After the internet was disconnected, I connected to the magic world.

As night falls, the Chengnan Night Market is brightly lit, and the smoke from barbecue stalls mixed with the smell of beer fills the streets.

Brother Dao sat shirtless on a plastic stool, clutching a beer bottle in his hand, with half of his long hair showing through his collar.

He was surrounded by three or four henchmen, who were shouting orders at him. The guests at the next table subconsciously moved to the side.

In the past, Brother Dao was just a street thug who relied on ruthlessness to get into fights.

But things are different now.

Half a month ago, he found a sign and entered a place called Jiuzhou in a daze. He trained with the sect for half a month and just a few days ago condensed his first wisp of inner energy in reality.

When your fists get hard, your arrogance naturally flares up.

"Damn it, what are those idiots at that table staring at?"

Brother Dao, his face flushed from drinking, glanced sideways at the young men at the next table and said, "Look at me again and I'll gouge your eyes out!"

The young man at the next table, who hadn't intended to cause trouble, got angry upon hearing this and retorted:

"What's wrong with you? Do you own this street?"

No sooner had he said that than Brother Dao slammed his beer bottle on the table and rushed over.

He was incredibly fast; ordinary people couldn't react in time. He landed a solid punch on the young man's chest.

"puff--"

The young man flew more than three meters backward like a tattered sack, crashing into two tables, scattering barbecue skewers all over the ground, spitting out mouthfuls of blood, and lying on the ground convulsing, unable to get up.

"Holy crap!"

Everyone around was stunned. No one had ever seen an ordinary person send someone flying so far with a single punch. This wasn't a fight; it was a human weapon.

Someone immediately called the police.

The local police station was nearby, and two officers arrived within five minutes. As soon as they got out of the car, they pulled out their batons and shouted "Stop!" Brother Dao, drunk, didn't take the police seriously at all.

His mind was filled with "I don't eat beef," and he charged forward with a sinister grin.

Both police officers were veterans and their fighting skills were not bad, but they were no match for Brother Dao.

His movements were so fast they were like the wind. The baton he swung over couldn't even touch the corner of the policeman's clothes. Instead, he punched the policeman in the shoulder, and the bone cracked with a crisp sound. The policeman fell to his knees in pain.

Just as another policeman was about to draw his gun, Brother Dao kicked him in the wrist, and the pistol clattered to the ground.

Dao Ge didn't dare to actually snatch the gun. He kicked the two men twice, turned around, and disappeared into the alley next door in a few moments.

The surveillance camera captured the entire process clearly.

Before dawn, the surveillance video was uploaded online with the caption, "A strange man appeared in the night market, punching someone three meters away; two policemen couldn't stop him."

At first, the comments section was full of doubts.

"Special effects, huh? These days, short videos will shoot anything to go viral."

"They can't even pose properly. Who can send someone flying three meters with one punch? Newton would be turning in his grave."

"It's definitely scripted, and there's a team behind it running it. They're desperate to become famous."

But less than half a day later, another surveillance video also surfaced, this time from an industrial area on the outskirts of the city.

A middle-aged man in factory uniform rushed into the workshop office and, without saying a word, overturned the supervisor's desk, breaking off a corner of the solid wood tabletop.

Four security guards tried to break up the fight, but he knocked them all to the ground with a few punches and kicks. Finally, he grabbed the supervisor by the collar, pinned him against the wall, and forced him to return the three months' worth of withheld wages. Before leaving, he even kicked down the office door.

When the two videos were compared side-by-side, the doubts immediately diminished.

"Wait a minute, the people in these two videos are moving way too fast and their strength is inhuman. They couldn't possibly have been filmed by the same team, could they?"

"My relative works at that factory in the suburbs, and he said it's true!"

The man's name was Lao Wang. He was usually an honest and unassuming guy, but his supervisor swindled him out of tens of thousands of yuan. Before that, he didn't dare utter a sound. I don't know why he suddenly became so aggressive.

"Do you guys remember that cultivation post from Kyushu that got deleted a while ago? Could it... be real?"

"No way? There really are extraordinary people? They really have internal energy?"

The discussion is getting hotter and hotter, and related terms are rapidly climbing to the top of the trending searches.

The platform deleted posts and banned accounts according to its previous rules, but the more it deleted, the faster the posts spread. Screenshots and screen recordings were everywhere, and it was impossible to suppress them.

Some people believed it, some didn't, and some were skeptical but searched for evidence everywhere, arguing fiercely.

At the same time, the video was also uploaded to the external network.

Related clips can be found everywhere on YouTube and Twitter, with most of the comments below being sarcastic.

"Is Chinese Kung Fu coming up with a new script again? It's the same old thing every year."

"The special effects are pretty good, better than the cheap special effects in Hollywood."

"Chinese people are really funny, they make these kinds of videos every day to fool themselves."

Domestically, the atmosphere in the conference room at the Special Investigations Department headquarters was so heavy it could drip water.

The large screen on the wall displays a rotating list of unusual police reports from all over the country.

In just three days, there were seventeen similar cases of superhuman disturbances, spread across six provinces and cities.

Some were drunk and pretentious, some were beating people up; some were taking revenge on their bosses; and some were burglars who used their agility to scale three floors.

The perpetrators were all players, most of whom had just condensed their inner energy and had not even reached the acquired realm.

"It's too chaotic." Captain Li rubbed his temples, his voice deep. "They got carried away as soon as they had a little bit of power, they had no sense of proportion at all."

The technician next to him pulled up the data and said in a deep voice, "Based on the samples we currently have..."

A person who has just condensed their inner energy has two to three times the physical strength of an ordinary person, their reaction speed is nearly doubled, and they can fight three to five adult men with their bare hands.

Ordinary police officers, without firearms, simply couldn't subdue him.

"What about the acquired realm?" someone asked.

"It's hard to say." The technician shook his head. "According to the information Song Xian sent back, those in the early stages of the Acquired Realm can use true qi to protect their bodies, and their perception is far beyond that of ordinary people, allowing them to predict danger in advance."

In theory, when small-caliber pistols are fired at long range, there's a chance they can use their internal energy to deflect the force, or even dodge in advance. Only high-powered firearms at close range can guarantee suppression.

Silence fell over the meeting room.

This means that if a person with an acquired level of supernatural ability were to cause trouble in the city, ordinary police forces would be unable to stop them, and it could easily result in a major casualty incident.

"How many capable people do we have right now?" Captain Li asked the personnel manager.

The HR manager opened the report, his tone tinged with helplessness:

"Currently, we have twelve people with supernatural powers at our disposal."

There are five official players on the internal staff. Song Xian was the first, and the other four were key personnel selected from the special operations brigade and the national security field operations.

They all received the Dream Token and began to condense their inner energy last week, and their cultivation levels are still shallow. The highest level, Song Xian, is only half a step into the Acquired Realm.

The other seven were individuals identified through investigations in various regions; two were at the early stages of the Acquired Realm, and the remaining five were at the Inner Breath Realm. They had signed confidentiality agreements and special employment contracts, and were considered as field support personnel.

He paused, then gave a wry smile: "These twelve people, scattered across six key provinces and cities across the country, are simply not enough."

When incidents occur in many places, our people rush there, but the perpetrators have already fled.

Most of the recruited individuals also have their own jobs and can only be on call 24/7, not on call full-time.

"We have to go even if it's not enough." Captain Li tapped the table.

"Immediately notify all on-staff personnel to be deployed to key cities, and recruited individuals to be grouped according to their place of residence to cooperate with local police operations."

Salary doubled, merits recorded afterward, and those who make contributions can have priority in exchanging for internal training resources.

In addition, contact local police to have armed personnel on duty in key areas. If any supernatural individuals resist arrest, warning shots may be fired; those who resist arrest may be subject to direct coercive measures.

"yes!"

"And then there's Song Xian." Captain Li paused, his tone serious.

"Next time he enters Kyushu, he won't need to hide it anymore; he can formally propose cooperation to those five core players."

The government has offered them high salaries as special advisors to assist in handling extraordinary events; their compensation, resources, and policies are all negotiable.

If all else fails, the official authorities can also buy spirit stones and pills at a higher price than on the market.

He sighed: "Now is not the time to put on airs. The extraordinary era has arrived, and we need to seize the time to gain a foothold."

When the meeting ended, it was already daylight outside the window.

Pedestrians on the street went to work and school as usual, seemingly no different from any other day. But only the Special Investigations Unit knew that beneath the calm surface, undercurrents were beginning to surge.

As more and more ordinary people obtain tokens and more and more extraordinary individuals awaken, the truth will eventually come out.

That afternoon, Dao Ge, who had caused the trouble, was arrested in the rented room.

When they arrested him, they deployed two official field agents, along with three local recruits of unaffiliated individuals.

With the help of two armed special police officers, they blocked the entrance for more than ten minutes before finally managing to subdue the drunken Brother Dao to the ground.

The entire incident was filmed by residents of the community, and the video was uploaded online, sparking another round of heated discussion.

Some people applauded, saying that if someone has the guts to cause trouble, they should have the guts to face the consequences.

Some people felt a sense of shared sorrow, thinking that the strange man's future would be bleak.

Some astute individuals also realized that the fact that the authorities were able to apprehend the suspect so quickly indicated that they also had supernatural abilities at their disposal and had been keeping an eye on the matter for some time.

On the same day, the Special Investigation Department officially declared itself as the only agency in the country responsible for managing extraordinary affairs.

The organization coordinates all related matters, including the registration of extraordinary individuals nationwide, the handling of extraordinary events, and the management of extraordinary resources. Local branch offices are being established one after another.

This message was not made public; it was only circulated internally within the system.

While ordinary people are still arguing and debating whether it's true or false, the machines at the top have already quietly started operating.