A mere local god from a novice instance had actually managed to turn a player from the real world into a devout follower—and even gradually make him take on the same demeanor?
Remembering the pain of blood streaming from his eyes, Song Zang quietly raised his guard.
No wonder Xie Chun Ye had complained so often about the difficulty. There really had been something wrong with the Tianhai instance. It was practically a deathtrap designed specifically to kill its players.
Song Zang had no idea what Wang Shu had experienced, but one thing was obvious: the man had definitely grown much stronger.
In the darkness, the cold white glow of the screen quietly reflected Song Zang’s calm, icy expression.
【Song Zang: Can we kill him as soon as possible?】
【Yin Chen: Teacher, you’re still awake?】
【007: What a coincidence, I’m awake too! (Director… you’re so ruthless!)】
【Lan: I suggest keeping him alive for now. He could be useful.】
Wang Shu certainly looked strange, but Lan Yu Heng was an extremely rational person. Not only had she chosen not to kill him immediately, she even rated his potential usefulness quite highly.
Wang Shu’s starting location had been deep inside a Fog Barrier. Not only had he survived, he had even killed a C-rank anomaly. For a rookie, that meant he had considerable potential.
Since he had inhaled the poisonous air inside the Fog Barrier and had also violated the publicly known rules by failing to light Dragon-Tongue Incense before confronting an anomaly, it was perfectly understandable that his mental state was somewhat disturbed now.
Lan Yu Heng suggested bringing him back to the Anomaly Containment Agency for treatment first, then interrogating him for clues afterward. They might even gain something unexpected.
Besides, players like Wang Shu—fearless of death, fearless of ghosts, vicious enough to fight and tough enough to survive—were actually among the most popular types of people in the Infinite Game.
Lan Yu Heng did not expect Wang Shu to do anything good, but she was already making preparations for the mass brawls and chaotic battles that might erupt later in the instance.
Wouldn’t it be perfect to have one extra person who could take a beating standing at the front as a human punching bag?
【Lan: If no one objects, that’s settled. I’ll bring him back tomorrow morning. It’s freezing out here. I’m going to sleep.】
【Yin Chen: Teacher, you should go to sleep too.】
Song Zang: …
He had genuinely never experienced this kind of haunting, inescapable feeling before.
Obediently tossing his phone aside, Song Zang climbed under the covers with a blank expression.
After tossing and turning for five minutes, he still could not stop himself from thinking about another troubling question.
How exactly had Lan Yu Heng, as a blind woman, survived in the Infinite Game?
Smartphones had accessibility features that could assist people with disabilities, but what if she had terrible luck and the system assigned her to an ancient-era instance with no technology whatsoever?
This involved her privacy, so Song Zang could not ask directly. But he genuinely wanted to learn how to kill people with his eyes closed.
If he could fight without relying on sight, he could avoid at least fifty percent of contamination risks.
The fact that Yin Chen was comfortable letting her investigate the unknown remnants of a Fog Barrier alone proved that her individual combat ability could not possibly be weak.
If he got the chance, he absolutely had to become friends with her and ask her how to fight in complete darkness!
⸻
The next day, a well-fed Song Zang stared at Ning Yan, who was yawning uncontrollably.
Ning Yan had spent ages rolling dumpling wrappers and had not even gotten a chance to rest after finishing the dumplings. Early that morning, he had hurriedly changed into his police uniform and gone out on a mission with the combat team.
He was impressively energetic despite everything. He had even given the elementary-school children a fire-safety lesson before returning to the Agency in grand fashion with a C-rank anomaly in tow.
He arrived just as a fresh pot of dumplings finished cooking. Dark shadows ringed Ning Yan’s eyes, and he looked as though he could fall asleep standing up, but he ate with tremendous enthusiasm and became more awake with every bite.
Song Zang did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Finished yet?”
“Wait, one more bowl!”
“Hurry up. The person Sister Lan caught is already in the interrogation room.”
“Right away!” Ning Yan instantly accelerated, swallowing the last two dumplings almost whole.
Lan Yu Heng had accused Wang Shu of attacking a researcher, allowing him to be urgently transported back to the Anomaly Containment Agency as a suspect and locked inside an interrogation room.
Lan Yu Heng was responsible for questioning him, while Yin Chen sat in to observe. Song Zang and Ning Yan, meanwhile, got to take it easy and watch from behind the one-way glass.
“Who even is this guy? He looks completely out of it. You don’t think he’s on something, do you?” Ning Yan had really gotten into character. He patted the dragon-patterned police badge on his chest and frowned.
“He’s Wang Shu.”
“Who?”
“Wang Shu. Shu with the water radical,” Song Zang patiently clarified.
That instantly drove away the last trace of Ning Yan’s sleepiness. He stared at Song Zang with his mouth hanging open, then pointed a trembling finger at Wang Shu for a long moment.
“Huh?! That’s the fat guy from your novice instance who suddenly went crazy and bullied you? Seriously?!”
As a player who had studied the Journey Through Tianhai clear recordings countless times, Ning Yan still found Wang Shu’s drastic transformation difficult to believe.
“Mm. He was awful.”
Song Zang looked frail and vulnerable as he lowered his eyes with a sigh, the tail end of his voice carrying a trace of lingering fear.
Ning Yan already despised players like Wang Shu. Seeing Song Zang turn pale only made him more indignant. “As long as I’m here, he’s never bullying you again. When we get the chance, the two of us can throw a sack over his head together!”
“Mm, I know. Thank you.” Song Zang’s lips curved slightly.
Ning Yan was a good person. If they encountered danger in the future, Song Zang would make sure to protect him a little more too.
The people outside the interrogation room were chatting casually, but the atmosphere inside was exceptionally cold and severe.
With both hands in his pockets, Yin Chen leaned lazily off to one side and watched Wang Shu without expression. He gradually seemed to grow bored, so he pulled a silver Swiss Army knife from his pocket, rested one long finger against the cold blade after flicking it open, and slowly ran his fingertip along its edge.
Based on Song Zang’s brief and shallow understanding of Yin Chen, the man was probably considering exactly how many different ways there were to kill Wang Shu with a single stab…
Ning Yan, meanwhile, seemed to understand Yin Chen’s terrifying side even better than Song Zang did.
Just looking at Yin Chen gave Ning Yan goosebumps. He could not resist lowering his voice and cautiously asking Song Zang, “One more thing. Are you sure Yin Chen doesn’t treat you that badly? He hasn’t really taken a liking to your looks and… you know, wants your ass, has he?”
“No. He doesn’t want my ass.”
Song Zang answered immediately without even thinking.
After staring at the embarrassed Ning Yan for a moment and reconsidering it carefully, Song Zang remained completely certain. “Definitely not.”
Although Yin Chen occasionally initiated inexplicable physical contact with him, it did not happen often enough to truly bother Song Zang.
He had strangely pinched Song Zang’s waist at the beginning, but that had only happened at the very start.
If Yin Chen genuinely wanted to do something improper to him, he could have done it in the middle of the night yesterday. Why would he bother restraining himself and even taking such comfortable care of Song Zang instead?
Yes. Comfortable really was the word.
—Song Zang’s thermos was filled with chilled orange soda today. That morning, a mini-fridge had even appeared in the Director’s office, stocked with various snacks, several delicate cakes, and chocolate éclairs.
Yin Chen claimed it was all to avoid breaking character, but truthfully, Song Zang was starting to feel a little embarrassed by how much he was being pampered.
If Song Zang absolutely had to come up with an explanation, he strongly suspected that some of Yin Chen’s ridiculous behavior yesterday had actually been an attempt to demand emotional reassurance from him.
To put it more simply, he was acting up on purpose.
Like a cat deliberately knocking a glass off the table or a dog deliberately chewing apart its owner’s favorite toy.
Once he finished acting up, he wanted to behave sweetly again. Not only did he want Song Zang to soothe him, he also wanted to be Song Zang’s favorite.
Song Zang could more or less understand that kind of behavior. After several months of pet ownership, his tolerance for inexplicable phenomena had risen considerably.
The problem was that the two of them had supposedly never met before.
Yin Chen was a notorious top-tier player, while Song Zang was only a newcomer who had just begun experiencing the Infinite Game. How could their paths possibly have crossed before?
…Unless Yin Chen had known Song Zang before he lost his memories.
But if Yin Chen really knew him, what exactly had they been to each other? And whatever their relationship was, did Yin Chen really need to lose his temper so easily every time he saw Song Zang?
If they had been close, why had Yin Chen never come looking for him?
And if they had not been close, then what was with Yin Chen serving him tea and water as though Song Zang were his own ancestor?
Song Zang had no intention of telling anyone about the warm little details inside the Director’s office or Yin Chen’s possible white-knight complex.
If word got out, the fearsome reputation this top-tier player had worked so hard to maintain would probably suffer a devastating blow.
With no one he could discuss it with, Song Zang could only remain hopelessly puzzled by himself.
Ning Yan had no idea how much had happened between them. He sighed worriedly. “Staying alive comes first and everything else is secondary. I know that too. Anyway, Song Song, my advice is that if you can accept this way of latching onto a powerhouse, then just lie back and enjoy it. Staying alive matters most…”
Then he immediately added, “But if you can’t stand it, or Yin Chen bullies you too badly, you absolutely have to tell me. Our little group may not be huge, but we’ve got some strength. One-on-one, he might beat us to death, but if we all jump him together, we can definitely win!”
“Thank you.” Song Zang smiled.
He was nowhere near as conflicted as Ning Yan. In Song Zang’s eyes, Yin Chen was currently just a little strange, not truly bad. Someone who secretly fed him sweets could never possibly be a terrible person!
Still, Ning Yan had touched on one key point. Song Zang’s urge to fight Yin Chen began stirring again. There was no way to determine anything just by looking at him, and without personally fighting him a few times, it would be difficult to tell which of them was actually stronger.
Before this instance ended, he needed to add Yin Chen as a friend… Mm. He should contact him privately.
The two of them leisurely gossiped for quite some time, but Wang Shu still refused to speak inside the interrogation room.
Nothing anyone said worked. He refused to answer every question, merely rolling a crudely carved string of beads through his fingers. The beads had already been examined, and there was nothing unusual about them.
Lan Yu Heng tried all kinds of methods, but Wang Shu was unexpectedly tight-lipped. He simply closed his eyes and silently recited scripture, completely absorbed in his devout faith. The longer he chanted, the more blissful his expression became, as though he were about to ascend to immortality in broad daylight.
“Let Song Zang come in and try.”
Yin Chen looked increasingly impatient. He gave a soft tsk, snapped the knife shut with a click, and abruptly made the suggestion.
As he spoke, his slightly upturned eyes turned toward the one-way glass, as though he could meet Song Zang’s gaze through the darkness. “Teacher, is that all right?”
Song Zang switched on the microphone and replied softly, “Of course.”
No one objected. Sure enough, the instant Song Zang pushed open the door and entered, Wang Shu’s previously blissful expression vanished, becoming something entirely different.
When Wang Shu saw Song Zang appear looking “frightened and uneasy,” he completely ignored the dark-eyed Yin Chen beside him and stared straight at Song Zang, revealing an extraordinarily grotesque, vicious smile.
“It’s you! You still dare show yourself? You injured the Earth Mother. You’re going to die—you’ll die!” Wang Shu surged to his feet in excitement only to be yanked back by the chains, yet his laughter never stopped. “Hahahaha! Just wait for divine retribution! The exalted Emissary will suck out your flesh and blood and turn you into nourishment for the Goddess…”
Song Zang edged behind Yin Chen, his face filled with frightened confusion. “What are you talking about, Uncle Wang? I was on the plane the entire time during the last instance. How could I possibly…”
“The Goddess personally delivered Her oracle to me! How could it be false? It was you! I don’t know what kind of sorcery you used… I will strike you down in the Goddess’s name!”
The instant he finished speaking, Wang Shu suddenly grabbed the dangling lump of flesh on his left shoulder.
He gave two sinister, muttering laughs, his lips moving rapidly as he recited several passages of complicated, difficult scripture.
Before anyone could react, Wang Shu’s entire body began emitting a strange, murky red glow.
Seriously? A god from the previous instance can still do something in this one? Song Zang was genuinely surprised and immediately retreated two cautious steps.
Then the situation changed abruptly.
Rumble—!
A huge hole suddenly burst open in the ceiling of the completely sealed interrogation room. Plaster rained down everywhere, while violently snapped steel reinforcement bars flew outward.
A hideous, bloated “crocodile” dropped from above.
No. Calling it a crocodile was probably being too generous.
Its abdomen was swollen, its snout long and flat, and its skin bristled with vicious-looking spikes. Only its four limbs were smooth human arms and legs, making the longer one looked at it, the more horrifying it became.
Even worse, all four limbs differed in length, skin tone, and appearance.
It was as though pieces had been forcibly hacked from four different humans and crudely sewn onto the bloated crocodilian body—male and female, old and young…
Its fingers nimbly dug into the cracks between the floor tiles. Its bare foot kicked against the ground, and it abruptly crawled toward Song Zang in a twisted rush.
“Ah!”
Song Zang squeezed out a startled cry.
Beep—
【Warning! High-rank anomaly detected! All personnel, remain on alert!】
The next instant, alarms blared throughout every corner of the Anomaly Containment Agency.
“Where’s the Dragon-Tongue Incense?! Light the Dragon-Tongue Incense first! Damn, this thing really slows everything down.”
As he shouted, Ning Yan kicked open the door without hesitation, lit three sticks of Dragon-Tongue Incense as quickly as possible, then obediently bowed before them with a dark expression.
He stared unblinkingly as the smoke rose, finally waiting until that ancient, lingering fragrance spread through the room and the incense burned out ten seconds later.
He immediately relaxed and grinned. “Weak-ass anomaly. Prepare to die!”
Yin Chen had already retreated with Song Zang safely behind him. At the same time, he raised his newly issued gun, aimed it at Wang Shu, and calmly pulled the trigger.
Wang Shu screamed as he fell from the chair, his entire body convulsing uncontrollably while his eyes rolled back. His willpower was surprisingly strong, however, because he somehow continued chanting scripture even while screaming.
Once Ning Yan saw that Song Zang was safe, he immediately sprang into the air and landed directly on the frantically crawling crocodile.
He seized the anomaly’s writhing limbs, planted one foot against its grotesque back, and without hesitation snapped one of its thick arms apart by brute force.
Rrip—!
Blood sprayed everywhere, staining Ning Yan’s handsome, immaculate uniform with several sinister patches of dark red.
Ning Yan was not particularly confident in his own Resistance and did not dare use firearms that might contain strange lumps of flesh, but his bare fists were violent enough. He could always beat the thing senseless first and worry about the rest later!
Once he had pounded the crocodile until it temporarily lost the ability to resist, Ning Yan hurriedly called to Lan Yu Heng. “Sister Lan, are we containing this one or killing it?”
“Researcher, come take a look. How do we handle this thing?” Lan Yu Heng spoke into her radio.
A researcher wearing thick glasses answered in a trembling voice, “Report! Corpse-Eating Crocodile, B-rank anomaly. Containment method… remove all four limbs and burn them immediately!”
“Got it!”
Ning Yan immediately got to work and violently tore off the remaining three arms and legs.
There was no technique involved whatsoever—he simply had enough raw strength. The trembling researcher stared in amazement. “What a powerful ability user! Does the Dragon Nation Police Bureau have someone this formidable now?”
“You flatter me, you flatter me. Colleagues from the Agency are always welcome to attend the Police Bureau’s monthly public-safety education event… ow.”
Before Ning Yan could finish, Lan Yu Heng jabbed him in the stomach with her white cane and drove him aside.
“That’s enough. Go rest.” Lan Yu Heng cast her unfocused gaze in his direction, then raised her radio again and called for personnel to come deal with the scene.
The Anomaly Containment Agency followed very particular procedures when handling anomalies. If an anomaly had been killed, things were relatively simple: place the corpse in an anti-contamination bag, transport it back for research, and destroy it once it no longer had any value.
But if they needed to contain an anomaly on-site, an entirely different containment procedure applied. Researchers had to use their experience to select the appropriate method based on contamination intensity, anomaly rank, attack patterns, and other factors. Lower-rank anomalies were manageable, but higher-rank ones were far more complicated.
Some anomalies were even willing to be stored only inside handmade folded-paper boxes. Put them anywhere else, and they would immediately resist with insane violence.
Lan Yu Heng was extremely interested in the entire process. She had changed into an anti-contamination protective suit long ago and now mingled among the researchers, helping clean up the ashes left from the crocodile’s four limbs.
At that moment, Wang Shu, who had still been howling and struggling, abruptly stopped moving.
His face turned pale. His head tilted to the side as though his blood sugar had suddenly crashed, and he collapsed onto the floor without another sound.
“What the hell? Did he just pass out on his own?” Ning Yan raised an eyebrow.
Lan Yu Heng looked thoughtful. “I suspect he either has a special ability or possesses a permanent item that lets him summon anomalies. Things like that usually require a price every time they’re used. He probably can’t sustain it anymore.”
Song Zang paused.
Then why could he use his Special Title whenever he wanted without paying any price?
Forget it. He was not going to solve that question anytime soon, so he could leave it for later.
Yin Chen put away his gun with an unsatisfied expression and handed Song Zang a cup of warm milk.
Then, unusually, he approached Ning Yan on his own and asked in a meaningful tone, “Quick interview, 007. How do you feel?”
Ning Yan scratched his head. “I feel great. I could still punch ten giant crocodiles to death!”
“…He’s asking how you felt after using the Dragon-Tongue Incense.” Song Zang rubbed his fingers over the delicate gilded pattern on the small porcelain cup, took a sip of milk, and quietly clarified.
“Oh, now that you mention it, after lighting the Dragon-Tongue Incense I really did feel much more pumped up, like my whole body was filled with twice as much strength and courage. I almost felt like I could keep fighting forever.”
As he spoke, Ning Yan’s handsome face gradually became serious. “But at the same time, I know perfectly well that I didn’t actually become any stronger.”
According to Ning Yan’s recollection, Dragon-Tongue Incense had an extremely pleasant fragrance. The longer he smelled it, the more comfortable he felt. Its later effects resembled a stimulant, deceiving the brain into producing wildly unrealistic confidence.
Fortunately, he had gotten to know Xie Chun Ye, the person most obsessed with staying alive. Over the past year, Ning Yan had been doing everything possible to increase his Resistance. Otherwise, under the lingering effects of Dragon-Tongue Incense, he might have kept charging around recklessly without ever stopping.
“In that case, Old Zhang’s theory was right. From now on, anyone whose Resistance is too low…” Yin Chen paused and looked at Ning Yan. “For you, killing the anomaly directly is safer. Avoid lighting Dragon-Tongue Incense whenever possible.”
“Oh… okay.” Ning Yan obediently agreed.
The chaos temporarily came to an end, and the crazed Wang Shu was restrained again. The interrogation-room staff visibly treated him much worse now. When he woke and tried to struggle, they immediately injected him twice with muscle relaxant.
That settled it. Wang Shu had earned the unanimous hatred of the Agency staff and probably would not be allowed to take so much as half a step outside his restraints again.
In the eyes of Dragon Nation’s people, anomalies might be powerful and possess a certain degree of intelligence, but they were still thoroughly terrifying, contaminated things that even devoured their own kind. Without official certification from the Anomaly Containment Agency, any human who secretly associated with anomalies or attempted to curry favor with them would be regarded as anti-human and dealt with severely.
That made Wang Shu’s actions practically unforgivable. Even if they never managed to extract another piece of information from him, he would still face lifelong imprisonment in Dragon Nation.
Song Zang was quite satisfied with that outcome. As long as Wang Shu would not be released to cause trouble, that was enough. He was not worried that Wang Shu could reveal any truly damaging information about him anyway. After all… Song Zang really had not killed the Earth Mother Goddess. He knew nothing. He was innocent.
Over the next several days, Wang Shu once again immersed himself in his own world, chanting scripture obsessively and paying no attention to anything else.
Whenever Song Zang had nothing better to do, he would wander into the interrogation room for a moment. Occasionally, his presence could provoke Wang Shu into struggling wildly, but Wang Shu never attempted that strange summoning technique again.
“What a shame. If he could summon one anomaly every day, we could just sit inside the Agency and finish the mission without going anywhere,” Ning Yan lamented.
“And if a Legendary-rank anomaly dropped out of the sky, you’re sure you could handle it?” Lan Yu Heng jabbed him with her white cane again.
“Oh. Right. Maybe not…”
⸻
While Wang Shu was being interrogated, Zhang Ming Shen’s solo covert investigation had also begun producing results.
Ever since he left the Anomaly Containment Agency on the first day, he had never returned.
He continued technically holding his position as an Agency cleaner while going directly to the Dragon-Tongue Incense assembly-line factory and applying for a job with his sparse résumé.
Dragon Nation had a large population of people with disabilities. To ensure their livelihoods and employment opportunities, the government strongly promoted numerous welfare policies, which happened to be extremely useful for Zhang Ming Shen’s new side job.
Zhang Ming Shen submitted his application that morning and was approved by the afternoon, successfully infiltrating the Dragon-Tongue Incense production floor.
Because he looked honest, worked efficiently, and slipped the factory manager a little tobacco and alcohol, he even experienced a lightning-fast promotion. He had now gloriously become a newly appointed workshop team leader with six or seven workers under him.
After learning about Ning Yan’s abnormal excitement after lighting Dragon-Tongue Incense, Zhang Ming Shen also stole three sticks and tested them himself.
Sure enough, he discovered something was wrong. He spent the entire afternoon working on the production floor, yet remained full of energy that evening, almost unable to sleep even at midnight, as though he had downed a large double espresso.
Zhang Ming Shen remained perfectly calm, however. His Resistance was high enough that he could simply ignore the sensation, lie down, and sleep.
After spending more time in the workshop, Zhang Ming Shen also discovered that several employees at this seemingly legitimate government-run factory had rather sticky fingers.
The more timid ones secretly pocketed a few sticks of Dragon-Tongue Incense that had failed quality inspection. The bolder ones went so far as to report perfectly good incense as defective, take the rolls home themselves, and resell them on the black market for profit.
Of course, it never took long for problems to follow. Just as the workers who had made a fortune were preparing to enjoy a life of luxury, disaster inevitably struck.
Some were attacked by anomalies in broad daylight. Others inexplicably went insane and injured people. Some even died mysteriously in their beds. A few deaths were so gruesome that merely hearing about them was enough to send chills down one’s spine.
All kinds of ghost stories now circulated around the factory. Honest workers even used those dishonest employees as cautionary tales to frighten their own children, with remarkably effective results.
Yet the chance to make a fortune was sitting right there, and it required virtually no technical skill. No matter how many people suffered disaster, even more greedy people flocked toward the opportunity and eagerly continued the illegal trade.
There had to be some hidden force manipulating the black-market trade in Dragon-Tongue Incense. To uncover the truth, Zhang Ming Shen would first have to enter the game himself.
Zhang Ming Shen took out a copper coin and tossed it lightly into the air.
It landed heads up.
Great fortune!
Without hesitation, he slipped into the neighboring workshop, stole half of their still-unpackaged Dragon-Tongue Incense, and happily joined the highly profitable black-market trade that very evening.
At the same time Zhang Ming Shen made himself a small fortune, the Anomaly Containment Agency’s finances also improved substantially.
That was because Song Zang spent every day urging Dragon Nation’s Military Supply Department and the Guangming Consortium to hurry up and report the progress of their internal investigations.
Although he never received any definite answers, every time Song Zang pressed them, they coughed up more loot to appease the Agency. The Guangming Consortium in particular spent money with astonishing generosity.
A new laboratory building was constructed beside the Containment Center, and all the medical equipment reserved for internal employees was replaced with the newest models available on the market.
The mole inside the Agency probably knew that Song Zang and the others were investigating them and no longer dared to cause trouble.
Money and resources won loyalty. The employees had recently become much more enthusiastic about their work, and without even meaning to, Song Zang had made his position as Director even more secure.
The researchers threw themselves enthusiastically into investigating anomalies resembling snakes and fish, but most of what they discovered were only ordinary minor anomalies that could simply be killed or contained, contributing toward completion of the Fog Barrier Optional Mission.
Lan Yu Heng volunteered to handle almost all of these anomalies herself. Even though she was blind, her impaired vision did nothing to limit her strength.
She fit seamlessly into Team Two, quickly accumulated a great deal of merit, and was promoted to become its new captain.
Ning Yan, meanwhile, spent every day running all over the Anomaly Containment Agency.
He had already built friendly relationships with every employee on the eighth floor. They even pulled Ning Yan into conversations about petty gossip, such as who might be having an affair, allowing him to overhear quite a few trivial private secrets.
But because his constant wandering eventually became too irritating, Yin Chen finally drove him out and made him accompany Lan Yu Heng on field missions to kill anomalies.
Only Song Zang… was responsible for eating and drinking, watching the Fog Barrier monitoring map for a while each day to track its rate of expansion, and approving documents.
After stamping so many documents, his relationship with the Director’s Seal seemed to become somewhat closer. Sometimes he could even clearly sense the seal’s emotions. There were documents it desperately did not want to approve and others it adored so much that it wanted to stamp several extra marks on them.
Song Zang did not tell anyone about the Director’s Seal’s little secret. He would keep it hidden for now. It might become extremely useful later.
Whenever life became too leisurely and Song Zang truly had nothing else to do, he would wander around the Containment Center.
There were all kinds of strange anomalies stored there. Most were only D- or E-rank and were not particularly harmful, with attacks scarcely more dangerous than practical jokes.
There was one that made people sneeze uncontrollably whenever it was opened, another that caused full-body allergic reactions the instant eye contact was made, and yet another that produced one cup of unbelievably disgusting spoiled milk tea every single day…
Then there was the C-rank Toilet Anomaly Ning Yan had captured from Xinyang Elementary School, a round little creature shaped like a crumpled ball of paper.
It had originally been discovered because a security guard saw it sneaking into the student restroom at three in the morning to steal toilet paper.
The reason it had been rated C-rank, however, was that once its attack condition was triggered, it was perfectly capable of killing someone.
—If there came a day when it failed to steal any toilet paper, it would eat the first person who entered the restroom, turn the unlucky victim into a wrinkled sheet of paper, and then vomit them back out of its stomach.
It looked cute, but it was still dangerous.
Song Zang was dazzled by the sheer variety. Sometimes he wanted to go out personally and catch a few minor anomalies to play with.
But Yin Chen insisted on following him every time, striking down whatever Song Zang pointed at and leaving him no opportunity to act himself… Song Zang genuinely could not understand this man.
After several leisurely days, Song Zang was becoming so restless that he nearly did end up fighting Yin Chen for real.
Fortunately, before long, a clue pointing toward a suspected Legendary-rank anomaly suddenly delivered itself to their doorstep.
The clue did not come from within Dragon Nation, but from neighboring Carp Nation, a country surrounded by sea on three sides.
At first, there had only been frequent tsunami warnings. The Dragon Nation government had even issued a special notice advising its citizens overseas to evacuate coastal cities as quickly as possible.
Several days later, however, the situation suddenly escalated severalfold.
In a single night, Carp Nation was nearly devastated.
What had originally been forecast as an ordinary tsunami transformed into a catastrophic super-tsunami striking on a massive scale from multiple directions.
Several coastal cities along Carp Nation’s borders had already been submerged. Countless people drowned in their sleep without even having the chance to flee.
Worse still, equally enormous tsunamis were highly likely to strike Carp Nation’s coastline again within the next week.
According to surviving eyewitnesses, within the terrifying waves that towered high enough to blot out the sky, they had seen an enormous pitch-black fish tail belonging to no creature that could possibly exist on Earth.
Everyone who personally witnessed the tail had been so terrified that their legs gave out beneath them. They dropped to their knees and desperately kowtowed in worship—and only then did they survive.
They called the enormous fish the God of Carp Nation.
For reasons unknown, the god had become enraged and sent down a great flood to punish its people.
Carp Nation had no ability to oppose anomalies ranked B or higher. Whenever one appeared, it had no choice but to urgently request assistance from Dragon Nation, and this time was no exception.
Song Zang decided that he was definitely going to see it for himself.
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