Chapter 582: Chapter 55: Mysterious Disappearance Announcement
Deep Space Ghost Talk Section
[Summer Urban Legends Thread] (Highlighted)
“Ice Cream Outer God, Freezing Three Feet Deep”
“The Wall of Resentful Spirits Above the City”
“Continuous Disappearance Cases Happening Hotly, You’re Next”
“The Demon’s New Weapon, an All-Powerful Command Book” (new!)
At noon, with the sound of the school bell for class dismissal having just rung, students from class 2-B grouped together and rushed out of the classroom while Milais sat at his seat, idly browsing posts on the forum.
Cangqiong BBS is the largest local forum in Sky City, and students affectionately call it “school forum.” Not only because every university has its sub-section on the forum, but also because registration requires dual authentication of student ID and citizen ID. This website, only accessible to registered users, truly belongs to the students in a literal sense.
In other places, such real-name certification sites might be resisted by many. But here in Sky City, superpower users had long stopped caring about such things.
The forum section Milais used to visit most was “Clear Sky Arena,” colloquially known as the superpower gladiator section. Since its inception, it had been the most popular discussion area on the school forum, filled with posts like “Rational Discussion, Can a Normal Demon Endure a Mobbing by 50 Martial Arts Masters,” “I’ll Post a Superpower, You Guys Rate it,” “Ranking of the Strongest Superpower Users in Our City, Can’t Believe Who’s Number Two!” “Supreme Crown Definitely in the Top Three in Our City,” and such strength comparison threads, which usually ended up in unruly arguments like “Red Lion Definitely Beats Dust Explosion,” “Little Yun Swallowed the Top Hat Lady in One Gulp,” and so on.
However, since Milais actually witnessed the combat of the members of the Catastrophe Club, he had never revisited the gladiator section. Now, Milais enjoyed posting quirky photoshopped images and snippets on the forum to make everyone laugh, and occasionally checked out urban legends and gossips about superpower users.
He moved the mouse over the shining new post, curious to see what kind of divine weapon a well-known superpower user had acquired this time.
“This is genuine firsthand info, I heard it from my uncle in Cangshou District. They say the Demon went to Zero Island, took part in that alarming event in April. He found an omnipotent ‘Command Book’ there, something only the Demon can use. This thing, once you write words on it, can…”
Preview of the content ended there, and Milais was about to click on the post when a hand ruthlessly pushed his head away.
“What are you doing?”
His deskmate leaned over without permission and glanced at the screen. Shiyu Shiqi snorted, “Humph, Shiqi doesn’t want to read this person’s gossip!”
“I was the one looking at it, wasn’t I?! This is my computer, right?!” Milais protested loudly.
“Babbling about, not at all manly.” Shiyu Shiqi pointed to the forum interface with her chin, “This, what is it?”
“Deep Space Ghost Talk Section, it’s the ghost story section. These are all urban legends, the first one says that at dead of night supernatural beings disguise as ice creams roaming the streets and capture criminal superpower users; the second tells that the souls of the deceased become invisible walls, preventing all humans from leaving Sky City; then it’s the popular vanishing weird talks recently…”
“Sky City isn’t Zero Island, what’s there to discuss about such ridiculous stories?” Shiyu Shiqi scoffed.
Milais stared at her vacantly.
“Most of the urban legends in Sky City are true.”
“Shiqi doesn’t believe it. Shiqi is leaving!” Shiyu Shiqi picked up her backpack.
“Don’t you usually nap at school during lunch…”
“Today, Shiqi has things to do.”
Milais, being an extroverted character — otherwise the class teacher wouldn’t have made him sit with this troublesome transfer student — blurted out without thinking, “Do you want me to come with you?”
Shiyu Shiqi looked at him as if he were a freak.
“It’s about the consecutive disappearance cases,” Milais said weakly, “They say going out alone could lead to vanishing, so now it’s better to go in groups. Look, everyone just now was moving together.”
The eccentrically dressed girl pondered for a moment and said reluctantly, “Fine, I specially allow you to come with Shiqi.”
“Why do I need permission to help… Where are you headed to?”
Milais received a very surprising answer.
“Cangshou District, I’m going to see a doctor.”
“In a city of 5.7 million people, isn’t it normal for one or two people to disappear?”
“As much as that’s true… when the manner of disappearance is particularly strange and there happen to be eyewitnesses to the moment of disappearance, it turns into an unsettling urban legend.”
At twelve thirty, the two middle school students alighted from the school bus heading to Cangshou District, and after Shiyu Shiqi showed her pass, they smoothly blended into the most heavily guarded district of the city. Shiqi initially wanted to ride a pigeon, but this idea met with strong opposition from Milais — for all he knew, flying could encounter superpower users, and he had really experienced it once.
For now, the bored middle schoolers were discussing the current popular urban legends.
“Shiqi is very skeptical about this.”
“It’s really special, the special part is that there’s all kinds of talk,” Milais said, “The most mainstream claim is ‘the disappearers receive a special message, and they disappear alone with a bizarre smile’; second is ‘anyone acting alone will be spirited away’; the third is ‘human trafficking by the superpower organization’; some even claim to have personally witnessed the vanishing process: a maid walked into an alley in broad daylight, and just like that, she vanished.”