CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 79: SUPERHERO LANDING

Zaen sighed after Eira left.

"Just when I thought they weren’t completely crazy..."

Imagine sending anomalies to the students’ dorms just because one of the senior students proved to be incapable of keeping his cool and lost the duel. Zaen looked at Ben, who was fast asleep, snoring without a care in the world.

He wasn’t the only one like that. The entire dorm had turned into a hibernation chamber. Everyone was tired and beaten to the point where Zaen didn’t think they’d care enough to fight even if he woke them up.

It wasn’t like he was helpless. He peeked out of the window, but there weren’t any anomalies in sight.

"Don’t tell me I have to look for them now..."

He slammed the stick onto the wooden floor, and it immediately got covered with rot. Graveborns once again rose from the ground and immediately bowed upon seeing Zaen.

"Nishimiya didn’t disappoint me," Zaen mumbled, looking at their bowed forms. "Their loyalty has certainly increased."

"Surround the building from all sides and look for any... creatures like yourselves. Inform me about it when you do, got it?"

"Gr..."

One of the zombies groaned before jumping out of the window. The others didn’t hesitate and followed it outside.

"Watchdogs have been deployed... now, it’s time to sleep."

He turned around only to see something strange. A square, static-textured thing was on his bed, which hadn’t been there before. Not bothering to check what it was or how it got there, Zaen hit it with the stick.

However, nothing happened.

There were no damage prompts, nothing. He tried slashing it with the Boning Sword, but even that didn’t work.

"What the hell even is this thing?"

—x—

FORCE ANOMALY DATA PAGE

Designation: OB-217

Codename: The Book That Reads

Grade: B

Classification: Object-Based

Description:

OB-217 is an aged, leather-bound book of variable page count (estimated 320–355 pages). The binding lacks stitching and resembles muscle tissue. When closed, OB-217 remains inert and is containable.

However, once opened, the text from the book overflows and rearranges itself to influence the reader’s mind, adapting in real time to the subject’s fears, memories, and emotional triggers.

Known Abilities:

• Cognitive Tailoring: The anomaly bypasses normal mental defenses. Special training is needed to help differentiate between the truth and ’reality’.

• Memory Revision: OB-217 can overwrite or distort personal memories. Subjects often cannot distinguish fabricated memories from their genuine counterparts.

• Dependency Loop: Multiple tests reveal that OB-217 displays semi-autonomous intelligence, adjusting content to deepen dependency. Prolonged reading induces psychological addiction, characterized by irritability, insomnia, and forced rereading behaviors.

• Textual Manifestation Events: Rare occurrences where ink condenses into physical tendril-like limbs attempting to restrain or immobilize the reader, forcing them to continue reading.

Unique Trait: Reflexive Written Intelligence

Unlike static anomalous texts, OB-217 maintains bidirectional cognition. In other words, it ’reads’ the reader.

The book "learns" each time it is read, making repeated exposure exponentially more dangerous.

Identified Weaknesses:

• Closed-State Inertness: When completely shut and shielded, OB-217 shows no hostile activity. It must remain closed at all points of containment.

• Optic Disruption: Certain visual filter lenses reduce the severity of intrusion during reading sessions.

• Interruptible Sync: A sudden PSI-interruption flash can momentarily break the cognitive link between reader and book.

• Limited Range: OB-217 requires direct line-of-sight to text; reading aloud does not transmit its influence or contamination to another party.

Known Incursions:

• Incident-C / Marseille (2014): Four university students were exposed. OB-217 induced shared hallucinations before police intervention. Anomaly retrieval was successful without any losses.

• Echo-Room Breach / Oslo Facility (2019): Breach event that destabilized two operatives. Both recovered after an 11-day quarantine. Still under watch for secondary behavioral changes.

• Archive Shift / Tokyo (2023): Book spontaneously altered stored text to replicate classified FORCE files. The intelligence breach was contained using several death-row inmates to re-classify real files from the fake ones.

Psychological Advisory:

Exposure to OB-217 results in long-term paranoia, intrusive thoughts, and loss of autobiographical certainty. Operatives may experience:

• Identity dissonance

• Emotional detachment

• Fictional memory bleed

• Overattachment to anomalous narratives

Mandatory psychological rotations and extended debriefing are recommended. Prolonged contact outside the routine checkup is strictly forbidden between researchers and compromised operatives, even after ’healing’.

—x—

The wall of text overwhelmed Zaen. It was as if he was back in the ninth standard learning about useless historical facts that he wouldn’t ever use in the real world.

But given how detailed the page was and that it also had the typical F.O.R.C.E. insignia on it, it clearly was an imitation of the actual document the organization would provide the new operatives.

"It must be another one of Dad’s gifts..."

He quickly went through the provided information, but there was one thing that still didn’t make any sense.

"How did it get here?"

The book didn’t have any teleportation skills listed. It meant someone had to have brought it there, but the only person who came there was Eira.

She brought this here as a test of sorts?

The book was probably released to check if Zaen was actually blind. After all, if he read it, the higher-ups would know he wasn’t entirely blind, but if the book didn’t cause him any harm, then it’d prove that he kicked Gloo’s ass without even looking at him.

To be honest, if I saw a bling man somersaulting and kicking ass, I’d be suspicious too. As for the book...

Zaen casually tossed it inside his inventory, as it was the safest place to keep it. It would be bad if Ben woke up and thought it was Zaen’s personal diary or something and opened it.

"The fatass would definitely do something like that."

With that taken care of, he jumped on the bed to catch some much needed rest. However, a moment later, he felt something slimy and wet on his hand. It was like someone was licking his fingers.

"Hina!" Zaen yelled the first name that came into his mind. "What the hell?"

Zaen opened his inventory to check, and sure enough, the book wasn’t in there anymore! It was wrapped around his hand, and that wet, slimy sensation he felt was from the thing protruding from the book’s binding...

"Since when did it grow a tongue? Wait—"

The book had a tongue, didn’t it mean it could use it to open itself?

As Zaen thought that, the book immediately did the same. But before it could open completely, Zaen yanked its tongue away, quickly wrapping it around the book before tying a knot.

The tongue kept moving, using its spit or slime or whatever it was to undo the knot.

"Ugh... this disgusting smell."

Zaen gagged and quickly cleaned his hand off the slimy liquid on Ben’s blanket. The piggy was fast asleep. By the time he woke up and saw the blanket, he’d think he had a pleasant dream, and that’s why the sheets were wet.

"Now, what should I do with you?" Zaen mumbled, scratching his chin.

He had no idea how it escaped the inventory’s confinement by itself, but it seemed he’d have to carry it with him. It was better than dropping the book off at a random place.

"...doesn’t seem like I can rest tonight."

[Graveborn no. 117 has perished.]

[Graveborn no. 007 has perished.]

"This is new. I get told when Chief and Bond die? What about the rest?"

[They didn’t have any significant numbers to make Easter eggs out of.]

"Understandable. But seriously, how many of the zombies were killed?"

[Sixty-nine.]

"..."

Closing the notifications, Zaen peeked out of the window again, but it was useless. His perception range ensured he couldn’t see anything further than 10 meters and, conveniently, everything was at least 11 meters away, even his zombie horde.

"An anomaly that can kill," Zaen mumbled, jumping on the windowsill. "First, they check if I’m blind. Now they send an anomaly for me to fight... is all this necessary?"

They acted like they knew everything about him and his ’feats’, and then pulled such stunts as if it was all a lie.

"Hopefully, they don’t make a habit out of this."

Without giving himself time to rethink, Zaen jumped out. Wind gushed past his ears, and he fell. He flipped the grip on his sword mid-fall, holding it in reverse, and stabbed it into the wall.

The impact jolted up his arm, nearly popping it out of the socket, but he held on. Sparks flew as the concrete was torn away by the steel as it carved a path mimicking Zaen’s descent.

His boots scraped the wall, helping him control the slide until the momentum slowed. With a final jerk, he kicked off and dropped the last few feet to the ground, landing hard, but at least he landed like a superhero.

Zaen exhaled sharply, maintaining his cool.

"I always wanted to do that," he mumbled, trying hard not to sound giddy as he rolled his wrist to check if everything was fine. "Let’s see what kind of ’kill-capable’ anomaly they wanted me to fight."