Chapter 102: Chapter 95 Swarm of Locusts Attacking the Face
Due to the extensive length of the core sewage channel in the East District, which also contains multiple drainage outlets, the coverage area is close to one-eighth of the East District.
Therefore, although the command center judged that a terrifying number of cockroaches should be gathering in this channel, it was challenging to determine from which drainage outlet they would emerge.
So when securing camera stations earlier, the command center simply employed an exhaustive method and placed cameras outside each drainage outlet.
There are over sixty cameras in this batch, and their numbers are quite low in the entire extermination live stream, so most of the camera views had only about seven or eight hundred scattered viewers.
Guo Hongshun, who was studying at a vocational high school in Min Province, was one of these wandering viewers. At this moment, he was idly watching in the live stream room numbered 255, gently scrolling down the list on the right side of the screen with his index finger.
The camera station 255 was recording a tree-lined path about one and a half meters wide. Like its number, this path was somewhat secluded in location.
Ordinarily, besides some couples in love... ahem, dating couples, few people would pass through here.
In the past hour or so, although some cockroaches did occasionally appear on the path,
the number and appeal compared to a few popular camera stations were of a completely different level for station 255.
In fact, Guo Hongshun just happened to click into this live stream room; as soon as he found a view that interested him, he would leave without hesitation the next second.
Yet as he continued scrolling, Guo Hongshun suddenly felt that something seemed off:
The position of the camera station selection list was on the right side of the screen, occupying about a third of the horizontal screen width, and it covered up the original image in that area, rendering it a blind spot.
At this moment.
Right on the edge of that covered list, a small patch of shadow was slowly expanding!
This shadow moved like a water stain spreading on the ground, slow yet distinctly extending outward.
Within a few seconds.
The shadow grew from the size of a needle tip to the size of a fingernail, and then nearly a bottle cap.....
Witnessing this scene,
Guo Hongshun, not realizing yet, instinctively tapped elsewhere on the screen to hide the pull-down list.
As the list disappeared, the part of the image that had been blocked—the main part of the shadow—was immediately revealed before Guo Hongshun’s eyes.
Thud.
With a dull thump, Guo Hongshun’s phone fell onto the quilt, having a close encounter with the padded quilt and the wooden bed frame underneath.
The next moment, this 189 cm tall, 160-pound man from the Northeast shuddered all over, letting out a terrified shout from his mouth:
"Oh my god, it’s full of cockroaches aaahhhh!!!!"
Guo Hongshun’s voice traveled far, and his cellphone, which had fallen onto the quilt, continued to dutifully broadcast the stream:
In the left half of the screen, from the drainage outlet beside the path, innumerable cockroaches were crawling out.
Rustling, numbering countless!
In less than ten seconds, the cockroaches occupied nearly half the width of the path!
After half a minute more, these little critters completely claimed the entire road surface of the path.
From a high altitude, one could see a black river slowly extending along the path, heading straight for...
Guo Moruo Square!
As Guo Hongshun witnessed this terrifying scene, the command center located in Teaching Building 1 also noticed the anomaly in this camera station.
Director Guan, responsible for general management and logistics, quickly walked to Tian Lianwei’s side and said:
"Dean, at the 255th camera station on the Spring Garden Path, a large force of cockroaches has been discovered. Judging from the scale, it’s likely the core main force of the on-campus cockroaches!"
Tian Lianwei immediately raised an eyebrow:
"Oh? Quickly switch over to take a look!"
Director Guan nodded, took out a remote control, and pressed a few times.
Soon, several images appeared on the command center’s main screen.
About three minutes had passed since the image had begun, and the number of cockroaches had grown significantly larger than at the start.
A densely packed black river stretched over thirty meters long, grandiosely reminiscent of the army ants once seen on "Animal World."
Director Guan then circled a few spots on the screen with an infrared pen, speaking like a classroom teacher:
"These are several critical camera stations between Spring Garden Path and Guo Moruo Square. Today, the campus is under a southeast wind, and the wind direction is stable.
Adding to that the motion trajectory of some poisoned cockroaches, it’s not unexpected that the large cockroach force will follow the path 255-231-201-197."
Tian Liangwei pondered for a moment before asking:
"Director Guan, how many cockroaches are in this force?"
Director Guan shook his head, a faintly visible tremor on his face:
"I’m not sure, but according to the assistant researcher He Jiajia in the insect laboratory, just the number of cockroaches we can see is no less than two hundred thousand, and the count is still increasing. Moreover, there’s also..."
"Also what?"
Director Guan hesitated for several seconds:
"Let me show you."
Subsequently, he fiddled a bit, and the screen quickly switched to another camera station.
At the instant of seeing the image, a few female colleagues in the command room screamed out:
"Ah!!!!"
In the picture, that is, on the camera lens, there was a thick layer of cockroaches covering it!
Slender leg hairs, swollen abdomens, brown backs, and some sticky fluids.....
Tian Liangwei also felt a tingling at the scalp, and after regaining composure, he shot an inquisitive glance at Director Guan.
Seeing this, Director Guan quickly explained:
"Dean Tian, as you can see, the cameras at several extermination points have already been overrun by cockroaches.
Although we have pre-emptively implemented protective measures for cables and equipment, ensuring the devices themselves and signal transmission do not encounter any major issues.
But this way, the footage each camera can record is greatly affected....."
Tian Liangwei seemed to be in thought, then asked:
"I get it. Is it that after the image is affected, the audience’s resentment in the live stream is high, and you plan to close these perspectives temporarily?"
However, to his surprise, Director Guan shook his head:
"Dean Tian, you guessed wrong. On the contrary, it seems that due to some kind of curiosity, the number of viewers in these live streams covered by cockroaches is actually increasing.
Among them, the most popular live stream has already reached 1.3 million real viewers, and some people are even shouting things like Cockroach Lady..."
Tian Liangwei: "???"
Xu Yun, standing nearby, was also a bit dumbfounded. Has the public’s XP become this open these days?
In fact.
Besides Ke Da’s official live stream, the images were also affected in other official media or self-media.
Unlike Ke Da, which has multiple perspectives to choose from, these media basically only have aerial drone shots, besides fixed positions.
Indeed.
Due to curiosity, many people might temporarily be interested in or curious about the cockroach face-pouncing perspective.
But over time, this temporary psychological effect will gradually fade, and the demand for normal perspectives will be brought up again.
Also, from the perspective of the media’s authority, they must record the real scenes.
So at this moment, in the temporary resting point for external media, several media outlets are also discussing plans internally.
"Click—"
Zhang Xiaojie, the team leader from Sichuan Province Observation, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a cloud of nicotine-laden smoke with some irritation.
As a relatively authoritative official media with not too much black history, Sichuan Province Observation’s purpose for coming to Ke Da this time is fairly objective, having prepared a few contingency plans beforehand.
These plans included the possibility that Ke Da wasn’t lying and that there really was a cockroach eradication going on.
This can be seen from their ability to invite experts like Ouyang Li to give commentary—they indeed regarded this trip to Ke Da as an interview rather than a farce.
However good the contingency plans were, they couldn’t have imagined that Ke Da could create such a huge spectacle, nor did they know how many cockroaches might exist in a school.
After all, unlike Ke Da, they couldn’t create biological models to roughly estimate the number of cockroaches on campus.
Just look now.
The writhing cockroach "river" looks terrifyingly like a swarm awakening in a starry sky.
In conclusion.
As the situation evolves, Zhang Xiaojie and others found that the cameras they brought have become useless.
Just as Zhang Xiaojie was smoking, troubled, his assistant Li Rulin hurried over:
"Boss."
Zhang Xiaojie quickly straightened up and asked hopefully:
"How’s it going? Does Ke Da have a way?"
Li Rulin shook his head and sighed:
"Ke Da said they can only provide a few remote sensing robots, primarily used as reserve technology for disaster exploration.
Besides being cumbersome and complex, the footage quality they produce is very poor and might have the opposite effect when uploaded online."
Zhang Xiaojie’s eyes visibly dimmed, and he said, unwilling:
"What about the media van? Can we drive our media van in? Like in a wildlife park?"
Li Rulin still shook his head:
"Director Guan from Ke Da was very firm, telling me that the extermination center does not allow any vehicles to enter.
Firstly, they fear vehicles might disrupt the existing toxin dispersal process, and secondly, they’re worried cockroaches might crawl into engines, causing some severe and unnecessary consequences..."
Zhang Xiaojie sat back on his chair silently, speechless for a long time.
The cockroach troops on Spring Garden Path have gradually attracted the attention of all parties. Based on the distance and the movement speed of the cockroach troops, it’s estimated that these little darlings will reach Guo Moruo Square in fifteen minutes.
If they can’t get footage from the extermination center, a large number of viewers will likely choose to switch channels next.
For the platform, viewers switching channels does not have any impact—in essence, it’s just switching from one hand to the other, keeping the total mass constant.
But for the channel media, this would be a significant traffic loss incident.
If it were to be seriously investigated, it might even be internally classified as a live stream accident!
Just as Zhang Xiaojie was troubled, a weak voice suddenly came from behind him:
"Director Zhang..."
Hearing this, Zhang Xiaojie turned around and found it was Chen Shanshan, who was responsible for front-end commentary.
Feeling somewhat vexed, Zhang Xiaojie’s mood was not so bad as to lash out at the soft-spoken young lady, but his tone was a bit stiff:
"Oh, it’s Xiaochen, what’s up?"
Chen Shanshan glanced at him and still spoke weakly:
"Director Zhang, I’ve heard that apart from the drones, the cameras at the other points are unable to capture much anymore?"
Zhang Xiaojie nodded slightly:
"That’s right."
"...Are there any solutions?"
"None."
After a few seconds of silence, a glimpse of decisiveness flashed in Chen Shanshan’s eyes:
"Director Zhang, I have an idea."
With impatience, Zhang Xiaojie glanced at her and frowned:
"What idea?"
"I’ll wear protective clothing and go in with the equipment to broadcast live."
....