This trip had been a huge success.
He took out another golden chest.
When he opened it, he saw a pair of earphones lying inside.
Perhaps they had been sealed away for too long. Even after the chest was opened, they didn't make a sound.
"Since they're earphones, their Anomaly Ability must have something to do with hearing."
Without another word, Chen Yu took out the Anomaly Earphone and put it on.
The moment he put it on, a chill spread through his entire body.
A crackling electrical sound came from the Anomaly Earphone.
[You have put on the Anomaly Earphone.]
[The Anomaly Earphone is a special anomaly.]
[While wearing it, you can hear the movements of nearby anomalies.]
As soon as the message appeared,
the static in Chen Yu's earphones grew louder, and strange sounds began to emerge.
[Scritch... scritch... thump, thump...]
The sound was like wind rustling through leaves, or sometimes like the muffled thuds of someone jumping rope on a rooftop.
Chen Yu frowned.
Those sounds from the Anomaly Earphone meant there was an anomaly nearby.
He hurriedly looked around, but the place was empty. There wasn't a single person in sight. Where was the anomaly?
"Maybe I can't hear it clearly just by wearing them."
Chen Yu ate the Anomaly Earphone, one bite at a time.
The Anomaly Earphone tasted just like the Anomaly Computer—like chewing on a rock. Luckily, Chen Yu had strong teeth; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to eat it.
After swallowing the Anomaly Earphone,
it turned into a surge of energy that coursed through Chen Yu's body.
[Congratulations. You have devoured the Level 6 Anomaly Earphone.]
[Potential: 5.5 stars.]
[Anomaly Ability: You can hear the movements of nearby anomalies (range can be increased).]
Chen Yu immediately used the Anomaly Earphone's Anomaly Ability.
"Hee-hee... ha-ha... hee-hee-hee..."
Now he could hear the sound clearly.
It was unmistakably a child laughing, light and innocent.
But in a place like this, the sound was downright chilling.
He frowned.
But there weren't any children around.
A chill suddenly crept up Chen Yu's spine!
Hearing that eerie laughter meant it was nearby, but Chen Yu couldn't see it!
Could it be the Ghost Infant?!
On the Anomaly Era Official Forum,
there were several rankings.
The most prominent was the Strongest Anomalies Ranking, followed by the Most Dangerous Anomalies Ranking.
The strongest anomalies weren't necessarily the most dangerous. Some anomalies didn't attack people on sight. The truly dangerous ones were those that killed.
Below those two rankings was another one called the Hardest-to-Deal-With Anomalies Ranking.
The Ghost Infant was near the top!
The Investigation Bureau had personally posted a warning: if a Ghost Controller ever encountered a Ghost Infant, the best thing to do was run!
The reason it was classified as extremely dangerous and incredibly difficult to deal with was that, according to recorded reports, the Ghost Infant had once slaughtered an entire orphanage!
Everyone in the orphanage had died at its hands!
Ghost Infants moved incredibly fast. They were also small, making them difficult to hit, and ordinary attacks posed no threat to them.
Now, Chen Yu could sense the Ghost Infant watching him from somewhere beyond his sight!
The Ghost Infant must have targeted him because he'd removed the Ghost Embryo from Tong Jian's belly earlier!
That thing must have been an infected clone of the Ghost Infant?
"Ghost Infant?"
Chen Yu frowned, then broke into a sinister grin and licked his lips. "You've got your eye on me?"
"I welcome you with open arms."
Chen Yu sensed the anomaly's presence suddenly vanish. He began searching all around, but just then, his phone rang.
He glanced at where the Ghost Infant had disappeared, then frowned and took out his phone.
"Han Ningning?"
The school belle, Han Ningning, had sent him a message.
Chen Yu opened it.
[Chen Yu, are you there? There's something I'd like to ask you for help with. Could you help me?]
As Han Ningning typed the words on the other end of the phone, she had to summon every bit of courage she had.
Other people didn't know how powerful Chen Yu was, but she knew very well.
She still remembered everything she'd seen in the school hallway. She hadn't told anyone else about it,
but she'd kept it deep in her heart!
Could someone who could deal with anomalies so easily really be an ordinary person?
So she was exceedingly polite and nervous as she spoke to him.
"Help you with what?"
Chen Yu asked.
[I've joined the Investigation Bureau's Orderer Plan. It's a new initiative to find promising new Ghost Controllers and train them to their full potential. We'll use the anomalies they control to fight back against the anomalies that are running rampant.]
Han Ningning quickly told him everything.
Chen Yu wasn't surprised when he read her message.
He'd sensed long ago that Han Ningning had an anomaly.
He hadn't expected the Investigation Bureau to move so quickly and bring Han Ningning into the fold.
[I've accepted the first mission on behalf of the Orderkeepers. It's an extremely difficult one, so I wanted to ask if you could help me...]
Chen Yu wasn't interested in missions like this and was about to refuse.
But then another message from Han Ningning came in.
[This mission is extremely difficult. I heard there may even be a hard-to-deal-with anomaly, the Ghost Infant. The threat level is extremely high.]
Han Ningning sent the message anxiously.
She was afraid Chen Yu would refuse.
As soon as he read that, Chen Yu became interested.
An extremely dangerous anomaly incident was bound to involve powerful anomalies.
And there was a Ghost Infant in there too!
Chen Yu had to eat that Ghost Infant.
It had slaughtered an entire orphanage, and even the Ghost Embryo it had planted in Tong Jian was so powerful.
How could the Ghost Infant be anything ordinary?
"Fine, I'll help. But I'm bringing someone with me. And what's the mission? Give me the details."
Chen Yu replied.
When Han Ningning saw that he'd actually agreed, she jumped up and down like an excited little girl before replying: [Of course I don't mind! I can't thank you enough. Bring whoever you want. I'll send you the mission link right now.]
With that, Han Ningning sent him a link to a post on the Anomaly Era Official Forum.
Chen Yu opened it.
It was a bounty post.
[Anomaly Zoo!]
[Difficulty: Extreme Danger!]
[Unknown anomalies invaded the zoo, turning it into an anomaly death zone. At least three anomalies are confirmed! More dangers are unknown!]
[You may form a team to resolve this anomaly incident.]
[Rewards: 50 million Huaxia yuan per team member, 500 Investigation Bureau merit points, and 500 kilograms of gold!]
Seeing the extreme difficulty of the mission, along with the many anomalies involved,
Chen Yu nearly started drooling.
His attitude flipped completely in an instant. He hurriedly messaged Han Ningning: "I'm in. We have a duty to protect the school belle. When are we leaving?"
[That's great! Let's go now. I'll send you the address, and we can meet there.]
Han Ningning then sent Chen Yu the address of the Anomaly Zoo.
Chen Yu opened his cheap navigation app. The cheapest and quickest option was to take the bus.
He followed the directions to the bus stop.
It was already night.
Chen Yu checked the time on his phone. According to the schedule posted at the stop, the last bus hadn't passed yet, so he still had a chance to catch it.
While waiting, Chen Yu chatted with Tong Jian.
Actually, not Tong Jian. It would be more accurate to say he was chatting with the Ghost Doll on her back.
The porcelain-doll-like little girl didn't even have an expression, so there wasn't much to talk about.
After about half an hour,
a bus finally appeared in the distance.
Chen Yu dug a few coins out of his pocket. As he waited for the bus to arrive, he suddenly noticed something and frowned.
The bus was driving extremely unsteadily.
The road was flat, so why was it swaying like that?
Besides, the bus looked like it hadn't been maintained in ages. Its paint was peeling away,
exposing the metal beneath.
The metal was covered in deep brown rust.
The windows were all broken, either cracked by the passage of time or smashed by someone. Not a single one was intact.
What surprised Chen Yu even more
was that the bus wasn't giving off black or colorless exhaust.
It was a faint red.
Something was wrong.
Wasn't this thing a wreck?
Its tires had burst, yet it could still move?
Chen Yu used his Anomaly Earphone's Anomaly Ability to listen.
[Scritch... rumble... scritch...]
A series of rumbling sounds reached Chen Yu's ears.
Abnormal sounds meant the bus itself was an anomaly.
Chen Yu's frown relaxed.
If it wasn't a ghost but an anomaly, then there was nothing to fear.
The corners of Chen Yu's mouth curled into a smile.
Then he pretended not to notice anything and boarded as soon as the Ghost Bus pulled up.
A plump female conductor stood by the door. She looked about forty-five or forty-six. The bus driver was puffing away on a dry pipe.
"Two yuan."
The conductor held out her hand to Chen Yu.
Chen Yu nodded and handed her two coins.
She took the money and let him board.
Tong Jian wasn't even 1.6 meters tall, so she boarded directly without having to pay for a ticket.
Quite a few people were already seated on the bus.
Their faces were calm. Some were looking down at their phones, some had fallen asleep with earphones on, while others gazed out the window.
Aside from the shabby, dilapidated state of the bus interior,
everything else looked exactly like an ordinary bus Chen Yu might take.
Chen Yu could tell these people were all normal.
It was just that a faint layer of eerie energy clouded their eyes.
They must have been made unable to see the truth.
The bus continued on. When it approached a stop, it came to a halt.
Two people got on from the stop.
Their clothes were strange, like burial clothes. Their faces were pale, devoid of color, and their expressions stiff.
After they boarded, the female conductor blocked their way as well.
The two stiffly reached into their pockets, took out a few bills, and handed them to her.
The female conductor smiled. "Go on."
Then she put the money in her pocket.
Chen Yu, however, could clearly see.
The money those two had just handed over wasn't Huaxia currency at all!
It was several bright white funeral notes!
At the same time, as the two passed Chen Yu,
he couldn't see their feet.
Yet everyone on the bus carried on with what they were doing, paying no attention to them.
Chen Yu had noticed, but he didn't care.
This bus was clearly abnormal. It was only natural for something like that to get on.
As long as it couldn't threaten him, that was all that mattered.
But who would have thought—
The bus was quiet, and everything seemed normal.
But when Chen Yu looked out the window, he was surprised to discover
that the bus was taking the wrong route!
A sign by the roadside told Chen Yu that the road led to a crematorium!
The zoo, though, happened to be along the way.
Chen Yu didn't mind. As long as he eventually got to the zoo, that was fine.
He turned to look at the passengers in the bus.
"Wait, why's this bus suddenly heading this way?"
"Yeah, this isn't the route this bus takes, is it?"
"The last stop is supposed to be Tongzi Road in Linjiang City. Why are we suddenly heading to a crematorium?"
"Did they change the bus route?"
"That can't be right. I've been taking this bus for seven or eight years, and I've never heard of a route change. Driver, did you take a wrong turn?"
"Going straight to a crematorium? This feels kind of creepy."
The passengers had clearly noticed something was wrong too.
They took this bus regularly, and this was the first time they'd seen it head somewhere else.
Everyone on board panicked.
But one person in the crowd remained calm.
He had a head of yellow hair.
An eerie aura clung to him.
Chen Yu possessed so many supernatural beings that he could tell at a glance the man was a Ghost Controller.
"Driver? Say something!"
"Yeah, why are we going this way? Nobody told us about this!"
The passengers hurriedly shouted at the driver.
When the driver didn't respond for a long time, they turned to the conductor.
But the conductor was just as bewildered, looking completely lost. He clearly had no idea what was going on either.
"Damn it, are you messing with us by driving to a crematorium?"
"Exactly! Are you trying to waste our time?"
"Is this some kind of prank?"
Some of the passengers had short tempers. They stood up and stormed to the driver's cabin, shouting furiously at the driver. But he still didn't react at all, and the dry pipe in his hand continued to billow smoke.
"Damn it, I'm talking to you! Are you deaf? Pull over!"
"Yeah, I want to get off!"
A burly man reached out and yanked the driver's clothes.
That proved to be a big mistake.
As soon as he pulled, the driver, who had been holding the steering wheel, lost all strength and collapsed to the floor.
Only then did everyone get a clear look at his face.
Blood streamed from the driver's eyes, nostrils, the corners of his mouth, and his ears.
Blood poured from all seven orifices. He looked utterly terrifying!
The driver was already dead, beyond any doubt.
The burly man who had grabbed him froze too. He hurriedly let go, then stumbled backward, scared out of his wits.
"What happened to him? He's dead?!"
"How could he just die like that?!"
Before you continue