Night fell, and the streets of Volt City, located in the Third District near the border line, were entirely deserted.
Despite it being April, snow continued to fall in the high-latitude Volt City. An early morning blizzard had frozen two roadside drunks to death and paralyzed city traffic by dawn. Co dusk, the clouds gathered once more, dropping a mixture of graupel and snow as the temperature plumted even further.
In this kind of weather, even the most devoted lovers of nightlife learned not to linger outdoors, opting to head ho early and sleep.
On the highway leading from the city to the border checkpoint, a manhole cover suddenly shifted. A human hand reached out from the gap between the cover and the asphalt. As the arm extended, a bloated, fleshy tumor followed close behind. The owner of this "hand" was clearly unable to fit through a gap only wide enough for an arm, yet it continued to squeeze its body outward, looking as if it might get stuck in the sewer exit at any mont. However, amid its writhing, the mass of flesh, tumors, and bulging blood vessels miraculously oozed through the narrow crack bit by bit. It piled higher and higher on the road until it finally reassembled into its original form.
If Subject Lei or Intern Robin, who had been swept up in the Containnt Breach at Facility 031, were present, they would definitely recognize the monster before them—
This creature, its surface covered in an abundance of bright red, blood-vessel-like tissue, was none other than one of the anomalous entities that had escaped from the facility!
The anomalous entity had now swelled to several tis its original size. Nurous human limbs jutted out from the gaps between its blood vessels, with stunted hands, feet, and deford faces all cramd together. The bright red tissue on its surface constantly froze and turned black in the freezing temperatures, only to revert to a deep crimson ti and ti again as it continuously repaired itself.
It paused on the main road for a mont. The many faces on its body glanced around before finally locking onto a direction. Then, moving at a speed completely unsuited to its bloated physique, it bolted straight for the border line.
The monster dragged a conspicuous trail through the crushed ice littering the ground.
Soon, the border checkpoint erged at the end of the road. There was not a single flicker of light behind its windows, and the guard post, which should have been manned, was completely empty.
Seeing this, the monster slowed its pace. As if sensing sothing was wrong, it suddenly turned around to flee—
A figure abruptly leaped up from a layer of unlted snow nearby. Black-and-white camouflage netting slipped off their body as they hoisted a cylindrical launcher, took aim at the monster, and pulled the trigger!
A massive capture net burst open, instantly enveloping the sprinting behemoth.
Plumb-bob-like weights at the edges of the capture net imdiately pinned themselves into the ground. The imnse resistance instantly tripped the monster, sending it crashing to the pavent.
The anomalous entity's mountainous, fleshy body bounced slightly upon impact. The hands and feet on its surface tore furiously at the capture net, and its main body softened just as it had when squeezing through the manhole, attempting to ooze through the sh. But in the next second, the entire net emitted a blinding light. A powerful electric current surged through the cables. Shocked by the high voltage, the monster convulsed uncontrollably, its transformation forcibly halted.
During this ti, several more figures threw off their camouflage netting and rose from the snow. Not far away, a van hidden in an alleyway ca speeding over.
"The electrical suppression is working!"
"This one didn't self-destruct! We might be able to take it alive!"
"Hurry up with the temporary containnt box—"
An operative was waving to direct the vehicle when a deafening blast tore through the air. The anomalous entity trapped in the net had exploded.
When the bloody mist dissipated, only a pile of mangled remains was left in the halos of their tactical flashlights. A few exposed nerves, about as thick as rubber bands, wriggled on the ground like earthworms for a mont, refusing to cease their activity.
Fortunately, everyone had kept their distance beforehand, so no one was splattered by the anomalous tissue.
The mbers of the Nu-2 "Hippies" Mobile Task Force were not disappointed by this outco. In an orderly manner, they set up floodlights, retrieved their flathrowers and collection devices, and began processing the remains.
The Research Departnt had discovered that this anomalous entity, temporarily codenad "Stitched Walker", evolved at a rapid pace. Less than two hours after the Containnt Breach, all of its tissues exhibited extre infectiousness and a hundred-percent lethality rate similar to the Zombie Virus. It remained highly contagious even hours after death. Furthermore, much like the Seed of Doom, it possessed the tendency to devour humans to grow its own mass. If the Stitched Walkers didn't have a habit of absorbing infected entities into their own bodies, the dozens of creatures that broke containnt would have spread in a chain reaction, causing catastrophic casualties.
Tracking an anomaly with shapeshifting abilities was incredibly difficult, but the "Hippies" excelled at operating in densely populated, complex environnts. In just one day since the operation began, they had already neutralized ninety-five percent of the Stitched Walkers. The creatures would detonate themselves the mont their legs were crippled or they were trapped, making them highly efficient to dispose of.
If the Research Departnt hadn't urgently changed their orders, demanding that these anomalies be contained at all costs, the task force would have finished the job long ago.
...As it turned out, this order was incredibly foolish.
Hindered by the Stitched Walkers' traits, the "Hippies" were constantly held back during their operations. Such secondary anomalous byproducts were fundantally unsuited for containnt—how were you supposed to lock up sothing that blew itself to pieces the mont it realized it was restricted? The Bureau's core mission was to control, contain, and cleanse. Control was the primary directive, true, but the context mattered; Neutralization was the most fitting end for these things. After several failed attempts, three Stitched Walker entities that had been herded toward the city outskirts suddenly mutated shapeshifting abilities. They ultimately slipped through the blockade and breached the densely populated city.
Even though this directly resulted in a string of chaos and deaths, the Research Departnt clung stubbornly to their stance: "The Stitched Walkers are unprecedented anomalous byproducts with clear origins. They are exceptionally rare and entirely unique, potentially serving as a vital clue to deciphering the source of Containnt Objects. They must be contained." They categorically forbade the "Hippies" from utilizing lethal strikes.
Unsurprisingly, this attitude provoked the Ethics Committee into intervening.
A fierce war of words erupted between the two factions over the debate of "future potential versus civilian safety."
Then, an order descended from the Supre Council.
"The 'Stitched Walkers' are classified as subsidiary byproducts of an Anomaly Project. They possess no value for in-depth research and shall be subjected to Neutralization."
This directive instantly silenced all dissenting voices.
If the various departnts were the limbs of The Bureau, the Supre Council was its brain. Twelve Council mbers, known only by their codenas, controlled everything within The Bureau. Because of their sheer mystery and absolute authority, they had practically beco an urban legend among the internal staff—if you didn't have the proper clearance, you weren't even qualified to know they existed.
But even with the Council mber's order, the optimal window for purging the Stitched Walkers had already been missed.
To hunt down the missing anomalous entities, the "Hippies" split into three teams. The Stitched Walker they had just failed to capture was the very last of the escapees—provided it hadn't spawned more offspring while loose in the city.
The work of the "Hippies" was far from over.
They couldn't exactly leave the local Field Agents to deal with this thing using their water guns, could they?
Aside from searching for any newly infected entities, they had received a new assignnt half an hour ago—at least three thousand C-888 entities had breached containnt, and it was highly likely they had been scattered all along their pursuit route.
The only silver lining in this disaster was that the C-888s were incapable of long-distance travel.
A Mobile Task Force operative, wielding a device that looked like a vacuum cleaner, jogged several laps around the kill zone. After conducting a carpet search within a twenty-ter radius, the detection device beeped. The operative quickly followed the sensor's indicators, sweeping the device forward to ensure nothing was missed, before swiftly unscrewing the glass bottle at the end of the machine.
"C-888 found!"
The operative raised the glass bottle and jogged over to the temporary containnt vehicle, solemnly sealing the bottle—which, by all appearances, contained nothing more than dust, weeds, and snow—into a much larger receptacle.
The Squad Leader followed him to the vehicle, scanned the container, and nodded in satisfaction.
"It's a good thing they can't run far, and there's no chance of corrosive gas accumulating in this open space. Counting what the second and third teams have nabbed, we still have over fifteen hundred individuals left uncontained."
"Could they have already died by accident inside the city?" the operative asked.
"It's possible. After all, it's hard to tell their corpses apart from ordinary debris. But we still need to do our jobs."
Sending the operative away, the Squad Leader adjusted his radio frequency and pressed his earpiece.
"Reporting to Command Headquarters, the 'Stitched Walker' has been killed. On-site, we have discovered—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, an ergency transmission interrupted his report.
"Anomalous situation detected at the border line between the Third District and the Tenth District. A team of watchtower guards failed to respond to their scheduled check-in.
"Nearby Field Agents have scouted the area and found a collapsed watchtower. An ard conflict may have occurred at the scene.
"Nu-2 Team Two, you are closest to their coordinates. Drive there imdiately to investigate the situation. Prepare to apprehend traitors and engage any Anomalies."
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