That afternoon, the screams on Cold Frost Street barely stopped.
Yet Chen Yifei, the initiator of all this, sat quietly under a tree, supporting his head and eating melon with the surrounding crowd... while keeping an eye on the changes in the "Audience Expectation Value."
At the beginning, when Uncle Zhao spanked Zhao Yi, the audience expectation value would increase slightly, but after a few times, the growth stagnated, ultimately settling at 48%.
After watching for a while longer, the expectation value actually dropped by 1%, becoming 47%...
It seemed that the audience was also getting somewhat bored.
"Could it be that the audience in my head aren't all just trolls?"
Chen Yifei couldn't help but think.
Through this experiment, Chen Yifei had already determined that the audience's expectation value changed based on his own actions. If the event he was experiencing was sufficiently exciting, the expectation value would rise, and if there wasn't any fun for a long time, the expectation value would decrease as time passed...
Didn't that mean that if he wanted to maintain the expectation value above 20%, he would have to continuously create "exciting plots"?
Today, Zhao Yi provoked him first, and plus, the other party was a bully on Cold Frost Street, so it was understandable to give him a little lesson... but this kind of thing couldn't be done every day, right?
If this continued, wouldn't he be destined to become a great evil who brought calamity to the world??
Thinking of this, Chen Yifei felt somewhat mentally exhausted...
The only lifeline for Chen Yifei now was the doctor from Aurora City that Dr. Lin had mentioned. Maybe he could eliminate whatever calamity pollution was inside his body and rescue him from the life trajectory of a "passive troll."
Just as Chen Yifei was deep in thought, a deep bell toll came from afar!
Clang—Clang—Clang!!
Three bell tolls, as if they could penetrate space, reverberated in every corner of the heavens and earth.
At the instant they heard the bell tolls, the faces of the surrounding people changed. Even Uncle Zhao, who was chasing Zhao Yi, stopped and looked toward the distance with surprise.
"Three calamity bells?!" An elderly person's face looked extremely ugly. "How could this be possible?"
"The tolling of the calamity bell is a warning signal given by the law enforcers, indicating that they have detected traces of the Gray Realm intersecting within the major district, and a calamity has invaded..."
"Isn't it said that the Aurora Realm is protected by the aurora and almost never intersects with the Gray Realm? In the past ten years, the number of calamities hasn't exceeded three..."
"Where is that calamity now?"
"I don't know... Just hurry home! Don't go out unless it's necessary!"
Upon hearing the three calamity bells, everyone's faces turned uniformly pale. Zhao Yi, who had just been screaming in pain, felt his legs go weak and knelt directly on the ground.
The ground beneath their feet trembled slightly. Chen Yifei turned his head and saw more than ten fast horses galloping from afar.
Each fast horse had a figure riding on it, wearing a black and red uniform. They had pistol holsters slung across their waists, and their faces were equally grave.
"A suspected high-risk calamity has appeared! The entire Third District is under lockdown! No one is allowed to enter or exit!!"
"Be vigilant for any suspicious signs around you, such as roads or buildings that appear out of nowhere, mysterious creatures with strange appearances, or even humans behaving abnormally!!"
"If you discover anything unusual, report it immediately to the law enforcers!!"
"Everyone, please cooperate with the investigation!!"
The voices of the law enforcers echoed through Cold Frost Street and every corner of the Third District. Accompanied by the lingering sound of the calamity bell in the air, an inexplicable tension enveloped the world.
At this moment, no one was interested in eating melons anymore. Everyone was rushing home. Even Zhao Yi, after receiving a big slap, was dragged into the house by his father's scolding.
Chen Yifei stood alone under the tree, preparing to head home as well. Just then, two lines of text flashed in the pile of fallen leaves:
[Audience Expectation +18]
[Current Expectation: 65%]
Seeing the sudden increase in audience expectation, Chen Yifei was taken aback.
In the next instant, a chilling thought suddenly popped into his mind...
"Could it be... that they're coming for me?!"
...
District Three.
Enforcer Headquarters.
The dim sunlight passed through the hemispherical glass dome, refracting a speckled glow that illuminated the indoor space.
A flag tens of meters long was hung high in the center by ropes. On its black background, two cyan hexagonal star patterns overlapped, resembling shining stars in the Arctic night sky.
At this moment, below the flag, more than ten enforcers dressed in black and red uniforms stood solemnly, forming a straight line facing the entrance of the headquarters, as if waiting for something.
As the door opened, five enforcers clad in black windbreakers walked in together.
Among them, Han Meng walked in the center, with four silver stripes etched onto the hem of his windbreaker, while the other four only had three stripes. Upon their arrival, all the enforcers present stood at attention simultaneously.
"What's the situation?" Han Meng asked in a deep voice.
"The Disaster Bell has been rung. District Three is currently under full lockdown, but there's no trace of that calamity yet..." One enforcer hesitated for a moment before asking, "Meng, what does the self-destruction of the Calamity Pointer mean?"
"There are only two situations where the Calamity Pointer would self-destruct," Han Meng said calmly.
"The first is when a special calamity descends nearby, and its ability happens to cause the Calamity Indicator to fail... However, this explanation only exists in theory. So far, we haven't discovered any calamity of this kind."
"The second is when a level-nine calamity, also known as an 'Extinction'-level calamity, invades nearby, and its residual energy fluctuations exceed the pointer's tolerance limit, causing it to explode automatically."
"What?! An Extinction-level calamity?!" Everyone's faces turned pale.
"Don't be so tense... You don't really think an 'Extinction' will descend, do you?" The enforcer beside Han Meng chuckled.
"An 'Extinction'-level calamity is capable of annihilating a whole human domain. There are only a few such calamities in the entire Gray Realm... If an 'Extinction' really descends, forget about District Three, even Aurora City would be obliterated in an instant."
Hearing this, everyone finally relaxed...
"So, it's just a special 'calamity'?"
"Currently, that's the only explanation."
"But the Calamity Pointer is broken. How are we going to rate it?"
"It can't be rated." Han Meng shook his head. "Unless it appears again and we engage with it... Now, the most important thing is to mobilize all manpower for a thorough search and find it before it harms anyone."
"A thorough search... But we might not have enough manpower."
"Then temporarily call upon the reserve enforcers. Didn't the written test end a few days ago? Gather those who passed and tell them this is the practical test."
"Yes!"