What Do You Take Humans For

Seeking gain and avoiding harm were survival instincts.

When people were terrified, they could hardly control their emotions. They might even do things that made no sense at all.

But this man shattered that understanding.

In his eyes, human emotions seemed like something he could control.

The panicked people, screaming in fear, grew calm instead when they reached him and met his gaze.

Thus, around him, an absurdly theatrical contrast of frenzied motion and utter stillness took shape.

When Zhang Lin met the boy's dead-eyed stare and saw his flippant smile, utterly unconcerned with human life, he came face-to-face with the boy's true nature: a convergence of abysses capable of swallowing everyone!

"Ding! Character Perfection increased by 10%!"

"Special ability unlocked: Telepathy (Excellent)!"

Zhang Lin wanted to demand an explanation.

You can control people however you want, recklessly using such a dangerous ability. What do you take humans for?

But he couldn't make a sound. He could only stand there, dumbfounded, like a puppet under someone else's control.

Bai Zuo walked past him toward the people who had been knocked down.

He leaned over slightly, examining the strange changes in their bodies.

"Contamination route: contact. Infection through wounds. Point of contact: the back of the neck. Symptoms of mutation: change in skin color, increased strength, aggression, and a low degree of deformation. Combined with the lingering anomalous aura, this can be identified as a lowest-level anomaly. Rank: Wandering Soul."

With just a glance, his mind captured and analyzed a massive amount of information. This was thanks to Bai Zuo's excellent powers of observation and perfect analytical ability.

In his presence, anything that had ever existed was bound to leave traces. And no matter how tiny or inconspicuous those traces seemed, he would notice them, eventually uncovering whatever information he needed.

No matter how clever a crime was, he could see right through it at a glance. Conversely, if he wanted to commit a crime, he could surely pull off the perfect crime, leaving no evidence for anyone to find.

"Ding! Character Perfection increased by 1%!"

Zhang Lin had no idea where this mysterious boy had come from.

An elusive aura of danger emanated from the boy, setting off Zhang Lin's inner alarm again and again. There was no doubt that he was an extremely dangerous person. He carried the kind of bloody stench unique to criminals, steeped in darkness and sunk into their bones.

As a Patrol Officer, Zhang Lin had encountered a few people like him. Without exception, they had all been vicious murderers!

Who was he?

What were anomalies?

He seemed to know these things very well. He had even classified them into specific ranks according to the level of threat they posed.

What organization was behind him?

Was he good or evil?

So many questions clogged Zhang Lin's throat, leaving him unable to ask a single one.

When he saw Bai Zuo reach out toward the people lying on the ground, Zhang Lin's heart tightened.

If anomalies existed in this world, and there were organizations like Bai Zuo's that specialized in dealing with them, how did they get rid of anomalies?

Did they kill them?

Bai Zuo stopped just before touching the people, seeming a little disgusted, and beckoned Zhang Lin over.

Zhang Lin felt his body fall under someone's control again. Step by step, he approached Bai Zuo and crouched down. He turned over the seven people lying on the ground—the passengers and the driver—so they were lying face down.

Zhang Lin pulled back the clothes covering their necks.

Their swollen napes bulged, with a thin black strand poking out from the middle of each lump.

He touched one, and the black strand wriggled as if it were alive.

With Zhang Lin still under control, his face expressionless, he grabbed the strand and yanked hard.

It struggled desperately, making the passenger it had infected twitch along with it.

With a wet pop,

Zhang Lin pulled it out, bringing a large amount of yellowish-red pus with it.

The black strand twitched a few times in Zhang Lin's hand, then fell still.

Zhang Lin pulled the things embedded in the passengers' napes out one by one. A strong stench filled the air. Before, he would have been unable to stand it and would have run off to vomit, but with him under control, even that normal physical reaction was suppressed.

Bai Zuo watched from the side, relaxed. "Only the driver's left. It really was hiding in there."

The driver had been contaminated first, so the anomaly was most likely hiding in his body.

Still under control, Zhang Lin walked toward the driver.

The driver's mutation was the most severe. The back of his neck bulged high, as if he had grown a huge tumor. When Zhang Lin pulled back the clothing, pus oozed from the swelling, and more than a dozen black strands crawled around inside. It was nauseating to look at.

Zhang Lin's hand was steady. Like a fishmonger who'd spent ten years at the market, he swiftly pulled out every black strand.

The lump suddenly began to squirm from within. A shapeless black thing wriggled out through the opening. It poked its head out and looked around.

When it touched the air, it shrank back slightly. Low-level anomalies had almost no intelligence, only the instinct to hunt. Sensing someone nearby, it still tried to pounce on Zhang Lin and infest him the same way as before.

Zhang Lin caught it in one swift, precise motion.

Shen Yu asked in his mind, "System, how do I contain an anomaly?"

"Beep! Ten Weird Cages issued. Each can seal an anomaly for 24 hours. To contain anomalies permanently, you must build the Headquarters Building and unlock the Anomaly Containment Facility."

"How many Construction Points does it take to build the Headquarters?"

"It requires 100,000 Construction Points."

"Oh. Never mind, then."

He was already 10,000 points in debt!

Bai Zuo reached into his pocket and, hidden by the fabric, took a Weird Cage from the system.

The Weird Cage was a black ball about the size of a fist. Its surface was uneven, patterned with scales.

That shape, that size—if you changed the color and appearance, the resemblance would be even stronger!

"Are you a Poké Ball?"

Bai Zuo made a little joke. He knew it couldn't actually be a Poké Ball.

Holding the Weird Cage, he had Zhang Lin release the anomaly in his hand. When the anomaly touched the Weird Cage, it split open and locked the anomaly inside.

Zhang Lin was still conscious. He heard this mysterious and dangerous person gazing at the people sprawled on the ground, sounding a little troubled.

"What should I do about this? I don't want to write a report! Maybe I should erase their memories and pretend none of this ever happened."

Bai Zuo clapped his hands, pleased with his idea. "Good. That's what I'll do!"

"Ding! Character Perfection increased by 2%!"

Zhang Lin: Wait...

His consciousness sank against his will, and he fell asleep.

After containing the anomaly, Bai Zuo hypnotized the people nearby who had witnessed everything, blurring their memories. He also fabricated traces at the scene.

He even used his hacking skills to break into the surveillance system and alter the footage.

After finishing all that, "Ding! Character Perfection increased by 5%!"

All right, all right! So he was a born villain!

No, he had to set some limits. If he wanted to increase this Character Card's Perfection, he couldn't actually go around killing people and setting fires!