Chapter 147: Panic Spreads

Dammit!

The young policeman recovered, his heart racing, and quickly unlocked the door.

Bang!

The door was forced open.

The young officer lunged forward in a single stride, but the sight before him left his mind blank.

Liao's eyes suddenly widened, the eyeballs bulging as if about to burst out of their sockets.

He opened his mouth, yet no desperate scream could emerge.

The next second.

Turbid fluid spewed simultaneously from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose!

The young policeman didn't even have time to administer first aid, watching helplessly as the boy, in silent, extreme agony, was utterly cut off from life.

His body likewise went limp and weak.

A family of three, wiped out in one night!

This brutally executed, bizarrely staged family massacre, like a massive stone thrown into a calm lake, stirred a huge uproar among the senior executives of the Bu Lie Dian police.

What chilled them further was that.

After reviewing recent files, they were shocked to discover that over a dozen similar mysterious teenage deaths had occurred lately.

All the victims died in their sleep, in various incomprehensible ways.

However, there had never been a precedent like the Liao family, implicating parents and causing such tragic consequences.

A horror beyond scientific explanation was quietly spreading within the police.

"Lately among the youth, an Urban Legend has been circulating,"

Veteran detective Dawei said at the emergency meeting, his complexion paling to the extreme:

"The legend says a nightmare enters people's dreams at night, hunting down the naughty kids who have erred."

"And based on the cases so far... proving this rumor false is extremely difficult."

In the conference room, all senior police officials fell silent.

They realized this had completely exceeded the scope of ordinary crime.

"Seal the information!"

The top official slammed the table hard, his voice trembling with an uncontrollable quiver.

"Until we figure out what the hell this thing is, any related information must not leak! Externally, the narrative will be a malicious home‑invasion robbery murder case!"

"And I will report this matter to the Prime Minister's Office."

—These series of cases quickly reached the senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office, all of whom were alarmed.

And just as the senior Bu Lie Dian police and even the informed Prime Minister's Office were at their wits' end,

a top‑level classified transmission, bypassing all regular channels, arrived at the Prime Minister's Office.

The content of the transmission was extremely brief.

【We propose an emergency closed‑door meeting with you and relevant nations regarding the "Dongdao Crisis" and the "Global New Security Threat".】

Signature: 【Federal Weird Investigation Bureau】.

The Federation, an undisclosed underground secret base.

Inside the massive circular conference hall, the atmosphere was so heavy it seemed you could wring water from it.

Representatives of the Federation, the North American Union, the Bu Lie Dian Empire, and several other major world powers gathered together.

The Federation's delegate was Wei Gong.

He wore a plain Zhongshan suit, sat calmly at the head seat, eyes closed, as if oblivious to the surrounding tension.

Bu Lie Dian's delegate, a middle‑aged man named Kater, appeared distracted, occasionally rubbing his temples, clearly still troubled by domestic oddities.

And the North American Union's Secretary of State Yuehanxun, that hefty white Fatty, crossed his legs, his face full of arrogance and impatience.

In his view, this meeting was the Federation's capitulation under international pressure, a soft‑served banquet of surrender.

He came to receive the Federation's surrender and apology.

"Alright, gentlemen."

Yuehanxun cleared his throat, launched the first attack, his gaze aggressively sweeping toward Wei Gong.

"I think we have no time to waste here. Regarding the Federation's anti‑human crimes in the Dongdao seas, and your unwarranted blockade that caused tens of thousands of our citizens to disappear, shouldn't you provide an immediate explanation?"

His voice echoed in the conference room, full of interrogation and threat.

However, Wei Gong simply opened his eyes slowly.

In those cloudy old eyes, there was not a hint of panic from the questioning, calm as a bottomless ancient well.

He ignored Yuehanxun's outcry, calmly picking up the remote and turning on the projector.

He said lightly:

"Before any explanation, perhaps you all should watch a video."

On the huge screen, the image lit up.

It was footage from street surveillance, filmed on Xinsu street of Dongdao.

The footage had been specially processed; every face and any portrait area was covered with thick black mosaics.

Yet even so, the content was enough to make everyone present feel a visceral unease.

In the footage, countless mosaicked silhouettes contorted in an extremely bizarre manner, either self‑mutilating wildly or attacking each other.

Some hammered their heads against the wall repeatedly until blood gushed.

Others grabbed random sharp objects and frantically stabbed their own bodies.

The entire street turned into a blood‑soaked, mad human inferno.

"Fxxk!"

Johnson's complexion changed, and he sprang to his feet, pointing at the screen and scolding angrily.

"Is this your explanation? Using these forged, crudely made horror video recordings to confuse us? Do you think we are three‑year‑old children!"

However, the Bu Lie Dian representative Carter beside him stared intently at the people's Weird behavior on the screen, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly seeped onto his forehead.

That kind of frantic, utterly illogical self‑destructive behavior......

He had seen something similar through surveillance footage.

That is precisely the horror their country is currently experiencing, which science cannot explain.

Wei Gong did not argue with Johnson.

He simply watched the varied expressions on everyone's faces calmly, and then dropped the first bomb heavy enough to overturn their worldview.

"Everyone."

"The old era has ended."

"In this world, a new, terrifying phenomenon has emerged."

"We will name this phenomenon—"

"'Weird'."

Wei Gong, concise and to the point, used the plainest tone to explain the entire process from the birth of the Laughing Demon to its final Mutation, which ultimately turned the whole Dongdao into a living hell.

He added no subjective embellishment, merely displaying the blood‑stained data and reports on the screen before everyone.

"...... So, sealing off Dongdao is not for imprisonment, but for isolation."

"It is to prevent that world‑destroying terror from spreading beneath all of us."

"It is also to prevent any more ignorant souls from entering that Forbidden Zone of the dead spirits."

When the words fell, the entire conference room fell into death‑like silence.

Johnson's arrogance on his face had long vanished, replaced by a shock mingled with astonishment and absurdity.

Wei Gong gave them little time to digest the information.

He pressed the remote and switched to the next document.

"This is another file contained by the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau."

On the screen appeared a report largely blacked out.

【Sequence 011-■■■■】

【File Content Excerpt】

【Transmission Path: Cognitive Pollution. Any intelligent entity that understands and perceives its existence or killing pattern, whether directly or indirectly, will be marked.】

【Killing Pattern (Excerpt): Dream‑entry hunting of marked individuals who meet the conditions. Targets are...... physically underage individuals bearing 'sin'. Those hunted die in the dream and also die gruesomely in reality.】

When seeing the keywords "cognitive transmission," "dream‑entry hunting," and "minors".

Bu Lie Dian representative Carter shuddered violently, and the color in his face "swished" away cleanly, becoming as pale as paper!

It's that!

It's this thing!

The nightmare that has quietly spread within Bu Lie Dian, already claiming dozens of lives and even causing a whole‑family massacre......!

He jerked his head up, and in his gaze toward Wei Gong was filled with unprecedented horror and fear.

Wei Gong's eyes also fell precisely on him, calm yet bearing an indisputable warning.

"This document, and everything I just said, are top‑level classified, absolutely cannot be disclosed; otherwise, the consequences are your own responsibility."

"Especially regarding 【Sequence 011】."

"Please, everyone, be sure to understand that any discussion, recording, or dissemination of it will cause its further spread."

"Because knowledge...... itself is a curse."

Carter's heart instantly sank to the bottom of a valley.

He recalled the domestic Urban Legend about the "Nightmare," which had been escalating online.

It seems......

It has already spread.