Chapter 2: The Anomaly Is Spreading

Lin Wan hurried along the sidewalk away from the convenience store. Only after she turned two intersections did she finally begin to slow down.

Her chest was still heaving from the run, and her right hand never let go of the short iron pry bar. Sweat had soaked her palm, leaving it slick and clammy.

But the streets in the early morning were calmer than she had imagined. The traffic lights at the intersections changed with mechanical regularity, most of the shops along the road had their shutters down, and only a scattering of windows in the apartment buildings still glowed with light.

Sirens sounded in the distance.

The noise grew closer, and soon an ambulance rushed past on the main road ahead, red and blue lights flashing briefly across the buildings on both sides before disappearing at the end of the street.

Lin Wan stood at the edge of the sidewalk, her mind still full of the scene in the convenience store.

The bite marks on her shoulder, the body that no longer reacted normally, the repeated crashes against the warehouse door.

[24-hour survival rate: 4.8%.]

White text appeared in the center of her vision.

A little higher than before.

"Why did it go up?"

[Host has left the current high-risk area.]

That man was temporarily trapped in the warehouse, and he probably wouldn't get here in the short term. Even so, her chance of surviving the next twenty-four hours was still under five percent.

Lin Wan was silent for a moment.

"Did this kind of thing happen anywhere else?"

[Searching available public information.]

A few seconds later, new text appeared.

[Over the past six hours, public records of abnormal attacks and unexplained violent incidents in multiple regions have surged dramatically.]

[Some events share similar observable features, including reduced pain response, persistent violent tendencies, and the ability to maintain a high level of activity even after severe injuries.]

Lin Wan thought of the man in the news video, his arm obviously broken, yet still struggling violently on the ground.

"Do we know why?"

[Current information is insufficient.]

Eden could analyze the information that already existed, but it couldn't tell her exactly what was happening.

Lin Wan raised her head.

The street before her was still following its usual order.

Cars were parked overnight along the curb, and distant figures occasionally passed by.

But just a few minutes earlier, someone less than two intersections away had turned into something she could not understand.

And something similar might be happening in different cities at the same time.

"Where should I go now?"

[Based on the host's current condition and available information, a fixed residence that can be locked is recommended to reduce unnecessary outings.]

Lin Wan immediately thought of the apartment the original owner had been renting.

It was about a fifteen-minute walk from the convenience store. No matter what was happening outside, before the situation became clear, getting back to a place where she could close the door and lock it was obviously safer than staying out on the street.

The problem was that the key was still in the convenience store.

The original owner's wallet, ID, charger, and power bank were all in the backpack in the locker room. Right now she only had her phone and the pry bar on her, so there was no way she could get into the apartment.

Lin Wan stood there thinking for a while.

"What if I go back to the convenience store now to get the backpack?"

[Not recommended.]

The answer was no surprise.

That man was still in the warehouse, and the break room was right next to it. Going back there directly would be like walking back into the place she had only just escaped from.

But she had to get the key back.

Lin Wan took out her phone and checked the time, then found the store manager's number.

She called twice, but no one answered, so she sent a message directly, explaining that there had been a violent assault in the store, that the injured man had already shown aggressive behavior, and that the manager should not come over for now and should also tell the other employees not to enter the store.

The moment the message went out, a scream suddenly rang out from another street ahead.

Lin Wan turned to look.

Across a row of buildings, she then heard a man's shout and the crash of something heavy hitting the ground.

Several nearby apartment buildings lit up one after another. Some people drew back their curtains, others stepped out onto balconies and looked toward the source of the noise.

Sirens sounded again in the distance.

Standing by the roadside, Lin Wan suddenly realized that since she had woken up, ambulances and police cars seemed to be appearing far more often than they should in the middle of the night.

But the city was too large. Every disturbance was split apart by streets and buildings. For most people, what was happening now was still just one unrelated accident after another.

She looked away.

Right now, the most important thing was to get the key back.

Lin Wan headed back toward the convenience store.

Across one intersection, the whole shop was still blazing with light.

Only when she got closer did the chaos inside become clear.

The display rack in front of the register had been knocked to the floor, goods were scattered everywhere, and a trail of blood ran all the way to the warehouse entrance. The wooden door, smashed in by the impacts, hung crookedly on its frame.

There was no sign of the man inside the store.

Lin Wan didn't rush in. Instead, she first made a detour into the side fire lane.

The moment she approached the back door, a dull thud came from behind it.

Bang!

A few seconds later, another one.

The man was still inside.

Lin Wan retreated back to the street.

The back door was no good. The fire lane was too narrow, and once the door opened she would have almost no room to dodge. The front entrance was wider, but she would first need some way to lure him out.

She quickly remembered what had happened when she had fled into the warehouse earlier.

That man had chased her the whole way, knocking over shelves, stepping on boxes, barely paying any attention to obstacles in front of him. If he had already lost normal judgment, maybe she could try something else.

Lin Wan walked to the arcade on the opposite side of the street, hid behind a pillar, picked up a broken stone from the ground, and threw it at the metal sign beside the convenience store entrance.

Clang!

The sound rang out especially clearly in the quiet of the early morning street.

A few seconds later, the wooden door at the warehouse entrance shook.

The man staggered out.

His shoulder hung crookedly, and half his clothes had been stained dark with blood. After he came out of the warehouse, he tilted his head toward the store entrance and took a few steps forward.

Lin Wan held her breath.

He had heard it.

But very soon, the man lost the target again and stopped inside the store.

Lin Wan waited until he moved closer to the door, then picked up another stone, this time aiming at the metal trash can more than ten meters away.

The stone slammed into the bin.

The moment the loud crash rang out, the man jerked his head around and immediately charged out of the store.

The automatic doors slid open to both sides.

The man ran straight to the trash can, then stopped and looked around for the source of the sound.

Lin Wan hid behind the pillar, not moving.

Just then, the sound of a motorcycle engine came from far away.

A scooter turned into the street, and when the rider saw the man standing by the road, his speed obviously dropped for an instant.

The next second, the man suddenly charged at him.

The rider twisted the throttle hard, and the bike shot away. Chasing the sound and the moving figure, the man ran after him for a short distance, then quickly disappeared around the corner.

Lin Wan stared in the direction he had gone.

Noise could draw his attention, and once a more obvious moving target appeared nearby, he seemed to shift his focus just as quickly.

That realization made her heart sink.

She didn't know how far the man would chase, or when he would come back.

She had to be faster.

Lin Wan crossed the street and quickly entered the convenience store.

She first circled behind the register, using the original owner's memory to find the automatic door control panel and switch it to manual mode. Once the glass doors closed, she immediately headed for the break room at the back.

The black backpack was still where it had been left.

Lin Wan grabbed it and quickly checked what was inside.

Wallet, ID, charger, power bank.

And the key.

The moment she touched that cold piece of metal, the tension she had been carrying finally eased a little.

At least now she had somewhere to go back to.

She should have left as soon as she got the backpack, but when she thought of the food left at the apartment, she paused.

A few drinks, half a bag of toast, two packs of instant noodles.

She certainly wouldn't starve anytime soon.

But in the past six hours, abnormal attacks had been increasing in multiple cities.

She didn't know what tomorrow would look like, and she didn't know whether the streets would still be this calm the next time she went out.

"Eden, if I stay at the apartment for a while, how much supplies should I prepare?"

[Based on the currently available information, it is recommended to prepare resources sufficient for at least seventy-two hours of independent survival.]

Three days.

Not too much.

Lin Wan didn't waste any more time.

She first took a spare flashlight and two sets of batteries, then picked up a utility knife, replacement blades, scissors, and tape from the store.

For first aid supplies, she chose gauze, bandages, alcohol wipes, iodine, adhesive bandages, and saline solution, and also took a mask, gloves, and several trash bags.

Then came water and food.

Only the most important things were put into the backpack, the items she couldn't easily throw away even if she had to run.

Two bottles of mineral water, a small amount of jerky, nuts, chocolate, and energy bars, along with her phone, power bank, ID, keys, and basic tools.

The rest of the supplies were split into two reusable shopping bags.

Lin Wan took a few bottles of water and sports drinks, several cans of ready-to-eat food, and some instant noodles and dry rations.

When she passed the register, she also took several packs of a common cigarette brand from the tobacco cabinet, along with a few 50-milliliter bottles of liquor.

She didn't smoke, and she didn't think the world was going to end that morning.

But if things kept getting worse, items that kept well and that other people might need could be more useful than she expected.

She couldn't carry too much.

Lin Wan divided the heavier water and canned food evenly between the two bags, then used the lighter food to fill in the gaps.

After confirming the weight was about even, she shouldered the backpack, carried the two bags of supplies in her left hand, and kept the pry bar in her right.

It wasn't easy to walk like that, but her apartment was only fifteen minutes away.

If she really ran into danger, she could always let go with her left hand.

[24-hour survival rate: 6.3%.]

Lin Wan paused.

"Because of these things?"

[Survival resources increased.]

This was the first time she had truly seen her choices change that number.

She hadn't completed a task, and no reward had fallen from the sky. She had simply prepared a little more water, food, and tools, and her odds of surviving the next twenty-four hours had gone up a bit.

Still only 6.3 percent.

Just as Lin Wan was about to leave, the sound of a diesel engine gradually slowing down suddenly came from afar.

A small delivery truck with the convenience store's logistics logo turned into the street and stopped in front of the shop.

After the driver got out, he went around to the back, loaded goods onto a hand truck, and walked toward the store with practiced ease.

Lin Wan immediately looked toward the corner where the man had disappeared.

No movement.

She switched back to automatic sensor mode and carried the supplies outside.

When the delivery driver saw her, then looked through the glass at the wreckage inside the store, he froze.

"Miss, what happened in the store?"

"Someone was injured inside just now. I've already called the police and notified the manager," Lin Wan said. "That person ran off a moment ago, and I don't know where he is now. Don't go in yet."

The man's face changed at once.

"Which way did he run?"

Lin Wan pointed toward another intersection.

"That way."

She didn't stay any longer.

The warning was enough. Whether the other man called the police, contacted his company, or just drove away was his own decision.

Lin Wan carried the supplies along the sidewalk toward the apartment.

Soon after, she heard the sound of the hand truck being pulled back, and then the delivery truck started up again and drove away from the convenience store.

Night still hung over Qinghe City.

The traffic lights at the intersections continued to change as usual, and more and more lights came on in the apartment buildings.

Some people had perhaps simply woken in the middle of the night, while others might have been scrolling through those sudden spikes in violent news on their phones, pausing briefly before getting back to whatever they were doing.

Most people still didn't know what this night meant.

Lin Wan didn't know either.

She only knew that in the past six hours, a wave of similar violent incidents had begun to appear in multiple cities.

And the chance of her still being alive twenty-four hours later was only 6.3 percent.

She tightened her grip on the bags and headed toward the apartment fifteen minutes away.