Chapter 303: No Special Effects, All the Real Deal
"What?!"
The few leaders at the front shot to their feet, their faces instantly paling.
Everyone else in the room also stopped what they were doing, looking over in astonishment.
"What happened to Miss Donovan?"
"Miss Donovan was visiting Brynn University with her brother today when she was in a car accident near campus."
"How could she just get into a car accident? How is she now? Is she seriously injured? Has she been taken to the hospital?" Ron Cole rattled off several questions, his anxiety palpable.
Yet, the young man who had rushed in to deliver the news had an exceptionally complicated look on his face when he heard these questions.
"Well, spit it out! How is Miss Donovan?"
"Miss Donovan... she’s fine."
"Fine?" Ron Cole and the others froze, exchanging bewildered glances.
"That’s right. Miss Donovan is completely unscathed. It’s just..."
"Just what?"
"Director, it’s better if you see for yourselves." The young man placed his laptop on the table and stepped aside.
Ron Cole and the others quickly gathered around the computer. When they saw what was on the screen, they all froze in place.
"This is..."
"Here’s what happened. A few minutes ago, someone posted a video on social media. This is it..."
The young man leaned forward and clicked open the social media website with the mouse.
The user who posted the video was an ordinary Brynn University student who had returned to campus early.
The post itself read: My elders always said, "The early bird gets the worm," and "the early worm gets eaten by the bird." But no one ever told me returning to campus early would lead to such a wild encounter! Location: East Street, not far from the entrance to Brynn University’s food street. A truck lost control and barreled straight at some pedestrians. Just when it looked like it was about to be a bloodbath, justice rained down from the heavens in the form of a massive thunderbolt. Talk about physical salvation for all sentient beings!
Attached beneath the post was a full video of the incident. At the time, the student had been dragging their suitcase toward the school entrance while on a video call with family to let them know they’d arrived safely. After noticing the commotion around Arabella Donovan’s group, they had immediately started screen recording, capturing the entire event from start to finish.
A narrow, old street. A truck speeding toward a clear target. And three people, frozen in place, unsure of what to do.
In an instant, everyone in the room’s heart leaped into their throats. But a moment later, they heard an earth-shattering CRACK. From the bystander’s point of view, the bolt from the heavens was even more stunning. Purple lightning, moving faster than the eye could see, engulfed the speeding truck. The vehicle that had seemed so menacing a moment ago—how insignificant it appeared before such a cataclysm!
As they watched with horrified, bulging eyes, the truck flipped onto its side and was incinerated into a charred wreck. Meanwhile, the very people who should have met a tragic end were still standing frozen in place, completely unscathed.
Everyone: "???"
Everyone: "!!!"
"Th-th-this..."
The young employee seemed to anticipate their questions and proactively explained, "My colleagues in the tech department have already done a frame-by-frame analysis. They’ve confirmed the video’s content is real, with no signs of editing whatsoever."
In fact, under the original post, there were plenty of comments questioning the video’s authenticity. However, what was even more striking were the comments from supposed eyewitnesses who fiercely defended it.
"It sounds crazy, but what’s in the video is absolutely real. Especially the lightning. Can you even imagine how shocking it is to see a bolt from the blue on a bright, sunny day in Imperia with not a cloud in the sky? I was nearby, and I swear I had the illusion that the lightning was about to strike me on the head. It was just wild."
"A Brynn U student wouldn’t lie to another. Eyewitness here, and I’m telling you, everything in the video is real! That lightning was seriously incredible. I’ve never in my life seen such a massive bolt up close. Thank heavens it only hit the truck. If it had struck inside the Brynn University campus, the consequences would have been unthinkable."
"Eyewitness +1. I’ll stake my reputation on it: everything in that video is 100% real, no special effects."
"That’s terrifying. Did the person in that truck commit some heavenly crime? To be struck by lightning in broad daylight... with a bolt that huge, they’re definitely dead, right?"
"Who knows? Maybe they just did too many evil things and even the heavens couldn’t watch anymore. It’s being called a loss of control, but if you look closely, the truck’s path doesn’t waver one bit. It drives straight, straight for those people. I suspect it wasn’t an accident at all, but attempted murder. The lightning just showed up in time to stop the tragedy."
"Even if it wasn’t deliberate, those people were just walking down the street, minding their own business. Why should they have to face such a disaster? You can only say they were incredibly lucky that the lightning struck when it did!"
"It’s definitely all real. When I saw it this afternoon, I almost thought the mushrooms I had for breakfast hadn’t worn off yet..."
"..."
You had to hand it to them—netizens had eyes like magnifying glasses. They could pull a mountain of details from a video just a dozen seconds long, and their speculations were remarkably close to the truth.
Ron Cole and the others scrolled down and discovered the incident had already made the news. Several topics on the trending list were related to it.
[Major Car Accident Near Brynn University: 1 Dead, 0 Injured]
[Real-Life Divine Retribution: Smitten by Heavenly Thunder!]
[Live from Brynn University After Shocking Thunder Strike: Campus Personnel Evacuated, All Buildings Confirmed to Have Lightning Rods, No Safety Risks Present]
[The Scientific Principles Behind Lightning Formation...]
It was safe to say that this single bolt of lightning had effortlessly thrust the normally low-profile Brynn University into the public spotlight.
This century-old, top-tier university was making a rare appearance in the public eye, not for its rich heritage or academic achievements, but because an outsider had nearly been smote by lightning right next to it.
The Brynn University administration: "..." ’This is not the kind of publicity we wanted!’
Unlike the uninformed, rubbernecking netizens who could only spin wild conspiracy theories based on what they saw, Ron Cole and his group had some prior knowledge of Arabella Donovan’s extraordinary abilities.
Once the initial shock subsided, the group’s attention quickly shifted from the shocking thunderbolt to the truck itself.
"There’s definitely a problem with the truck’s path. It was clearly heading for Miss Donovan. Could someone have gotten wind of her visit and tried to make a move against her?"
Ron Cole’s face was grim. "This is a serious matter. Our top priority is to contact Miss Donovan immediately and assign more people to protect her. We absolutely cannot let something like this happen again."
"Furthermore, to avoid unnecessary panic, have this video and all related discussions scrubbed immediately. As for whether the truck was deliberately targeting Miss Donovan..."
A cold glint flashed in Ron Cole’s eyes. "Find out the truth as fast as possible. Whoever dared to pull a stunt like this right under our noses, they can forget about this ending quietly!"
Thanks to all the eager netizens, Arabella Donovan and her group hadn’t even made it home before Mr. Donovan and the family learned what had happened near Brynn University. While Arabella’s party was still reeling from the shock, calls from their families began pouring in one after another.