketch and transferred it into the car's AI database. He used the image editing function to import his own work into the video recording.
The Phantom flying car's AI was admittedly heaven-defying, but this kind of professional image stitching still required professional software processing. It was done on the spot, and the style was completely different—somewhat strange.
But from Luo Nan's perspective, this inferior spliced image was the most consistent with his memories.
In that instant, Luo Nan could clearly see an enormous demonic shadow emerge from within the exploding flames. It was over a hundred meters tall, roaring furiously within the collapsed ruins and dust.
The impact of the roaring explosion was like a heavy punch or a giant wheel rolling over. Luo Nan felt his internal organs deform; the flesh and blood of his entire body emitted explosive sounds. The air was filled with the stench of blood and death…
For a moment, he really thought it was over.
This was what he saw, and what he felt—the whole picture!
The real world wasn't a fantasy movie. Luo Nan knew that what he saw and heard was far too bizarre. Therefore, he returned to the scene of the incident and compared it to the environment there. He watched the video replay and observed the reaction of the surrounding area.
As for the result… it was plain, normal, and not at all surprising.
Was it an illusion?
Luo Nan slowly flexed and extended his fingers. He closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and silently chanted the sixteen-word mantra. The visualization diagram appeared in the void. The tetrahedron, its inscribed sphere, and its circumscribed sphere slowly rotated. The first few laps were slightly awkward, but he slowly regained his fluency.
Illusion… that wasn't how the visualization diagram worked.
The visualization showed that the vessel was slightly damaged, but it was rapidly recovering.
Many years of marathon-style long-distance running training had not given Luo Nan a particularly strong physique. Instead, it bestowed him with outstanding toughness and recovery ability.
It wasn't a big problem, but Luo Nan cared a lot about it.
Actually, Luo Nan already had an answer within his own logic, but he didn't rush to a conclusion. After pondering for a moment, he gave the AI an order and asked for a copy of the environmental data collected at that time.
Soon, a list of relevant information appeared.
At the time of the incident, the initial "earthquake phase" had passed. The air pressure in the surrounding area was 104 kPa, basically the same as standard atmospheric pressure. The sound of the explosion was close to 90 decibels, which was not enough to damage hearing. The instantaneous wind speed at the location of the incident was 44 kilometers per hour, equivalent to a Category 6 wind. Other than that, the temperature, humidity, radiation, and other data were all within the normal range.
From the data alone, it was just a normal, slightly noisy, windy day. How could such an environment scare the two men out of their wits? Was this a joke?
One more thing…
Luo Nan used his finger to mark the distance on the analysis video. "The distance between the Broken Bridge and the epicenter of the earthquake is 9 kilometers in a straight line. The sound wave transmission should be delayed for around 8 seconds. But in reality?"
The cold data was more authoritative than memories—and even more unbelievable. It showed that the time when the Phantom received the powerful sound wave vibration was seven milliseconds before the eruption of flames.
The sound overtook the light… based on common sense, this was obviously absurd. The source of the explosion and fire was torn into two in front of the data.
At this point, a clear contradiction appeared between the fire and the explosion, between the explosion and the human body's reaction.
Luo Nan raised his head, no longer looking at any images or videos. He leaned heavily against the back of his chair.
Illusion? Bullshit illusion!
There was clearly a power in the unseen world, a strange power that interfered with the connection between all sides. It filled in what was originally a blank area.
The burning wraith was the representation of this power.
This was unscientific… Luo Nan wanted it to be unscientific!
The Formatting Theory established by his grandfather had entered the realm of metaphysics from the very beginning.
Luo Nan was close to fanaticism toward his grandfather's theory in terms of emotions. He could even place it on equal footing with his life. But he was unable to find a clear reference based on his current results.
Even if Luo Nan's methods as a Glutton King and a Hypnotist had already surpassed the limits of a normal person, the level of his ability did not possess decisive qualities. At the very least, he had not reached the level of a qualitative change.
What was a qualitative change in the Self-Formatting? What was the standard for a qualitative change? If it was a so-called supernatural power, then what was its manifestation?
Luo Nan was unable to find an answer within his grandfather's complex and messy experimental records.
He had shut himself off and cultivated for the past five years, talking to himself. It looked like he was advancing step by step, but he was unable to solve the problem of a standard.
And now, a reference object had appeared!
The blood pumped out from his heart was as hot as magma, but Luo Nan could only take a deep breath in the end. His ten fingers propped up the notebook, and he lightly supported his chin, restraining the throbbing of his body and heart.
It wasn't time to celebrate yet. Only the tip of the iceberg had been revealed by this power. It looked like it could return to the world's dark screen at any time…
There was still a lot of work he needed to do.
The car's AI had completed its route switch at this time. It switched to a detour. However, the destruction of a dozen square kilometers of area had caused quite an impact on the city's traffic. Even though it was early in the morning, many layers of air traffic were temporarily shut down. Traffic began to appear slightly congested, making it impossible for the car to increase its speed.
Luo Nan deleted the data and records automatically stored by the AI to avoid exposing information about the burning wraith and causing unexpected complications. Then he turned on the news channel and searched for reports related to the earthquake.
Most of the media were still in the SMS broadcast stage due to the short interval. Only the Star Associated Press displayed the arrogance of a world-class media. They promptly purchased aerial footage from surveillance drones in the vicinity of the incident. They combined it with satellite imagery to capture first-hand information.
This video, which wasn't even two minutes long, had already been pushed to the top of social media, gaining more and more attention.
Looking at the aerial footage made it even clearer that the viaduct was really just the periphery. As for the epicenter of the earthquake, it had already completely caved in. The enormous amount of rubble was still unable to fill the caved-in area. An enormous crater was exposed. Deep blue lightning was still leaping within, exceptionally eye-catching under the dusky light of the sky.
What was the situation in the enormous crater? How many casualties were there? Not a single media outlet had a definite report.
The municipal government and the police began to intervene at this time, guiding traffic on the periphery. Cleanup and rescue work had yet to officially begin, but transport planes had already appeared in the sky. They began to airdrop all kinds of engineering robots.
Comparatively speaking, the government's response was already extremely fast… at the very least, it far exceeded their average level.
The speed of the flying car grew slower and slower. The police conducted a few inspections of passing cars as they guided traffic. It was unknown what sort of standard this was, but it seemed to be routine.
Luo Nan hit the jackpot.
A police officer on the side of the road indicated for him to stop the car. He waited for the car window to roll down before making a request:
"Sir, please turn off the car's radar and related equipment in order to avoid interfering with the search and rescue work."
Luo Nan suddenly understood and was very cooperative. He issued an order right in front of the police officer to turn off the relevant system functions.
The police waved his hand to let him pass.
But the temporary guide bar in front suddenly closed just as the car began to move. The police caught up two steps and signaled for him to stop the car once more. However, this order wasn't just directed at Luo Nan—it included all the cars on the road.
There was an impatient person who shouted loudly:
"What's going on!?"
"Temporary transfer of rescue equipment. The traffic near the scene is temporarily sealed. Please be patient, everyone."
This police officer was around forty years old. He looked to have a calm temperament and an amiable attitude. However, there really wasn't anyone who dared to explode in front of him. This was because he was a standard special anti-riot police officer. He wore a defensive combat suit, and with the support of his exoskeleton armor, he was over two meters tall. He had the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear. He was completely capable of lifting a one-ton flying car and throwing it across the road.
Equipment? There had just been a wave of airdrops. If they were to come again, the area of the accident would probably not be able to be expanded…
Luo Nan raised his head to look at the sky. The color of the sky was gradually brightening, and his field of vision expanded. There was indeed a medium-sized transport ship hovering in the air. It seemed to be from the military, but he didn't see any equipment being dropped down.
"The situation is currently changing!"
Within the news channel, the senior on-site reporter of the Star Associated Press took a bird's-eye view of the area of the accident from a helicopter. He described the current situation:
"The surrounding congestion situation is getting more serious. There are more and more parked cars. And from the looks of things, the government and the police aren't putting their energy into clearing the traffic. On the contrary, the police's control measures are becoming stricter. The area of lockdown is constantly expanding…"
The car owners who were stuck on the road would certainly resonate with this report. Most of the surrounding roads had already been turned into parking lots. The positions of many cars hadn't changed at all for over ten minutes.
The special anti-riot police's inspections were even stricter. Some of the cars that had just been inspected had to be inspected again.
Luo Nan was much calmer compared to the complaints of the other car owners. His current mission was to gather relevant information. Lingering around the area of the accident for a while was exactly what he wanted.
He switched between several news channels in search of valuable information. At the same time, he cast his gaze towards social media, the forums he frequented, and so on. He browsed the web as he watched the news. The car's AI, flexible e-ink screen, and even his wristband were all mobilized. He was extremely busy, but he didn't have any leads for the time being.
Less than half an hour had passed since the incident, and the various media outlets hadn't produced any in-depth reports. Social media was mostly filled with rumors. It was far too difficult to sift out useful information from within.
"The information still needs to fly for a while…"
Luo Nan shook his head. His finger swiped across the flexible screen, and he subconsciously clicked on a certain icon. The interface opened, revealing a familiar dark background and a sparse arrangement of stars. It was none other than the Secret Star Forum, where he logged in most often.
From Luo Nan's perspective, the Secret Star Forum was a source of goods. For safety, he never spoke in the public forum. At most, he would browse a few topics that interested him.
The niche professional forum was slow to react to breaking news, and it was very hard to form a heated discussion. There wasn't much meaning in gathering information here.
He entered purely out of habit.
The hot topic pushed to the main interface today didn't seem to have any news value. The title was "Collective Nightmare, Psychic Wave Release." It was a typical style of the mystic arts.
Luo Nan wasn't interested in this topic. Now that he had some free time, he pondered sending a private message to the internal forum's moderator, attempting to unblock his account ahead of time.
Luo Nan spent a few minutes choosing his words. When he exited the private message interface, he saw that the number of discussion pages for the hot topic had exploded by several times on the main page. The "Bright Star" effect had already been activated. The topic interface was pulled out, turning into a blazing star.
At this time, perhaps a moderator felt that the original title wasn't directional enough, so he made some changes. The title flashed and became "Xia City's R&D District Earthquake Nightmare Discussion Thread. Open Merge."
"Oh?"
Luo Nan was surprised and clicked on it immediately.
The main post's content was very simple. According to the post owner, U-Spirit, he was a resident of Xia City who lived near the R&D District. He was sleeping when the earthquake occurred. He had a dream while half-asleep. In the dream, his entire body was engulfed in flames. He heard a tremendous roar, and the shockwaves were like a giant wheel that crushed his entire body. It was like a ghost pressing down on him.
It wouldn't have been a big deal if that was all. The key was that when U-Spirit woke up, his wife next to him woke up with a fright as well. The two of them had actually had the same dream. Every detail was extremely similar, as if they had watched a horror movie together.
U-Spirit posted this experience on the forum. At first, no one paid attention. He himself didn't think much of it. He simply made a live broadcast of the earthquake news in the post.
But he never expected that someone would open a new topic in a short few minutes. They talked about the earthquake nightmare. The content of the dream was practically identical to U-Spirit's description.
Afterwards, people followed up one after another. Some replied in the post, and some opened new posts. In the end, the early morning Secret Star Forum exploded into a huge discussion.
Then again, there was a limit to how popular a niche forum could be. Luo Nan skimmed ten lines at a glance. He quickly scanned through the discussion content of the post and felt that he hadn't had enough yet.
"There are only two or three examples of true personal experience…"
No matter how small the Secret Star Forum was, its members came from all over the world. There were over 70,000 registered IDs. Divided by 88, there were less than 1,000 people. There were even fewer people living near the R&D District.
There were also some people who recognized this point. They began to import relevant information from mainstream communities and social media.
Things were easier with more people. The information that Luo Nan couldn't find with great difficulty was presented in a blowout fashion under the collective search of over a thousand people.
Only now did many people realize that the topic of Xia City's Collective Nightmare had already formed an undercurrent on the internet. Moreover, the momentum was growing stronger and stronger.
The atmosphere of discussion on the Secret Star Forum became even more heated. Even though the moderator had already established the rule of opening new posts, there were still people endlessly opening new topics. They also brought related topics in depth.
There was an ID called "Historical Data Shredder" who opened a new post. He established a statistical chart for this incident. He imported all the relevant examples on the internet into it and updated it endlessly. Soon, the "Bright Star" effect was stimulated.
Luo Nan felt that his words were meaningful. The data was organized extremely well.
"You can see from the diagram that the Nightmare Psychic Wave's range of influence reaches a maximum of 300 kilometers. It covers the entire city of Xia. With the area of the incident as the center, I call it the 'Core Area.' There are over 20 examples on the internet right now, and it doesn't matter if the people involved are asleep or awake."
Historical Data Shredder sorted out over 50 effective examples in total. Half of them were in the Core Area.
As for the areas outside the Core Area, the density of the examples dropped substantially. The further the distance, the rarer the examples were. It was very hard to verify.
However, Historical Data Shredder claimed that according to his understanding, a considerable portion of the sensors outside the Core Area were people who were publicly recognized as having cultivated. He expressed that he would constantly update the relevant data and hoped to receive everyone's help.
Later, U-Ling, who first posted the thread, replied. She said that she would be taking her wife to the hospital for a checkup in a moment. She would post the results on the forum, attracting a wave of "waiting" voices.
Luo Nan lightly pinched his chin. Then he used his wristband to contact the school's medical department. He made an appointment for a physical examination. He was going to compare the results of the U-Ling couple's examination.
"Bang bang, bang bang!"
A discordant noise suddenly entered Luo Nan's ears. There was a forceful knock on the driver's side of the car window.
Luo Nan was stupefied. During this pause, the person outside directly stomped on the car door. A sharp voice followed. Even the soundproof car body was unable to block it:
"Xie Junping, come out!"