The Littoral Highway Ghost Run

The Littoral Highway Ghost Run
The median strip of the Littoral Highway where Svenn Krossen staged his final stunt, photographed by a tourist in October 2058.
Location	Littoral Highway, border between Ulmarka and Renmaros
Dates	March – October 2058
Perpetrator	the Ghost
Method	Traffic light manipulation, sound system hijacking, visual illusions
Injuries	None reported (psychological distress in some tourists)
Casualties	0
Arrested	the Ghost (fled prior to capture, confessed publicly)
Outcome	Retired; prank series ended voluntarily

The Littoral Highway Ghost Run was a series of elaborate pranks staged between March and October 2058 on the abandoned stretch of the Littoral Highway, which once served as a critical transport artery between the northern territories of Ulmarka and the southern regions of Renmaros. Following the conclusion of the Protectorate Wars in 2041, the highway had fallen into disrepair, becoming a hazardous corridor for civilian traffic where infrastructure from the conflict remained intact. In this liminal space, a phantom driver known only as the Ghost manipulated remnants of wartime technology to stage illusions that fooled tourists and local commuters into believing they were being pursued by spectral racers or had suddenly vanished from existence. The events culminated in a viral video capturing an apparent convoy disappearance, which brought the phenomenon to global attention before investigations revealed the perpetrator was Svenn Krossen, a retired mechanic from Ulmarka.

The Ghost operated primarily during the spring and summer of 2058, utilizing the decaying electrical grid of the highway to create impossible scenarios. Svenn Krossen, formerly a technician for the provincial road authorities, had access to obsolete wiring left over from the Protectorate Wars that connected traffic signals and emergency broadcast systems along the route. By bypassing modern safety protocols, he was able to override traffic lights at specific intervals to halt vehicles while simultaneously activating old sirens and flashing strobe lights from abandoned service stations. These stunts were designed not merely to scare, but to disorient drivers, creating the psychological illusion that a vehicle was being chased by an unseen force or that the road itself had dissolved beneath them. The most famous incident occurred in August 2058, when a livestream captured tourists driving a convoy along the median strip; seconds after they disappeared from the camera's view behind a bend, Krossen appeared waving with a cup of coffee, proving that no supernatural force was involved.

The highway, originally constructed during the pre-war era to connect the resource-rich coastlines of the Cohesive Global Concord's northern sector, had been largely bypassed by newer routes by 2045 due to damage sustained during the war and subsequent neglect. By 2058, it was considered a scenic detour for tourists seeking "post-war nostalgia," though safety warnings were often ignored. Krossen's pranks targeted this specific demographic, exploiting the isolation of the stretch which bordered the Ulmarkan Protectorates in the north and the neutral territories of Renmaros to the south. While the highway was officially marked as "unmaintained" by the Cohesive Global Concord infrastructure commission, its proximity to active military zones meant that old wartime equipment remained scattered along the verges. Krossen's ability to access this hardware turned a forgotten war zone into a stage for performance art that blurred the line between prank and public hazard.

The pranks escalated in complexity from simple traffic disruptions to sophisticated sensory illusions. Early in the season, Krossen focused on the "ghost car" illusion, where he would manipulate relays at intersections to stop a convoy completely, then broadcast phantom engine noises and wailing sirens from hidden speakers along the embankment. Witnesses reported feeling a heavy pressure in their chests and hearing voices calling out names that matched the people in the vehicle but who were not present. These audio recordings were looped from old wartime emergency broadcasts found in the local archives, creating an uncanny valley effect that unsettled drivers accustomed to modern traffic patterns.

The climax of the series involved the "spectral racer" illusion, where Krossen utilized a hacked visual display on a remaining war-era billboard to project a translucent, high-speed vehicle onto the road ahead of approaching tourists. Combined with the sound of roaring engines and flashing red taillights activated by his remote triggers, dozens of drivers reported seeing a ghostly car weaving through their lane before vanishing just as they would have collided with it. The final major stunt, captured on viral video, involved Krossen physically altering the traffic flow to create a void in the road ahead. He timed his appearance from a maintenance shed overlooking the median strip exactly when cameras panned away from him, making it appear that the entire group of tourists had been erased by thin air before reappearing moments later. This specific incident drew commentary from The Brass Concord tech analysts, who noted the sophisticated use of analog circuitry to mimic digital ghosting effects.

Public outcry following the viral video prompted the local authorities in both Ulmarka and Renmaros to launch a joint investigation into the safety of the highway section. The Cohesive Global Concord police, assisted by forensic engineers from the ████████ of Aethelgardia, combed through the abandoned infrastructure for signs of tampering. Analysis of the electrical grid revealed that several key relays along the highway had been modified with components dated to the 2030s, a period marked by rapid technological obsolescence and widespread looting following the wars. These components were found to be manually rewired with non-standard connections that allowed for unauthorized signal interception.

Digital forensics traced the activation patterns of the sound systems and traffic lights back to a specific set of modified diagnostic tools purchased by Krossen shortly before the first incident in March 2058. The digital footprint left by these tools, which contained custom firmware written to bypass standard security protocols, matched data found on Krossen's personal server, which had been located in an unregistered basement workshop in the city of Vharnhold. Although the tools were capable of significant disruption, investigators noted that they were manually operated rather than automated, explaining the specific timing and locations of the pranks. The investigation also uncovered evidence of Krossen's access to the highway via a compromised maintenance contract he had held prior to his retirement in 2056.

the Ghost made a public confession through a live stream from his workshop just days after his digital footprint was identified, admitting that the stunts were intended as commentary on the dangers of relying on outdated infrastructure in a modernized world. He stated that he had no intention of causing physical harm and expressed regret for the psychological distress caused to tourists. Due to the lack of physical injuries or fatalities, prosecutors in both Ulmarka and

• Protectorate Wars
• Ulmarkan Empire
• Cohesive Global Concord
• Orylia