"People often lose their reason when they're afraid."
Kong Yubo understood how hard things had been for them.
He waved a hand. "Leave the rest to us."
Ji Wu immediately left with Xu Zhou.
The incident on Anyang Island was over.
Xia Kingdom took over the follow-up work: calming people down, evacuations, medical care, and compensation.
Shen Yu lay on his hospital bed, drenched in sweat.
Controlling two Character Cards at once and using each one's anomalous abilities consumed mental energy at a rapidly multiplying rate. It also placed a heavier burden on his brain.
That was why
Shen Yu had hurriedly made Flying Bird and Bai Zuo leave. Otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to hold on.
He hadn't portrayed Flying Bird's personality convincingly. With his mental energy draining so rapidly, all he could think about was how to deal with the anomaly as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, he hadn't done anything that clashed with the character's established persona.
He rubbed his throbbing temples. "System, is there any way to solve my problem of not having enough mental energy?"
"Host, you only need to finish building the Headquarters Building and unlock the Containment Facility. You'll gain the full power of every anomaly you contain. Once that happens, you won't need to worry about running out of mental energy."
Shen Yu looked through the system notifications from when he'd contained the anomalies earlier. He'd been so focused on playing two characters that he hadn't taken a close look at them.
"Congratulations, Host. You have successfully contained the Malignant Curse-rank anomaly, Yan Luo. Construction Points +50,000."
"You indirectly promoted your organization's existence. Construction Points +157."
"Total Construction Points: 66,471."
"Your total Construction Points have reached 50,000. The Shop is now unlocked!"
Was the Malignant Curse really worth that much?
That was forty thousand more than Green Face!
Sure enough, containing high-level anomalies was the easiest way to earn Construction Points!
He was now only thirty-four thousand Construction Points short of building the Headquarters Building.
With a little luck, containing one Malignant Curse would be enough.
If luck wasn't on his side, he could contain a few more Green Faces, Vengeful Spirits, or Wandering Souls.
There was no point rushing it.
Shen Yu opened the newly unlocked Shop.
He'd taken a quick look inside earlier. There weren't many items, and two were always available: a Weird Cage for five Construction Points each,
and a Healing Potion for ten Construction Points each.
The rest of the items were only available for a limited time. If he didn't buy them before midnight, the Shop would refresh with new items.
"Mental Recovery Potion, 100 Construction Points? Why is it ten times more expensive than the Healing Potion?"
He bought it!
"Time Rewind, 9,000? Oh, that's the discounted price. System, why didn't you give me a discount back then?"
"Host, the system does not have the authority to offer discounts."
Time Rewind could truly turn everything around in a critical moment. It was expensive, but Shen Yu gritted his teeth and bought it anyway!
As for the rest, they were all low-level Anomaly Artifacts.
But their prices were exorbitant. Even the lowest-level E-rank Anomaly Artifact cost ten thousand Construction Points.
Fine, fine! So that was how it was!
Shen Yu promptly closed the Shop. Out of sight, out of mind.
Shen Yu rolled his wrists, picked up the tablet from his bedside, and began searching for anomalous incidents in Anyang City.
"Not this one."
"Obviously fake."
"This one looks plausible, but the logic doesn't add up. It's probably scripted."
Ever since the Horror Game had been exposed,
there had been a sudden surge in discussions about strange creatures and ghosts. Many people were making things up for attention.
They claimed to have encountered monsters, but it was all scripted.
That gave Shen Yu a lot more work.
He searched through all the major Tieba forums, websites, and video platforms. He'd made a keyword extractor and set a regional filter, so only posts mentioning the relevant terms in Anyang City would be highlighted and sent to him.
The hospital's internet was poor, and the search progress bar crept along. After waiting ten minutes, Shen Yu picked up his phone to check for messages.
He had three days off for New Year's Day and had planned to go back to his hometown for the holiday. But he'd encountered an anomaly on the bus ride to the high-speed rail station.
He hadn't been hurt. He'd only used Bai Zuo's ability to alter the doctor's memory and get a fracture diagnosis, which meant he had to stay in the hospital for a month.
His phone showed only a few messages from relatives and friends asking how he was doing.
After replying to each of them, a new message suddenly popped up in the chat window.
"Shen Yu, it's Xiaojie. Are you free tomorrow? Let's meet up!"
"Xiaojie?"
Shen Yu was a little surprised.
Song Xiaojie was the class's arts representative. She was petite and a little introverted, wore black-framed glasses, and usually spoke with her head lowered. Her voice was soft, with the gentle lilt of the Wu dialect from the Jiangnan region.
Apart from the occasional questions about their studies, they hardly interacted.
"Is something wrong?" Shen Yu couldn't think of why she would contact him, so he asked outright.
The other person went quiet for a while. The words "typing..." kept appearing at the top of the chat window.
Shen Yu watched the search bar on his tablet as he waited.
A minute later, she finally sent a message: "Shen Yu, let's meet in person!"
"Sorry, I got into a car accident yesterday. I'm in the hospital now, so it's not very convenient to go out."
"Car accident!!! Are you okay? Where are you hurt? Is it serious? Which hospital are you at? I'll come visit you!"
Shen Yu read the messages she'd typed out so quickly. He could tell from her words that she was genuinely concerned about him.
He wasn't really injured, so he turned down her offer to visit. "No need. It's just a minor injury. I'll recover soon."
She took a little while to reply. "Okay, then take good care of yourself."
Soon, her avatar went dark. It looked like she'd gone offline.
Shen Yu didn't dwell on why she'd suddenly contacted him, because the search was complete!
More than a thousand related posts appeared all at once.
After removing the ones that were obviously fake and the ones that were just people venting in their posts, there were still several hundred left.
Shen Yu patiently opened them one by one.
After he'd looked through dozens of them, a medical worker came in pushing a meal cart. She set a patient's meal on the cabinet beside Shen Yu. "Time to eat!"
"Today we've got some tasty ribs and tomato soup."
Shen Yu took the tray and cutlery she handed him. "Thanks."
"Press the call button when you're done, and I'll come collect it."
The medical worker soon pushed the cart to the next room to deliver another meal.
Shen Yu looked through a few more posts, then opened his meal box and began eating. The hospital was heated, but in weather like this, food went cold quickly, so he'd better finish it soon.
As he ate, Shen Yu cleared out all the junk messages on his phone.
Suddenly, his finger paused.
"Hm?"
It was an anonymous email.
What caught his attention was that there were ninety-nine emails of this kind, all sent on the evening of the first.
"Spam?"
Curious and confident in his own ability, Shen Yu opened it to see what the email said.
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