The wisp of black mist gathered faster and faster, soon shrinking until only a thin black line remained. By then, Sun Hang had reached the edge of the Yongan Street commercial district.
This was a construction site. Within the area cordoned off by isolation barriers, massive hollow structures dotted the ground. Through those openings, the underground Huangdao Layer could vaguely be seen.
The black line slipped through one of the openings and rapidly plunged toward the Huangdao Layer below.
"Underground?" Sun Hang hesitated briefly. "Does that thing's ability... really have that kind of range?"
But he quickly realized it—the other party's ability did not have an enormous range. It had been fleeing the entire time! This Anomaly had probably been hiding in some inconspicuous corner of the Yongan Street commercial district. Once it realized it had been exposed, it began moving in this direction, leading Sun Hang here along the way.
Sun Hang walked to the edge of the opening, crouched down, and reached out to touch the ground.
There was a small patch of blood that had not yet dried, carrying a faint trace of Anomaly Meme.
There were also scraps of fabric nearby.
The blood was human blood, and the fabric scraps had come from clothing worn by a human.
An infected person? Or... a humanoid Anomaly?
The concrete floor was rough. That Anomaly had probably tripped while fleeing, then tumbled and crawled its way down?
Or perhaps it had been so focused on running that, by the time it noticed the bottomless abyss ahead, it was too late to stop. It lost its balance, fell, and rolled through the opening under the force of inertia?
Aside from two warning signs, there were no guardrails around the edge of the opening. After all, the entire construction site was