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

"Um, your teammates... are they... not human players?"

Yang Asha's voice was very low, as if she were asking something very important.

Song Mo did not deny it: "Yes, I heard that non-human players can now legally register."

Yang Asha nodded: "That's possible, but this is the first time I've ever seen non-human players besides... Are they ghosts? They look no different from humans!"

Song Mo, however, keenly noticed the words Yang Asha had swallowed and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Has the Special Investigation Bureau started recruiting non-human players?

This is really good news.

"I'm familiar with the registration center."

Yang Asha enthusiastically offered, "Sometimes our department handles these matters. Non-human registration requires proof of residence and a specific guarantor player."

You can hitch a ride with us. Traffic is restricted right now, so regular cars can't get out."

Song Mo smiled and thanked him, "Okay."

……

……

……

The player registration center of the Investigation Bureau is usually very busy.

But the number of players registering today is simply overwhelming.

—The aftereffects of the mass production of Ghost Festival copies.

With the increase in dungeons, the number of players has surged, and correspondingly, the number of players with specific classes is also steadily increasing.

All the lights in the hall were on, making every face look like a freshly steamed bun.

Some people were squatting in the corner of the lobby filling out forms, some were standing in the aisle making phone calls, and some were arguing with the people next to them.

Strange yet perfectly natural sights everywhere:

An old man dressed in old-fashioned funeral clothes, without feet, sat in the waiting area, his face as white as if he had applied powder.

A boy who looks like a high school student has a glossy black bird perched on his shoulder, and the two of them are watching videos on their phones.

A pug was crouching in the crowd, wearing a small blue tie around its neck.

A cat with two tails was lying on the stool next to the dog, meowing and swearing at it.

The pug barked once in response, and the cat stretched out its paw.

A staff member came forward and separated the two. The staff member seemed used to this, simply typing on the keyboard and saying:

"Those who need to queue for registration, please be quiet and don't disturb others."

The cat and dog glared at each other, and surprisingly, they stopped arguing.

Further inside, a monk in a gray robe was standing in front of a ticket machine, hesitating about which button to press.

Next to him stood an old tree stump, its roots still coiled on the ground, as if it had just been uprooted.

The tree stump was arguing with a young man wearing glasses next to it.

The tree stump had no mouth, yet it made a sound from somewhere unknown:

"I don't care. Home is where I was born. You can't stop me from registering just because I don't have an ID card."

The young man looked utterly distraught: "No, ma'am, sir, I've told you so many times, non-human players must be guarantors by a human player for registration, and they also need a specific residential address—"

Addresses like "to the left of the third big rock in Lover's Lake" don't follow the correct format!

The tree stump snorted, clearly somewhat unconvinced.

The number of non-human players has also increased.

Song Mo nodded thoughtfully.

……

……

All the players are talking about the "moon".

"I told you there was something wrong with the moon! But you wouldn't believe me! What moon blinks? Tell me, is there really something living on the moon?"

"Dude, that thing definitely flew out of the dungeon! You didn't look up, but I saw the mantis fly right above your head, chewing on half an arm!"

"Could it be some new dungeon? Hasn't the Special Investigation Bureau issued any announcements?"

"It's out. They say a few idiots brought the mantises out of the dungeon, but then they encountered a lunar anomaly, and the mantises quickly multiplied and mutated."

"This world is hopeless. I told you long ago that spiritual energy is reviving. Living on the same planet with idiots is bound to cause big trouble. And you guys still laugh at me for hoarding canned food."

"Who would be stupid enough to take something like this out of the dungeon?! I heard someone even tried to take a ghost out of the dungeon a while ago."

"Hey, do you guys think the moon could also be a duplicate creature? Like a really big... eye?"

"Are you crazy? What about the sun? What about the stars? Let's all just give up and kill ourselves."

"Don't panic, don't panic, the authorities are definitely prepared. Anyway, things are going to change after tonight."

"The weather's changing? We don't even know if that thing in the sky is the moon!"

"I think the moon is dead, and the ones blinking now are aliens."

……

At the end of the Song Dynasty, he didn't listen carefully, but only observed his surroundings.

Ah Yan listened intently, occasionally letting out a soft "Wow!" as if she were listening to a storyteller.

CCTV news is being broadcast on the electronic screen.

The screen was enormous, and the sound was blasting. Everyone in the registration center, no matter what they were doing, would glance up at it every now and then.

On the screen is aerial footage from a helicopter. Under the gray-white skyline, the camera pans down to reveal endless urban ruins.

The building looked like it had been run over by something; it was in ruins with exposed steel bars and black smoke rising from several places.

The roads turned into black cracks, winding their way into deeper blocks of the city.

There was nothing on the street.

There were no monsters, no living people, it was completely empty, a dead city.

……

"This is Tokyo."

The female reporter, wearing a white helmet, sat at the helicopter door; the wind was so strong that it whipped her hair back.

"What we are seeing now is Tokyo after the copy has come to life."

Aerial footage shows that the high walls built by the Japanese government are not yet complete, and many buildings in the city center remain destroyed. However, the enormous, aberrant creatures that once inhabited the city center appear to have disappeared.

The reporter paused for a moment and pressed down on the headset:

"The exact reason is still unclear, but it is speculated that the disappearance of these unusual creatures may be related to this 'lunar anomaly.' Let's now turn the camera to the studio."

……

The hall gradually quieted down, and many people looked up.

Even the pug standing on the bench in the waiting area stretched its neck and let out a "yes" sound.

The camera cuts back to the studio, where the host looks serious, showing no signs of fatigue from broadcasting the news late at night.

Two people were sitting in the guest seats. The elderly man wore old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses and had his hair neatly combed, looking like an expert who had just been invited out of a university lecture hall.

Next to her was another woman, younger than the host and the experts, sitting very upright with her lips pursed into a line.

A line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen:

[Chen Xi, Special Observer for this station and Head of the Operations Section of the Special Investigation Bureau.]

……

……

The host turned to the side and spoke a little faster:

"Thank you to our reporter Han Xue for the live report. We have specially invited Ms. Chen Xi, head of the Operations Section of the Special Investigation Bureau, to explain the relevant situation of tonight's lunar anomaly."

Hello, Section Chief Chen.

We have noticed a large number of rumors circulating online that the lunar anomaly is related to this mantis attack, while others say that this mantis-like creature attack was spread by humans.

Can you give us a clear answer?

"Hello, host."

Chen Xi looked directly at the camera: "Based on the data we have so far, there is no direct connection between the lunar anomaly and the mantis attack."

"No direct connection?" The host was slightly taken aback.

"The mechanism behind the lunar anomaly is still under investigation, but the source of the mantis attack has been identified."

Several players took the Orchid Mantis egg case out of the dungeon without reporting it to the Special Investigation Bureau.

Because these individuals traveled to different cities, mantises escaped and hatched simultaneously in multiple locations. Currently, all the players involved have been apprehended. This incident was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one.

The host's eyes widened for a moment: "So, this was entirely due to the player's negligence?"

Chen Xi: "This is a violation, and stricter biosafety regulations will be introduced in the future."

The host paused, then turned a page of his prepared remarks:

"We have noticed that the moon is unusual tonight, and it has been witnessed in many parts of the world."

Videos have surfaced in London, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo.

Does the Special Investigation Bureau have any further explanation for why the moon exhibits a "twinking"-like change?

Chen Xi was silent for two seconds.

The host didn't urge her, but just pushed the microphone a little more towards her.

"Actually, a hypothesis has been proposed within the Special Investigation Bureau."

Chen Xi suddenly looked up at the camera, as if trying to see through it to someone: "It's called the 'Dungeon Blocking Theory'."

"This hypothesis suggests that the existence of copies may be beneficial to humans."

The studio fell silent.

Even in the Special Investigations Bureau lobby, many people turned to look at the screen, and one muttered under his breath, "Profitable? People dying everywhere is profitable?"

……

……

Chen Xi continued to explain:

"According to the data we have, since the Reiki revival, there have been 9,395 verifiable paranormal events worldwide."

As of today, there are 45 clearly identifiable copies, nearly a quarter of which are in China.

We can deduce that if a large-scale psionic burst occurs in a certain place, but the psionic energy does not generate copies, then where will this energy be released?

There needs to be something to block it, like a 'copy,' otherwise it's like—"

She paused, as if preparing her words.

"Just like Tokyo tonight."

The host looked shocked and, after a long pause, asked, "You mean, the copy isolated the supernatural energy?"

"Yes, we speculate that replicas are a natural energy container."

It compresses the anomaly into another space, protecting ordinary people from harm.

Entering a dungeon is like entering a buffer zone of war.

Chen Xi spoke at a measured pace, as if he were reading a research brief.

"What about... those players who died in the dungeon? What about them...?"

"Players will die, everyone will die, including me."

Chen Xi did not evade the question, "If the dungeon does not exist, the psionic burst will start directly on the street."

The lunar anomaly and mantis attack tonight will not be an isolated incident.

The entire hall fell silent; even the two-tailed cat stopped meowing.

Since the resurgence of spiritual energy, this is the first time the official stance has been publicly acknowledged that the existence of dungeons is "beneficial."

……

……

"Section Chief Chen, could you... explain it a little more clearly?"

Chen Xi looked at the camera:

"We currently have no evidence to prove that other civilizations also have similar city gods or land gods as we do."

However, based on eyewitness accounts and psychic records from the past few months, there have been reports of sightings of "Land Gods" and "City Gods" in China, while there have been no such reports in other regions.

If this understanding is correct, then it means that something is preventing the psychic energy eruption in China from completely spiraling out of control.

"And we have been searching for 'Him'."

"You mean... someone is stopping us?"

Chen Xi neither nodded nor shook his head:

"I can't use the word 'person'."

She said, "Because 'He' cannot be defined; it's possible that He is not human."

……

……

……

Outside the studio, countless people watching the news fell into a deathly silence.

Wearing sunglasses, Song Mo slowly, very slowly, curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

As expected, there are no fools in the Special Investigation Bureau; they noticed it so quickly.