Global Shock!

Gui Bin clicked on the number one trending video on YouTube. The video opened to a scene of dense jungle teeming with foreigners and American soldiers, either hurrying through or studying something intently, all the while speaking fluent American English.

"Thank God for the subtitles!"

"What's this? Not another clickbait compilation, right?"

"Lol, pretending I'm the subtitle guy here!"

"..."

Shaking his head in amusement at the stream of comments overlaying the video, Gui Bin found the barrage of real-time reactions to be the most entertaining aspect of watching videos on Bilibili.

"What is this? A movie trailer or a documentary? Wow, they're using some real-time filming techniques here."

Gui Bin mumbled to himself, glancing at the video length. It was a bit long for a movie trailer but too short for a full feature, leading Gui Bin to treat it as a documentary.

The initial footage was rather dull. As a member of a secretive department, Gui Bin prided himself on his knowledge, not an expert in all fields, but knowledgeable enough. Young, strong, and action-oriented, with agile thinking and meticulous logic, these traits had secured his recruitment. Sometimes he felt born out of time as if he'd missed his chance to achieve something truly great.

Complimenting himself, he continued watching the video.

"High energy up ahead!!"

"High energy continues!"

"Brace yourselves!"

"..."

Prompted by the barrage of warnings in the comments, Gui Bin sat up straighter, his breathing slowed, focused intently on the screen.

Shortly after, the shaky footage came to a halt, and a dragon, majestic and golden as if carved from purest myth, appeared on the screen. It lay there, resting until it noticed the cameraperson and lifted its head, cold-blooded pupils staring directly through the screen.

Even through the screen, meeting the gaze of the dragon momentarily robbed Gui Bin of breath. Even in video form, the dragon exuded an almost magical aura that instilled a primal fear and quickened the heartbeat.

"This is insane!"

Gui Bin took a deep breath to calm himself, muttering in disbelief.

The comments on the screen were a mix of astonishment and fear.

"Holy shit, that's terrifying! It looks so real."

"I actually felt fear for a second there, like a low-tier animal facing a predator. I almost peed myself, and I'm human!"

"This CGI is next-level! Which studio did this? Hollywood's?"

"So lifelike."

"The dragon's covered in gold... yeah, that's very dragon!"

"..."

As he read the comments, Gui Bin clenched his fists, eyes wide with disbelief because—

"This doesn't look post-produced!"

As someone skilled in post-production, Gui Bin could tell a lot about the video at first glance. It was raw, unedited, even amateurishly shot. The lighting alone indicated handheld filming, not studio work. To create such a realistic dragon in a video without post-production was beyond even the most advanced companies.

Particularly when the dragon moved, the fluidity of its motions and the details on its body seemed indistinguishable from a living creature, not an animated effect—something modern technology couldn't achieve.

Many shared Gui Bin's opinion, offering their insights in the comments, while others scoffed, for if this wasn't CGI, did it mean dragons really existed?

The rebuttal was hard to argue with.

But when the dragon approached the cameraperson, revealing its formidable, fierce visage and speaking human language, the comments went wild.

"The dragon's talking!!"

"Someone translate what the dragon's saying!"

"You're kidding, right? That language doesn't exist, it's probably the dragon's own language."

Accidental truths were revealed.

"Holy shit, it's speaking English! Perfect American English at that, 66666!"

"My years of English lessons can't compare to a dragon!"

"Mom, I want to learn English from the dragon."

"What the hell? 'Fluent in language?' Is this some kind of magic?"

"No spirits allowed after the founding!"

"..."

At times, the comments added levity to tense moments, relieving the stress with humor.

Next came a scene reminiscent of a movie script. The American soldiers, thinking themselves invincible, launched an attack on the dragon. What followed was a brutal slaughter with censorship mosaics throughout—necessary for approval. Yet the red liquid seeping through the pixels indicated the spattered blood all too clearly.

The dragon's rampage was beyond Hollywood's capacity to simulate, simply because it was all too real. The screams, the blood, the viscera all obeyed physical laws in a way that left no room for doubt or imperfections. It wasn't until the dragon destroyed the three Apache helicopters and flew off that the video finally ended.

"Fuck!!"

"That's dragon's breath, no doubt about it!"

"Can someone tell me what that beam of light the dragon shot out was??"

"7777777, the dragon just flew a perfect 7. The universe has a plan!"

Curiously, the comments thinned as the video progressed, as if the viewers were too engrossed in the carnage to react, their bodies breaking out in involuntary cold sweats.

Then a comment cut across the center of the screen, chilling viewers to the bone.

"I'm a Chinese expat living in Brazil. Today's local newspapers say the US military has swarmed the fringes of the Amazon, with helicopters, tanks, and biohazard teams spotted. The uploader brought this video over from YouTube, and it's blowing up overseas!"

Seeing this, Gui Bin immediately logged onto international websites and found that netizens worldwide were embroiled in heated debates. The matter had truly gone global.

"This can't be real..."

Gui Bin muttered to himself, leaning back in his chair, only then realizing his takeout had arrived, the delivery guy having rung the bell for ages.

He hurried to the door, received his meal with repeated apologies, and returned inside. But just as Gui Bin was about to eat, his phone rang.

The caller ID confused him—it was his boss, a man he rarely encountered.

'Could it be related to that video?'

With that thought, Gui Bin pressed the answer button.

Without wasting words, his boss said only one thing, "...Gui Bin, drop everything you're doing and come to the office now!"