"In short, your task for these two days is to search this street, see if there are any hairs from the disaster beast left under the ruins, or any other unusual things..."
"Unusual things?"
"The power of a disaster beast can affect the surrounding reality, but how it affects depends on the beast... Some disaster beasts just stand there and twist everything nearby, some cause fires, and it's said that the more eerie ones can even control humans... We call this influence a 'Disaster Domain'."
"The higher the level of a disaster beast, the greater the destructive power and range of its Disaster Domain. Generally, we classify all current disaster beasts into levels one to nine, but each level has an alias to intuitively represent their destructive power.
For example, a level nine disaster beast... We usually call it 'World's End'."
"World's End..." Chen Yifei was stunned, "So a level nine disaster beast can really destroy the world?"
"Although it's an exaggeration, it's close to true annihilation... It's said that a World's End-level beast has the power to completely extinguish a human realm." Qian Fan lowered his voice as if remembering something,
"Don't you know?"
"What?"
"Actually, the one that escaped from your District Three the night before last... was a 'World's End'."
"!!!"
Chen Yifei's face turned pale instantly.
"Haha, I'm just kidding with you." Seeing Chen Yifei's reaction, Qian Fan patted his shoulder and laughed, "I heard that the disaster beast pointer in your District Three did explode, which usually only happens when a 'World's End' arrives... But how could that be possible?
It's been nearly a hundred years since the last 'World's End', and if it was really one, District Three would have been annihilated immediately. How could it still be peaceful now?
So, I estimate that it's just a disaster beast whose domain can affect the disaster beast pointer.
Didn't your Hanmeng law enforcers confront it yesterday? They confirmed it was a level five disaster beast, not a World's End... So, don't worry."
Qian Fan stood with his hands on his hips, his face full of smiles.
But Chen Yifei couldn't smile.
As the "culprit" who brutally beat Hanmeng, he understood best what was going on with the "level five" disaster beast in Qian Fan's words.
The "level five" that Hanmeng encountered wasn't really "level five"... It was simply because the 'Audience Expectation Value' was stuck at 14%-15% at that time, and the "audience" that usurped the stage corresponded to the combat power of a level five disaster beast.
And Chen Yifei clearly remembered that the number of "audience" members that escaped at that time was less than one percent of the entire audience...
So what if the "audience" escaped collectively?
Would that mean... a complete 'World's End' would arrive?
Thinking of this, Chen Yifei broke out in a cold sweat.
He had imagined that the disaster beast in the "audience" would be strong, but he didn't expect it to be so strong... It was a super disaster beast with 'World's End' capabilities! A ticking time bomb capable of destroying a human realm!
"Alright, you go to work now." Qian Fan spoke contentedly.
"...Okay."
With Qian Fan's departure, Chen Yifei was left alone on the ruined street.
He took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing the fear in his heart, and began to search through the rubble... No matter what level the "audience" was, they seemed to have to obey the rules of the theater. As long as Chen Yifei kept the 'Audience Expectation Value' above 20%, nothing would go wrong.
[Audience Expectation Value -1]
[Current Expectation Value: 32%]
Two lines of characters emerged from the rubble and vanished instantly.
Since infiltrating as an undercover agent into the law enforcement, the audience expectation value had increased by 10% in one go. However, over time, it was still declining at a steady rate. At the current pace, if he did nothing, it would drop back to 20% within a maximum of 36 hours.
For the next few hours, Chen Yifei searched carefully through the ruins, but he still didn't find any hairs or traces left by the 'Disaster Domain'.
To be honest, Chen Yifei was also curious about what exactly this disaster beast was that had escaped together with his "audience".
"Chen Yifei!"
A voice came from nearby. Chen Yifei, who was searching for clues intently, lifted his head and saw Wu Youdong, his fellow sufferer, walking towards him.
"I heard they said you came early in the morning?" Wu Youdong was sweating profusely. If there were no surprises, he should have walked all the way from District Three on foot. "How did you get here so fast? Didn't you go home?"
"No, something happened."
"Is it related to your brother?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Yifei suddenly lifted his head and asked, "What did you say?"
"Oh, when I came here just now, I passed by your house... and saw Officer Han Meng there, saying he wanted to look for your brother." Wu Youdong wiped his sweat and couldn't help but exclaim, "But brother, your house is worse than mine... with holes in the roof?"
Ignoring Wu Youdong's teasing, Chen Yifei asked again, "Did Han Meng interrogate my brother?"
"No, there was a tall man wearing silver-wired glasses standing inside the house talking to him. I didn't hear what they said clearly, but after just a few words, Officer Han Meng left... without entering the house."
A tall man wearing silver-wired glasses?
Chen Yifei was stunned for a moment, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind... He had actually forgotten about this!
He had previously sent a message to Aurora City, intending to ask that [Doctor] to cure him. Unexpectedly, with so many things happening in the past few days, he had completely forgotten about it... Now it seemed that the [Doctor] had arrived as promised to treat him.
However, wasn't District Three sealed off? How did he get in?
Questions flashed through Chen Yifei's mind. He urgently wanted to go home and see what had happened.
"I won't talk to you anymore. My task is to settle the surviving residents of Bingquan Street, and I have a lot of things to do," Wu Youdong glanced at the time, said goodbye to Chen Yifei, and left in a hurry.
Since Han Meng was distracted, there should be no opportunity to interrogate Chen Muyu, and home was still safe... Chen Yifei thought to himself and quickly walked towards Qian Fan and the others.
The [Doctor] was a completely unknown existence to Chen Yifei, and he didn't dare to let Chen Muyu stay alone with him for too long.
He had to go home, immediately.
Squeak—
Chen Yifei stepped forward and crushed a piece of brick in the ruins. He looked down and saw a faint red color pressed under the fragments.
Chen Yifei frowned slightly, lowered his head to brush off the debris, and the outline of the red color gradually became clear... Seeing the whole thing, his pupils contracted violently.
It was a broken protective charm.
In the corner of the protective charm, two small words were embroidered—
Chen Muyu.