Unknown Anomaly

Seeing this, Shen Xing paused slightly. He had reached the corner of the staircase between the second and third floors.

Upon catching sight of that familiar figure, Shen Xing's first reaction was "Song Xiaoyu."

He hadn't expected this woman to still be in the building; he assumed she would have left by now.

Of course, it was possible he was mistaken. After all, he wasn't familiar with the other volunteers at the orphanage, and it was hard to rule out someone else having a similar build to Song Xiaoyu.

He looked up toward Room 307 on the third floor. What if the person he saw on the second floor really was Song Xiaoyu?

Moreover, if he left now and this woman went upstairs to find Feifei, it wouldn't do to let the little girl get frightened.

He would follow her to take a look; if it really was Song Xiaoyu, he would ask her why she was trying to scare Feifei.

Having made up his mind, Shen Xing stepped onto the second-floor corridor and followed her toward the end of the hallway on the right.

The building was deathly quiet, with not a soul in sight. Even the two cleaners who were usually around were nowhere to be found.

For some reason, the light on the second floor was significantly dimmer than on the third, especially in this section of the corridor; the further he walked toward the end, the darker it became.

Shen Xing looked around, but unable to find a light switch, he had no choice but to press on. His feet moved silently across the carpet until he reached a door at the end of the hall.

He looked up and saw the words "Cloakroom" written on it. There was no "Men" or "Women" label, so perhaps it was accessible to anyone.

The figure who looked like Song Xiaoyu had disappeared after heading in this direction; she must have gone into the cloakroom.

Shen Xing stood at the entrance and glanced back at the path he had taken, but there was still no one else to be seen.

He stood before the cloakroom door and gave it a gentle push. It wasn't locked and swung inward with a creak.

Shen Xing peered inside from the doorway and saw a dimly lit passageway that seemed to lead into the cloakroom proper. He stepped inside.

"Song Xiaoyu?" he called out as he walked, hoping to avoid startling her by appearing suddenly.

There was no answer from within.

Could it be that the person really wasn't Song Xiaoyu?

He soon finished walking through the passageway and stood in a spacious Cloak Storage Room. This wasn't a changing room, but a place for staff to store personal items; names were written on the iron lockers.

Upon entering the storage room, Shen Xing immediately spotted Song Xiaoyu's slender figure standing in front of one of the lockers.

The woman's personal locker was open, and the metal door blocked her head from view. She stood perfectly straight with her hands hanging at her sides, making no other movements, as if she were simply staring into the locker.

"Song Xiaoyu? Is that you?" Shen Xing took two steps forward and called out again.

The woman remained indifferent, and the situation turned eerie in that moment.

Perhaps, as Feifei had said, this woman was indeed acting abnormally.

Shen Xing stood his ground, not moving any further for the time being. He felt deeply puzzled—was he running into ghosts again? What was wrong with these past few days? He hadn't caught a break, yet encounters with ghosts were happening one after another.

If the Song Xiaoyu before him had truly become abnormal, like Hong Bin had, did she have her own specific traits? And would he have to deduce them bit by bit, just as he had with the Fake Hong Bin, to fully reveal them?

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a line of silver-white text flashed rapidly across his consciousness.

[Unknown Anomaly, current trait understanding: 0%.]

Shen Xing froze the moment he saw the text.

He never expected that a mere guess would actually trigger relevant information to appear in his mind.

Although the information seemed to contain nothing substantial, it confirmed one fact: the figure before him, who resembled Song Xiaoyu, was indeed an Unknown Anomaly.

Furthermore, his understanding of her traits was at zero.

In Shen Xing's view, these so-called Unknown Anomalies were ghosts, and every ghost had its own traits. As long as he understood over 80% of those traits, there was a chance he could seal the ghost.

Of course, he could also seal it by carving a wooden effigy of the entity.

But that seemed impossible right now. Even if he were given materials and tools on the spot, Shen Xing couldn't possibly carve a likeness of Song Xiaoyu in such a short time.

Besides, it wasn't even certain if the ghost was actually Song Xiaoyu; perhaps this woman had simply been possessed by another spirit?

If the prototype for the wood carving was wrong, the resulting effigy would certainly fail to contain the ghost.

There was one thing Shen Xing didn't quite understand: since he could identify that there was a ghost present, why did the information in his mind display "Unknown Anomaly" instead of describing it directly as a "ghost"?

Now that he was certain the woman before him was a ghost, Shen Xing didn't intend to stay any longer. He planned to exit the cloakroom and go call Li Naijing.

After all, as a member of the Investigation Team, Li Naijing would surely have a way to deal with such things.

While his own Mental Antibody and Physical Strength had been significantly enhanced and he was holding up well, he didn't know how to handle this anomaly without harming Song Xiaoyu if she were in danger. It would be more appropriate to have the Investigation Team handle it.

Having made up his mind, he took a few steps back. Just then, Song Xiaoyu, who had been standing perfectly still, suddenly began to turn around slowly.

Shen Xing paused and retreated a few steps to the entrance of the passageway. He saw that Song Xiaoyu, who had been facing away, had turned around completely. However, her head was still blocked by the open locker door; he could only see from her neck down, still unable to make out her face.

"Hehehe..."

An eerie laugh rang out. The voice no longer sounded like Song Xiaoyu's.

Immediately after, she lifted her right foot, preparing to step forward.

At the same moment, from the direction of the locker door that had been obscuring her head, the tip of a nose emerged, followed by a third of her cheek.

From where Shen Xing stood, he could see a wrinkle forming at the corner of her lips, revealing that Song Xiaoyu was smiling.

He did not look any closer, instead retreating rapidly. He passed through the somewhat narrow corridor and arrived at the entrance of the Cloakroom, immediately hearing the sound of Song Xiaoyu's footsteps from the other end of the hallway behind him; it seemed she had followed.

"Hehehe..."

That deeply unsettling laughter rang out once more.

With a sudden clatter, Shen Xing pulled open the Cloakroom door and dashed out.

The second-floor corridor remained quiet, with no one in sight.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he glanced back at the entrance of the Cloakroom, but there was no movement; it appeared his pursuer had not followed him out.

He cast a glance down the staircase and saw someone ascending from the first floor. The man was wearing a light blue volunteer uniform—it was none other than the male volunteer nicknamed "Big Monster."