Chapter 63: Unknown Anomaly |
"Counting the drones and the all-terrain vehicles, we have already lost three teams.
"The automated firepower all-terrain vehicle, codenamed N1, has gone and never returned.
"Five minutes after drone N2 went down, it crashed into a suddenly appearing wall before its signal even cut out—a spatial anomaly, our old nemesis. Scans reveal a highly complex cave system forming underground that is still expanding. We estimate it will breach the quarantine zone in another week.
"N3 Team, comprising a total of nine members from both the security and containment squads, was fully equipped with Level 3 biohazard suits and life support devices. They were heavily armed. Shortly after descending, they were attacked. Their signal was intermittent, but they managed to transmit this back—"
The slideshow switched to a screenshot stamped with a warning icon. Beneath the icon was a humanoid creature lacking arms, facial features, and any identifying characteristics. A vertical maw split it down the middle, lined with razor-sharp teeth along its edges. Deep within its torso, concentric spirals of fangs were arranged like a giant pencil sharpener.
Kyle felt an itch crawl up his right arm.
Another Visitor.
He scratched his right arm through his sleeve, only to realize that everyone else—including the commander—was staring at him again.
This tactical briefing was clearly focused on a highly dangerous Hazard Item, yet this completely contradicted his early reconnaissance. He had cross-checked the data repeatedly; over the past several months, the Visitor had claimed fewer than ten victims. The chain of clues had been remarkably clear.
Why did new Visitors appear right after his operation?
Was this what Dump Truck was trying to tell him by pointing out his error?
To warn the entire Bureau that there was a deeper secret behind this thing?
Kyle was not someone who refused to admit his mistakes. He quickly pushed these distracting thoughts aside and waited for the commander to speak.
The commander broke the silence. "You encountered it, Kyle—this thing that appears alongside anesthetic gas. We have all read your combat report and the subject's file, but it is always best to hear the description from someone who experienced the fight firsthand. Would you mind?"
Kyle stood up, but promptly sat back down at the commander's gesturing hand.
Pangolin was clearly not a squad that demanded strict military formalities.
So, he straightened his back and recalled the details of that unauthorized operation.
"Truthfully, its threat level is not high. That anesthetic gas is its greatest weapon. The entity itself has no real combat ability; a standard service pistol is enough to shoot right through it."
Kyle rolled up his sleeve, showing off the scar on his right forearm under the dim lighting.
Seeing the twisted mark wrapped around his skin, a faint phantom pain throbbed in his arm.
"My arm was swallowed by it for over ten seconds, but afterward, they found no muscle damage at all. The medics originally planned to prescribe a Red Vial, but in the end, they just gave me a Small Blue Vial. They even told me not to waste their time with skin scratches in the future."
A burst of laughter erupted in the tent. This time, the atmosphere was much more relaxed.
The commander nodded at him, switched to another analytical slide, and continued the briefing.
"These fangs are no longer than two inches. They are sharp but quite fragile. The Research Department suspects it swallows anesthetized prey whole and drags them elsewhere to digest slowly.
"I do not mean to crush your confidence, but I am not finished yet.
"After repelling over a dozen Visitors, N3 Team established a position here on the map—the Front Hall—preparing to bait and capture a live specimen.
"More than twenty minutes ago, their video feed completely cut out.
"Based on the final fragments of audio transmitted back, Command Headquarters determined that four combat members were KIA. The other five—along with the two D-Class personnel used as bait—are all MIA."
The tent fell silent for several seconds before a squad member asked without raising a hand, "Did a new type of entity appear?"
"Obviously. The Visitors alone could not have breached that net of firepower. There is something else underground, another Anomaly Project, and it is completely unknown. Everyone, prepare yourselves mentally."
The commander clicked to the next slide, revealing a formation roster.
"Our first objective is the Front Hall. We need to recover as much field data from that location as possible...
"This time, combat squads will consist of six members each. Everyone will be equipped with the highest grade of life support gear...
"If the hazard level escalates, immediate retreat is authorized..."
For some reason, the audio coming through Kyle's communication device was growing fainter, accompanied by a crackling static.
Shi Rang instinctively leaned his head closer, as if doing so would strengthen the connection.
With a soft click, everything went completely silent.
He quickly realized that Kyle had turned off the communication device.
Sure, you were supposed to mute your phone during a meeting, but this was not even a mobile phone!
Great. Now Shi Rang was completely cut off from the rest of the briefing.
His consciousness returned to his physical body. Rolling his stiff, aching neck, he pulled off his headphones and stepped away from the radio. The moment he turned around, he was met with the faces of Leader Jack and the other Mini-Humans, who were waiting expectantly.
"Did you hear any top-secret information?"
"Maybe a little, but the signal was terrible... I will try again later." Shi Rang walked over to the window with its drawn blinds and pressed down one of the plastic slats to peer at the street below.
Investigator Scarlett had kept her word. She had prepared abundant supplies for him in Green Isle City, providing the promised funding and initial intelligence. She had even thrown in a professional radio—one look at it proved that the Pan-Continent Alliance was certainly not short on money.
Equipped with this gear, Shi Rang had rented a nearby attic to serve as a temporary stronghold.
He wondered if the elusive third party would still be able to track him down here.
Shi Rang had no idea how to operate a radio; he only turned it on to keep up appearances. He did not need external equipment for his espionage activities. He was his own radio.
From this attic, he could just barely bring a communication device at the edge of the quarantine zone into his sensing range. By hitching a ride on that device's connection to the quarantine zone's temporary network, he infiltrated the frontline command post at the data level and pinpointed Kyle's communication device.
Avoiding the cluster of Mini-Humans crowded at the head of the bed, he climbed onto the stiff mattress from the other side. Taking one last look around the cramped attic, he closed his eyes.
"I need to rest for a while."
"If you pass out again, should we wake you up?" Leader Jack asked. "How am I supposed to know if you've fainted or if you're just sleeping?"
Two days ago, while deeply engrossed in searching for Ying Shang's records, Shi Rang had forgotten to sit down first. His body had lost control and fainted dead away, terrifying the Miniature People. They immediately subjected him to a full routine of resuscitation gymnastics. Even though he repeatedly insisted he was perfectly fine afterward, the Tiny Ones were convinced it was a side effect of his healing abilities.
Shi Rang sighed, about to offer a dismissive excuse, when the Sheriff stepped in and reasoned with Leader Jack on his behalf.
He could not hear the exact words, but Leader Jack eventually clasped his hands behind his back and marched off in a huff to another corner.
Shi Rang offered a grateful smile in the Sheriff's general direction, closed his eyes, and dove back into the Terminal Station.
By altering the support roster, he had managed to transfer Doctor Sammy over from the border wall. However, the data inside the doctor's communication device was excessively large and cluttered, and the device refused to respond to his search queries. He had no choice but to download everything into Dump Truck's personal workspace first. While waiting for that painfully slow progress bar to fill, he had gone to eavesdrop on the latest developments in the quarantine zone.
During this process, he had also discovered a brand-new application for his abilities.
When infiltrating a device, he could perform a mounting of his consciousness onto it. Afterward, he could bypass his normal sensing range limitations and connect to it at any time. The device he had mounted would then act as a new sensing relay, vastly expanding his network of information.
Mounting three devices was Shi Rang's current absolute limit, and his quota was now full—Kyle's communication device, one at the command center, and Sammy's.
He had come here with two objectives. The first was to sift through the data in Sammy's communication device to track down Ying Shang's whereabouts, a goal that was nearing completion.
The second objective was to inspect the outcome of his very first tampering. He needed to confirm the true nature of his abilities, while conveniently trading that intel to the Alliance for some cash.
However, after eavesdropping on the tactical briefing through Kyle for so long, Shi Rang had realized the gravity of the situation.
His tampering did not merely alter reality according to his exact specifications.
The original Midnight Visitor had merely been a sluggish phantom that patiently stalked its victims for days. After Shi Rang's drastic, ground-up rewrite, it had been elevated to a Class-C Hazard Item. Yet, in terms of sheer lethality, a Visitor that heavily relied on anesthetic gas to subdue its prey was arguably less threatening than the similarly ranked Mini-Humans.
That was true right up until Shi Rang learned that it was multiplying.
Though it had never been explicitly written down, the original Midnight Visitor was a singular entity. Therefore, even after his edits, there should only have been one.
But in reality, the Visitor had morphed into an entire swarm. Furthermore, an unknown anomaly had spawned beneath the residential area—something that only manifested after Shi Rang's tampering. It was a terrifying byproduct of his powers.
His alterations had forced The Bureau to lock down the entire district. Four people had died as a direct result, five more were missing, and over a hundred thousand civilians were being forcibly evacuated to foreign lands.
Was this ability truly a gift, or was it a curse?
If he had recklessly forged a new Anomaly to seek out Ying Shang earlier, would he have inadvertently brought a catastrophe right to her doorstep?
What had he done...
Shi Rang did not possess an overwhelmingly strong sense of social responsibility, but he was still human. Realizing that he had indirectly harmed others—even unintentionally—weighed heavily on his conscience.
He desperately wanted to delete every single word in the records, or perhaps append a strict population limit and glaring weaknesses to the Visitor to undo the damage. Yet, as he stared at the pulsing save button, he hesitated.
This was not like slapping a weakness onto a zombie.
According to The Bureau's reports, the infected entity, Director Bjorn, was the very last Stitched Walker. Shi Rang had killed him immediately after tampering with his file. But right now, there was still a massive horde of Visitors prowling beneath Green Isle City. Applying a retroactive edit now might trigger a collective mutation among all of them.
Not to mention the other thing that had been born underground—an entirely unknown entity that had never been part of his design, yet existed entirely because of him.
If he performed another alteration, would it inadvertently make this 'hidden content' even more lethal?
Back then, lost in the thrill of creation, Shi Rang had known nothing. But now that he was an active player on the board, he could no longer afford to take such reckless action.
Glancing at the sluggish download progress in his personal workspace, Shi Rang abandoned any thoughts of a second wave of tampering and bounced back to the original record page.
[CVA-C-8052- "Midnight Visitor"]
Now viewing the interface through his Level 5 authorization, he noticed a glaring red dot blinking in the corner of the file page.
He shifted his consciousness toward it.
[! INSTABILITY ALERT !]
[Multiple Anomaly Projects may be present in this sector. High risk of a 'synergistic' chain reaction detected. Immediate analysis of the unknown Anomaly Project is strongly recommended.]