The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile Chapter 152

The International Anti-Anomaly Rescue Organization ultimately decided to split into two teams. One team would enter the Kawashina district by sea, co ashore, and proceed along the coast toward Tokyo Tower.

The other team would detour through Kikawa City, pass by Seisen Won’s University, and then head for Tokyo Tower.

While these two support teams were en route to Tokyo Tower, Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue were already less than two kiloters away from their target.

However, covering these last few kiloters felt to Shen Ge like trekking the Long March. Not to ntion the streets teeming with the Parasitized and wandering Anomalies, just the constant “accidents”—collapsing ground every few steps, buildings crumbling every ten—gave him and Fang Mingyue a massive headache.

Shen Ge finally understood why Japan had chosen to request international assistance from the Anti-Anomaly organizations without hesitation, even knowing it could invite trouble from certain parties.

This conceptual-type ability, “Misfortune,” was a serious headache even for Shen Ge. Since his encounter with “Silence,” he had seen plenty of Anomalies, but never one so troubleso.

Imagine fighting an Anomaly with full concentration, only for the ground to suddenly cave in mid-battle. While falling, the adjacent building collapses, triggering a gas explosion and a raging fire… And that was just the beginning. If you stayed in one place too long, a relentless series of disasters would follow.

After entering the Kawashina district, Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue had chosen the coastal road to Tokyo Tower. They stopped at a gas station to refuel and grab a bite at the convenience store, staying only for tens of minutes.

Sohow, the gas station inexplicably exploded. Barely escaping with their lives, Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue were imdiately hit by a tsunami!

Yes!

A tsunami in the inland sea—an incredibly low-probability event—had struck the two of them!

Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue sped along the road in their vehicle, feeling for a mont like they were starring in a disaster movie like *2012*.

“Investigator Shen, the fog ahead is getting thicker,” Fang Mingyue said, driving. A waterspout chased them from behind, while dense fog lood ahead, making it difficult to see anything clearly.

Driving into that fog at their current speed would likely an a crash.

It was around 4:00 PM, but the sky was shrouded in dark clouds, making it as dark as midnight. The streetlights along the road weren’t completely dead, but so flickered erratically, as if affected by so interference, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the dark street.

Boom!

Lightning briefly illuminated the sky, followed by a clap of thunder. A storm broke out instantly, with howling winds and torrential rain. Fang Mingyue felt the car could spin out of control at any mont.

Shen Ge glanced at the waterspout out at sea. Under the influence of the lightning, wind, and rain, it resembled a watery dragon, leaving ruins in its wake wherever it “swam” over land.

They now had two choices: continue racing the waterspout along the coastal road, or turn left into the city. However, the complex road conditions in the city might make driving impossible, forcing them to either abandon the car and proceed on foot or find shelter.

“Turn left, head for that large building in the distance!” Shen Ge pointed towards the city.

“But wouldn’t entering the city now be even more troubleso?” Fang Mingyue asked, turning the steering wheel. Not long ago, she and Shen Ge had been forced to take the coastal road precisely because the city’s roads were in such poor condition.

Shen Ge explained, “We can’t outrun the waterspout. New ones are forming ahead; we’d be trapped between them with no way out. Plus, with the heavy rain, dark skies, and slippery roads, driving is too dangerous. We’ll head into the city. If necessary, we’ll find a place to wait out the storm and proceed after it stops.”

“Alright!”

Twenty minutes later, Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue stood beside a large six-story building. The mont they approached, Shen Ge’s system alerted him to the presence of a “Tier 5 Anomaly.”

However, the system only indicated the tier, not any specific characteristics, suggesting this was just an “ordinary” high-tier Anomaly.

Upon entering the building’s lobby, Shen Ge signaled Fang Mingyue to wait. He didn’t rush to explore the surroundings or head upstairs.

Based on the “pattern” Shen Ge had deduced earlier, staying in one place for about twenty to thirty minutes would trigger the “Misfortune” characteristic, causing a series of accidents.

But now, sothing incredible happened. After Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue entered the building, they waited for over forty minutes, yet no “accident” occurred.

“Looks like our gamble paid off,” Shen Ge sighed in relief.

Fang Mingyue was also surprised that no accidents had occurred after forty minutes. “Investigator Shen, why is that?”

Shen Ge explained, “Rember the Chongqing incident? Dongyu Village was divided into multiple zones by layered Anomaly Spaces. The high-tier Anomaly fused with the Anomaly Energy Building had the characteristic of ‘entry only, no exit.’ Once inside, escaping through spatial collisions alone was difficult. But while that high-tier Anomaly was powerful, its influence was limited to the Anomaly Energy Building. So, I hypothesized that such characteristic abilities have minimal effect on areas of overlapping Anomaly Spaces.”

“Although ‘Misfortune’ covers the entire Takaguchi City, there are also many high-tier Anomalies within the city, creating multiple overlapping Anomaly Spaces. Since entering the Kawashina district, we’ve encountered all sorts of accidents and disasters, but not a single Anomaly above Tier 2.”

“So, I suspect that area was solely within the Anomaly Domain of ‘Misfortune,’ without the presence of any other Tier 2 or higher Anomalies possessing their own Anomaly Spaces.”

“Now that we’ve entered an Anomaly Space inhabited by a high-tier Anomaly, this area is an ‘overlapping space.’ Therefore, the effects of the ‘Misfortune’ Anomaly Domain are reduced.”

“That’s why we’ve waited nearly fifty minutes without any accidents.”

Fang Mingyue understood. “I see. So, by using this, we can effectively avoid accidents and approach Tojo Castle?”

“That’s the idea,” Shen Ge said. “But entering an overlapping Anomaly Space ans there are other high-tier Anomalies here. The danger might be just as great as facing ‘Misfortune.'”

The place resembled a hotel lobby. On the surface, it seed normal, with no obvious signs of an Anomaly or any lurking threats. It looked like a hotel that had been closed for a long ti.

However, it had only been about a month since the Anomaly Disaster outbreak in Takaguchi City. This was the downtown area; it was unlikely for a hotel to be abandoned so quickly.

“O-tomari desu ka? (Will you be staying?)”

A sinister, terrifying voice suddenly echoed through the lobby. Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue, who had been eating, imdiately stood up, alert.

Shen Ge had Little Seven to translate, while Fang Mingyue understood Japanese herself. They instantly understood the question.

But the voice was indescribably horroring—hoarse, oppressive, sending chills down the spine—unlike anything a normal person could produce.

Fang Mingyue imdiately thought of the Kuchisake-onna they encountered outside the Kikawa Self-Defense Force. This voice felt sowhat similar.

“Investigator Shen,” Fang Mingyue started to speak, but Shen Ge gestured for silence.

He tried to locate the source of the voice, but strangely, it seed to co from all directions at once—as if it were right in front of them, yet also in every corner.

Shen Ge frowned. Compared to Anomalies that, like zombies, retained only the instinct to feed on living beings, he found the evolving Parasitized, influenced by the Twelve Branches, more troubleso.

Although the Parasitized they’d encountered so far—like the “flower-heads” from Parasyte, the Kuchisake-onna, and those from Lahu Lake Water City that hatched parasite-like Anomalies—posed little threat currently, if they evolved to perfectly utilize Anomalous power like the leaders of the Twelve Branches, even developing Anomaly Domains, they would be more troubleso than characteristic-type Anomalies!

“O-tomari desu ka? (Will you be staying?)”

The question echoed again in the lobby. The feeling was indeed very similar to the Kuchisake-onna; if Shen Ge responded, it would likely trigger the next step.

Shen Ge pressed a few buttons on the watch on his left wrist, projecting a screen. He typed a ssage: “Don’t speak. Don’t answer. Best not to make any sound at all!”

Fang Mingyue read the subtitles projected by Little Seven and nodded. She activated the Anomaly Arm Gauntlet on her left arm and gripped the Anomaly Bone Rod tightly in her right hand, remaining vigilant.

Shen Ge cautiously approached the front desk. Behind the counter lay a headless corpse, its internal organs hollowed out. The blood on the floor had long dried, indicating the person had been dead for so ti.

“Stay here. Don’t respond to any sounds you hear. Wait for to return!” Shen Ge continued communicating via text, instructing Fang Mingyue to wait at the front desk.

Fang Mingyue nodded. Shen Ge activated “Silence” and slipped past the front desk into a pitch-black corridor beside it, proceeding deeper inside.

Using the advantage of “Silence,” Shen Ge quickly searched the first floor: the lobby, the kitchen further back, storage rooms, and other areas.

He found nothing on the first floor except corpses similar to the one behind the front desk—decapitated and eviscerated. There were no Anomalies, and he encountered no threats.

Shen Ge had circled to the other side of the lobby. Based on the hotel’s layout, this should be a luxury private room. As he opened the door, with a “crash,” like opening an overstuffed wardrobe, horrifically mutilated bodies tumbled out, sliding into the corridor.

This private room, large enough to hold several banquet tables, was piled high with human corpses. Without exception, all were headless and hollowed out. Fresh chapters posted on novel✶fire

Shen Ge had no interest in wading through this “sea of corpses” to investigate the room’s peculiarities. He turned back towards the lobby.

anwhile, Fang Mingyue, waiting quietly in the lobby for Shen Ge’s return, heard a familiar voice from the dark corridor:

“Looks like our gamble paid off.”

“Rember the Chongqing incident…”

“…”

“That’s why we’ve waited nearly fifty minutes without any accidents.”

“…”

From the darkness ca Shen Ge’s voice, repeating the conversation they had earlier while resting and eating in the lobby.

“Co here.”

“Co here.”

Just as Fang Mingyue was startled by the voice emanating from the corridor, it now called out to her, imitating Shen Ge.

Fang Mingyue did not comply. Instead, she beca more alert, activating her Anomaly Energy equipnt and preparing for an Anomaly to erge from the dark corridor at any mont.

“O-tomari desu ka? (Will you be staying?)”

This ti, the Japanese phrase was spoken in Shen Ge’s voice.

Fang Mingyue frowned. Thankfully, Investigator Shen had foreseen the problem with the sounds in this hotel and warned her not to respond. Otherwise, like with the Kuchisake-onna, answering the question might provoke a more aggressive reaction.

The reason wasn’t hard to guess. Although these “evolved” Parasitized were more troubleso than those from the Great Capital Anomaly Disaster, their intelligence hadn’t significantly improved.

It was less that they had developed independent wisdom, and more that they were like early command-based robots, only capable of fixed prompts and taking the next step only upon receiving a specific response.

Tap. Tap.

Suddenly, a light tapping sound ca from the front desk not far behind Fang Mingyue. She assud a defensive stance and turned around cautiously. Shen Ge was now standing behind the front desk, having appeared there silently.

Fang Mingyue’s face lit up with relief, and she started to move towards him. But Shen Ge made a “shush” gesture and pressed his palm down, signaling her to stay put.

Then, Shen Ge walked over to Fang Mingyue, took a grenade from his backpack, pulled the pin, and tossed it towards a corner of the lobby.

Shen Ge did not infuse the grenade with “Silence” energy, so it made noise as it rolled across the floor towards the corner.

With the first “clack” as it hit the ground, the floor suddenly cracked open, revealing a mouth over a ter wide that swallowed the grenade whole.

Boom!

The grenade exploded underground. Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue, standing not far away, felt a slight tremor through the floor.

After a mont’s thought, Shen Ge signaled Fang Mingyue to remain still. He activated “Silence” and moved to another corner of the lobby.

Then, he deactivated “Silence,” deliberately stepping heavily towards the wall.

Thud.

Thud.

Shen Ge intentionally made noise with his combat boots. Imdiately, the floor cracked open again, and the bloody mouth reappeared, lunging to swallow him.

But Shen Ge was prepared. The mont he made the sound, he was already watching the floor. As the mouth appeared, he activated “Silence” and dove forward, avoiding the bite. Simultaneously, he tossed two Molotov cocktails into the gaping maw.

Whoosh!

The flas from the exploding bottles illuminated the inside of the mouth. It resembled a bottomless dry well, with no end in sight and nothing discernible inside.

“Investigator Shen.”

“Investigator Shen.”

Now, Fang Mingyue’s voice echoed through the hotel lobby.

Shen Ge looked towards Fang Mingyue’s actual location. She had one hand over her mouth and was waving the other, clearly indicating that it wasn’t her speaking.

Shen Ge nodded to show he understood. anwhile, Fang Mingyue’s voice called from the dark corridor: “Investigator Shen.”

“Co here.”

“Co here.”

“I’m coming right now,” Shen Ge called out towards the corridor, deactivating “Silence” and keeping an eye on the floor.

Strangely, the floor didn’t crack open this ti. Instead, the voice in the corridor continued its questioning: “O-tomari desu ka? (Will you be staying?)”

“…”

Shen Ge couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry, no offense… I can usually hold it in, but this is really a bit much. So you can only repeat what we say and speak Japanese, is that it? A genuine local Japanese Anomaly?”

Ahem.

Shen Ge cleared his throat and had Little Seven translate into Japanese: “Yes, I need a room. Give a room with a double bed.”

He had pretty much figured out the “rules” of the Parasitized hiding in the hotel. Similar to the Kuchisake-onna’s “Am I pretty?” question, this one probably required an answer—”stay” or “not stay”—before it would take the next step.

Regardless of what that next step was, Shen Ge had also found this Parasitized’s weakness: it lacked vision and could only locate targets by sound.

Sure enough, as soon as Shen Ge answered “Yes” to staying, the entire lobby shook violently. A distorted, ferocious human face appeared on the wall, speaking in Japanese: “Co here. I’ll make sure you stay comfortably.”

But as Shen Ge approached the face-covered wall, the distorted face instantly opened its disgusting, terrifying mouth, protruding from the wall to bite him.

Shen Ge activated the “Immobile Anomaly Domain,” entering bullet ti. The lunging blood-filled mouth seed to move in slow motion, allowing Shen Ge to sidestep it easily.

In the next instant, Shen Ge was beside the ghostly face, bringing his butcher knife down hard. Thwack! The wall was slashed open, gushing a dark, viscous substance.

The ghostly face contorted further, becoming even more ferocious. It let out a piercing shriek—a blend of Shen Ge’s and Fang Mingyue’s voices, slowly morphing back into the initially terrifying, hoarse, oppressive sound that echoed through the lobby, painfully assaulting their eardrums.

Shen Ge prepared to press the attack with his knife, but noticed sothing squirming within the black liquid flowing from the wounded wall. He stepped back and saw it wasn’t liquid at all, but a mass of thumb-sized black worms packed so tightly they resembled flowing fluid!

Not just on the ground—even from the gash he’d made in the wall, nothing but disgusting, terrifying black worms poured out.

However, in the second or two Shen Ge was distracted, the ghostly face had retracted into the wall, vanishing without a trace, leaving only the floor covered in black worms.

“Hey, leaving already?” Shen Ge stomped his foot a couple of tis, even tapping out a brief rhythm. The “tap, tap, tap” sounds echoed in the lobby.

But the ghostly face did not reappear, and no cracks opened in the floor.

“Tch, it actually knows how to retreat?” Shen Ge had a rough hypothesis. This Tier 5 Anomaly was probably similar to the “Liu Zongrui” case—fused with the entire restaurant building.

He turned to Fang Mingyue not far away. “Alright, you can move now.”

Fang Mingyue imdiately ran to Shen Ge’s side. “Investigator Shen, what was that… an Anomaly? It can mimic our voices and what we said, and it reacts to sound?”

After observing Shen Ge’s series of “interactions” with the ghost-face wall, she had also deduced the situation and the rules of this Anomaly Space.

Shen Ge nodded. “Similar to a Parasitized fused with a villa that I dealt with at Lahu Lake Water City so ti ago. Earlier, I found a room filled with headless, eviscerated corpses. Probably the Anomaly here—or rather, the Parasitized—has fused with the building, turning it into a man-eating house.”

“What do we do now? Find and eliminate the Anomaly, or leave first and make plans later?” Fang Mingyue asked.

Shen Ge looked towards the main lobby entrance. “I’m afraid leaving is no longer an option.”

Fang Mingyue frowned, realizing what he ant. She hurried to the main doors, pushed the glass door open, and looked out. Beyond the doorway was utter darkness. She tried extending her Anomaly Bone Rod outside, but it was blocked by an invisible force.

Clearly, they were trapped within this Anomaly Space!