Chapter 31: Who Left So Many Phones Here?

“Victim: Li Wen, age 31, worked as a security guard at Yiyuan Neighborhood, no criminal record.”

Isana read the file information aloud from her phone.

Beside her, Yao Xueyue and Mo Ling were investigating the lingering traces at the scene.

“I say, isn’t this anomaly Beast Class? Why are we the ones investigating it?”

Mo Ling touched the scratches on the wall.

The brim of her baseball cap cast a shadow over her face in the moonlight, giving her a somewhat somber appearance.

“Because the Youxun Sentry Post is short-handed.”

Yao Xueyue looked at the marks on the balcony, her brow furrowed slightly.

The nighttime moonlight spilled across her delicate face, revealing a hint of coldness.

“Recently, for some reason, several instructional posts for Ritual-type Anomalies have appeared online. They used some unknown method to bypass the detection mechanisms. Even after being deleted, they reappear.”

“It seems like an anomaly’s handiwork…”

Mo Ling added.

This wasn’t the first time they had seen an anomaly interfering with the internet.

But what puzzled them was how a Ritual-type Anomaly could upload itself to the network.

Had someone already summoned them, or was it the work of a different anomaly?

“Speaking of which, the Ritual-type Anomaly this person summoned was ‘One-Man Hide and Seek,’ right?”

Yao Xueyue stood up and clapped her hands, shaking her body slightly to prevent her fur coat from sliding off.

“Yes, why?”

Mo Ling turned to look at her.

“This one is a bit of a hassle… Although each summon is only Beast Class, or maybe even lower, a different individual is summoned every time. That means we can’t solve it by re-summoning it like we do with the Four Corners Game.”

“Not only that, I heard that with One-Man Hide and Seek… after the game ends, regardless of whether you win or lose, the doll used as the medium only has two endings. It either turns back into a normal doll or… it continues searching for its next prey.”

As she spoke, Mo Ling scanned the surroundings, but she could only see a fallen coat rack and the marks left by a sharp blade.

“The Patrol Squad didn’t find the doll, and I didn’t see it just now when I checked around. It looks like it’s the second ending.”

“In that case… Yao Xueyue, try looking for the direction of the Nether Breath flow, like Miss Li Meng does,” Isana suggested.

“Uh…”

Yao Xueyue, who usually loved to show off, scratched her cheek.

Her silver eyes instinctively looked away.

“You… don’t tell me you don’t know how?”

Mo Ling placed her hands on her hips and sighed, her eyes carrying a faint ‘are you serious, girl?’ look.

“That’s… that’s impossible! It’s not like I haven’t done it before. It’s just that this anomaly is only Beast Class, so the leftover Nether Breath is sparse. There isn’t even enough to use as a catalyst,” Yao Xueyue scrambled for an excuse, trying to save face.

“If it were Miss Li Meng and the others, even this much Nether Breath would be enough.”

“Miss Li Meng is a ‘Youxun.’ Her control over Nether Breath is on a completely different level. If you think you can do better, then you try!”

Isana silently bypassed the bickering pair and walked to the balcony.

That was the spot in the house with the highest concentration of Nether Breath, though it was still pitifully thin.

She slowly crouched down and extended a finger to touch the trace of Nether Breath.

A nighttime breeze blew in from the balcony, lightly fluttering her short purple hair.

It gave the girl, who usually had a somewhat robotic air, a touch of cold beauty.

She brought the finger stained with the anomaly’s Nether Breath to her lips and kissed it lightly.

As if by fairy-tale magic, a purple glow rose from Isana’s fingertip.

It spread and grew, eventually condensing into an Illusory Butterfly under the gaze of her purple eyes.

In the dark environment, even a faint light was enough to catch the attention of Mo Ling and Yao Xueyue.

They stopped their argument and looked at the butterfly on Isana’s hand.

“What… is that?”

“A butterfly,” Isana replied calmly.

“That’s not what I asked!”

Yao Xueyue was exasperated, but she took a long breath to calm herself down.

“What does it do?”

Isana stood up and flicked her finger.

The Illusory Butterfly took flight, scattering shimmering butterfly dust that lingered in the air.

“It can guide us to find that anomaly.”

“Oh? You have this ability? Why didn’t you show it before?”

Mo Ling leaned in to look at the butterfly flying out of the balcony and couldn’t help but marvel.

“Because it wasn’t necessary before. Yao Xueyue’s Nether Breath tracking was sufficient for most situations.”

“Alright, alright, we can talk about that later. Let’s go out through the window and follow this butterfly to see what that anomaly is up to.”

***

The city at night was far from what one would expect in a world where anomalies existed.

Even in neighborhoods with few residents, laughter could often be heard, to say nothing of the clamor from the bustling districts.

However, the further they followed the butterfly, the quieter the city noise became.

Instead, the chirping of insects and the sounds of other animals grew more distinct.

Gradually, weeds began to overgrow the path.

“The butterfly disappeared.”

Isana stopped and looked around.

They seemed to have been led to the outskirts.

Aside from a few derelict paths, dense bushes, and woods, the only prominent landmark… was likely the abandoned park in front of them.

“It seems… this is the anomaly’s final destination.”

“Is this… an abandoned park?”

Yao Xueyue looked at the blurred sign at the entrance and then at the ruins along the Periphery.

It looked normal from the outside, but the concentration of Nether Breath was… too high.

As a ‘Yexun,’ Yao Xueyue could feel that there was a massive amount of Nether Breath around the Periphery of this abandoned park.

Furthermore… almost all of it came from different sources.

From the looks of it… perhaps every Ritual-type Anomaly summoned recently had ended up here.

As for the inside of the park, if she guessed correctly, it had likely been replaced by the ‘Inner World.’

Based on what they could see, every point was an entrance.

“First, notify the nearest Youxun Sentry Post. Have them come over with a Xianyi.”

Mo Ling nodded and immediately called the nearest Youxun Sentry Post, briefly explaining the situation.

Nearly 10 minutes later, several black armored vehicles with a faint blue glow on their surfaces arrived at the scene.

Over ten Youxun stepped out and began quickly setting up the site, stringing up cordon tape, placing ‘Xianyi,’ and using Bole Detectors to measure the strength of the Nether Breath inside the park.

“It’s Chimei Grade. Within your range of response, Miss Yao Xueyue.”

“Mhm… that’s good. How long can the Xianyi you brought stay operational?”

“About 20 minutes.”

“That’s enough.”

Yao Xueyue tightened her fur coat slightly.

Beside her, Mo Ling adjusted her baseball cap, though the purpose of wearing it at night remained unclear.

“Guard the Periphery and stay alert.”

“Roger.”

After a few brief instructions to the arriving Youxun, Yao Xueyue and the others stepped into the entrance of the abandoned park together.

As with every time they entered the Inner World, they first felt a sense of disorientation and a ringing in their ears.

Once they recovered, the space in front of them was filled with extremely thick fog.

The air carried the scent of earth and a foul smell of mold.

Furthermore, Yao Xueyue could feel that the Nether Breath here was incredibly complex.

There were too many sources, and they were too tangled.

Even if she could use them as a catalyst, she wouldn’t be able to find the true creator of this Inner World.

“Isana, is your butterfly still useful here? Isana?”

Seeing that Isana didn’t reply, Yao Xueyue instinctively turned around, only to find that Mo Ling and Isana were nowhere behind her.

There was only a wall of thick fog that felt almost physical.

‘Was I taken to a different location by a space distortion when we entered? Damn it…’

Yao Xueyue turned back to face the sprawling fog.

Her gaze sharpened, and several Crescent Ring Blades instantly appeared by her side, rotating around her at high speed.

Visibility in the fog was too poor.

If an anomaly suddenly rushed out from any angle, the ring blades could defend her automatically.

As for how to find the anomaly that created this Inner World… that was difficult now.

If she recklessly used Nether Breath Flow to clear a path, she would only waste her own Nether Breath.

She trusted that Mo Ling and Isana could protect themselves and find her.

For now, it was better to get a general idea of the situation in this space and see if those Ritual-type Anomalies were all here.

Yao Xueyue took her first step, simultaneously releasing a bit of Nether Breath.

She let it act like a vortex, continuously pushing back the fog around her to slightly open her field of vision.

After taking a dozen steps, Yao Xueyue suddenly heard a clack.

She seemed to have stepped on something.

The sensation under her foot… didn’t feel like natural dead branches or leaves.

It felt like… a cell phone?

Yao Xueyue leaned down to check.

Sure enough, she found a phone among some dead leaves.

The screen wasn’t off.

Its pale light illuminated many more phones beneath it.

She picked it up and instantly felt that the device was infected with a significant amount of Nether Breath—the kind unique to anomalies, filled with violence and chaos.

A massive number of unread message notifications popped up on the screen, but… when she clicked on one at random, it was nothing but undecipherable gibberish.

And then…

Ring, ring, ring!!

Just then, the phone in Yao Xueyue’s hand suddenly went off.

The shrill ringtone startled her into a slight shiver, causing her fur coat to slip a little.

She tried to turn off the sound, but no matter what she did, the phone continued to ring.

At the same time, more ringtones began to echo from in front of her.

She looked toward the sound.

In the middle of that dense fog, the air was filled with the glow of countless flickering screens.

One, ten, 100…

“What… is this…?”