The Black Bone Dagger became a standard-issue weapon that the Special Response Department spared no expense to equip all Anti-Anomaly agents with, primarily because of its ability to penetrate anomaly energy defenses. Not only could it breach anomaly spaces, but it was also particularly effective against anomalies that used anomaly energy for protection.
The freak clearly relied on anomaly energy to enhance its physical hardness, which happened to be perfectly countered by the Black Bone Dagger. The dagger stabbed into the freak’s eyeball, splattering dark blood.
Fang Mingyue, mimicking Shen Ge’s technique with the butcher’s cleaver, gripped the hilt with both hands and forcefully sliced downward along the freak’s head!
However, the split-open head of the freak didn’t contain anything resembling a brain. Instead, there was a thumb-sized, pulsating “heart”!
Fang Mingyue reacted swiftly. Upon seeing the thumb-sized “heart,” she immediately judged it to be the freak’s “weak point” and slashed down with her knife, severing the heart.
But what utterly surprised Fang Mingyue was that even with its head split open and the “heart” cut out, this freak could still move around vigorously!
The bone cage creaked and groaned as the freak tore at it. Fang Mingyue was acutely aware of her own capabilities. Once a freak of this level broke free from the bone cage, killing it would become far more difficult.
Fang Mingyue didn’t rush into the office area. Standing at the doorway, she used the Anomaly Energy Detector to scout. The detector beeped incessantly, its numbers constantly changing, indicating there was definitely more than one anomaly inside the office area!
However, Fang Mingyue didn’t have time to consider how many anomalies were in the office area now. With only this path available forward, backward, left, or right, her only alternative was to stay put and wait for Shen Ge’s rescue.
Fang Mingyue wasn’t one to sit idly by, and moreover, she didn’t want to hold Shen Ge back. Shen Ge was the future of the Special Response Department; she would never allow Shen Ge to be endangered because of her. Even though she knew the terrifying, oppressive room was problematic, even if it were a dragon’s den or a tiger’s lair, she had to brave it!
“If I can’t even overcome difficulties like this, how can I talk about chasing after Investigator Shen’s footsteps!” Fang Mingyue’s eyes became resolutely determined, and she stepped directly into the office area.
In the dim room, only the inherent dim red light allowed for visibility. At this moment, Fang Mingyue felt immensely grateful for Shen Ge’s “cultivation.” If he hadn’t recommended numerous horror movies to her in the past, merely stepping into this oppressive and terrifying room would have made it impossible for her to remain as calm as she was now.
That’s right!
After the Capital Anomaly Disaster, Fang Mingyue, remembering Shen Ge’s “teachings,” spent all her free time outside of training catching up on films, even studying anatomy during meals with Jigsaw and Jason, and having “The Witching Hour” help her sleep every night with assists from Mei and Kayako. Although she had been scared unconscious numerous times during this period, that wasn’t the point!
The point was, after this long-term training, Fang Mingyue had also developed strong nerves, embodying the spirit of “dare to say, dare to practice.”
The oppressive light in the office area didn’t halt Fang Mingyue’s steps. Gripping the Black Bone Dagger tightly, she cautiously moved forward.
“Gurgle.”
“Gurgle.”
That familiar swallowing sound again.
The sound echoed throughout the office area, seeming to surge from all directions, yet also like an eerie noise emitted by the “office area” itself.
Fang Mingyue suddenly heard a sound different from the usual swallowing coming from a corner ahead, resembling the sound of bubbles popping.
Holding the Black Bone Dagger in one hand and the flashlight in the other, she adopted a posture ready to counterattack at any moment and carefully approached the corner.
Between the desk in the front right of the office area and the wall, on the empty floor, stood several black “wine jars,” each nearly half a meter tall.
As Fang Mingyue drew near, these “wine jars” made bubble-popping sounds, then their top “lids” slowly opened like the mouths of pitcher plants.
It was then that Fang Mingyue realized these weren’t “wine jars” at all, but fleshy, meaty pots.
Next, Fang Mingyue watched as from within these meat pots, a pale bone hand with fingers a full twenty centimeters long slowly extended, followed by an arm covered only by a layer of skin, and then an entire emaciated, skeletal “person.”
“Gurgle.”
“Gurgle.”
These “freaks” stared at Fang Mingyue, making swallowing sounds like anomalies from their throats, then slowly walked towards her.
Although Fang Mingyue had long known that the Twelve Branches were researching methods to “incubate” artificial anomalies, witnessing it firsthand still filled her with immense shock.
If the Twelve Branches were allowed to continue their research, it was possible that one day humans would no longer exist on Earth, replaced only by these inhuman monsters!
Fang Mingyue decisively raised her gun and fired. The assault rifle spat fire, rattling off bursts that struck the dry, shriveled heads of the freaks, splattering flesh and dark blood with sickening ‘thuds’.
When one freak’s head was blown apart and it fell, a nearby freak immediately pounced on the corpse and began to devour it.
As the freaks cannibalized their kind, their bodies visibly “filled out,” covered by a layer of black skin, and began to grow barbs.
Fang Mingyue’s heart sank. She could see that if these freaks continued to eat their dead comrades, they would eventually transform into the three-meter-tall freaks like the one in the corridor earlier!
Dealing with just one such freak had been extremely strenuous for her. How could she allow them to continue evolving? She threw her two remaining grenades at the cluster of meat pots, then used her rifle to prevent the other freaks from feeding on the corpses.
Several magazines were quickly emptied. Fang Mingyue switched to using her anomaly energy equipment to deal with the remaining freaks. While firearms were convenient and fast, anomaly energy gear felt more natural in her hands.
The Anomaly-Hide Armor had depleted its energy and retracted back into its “bulletproof vest” form. Since these newly born freaks were far weaker than the previous three-meter-tall one, Fang Mingyue didn’t recharge the armor.
After killing all the freaks in the room, Fang Mingyue used the Black Bone Dagger to pry open their heads, retrieving fingernail-sized “small hearts.”
She used the dagger to pick up these small hearts and put them into the bottle containing the previous heart. But as soon as she dropped one in, the original thumb-sized heart opened up like a mouth and swallowed the new, smaller heart!
Fang Mingyue stared in stunned silence for a moment. Then, remembering how the freaks had cannibalized each other, it suddenly didn’t seem so surprising.
But… wouldn’t this potentially feed a higher-tier anomaly into existence?
Fang Mingyue was worried. She held the bottle and observed for a while. After the thumb-sized heart swallowed the fingernail-sized one, it returned to its original state and became still.
After a moment’s thought, she added another small heart. The larger heart moved again, opening its “mouth” and consuming its counterpart once more.
“…” For safety’s sake, Fang Mingyue decided not to continue feeding it. If she accidentally created a boss, that would truly spell trouble.
She tore off a small piece of cloth, wrapped one of the fingernail-sized hearts, and dropped it into the bottle. This time, the original heart showed no reaction.
Confirming this method worked, Fang Mingyue proceeded to wrap each small heart in cloth and stuff them one by one into the bottle.
Soon, the bottle was full.
After storing the bottle away, Fang Mingyue continued searching for an exit in the office area.
As she approached the door of a small room deep inside, she suddenly felt a mysterious and eerie aura enveloping her. It felt as if something within the room ahead was watching her.
This oppressive, bizarre sensation made it hard for Fang Mingyue to breathe. Her face gradually paled, and her aura grew colder.
Boom!
Boom!
Suddenly, accompanied by the thunderous sound of collapse, the entire office area shook violently. The ceiling and floor near the door to the dark red corridor began to crumble first, quickly spreading inward through the office area.
Fang Mingyue had no time to think. Ignoring the oppressive weirdness emanating from the room ahead, she slammed the door open with a ‘bang’ and swept her flashlight inside.
Seeing the situation inside the room, the color drained from Fang Mingyue’s already pale face, replaced by a look of horror. Around the large round table in the twenty-to-thirty-square-meter conference room sat numerous emaciated freaks, faceless like the anomaly-bus driver.
The moment Fang Mingyue opened the door, all the faceless freaks turned their gaze towards the entrance. Then, they slowly stood up, their eyes glowing with a crimson light.
With collapse behind her and a large group of freaks of unknown strength ahead, Fang Mingyue was caught between a rock and a hard place. But rather than be buried alive, she chose to fight desperately!
Just as Fang Mingyue charged into the room, ready for a life-or-death battle with these freaks, her vision blurred. The freaks suddenly plummeted downward, their upper bodies sinking into the floor as if falling through it. Then, their heads grotesquely fell from their necks, as if severed by a sharp blade. Dark blood splattered, and the heads rolled and tumbled across the floor.
Simultaneously, the tremors in the area intensified further. The space within the conference room twisted severely. Although Fang Mingyue didn’t understand why the freaks had died so abruptly, with the conference room on the verge of collapse, she had no time to ponder other possibilities.
Her only option was to use the Anomaly-Bone Rod to create a bone cage around herself and employ the Anomaly-Hide Bracer’s airbag for cushioning against the collapsing ceiling.
However, just as Fang Mingyue prepared to activate the Anomaly-Bone Rod, a figure materialized within the distortion (niǔ qū – twisted) space of the conference room. Shen Ge, clad in his full “Crimson Mist Form” battle armor, appeared abruptly on the conference table. In his left hand, he held a string of severed heads; in his right, his dripping butcher’s cleaver, still slick with black blood.
Seeing this, Fang Mingyue was instantly overjoyed, immediately understanding who had killed the freaks in the conference room.
“Investigator Shen!”
Clearly, both Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue had been in this same conference room, just in disjointed spaces and times. Shen Ge, using his Trait Anomaly Domain, had slain these freaks first.
Shen Ge deactivated the “Crimson Mist Form” and jumped down from the table. He tossed the string of freak heads into a corner and looked at Fang Mingyue. “Are you okay?”
Fang Mingyue shook her head, then glanced up at the shaking ceiling. “Investigator Shen, this place seems like it’s going to collapse. I can use the Anomaly-Bone Rod to make a cage, combined with the airbag from my bracer. It should hold against the falling debris. But if we do that, we’ll be trapped underground.”
“Don’t worry. I found the anomaly’s ‘heart’ and destroyed it. The anomaly died, which is why this place is collapsing. Come here, I’ll get you out!” Shen Ge placed a hand on Fang Mingyue’s shoulder, activated his invisible Anomaly Domain, targeted the shaking ceiling with “Collapse,” and then, leveraging his Anomaly-Hide Boots, leaped upward.
Fang Mingyue felt her vision blur, and then she miraculously passed through the ceiling. By the time she regained her senses, they were standing on the street in front of the hotel.
“This…” Fang Mingyue was speechless with shock.
After getting separated from her, Shen Ge had relied on his past experience to continue searching deeper into the anomaly’s body. Facing the traps set by the anomaly, he completely disregarded convention, which unexpectedly led him straight along the correct path to the innermost “ventricle.”
The anomaly, sensing danger, had created countless “antibodies” to block Shen Ge – those “freaks” – much like “Liu Zongrui” had done before.
Utilizing his Traits and the Rotten Flesh Armor, Shen Ge eliminated numerous antibodies, destroyed the heart, and found a door at the far end, which led to the conference room.
Once the anomaly died, the already precarious hotel completely collapsed, and the disjointed spaces began to repair themselves. Just as Shen Ge was worrying about how to find Fang Mingyue, she had fought her way to the conference room as well.
And so, the two of them emerged from the hotel haunted by a 5th-stage anomaly, surviving the ordeal. Shen Ge also gained 8000 system points and 6 chances to draw F-grade supply items.
Out of danger, Fang Mingyue breathed a sigh of relief. She followed Shen Ge to a nearby supermarket to rest briefly, replenishing their energy with some food and drink.
“Earlier, I was blocked in the corridor, couldn’t go forward, so I had to turn back. Then I encountered a three-meter-tall freak. After killing it, I found this heart-like thing in its head. The emaciated freaks had them too, and they would cannibalize each other…” Fang Mingyue swallowed the biscuit in her mouth and took out the bottle containing the hearts to show Shen Ge.
Unexpectedly, Shen Ge simply pulled out a long string of thumb-sized hearts from his Blood-Hide Backpack and placed them on the table. “Oh, these? I collected quite a few myself… I saw they could consume each other, seemed interesting, so I gathered some to take back for the R&D department to study.”
“…” Fang Mingyue looked at her small bottle, then at Shen Ge’s large string, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
“Eat up. We’ve left the anomaly space of the hotel now. Without the overlapping spaces as a ‘protective shield,’ we’re likely affected by the ‘Misfortune’ anomaly’s domain again. Let’s eat and drink our fill and get out of here before our luck runs out. Since Tokyo Tower is the epicenter, there are probably many high-level anomalies there, which means overlapping spaces must exist too. Once we enter that area, we should be safe.” Shen Ge said.
“Okay!” Fang Mingyue nodded.
After a short rest in the supermarket, they each took some water and food, then moved through the streets, avoiding the parasitized individuals, and rushed towards Tokyo Tower.
Just after crossing two blocks, Shen Ge faintly heard a rumbling, booming sound coming from the distance.
Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue exchanged a glance, instinctively darting to the shelter of a wall and peering into the fog-shrouded streets ahead.
Under the dim streetlights, some massive shape seemed to be running towards them from the other end of the street, colliding with buildings and vehicles along the way, creating chaotic noises.
When they clearly saw the gigantic running object, Shen Ge was utterly dumbfounded!
It was…
A hand?
“Oh my god, there’s a hand running down the street!” Seeing the thing clearly this time, even Shen Ge couldn’t help but show an expression of astonishment.