"When did Lin Bai get a contracted anomaly?"

Walking out of the movie theater and looking back, Chi Xiaoyu saw that the theater was very different from before. It had become dilapidated, as if it hadn't been cleaned for decades. Looking inside, it was empty. After forming an anomalous domain to hide this place, only those who entered could see its true appearance...

"Hello? Director, we have an emergency situation here!"

○

Falling from the sky to the ground, Lin Bai landed on his head.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

Rubbing his head as he stood up, he looked around.

'Huh? I was just in the movie theater, and now this is…'

It was a small room with a bed, a cabinet with a pot of flowers on top, two pairs of shoes on the floor, and a clothes rack nearby...

'Where am I?'

Lin Bai felt the items in the room—the touch was real. He pinched his own face—the pain was real. He sat on the bed and looked around.

Everything in the room looked so new and spotless, but when Lin Bai opened the door, there was a thin black line on the floor, just hidden by the closed door, under the door crack...

"What is this..."

Lin Bai quickly picked up the flower pot and pushed away the bed... No matter where he looked, any place that had been covered was filled with dense black lines. The black lines moved irregularly, like small worms.

"That's disgusting, what is this thing!"

Lin Bai didn't want to stay in such a strange place and quickly ran out. This was a 3-story building.

As Lin Bai was running downstairs, two figures walked out. They had empty eyes and expressionless faces as they looked at Lin Bai, then turned away and continued their activities.

"Are these the people who watched the movie? Have they all lost consciousness and come here?"

Just then, a rhythmic electronic sound rang out. The controlled people began to move rhythmically. The surrounding walls and furniture started making rustling sounds.

The walls were moving, the floor was moving—they were like small worms constantly changing their positions. The entire corridor was filled with wires in unseen corners.

Lin Bai hurriedly rushed out of the corridor into the city.

On the surface, it looked calm and similar to the city Lin Bai knew, as if he had returned to reality. There weren't many pedestrians, though occasionally a few could be seen, but they all wore sunglasses and hats, so their faces weren't visible.

'This... have I left the anomalous domain?'

Lin Bai went to a department store.

Like the pedestrians outside, the store owner also wore a hat and sunglasses, though his build identified him as male.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"Um, are these sunglasses and hats very popular here?"

"Ah, you like them too? They're free. Just wear them, and you can join us."

The man took out a pair of sunglasses and a hat from a drawer and walked toward Lin Bai.

"Hey? No thanks, you don't need to come closer!"

Lin Bai backed away vigilantly.

The owner shook his head in disappointment.

"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"

"No thanks."

"In that case..."

That familiar electronic sound came again. The man's body started erupting with black thin lines, turning into a monster. Those countless lines pulled his body forward as he lunged at Lin Bai.

"Holy shit, even steel wool isn't as dense as you..."

Lin Bai quickly hid behind a shelf, but to his surprise, the shelf also began extending countless wires, trying to wrap around him. When Lin Bai's legs were caught, he found a kitchen knife, picked it up, and cut through the wires section by section. Black smoke rose from the cuts.

Lin Bai left the department store and came to the street. The owner didn't follow, for reasons unknown.

Some of the pedestrians on the street were facing Lin Bai. Even through the sunglasses, he could feel them staring intensely.

Lin Bai found a yellow bike and got on, trying to head out of the city. But when he tried to sit on the bike, it also erupted with black wires trying to wrap around him. Lin Bai hurriedly cut some of them and pulled away.

The bike, emitting black wires, returned to its original form after Lin Bai left.

'It seems as long as I keep my distance and don't approach these objects, I'll be fine.'

'Still not clear what range the pedestrians have, and whether getting close will turn them into anomalies.'

Lin Bai tried approaching a pedestrian who was staring at him. 5 meters, 3 meters... 1 meter! The pedestrian kept staring at Lin Bai without moving...

Lin Bai wondered if certain trigger words were needed.

"Hey, why is your hat so pointy?"

The pedestrian still didn't respond, just staring at Lin Bai.

"Your hat looks nice, can I have one too?"

The pedestrian still didn't move...

'So the pedestrians don't turn into anomalies?'

But just when Lin Bai thought the pedestrians were safe, an electronic sound came through. The sound was rhythmic, and upon hearing it, the pedestrian began to move rhythmically. Black lines started emerging from their hands, feet, and face. Pedestrians in the distance behaved the same way.

"What's happening... Hey, hey, hey, don't come over here, buddy!"

"Ahhh!"

The pedestrians all began rushing toward Lin Bai. More than a dozen wire-covered people extended black lines toward him.

"Dude, I'm not into bondage."

'Damn, all anomalies, not a single human.'

After running around the city, Lin Bai began panting heavily. The anomalies following him had reached over 50, though fortunately, they weren't very fast...

Just when Lin Bai couldn't run anymore and was about to be caught, the rhythmic electronic sound stopped. The pedestrians immediately froze in place, staring at Lin Bai.

"Buddy, are you playing statues with me?"

Lin Bai walked toward a pedestrian with his knife and forcefully chopped at the head. But when the knife came down, the person's neck was full of wires—no flesh, no death. The head on the ground, covered in black lines, turned to look at Lin Bai... This eerie scene frightened Lin Bai.

"They can't be killed?"

Lin Bai kept swinging his knife, but after several attempts, he realized that since these anomalies couldn't be killed, he'd better leave quickly. If the electronic sound rang again, they would chase him once more...

Lin Bai made his way to the Mutation Investigation Bureau in this anomalous domain world, wondering what the Bureau was like here and if it would be consistent with the real world.

Arriving at the bathroom hiding the secret passage, sure enough, it had been replicated...

Lin Bai went to the 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor. These three floors looked the same as he had seen before, but no one was there, it was empty... Lin Bai thought for a moment and pressed the button for the 4th floor.

The elevator doors opened. The sign at the entrance read [Anomaly Storage Facility].

"Seems like a place to store contracted anomalies waiting to be contracted."

Lin Bai didn't enter but pressed the 5th floor... This time, before the elevator doors opened, Lin Bai only felt that somewhere far away, an eye was watching him. Then he heard a cold snort.

"Black City, don't push your luck!"

An invisible pair of purple hands grabbed Lin Bai and blasted him out, along with the elevator, to the surface. A large hole was broken in the roof.