A small number of people in Longcheng knew the truth about anomalies. And among the worlds linked to anomalies that An Qi knew of, some knew the truth as well.
After her family made some initial progress in studying anomalies in Longcheng, it split. The family divided into two factions: one wanted to leave their world and seek out higher-environment worlds where they could develop.
In a low-environment world, even someone incredibly powerful could be killed by technological weapons. It was only a question of how likely it was. For a truly formidable being, the odds might still be low, but they would never be zero. In a high-environment world, on the other hand, ordinary technological weapons had no chance of killing a truly powerful being.
There was no need to bring up weapons from science fiction, like the Star Destroyer Cannon.
The powerful in high-environment worlds were indeed formidable, able to ignore most ordinary technological weapons. But those worlds naturally had powerful beings on the same level, too. So when it came to many things, high- and low-environment worlds weren't all that different.
The advantage of a high-environment world was that it offered more possibilities. In a low-environment world, it wasn't easy to break through the limits of one's lifespan. In a high-environment world, that was no problem. But those worlds were prone to powerful beings clashing, and under certain circumstances, you could be killed by the shockwaves from a battle even while watching from hundreds of meters away.
In a low-environment world... as long as there wasn't a nuclear war, you could generally avoid such clashes by staying away from war zones.
Even so, her family had split at the time. Some members took a portion of the family's resources and migrated to a high-environment world they'd encountered through an anomaly, seeking greater opportunities. They had not been heard from since.
Her family still kept an eye on the matter, but they had never found the world linked to that anomaly again. It was too difficult to encounter the same world twice. Unless something unexpected happened, the family members who had chosen a high-environment world back then would never be connected to their side again. From then on, the two sides could only learn about one another through the records.
The conservative faction—the family elders who remained in Longcheng—hadn't stayed because they didn't want to go to a high-environment world. They had simply chosen a cautious approach and hadn't rushed over. Longcheng itself was a unique place.
The fact that it was a hotspot where anomalies appeared in great numbers was enough to keep them from leaving lightly. Staying in Longcheng meant they could easily encounter more anomalies and obtain more knowledge and technology from those worlds.
After steadily building up their resources, when the time came to make a decision and choose a high-environment world, they could bring a whole group of "max-level" fighters with them. Wouldn't that be better than the migrant faction's struggle to develop after choosing a high-environment world?
Besides, with the help of Environment Adjustment, they didn't have to worry about some superpowered being suddenly appearing and steamrolling Longcheng, forcing them to abandon everything. Different worlds had their own spheres of influence, or spheres of influence spanning worlds with similar environments.
If they went to a low-environment world and things went wrong, it wouldn't be a joke. An Qi had also been in contact with people from other worlds who knew about anomalies. After learning some of Longcheng's characteristics, they had seemed quite envious.
Some had even wanted to settle in Longcheng before the anomaly disappeared, seeking greater opportunities for development. Once they had accumulated enough, they could choose a high-environment world.
There were people like that in An Qi's family, and among the other factions in Longcheng that knew the truth about anomalies, there were more or less similar people as well.
When she arrived in the Southern Forest, An Qi looked over the report her subordinate handed her. Once her people had gone past the time they were expected to make contact, the camp staff had responded immediately and searched the area where the team had been operating.
They found several incomplete corpses, but the numbers didn't add up. One person was missing: the team leader, an Anomaly Hunter who had worked under her for years.
As for the corpses, they had been stripped of everything. Were their belongings valuable? That depended on the circumstances. It wasn't hard to get firearms in Longcheng. Prices varied depending on where you got them: legitimate shops were more expensive, the black market cheaper. They weren't rare items, and Peerless Divine Weapons were even less likely.
Or rather, in all the worlds linked to anomalies, any firearm of decent quality bought from a gun store in Longcheng was a Peerless Divine Weapon, as long as you had ammunition.
Besides, the firearms bore her hunting group's insignia, so the odds that rival hunters had taken them were low. They would be hard to sell. As for electronic devices and the like, anyone who took them out of the forest would be tracked by her people as soon as they got a signal.
Anyone with even a little sense wouldn't take them. So the most likely explanation was that they'd been looted by natives of a world linked to an anomaly.
Besides the corpses that had been recovered, there were other clues.
"Our people don't use guns like these." An Qi looked at some steel pellets. They had found shotgun pellets at the scene, along with traces of a Small Grenade explosion. None of those weapons were part of her hunters' loadout. Her people had more powerful weapons.
The search party had also found some unusual powder. It wasn't dust, but residue left behind after something had been destroyed.
After her people were killed, another hunter had intervened. According to the reconstruction in the report, they had found the corpses and conducted a thorough search. The anomaly hadn't disappeared yet, and during the search, they had been attacked by some kind of "creature." They initially fired a shotgun, but the attack had no effect.
Based on her people's investigation, the pellets from that shot were scattered widely. Unless the hunter had deliberately fired a warning shot, at least some should have hit the target. But the pellets found at the scene were all accounted for.
After the attack failed, the hunter had swiftly changed tactics and used a Small Grenade. The explosion seemed to have worked.
But afterward, they were attacked again—either by more creatures of the same kind or by something else. The hunter fought while keeping their distance. They didn't use a gun, but instead wielded a cold weapon. Some holes had been stabbed into the trees. It had probably been a spear... That hunter was the only one in the forest who used a spear as a cold weapon.
In the end, the hunter had probably won with minor injuries. But no usable bloodstains had been recovered from the scene. The abnormal creatures in the forest had licked all the blood clean. Who knew why those things had suddenly started cleaning up after another hunter?
The traces confirmed that the hunter had come into contact with the anomaly at the scene. They had most likely entered it and been left behind in an unknown world when it disappeared, because investigators had found no signs that anyone had left the area.
They couldn't identify the hunter, either. Many hunters had entered the Southern Forest recently, but none of them were known to be skilled with spears.
An Qi put the report away and took the abnormal powder with her. "This ends here."
The dead team wouldn't come back to life, and the hunter who had intervened had most likely been left behind in an unknown world. The anomaly had disappeared long ago. This was even harder to resolve than an unsolved case and wasn't worth any more effort. They only needed to make arrangements for the hunters' families.
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