Chapter 378: Fear Spreads Riots

A dozen or so minutes after the New Year’s Eve announcement ended, the television broadcast switched back to the Spring Festival Gala.

The festive atmosphere on screen was a testament to the powerful performance skills of the hosts and artists, but it also created a sense of absurdity due to the stark contrast with what had just happened.

This year’s gala was destined to be a cold affair; not even the usual online roast sessions convened.

Across the globe, countless people were at a loss in their homes, while countless others vented their fear and anxiety over the phone and on social media platforms.

Many assorted religious groups jumped out, declaring that “God’s punishment” had arrived.

There were also some calmer individuals online, analyzing various past events.

Some declassified information about the changes was released online. People could log into official government websites to search for and browse the relevant data.

But the deeper one delved, the more terrifying things became. Not only did this information fail to help ordinary people avoid the crisis, it could even have the opposite effect.

The “Memorandum Plan” wasn’t just about announcing the doomsday warning; the second step involved the subsequent national doomsday preparations.

With the matter of the Dark Tide now public, the masses were destined to never return to their old way of life. The memorandum’s significance lay in representing the things that had to be done before the “collision.”

However, in this, the nations of the World Alliance had made a rare miscalculation.

They had hoped to give the public at least a week to review the materials, which should have been just enough time to digest the information.

The plan was for the public to understand the government’s difficult position and the severity of the problem. Then, the next phase of the plan would be initiated—the final step of national preparations, dubbed “Winter Preparation.”

Unfortunately, people did understand the severity of the problem. But even with the early release of the Rini Debate, early psychological priming, and subtle conditioning, the keepers of order had still overestimated the public’s mental fortitude in the face of doomsday.

Or perhaps, they had underestimated the power of “infectious chaos.”

The more people understood, the stronger their panic grew. Tao Xingzhi’s personal charisma and presence had been enough to instill a certain calming force in people’s hearts on New Year’s Eve.

But the more they knew, the more they understood the darkness that was likely coming.

When one person’s happiness is conveyed to others, it might become a blessing, or it might turn into jealousy. For a stranger, it would at most be envy. Only those who truly love or care for you will feel happy for you in turn.

But when one person’s intense panic is conveyed to others, it will most likely remain as fear.

Even if the other person was rational, as long as the source of the fear was real, the most they could do was keep their composure—unless they were someone like Tao Xingzhi, or one of Dawn’s fanatics.

It’s like when someone who hasn’t exercised in a long time suddenly starts working out; the muscle soreness often peaks on the third day.

The transmission of fear was a process of gradual immersion.

The Rini Debate had mentioned the issue of the trust process, stating that people would not immediately believe in the apocalypse; there would be a long period of doubt and suspicion.

But that premise was based on an early announcement after the discovery of the apocalypse. Now, with governments making data available, corroborating information could be found all over the world.

The global apocalyptic atmosphere peaked four days later.

Some underprepared people were horrified to realize their prior foolishness and desperately tried to make up for it. They didn’t intend to commit crimes; they just wanted to purchase supplies.

Even if they already had plenty of supplies thanks to the government’s appropriate preemptive policies, under this kind of pressure, human hearts are never satisfied. It’s only natural to want more.

Countless people with this idea converged, turning major shopping centers into battlegrounds, and the resulting conflicts were not few in number.

Even the few well-prepared major nations were overwhelmed by this, while the less-prepared, peripheral countries—some of which had previously scoffed at the major nations’ reactions—erupted with numerous bloody incidents that threatened social stability.

The development of the situation was indeed unexpected, but the World Alliance nations, having already considered countless possibilities, responded swiftly.

At this stage, they absolutely could not be “soft.” If riot instigators were found, the punishment would almost certainly be severe.

…

Inside a supermarket in a small town in Hua Country, residents from the surrounding area swarmed inside.

Although they were still somewhat orderly, the looks on their faces made the already anxious employees panic.

The two police officers and the security guards standing in the supermarket glanced at each other, their expressions growing more tense.

“Don’t grab that! Don’t grab it! I saw it first!”

“Hey, hey, hey… who pushed my cart? Who took my shopping cart?!”

…

CRASH~

A shelf was accidentally knocked over by the jostling crowd, and the chaos instantly intensified.

In the frenzy, the shoppers truly devolved into a mob, grabbing things as if they were free.

A few young supermarket employees were like trembling lambs, not daring to get close.

Everyone had been trying to restrain themselves at first, but more and more people from the neighborhood poured into the supermarket. Those inside rushed to grab goods, while those outside were desperate to get in and do the same.

Even the doors of some open storerooms were pushed aside. People felt it was worth it even to just snatch a bag of rice.

What was the scene like? Imagine a small-town supermarket’s typical mad dash during a big sale, but magnified tenfold.

In the past, people might see a crowded supermarket and just turn around and leave. Not now. No matter how crowded it was, they had to squeeze in.

The people who got into the supermarket first were holding armfuls of goods and trying to check out, but the crowd was so large and chaotic that the checkout lines were completely gridlocked.

Some people tried to climb over the side barriers to move their looted goods out first, which frayed the nerves of a security guard who was already tense and hysterically demanding everyone maintain order.

An older security guard immediately went to stop them.

“You can’t climb out! Go back and pay or put the rice down!”

Unexpectedly, the seam on the rice bag the person was holding had already come undone. A third of the contents spilled out, scattering white rice everywhere and tripping the guard.

Seeing this, some people in the crowd thought someone was getting away with goods without paying. Many of them also tried to climb out, and the scene became even more chaotic.

The older of the two police officers told his colleague to call for backup. He took two deep breaths and rushed forward, pinning down two middle-aged women who were trying to lift a shopping cart over the stainless-steel barrier.

He turned his head and saw a sturdy woman inside the supermarket throwing things from the floor to the outside, where several men were continuously picking them up.

“Stop that!”

He vaulted into the shopping area and grabbed the woman.

“The cops are hitting people! The cops are hitting people!”

This shameless, shrewish behavior clearly infuriated the officer. He remembered his superior’s repeated instructions: at this stage, they could not back down.

BANG!

The deafening shot inside the store stunned the crowd. A few people nearby instinctively covered their ears and ducked down, and like a row of dominoes, the rest of the crowd fell silent.

The muzzle of the gun was pointed at the ceiling, where it had made a small hole.

The two police officers were actually armed!

“What do you think you’re all doing? Are you openly looting?”

The officer himself didn’t realize that his roar was as loud as thunder.

“This supermarket has security cameras! They can see every single one of you! The apocalypse isn’t here yet! We can find you easily!”

“You’re afraid of the apocalypse, aren’t you? Good! Let me tell you something!”

“If anyone dares to loot and run today, we won’t arrest you for jail time, and we won’t prosecute you for stealing!”

The officer’s gaze swept over the crowd like lightning, his intimidating aura cowing everyone present.

“But when the apocalypse does come, your file will be on our blacklist! When danger appears, your priority for rescue will be behind everyone else’s!”

He let go of the shrew he was holding and walked step-by-step to a checkout counter.

The young female cashier was already hiding under the counter.

He climbed onto the checkout counter.

“You have the guts to loot, huh?!”

“Now get in line, all of you!”

The effect was immediate. No one dared to say another word. They all shuffled into lines, though there was some quiet discussion and phone calls within the crowd.

A few minutes later, some of those who had left with their goods, “forgetting” to pay, nervously returned to settle their bills.

This kind of chaos wasn’t widespread in Hua Country. After all, the people tended to obey rules, and not every place had the coincidental emotional trigger points.

But the base population was so huge that such incidents weren’t exactly rare, either.

The situation here was brought under control. In places where it wasn’t, there were even trampling incidents.

And compared to other countries, the situation in Hua Country was actually mild.

First, the Huaguo People were relatively mild-mannered, and most had already built up a decent reserve of supplies during the previous phase. As the saying goes, with grain in the house, there’s no panic in the heart.

Second, Hua Country, after all, has extremely strict gun control. It’s not like some places where incidents could escalate to an absurd degree.

…

To stabilize public morale, the follow-up to the Memorandum Plan was also forced to be launched immediately.

People couldn’t be left in a state of both emptiness and fear. Besides needing to give people something to do, it was also necessary to further stabilize emotions and build confidence.

‘Since agitators online are attacking the fragility of our technology, we’ll show them we have more than just technology!’

Qin Xiaoxia had guessed correctly. The World Alliance really hadn’t planned on letting the Dawn Association appear on television, but the current situation desperately called for an “idol”!

As the top leaders of the World Alliance, acting decisively to solve complex problems was a practiced response. The moment the riots showed signs of escalating, they had to be cut off at the source.

Therefore, the Dawn Association received a request. The World Alliance hoped to reveal this force of Hidden World Guardians, passed down since ancient times, to all of humanity.

As for the method—whether it be a television appearance or something else—that was left for Dawn to decide.

PS: Saturday’s second chapter.