CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 46: RESIDUE

People were busy gazing at the stars, dancing around the moon as its friends. Their pattern never seemed to change, and yet the stars were ever-changing.

The moon was shining brighter than ever, almost as if it wanted the darkness of night to disappear forever. Everyone was enjoying the usual nightlife of Ayran, so much so that no one noticed the gloomy man walking around in a hoodie, holding a walking stick.

Who would have thought anomalies would be walking among humans without causing chaos?

Zaen thought, heading towards his destination.

After reaching level 15, the task page indeed changed. The tasks within it had gotten simpler, and so had the rewards.

[Task Name: Residue.]

[Objective: The player did an excellent job by eliminating the Hell’s Restaurant. But there’s no time to relax. Some staff members of the restaurant are walking free within the city.]

[Task: Find and kill 5 Camouflaged anomalies hiding in marked areas.]

[Condition: This is a one-man operation. Taking help from others might alert the anomaly. Proceed with caution.]

[Rewards: 100 exp per kill.]

[Note: A virtual, task-exclusive map will be issued to the player. As soon as they reach the marked destination, details of the target will be issued to them.]

That was it. A small EXP reward.

Still, Zaen wasn’t complaining.

Why? Because less exp meant easier targets. He accepted the task as he just needed to kill two anomalies for the walking stick to awaken, and then he could take the advancement quest.

With that thought, he checked the map.

As expected from something the system gave him, it was a weird map and only covered the city of Lizan.

Unlike on the usual maps, Zaen couldn’t find anything apart from marked places and an arrowhead that showed his position. Even if he tried searching for the famous locations outside his city, nothing happened.

The next thing on the map that Zaen noticed was the odd luminescent areas that were marked on it. These were the areas where he had to find and kill the anomalies.

Thankfully, all five locations were close to his home, so no one would notice him gone in the night.

"Wait, this isn’t a cause to be thankful. There are anomalies around my home, hiding in plain sight. I should be worried instead! What’s wrong with you, Zaen?"

He smacked his head at that thought and also entered the first marked area. As soon as he did, a photo of a familiar man popped up along with a bunch of information about that man.

—x—

Target: Nishimiya Senjawa

Age: 79

Gender: Male

Time spent under Anomaly’s influence: 3 months

Threat Level: Minimal

Eliminate the person mentioned above to receive 100 Exp.

—x—

Zaen froze on the spot as soon as he saw the name and the face.

"What the hell is this!?" he yelled loudly, gathering everyone’s attention on him. Yet he didn’t care. "If this is some kind of sick prank then stop it right now!"

He knew Nishimiya quite well, because he was... Shyra’s granduncle. But that wasn’t even the problem. Nishimiya had died of cardiac arrest 3 months ago. He knew that because he had been to the funeral.

He had died much before the restaurant even existed, so how could the anomalies have gotten their hands on him?

The only explanation was that it was the doing of someone else or some other anomaly. An anomaly that could either raise the dead or control them.

"But if the dead have risen, shouldn’t the people have already noticed the walking dead among themselves? Wait... I already know why."

Just like how normal people couldn’t see the hell’s restaurant, it was possible they couldn’t see the anomalies either.

Zaen wondered what he should do. Putting Shinomiya out of his misery was the right thing to do, but could he kill someone familiar to him even if they were... an anomaly now?

He took a deep breath and unclenched his fist. Since he had accepted the task, he would see it to the end, and that wouldn’t change under any circumstances.

[Marked anomaly is nearby. Please look for clues and find the target.]

"Clues? Stupid ass system making my life difficult."

Until now, in all the quests Zaen had undertaken, the anomalies were presented to him on a silver plate. This time, he had to look for them himself.

It was harder to look for clues in a crowded place. He was also worried that ’Nishimiya’ would harm someone while he was wasting his time looking for clues.

"Is it only me, or it’s getting cold all of a sudden?" Zaen mumbled, pulling his hoodie close to him for warmth.

He looked around, and it was definitely getting a bit chilly. People around him were just as confused as he was, the only difference was that he could see their reactions. They, however, could not. Lizan rarely ever faced frigid weather as it was a coastal city.

Is this the clue the notification mentioned?

As if confirming his thought, another notification appeared before him.

[You seem to feel an anomalous presence around you. Search for any abnormalities. Kill the anomaly as fast as you can, or the temperature will keep falling.]

***

Minutes later, Zaen stood inside an isolated alley, sweating profusely. The cold weather didn’t affect him anymore as his body had gotten warm due to all that running.

"Where are you hiding now?"

He walked deeper inside and suddenly, the entire place was filled with static, as if he had teleported inside the domain of an anomaly.

Is the alley shrinking?

The alley that could have fitted five people standing side-to-side shrank to the point where Zaen could touch both walls as soon as he stretched his arms.

As he walked deeper into the alley, he noticed a large block ahead. He screamed as soon as he touched it. The thing was ice-cold and slippery just like ice.

All of a sudden, Zaen heard footsteps behind him. He spun around on his heel, but no one was there. The alley was empty.

Still, he pulled out the boning sword regardless. This was a surprise, and he didn’t like them, not even on birthdays. But before he could take a step, something came crashing down on him from above. Thanks to his perception and quick reflexes, he got away unscathed.

That’s when he saw him hanging upside-down from a wall like he had been bitten by a radioactive spider.

"Hello, Mr. Nishimiya," he mumbled. "Can’t say death has treated you well, can you?"