Emergency Situation

When Sun Hang woke from his coma, the bone-chilling stabbing pain had vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed.

"Was it... a nightmare?" Sun Hang sat up from the sofa and looked down.

The Metal Nameplate, warmed by his palm, gave off a soft golden sheen. He gently pressed a fingernail into it, and a scratch immediately appeared on its surface.

Stainless steel was not this soft, nor was it this heavy... This Metal Nameplate really seemed to have changed from stainless steel into gold.

"This... this can't be possible, can it?" Sun Hang's breathing grew slightly heavier.

Clearly, the miracle of "Turn Steel into Gold" was his ability... but just as clearly, this ability had nothing to do with Taotie.

Could it be that the Taotie Clone had first devoured an anomaly with this ability, then infected him?

Aside from the severe side effects, this ability was practically a bug. Could Taotie really devour an anomaly with such an ability?

Sun Hang recalled what the man in the lab coat had said during Investigation Bureau orientation... If this unknown anomaly had to be classified, it would most likely fall under "Class A Rule-based Anomaly."

Class A anomalies stood completely above all other types of anomalies... because they were "rules" themselves.

"Wait... then the change in the hospital lights earlier wasn't a coincidence?" Sun Hang was suddenly startled. Could his ability not be "Turn Steel into Gold," but "wish fulfillment"?

He decided to run an experiment.

He stared at the half-eaten apple on the coffee table, its exposed flesh around the edges already yellowed from oxidation. He desperately tried to recall the sensation of that stabbing pain surging through him and silently muttered, "Float... float for me."

The apple did not move at all, and the stabbing pain did not appear either.

Only the robot vacuum silently slid out from beneath the coffee table. It made a faint mechanical sound as it avoided Sun Hang's feet, as if mocking his wild fantasy.

"Seems a little different from what I thought..."

Sun Hang glanced at the oxidized part of the apple, then suddenly seemed to remember something. He jerked his head up and looked at the clock hanging on the opposite wall.

It was five minutes to seven in the evening. In other words, he had been unconscious for nearly two full hours.

Sun Hang immediately raised his arm and rolled up his sleeve.

The wristband around his wrist was completely normal. It had not issued any piercing alarm, and the red warning light inside had not come on.

"Strange... the wristband didn't detect anything abnormal?"

On the drive over, Yang Qi had briefly introduced the wristband's functions to Sun Hang—when his heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, or other indicators showed severe abnormalities, the wristband would sound an alarm and immediately transmit the abnormal data to the Anomaly Investigation Bureau and the Anomaly Research Institute.

If the wristband had detected Sun Hang unconscious on the sofa for two hours, people from the Investigation Bureau and the research institute would have broken down his door long ago... yet nothing had happened.

"Could this ability even fool the wristband?" Sun Hang muttered inwardly. "Or does the wristband simply think I 'slept' on the sofa for two hours?"

Sun Hang went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. Then he returned to the living room and turned on the television.

The evening news was playing. When the shot changed, a row of Peacekeepers stood straight in front of four white gravestones, while a middle-aged woman in a long black dress stood some distance away with a sorrowful expression.

The caption beneath read: "The four Peacekeepers who tragically died in the Tianfu City Bloody Mary incident were buried today at South City Public Cemetery. Representatives of the Xiazhou Federation Council, the Tianfu City Management Committee, the Tianfu City Public Security Bureau, and leaders of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau laid wreaths before the graves."

"Empty graves..." Sun Hang remembered it clearly. After Wang Xiyi unleashed that huge fireball, all the blood plasma in the blood pool had evaporated completely. Captain Huang, the trainee Peacekeeper, and the Peacekeeper later dragged into the pool probably had not even scraps of remains left... Only the Peacekeeper who had died outside in the Blood Mist could have had a relatively intact body.

Sun Hang looked again at the woman in the black dress... Judging by her age, she should have been Captain Huang's widow...

Wait?!

Sun Hang rubbed his eyes hard, because he realized that the woman on the screen had suddenly become incomparably old... Her previously upright figure had hunched over, age-spotted skin sagged down along both sides of her face, her cloudy eyes sank deep into their sockets, and countless wrinkles that had not been there before appeared on her face.

It was not just her. The Peacekeepers in the footage also showed signs of "aging"... Men in the prime of their lives became decrepit elderly men in the blink of an eye, and the hair beneath their peaked caps had turned entirely white.

Then, in the next second, everything returned to normal.

Just as Sun Hang stared fixedly at the screen, the phone he had tossed onto the dining table suddenly rang.

It was Yang Qi calling.

"Sun Hang, emergency situation!" Yang Qi's voice was extremely anxious. "An extremely rare abnormal situation has appeared at South City Public Cemetery! In less than three hours, the entire cemetery grounds reverted to what they looked like decades ago, before development! And worst of all, when the anomaly occurred, a funeral and wreath-laying ceremony for the Peacekeepers who died in the Bloody Mary incident was being held there... Everyone attending the funeral, including those senior leaders, has disappeared!!"

"South City Public Cemetery? Wreath-laying ceremony? Disappeared?" Sun Hang turned to look at the television screen again. "But I can see them..."

"What did you say?!"

"I said I can see them, the people who disappeared," Sun Hang answered.

"What??! Where did you see them? How did you see them?!" Yang Qi sounded incredibly agitated over the phone.

"On television, the seven o'clock evening news," Sun Hang answered truthfully.

"That's impossible!! Because of the anomaly, the evening news canceled its funeral coverage! That's absolutely impossible!!"

"Then I'll film it for you."

After saying that, Sun Hang aimed his phone camera at the television screen... Yet through the camera, the television image was nothing but a vast field of white static.

Sun Hang suddenly realized that this news segment had not made any sound from beginning to end—at first, he had thought he simply had not turned on the speakers.

"Something's not right. I can't record what's on the television... Or rather, only my eyes can see this footage. You should know I have no reason to lie to you about something like this."

"I'm coming to your house right now!" Yang Qi said decisively.

Before long, the sound of an armored SUV engine came from outside the villa entrance.

The instant Sun Hang opened the door, Yang Qi hurried inside and immediately turned her gaze toward the television in the living room.

The news program had ended. The screen was now showing irrelevant content, and the sound had returned to normal.

"What exactly... did you see on television just now?" Yang Qi caught her breath and asked Sun Hang.

Sun Hang did not hide anything and described it all truthfully.

After hearing Sun Hang's account, Yang Qi could not help frowning. "If the anomaly at South City Public Cemetery was caused by an anomaly, then this anomaly... is extremely troublesome. In my personal judgment, its ability most likely involves 'manipulating time.'"

"Manipulating time?"

"At first, I thought it was a Class G 'environmental' anomaly... but now it seems that it is at least a Class B Phenomenon-type Anomaly, and it may even be a Class A Rule-based Anomaly." There was a trace of trembling in Yang Qi's voice.

It was both fear and excitement.

"Then why can I see those scenes that weren't broadcast... scenes that weren't even filmed?"

"Because you are infected with the Anomalization Virus. Sometimes, a strange resonance forms between infected people and anomalies... but we still have not figured out why that resonance occurs or what form it takes." Yang Qi sighed, then continued, "For this mission, I'm afraid you'll have to carry it out?"

"Why me?" Sun Hang was slightly taken aback. "Isn't Wang Xiyi Tianfu City's ace hunter?"

"Her current condition is very poor. She cannot enter her beastified state again for some time. Besides, Class A and Class B anomalies cannot be eliminated through brute force alone." Yang Qi paused before continuing, "Most importantly, she has not resonated with the anomaly causing the abnormal situation at South City Public Cemetery. But you have."