I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

three days later.

The roar of the propellers gradually subsided, and the plane landed steadily on the runway of the port city international airport.

……

Outside the porthole, it seemed as if the room was immersed in a layer of unyielding ashes, and the midday sun was completely obscured by dark clouds.

Everything in the world seemed to be covered with a layer of matte finish.

The sea breeze, mixed with the smell of paper ash, seeped in through the gaps in the cabin, causing Chen Xi to cough.

"Cough cough."

She unbuckled her seatbelt, stood up, and grabbed her tactical backpack from above her head with swift and decisive movements.

"Check your equipment: psionic detector, emergency charm, first-aid kit, lighting equipment—don't forget anything."

The people in the cabin immediately began to take inventory.

Besides the technical staff, there were five players in total, all of whom were elite personnel selected by the Special Investigation Bureau.

Jiang Chen, an unawakened professional gamer, has experienced the "Huang Laotai's Birthday" dungeon.

Lin Jianguo, an awakened player, is a cowherd. He can predict risks by observing animal reactions and can briefly gain the vision of cattle. He has experienced the "Huang Laotai's Birthday" dungeon.

Zheng Wenxuan, an awakened player, is a professional alchemist. Every six hours, he can refine a "Marrow Cleansing Pill" to remove normal abnormal statuses from teammates.

Wang Lei, an unawakened player with no class, has experienced the two dungeons "Taiping Cemetery" and "Huang Laotai's Birthday".

Kang Xiaojia, an awakened player, is a [Physician] with expertise in pharmacology. She can identify common herbs and reduces the consumption of healing items by 15%.

Finally, there's Chen Xi himself, an awakened player, class [Constable], whose passive skill [Heavenly Justice] increases all damage dealt to targets tagged with "evil," "evil spirits," or "ghosts" by 25% and extends the duration of control skills by 30%.

Furthermore, she will permanently gain 1 point of attack power for each enemy target she successfully kills, up to a maximum of 1.

……

……

……

"Notice."

Chen Xi zipped up his backpack and warned his teammates:

"The fact that the Hong Kong police were forced to request emergency assistance shows that the concentration of psionic energy in Hong Kong is not low, so everyone should be on high alert."

This is very likely an unknown instance with unclear rules, so be careful.

"Understood," the group responded in hushed tones.

The hatch opened, and a humid, hot breeze carrying the smell of paper ash rushed in.

The group walked down the gangway one by one. The terminal building in the distance was shrouded in fog, leaving only a blurry outline.

The staff on the tarmac were all wearing masks and walking briskly.

No one was chatting; everyone's face was tense, as if they were being chased by something unseen.

……

……

The cars that were supposed to pick me up were already waiting at the jet bridge entrance; there were three black seven-seater minivans with dark tinted windows.

A middle-aged man in a dark suit was standing next to the car.

His hair was neatly combed, but sweat from his forehead stuck stray hairs to his skin. His tie was crooked by half an inch, and he had dark circles under his eyes and looked disheveled.

"Madam Chan, I am Lee Wai Ming, Senior Assistant to the Chief Secretary for Administration, and I am in charge of handling this case."

The man immediately stepped forward, extended his hand to shake hands, his Cantonese-accented Mandarin broken and interspersed with English words:

"Thank you so much, your arrival is just in time, we really can't hold on any longer."

"Assistant Li."

Chen Xi reached out and shook hands; the other person's palms were sweaty, and he immediately realized that the crisis in Hong Kong was far more complex than he had imagined.

"We'll discuss the details in the car."

"Alright, alright, let's talk in the car." Li Weiming and his subordinate quickly opened the car door and invited everyone to get in one by one.

……

……

The car drove away from the airport and headed towards the city.

The fog on the road grew thicker and the visibility decreased.

The driver was driving very slowly, and even though it was the middle of the day, he had the fog lights on.

The yellow light carved two holes in the hazy air.

The researchers held the testing equipment, their fingers flying across the keyboard, the values ​​on the screen jumping rapidly, the red line soaring upwards.

He pushed up his glasses, looking incredulous.

"Chen Ke, the psionic energy concentration is still rising. It's currently at level 8.7, which has reached the threshold for a B-level dungeon, and this value is still increasing at a rate of 0.2 per hour."

He had only ever seen such a high concentration of psionic energy at the Tokyo Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

How come the port city is still safe and sound?

How did you do that?

"Grade B..." Chen Xi tapped his knee with his fingertips: "Higher than expected."

What was initially thought to be a missing person case related to the dungeon seems to be more complex than it appears.

The car window was half open, and the wind felt sticky against my arm.

Kang Xiaojia leaned against the window and looked out, whispering, "Chen Ke, the people on the street... they all look very angry."

Chen Xi followed her gaze.

Two men were pointing fingers and hurling insults at each other in front of a roadside tea restaurant.

"Are you walking without eyes? You spilled my cup of milk tea!"

"You put it on the table yourself and didn't watch it properly, and now you're blaming me? That's ridiculous!"

The two men's insults escalated, and they started fighting. A patrol officer on the street rushed over, whistling, sweating profusely and looking anxious.

Passersby walked around it with cold faces, as if it were none of their business.

Further ahead, a taxi driver was leaning out of the window, yelling at pedestrians crossing the street, honking his horn deafeningly.

"You're so slow! Why don't you hurry up and reincarnate?"

The pedestrians weren't going to back down either. They turned around and said something, and the driver opened the car door and got out to fight, with the passenger in the front seat holding him back tightly.

Most of the shops along the street were open, but the shop assistants didn't have friendly expressions.

People on the street accidentally bumped into each other, and the next second they started tearing at each other.

Wherever it went, it was like a powder keg, ready to explode at the slightest spark.

"It's all yin energy."

Lin Jianguo activated his skill, watching the wisps of black mist filling the air. The next second, he closed his eyes, and his eyeballs returned to normal.

"Why is there so much yin energy gathering? This isn't normal, is it? If people stay in this kind of environment for a long time, having nightmares at night is the least of their worries; they'll just become more and more irritable."

Yes, yes.

Sitting in the front row, Li Weiming gave a wry smile and continued the conversation:

"In the past few days, the number of complaints in Hong Kong has tripled, with fights, domestic disputes, and street conflicts happening non-stop."

The police station is short-staffed, so all of them have been sent out on patrol.

Everyone was extremely irritable, arguing for no reason. The doctor said it was collective anxiety, but we knew in our hearts that it was inextricably linked to this fog and the paper money used for offerings to the dead.

"What about paper money?" Chen Xi asked.

Mentioning this made Li Weiming's expression even more unpleasant:

"Three days ago, around 4 a.m., the Observatory suddenly detected a large patch of dark clouds gathering over the city, a dark and gloomy area, in the Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Central districts."

He gestured with his fingers, his expression showing lingering fear:

"Less than half an hour later, paper money started falling from the sky. It was golden and round, similar to the paper money burned during Qingming Festival, but the paper was different."

"At first, the police thought it was a prank and sent a drone up to take pictures."

As soon as the drone entered the clouds, all the instruments malfunctioned, the control system completely failed, and it crashed!

The fire department sent helicopters up later, but the same thing happened. As soon as they entered the fog, all the data was lost, and the engines shut down. All three helicopters crashed into the sea. Luckily, the pilots ejected, so no one was killed.

"Is it available throughout Hong Kong?"

Chen Xi felt that this situation was somewhat similar to the signs that preceded the Tokyo Night Parade of One Hundred Demons:

"Besides this, is there anything else unusual?"

"Copper coins are everywhere!"

Li Weiming emphasized:

"It's falling everywhere—on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and even out to sea. It's scattered everywhere, and you can't sweep it all up. The Department of Health staff are sweeping from morning till night, but it just keeps falling. It's just never-ending."

The car just drove into the bustling downtown area of ​​Mong Kok.

Now everyone could see it more clearly.

Under the gloomy sky, scattered golden coins drifted down like autumn leaves, slowly swirling and falling.

If you ignore the background, it actually looks quite aesthetically pleasing.

When pedestrians saw the paper money, they all avoided it as if it were a plague.

The once bustling sidewalk will automatically split into two sides and go around a piece of paper money that has fallen in the middle of the road.

Like Moses parting the sea, a small open space was left in the middle, and no one dared to approach it.

A health department vehicle was parked by the roadside, and several staff members wearing full white protective suits and gas masks were using long tongs to collect paper money.

The movements were as light as defusing a bomb. After each one was removed, someone would immediately use an instrument to scan the ground for a long time to make sure there were no residues before leaving.

An elderly woman passing by, carrying groceries, stopped immediately upon seeing the paper money, clasped her hands together, and bowed in prayer.

"Don't be surprised if it's strange, kids don't know the world..."

After she finished bowing, she quickly led her grandson around the temple.

……

……

"The public reaction has been very strong."

Li Weiming sighed: "There are all sorts of rumors online, such as the opening of the gates of the underworld, the passage of ghostly soldiers, and the end of the world. There are all sorts of rumors."

The Wong Tai Sin Temple and Che Kung Temple were packed with people; everyone was skipping work to go and pray for peace.

The most urgent issue is the number of missing persons; as of this morning, there are already 902.

"Nine hundred and two people are missing?" Chen Xi gasped. "In just three days?"

"Yes, and it's still increasing."

Li Weiming added, "All the missing people have one thing in common—they all picked up paper money that fell from the sky."

After picking it up, the person disappeared in the early hours of that night.

Indoors, on the street, in the subway—a perfectly healthy person can just disappear without a trace.

"Then I have reason to suspect that these paper coins are the tickets to the copy."

Chen Xi's expression was far from pleasant: "We can consider it a dungeon."

The liaison personnel in the port city turned pale instantly.

—Everyone knows about the Tokyo Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

The physical monsters wreaked havoc in the real world, and the Self-Defense Forces had to use heavy weapons to barely control the situation.

Not only were there heavy casualties, but the Tokyo incident has not been completely resolved to this day.

This is also what the Hong Kong police are most worried about—the fear that the dungeon will directly descend upon Hong Kong, which would be a catastrophic disaster.

……

……

The chauffeured van circled Mong Kok again and again before the Special Investigations Bureau researchers finally located an unfinished building based on the concentration of psionic energy.

As soon as they got close, the players received a notification that they were in a queue for the dungeon.

[Player Chen Xi's team detected, requesting entry into the dungeon "Ghost in the Harbor".]

Current number of players in the instance: 6/50

Please wait patiently in line until a seat becomes available. You will be automatically moved to a seat once one becomes available.

[Queueing order: 1]

[Notification: No entry item detected.]

……

……

"Found it."

Chen Xi stared at the unfinished building, his tone heavy.

The prompts clearly show that of the fifty players who went in the previous batch, only six are still alive.

However, the number of people in the instance does not match the nine hundred people who disappeared in Hong Kong.

So where did the rest of the missing people go?