Nikke, something’s seriously wrong with this evacuation point! Chapter 46 46: A City Filled with Anomalies

"...This really is a completely different style."

Charon looked behind him. There was an absolutely straight road stretching to the horizon, perfectly flat. Beyond its edges was pure void. No matter how he tried, he couldn't take a single step outside.

Just like the air walls in Zero Zone.

This didn't surprise him too much. But when he first saw this "Lost Ruined City", he thought it would be so kind of abandoned urban ruin, overturned vehicles, plants crawling up half-collapsed walls, flooded office buildings… basically a post-apocalyptic setting. As long as the map was big enough, he could happily farm it for five more years.

After all, just at a glance, the scale of this city was far larger than Zero Zone.

However, although it carried the word "lost" in its na, what actually appeared before him was a complete, intact tropolis that looked like it had never been touched by war, every building was clean and undamaged.

Along both sides of the roads stood towering office buildings and large shopping malls. There was no trash on the ground, but there were many puddles of water. And then, there was sothing Charon absolutely could not ignore.

Human models. A large number of faceless human mannequins filled the silent streets. They wore clothing from different seasons and posed as if frozen in the exact actions people might have been doing at that location.

A pedestrian standing at a crosswalk, head lowered, staring at an imaginary phone.

A person sitting at an outdoor café table, holding an empty coffee cup.

A figure standing outside a shop window, examining an empty display case.

Combined with the warm sunlight, the eeriness only intensified.

Still, this was still Zone 1. This was where he fard resources. He had a long-term goal, buying a universal dicine. Everything else was just scenery along his "run-and-loot" route.

Based on experience, it was normal not to adapt to a new map at first. In theory, after running it a few tis, he would get used to it.

So for now, just map familiarity.

Charon's gaze landed on the nearest intersection. The signboard was full of gibberish, like AI-generated text. But judging from the storefronts, this seed to be a small comrcial street. Places like this should have plenty of loot, especially food items.

Quite a few "people" were walking in and out of the entrance.

Charon hesitated. He had already given his starter knife to Liliweiss and had no money to buy a new weapon. If he encountered enemies, he might have to rely on stealth.

No matter how good the chanics were, you still needed gear to execute them. Without a weapon, what was he supposed to do?

Hopefully there would be knives for sale in the shops. Otherwise, he'd have to retreat back to the hideout.

He stepped into the comrcial street. The surrounding shops looked normal enough, but the signs were all garbled like the entrance sign. He could only enter one by one to loot.

He entered the first shop and began searching.

The store itself wasn't unusual. He swept through the resource points, collected everything valuable, left the junk behind, and moved on.

Next shop.

Then the next.

He repeated the sa process–enter, clear resource points, pick valuables, leave.

After all, backpack space was limited. Junk had no right to occupy precious inventory slots.

However, he always felt sothing strange.

Every ti he walked through the street, it felt like countless eyes were staring at his back. But whenever he turned around, that feeling disappeared.

And whenever he entered a shop, that sensation also vanished completely.

He glanced suspiciously at the nearest human mannequin. This ti, there was no such feeling at all.

"…Weird. Is this map a bit too abnormal?"

Used to the normalcy of Zone Zero, everything here gave him an unsettling feeling.

It wasn't the tension of facing enemy NPCs, it was a creeping dread that he might encounter anomalous things at any mont, anywhere.

Honestly, at this point, he felt like his decision had been too reckless.

Running a new map naked, no safety at all. He should have fard a few sets of gear in Zero Zone first.

He didn't even know where the extraction points were. On his terminal, everything beyond his explored area was covered in war fog. He couldn't even cheese-extract by suicide rush tactics, because he hadn't encountered a single NPC since entering.

It was already too late. He could only continue pushing forward and exploring this unknown, eerie city.

Fortunately, the loot he collected was still normal, sa sellable resources as in Zero Zone.

But before anything else, he needed a weapon.

This damn comrcial street didn't even have a baseball bat or a guitar. No usable lee tools at all. There was no way he could use a mop or broom either, they'd break on first contact.

Then his gaze stopped on a human mannequin nearby.

It wore work clothes–likely a laborer–and stood stiffly leaning against a wall. From its waist tool bag, sothing familiar-looking was sticking out.

Charon walked up and directly pulled it out.

[Na: High-Strength Crowbar]

[Type: lee Weapon / Tool]

[Rarity: Green]

[Sell Price: 1800 Zero Coins]

[Durability: 100/100]

[Effect 1: Deals extra damage to hard-shelled targets and is less likely to deflect on impact.]

[Effect 2: Can be used to pry open most locks (double durability consumption).]

[Note: When you get tired of solving puzzles, just smash it once–everything becos clear.]

Holy shit–the physical holy sword!

Charon gripped the crowbar excitedly. In Zero Zone, he had never even gotten sothing like this before.

In other words–safety level increased.

He even felt that the sense of being watched had weakened. After all, even if you were those mannequin things, you wouldn't be able to do anything in front of a "physical holy sword."

Next, he confidently entered a convenience store.

This place had the richest supplies. Aside from resource drops, the snacks and drinks left on shelves were valuable survival resources. Until extraction, this would be his supply base.

When he left the store, he felt noticeably more confident.

However, just as he was about to continue deeper into the city, he suddenly noticed sothing even more bizarre.

How to put it, if the previous anomalies could still exist in reality, this one clearly could not.

At the roadside, a common express delivery tricycle was half-embedded into the road, like it had clipped through geotry in a ga.

On the driver's seat, an empty uniform was scattered loosely.

No human mannequin–only the clothing.

That imdiately caught his attention.