That afternoon, the screams on Frost Street hardly stopped.
However, Chen Ling, the instigator of all this, was sitting quietly under the tree with his head propped up, joining the onlookers around him to watch the "drama"... while keeping an eye on the changes in the [Audience Expectation Value].
In the beginning, when Uncle Zhao spanked Zhao Yi's buttocks, the audience's expectation value would increase slightly. But after several spankings, the increase stagnated and finally settled at 48%.
After watching for a long time, the expectation value dropped by 1%, becoming 47%...
It seemed that the audience was also getting a bit bored.
"Could all those audiences in my head be people just looking for entertainment?"
Chen Ling couldn't help but think.
Through this experiment, Chen Ling was already certain that the audience's expectation value changed according to his own actions. If the events he was experiencing were exciting enough, the expectation value would rise. But once there was no entertainment for a long time, the expectation value would decline over time...
Didn't that mean that if he wanted to keep the expectation value above 20%, he would have to continuously create "exciting plots"?
Today, it was Zhao Yi who provoked him first. Besides, the other party was a bully on Frost Street, so it was understandable to give him a little lesson... but this kind of thing couldn't be done every day, right?
According to this situation, was he destined to become a great villain who brought disaster to the world??
Thinking of this, Chen Ling felt a bit tired...
Currently, the only straw for Chen Ling to grasp was the [Doctor] from Aurora City that Doctor Lin mentioned. Maybe he could remove the calamity pollution in his body and rescue him from this life trajectory of being a "passive entertainer".
While Chen Ling was lost in thought, a low bell sound came from a distance!
Dang——Dang——Dang!!
The three bell rings seemed to penetrate space and reverberate in every corner of the world.
The moment they heard the bell sound, the faces of the people around changed. Even Uncle Zhao, who was chasing and beating Zhao Yi, stopped and looked at the distance in astonishment.
"Three calamity bells?!" An old man's face turned extremely awkwardness. "How could this be possible?"
"The ringing of the calamity bells is a warning signal from the law enforcers, indicating that they have detected the traces of the intersection between the Grey Realm and our world, and a calamity has invaded..."
"Didn't it say that the Aurora Realm is protected by the aurora and hardly intersects with the Grey Realm? In the past ten years, the number of calamities has not exceeded three times..."
"Where is that calamity now?"
"I don't know... Anyway, hurry home! Don't come out unless it's necessary!"
When they heard the three calamity bells ring, everyone's faces turned pale. Zhao Yi, who had just been whipped and was howling in pain, even went weak in the knees and directly knelt on the ground.
The ground under his feet trembled slightly. Chen Ling turned his head and saw more than ten fast horses galloping towards them from a distance.
On each fast horse, there was a figure wearing a black and red uniform. They had pistol holsters slung diagonally around their waists, and their faces were equally solemn.
"A suspected high-risk calamity has emerged! The entire Third District is under full blockade! No one is allowed to enter or leave!!"
"Pay attention to all suspicious signs around you, such as roads or buildings that appear out of thin air, mysterious creatures with strange appearances, and even humans with abnormal behaviors and manners!!"
"If you find anything unusual, report it to the law enforcers immediately!!"
"Everyone, please cooperate with the investigation!!"
The voices of the law enforcers echoed in Frost Street and every corner of the Third District. Along with the lingering sound of the calamity bells in the air, an inexplicable sense of tension enveloped the world.
At this moment, no one had the mood to watch the "drama" anymore. Everyone rushed home in a hurry. Even Zhao Yi, after getting a big slap on the face, was dragged into the house by his father while being scolded.
Chen Ling stood alone under the tree and was also about to go home. Just then, two lines of characters flashed in the pile of fallen leaves——
[Audience Expectation Value +18]
[Current Expectation Value: 65%]
Seeing the sudden surge in the audience expectation value, Chen Ling was stunned.
The next moment, a thought that made his hair stand on end suddenly flashed into his mind...
"They... couldn't be coming for me, could they?!"
...
The Third District.
The Law Enforcers' Headquarters.
The dim sunlight passed through the hemispherical glazed dome, and the colorful glimmers refracted down to illuminate the interior of the room.
A flag more than ten meters long was hung high in the center by ropes. On the pitch-black background, two cyan hexagonal star emblems overlapped each other, resembling the shining stars in the Arctic night sky.
At this moment, under the flag, more than a dozen law enforcers in black and red uniforms looked serious. They stood upright in a row, facing the direction of the headquarters' main gate, as if waiting for something.
As the gate opened, five law enforcement officers wearing black windbreakers walked in side by side.
Among the five people, Han Meng was in the middle. There were four silver patterns engraved on the hem of his windbreaker, while the other four people only had three patterns. With their arrival, all the law enforcers present stood at attention simultaneously.
"How's the situation?" Han Meng asked in a deep voice.
"The calamity bell has already rung. The Third District is currently under a full blockade, but there's still no trace of that calamity..." After hesitating for a moment, a law enforcer couldn't help but ask, "Brother Meng, what does it mean that the calamity pointer self-destructed?"
"There are only two situations for the self-destruction of the calamity pointer," Han Meng said calmly.
"The first situation is that there is a special calamity descending around. The ability of this special calamity just happens to make the calamity pointer ineffective... However, this explanation only exists in theory. So far, no such calamity has been discovered."
"The second situation is that there is a Grade Nine calamity... that is, the so-called 'world-destroying' grade calamity invading. The residual energy fluctuations exceed the limit that the pointer can withstand, and it explodes automatically."
"World-destroying... world-destroying grade??" Everyone's faces turned pale.
"Don't be so nervous... You don't really think a 'world-destroying' calamity will come, do you?" The law enforcement officer beside Han Meng chuckled.
"A 'world-destroying' grade calamity is something that can exterminate an entire human realm. There are only a few of them in the entire Grey Realm... If a 'world-destroying' calamity really came, not to mention the Third District, I'm afraid even Aurora City would be reduced to ashes the moment it arrived."
Hearing this, everyone finally let out a sigh of relief...
"So, it should just be a special 'calamity'?"
"This is the only explanation for now."
"But the calamity pointer is broken. How can we rate it?"
"We can't rate it." Han Meng shook his head. "Unless it shows up again and then we engage with it... The most important thing now is to mobilize all our personnel for a carpet search and find it before it starts hurting people on its own initiative."
"A carpet search... But we may not have enough personnel."
"Then temporarily call in the reserve law enforcers. Didn't the written test end a few days ago? Gather the group of people who passed and tell them that this is the martial arts test."
"Yes!"