Horror Game Makes Its First Mark

"Ten minutes? It's been more than ten minutes now, hasn't it?"

"I reported what was happening here earlier. The Aberration Association should have sent over the nearest Contract Anomalist who wasn't on a mission. By my calculations, he should've arrived ages ago."

And yet, even after Bai Zuo spread his Ghost Domain—

even after he began a direct confrontation with that anomaly—the Contract Anomalist who was supposed to come to their aid still hadn't appeared.

Xu Zhou wondered, Are all the Contract Anomalists in the Aberration Association this unreliable?

Ji Wu could tell at a glance what Xu Zhou was thinking. His mouth twitched, and he opened his mouth to explain, but in the end, he silently shut it again.

Contract Anomalists had bizarre personalities. Getting them to take on missions was already a miracle. Expecting them to obey orders and show up on time?

They might as well pray for world peace. At least that was more likely to happen.

"Can Brother Bai beat it?"

Xu Zhou looked up at the sky, worried.

The clash between Ghost Domains seemed calm on the surface, but was actually fraught with danger.

Ji Wu said, "There's no need to worry about the Ghost Domain. He's an S-rank, after all. He won't lose in a clash of Ghost Domains at this level."

"What we should worry about is what comes next. Once Bai Zuo successfully overwrites the other Ghost Domain, that anomaly will definitely come out."

"This anomaly also seems to control a lot of low-level anomalies. Taking them all out will be tricky."

Wandering Soul-level anomalies were manageable. There were a lot of them, but Bai Zuo controlled plenty of people too, and they were enough to deal with Wandering Soul-level anomalies.

But there couldn't be only Wandering Souls in the Ghost Domain. There had to be anomalies of other ranks as well.

Bai Zuo could temporarily increase a person's speed and strength by controlling them, but he couldn't keep it up for too long. Otherwise, before the anomaly was even killed, the controlled person's body would start to break down.

It was like asking someone who'd never trained to suddenly exercise far beyond what their body could handle. Sore muscles would be the least of their worries; in serious cases, they might be bedridden for a month or two.

Xu Zhou tightened his grip on his knife. "This is the first time I've encountered so many anomalies gathered together. How do we contain them?"

Ji Wu said, "Anomalies that live inside a Ghost Domain without being devoured all belong to the Ghost Domain's master. They're even part of that anomaly's power. We only need to contain the master of the Ghost Domain, and the others will be contained along with it."

"Haven't you seen Bai Zuo's Ghost Domain? That enormous Spider is the Heart Gu, and the countless little spiders that appear in the Ghost Domain are also manifestations of the Heart Gu's power. In essence, they're one and the same."

Xu Zhou suddenly understood. "No wonder they haven't devoured each other despite being in the same space."

Kong Yubo and several teammates were covering one another as they struggled to reach the base of the Divine Altar. There, they overheard the conversation.

His teammate Tian Hua looked at Kong Yubo, excitement in his eyes. "We've been using the wrong tactics all along!"

"If we'd targeted that anomaly and taken it out from the beginning, would our brothers have been spared?"

As he spoke, his eyes grew wet.

After a moment of silence, Kong Yubo said, "Even if we'd found it, we wouldn't have been able to destroy it."

Only after his excitement had passed did Tian Hua realize he'd let his emotions get the better of him. "Sorry, I lost my composure."

When Huayuan Ridge became a disaster zone, Kong Yubo and his teammates had actually gone in twice. The first time, they had investigated the situation inside and discovered that there were enough monsters to threaten the safety of the entire city.

They withdrew and received orders from above: by any means necessary, they had to destroy the monsters inside Huayuan Ridge. They absolutely could not let them leave the ridge and harm the ordinary people living below.

At first, they planned to use missiles. But the White Mist surrounding Huayuan Ridge blocked attacks from the outside. No matter how many missiles they dropped, they didn't hear a single explosion.

So Kong Yubo was ordered to lead his teammates back into Huayuan Ridge with a large quantity of explosives and detonate them by hand!

Unfortunately, the explosives couldn't kill those anomalies. Some of them were blasted clean through, but soon they re-formed as they had been before.

And all the anomalies went berserk, hunting them down.

Even after fighting with everything they had, they were scattered while fleeing the anomalies. In the end, only thirteen people made it out alive.

That was the deepest pain in the heart of every member of the Special Dispatch Team.

"This wasn't your fault. Back then, no one knew those things couldn't be destroyed by physical means."

Only anomalies could fight anomalies.

Who could have imagined that monsters so utterly irrational would suddenly appear in the world?

Kong Yubo looked at the Contract Anomalist standing atop the Divine Altar.

If I could become a Contract Anomalist too, maybe I could save those people calling for help from the anomalies.

The enormous Spider hissed. Watching as the other Ghost Domain came into view, it lowered its head and gnawed at the membrane of the Domain bit by bit. Before long, it tore a hole through it.

Countless little spiders poured through the hole. They spun webs, gradually wrapping the other Ghost Domain in silk.

Turbid waters from the Yellow Spring poured out through the breach.

A strange aura instantly enveloped everyone present.

"Ding! Bai Zuo, Xu Zhou, Ji Wu, Kong Yubo, Tian Hua... have triggered a Multiplayer Dungeon—Lamp Mansion Festival."

"Rank: B."

"Dungeon prompt: Your longing for your departed loved ones has led you across the Bridge of Kin, to the world where the dead reside. Great Yama, if I offer you a worthy sacrifice, will you let me reunite with my family and stay with them forever?"

"Clear conditions: 1. Take part in the Lamp Mansion Festival and escort the sacrifice safely to the Divine Altar. Difficulty: Normal."

"2. Become a resident of the afterlife. Difficulty: Hard."

"3. Kill Yama. Difficulty: Nightmare."

"Completing any one of the above will clear the dungeon. After it is cleared, the dungeon will temporarily close. While it is closed, the anomalies inside cannot leave. Only killing the dungeon's final boss will close it permanently."

"Depending on the difficulty of the clear condition achieved, Conquerors will receive a reward of corresponding value."

The familiar yet unfamiliar mechanical voice had barely sounded when Shen Yu's lips curved into a smile. "The Horror Game, Eerie Era, has turned Blue Star into one enormous game world. Conquerors have to clear these dungeons, or the anomalies inside will emerge and consume all of Blue Star."

And because of the anomalies' special nature, humans couldn't harm them at all. They could only follow the rules of the dungeons. Countless people would die trying to clear them.

But as long as humanity had no way to kill anomalies, the dungeons could never be cleared.

To keep the anomalies inside from getting out, they had no choice but to send people in over and over again to clear the dungeons and shut them down, year after year.

It seemed to offer humanity hope, but in the end, it brought them nothing but the deepest despair.