The Suffocating Gap-He Was an Anomaly [God]

The Suffocating Gap—He Was an Anomaly

The next moment!

A ghost hand lunged for the Headless Ghost Shadow's arm.

Rip!

A sharp tearing sound rang out.

The Headless Ghost Shadow's arm was ripped off in an instant, as easily as a sheet of paper. The ghost hand then yanked the severed arm into the pitch-black window.

Han Ningning sucked in another breath at the sight.

That looked so painful!

But to her surprise, she saw the dark shadows around the Headless Ghost Shadow begin to creep toward its arm, as though they were alive.

Once they touched the Headless Ghost Shadow, they clung to its severed arm like a lump of putty being kneaded by hand!

Then—

Whoosh!

Another thin, pitch-black hand reached out from the window.

This time, it held an admission ticket to the zoo.

The ticket was stained with blood, and every word on it was bloodred. It looked as though it had been soaked in blood.

"This..."

Han Ningning was completely dumbfounded.

That worked too?!

Chen Yu took the ticket from the ghost hand.

The moment he got hold of it, the faint mist in front of his eyes dispersed.

The shadows obscuring his vision vanished, and he could see again. The road leading to the zoo appeared once more.

"The mist's hiding the way, and the path goes on forever. This is a ghostly labyrinth."

Chen Yu spoke calmly.

[Thank you for visiting the Anomaly Zoo... Heh heh... Your hand was delicious...]

A strange laugh came from the pitch-black window, accompanied by a series of chewing sounds that made their scalps crawl.

"Once you get a ticket, you can see the path."

Chen Yu turned to Han Ningning and Tong Jian.

They still hadn't gotten their tickets, so they naturally couldn't see the way ahead.

There was no way around it. They had to get tickets.

The ticket was in the Ghost Ticket Seller's hands. Unless it gave one to them itself, any ticket they got would be invalid.

So even if Han Ningning killed the Ghost Ticket Seller, it wouldn't help.

Han Ningning glanced back at Tong Jian, then said to Chen Yu, "Chen Yu, the price it demands is far too bloody and violent. I think we should just let her go back."

"No need. She'll handle it herself."

Chen Yu sounded confident.

As soon as he finished speaking, Tong Jian stepped forward and walked over to the ticket booth. She rose onto her tiptoes to see through the pitch-black window.

But what puzzled everyone was that Tong Jian was carrying a rock about the size of a basketball, and she was struggling to lift it.

What was she planning to do?

Han Ningning looked confused.

Tong Jian lifted the rock and offered it to the ghost hand reaching out of the window.

[What is this?!]

Just as expected!

The ghost hand trembled as soon as it touched the rock. Then an angry, questioning voice came from inside!

Tong Jian didn't say a word.

But the Ghost Doll on her back suddenly spoke.

"Ms. Ticket Seller, this is my payment for the ticket!"

[Isn't this just a rock? Do you think I'm blind?!]

"Auntie, it's not a rock. It's a human head. Take a closer look!"

"It's dripping blood. It's the head of someone we just brought here! It's fresh!"

"And the owner of this head was very young. His head must be worth a lot, right?"

"Why don't you take a closer look?"

The Ghost Doll's voice grew increasingly distorted, steeped in sinister strangeness.

It sounded like a terrifying priest inciting cultists before an altar of flesh and blood, every word carrying an eerie power that seemed to tug at the mind.

The Ghost Ticket Seller stiffened when it heard the Ghost Doll's voice, then gently felt the rock.

[Oh, I see. I was mistaken. This is a fine head. I'll take it.]

With that, the Ghost Ticket Seller's hand grabbed the rock and drew back into the pitch-black window.

The next moment,

another ghost hand reached out of the window, holding a bloodstained ticket.

[The head you gave me was delicious. I like it very much...]

Crack, crack, crack!

The continuous crunching sounds made Han Ningning's eyes widen in shock. Her mouth hung open, and for a long while, she couldn't close it.

That worked too?!

Only then did Han Ningning give Tong Jian a careful once-over.

Even the little girl who followed Chen Yu was this capable?

Just how powerful was Chen Yu?

After getting her ticket, Tong Jian calmly returned to Chen Yu's side.

Now, Han Ningning was the only one who still hadn't gotten a ticket.

She walked over to the ticket window.

She reached her hand directly toward the window, pretending she was going to trade her arm to the Ghost Ticket Seller inside.

The Ghost Ticket Seller naturally didn't refuse. It immediately reached out its ghost hand to grab Han Ningning's arm.

But just then!

A powerful surge of anomalous energy suddenly burst from within Han Ningning!

The hair at the back of her head fluttered in a windless breeze.

Then a strange smiling face appeared at the back of her head!

She had been prepared for this.

There was no way she would hand over a part of her body as payment.

Her plan was to pretend to make a deal, then use the Ghostly Smiling Face to suppress the ghost hand and take the ticket by force.

Another ghost hand was reaching out from the other pitch-black window, holding a ticket.

[Heh heh heh heh...]

The Ghostly Smiling Face's strange suppressive power flared into being, covering the entire ticket booth.

The anomaly inside seemed to fall into a daze, going completely still.

"Now!"

Han Ningning was overjoyed. She tried to snatch the ticket from the ghost hand in the other window!

[Waaah... Waaah...]

But just as she made her move, the eerie cry of a child rang through the zoo.

The sound made the zoo, already steeped in terror, feel even more sinister!

The instant the crying began,

the smile on the back of Han Ningning's head suddenly drooped. The flesh of its face sagged as if it had lost all support!

In an instant, the Ghostly Smiling Face became a crying face!

Han Ningning felt something inside her being drained away at high speed.

Her lifespan!

The moment the Ghostly Smiling Face turned into a crying face,

three years of Han Ningning's life were forcibly taken from her! A lock of her hair turned white!

The Ghost Ticket Seller came to its senses as soon as it heard the crying.

Then a chilling, terrifying presence spilled out of the ticket booth.

[You little rat! You were going to steal the ticket from my hand!]

[If you're so desperate to enter the zoo, I'll leave your soul here forever...]

The Ghost Ticket Seller trembled with rage.

In the blink of an eye,

the ghost hand shot out of the pitch-black window.

Han Ningning was horrified. She screamed and hurriedly backed away.

She'd thought that once she moved back, the Ghost Ticket Seller inside the booth wouldn't be able to reach her.

But the ghost hand vanished right before her eyes. When it reappeared...it was already right in front of her!

At the same time, the glass at the ticket window shattered under the force.

With the sound of breaking glass,

a figure appeared inside, dressed in a ticket seller's uniform. Its body was covered in blood, and its arms were unnaturally long.

The ticket seller's left pupil had sunk to the bottom of its eyeball.

But its right eye gleamed crimson as it stared fixedly at Han Ningning, its face twisted into a savage grimace!

Ever since joining the Investigation Bureau, this was the first time Han Ningning had seen an anomaly with her own eyes!

The Investigation Bureau had trained her, but training was one thing and real combat was another!

At that moment, she understood the line in the Investigation Bureau's handbook—

Once you came into contact with an anomaly's medium and were targeted by its rules, escape was practically impossible.

She'd just agreed to buy a ticket! The medium had been established. There was nowhere to run!

Her face turned deathly pale. Desperately clinging to the last of her reason, she tried to use the Ghostly Smiling Face to fight back.

She kicked off the ground and scrambled backward.

She frantically tried to make the Ghostly Smiling Face move...

But it was as if the Ghostly Smiling Face had completely cut off contact with her. It remained frozen in its crying expression, beyond her control!

It was over!

Despair flashed through Han Ningning's mind.

But Chen Yu, standing behind her, wasn't afraid at all. The corner of his mouth even curled into a smile.

The real one had finally come out.

He'd been waiting for this moment!

As the Ghost Ticket Seller charged toward Han Ningning,

Chen Yu immediately activated the Headless Ghost Shadow.

A ghost shadow flowed through the dark like water, darting toward the ticket seller. In less than a breath, it appeared behind the Ghost Ticket Seller.

The Ghost Ticket Seller hadn't noticed it at all.

The dark shadow quickly took the shape of the Headless Ghost Shadow.

Then it slowly reached out, placing one hand on either side of the Ghost Ticket Seller's head, as though grabbing a basketball.

With effortless ease, it plucked the head off.

The Ghost Ticket Seller seemed not to realize what had happened, even as it died. Its body remained frozen in the act of charging at Han Ningning until its head was severed.

Only then did its body realize that it was dead!

A moment later, the Ghost Ticket Seller's body and head hit the ground with two dull thuds.

It had been dealt with in no time.

Han Ningning was still in shock, unable to come back to her senses for a long while.

Chen Yu strode forward and dragged the Ghost Ticket Seller's corpse over.

Crack!

He opened his mouth and bit into the Ghost Ticket Seller, ripping off a bloodied piece of flesh like a wild animal before swallowing it.

The sight left Han Ningning utterly stunned. She couldn't get a single word out for a long time.

He ate anomalies!

He'd eaten the Ghost Butcher before!

And now he was at it again!

He was so strong!

It looked like she hadn't chosen the wrong person!

The Ghost Shadow within Chen Yu was so powerful that it had effortlessly taken down the Ghost Ticket Seller, an anomaly even the Investigation Bureau had struggled to handle!

What was the Ghost Shadow, exactly?

Chen Yu's trump card was way too powerful!

She assumed the Ghost Shadow was Chen Yu's trump card.

After all, it was so powerful. If he had something even more powerful than the Ghost Shadow, wouldn't that be utterly absurd?

But what she didn't know was that...

The anomalies inside Chen Yu's body grew stronger one after another.

Headless Ghost Shadow?

Compared to Ghost Butcher Knife and Time Ghost Eye, it was just the little brother of little brothers!

This was merely a simple strike from Chen Yu.

"Time is tight, let's head inside first."

After taking a few bites, Chen Yu turned his head to speak to Han Ningning. At this moment, his face was covered in blood, making him no different from a ghost.

If Chen Yu weren't on her side, Han Ningning probably would have peed her pants in terror on the spot.

She didn't dare to ask and didn't dare to speak, only nodding tremblingly.

Thus, Chen Yu tossed the ticket from Ghost Ticket Seller's hand to Han Ningning, dragging the corpse all the way while eating as he walked.

In Han Ningning's eyes, Chen Yu was simply an anomaly wearing human skin!

This was just too damn terrifying!

It was always anomalies eating and killing people.

Yet with Chen Yu, the situation was completely reversed.

Instead, Chen Yu ate anomalies and killed anomalies.

[You have devoured Level 5 Anomaly: Ghost Ticket Seller.]

By the time Chen Yu completely swallowed Ghost Ticket Seller, it was instantly digested. Ghost Ticket Seller turned into a wisp of energy that surged through Chen Yu's limbs and bones.

Finally, it all flowed into the shadow beneath Chen Yu's feet.

[Headless Ghost Shadow has absorbed the energy from your devouring, upgrading from Level 5 to Level 6!]

[Your control over Ghost Shadow has grown stronger.]

[Your Ghost Shadow's travel speed through shadows has increased.]

[Your Ghost Shadow's speed in infecting other shadows has become faster.]

[...]

[You have obtained a new ability: Ghost Ticket Seller!]

[4-Star Quality-Level 6-Ghost Ticket Seller]: Want to buy a ticket? The kind you trade yourself for.

A series of enhancement prompts appeared once again.

Chen Yu rubbed his stomach and let out a burp.

Meanwhile, the look Han Ningning cast at Chen Yu beside him held not only shock and admiration, but also a trace of fear.

After all, as a girl, it would be fake to not be scared upon seeing a human eat an anomaly.

"Right, earlier I thought I faintly heard a child crying. Your anomaly seemed to be affected."

As Chen Yu and Han Ningning headed toward the zoo, he couldn't help recalling this matter and spoke up.

"Yes, it's rumored there is a Ghost Infant inside this zoo. I originally thought it was just a rumor, but I didn't expect it to actually be true."

Han Ningning's expression turned a bit worried again.

Ghost Infant was extremely formidable.

With her strength, encountering Ghost Infant meant certain death.

Chen Yu wasn't afraid in the slightest, instead speeding up his pace.

The three people holding tickets gained the right to enter the zoo.

The moment they stepped across the zoo's gates, a terrifying, gloomy, and chilling aura instantly rushed toward their faces.

Han Ningning couldn't help tightening her clothes.

"So cold! Is it winter here?"

Ghost Doll also chimed in with a complaint.

This chilly wind also carried a lingering scent of blood.

By now, the zoo was completely dilapidated; the animals were either dead or had escaped.

"We just need to clear out all the anomalies in here. Where is the known anomaly closest to us?"

Chen Yu looked at Han Ningning and asked.

Right now, his mission was to find anomalies, kill anomalies, eat anomalies, and boost his own strength—completing the task came second.

Han Ningning took out a report, looked at it, and said, "The next anomaly is called Ghost Zookeeper, and it lives near the animal enclosures."

The zookeeper's living quarters were not far from the animals because they needed to tend to them at all times.

"Let's go."

Without another word, Chen Yu had Han Ningning lead the way.

Han Ningning nodded, then moved forward according to the map.

"Help!"