Recaps

Duanmu Qing restrained the awakened one and exposed his body-control ability, while the captive threatened to kill Deng Tao before he died. The awakened one questioned Duanmu Qing about what he wanted, unaware that the group no longer seemed concerned by his threat.

• The awakened one tried to escape Duanmu Qing, who revealed that he knew about the captive’s ability to control other people’s bodies.
• The awakened one explained that he could control two people, but needed ten minutes between controlling them, and blamed Xia Yun for disrupting his plan.
• The awakened one threatened to kill Deng Tao, but Xia Yun and the others showed little concern, with Wu Xiaoyu still frowning.
• Duanmu Qing said the damaged place was his territory and teased the awakened one, who was startled by the mismatch between Duanmu Qing’s aged voice and youthful appearance.
• The awakened one asked Duanmu Qing what he wanted and suspected that the group belonged to a powerful organization with a larger plan.

Duanmu Qing killed the awakened man who had attacked the Anomaly Containment Association and used Deng Tao as a hostage. Wu Xiaoyu questioned why they had refused the man’s offer to join, and Xia Yun explained the risks of admitting someone with malicious intentions.

• The awakened man offered to join the Anomaly Containment Association, believing his ability would grow stronger and help him rise above others.
• Duanmu Qing attacked the man at close range, and the awakened man controlled Deng Tao and threatened to kill him if he died.
• The awakened man stopped Deng Tao’s heart, but he died from his neck wound, and the others showed no sadness.
• Wu Xiaoyu wondered why they had not accepted the man’s offer, since he had only wanted to join the Association.
• Xia Yun explained that the Association could not risk admitting someone with obvious malicious intent.

Xia Yun explained that the Time Rewind device could restore everyone in its range to an earlier state, but Duanmu Qing advised against activating it and revived Deng Tao. After the attack, Duanmu Qing reassured the Transport Department staff that their security systems had not failed, then turned his attention to the Contract Anomalists.

• Xia Yun proposed activating the Time Rewind device, which would reset events to an earlier point and undo their progress.
• Duanmu Qing stopped the plan, approached Deng Tao, and revived him after his body had stopped responding.
• Deng Tao told Xia Yun and Weng Xu that he no longer felt controlled, while Wu Xiaoyu asked about the device.
• Xia Yun explained that the device could rewind people in range to any point within a designated twenty-four-hour period, restoring even the dead or severely injured.
• Transport Department employees reported that their scanners and cameras had not detected the intruders, and Duanmu Qing said the failure was not their fault because spiritual-energy detection devices were still being developed.
• Duanmu Qing watched the cleanup and turned his attention to the Contract Anomalists.

Wu Xiaoyu and Chen Lisha arrived on Blue Star, where Weng Xu explained the dangers posed by Weird entities and Dungeons. They chose to head to Anomaly Containment Association Headquarters, leaving a tour of the city for another time.

• Chen Lisha joined Wu Xiaoyu as Xia Yun led the group through Blue Star toward their next train.
• Wu Xiaoyu sensed the chaotic power surrounding Blue Star, and Chen Lisha compared the world’s lively streets with the decline of everyday life on Flame Star.
• Weng Xu explained that Weird entities invaded Blue Star and people could be pulled into Dungeons, though authorities and Yi Gui Company’s technology helped people call for aid.
• Yue Wen chose to go to Headquarters to recover, while Xia Yun offered to accompany anyone who wanted to explore.
• Wu Xiaoyu asked Chen Lisha if she wanted to look around, but she declined and said they could do so another time.
• The group boarded a vehicle to another station, then took a train through gaps in time and space toward Anomaly Containment Association Headquarters.

Shen Yu reviewed the Anomaly Containment Association's operations and considered the expanding network of worlds and its new interworld trains. At the containment facility, he found an unexplained gap in the numbered cells and wondered whether the first hundred were truly empty as the system showed.

• Wu Xiaoyu and Shen Yu arrived at the Anomaly Containment Association's Headquarters, where Shen Yu checked that its departments were operating normally.
• Shen Yu reflected on the difficulties of managing numerous worlds and described the trains he had developed to connect them, which were in their first week of trial operation.
• Shen Yu reviewed his Character Cards and decided it was not yet time to confront the Weird God, though he could start dealing with weaker Weird Gods.
• Shen Yu appeared in the Anomaly Containment Facility, where the contained anomalies crowded toward their doors as he walked past them.
• Shen Yu noticed that the facility's containment numbers began at 1–101 and questioned whether cells 1 through 100 were empty or still locked behind permissions.
• Shen Yu checked the system and saw that he could unlock additional capacity with Construction Points, while the facility already held several hundred thousand anomalies.

Shen Yu sent Mother of Birth to attack a Weird God in the Source World of the Horror Game, keeping himself and the Anomaly Containment Association hidden. Mother of Birth reached the destination and began spreading her seeds.

• Shen Yu visited Mother of Birth in containment and refused her offer to conceive a child with him.
• Shen Yu asked Mother of Birth to deal with a Weird God while he remained hidden.
• Mother of Birth accepted the mission, and Shen Yu released her from containment without severing their connection.
• Mother of Birth tore through space to the Source World of the Horror Game.
• Mother of Birth scattered her seeds to begin occupying the area.

The spores spread through countless Dungeon worlds as the Weird overwhelmed cities and shelters, pushing humanity toward extinction. Nations united to discuss building spacecraft, but they had no guarantee that escape was possible.

• Mother of Birth revealed Her true form above the Dungeon worlds and asked whether Her Lord had seen what she had done for Him.
• People in the Dungeons searched for ways to evade the Weird and conquer Dungeons, but teams repeatedly returned in defeat or were wiped out.
• The Weird destroyed cities and shelters, killing people or corrupting them, while forbidden zones expanded across the world.
• People debated fleeing to the moon, but they feared the Weird could survive in space and follow them.
• High-ranking officials from many nations set aside their grudges and discussed pooling their resources to build spacecraft, though success remained uncertain.

As humanity debated evacuating the planet before the Weird destroyed it, the Mother of Birth appeared and sent its servants to spread its gospel. Desperate people began believing in it and received power to fight the Weird, becoming Anomaly Tamers.

• World leaders argued over activating the Human Migration Plan, but spacecraft could carry only a few million people.
• A colossal phantom appeared in space, leaving humanity's hopes of escaping the planet shattered.
• The Mother of Birth scattered spores across the worlds, transforming its servants and sending them to spread its gospel.
• At first, people feared the Mother of Birth and its white-robed followers, but some desperate people began to believe.
• Believers received power from the Mother of Birth, suppressed Weird, and became Anomaly Tamers.

Cults of the Mother of Birth spread worldwide as Her dependents and believers fought Weirds and helped people become Anomaly Tamers. The Mother of Birth ignored humanity’s prayers and sacrifices while She focused on implanting Herself into Dungeons.

• Believers of the Mother of Birth spread Her doctrine, and cults rose across the world.
• Nations feared the Mother of Birth and watched Her dependents kill Weirds, devour them, and produce more spores.
• The dependents’ numbers grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in one day, while several million people became Anomaly Tamers.
• Some Anomaly Tamers discovered that using their abilities made the Weirds inside them more active, while others became reckless when the Mother of Birth did not intervene.
• People prayed to the Mother of Birth and offered treasures and sacrifices, but She ignored them as She implanted Herself into Dungeons.

Shen Yu watched Mother of Birth’s followers create Anomaly Tamers in large numbers and considered how this differed from mass-producing Contract Anomalists. He recalled how conflict between Anomaly Tamers and ordinary people had once led to tragedy, while the Dungeon’s new Anomaly Tamers had Mother of Birth’s protection and an accessible way for others to gain powers.

• Shen Yu watched Mother of Birth’s followers turn many people into Anomaly Tamers with minimal risk and considered the efficiency of their method.
• Shen Yu dismissed the idea of producing Contract Anomalists in bulk because Headquarters lacked the staff and resources to support them.
• Shen Yu recalled how Blue Star’s Anomaly Tamers and ordinary people had become enemies, leading to persecution and experiments.
• Shen Yu observed that Mother of Birth’s followers backed the Dungeon’s Anomaly Tamers, while ordinary people could use the same method to gain powers themselves.

Mother of Birth’s kin overran the Dungeon worlds, but Shen Yu recognized that their expansion depended on a fragile balance of Weird energy, human emotions, and faith. He prepared to stop them, leaving a battle against Mother of Birth on the verge of beginning.

• Mother of Birth’s kin devoured Weirds and drew power from human faith, spreading through the Dungeon worlds in vast numbers.
• Shen Yu realized Mother of Birth could not be allowed to turn humans into Flesh Wombs, since the kin depended on humans’ emotions and faith for advancement.
• Shen Yu identified the kin’s dependence on a steady supply of Weird energy and human nourishment as Mother of Birth’s greatest weakness.
• Shen Yu took out an ancient bronze mirror capable of briefly trapping a Weird God and contacted top Anomaly Tamers to prepare an encirclement of Mother of Birth and Its kin.
• Mother of Birth sensed danger as its spores stirred uneasily, and a world-shaking battle approached.

The Mother of Birth spread spores while longing for Shen Yu’s approval, but his message told Her to keep the Anomaly Tamers in check. Her anger triggered a terrifying ritual among Her followers, leaving the Anomaly Tamers shaken and questioning their recent behavior.

• The Mother of Birth increased the spread of Her spores while hoping Shen Yu would praise Her.
• Shen Yu instructed the Mother of Birth to keep the Anomaly Tamers in check, and She became furious at them.
• The Mother of Birth’s followers stopped to kneel and recite the Church of Birth’s scriptures, allowing some Weird entities to escape.
• The Anomaly Tamers recoiled from the followers’ uncanny chanting and wondered whether their actions had angered the god.
• The Anomaly Tamers decided they should restrain themselves.

An Anomaly Tamer abused his power to force a middle-aged man to give up his young daughter, while the man saw no way to resist. The man resolved to protect her even at the cost of his life, as the Anomaly Tamer enjoyed his despair.

• Clever Anomaly Tamers sensed something was wrong and restrained their actions, prompting most others to stop as well.
• Some Anomaly Tamers remained consumed by power and desire, becoming corrupted and feared like humanoid anomalies.
• An Anomaly Tamer demanded that a middle-aged man send his daughter to marry him.
• The man pleaded for his daughter and considered fighting back, but despair overwhelmed him as he recognized how powerless ordinary people were.
• The man resolved not to let his daughter fall into the Anomaly Tamer's hands, while the Anomaly Tamer took pleasure in his suffering.

An Anomaly Tamer reveled in his power until enforcement officers stormed the bar and subdued him with a special bullet. They reassured the man he had tormented that he was unlikely to return, while the captured Tamer protested and invoked Lord Apostle and his god.

• The Anomaly Tamer ignored fearful messages in his group chat and continued drinking and bullying people at the bar.
• Enforcement officers burst into the bar and shot the Anomaly Tamer with a bullet designed to suppress anomalous energy.
• The officers pinned the Anomaly Tamer down as the women in the room fled to a corner and the middle-aged man watched in shock.
• The middle-aged man asked an enforcement officer whether the Tamer would be imprisoned or sentenced to death, and the officer said he probably would not return to bother him.
• The captured Anomaly Tamer declared that he was an Anomaly Tamer and threatened the officers with Lord Apostle and his god's curse.

The Mother of Birth’s order led to a worldwide crackdown on Anomaly Tamers, punishing offenders and stripping power from others. She gathered the remaining promising Anomaly Tamers for training, but defeated remnants began plotting against her rule.

• Law enforcement officers arrested the Anomaly Tamer after telling him the order came from Lord Apostle.
• Authorities across the world arrested Anomaly Tamers, punished those who had committed crimes, and stripped Weird power from those who had avoided serious offenses.
• The Mother of Birth judged Her task complete and ordered high-ranking Apostles to train and restrain Anomaly Tamers who still had potential.
• Chosen Anomaly Tamers began rigorous training at a hidden base while powerless, aged Anomaly Tamers languished in prison.
• The outside world returned to peace, but remnants of the Anomaly Tamers secretly gathered to oppose the Mother of Birth’s rule.

The Kin formed enforcement squads with the authorities and gave them powers to arrest Anomaly Tamers who had abused their strength. By the chapter’s end, the squads had arrested everyone on the list, leaving guards to wonder whether the deity behind the Kin truly cared about humans.

• The enforcement squad escorted the last Anomaly Tamer into a cell and checked off the final name on its list.
• The guard recalled how the arrival of Mother of Birth and the Kin had emboldened Anomaly Tamers while authorities endured their crimes out of fear of the Weirds.
• The Kin approached authorities in various places after an unusual ritual, formed enforcement squads, and gave them powers to suppress Anomaly Tamers.
• The enforcement squads used the Kin’s list to arrest Anomaly Tamers, including loyalists who had committed crimes against humans.
• A guard wondered whether the deity had shaped the Kin to resemble humans and whether it truly heard human prayers.

An enforcement officer and the Gatekeeper confronted the cost of becoming Anomaly Tamers as they hunted other contractors. After killing three Anomaly Tamers, they agreed to pursue their next target.

• The enforcement officer told the Gatekeeper that the authorities had chosen principled people to become Anomaly Tamers, hoping to keep their power in check.
• The enforcement officer and the Gatekeeper described how using their abilities tormented them and made them feel kinship with the Weirds they fought.
• Three Anomaly Tamers attacked, and the Gatekeeper and enforcement officer fought them in silence.
• As one enemy died, he asked whether they had ever had a choice, reminding the enforcement officer of the promise to protect people that had led him to sign his contract.
• The enforcement officer recovered a bloodstained badge, and he and the Gatekeeper agreed to go after the next target.

The chapter explained how Anomaly Tamers emerged to fight the Weirds, while their powers also eroded their bodies and affected their personalities. It ended with Anomaly Tamers waking from nightmares as the Weirds inside them threatened to take control.

• The Weirds contaminated living things and objects, causing them to mutate as humanity lost territory.
• The phantom appeared in the sky, the Retainers began moving on the ground, and Anomaly Tamers were born, giving humanity a way to fight back.
• Some Anomaly Tamers lost their humanity and sought to dominate ordinary people, backed by the Retainers.
• The Retainers swiftly arrested lawless Anomaly Tamers, and enforcement teams learned that Weirds affected their personalities and grew more restless as their powers were used.
• Anomaly Tamers woke drenched in sweat after nightmares in which the Weirds inside them threatened to seize control.

The enforcement team left the prison after the gatekeeper urged them not to suppress their feelings, and they discussed their fear of losing control. On the drive back, they sensed something moving inside their bodies, then returned to their dormitories under an eerie, unsettling atmosphere.

• The gatekeeper reminded the enforcement team to remember their mission and not betray their conscience, then sealed the prison gate.
• The enforcement team decided they might need to vent their fears instead of suppressing them, and admitted they dreaded losing control of their anomalies.
• During the drive back, Little Chen asked whether something was moving inside their bodies, and the captain tried to calm the team.
• The team returned to the base and went to their dormitories as corridor lights flickered and water dripped in the silence.

The kin monitored Anomaly Tamers near the enforcement team’s dormitory and sensed a faint, unusual aura around Little Chen. That night, the kin entered unnoticed, and Little Chen became trapped in a terrifying dream as a chopping sound approached.

• The kin watched Anomaly Tamers under Mother of Birth’s order and detected an unusual aura near the enforcement team’s dormitory.
• Little Chen told his teammates that his earlier discomfort had passed and found the Weird inside him still obedient.
• The enforcement team finished its mission, retired for the night, and left some members on duty.
• The kin entered the dormitory through the main entrance without being noticed.
• Little Chen dreamed that he could not move as a chopping sound drew closer.

Little Chen’s body sprouted flesh buds that protected him from a chopping Weird and consumed it in the Void. The buds formed an embryo that began developing into another scion.

• A deep chant reached Little Chen as the chopping sensation drew closer, and flesh buds rooted themselves in his body.
• The flesh buds reached into the Void and entangled a bloated Weird holding a meat cleaver.
• The buds devoured the Weird’s energy until its upper body vanished, while the scion watched and praised the Mother of Birth.
• The scion fed the Weird’s remaining lower body to the embryo, which consumed it and grew to more than two people tall.

A newborn spawn emerged from an embryo and learned that the Weird God behind the Horror Game had sent an anomaly to probe Mother of Birth’s forces. As the spawns prepared to respond, Little Chen remained unconscious, and his teammates discovered he was bleeding.

• A newborn spawn emerged from the embryo and joined the spawn in analyzing information from the anomaly it had devoured.
• The spawns concluded that the Weird God had sent the anomaly to test Mother of Birth, and they left to warn the others that the enemy had taken the bait.
• Little Chen heard the spawns’ conversation in a hazy dream and felt that he had been drawn into a conspiracy.
• An enforcement team broke into Little Chen’s room, found him deeply asleep, and discovered blood on a teammate’s hand after shaking him.
• Little Chen’s teammate ordered the others to take him to the infirmary.

Little Chen woke in the infirmary after a Weird attacked him in his sleep, and his teammates suspected an Apostle had saved him. The attack proved to be part of a wave of Weird assaults on Anomaly Tamers in different regions.

• Little Chen's teammates took him to the infirmary and found Weird aura on his abdominal wound.
• Little Chen woke and realized that the attack he thought was a dream had been real.
• Little Chen's teammates explained that one had smelled blood while another had sensed danger, prompting them to search the dormitory.
• Little Chen said someone had appeared and saved him, and his teammates thought it had been an Apostle.
• The team warned others to stay alert as Weirds attacked Anomaly Tamers across multiple regions, leaving some injured or dead.

Shen Yu watched the spawn multiply as the Horror Game sent increasingly powerful creatures to attack them, including thousands of Fierce Fiend Class creatures. Unable to deploy the Mother of Birth or reveal the Character Cards, he summoned Absolute Boundary, who went to meet him.

• The spawn and Anomaly Tamers fought together against waves of increasingly powerful creatures, while the Mother of Birth replenished the spawn with spores.
• Fierce Fiend Class creatures arrived and began inflicting heavy casualties on the spawn.
• Shen Yu considered capturing the Fierce Fiend Class creatures for Construction Points but decided not to use the Mother of Birth or reveal the Character Cards.
• Shen Yu summoned Absolute Boundary, who learned that the Chairman was waiting on Balcony A on the fifty-fifth floor.

Absolute Boundary went to meet Shen Yu and found his contracted anomaly growing increasingly restless as they drew closer. Shen Yu asked to use Absolute Boundary's ability, leaving its purpose unclear.

• Absolute Boundary took the elevator to the fifty-fifth floor, startling Headquarters employees who saw him standing and walking.
• Absolute Boundary found Shen Yu waiting by the windows in casual clothes.
• As Absolute Boundary approached, his anomaly urged him to get closer to Shen Yu and touch him.
• Absolute Boundary dug his nails into his palm and asked Shen Yu why he had summoned him.
• Shen Yu said he needed Absolute Boundary's ability.