Chapter Summaries

Sun Hang woke in a hospital with amnesia after surviving an Anomaly attack, then discovered he could affect the lights by thought. A government official informed him that he owed nearly four million yuan and offered him a contract to work off the debt in exchange for citizenship.

• Sun Hang woke after surgery and learned that a stray bullet had struck his head during an Anomaly attack, leaving him temporarily amnesiac.
• Sun Hang wished the cold hospital light were warm, and the ward lights changed before the power went out; he then suffered a frightening episode of pain and paralysis.
• A government staff member told Sun Hang that only six people had survived the attack and that authorities could not verify his identity or citizenship.
• The official said Sun Hang owed 3,890,627 yuan for his rescue and medical care.
• The official offered Sun Hang an employment contract that would let him work off the debt and gain legal citizenship, and Sun Hang called it a contract of servitude.

Sun Hang signed a debt-bound contract to work as a Temporary Investigator for the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau. Confined to his hospital room until his discharge, he tried to use a mysterious ability and wondered whether his earlier experience had been a coincidence.

• The woman in the black suit explained that Sun Hang had to work as a Temporary Investigator until he repaid his debt, and he signed the contract.
• She gave Sun Hang a temporary citizen ID and an investigator ID naming him Temporary Investigator 0420, then said he would be discharged in three days.
• Sun Hang considered escaping but concluded that he had nowhere to go and could not oppose the Investigation Bureau.
• Sun Hang asked a nurse for internet access, but she told him to rest and remain in his room.
• Sun Hang stared at the ceiling light and silently murmured, "Change for me," but nothing happened, leaving him unsure whether his earlier experience was a coincidence.

After losing his memory, Sun Hang was taken to the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau for employment training as a Temporary Investigator. He learned the basics of Anomaly classifications, then discovered the training was over and that he would receive no weapons or weapons permits.

• Two soldiers escorted Sun Hang from the hospital to the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau, where he was identified as 0420 and told to attend employment training.
• Sun Hang spoke with a young woman who explained that the Temporary Investigators were people deeply in debt who had been forced to sell their lives to the Federation.
• A thin man in a lab coat taught the recruits the basics of Anomaly classifications, code names, and danger ratings.
• The instructor declared the recruits qualified Investigators after the brief lesson, and Sun Hang and another recruit questioned how little they had been taught.
• The instructor explained that assignments would provide mission details and that unaffiliated Investigators would receive no weapons or permits, relying on accompanying soldiers or Peacekeepers for fire support.

After receiving an E-rank mission to investigate disappearances around South City’s Abandoned Amusement Park, Sun Hang realized Temporary Investigator 0398 was likely being used as bait. She tried to escape but was recaptured, and the three investigators were driven toward the park with a warning that missions could be far more dangerous than their ratings suggested.

• Sun Hang received a mission notice assigning him, 0398, and 0401 to investigate the Abandoned Amusement Park, where sixteen young women had disappeared and Peacekeeper Hu Lijun had vanished during an earlier search.
• Sun Hang concluded that 0398 was central to the mission because she matched the missing women’s age and gender, then learned she had abandoned her post and fled.
• Half an hour later, Sun Hang saw soldiers bring 0398 back to the Investigation Bureau in restraints after she escaped through the dormitory ceiling and ventilation ducts.
• Sun Hang, 0398, and 0401 rode toward the amusement park while their driver warned them that E-rank missions could turn deadly and that experience was useless against anomalous entities.

Sun Hang and the other investigators traveled through Tianfu City’s desolate southern suburbs to investigate the Abandoned Amusement Park, where young women had gone missing. At the park entrance, Captain Huang handcuffed 0401 to 0398 before leading the group inside.

• Sun Hang asked why an amusement park had been built in the deserted southern suburbs, and the driver explained that an anomaly had ruined the former South City Economic Development Zone.
• 0401 teased 0398 about the missing people being young women, and 0398 told him to shut up.
• Sun Hang and the others arrived at the Abandoned Amusement Park, where Captain Huang told Sun Hang and 0401 to keep 0398 in sight.
• Sun Hang suggested handcuffing 0398 to someone, then persuaded Captain Huang to cuff 0401 to her instead.
• Captain Huang put on his riot helmet and led the group toward the park.

Captain Huang led Sun Hang, 0401, and Peacekeepers into the amusement park's Haunted House to investigate the disappearance of Xiao Hu. They discovered that a ride playing an eerie song had a recently replaced battery pack, suggesting someone had tampered with it.

• Captain Huang divided the squad and led Sun Hang, 0401, and a Peacekeeper toward the Haunted House, where Xiao Hu had disappeared during an earlier search.
• The group entered the unfinished Haunted House and heard a children's song playing from a discarded kiddie ride.
• Peacekeepers dismantled the ride and found that its old battery pack had recently been replaced.
• Sun Hang identified the device as an alarm, and 0401 guessed that their opponent might be human rather than an anomaly.

Sun Hang and the Peacekeepers searched the Haunted House for a missing trainee when 0398 was hypnotized and dragged 0401 through the building. The group glimpsed a robed figure carrying a light, and Captain Huang suspected that the mysterious singing had triggered the hypnosis.

• Sun Hang and the Peacekeepers checked the corridor doors and discussed how someone might have entered the sealed amusement park.
• 0398 heard what she thought was a girl's singing, then fell into a trance and dragged the handcuffed 0401 deeper into the Haunted House.
• Sun Hang told 0401 not to resist, and the group followed 0398 through the corridors and maze-like second floor.
• The group spotted a robed figure holding a faint light before it covered the light and vanished down a side passage.
• 0398 came out of her trance and described following a flame through darkness after the singing seemed to move beside her ear.
• Captain Huang and another Peacekeeper concluded that the singing may have hypnotized 0398 through special audio frequencies.

Sun Hang and Captain Huang’s team followed the barefoot woman and missing trainee Hu Lijun’s footprints into the Haunted House basement, where the woman’s crimson mist paralyzed the Peacekeepers and made one shoot a colleague. Sun Hang proved unaffected, knocked out the woman’s oil lamp with a series of slaps, and ordered the team to cuff her.

• Captain Huang ordered the Peacekeepers to follow the barefoot woman’s footprints, and they found Hu Lijun’s bootprints leading into the basement with no sign of her returning.
• Sun Hang questioned why the Haunted House basement was absent from the attraction descriptions, and 0398 guessed it was a staff-only control room.
• The Peacekeepers broke into the basement and found the robed woman chanting beneath a painting with an antique oil lamp.
• The woman summoned crimson mist that immobilized the squad and caused one Peacekeeper to shoot a colleague, while the mist avoided Sun Hang.
• Sun Hang approached the woman, slapped her repeatedly, and knocked her lamp to the floor, making the mist vanish.
• Sun Hang told the stunned Peacekeepers to cuff the woman.

Sun Hang discovered a hidden passage behind the oil painting in the basement, where the missing women might be held. Captain Huang led a group inside before the Hunters arrived, and 0398 questioned why the fog had avoided Sun Hang.

• Sun Hang found empty space behind the oil painting, and the captured woman called what lay beyond it her palace.
• The Forensics expert suspected the missing women were behind the painting, while 0401 urged the team to wait for the Hunters; 0398 said they would arrive in twenty minutes.
• Captain Huang insisted on continuing because his missing niece was among the victims, and the Peacekeepers cut an opening through the painting with a chainsaw.
• Captain Huang entered the passage first, followed by Sun Hang, 0401, and 0398.
• 0398 asked Sun Hang why the fog had moved aside when he approached.

Sun Hang and the Peacekeepers discovered the missing women’s fate in a hidden hall, where a living trainee was being drained by an anomalous flower called Bloody Mary. Captain Huang recognized it as a seed of the flower destroyed years earlier, now grown and blooming again.

• Sun Hang pushed open the hidden door after sensing a strange sweetness beyond it, despite Captain Huang and the others’ hesitation.
• Sun Hang found a blood-filled pool, bones, and the last missing trainee, Xiao Jun, suspended above it and drained by thorny vines.
• Sun Hang felt compelled to tear off the rose growing on Xiao Jun’s shoulder, but 0401’s cry of “Bloody Mary” snapped him out of it.
• 0401 identified the flower as anomalous object D37, and 0398 explained that its vines had once devastated the southern city development zone.
• Captain Huang revealed that the original Bloody Mary had been burned to ash during the old operation, but its blood-fed seeds had survived and sprouted.

Captain Huang attacked Bloody Mary with gasoline and gunfire, but the anomalous entity survived and began spreading its deadly thorns and flowers through the hall. As Sun Hang was overcome by hunger, a transformed woman arrived and identified herself as beginning an operation to eliminate Bloody Mary.

• Captain Huang threw gasoline at Bloody Mary and fired his assault rifle, but the flames failed to burn it.
• Bloody Mary dragged Captain Huang and a fleeing Peacekeeper into the blood pool, while flowers bloomed from the trainee Peacekeeper's body.
• Sun Hang felt an intense hunger for the flowers as Bloody Mary's thorns avoided him and retreated from his path.
• A woman crashed through the basement ceiling, identified Bloody Mary as Serial Number D37, and began her elimination operation.
• The woman transformed into a winged humanoid monster covered in black scales and bone spikes.

After seven days of confinement, Sun Hang learned he had been infected by Taotie’s Anomalization Virus but had retained his human will and gained an anomaly’s abilities. The authorities invited him to become an Anomaly Hunter, but he would first have to pass an assessment.

• Sun Hang endured seven days in a brightly lit mirrored room, where the authorities monitored him and delivered meals.
• A woman and two men revealed that Sun Hang had been infected with the Anomalization Virus but had not lost his sense of self or undergone physical mutation.
• The old man in the wheelchair explained that Sun Hang had missed the treatment window and invited him to join the Anomaly Hunters.
• The old man identified Taotie as the source of Sun Hang’s infection and warned that Sun Hang’s appetite for anomalies could eventually spiral out of control.
• The woman offered help managing Sun Hang’s appetite and ways to strengthen his abilities, while the middle-aged man said he had to pass an assessment to become a legal hunter.

Sun Hang began a specialized assessment to determine whether his mental state was stable enough for Anomaly Hunter status. As his test started, Yang Qi questioned whether Taotie had truly infected him, but her teacher warned her against judging Anomalies by past records.

• A woman told Sun Hang that his performance had been excellent but that he needed to pass specialized tests before becoming an Anomaly Hunter.
• Four staff members escorted Sun Hang to the assessment room and dressed him in a white sheet and boxer shorts.
• Yang Qi questioned whether Taotie had infected Sun Hang, citing its history of devouring rather than spreading Anomalization Virus.
• The old man told Yang Qi that Sun Hang's infection matched Taotie and warned her never to judge Anomalies based on past experience.
• Staff attached electrodes to Sun Hang and began a test in which he repeated lines of poetry while ignoring questions.
• Sun Hang repeated the first two lines as the test immersed him in darkness.

Sun Hang completed the anomaly assessment and faced Yang Qi’s final question: whether he would sacrifice a village to guarantee the destruction of a powerful anomaly. The chapter ended with Yang Qi waiting for him to choose between Humanity and Rationality.

• The test’s electronic voice asked Sun Hang questions interwoven with strange poetic lines, then announced that the test was complete.
• Yang Qi introduced herself as a doctoral student at the Tianfu City Anomaly Research Institute and removed Sun Hang’s electrode pads.
• Yang Qi described a hypothetical mission where Sun Hang could destroy an anomaly with certainty only by using an unnotified village as bait, killing everyone there.
• Sun Hang questioned the idealized conditions and asked how investigators handled similar situations; Yang Qi said they chose to minimize the damage.
• Yang Qi pressed Sun Hang to choose between Humanity and Rationality, and he had not yet answered.

Sun Hang passed Yang Qi’s assessment and became an officially recognized Anomaly Hunter, learning that Hunters must preserve their humanity to avoid turning into Anomalies. He examined the nameplate that identified him as Sun Hang but found no clues to his past, then turned to discussing his new work and compensation.

• Sun Hang chose not to sacrifice the villagers, and Yang Qi told him he had passed the assessment and gained official Anomaly Hunter status.
• Yang Qi explained that Hunters had to preserve their humanity because crossing their infection threshold could make them lose control and become Anomalies.
• Sun Hang realized he had chosen what he thought was the safest answer, since the alternative could make Yang Qi see him as a threat.
• Yang Qi gave Sun Hang the nameplate found around his neck at the rescue site and said investigators had found no matching identity records for him.
• Yang Qi suggested Sun Hang might have been a mercenary, but Sun Hang questioned whether the nameplate was really his and kept the name Sun Hang.
• Sun Hang put on his Temporary Investigator uniform and asked Yang Qi to discuss his debt, duties, salary, and compensation.

Sun Hang learned about the benefits, rules, and risks of being a hunter from Yang Qi, who became his direct supervisor. He discovered that Tianfu City had only two active hunters and learned more about the other, Wang Xiyi, while Yang Qi said reinforcements were expected within two months.

• Yang Qi explained that hunters had their debts forgiven and received generous allowances, while a tracker monitored their location and anomalization level.
• Sun Hang learned that hunters were not forced to take missions but had annual quotas, and Yang Qi warned that Tianfu City had lost eleven hunters in the Taotie Clone attack.
• Sun Hang recognized the other remaining hunter as the woman he privately thought of as Mother Lizard, and Yang Qi warned him not to use that nickname around Wang Xiyi.
• Yang Qi said she was Sun Hang's direct supervisor and that her teacher supervised Wang Xiyi, Tianfu City's ace hunter, who had completed thirty-three missions in seven years.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that reinforcements were expected within two months, and Sun Hang interrupted her to avoid jinxing the arrival.
• Yang Qi revealed that her younger sister, Yang Lian, worked for the Anomaly Investigation Bureau.

Yang Qi took Sun Hang to his new Hunter residence and helped him test the driving skills he retained despite his memory loss. At the villa, he encountered his neighbor Wang Xiyi and learned that she used a Beast Transformation Inhibitor to maintain her human form.

• Yang Qi gave Sun Hang casual clothes and a tracking wristband, then explained that Hunters received housing and did not belong to the Investigation Bureau.
• Yang Qi took Sun Hang to the garage, where he discovered that he could drive a manual vehicle despite not remembering his past.
• Sun Hang drove Yang Qi's armored SUV to a villa built for Hunters and learned that its previous resident had died during the Taotie Clone attack.
• Sun Hang recognized Wang Xiyi on the neighboring villa's balcony and smelled the scent that made his mouth water.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that Wang Xiyi's injection was a Beast Transformation Inhibitor that helped her maintain her human form.

Sun Hang learned that Taotie’s ability could let him gain strength by devouring anomalies, but each use risked pushing him closer to becoming one. As he settled into his new villa, his metal nameplate turned gold under his touch and a familiar stabbing pain returned to his mind.

• Yang Qi explained Taotie’s unusual abilities and warned Sun Hang that devouring anomalies could cause dangerous conflicts, physical harm, or further infection.
• Sun Hang entered the villa the institute had prepared for him and found it furnished and stocked as his new home.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that Wang Xiyi needed four inhibitor injections a day and might eventually lose her humanity if the drug stopped working.
• Yang Qi left Sun Hang alone in the villa, where he wondered whether the place would become his home.
• Sun Hang rubbed his metal nameplate, turned its surface gold with his touch, and felt stabbing pain surge through his mind.

After surviving a mysterious ability that turned his Metal Nameplate into gold, Sun Hang saw footage of missing funeral attendees that no one else could view. Yang Qi explained that Sun Hang had resonated with the dangerous cemetery anomaly and asked him to handle the mission.

• Sun Hang woke from his coma, discovered that his Metal Nameplate had become gold, and tested whether he could make an apple float.
• Sun Hang watched silent evening-news footage showing Peacekeepers and funeral attendees suddenly aging, though the broadcast could not be recorded on his phone.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that an anomaly had transformed South City Public Cemetery and caused everyone attending the Peacekeepers' funeral to disappear.
• Yang Qi arrived at Sun Hang's home, heard what he had seen, and judged the cemetery anomaly could manipulate time.
• Yang Qi explained that Sun Hang's infection had caused him to resonate with the anomaly and asked him to carry out the mission because Wang Xiyi could not enter her beastified state.

Sun Hang joined Yang Qi’s urgent investigation into the disappearance of Tianfu City officials and Federation representatives at the South City Public Cemetery, relying on his connection to the anomaly. Wang Xiyi joined them as backup, and they arrived to find the cemetery missing, leaving only barren hills.

• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that more than three-quarters of Tianfu City’s management and Federation Council representatives had vanished, and that he might be able to help because he had seen them on television.
• Yang Qi equipped Sun Hang with tactical gear, firearms, and syringes containing stimulants and experimental anomaly serum before driving toward the cemetery.
• Wang Xiyi joined the SUV despite not being assigned to the mission, and Sun Hang gave her two of the three red serum syringes.
• Yang Qi drove Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi to the South City Public Cemetery, where they found only barren hills instead of the cemetery.