Chapter 452 - Chapter 452: Chapter 452: Online Fermentation (1/2)

Chapter 452: Chapter 452: Online Fermentation

Only after midnight did Myanmar’s social media platforms start erupting with miscellaneous information.

And not just Myanmar’s social media, but also international English social media and domestic Chinese social media had relevant discussions appearing, and they were very heated.

In today’s society, such public, widespread “mysterious incidents” are very rare.

Earlier this evening, a large-scale riot broke out in Myitkyina, a tourist city in northeastern Myanmar. Many shops were vandalized, and many tourists were attacked and robbed.

And under the guidance of those with ulterior motives, the main targets were the Chinese.

However, the focus of online discussions was not on this riot, but on the “visions” that appeared in various regions of Myitkyina during the riot.

Many residents and tourists in Myitkyina claimed that they saw with their own eyes an extraordinarily gigantic monster with many arms and many eyes on its head.

But different people have different descriptions of that monster.

Some say the monster was seven or eight meters high, while others say it was at least ten meters, even close to twenty meters, yet others insist that if it was less than fifteen meters, they would drink urine standing on their heads!

The descriptions of the monster’s appearance vary as well. Some claim to have seen a layer of black mist around it, making it difficult to see the specifics, like it was tree bark. Others say it was made of stone, while still others insist it was made of metal, you could see the reflection of metal, and yet others claimed that the monster’s body was covered with tumors, even oozing black liquid.

But there was one common point—it had many arms, many eyes, or more precisely, eight arms and eight eyes.

And anyone who saw the monster felt a soul-shaking fear.

However, most eye witnesses to this terrifying monster did not regard it as an “evil” existence.

Because its appearance not only directly stopped all atrocities, saving many people, but it also gave many people a feeling of mental vindication, like they had a “sauna.” Many problems that had been confusing suddenly made sense.

So many people even think that this gigantic eight-armed, eight-eyed monster is likely a reawakened deity, sensing the wickedness of the human world, descending to purge wickedness and banish darkness with fear.

But those who said this were mostly those who witnessed the incident and saw the illusion of the “eight-armed, eight-eyed monster” with their own eyes. But these people were limited in numbers and most people were still in shock or not in a condition to go online, or did not have the habit of posting on social media. The online public opinion was swiftly led in other directions.

Someone first began questioning why no one had taken pictures of such a gigantic monster appearing in the city? Even if no one had taken pictures, there should be nearby surveillance footage, right?

But those who witnessed the incident claimed that everyone was initially shocked by the monster’s appearance, completely consumed by fear, no one was able to react and take pictures, no one dared to take pictures.

But when they did react and wanted to take pictures, they found that both their mobile phones and cameras had malfunctioned.

They were hoping that clear surveillance footage would emerge from the affected area.

But a Chinese shop owner in Myanmar posted a video on Weibo, confirming that all the surveillance inside his shop had malfunctioned during the incident, unable to record any images from that process, and the shops around him had encountered the same situation.

When the monster appeared, it seemed to bring with it a powerful interference field which caused all electronic devices to temporarily malfunction, even causing all kinds of lights to either go out or flicker.

However, Myitkyina is a sizeable city, and there happened to be a photographer who was using time-lapse photography to capture the ever-changing night view of the city from a high floor in a hotel.

His camera lens happened to be facing the incident area, and the distance was far enough that his equipment was not affected, allowing him to capture the events in that area during the incident period.

Even though it was quite a distance away, had the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster been as massive as the eyewitnesses described, it would have certainly been captured on film.

The problem was, there was no sign of any “gigantic monster” in the shots taken by the photographer.

So, when the photographer posted his footage and the timestamps on social media intending to “discredit” those who claimed to have seen the monster, public opinion on the internet immediately shifted towards suggesting that the previous posters were either attention-seeking or hallucinating.

Yet, when it came to the claim of hallucination, the eyewitnesses who posted online readily admitted it, with many stating that they quickly realized it was an illusion after the monster had disappeared since many of the environmental changes that occurred when the monster appeared, such as footprints in the road, reverted when it vanished.

Whether it was an illusion or not had no bearing on the perception of the witnesses; they were still filled with awe and reverence for the monster.

But for the majority of netizens, the incident had a significant impact, leading them to other conjectures.

The voices of the witnesses were soon drowned out, and the online discussion began to diverge due to the various perspectives brought by different netizens.

On English social media platforms, many believed that it was a “psychological wave interference weapon” used by the Burmese government to suppress the riots, capable of causing mass hallucinations by inducing mental instability. The strongest evidence was that all electronic devices within the entire area were affected at the time, which was seen as “irrefutable” proof.

Some even dredged up various seemingly “authentic” declassified official documents, suggesting that certain technologies, which originated from former Soviet laboratories, had been bought and continued to be researched by the Burmese government. Some suggested that the Americans had relevant laboratories built in Myitkyina, and that American technology might be involved.

In contrast, on Burmese social media platforms, the majority of the users, unknowing of or unconvinced by the distant footage posted earlier by the photographer, still believed that the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant was a divine entity protecting Myitkyina. Various factions claimed credit, asserting that the divine intervention was the work of their Gods.

Meanwhile, on Chinese social media platforms, the discussion scope was even broader.

On Zhihu alone, there were seven questions related to the incident among the top twenty hotly debated topics, covering multiple fields. On Weibo, three related topics trended. Even on Bilibili and Douyu, there were content creators who were traveling in Myitkyina that started live-streaming to “report” the local situation after the network was restored.

Psychologists hypothesized that due to achieving certain extreme conditions under the chaotic circumstances, individuals’ emotions might have sensory transmission effects on those around them, resulting in a collective hallucination. This group started looking for previous cases and analyzing descriptions of experiences posted on both domestic and foreign networks for verification.

Those with Cthulhu mythological inclinations began to explore the shared features between the Cthulhu mythos and some unknown factors in reality, wondering if similar mysterious life forms might truly exist in higher dimensions or parallel universes. They speculated that at some moment, its projection appeared in our world, specifically in Myitkyina, and thereby was seen by some people.

Those who saw it might, in the future, find it easier to witness creatures from another world and perceive certain things.

Conspiracy theorists suggested that this might be a smoke screen set up by the Burmese government with the help of online trolls on the international internet, aiming to mitigate the negative impact caused by the riots in Myitkyina and craft a new tourism hotspot. This would attract tourists interested in mysteries to Myitkyina for an “adventure”.

However, once some Chinese people who experienced the incident and saw the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” in Myitkyina began to post about it, this theory instantly evaporated and fell apart.

Upon seeing the news about what happened in Myitkyina on the internet, Xia Libing, who was in front of her computer, naturally understood what Xiang Kun meant by “big disturbance”. She also immediately determined the authenticity of various pieces of information.

She knew that the illusion of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” was created by Xiang Kun — she had witnessed the first successful experiment with this ability in an abandoned factory in Citong City.

She even knew that this ability was Xiang Kun’s developments derived and extended from the abilities of “Xiao Pingguo” and “Jin Shanshan”.