"Bai Ling~ Good morning!"

"Eh? Where is she?"

Chi Xiaoyu rubbed her eyes. Bai Ling beside her had already disappeared...

"Meow~"

Looking at Maomao in front of her, Chi Xiaoyu picked her up.

"Where's Bai Ling?"

"Meow meow, meow meow meow!"

Chi Xiaoyu, who had mastered level 10 meow language, understood and nodded.

"She left before dawn..."

At this time, in the classroom:

"Big bro Lin, finals are coming up, and I don't have enough credits. What should I do!"

"It's over, I haven't done my campus runs. I'm going to fail PE!"

"What about you, big bro Lin?"

"I've passed everything."

"Huh? I thought we were going to fail together..."

"Big bro Lin, do you smell a fragrance?"

"Indeed, it seems to be coming from big bro Lin."

"Big bro Lin, when did you start wearing perfume?"

Lin Bai smiled, opened his book, and leaned back in his chair, looking out the window. He sniffed his sleeve. His body still had Chi Xiaoyu's scent, a girl's fragrance... perhaps mixed with some of his own scent?

Chi Xiaoyu walked into the classroom. She was carrying a black cat...

"Meow meow meow! Meow!"

The black cat saw Lin Bai and pounced over, lying on his lap. Lin Bai affectionately patted Maomao's head.

Chi Xiaoyu smiled and translated:

"She said, 'Master, I've missed you.'"

Then Chi Xiaoyu looked coldly at Lin Bai.

"So why can I never see you at your home at night?"

"Uh, well, I went out for something."

"For what exactly?"

"Important life matters."

Chi Xiaoyu looked at Lin Bai suspiciously. [Could it be he found a girlfriend?]

Just then, Chi Xiaoyu sniffed.

'It smells nice, somewhat similar to my scent…'

'Maybe we use the same perfume.'

"Is that so?"

Chi Xiaoyu sniffed again.

"There's still some difference. When did you start wearing perfume?"

"This scent feels somewhat familiar."

"Haha, you must be mistaken."

"Meow meow meow!"

"She says your scent is very similar to Bai Ling's."

"That anomaly? She came to my place yesterday, maybe left some scent."

"You're really not having a human-anomaly romance?"

"How could I? I promise I'm not!" [It's you who's doing that!]

Just then, the teacher walked in, the familiar balding teacher...

He coughed and announced the start of class.

Lin Bai opened his book and listened attentively.

[I've become an anomaly but still have to study. Can anyone be more miserable than me?]

[Even eating is a problem]

[I can't even xx at night anymore!]

[Give me back my wonderful nightlife!]

"Meow?"

The black cat used her claws to scratch a line of text on a nearby paper.

"Master, are you Bai Ling?"

Seeing this, Lin Bai quickly destroyed the note, then grabbed Maomao and looked into her eyes, whispering:

"Shh!"

Maomao nodded and obediently lay down on Lin Bai's lap, falling asleep...

Halfway through the lecture, the teacher suddenly began coughing violently again, sighing:

"Sigh, students, cough cough cough, wear masks when going out these days, cough cough cough, now for some reason, cough cough cough cough."

The teacher coughed frantically for a while, continuing for several minutes, then weakly leaned on the podium, announced self-study, and left the classroom. Lin Bai and Chi Xiaoyu watched this scene with solemn expressions.

"This isn't a normal illness, is it?"

"One hundred and twenty percent not normal!"

Students below also began discussing:

"What's wrong with the teacher?"

"Although he's usually strict, I still hope nothing happens to the old man."

"Looks serious. Is this the flu?"

○

After class.

"Big bro Lin, it's been a long time since you played ball with us brothers. Want to play a game now?"

"Yeah, yeah, let's have a match?"

"No, no, I have something to do."

"Going on duty again?"

"Officer Lin is quite busy."

"Hehe."

○

Last night

City Central Hospital

"Director, more and more patients are coming in!"

"Here are today's 100+ cases..."

"Director, we really don't have any more beds."

"It's bad, the patient in bed No. 5 coughed up blood and died right away. The patient in bed No. 6 is getting thinner by the day and won't last much longer..."

"..."

The old hospital director silently looked out the window, then said slowly:

"It seems... he has returned."

At this moment, in the hospital morgue.

In the dim environment, a nurse used her phone as a flashlight. A female nurse with a note searched for a corpse, continuously scanning the shrouded bodies with her phone's flashlight.

The morgue was too eerie, with countless freezer drawers filled with bodies. The nurse didn't know the exact location and kept searching.

"Area A-4-44, ah, found it."

The nurse recalled what the patient had told her:

"If you want to know the cause of the recent illnesses, go to the hospital morgue and open Area A-4-44..."

The woman laboriously pulled out the corpse. It was a female body covered with a white cloth. The woman slowly lifted the cloth from the corpse's face. The moment she saw it, she fell to the ground in panic, looking at the corpse in terror.

"How is this possible? How is this me?"

The face of the corpse was identical to hers!

As she sat there, continuously backing away, trying to slowly leave the area, the corpse suddenly sat up. Its body didn't move, but its head rotated 360 degrees to look at her, revealing an eerie smile... streams of fresh blood flowed from its eyes...

"No, don't come over!"

○

"So, Lin Bai, do you have any clues?"

"Hmm, it's quite disgusting."

They were watching a video. The video showed the nurse's encounter in the morgue. The anomaly pounced on the woman and continuously devoured her body, accompanied by the woman's wails. Then the anomaly smiled at the camera—it was an anomaly with a face identical to the female nurse...

"And they say she's still working today."

"You mean this anomaly is still going to work?"

"Yes, but now we mainly want to know this anomaly's killing conditions and motives… Guess what grade it is?"

Lin Bai thought seriously.

"With this many sick people, it must be at least a B-grade anomaly, right?"

"Hehehe, actually it's most likely a C-grade anomaly."

"How is that possible? C-grade anomalies are this powerful?"

Chi Xiaoyu put on various equipment, then handed Lin Bai a set of equipment and instruments. She wore the exoskeleton armor, making her taller. Lin Bai enviously touched her armor.

"Captain, when will I get a set?"

"Maybe in the future, if there's a chance."

"Although this anomaly is weak, if we let it continue to expand, the entire city might suffer."

"Our mission today is to kill it, without mercy!"

"Understood, Captain."

Outside the morgue.

Chi Xiaoyu pushed the door but couldn't open it. She kicked the morgue door but still couldn't open it. As she was about to kick harder, Lin Bai walked over and gently pulled... the door opened.

Seeing Lin Bai looking at her like she was an idiot, Chi Xiaoyu said angrily:

"What are you making noise for? Why are you so loud?"

"Huh? I didn't say anything."

"You were clearly loudly mocking me!"

Lin Bai scratched his head. Although I was indeed mocking you, I didn't say it out loud.

"Hmph, forget it, stay close to me!"