Chapter Summaries

Yang Lian explained how Bing Liu San Si and its spirit Anomaly Infant could be destroyed, while the anomaly pursued a blood-related target inside the Office Building. As it entered the building, Sun Hang offered to handle it himself.

• Yang Lian explained that Xin 225 could become physical by possessing a human embryo, and that the pair had been destroyed accidentally when it possessed an unsuspecting pregnant police officer’s embryo.
• Bing Liu San Si began crawling down the Office Building after sensing a blood-related target, and Ye Xuan warned that it would become unstoppable once it had chosen someone.
• Wang Xiyi considered serving as bait, but Yang Lian said there was no time to prepare, while the anomaly reached the twenty-ninth floor and alarmed the office workers inside.
• Ye Xuan warned the office workers not to look at Bing Liu San Si, which then passed through the glass curtain wall and entered the building.
• Sun Hang went to the helicopter’s cabin door and offered to take on the anomaly, confident that Taotie could devour the spirit entity.

Sun Hang entered the Office Building to confront the suspected Bing Liu San Si, but discovered that the building itself was an anomalous environment filled with lifelike silicone dolls. Trapped in darkness, he realized the anomaly had lured him in, and a cup of coffee appeared beside him after he challenged it.

• Sun Hang swung from the helicopter to the Office Building, smashed through its glass wall, and found the suspected Bing Liu San Si attacking a female office worker.
• Sun Hang shot the anomaly in the head, but it regenerated and continued attacking the corpse.
• Sun Hang sensed other anomalies and discovered the floor had become silent, with the world outside the building replaced by fathomless darkness.
• Sun Hang examined a corpse and found it was a lifelike silicone doll, then concluded that the Office Building itself was a Geng-type environment anomaly.
• Sun Hang sat down and accused the building of luring him inside; a steaming cup of coffee appeared on the desk beside him.

Sun Hang killed the entity called "Bing Liu San Si" by forcing it to drink anomalous coffee and recovered an antique key from its remains. After testing the Office Building's exits and trying to provoke it into responding, he wondered why the building and its entities had not attacked him.

• Sun Hang poured the coffee down "Bing Liu San Si"'s throat, causing it to melt into a pool of gel.
• Sun Hang found an antique brass key in the gel, cleaned it, and pocketed it.
• Sun Hang tested the dark space outside by throwing a flashlight-equipped phone through the broken curtain wall and ruled out escaping that way.
• Sun Hang found the office computers had no internet and called out to the Office Building, but it did not respond.
• Sun Hang searched for a way to start a fire, then questioned why the Office Building had not attacked him.

Sun Hang suspected the aberration was trapping him because it could not defeat him directly, so he embraced the Beatdown Style and decided to demolish the Office Building. He forged a sixty-ton sledgehammer from the building’s metal and brought it crashing down, leaving the building’s fate uncertain.

• Sun Hang recalled the Beatdown Style approach to rule-based horrors and decided it suited his situation.
• Sun Hang resolved to tear down the Office Building rather than let its aberration stall him.
• Sun Hang sensed the building resisting his control, but overpowered its will with his psychic power.
• Sun Hang pulled metal from the twenty-ninth floor and the building’s framework into a giant sledgehammer.
• Sun Hang raised the hammer and smashed it down, shouting, “Eighty!”

Sun Hang discovered that every floor in the anomalous office building was a copy of the twenty-ninth floor and that smashing through them could not bring him closer to an exit. He tried to communicate with the anomaly, then learned it would only let him travel between floors by taking the stairs.

• Sun Hang smashed through the building’s floors with a giant hammer, only to find each level replicated the twenty-ninth floor, then compressed the hammer into a short blade.
• Sun Hang checked the floor number and realized that even after descending through many levels, he remained on the twenty-ninth floor.
• Sun Hang sent a drone through the breach into the darkness, but it lost its signal almost immediately.
• Sun Hang typed questions to the anomaly on a computer, received no answers, and insulted it.
• Sun Hang repeatedly tried to take the elevator, but it returned to the fifth floor; the elevator screen then displayed “Yes” when Sun Hang guessed he had to use the stairs.

Sun Hang entered the Office Building’s anomalous stairwell and discovered that each step reversed time, but the building’s trap ended when an unknown power intervened. He emerged on the rooftop amid a burning building and signs that cursed things had reached Tianfu City’s downtown district.

• Sun Hang used Bing Liu San Si’s vintage key to unlock the stairwell after finding the elevator shaft filled with deadly darkness.
• As Sun Hang descended the decayed stairs, his phone showed time rewinding, and he realized the stairwell would lead to a point sixty-five years in the past.
• The stairwell behind Sun Hang vanished into darkness, and three newel posts became carvings of monkeys covering their eyes, ears, and mouths.
• The stairs rapidly aged and collapsed, sending Sun Hang falling before he reappeared on the Office Building’s rooftop.
• Sun Hang saw the building burning, the city’s evacuation alarm sounding, and his helicopter wrecked below, then suspected cursed things had entered downtown Tianfu City.

After finding the helicopter wreckage, Sun Hang reported the casualties and received orders to hunt Anomalies in Tianfu City instead of heading south. He then confronted a stranger wearing a set of Artifact Class Anomalies and launched an attack, believing the wearer was being controlled.

• Sun Hang found the pilot and two male passengers dead in the wreckage, while Ye Xuan, Yang Lian, and Wang Xiyi were missing.
• Sun Hang contacted Longquan Post Base, confirmed the flight data recorder was intact, and learned that communications were down and parts of Tianfu City might be abandoned.
• Longquan Post Base told Sun Hang that Federal reinforcements had arrived and reassigned him to hunt Anomalies within the city.
• Sun Hang sensed a dangerous figure in Bright Light Armor and concluded that its armor, Ogre Mask, Tang Heng Saber, and Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear were a set of Artifact Class Anomalies controlling an ordinary person.
• Sun Hang launched himself toward the armored figure with mycelium and transformed his short blade into a giant Zhanmadao.

Sun Hang fought an armored stranger wielding powerful Anomaly Equipment, then learned the man was Ye Jiu, a hunter sent to reinforce Tianfu City and searching for his missing sister, Ye Xuan. Sun Hang refused to return Ye Jiu’s sword until he could verify his identity, leaving the two at odds.

• Sun Hang tried to devour the Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear with his Liquid Metal, but its flames destroyed his Zhanmadao and forced him to retreat.
• Sun Hang fired missiles from the helicopter wreckage and attacked through the smoke with metal shards, but the armored opponent survived and charged him.
• Sun Hang stopped the attacker with the opponent’s frost-cold Tang Heng Saber, which Ye Jiu identified as Frost Cutter, and learned the armored man was human.
• Ye Jiu introduced himself as a twenty-two-year-old member of Chunming City’s Anomaly Hunting Squad, sent to reinforce Tianfu City and searching for his missing younger sister, Ye Xuan.
• Sun Hang said Ye Xuan was likely with Night Fiend, but Ye Jiu warned that Night Fiend’s unstable condition made her dangerous.
• Ye Jiu offered to search the area and help fight the Anomalies if Sun Hang returned Frost Cutter, but Sun Hang refused without proof of Ye Jiu’s identity.

Sun Hang questioned Ye Jiu about Anomaly Equipment, its risks, and how Ye Jiu controlled the bloodlust of his Slaughter gear. Their discussion ended when a powerful anomaly rose from underground, stirring Sun Hang's overwhelming hunger.

• Sun Hang made Ye Jiu remove his helmet and mask, then asked him to explain Anomaly Equipment and Qualified Users.
• Ye Jiu explained synchronization rates, the risks of anomalies backlashing, and how his Slaughter armor could drive its users into murderous madness.
• Ye Jiu said he controlled the armor's bloodlust by playing violent video games, and Sun Hang found the method persuasive.
• A powerful anomalous aura surged from underground, and Ye Jiu warned Sun Hang that an anomaly was approaching.
• Sun Hang leaped onto the Golden Arches sign and watched the road, overcome by a craving for the anomaly's enticing food.

Sun Hang and Ye Jiu confronted a vast shadow anomaly that aged and destroyed everything it covered, and Sun Hang identified it as the culprit behind the Spacetime Anomaly. As Ye Jiu prepared to attack, Sun Hang learned that anomalies had appeared across Tianfu City and that the Anomaly Research Institute had not yet been attacked.

• A shadow anomaly spread from beneath a manhole and rapidly aged buildings, objects, and the Black pilot’s body.
• Ye Jiu found that Sun Hang’s bullet had no effect, and Sun Hang said the anomaly was behind the Spacetime Anomaly.
• Sun Hang gave Ye Jiu the Tang Heng Saber and urged him to use his strongest attack while Sun Hang moved to a safer building.
• Ye Jiu gave Sun Hang a headset connected to the military communications channel, where Sun Hang learned that anomalies were appearing across Tianfu City and hunters were stretched thin.
• Sun Hang asked whether the Anomaly Research Institute had been attacked, and military communications reported that it remained safe, with the nearest anomaly seven kilometers away.

Sun Hang and Ye Jiu attacked the anomalous shadow in Jinjiang CBD, but Ye Jiu’s ultimate move only fed it and enlarged its reach. Sun Hang discovered the shadow came from a huge anomaly floating in the sky, which threatened to cover all of Tianfu City.

• Sun Hang judged that Ye Jiu’s strongest attack could only probe the shadow and warned him to use it before the anomaly counterattacked.
• Ye Jiu unleashed Frost Cutter and the Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear in a massive blast that destroyed the surrounding street.
• Sun Hang saw that the shadow remained unharmed and had expanded after absorbing energy from Ye Jiu’s attack.
• Sun Hang looked into the sky and found an enormous, slowly expanding sphere casting the dangerous shadow over the city.
• A voice over Sun Hang’s earpiece reported detecting an unknown giant anomaly above Jinjiang CBD, and Sun Hang warned that its shadow might swallow Tianfu City.

Sun Hang and Ye Jiu discovered that missiles striking the spherical anomaly in the sky were transferred into its shadow, which seemed immune to physical attacks. Ye Jiu proposed surrounding the anomaly with lights from every angle to eliminate its shadow, and the Disaster Response Committee began coordinating the equipment.

• Sun Hang learned that Ye Jiu could not fight again yet and ordered Falcon Squad to attack the spherical anomaly with missiles.
• The missiles vanished upon hitting the sphere, while researchers detected their energy underground in the anomaly's shadow.
• Sun Hang and Ye Jiu concluded that the missiles had been transferred into the shadow and that physical attacks could not harm it.
• Sun Hang proposed using a Shadowless Lamp arrangement to remove the anomaly's shadow.
• Ye Jiu asked the Disaster Response Committee to gather aircraft, vehicles, cranes, and searchlights across Shu Province to surround the anomaly with light.

Sun Hang discovered that the spherical anomaly’s deadly shadow retreated from him, while Ye Jiu learned that Sun Hang’s hunter file was classified and suspected he had been infected by Taotie. As a Shadowless Light Array assembled overhead, Sun Hang waited for the plan to begin.

• Sun Hang flung Ye Jiu to safety, then stepped into the spreading shadow and watched it retreat around his feet.
• Ye Jiu contacted his brother and learned Sun Hang’s file had been sent directly to Tianshu Tower, with Taotie suspected as the anomaly that infected him.
• Sun Hang walked deeper into the shadow as it continued to withdraw from him and gather behind him.
• Military helicopters and thousands of requisitioned drones formed a triangular light array around the spherical anomaly.
• Sun Hang waited in the street for the Shadowless Light Array to light up.

Sun Hang discovered that the aerial sphere was the shadow of the ground anomaly and used redirected lights to make the shadows tangible. Just as he began absorbing them, the Three Monkeys appeared and erased the shadows, leaving him with a new mystery.

• The Shadowless Light Array failed to affect the sphere or the ground shadows, so Sun Hang asked the Command Center to redirect its lights toward the ground.
• Sun Hang realized the sphere was a shadow and the ground anomaly was its conscious source.
• The redirected lights made the sphere disappear and turned the ground shadows tangible, allowing Sun Hang to bind them with fungal threads.
• Sun Hang began absorbing the shadows, but three monkey statues appeared and one shrieked, causing the shadows to evaporate and stripping away what he had consumed.
• Ye Jiu asked how Sun Hang had destroyed the anomaly, while Sun Hang cursed the vanished monkeys.

Sun Hang eliminated the anomaly controlling the Spacetime Anomaly, and the missing people returned to normal spacetime. The Evernight remained over Tianfu City, leaving the hunters to regroup and prepare for a continuing crisis as Sun Hang asked about a statue anomaly shaped like three monkeys.

• Ye Jiu questioned whether Sun Hang was really himself, and Sun Hang reassured him before explaining how he finished off the weakened anomaly.
• Song Yarong arrived and told Sun Hang and Ye Jiu that everyone lost to the Spacetime Anomaly had returned, including Yang Qi and 0401.
• Song Yarong explained that most of the city's anomalies had vanished or been eliminated, but the Evernight remained and might force the evacuation of Tianfu City or Shu Province.
• Sun Hang warned that the lack of dawn could cause panic and learned that the hunters would return to the Institute before joining patrols to hunt remaining anomalies.
• Sun Hang asked Song Yarong whether she knew of any statue-type anomalies shaped like three monkeys.

Sun Hang suspected that the Three Monkeys statues inside the corrupted office building were a Type A rule-based anomaly capable of erasing other anomalies. He learned about Tianshu Tower and discussed the office building anomaly with Ye Jiu and Song Yarong, who suggested the apparent Bing Liu San Si might have been a fake and the anomaly could have been symbiotic.

• Sun Hang described the three monkey statues, and Ye Jiu identified their poses as an allusion to the Three Monkeys.
• Sun Hang reasoned that the statues might be a rule-based anomaly whose rules erased other anomalies but could not directly erase him.
• Song Yarong and Ye Jiu asked Sun Hang about the anomaly, and he explained that he had seen it inside a corrupted office building.
• Ye Jiu explained that Tianshu Tower was the Federation's top anomaly research institution, while Song Yarong described its ten specialized institutes.
• Song Yarong connected the office building to the Geng-type anomaly and said eyewitness reports suggested the Bing Liu San Si that lured Sun Hang inside was likely fake.
• Ye Jiu proposed that the office building anomaly might have been symbiotic with another anomaly.

Sun Hang and his companions were ambushed by anomaly-worshipping attackers, leaving Song Yarong and the driver wounded. Sun Hang repaired Song Yarong’s damaged lung and gave her plasma, while the driver identified the attackers as radicals who target the Federation’s anomaly institutions.

• Sun Hang sensed danger and warned the others, but a passing military vehicle opened fire on their van, critically wounding Song Yarong and injuring the driver.
• Ye Jiu leaped from the van and pursued the attackers while Sun Hang used mycelium to stop Song Yarong’s bleeding.
• Sun Hang rebuilt Song Yarong’s damaged lung tissue with mycelium, allowing her to breathe again.
• The driver directed Sun Hang to emergency plasma, which Sun Hang pumped into Song Yarong through a strand of mycelium.
• The driver explained that the attackers were likely radical anomaly worshippers who attacked Investigation Bureaus and Anomaly Research Institutes.

Sun Hang and the driver discussed how the Eternal Night could lead to famine and social collapse, while the rescue team dealt with the attackers who had assaulted them. Sun Hang returned to his villa exhausted, only to find signs that someone had broken in.

• The driver warned Sun Hang that the loss of Shu Province's food production could cause famine and drive people to desperate acts, and said he planned to stockpile supplies for his family.
• Rescue workers took Song Yarong to an ambulance, and the City Defense Guard secured the road after Ye Jiu reported that rockets had stopped the attackers' stolen vehicle.
• Ye Jiu explained that the attackers had killed four City Defense Guard soldiers and stolen their vehicle and weapons, while the two surviving attackers were being resuscitated for interrogation.
• Sun Hang dismissed the value of keeping the attackers alive and rode a shared bicycle home instead of returning to the Institute.
• Sun Hang found his villa's front door shut but noticed a forced-open window and a deformed metal frame.

Sun Hang returned home to find Wang Xiyi had broken in and was eating his food while the city remained in crisis. She warned him that his Taotie infection could win him status elsewhere, but he chose to stay in Shu Province and grow stronger by devouring anomalies.

• Sun Hang entered his home and found Wang Xiyi eating junk food and drinking beer after breaking in for supplies.
• Wang Xiyi told Sun Hang that the anomalies had disappeared after he dealt with the creature in the sky, while panic and stampedes had caused hundreds of deaths.
• Wang Xiyi urged Sun Hang to leave Shu Province because his Taotie infection, serial number C-9, could make him a privileged Hunter elsewhere.
• Sun Hang refused to leave, arguing that Shu Province would likely have many anomalies for him to devour and help him grow stronger.
• Sun Hang joked that he would swallow the sky if he got the chance, after Wang Xiyi mocked his ambition to devour the Eternal Night.

Sun Hang reflected on the limits and growing capacity of his ability, which he called his Blue Bar, and realized that trying to reverse the Eternal Night would kill him for now. He woke to Tianfu City's lockdown broadcasts and found that Wang Xiyi had left him a note and a set of Ultraman Tiga discs.

• Sun Hang tested his Turn Steel into Gold ability on his nameplate and felt only slight fatigue.
• Sun Hang realized that eliminating Anomalies increased his Blue Bar, while exceeding its capacity caused painful overdrafts or unconsciousness.
• Sun Hang sensed that attempting to reverse the Eternal Night at his current strength would be suicide.
• Sun Hang woke at 8:30 AM to broadcasts announcing Tianfu City's 24-hour lockdown and supply deliveries.
• Sun Hang found Wang Xiyi gone, the house cleaned, and a note offering him Ultraman Tiga discs and a can of cola.
• Sun Hang saw that his phone still had no signal and concluded that civilian communications would remain paralyzed.