Chapter 1 The Listening

Watching the quill and parchment that the gravedigger held out to her, Vanna took a deep breath, calming herself quickly. "How long can I be inside?" she asked, looking up at the nameless gravedigger.

The gravedigger lowered his head slightly. This being who embodied both life and death seemed to seriously assess the strength of the soul before him, giving a cold reply: "An instant, or eternity."

This answer meant that the information to be conveyed from the tomb would be brief and singular, but might point to a very, very dangerous "source," and the listener could die.

Vanna nodded slightly, withdrawing her gaze from the gravedigger.

She walked towards the huge mausoleum not far away, the gravedigger following behind her. The decaying, dark iron chains dragged on the ground, making a sharp, piercing sound, while the shadows gathered in the square simply watched silently, seeing off a chosen saint to the mausoleum.

At the gate of the mausoleum, Vanna stopped. She looked up at the towering white stone gate, and the ancient, desolate aura it conveyed stirred her heart slightly.

It was not the first time she had seen this mausoleum at a psychic gathering, but it was the first time she had been chosen to enter the mausoleum as a "listener."

Anomaly 004, "The Tomb of the Nameless King"—this ancient mausoleum, located in a strange spatial rift, was not an anomaly controlled by the Deep Sea Church, but an ancient object jointly guarded by various orthodox churches in turn. From the outside, it was a mausoleum with a strong Kritian ancient kingdom style, and existing evidence also showed that this mausoleum was indeed a legacy left by that ancient kingdom—however, no one knew who built it, nor did anyone know why this ancient mausoleum would become an "anomaly."

People only knew that the master of this mausoleum would transmit some information to the outside world from time to time. The pollution carried in this information was enough to kill ordinary people in most cases, but on the other hand, this information was reliable, accurate, and could even directly reveal the "real intelligence" of certain powerful anomalies and phenomena.

Whenever the master of the mausoleum transmitted information to the outside world, a "gravedigger" would come out of the tomb and summon a listener to enter the mausoleum—the gravedigger himself was part of Anomaly 004. He was nameless, loyal to his duty, and kept secrets. He would give priority to those souls close to the gathering square, and if there were no souls around the square, he would randomly take away selected individuals from all over the world.

In the years before people had summarized the laws of Anomaly 004, this kind of "random summoning" had taken hundreds or thousands of lives—until the appearance of a natural saint thousands of years ago, this terrible cycle was broken for the first time. The saint returned alive from the Tomb of the Nameless King and announced to the world the first gift from the "Nameless King": the initial list of anomalies and phenomena.

The world knew that the classification methods and lists of anomalies and phenomena were gifts left to posterity by the Kritian ancient kingdom, but few people knew that this gift actually flowed into the world in this way—the ancient kingdom left Anomaly 004, and Anomaly 004 successfully announced the initial list only after thousands of failed summons.

After that, the major churches gradually mastered the method of actively approaching the mausoleum through psychic gatherings and sending saints to become "listeners," so that this ancient anomaly could gradually be used relatively safely. "Enter the mausoleum, prepare to listen," the gravedigger's low, hoarse voice came from behind, and Vanna stepped forward.

The sound of the stone door gradually closing came from behind, and the gravedigger's aura also dissipated into the air—that ancient guardian had once again become part of the mausoleum. Now, he was monitoring every move of the soul entering the tomb through invisible perception.

Pale flames burned on both sides of the corridor leading to the tomb. Vanna walked along the road illuminated by the flames into the depths of the tomb. Her eyes swept across the walls on both sides. On the walls piled with boulders, she could vaguely see..."patterns" that seemed to have been scratched out with fingernails.

"Go straight ahead, do not turn back."

"Do not ask the gravedigger about the identity and name of the master of the tomb."

"Do not run, do not shout, do not pray to any gods."

"Maintain humility and awe, but do not kneel."

"After entering the tomb, do not speak."

Those were the records left by countless "listeners" over countless years—in ancient times, most listeners died in this tomb passage, and perhaps one percent or even one-thousandth of them were strong enough to leave these warnings to posterity before they died.

These precious "warnings" have now been written into the canons used by the major churches to train saints. Vanna knew them by heart and dared not forget a single word.

But at this moment, Vanna was suddenly a little curious—she had heard that there were warnings left by predecessors in this tomb passage, but she did not expect that there were only these warnings here. What about those who were hysterical, those who had gone mad, those who had lost hope in despair and begged bitterly or even destroyed madly? Did they not leave traces in this tomb passage?

Human nature was complex. Before the major churches successfully controlled Anomaly 004, the gravedigger had brought hundreds or thousands of people here. Among those people, there must have been those who had a mental breakdown, those who complained about the world, and inevitably some who would have left crazy words or even curses on the walls of the tomb passage... But all the way along, all Vanna saw were the encouragements and exhortations left by her predecessors, as if...

Only those firm and noble souls were allowed to leave traces here.

Vanna was a little confused, but in the end, she did not call the gravedigger to ask her doubts.

Theoretically, she could talk to the gravedigger during the tomb passage stage. This did not violate the "rules" of the mausoleum, and the gravedigger himself did have records of responding to visitors and actively answering questions, but this was the first time Vanna had entered here as a listener. She was cautious and dared not do anything extra.

In this way, in a state of nervous tension, the young inquisitor finally arrived at the end of the tomb passage—in the flickering dim light ahead, she could already see the "Nameless King's Tomb" in the deepest part.

She stepped over the stone gate at the end of the corridor.

A wide and ancient tomb appeared before her eyes.

Inside the huge pyramid-shaped room, the four sloping white stone walls were covered with blurred patterns, and two rows of dark brown metal braziers were distributed on both sides of the entrance. Pale flames burned in the braziers, rising with piercing smoke. But in the center of the tomb, there was no coffin or anything like that—there was only a stone chair, and on the chair was the master of the mausoleum.

It was a headless body, which seemed to be a tall man—his limbs were firmly bound by chains, and his arms and chest were covered with thick black hair like an animal. His feet were deformed and twisted, like the limbs of a deformed animal, or as if they had been burned by flames, showing a charred and ulcerated appearance.

The body sat quietly on the throne, seemingly without any reaction to Vanna's visit.

But Vanna remembered what she had learned. The moment she saw the "Nameless King," she took out the parchment and quill, concentrating her mind to deal with the mental pollution that was about to come, and preparing to record what she heard... Vanna opened her eyes.

She saw that she was lying flat on the ground of the gathering square. The distant and towering broken pillars connected the chaotic sky and the broken ground, and further away, groups of shadows were gathered. Several shadows were walking towards her, one of which seemed to be Bishop Valentine.

"You're awake, leave."

The gravedigger's hoarse and deep voice suddenly came from the side. Vanna raised her head in shock and difficulty, and was shocked to find that she was actually at the entrance of Anomaly 004. In the corner of her eye, she saw the tall gravedigger turn and walk into the stone gate of the mausoleum, followed by a rumbling vibration—the huge mausoleum building quickly sank beside her and disappeared into the ground of the square.

Before Vanna could react to what had happened, several shadows had already arrived beside her. One of the shadows made Bishop Valentine's voice: "Vanna, are you okay? I saw you walk out of the mausoleum and then fainted directly at the door..." I... Vanna slowly supported herself, feeling as if all the strength in her body had been drained, but now her strength was gradually returning, which also made her mind gradually clear. "How long was I in there?"

"An instant," another saint's phantom next to her said in a deep voice, "You entered the gate, and then the gate closed for a moment, and then you came out from inside."

Vanna was stunned for a moment, and then she heard Bishop Valentine say: "Where's the parchment? See what you've written down."

"Oh, oh right, the parchment!" Vanna then completely woke up and immediately felt that she was indeed holding something in her hand. She quickly raised her hand, but in the next second, her gaze froze.

The complete parchment in her hand was now only a bit of shredded paper left for some reason. On the small piece of paper, only a few centimeters long, there were only a few scribbled numbers and letters:

"Anomaly 099 - Doll."