After waking up, Zheng Yichen washed his face, drew back the curtains, and looked out at the light mist. It was one of Longcheng's defining features, and he'd long since gotten used to it. The fog didn't affect the locals' lives.
He took off his shirt and examined himself in the mirror, carefully rubbing the faint wrinkles on his skin. Then he got dressed, left his place, and went downstairs for breakfast before starting his plans for the day.
He needed to find a suitable target. He was going to look for a mutant chicken.
He could look for other Abnormal Creatures, but if he wanted to get proof—the license—as quickly as possible, he might as well go with the simplest, fastest option. Besides, choosing that wouldn't affect what he planned to do afterward.
This wasn't a game where the final reward depended on your score.
"Xiaoqing, heading out to fish?" the breakfast stall owner asked with a cheerful grin, eyeing the gear Zheng Yichen had brought along.
"...Yeah. And you can just call me Changqing." Zheng Yichen paid the bill, barely managing to keep his expression composed. Changqing was the name he used in public for now. It worked as both a name and a codename, so there was nothing wrong with using it.
Part of the reason he'd chosen it had to do with this world. When he'd first arrived, he hadn't cut everything away and started over—he'd only cut away half and grown back from there. During that initial period, he'd seen an ad playing on a giant public TV by the roadside, one about the significance of names.
It seemed a little like the fortune-telling people on Earth did with names. They usually didn't broadcast that sort of thing on TV, did they? Zheng Yichen had taken note of it and started using "Changqing." He didn't know anyone in this world, so he could call himself whatever he wanted.
But the breakfast stall owner, who'd gotten familiar with him, kept calling him "Xiaoqing." Every time Zheng Yichen heard it, it felt weird.
What if I run into someone called Fahai someday?
"Be careful out there. The weather report says there'll be heavy fog today," the stall owner warned him as he took the money.
"I'll be careful." Zheng Yichen left with his bag. Heavy fog rolled in from time to time in Longcheng, but it only happened a few times a year. When it did, he really did need to be cautious.
When the weather got like this, Longcheng would pretty much shut down.
He checked the forecast on his phone. The heavy fog wouldn't arrive until the afternoon, so it wouldn't interfere with what he needed to do. If he was lucky, he'd find his target soon. If not, he'd spend the night at the nearest inn.
He was alone in this world anyway, so taking off on a sudden trip wasn't much of a hardship.
But his luck didn't seem to be very good today. He'd found Abnormal Creatures in this area every few days before, but after waiting for over two hours, he still hadn't seen anything. Maybe it was because of the heavy fog on the way?
Looking at the river nearby, Zheng Yichen felt the urge to cast a line. He hadn't found his target here, so... why not fish a little? He was already here, after all.
A few minutes later, Zheng Yichen sat by the river and unfolded his Fishing Rod. He watched the river, which was veiled in a thin mist, with complete seriousness. Fishing could turn up Abnormal Creatures, too.
Even an ordinary chicken farm could produce an abnormal hen if there were enough chickens. A river like this could just as easily have something strange lurking in it.
The fish in the river today were acting as if they were dead.
"..." Zheng Yichen checked the time, picked up his bag, and left. If he stayed any longer, the heavy fog would arrive. Then visibility would be so poor that you couldn't tell people from animals at fifty meters, and you could easily walk right into the river.
The market had temporarily closed because of the heavy fog warning, even though the forecast said it wouldn't arrive for another hour. That meant they wouldn't be making any money.
Muttering to himself, Zheng Yichen headed to the nearest inn. He wasn't going to go home; there wasn't enough time. If the market had closed, then the bus station was certainly no better.
The inn's rates had tripled...
"Other places have raised theirs even more. You know what's going on today," the middle-aged innkeeper said with a bright smile. A fishing enthusiast who got carried away tended not to think too much.
"I understand." Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue inwardly. So be it if the room cost three times as much. It wasn't as if the inn was breaking the law. The heavy fog warning was out, and anyone who went out in weather like this ought to be prepared for what might happen.
There were quite a few people willing to risk their lives. The long list of names and times on the sign-in sheet made that clear. It was essentially a liability waiver, mainly to stop people from sneaking out into the heavy fog to take foolish risks. Once they'd signed their names, whatever happened afterward was no longer the inn's responsibility.
Heavy fog in Longcheng brought more Abnormal Creatures with it. Supposedly—and this was only what he'd heard—hunters also tried to avoid going out in weather like this. Zheng Yichen didn't know how true that was. Most of what he knew about this came from the internet and the news.
He'd only start figuring out what was really going on once he joined their circle.
Besides hunters, there was another group of people who liked to run around in the fog. They were like the storm chasers back on Earth before he crossed over. They knew tornadoes were dangerous, but still chased them to record how they changed and how spectacular they were.
Heavy fog wasn't a tornado, but the strange phenomena that appeared in it were well worth recording. The authorities had projects devoted to documenting them, and some idle civilians did the same. The authorities didn't encourage such behavior, but they couldn't do much about humanity's urge to court danger.
On the internet, Zheng Yichen had watched short clips of the fog. Apocalyptic scenes had appeared within it, much like mirages. The images weren't clear, but the general details could still be made out. Some people had compared the clips in an attempt to identify the location, but they'd found nothing.
And that was the end of it.
It satisfied ordinary people's curiosity without revealing any further secrets or anomalies. If there were more to it, it wasn't something ordinary people could learn about.
According to the forecast, the heavy fog wouldn't last more than ten hours. If he stayed at the inn overnight, he'd be able to go out as usual the next day.
He had both a charger and a power bank. The signal might be affected by the heavy fog, but most of that signal came from cell towers. The inn's Wi-Fi was decent enough.
He could still browse online and chat with people in this world. On the forums, Longcheng locals said they'd long since gotten used to this sort of thing. On foggy days, they sometimes saw the mist in the distance roiling, as though monsters were fighting inside it. It was even more thrilling than some blockbuster movies.
People from the outer districts didn't believe them. "No pictures, no proof. If you want us to believe you, post a photo!"
Browsing the forums made Zheng Yichen restless, too. What was the big deal about posting a picture? He checked the time. More than an hour had passed. He stopped holding his plank, rolled his shoulders, and drew back the curtains.
The forecast really had been right on time. Outside, the fog had gone from thin to thick, churning in great billows. The roadside fog lights were on, but visibility was still poor.
With a click, Zheng Yichen took a picture of the fog outside and posted it to the forums. A fresh photo.
Fog was one of Longcheng's defining features, so after uploading the picture, Zheng Yichen took a moment to admire the weather. In the distance, the fog looked as if it had been torn apart, billowing and surging as though some unknown presence were sucking it away.
"??" He looked at the recording on his phone, then at the changes in the fog in the distance. Well, what are the odds?
"Hurry, hurry! We've really run into a strange phenomenon this time! We're going to make a killing!" Zheng Yichen had just opened the window when he heard someone nearby shouting. He poked his head out.
The person next door saw Zheng Yichen, too. He looked a little uneasy, but when he noticed the bag slung over Zheng Yichen's shoulder, he immediately understood. "Hey, are you getting ready to..."
As he spoke, the man made a gesture indicating that he was going to sneak out.
They were on the third floor, but the man had come prepared. He'd brought a rope, so getting out would be easy enough.
"Go separately?" Zheng Yichen asked.
"That'd be best."
People in the same line of work were rivals. Mist Walkers in Longcheng sometimes went out in teams, but even the teams didn't all gather together. More than one person could capture the same phenomenon on camera. Footage filmed from far away all looked much the same and wasn't very useful for research. Footage taken up close was a different matter.
They couldn't cover every angle. Zheng Yichen's suggestion suited them perfectly; splitting up was the best way to get along. There was more than one research institute that bought this sort of footage.
They climbed down using ropes. Zheng Yichen simply climbed down the wall.
Honestly, if the strange phenomenon had been far away, he wouldn't have been so interested. But it was very close—he estimated it was less than two hundred meters away.
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