Chapter 007: The Shocking Video Screenshot

Wu Miaoran opened the background page to check the most popular comments, only to find that they were all about the same thing. The top comment featured a screenshot from the video—a still taken near the end of the restaurant review, showing the lovable golden retriever inside the eatery.

Qin Qisan had thought Master Lu’s golden retriever was amusing and had included a clip of the dog in the video, never expecting it to become the catalyst for the video’s overnight fame.

However, the golden retriever’s sudden popularity wasn’t due to its cuteness.

In the screenshot, the dog was twisting its body, seemingly just having dodged Wu Miaoran’s attempt to pet it. Yet, beside the golden retriever, there appeared a pair of horrifying, blood-red ghostly claws.

These claws looked withered and gaunt, each knuckle wrapped in a gelatinous, cured-meat-like flesh—clearly nothing human.

This chilling image, set against the video’s somewhat dim background, was deeply uncanny. The top comment read: “I just happened to catch this—I thought my eyes were playing tricks, but when I paused, I saw this terrifying thing. Swear on my luck in love upstairs, this is an unaltered screenshot. Try it yourself if you don’t believe me—what is this hand? It’s definitely not human!”

Other popular comments were equally obsessed with the mysterious claws, scarcely referencing the rest of the video; the claws appeared for about two seconds, so many viewers managed to capture them in their own screenshots.

“My god, no wonder the golden retriever seemed so listless today, when it’s usually so lively—something evil must have possessed it, how terrifying.”

“I got the screenshot too! It’s terrifying—look, in mine the claws almost grab the puppy! The golden retriever ran away to protect it, just in time!”

“This golden retriever is so kind, otherwise the puppy would have been hurt.”

“You idiots, this is just a clip the streamer added for hype. Don’t be so gullible.”

Most of these comments were accompanied by screenshots of the dog and the ghostly claws. The rest of the comments were filled with superstitious phrases like “Clicked by accident, may misfortune be banished,” “Amitabha, peace to my family,” and “Clicked by accident, Amitabha,” repeated ad nauseam.

Wu Miaoran and her companions were utterly bewildered—they had never anticipated such an incident from their video.

At the same time, a notification appeared in the backend:

“Hello, your video has been deleted for ‘malicious sensationalism’ and ‘promoting superstition,’ violating community guidelines. You are prohibited from uploading new content until December 7, 2021, at 8:54 a.m. Please adhere to the community’s code of conduct when posting videos, challenges, comments, or private messages.”

Clearly, the system administrator reviewing the content assumed Wu Miaoran had deliberately inserted the ghostly claw for hype and deleted the video, suspending her account as well.

“Hello? Miaoran, did you see this?” her fan asked nervously, noticing her silence.

But Wu Miaoran was too stunned to reply. She hung up the voice call and turned to Qin Qisan at once.

“What on earth is going on? Didn’t you see those hands when you were editing?”

Qin Qisan ran a hand through his slicked-back hair, equally shocked. “Impossible, how could something so outrageous happen? I just thought the footage was cute and added it in—girls like cats and dogs, right? I didn’t look closely at the details. I never imagined this would happen.”

He snatched Wu Miaoran’s phone and opened the backend, intending to review the video. Although the system had deleted the video, the original file was still accessible behind the scenes.

The three of them huddled around and watched the video carefully, pausing repeatedly when the golden retriever appeared.

Soon, they too saw the scene described in the comments: beside the dog, a bizarrely shaped hand extended into view.

From the footage, it looked as if Wu Miaoran was about to pet the golden retriever, and the ghostly claw was reaching to grab her. Luckily, the dog twisted away just in time, preventing the claw from making contact.

Staring at the frozen image, Qin Qisan gasped, “Good heavens, could that be a nuclear parasite?”

“It does look like it. Look closely—the claw is hand-like but has only four fingers, and they’re splayed unnaturally wide. The image is blurry, so it’s hard to see clearly, but no human hand could spread apart like that,” Lin Yu speculated. “I think it’s actually the chelicerae of some arthropod—perhaps a spider-shaped nuclear parasite.”

“Or maybe just a regular spider. There was sunlight shining down from above the retriever, so the angle could have stretched a small spider’s shadow, making it look like a ghostly claw,” Qin Qisan offered.

“No—that angle of sunlight wouldn’t make the four ‘fingers’ so evenly spaced. I still think it’s more likely a nuclear parasite. If that’s true, we don’t need to track down the woman in the baseball cap—just go back to the restaurant to catch this nuclear parasite!” Wu Miaoran said, eyes shining.

“Wait—zoom in, Qisan, enlarge the third screenshot!” Lin Yu suddenly exclaimed.

Qin Qisan, perplexed, found the third screenshot—the one where Wu Miaoran was closest to the golden retriever—and zoomed in as Lin Yu requested. In an instant, a chill ran through him.

In the enlarged image, the ghostly claw seemed to have brushed against Wu Miaoran’s right hand, just beneath the ulna, though it wasn’t obvious at first glance.

“Miaoran, check your hand…” Qin Qisan began.

But Wu Miaoran had already seen the appalling detail and quickly turned her wrist over. What she saw made her skin crawl: just below her ulna, a grotesque swelling had formed, around which golden fur seemed to be entwined. Blood had coagulated around the lump and was still oozing slowly.

Even more uncanny, she hadn’t felt a thing—even now, seeing this monstrous growth on her own hand, she felt nothing at all.

At that moment, Lin Yu hurried in from the office next door with a device resembling an infrared thermometer. He aimed it at the lump on Wu Miaoran’s wrist and pulled the trigger.

With a crisp electronic sound, a beam of dark green light swept up and down over the area.

Moments later, a cold mechanical voice issued from the device: “Confirmation: presence of nuclear material. Tritium content: 0.7%. Radium: 1%. Polonium: 0.4%. Uranium: 0.6%.”

Lin Yu’s brow furrowed. “So it’s a nuclear parasite. Miaoran, how do you feel?”

Wu Miaoran stared anxiously at her right hand, swallowing hard. “Honestly, I feel nothing. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.”

Lin Yu immediately pulled out his phone, face grave. “This is serious—we have to act at once. I’ll call Director Lü right away and send the data to Xiaoyu for analysis to determine the type of nuclear parasite. Then we need to get back to the restaurant as fast as possible. If it really is a nuclear parasite, Master Lu’s family could be in danger!”