That same night.
Raphael City was a remote inland city on the Western Continent with a population of only six hundred thousand.
On the outskirts of the city sat a row of abandoned shacks. Streetlights that had long fallen into disrepair cast dim glows only a few meters around.
The absence of any human presence combined with the gloomy surroundings lent the area an incredibly eerie atmosphere.
“Roar!” A low growl echoed from the middle abandoned shack.
Clack!
A slender red hand reached out from the doorway, and a two-meter-tall Specter with a flat head, a bright red body, and a belly bloated to nearly a meter wide stepped out.
This roar triggered a chain reaction as the sounds of more Specters echoed from the other shacks.
Bizarrely shaped Specters emerged one after another. Not only Specters, but Evil Spirits also appeared in the sky.
The number of Evil Spirits continued to grow as so many monsters gathered together.
The very air in the area shifted, dispersing a peculiar scent that only Specters and Evil Spirits could detect.
This scent drew even more Specters and Evil Spirits from further away, causing them to gather in this direction.
A night later.
Thousands of Specters and Evil Spirits had gathered on the outskirts of Raphael City. Their eyes gleamed crimson as they stared at the city ahead, practically trembling with anticipation.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Heavy thuds echoed from the distance. Next to a fifteen-story building, a five-to-six-meter-long human-headed lizard covered in silver scales appeared.
Long black hair fell over its human head, revealing only the middle portion of its face.
Wisdom gleamed in its silver, slit-pupil eyes. It opened its mouth and rasped in a low voice, “Time to eat!”
“Ah!”
“Eat!”
“So hungry!”
Intelligent specters possessed a natural authority over non-intelligent Specters and Evil Spirits. With this command, the thousands of gathered Specters threw back their heads and roared.
The next second, all the Specters charged toward the city, their roars and heavy footsteps echoing continuously.
There were no supernatural beings here, no heavily armed garrison, and no King of Specters to devour them. For them, this was a feast.
A few kilometers away, a black-and-white police car sat parked on the roadside.
“Ahhh!” A bizarre screech suddenly rang out.
Inside the car, a Black inspector suddenly opened his eyes, a look of confusion on his face. “Who's barking like a dog?”
When he turned his head toward the side window, his expression changed drastically.
A pitch-black, 1.5-meter-tall sausage specter stood right outside the driver's side door.
Shatter!
The window shattered. The sausage specter thrust its head inside and grabbed the Black man's head with both hands.
Then, its black mouth split open, pressing directly against the inspector's lips.
Just as the inspector reached for his gun in sheer terror, a terrifying suction force suddenly erupted from his mouth.
Squelch!
His flesh and bones dissolved into liquid, sucked straight out of his mouth and into the black sausage specter's body.
A minute later, the black sausage specter released its grip and turned to walk away.
In the driver's seat, only the deflated skin of the Black inspector wearing an inspector's uniform remained.
In a dark, third-floor room nearby, a young white girl held her phone, recording this scene with a face full of terror.
“Ah! Help me! Someone save me! There are Specters!” At that moment, a despairing scream echoed from the street.
She quickly turned her phone camera. A young white man was running down the street, tears streaming down his face.
Rapid footsteps pounded behind the young man.
A three-meter-tall humanoid Specter rushed out and grabbed him.
“Hehehe... despairing food... tastes the best...” It grabbed the young man's legs with both hands and ripped them apart as he shrieked and struggled.
Rip!
The young white man was torn in half, his internal organs spilling all over the ground.
On the third floor, tears welled up in the girl's eyes, driven entirely by sheer terror.
She panned her phone across other areas. Screams and the silhouettes of Specters were multiplying rapidly.
Terrifying Specters several meters tall walked down her street, and some even seemed to sense something, turning their heads to look up at the third floor.
Seeing only darkness, they turned back and walked away.
Inside the third-floor room, the girl crouched beneath the window, covering her mouth with one hand, not daring to make even the slightest sound.
“I'm in Raphael City, the Principality of Duncan. A lot of Specters suddenly appeared here! Someone please save us!” Once the Specters outside had drifted further away, she suppressed her terror, turned the camera toward herself, and spoke in a trembling voice.
Under the moonlight, the phone screen could barely capture her face. Even so, she didn't dare turn on the lights; with so many Specters outside, turning on a light was a death sentence.
Just as she finished speaking and was about to press send, a dark shadow suddenly appeared in the corner of the video.
Under the moonlight, only a blurry, two-meter-tall silhouette could be seen. The only clear feature was its malevolent eyes.
“Ahhh!”
A terrified scream rang out from the room, and the phone fell to the ground.
The video had been sent in the struggle, and a few seconds later, the upload was successful.
The video was quickly noticed.
In a city within the Coalition, a middle-aged man looked at the titleless video and sneered. “Which kid or old geezer posted this? They're just polluting the internet day in and day out.”
He clicked on the video, and within three seconds, his expression froze. “A Specter video!”
The camera angle captured an inspector being attacked by a Specter from a high angle. Such videos weren't rare on the internet nowadays.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man's expression grew serious. “Two Specters in one place... With this kind of density, the locals are in deep trouble.”
However, the latter half of the video made his pupils dilate as sheer horror washed over his face. He watched as Specters paraded down the street below.
He leaped out of his seat, crying out in disbelief, “So many Specters! What on earth is happening?!”
There were simply too many. It was the most Specters he had ever seen in a single video.
The final cry for help made him realize the gravity of the situation. He quickly exited the video, intending to look up where the city was.
Instead, he saw that the video had already gone viral. The view count was skyrocketing, and comments were pouring in.
FishingJack: “The poster can't be reached anymore. They've probably been eaten by the Specters.”
Circus: “This is too terrifying. That shadow at the end of the video is definitely not human. It seems Raphael City doesn't have any powerful supernatural beings or garrisons!”
ToughGuy: “Where is the Demon Hunting Association? Go save them! If no supernatural beings go to deal with this many Specters, who's going to save them?”
gay: “So scary! Big brother ToughGuy, please protect me!”
LordProtectsMankind: “Heavens, has the Lord abandoned us? First, four million people died in Hama City, then politicians of various countries were gunned down in the streets, and now so many Specters are appearing without anyone to stop them. Are we humans destined to become livestock?”
EarthMotherAbove: “Fuck you to the guy above. Your Lord is an evil god! Only by believing in the Earth Mother will you find a way to survive. The Earth Mother will grant her believers the power to protect themselves!”
The internet erupted into chaos, and panic began to spread.
On the second floor of the Hexagon Palace, Tang Yongyun leaned back against the sofa, his eyes half-closed.
Jiang Nan sat beside him, scrolling through the escalating public outcry online. “Big brother, when are we going to make our move?”
When they were alone, she still habitually called him big brother.
“We just need to wait for a few more cities to be slaughtered by Specters. Only when the panic reaches its peak, with no official authorities or supernatural beings stepping in, will people start pinning their hopes on something intangible,” Tang Yongyun said coldly.
Taking control of the Coalition and gathering all the supernatural beings of the Western Continent was done precisely so that when people faced an irresistible calamity, they would have no choice but to pin their hopes on intangible gods.
Only in this way could the Jesus he prepared be quickly promoted, stealing believers from mainstream religions.
“But wait, big brother, the Church of the Earth Mother is being too active online. This is the Western Continent; are they trying to stretch their hands over here?” As the public outcry grew, Jiang Nan even saw several members of the Church of the Earth Mother openly proselytizing online.
Hearing this, Tang Yongyun opened his eyes, his face turning icy. “Reaping the fruits of others' labor has become a tradition of their church, but they actually dare to stretch their hands into my territory.”
The Church of the Earth Mother had to be suppressed. Otherwise, how could he proceed with his plans?
“Completely ban all online accounts related to the Church of the Earth Mother. Notify Buck and Bai Yuwen to lead their men in hunting down members of the Church of the Earth Mother. Kill them on sight,” Tang Yongyun ordered.
Jiang Nan quickly noted it down. “Got it!”
The night passed, and dawn broke.
In the skies above Raphael City, several gunships that had just received permission to deploy appeared.
In one of the helicopters, the cabin door was open. Green stared down at the city, his face darkening. “These damn monsters!”
The entire city was burning. Blood, flesh, and half-eaten corpses littered the streets.
The sound of the helicopters also disturbed the remaining Specters below.
They looked up, staring malevolently at the aircraft.
“Lord Green, the armored units have finished assembling. Shall we enter the city to purge them?” an officer beside Green asked respectfully.
“Begin the purge! We must slaughter all these Specters and give the Coalition an explanation!” Green shouted.
“Understood. Helicopter squadron, open fire immediately and clear out the Specters!” the officer ordered into his radio.
With the order dispatched, the helicopters circling overhead began strafing the Specters below.
The large-caliber autocannons easily shredded Tier 1 Specters.
At the city entrance, tanks and armored vehicles rolled in. Half a day later, the outcome of the battle in Raphael City was posted online.
【Specters Slaughter a City: Not a Single Soul Spared in a City of 600,000!】
At the same time, in a seaside villa on the East Continent.
Zhao Jin frowned slightly as he sensed everything happening around the globe. If this continues, no matter how fast humans reproduce, they won't be able to keep up with the rate at which these supernatural beings are decimating the population.
He had to find a new way to increase the population. Otherwise, the growth rate of his Destiny Force would decline.
Rate on N.U.
