Another city,

In a cramped, dirty, and stuffy basement, in front of a computer desk cluttered with various items,

Mule, with his disheveled hair, frowned slightly as he looked at the chat window of his friend in his field of vision.

"Sheng Nan Wang"

The information broker scratched his head. At this moment, Mule was covered in all sorts of extraordinary items.

Jade bracelets, metal necklaces, stone rings, wooden statues

These items were all defensive props,

Including physical defense, automatic teleportation upon taking damage,

As well as props that could defend against various mental attacks.

Mule thought carefully for a moment, "All the information costs thirty game coins. You can give twenty first."

"Okay."

Li Ang didn't waste any words and transferred the reward.

Fifteen minutes later, Mule sent over several documents, which were complex and detailed.

Including but not limited to chat logs from the forum,

Personal information of the netizens involved in the chat,

Records of netizens' posts on other social media platforms before being discovered and taken away by the Special Affairs Bureau,

Conceptual diagram of meme transmission

Li Ang carefully read these documents and unexpectedly discovered a fact.

Sheng Nan Wang was initially just fabricated,

The poster had explicitly stated to friends on other social media platforms that the entire story was purely a dream,

There was no such nightmare as Sheng Nan Wang at all.

Besides, those netizens who claimed to have had similar dreams in the comments below the post,

Were either joining in on the fun,

Or grafting elements related to Sheng Nan Wang onto their own vague nightmares, echoing the others.

Sheng Nan Wang was not an anomalous event,

But simply a carnival spontaneously promoted by netizens who were passionate about urban legends.

Due to the presence of some classic elements of urban legends in the post (suspense, horror, multiple eyewitness accounts),

Through the netizens' contributions, it became an interesting enough story to be re-created.

At the same time, the ambiguity of the netizens' re-transmission also added a touch of mystery to the story, prompting more people to actively seek it out of curiosity,

Ultimately making the story of Sheng Nan Wang a freshly baked man-made legend.

If things had stopped at this point, then Sheng Nan Wang would at most become a well-known horror story like Slender Man,

More likely, it would disappear without a trace,

Or become a commonly known meme that urban legend enthusiasts could smile knowingly at when they heard it.

But now, the whole thing had turned into an anomalous event,

Many ordinary people were showing symptoms of meme contamination,

Some netizens who had participated in the discussion had already been summoned to the base by the Special Affairs Bureau for investigation.

Li Ang pondered for a moment and asked Mule, "Besides me, are there any other players who have bought related information from you?"

"..."

Mule didn't answer immediately, and after a moment of silence, replied, "Yes, a lot."

A lot?

Li Ang frowned, "Judging from the meme transmission concept diagram, at most a few thousand people are affected by level four or even level five meme contamination, right?

Not even ten thousand, the scope of influence is too small.

And this anomalous meme doesn't seem to have any harmfulness."

"For now, there is no harm."

Mule replied, "However, you should also know about the concept of thought power, right?

Many mystery scholars believe that 'as more and more people believe in some stories, false things will become real because of the accumulation of human thought power.'

This statement, leaving aside the primate arrogance hidden inside, actually has some truth to it.

Because thought power is the power of faith.

Some anomalies can only continue to exist if people believe in them."

Li Ang was stunned when he heard this and subconsciously thought of a real case on the player forum.

A month ago, an anomalous event occurred on a small island in the South Pacific. A bird destroyed an American passenger plane flying near the island.

The bird looked no different from the gray gulls widely distributed in the South Pacific—the only difference was that this gray gull was too big, with a wingspan of 500 meters.

The Global Occult Coalition immediately blocked the news and launched an investigation,

However, all the fighter planes they flew over were shot down by the giant gray gull, and all man-made weapons seemed unable to cause fatal damage to the gull—fortunately, the giant bird only lived around the small island.

In the end, the Global Occult Coalition still relied on two special agents who swam and climbed onto the island to transmit back important information.

More than a month ago, an epidemic broke out in an isolated indigenous tribe on this small island, killing the tribe's shaman and a large number of residents in a very short period of time.

Subsequently, some residents discovered anomalies,

Huge avian figures appeared in the mountains and forests, waiting for opportunities to hunt those natives who entered the deep mountains alone.

As the disease spread and the number of residents decreased, the size of the gray gull became larger and larger, and it could even ignore the spears and bows of the tribal warriors and fly into the villages to hunt humans.

The remaining indigenous residents could only hide in every corner of the island, trying to avoid being discovered by the giant gray gull.

After investigation, the Global Occult Coalition discovered countless generations of tribal shamans' murals left in the caves.

According to the information on the murals,

The shamans had discovered the gray gull, which was so huge that it blotted out the sky, as early as when they first landed on the island thousands of years ago.

They feared this bird and used a special method to seal its power, making it incredibly small, no different from ordinary gray gulls at the beginning.

The more people who believed in the existence of the gray gull, the more people who spread the story of the gray gull,

The more the power of this gray gull would be permanently imprisoned.

Conversely, the fewer people who remembered the essence of the gray gull, the larger the gray gull would become, even returning to its sky-blocking appearance thousands of years ago.

At first, the Global Occult Coalition was unwilling to believe it,

A mere indigenous tribe of less than a thousand people could actually interfere with the anomalous monster with a wingspan of five hundred meters, and even use faith to fight against it and bind it.

This completely defied any logic.

But, faith is such a thing that defies conventional logic.

In the end, the Global Occult Coalition still managed to solve the gray gull and contain it,

The way to contain it was to find some indigenous residents from distant islands,

Through occult rituals,

To make those indigenous residents become the aborigines of the small island and tell them the essence of the gray gull—this approach worked, the size of the gray gull shrank rapidly, and finally turned into a regular-sized seabird,

Which was imprisoned in the base established by the Global Occult Coalition on the island.

"Believe, to exist."

Mule sent a message, "Sheng Nan Wang, as a purely fictional urban legend, has become an anomalous event. I can't say for sure what the final direction of this matter will be..."

Li Ang looked at the chat window hanging in his vision, squinted his eyes, and tapped the table with his knuckles.

This was strange. Mule, as an information broker, generally wouldn't say so much to his customers—he wasn't some game companion who charged a hundred yuan per hour.

Perhaps, Mule was afraid...

Li Ang's eyes lit up and sent a slightly transgressive question.

"What do those people who bought Sheng Nan Wang's information from you want to do?"

After sending the question, the chat window was silent for a long, long time, and finally a line of words appeared.

"This is a bit against the professional ethics of an information broker... forget it,

Some players seem to think that they might be able to use Sheng Nan Wang.

Or, enter Sheng Nan Wang's dream and trigger an anomalous event,

Or, steal the massive thought power that gave birth to Sheng Nan Wang,

Or, directly kidnap Sheng Nan Wang himself..."

Mule sent a line of information, and then immediately added with some regret, "I shouldn't have said so much,

There are many people eyeing Sheng Nan Wang, besides lone wolves, there are also many hidden organizations.

I can't guess their plans either."

Li Ang frowned, "Why are you telling me this?"

"You are also an infected person of the anomalous meme, right?"

Mule said bluntly, "I, who specialize in collecting various information, have been contaminated by the meme since the beginning of the Sheng Nan Wang incident.

As an information peddler, I see more than the average player.

The power of belief cannot be explained by logic, it is elusive and unpredictable,

In my opinion, those who try to understand the anomalies they cannot understand are completely courting death.

Rather than letting them interfere with the anomalous meme on their own initiative, and ultimately affect me,

It's better to tell you, a smart person, more information—maybe this can increase a sliver of life for me.

By the way, the above content will not be charged again."

With that, Mule ended the friend communication, leaving Li Ang alone, staring blankly at the computer screen playing boring variety shows.

Suddenly, a system notification sounded.

[Mission trigger conditions have been met]

[Mission Type: Regular Mission (Multiplayer)]

[Mission Name: A Dream of Sheng Nan]

[Phase One Mission Objective: Five hours later, maintain a lying still position in a locked room and enter Sheng Nan Wang's dream]

[Mission Time Limit: First issue

[Mission Reward: None]

[Mission Failure Penalty: None]

[This mission is a regular multiplayer mission. All players who meet the mission trigger conditions (becoming infected with the Sheng Nan Wang anomalous meme) can receive the mission. All players who choose to accept the mission will enter Sheng Nan Wang's dream at the same time globally]

[In Sheng Nan Wang's dream, players can earn equipment props and game currency rewards by solving anomalous events. There is no friendly fire shielding between players. Players cannot obtain rewards by killing each other]

[During the mission, players can choose to exit at any time without penalty for failure. Once exited, they cannot re-enter. The time mechanism for players entering and exiting is the same as the script mission]

[The mission will end by default when Sheng Nan Wang dies or ends the dream, and all players will be forced to exit]

[The sleeping Sheng Nan Wang awaits your dream entry]