Chapter 88: Truly Angry

Inside the command vehicle, Fu Ying also saw the amber figure that sprang to life in that instant. The next moment, she watched as the footage froze, and then the body camera’s feed was lost entirely.

“Mental shock...” Her brows knit tightly. After only a brief consideration, Fu Ying realized what Qi Chen must have encountered.

Mental shock was a fairly common attack among the anomalous, especially the human-shaped ones. Those lacking other special abilities would often unleash attacks by exerting psychic force far beyond that of any ordinary person.

Hallucinations and manipulation could both be achieved by influencing the mind, making psychic attacks a broad category. In some sense, the mental pollution caused by the anomalous could be considered an unconscious or passive psychic assault.

Even anomalous walkers could use their above-average mental strength to accomplish feats that defied reason, such as moving objects at a distance.

But the anomalous, whose psychic strength far outstripped that of the walkers, could wield their mental force as a destructive weapon, unleashing devastation directly. The effects varied depending on each anomalous entity’s psychic level.

At present, the anomalous inside the mall clearly possessed a psychic strength already surpassing the average of Grade C, and it was still rising!

...

...

“The psychic intensity at Minsheng Mall is still climbing!”

“Two thousand!”

“Three thousand!”

“F—four thousand...”

At the headquarters of the Anomaly Response Department, the analysts receiving city-wide reports wore expressions as if they’d seen a ghost as the latest readings came in.

They’d believed that the Minsheng Mall case was the final anomaly needing resolution and that, with it, the city would be secure. No one anticipated that this last incident would exhibit destructive potential far greater than any other case in recent memory.

In mere moments, the team assigned to monitor psychic levels was left reeling by the mall anomaly’s unprecedented surge. This rate of increase defied everything known about how anomalies grew in power—none of the rules pieced together by the Institute fit this pattern!

“The acceleration’s slowed, but it’s still climbing!” The monitoring staff, eyes glued to the changing data, glimpsed a faint hope—yet, even after recalculating, their expressions did not improve.

The rate of increase might have eased, but if this continued, the anomaly at Minsheng Mall had terrifying potential for further growth, perhaps...

“It’s very likely to break through to Grade B!”

Headquarters staff were shaken to the core by this earth-shattering news.

It had been years since a Grade B anomaly had erupted in City Three. Even across the Alliance, there had been only one such incident in recent times.

...

The single past incident had all but broken the back of City Eight, once considered the most promising of all. Even today, the city had not recovered from the shadow of that disaster.

Simply put, if an anomaly’s psychic strength hit Grade B, the resulting calamity would be nothing short of catastrophic—for the entire city.

“Report immediately to Captain Fu! Request a citywide Level One alert!”

...

...

“It may break through to Grade B?” Fu Ying’s face turned to ice at the report from headquarters. Her heart clenched, but she promptly authorized the highest alert.

City Three, already under lockdown, now entered its strictest state of emergency. By regulation, when the threat from an anomaly surged, Fu Ying, as the chief of the Response Department, had the authority to enforce such orders—even before reporting to the Administration.

She could act first and explain later, even without official notification.

But... there would surely be repercussions to face in the aftermath.

The order was given, but as Fu Ying reviewed the intelligence Qi Chen had gathered so far, she felt something was amiss.

Especially the astonishing rate at which psychic strength was increasing—she had never encountered an anomaly that grew stronger so quickly.

“Of course! It’s awakening! The anomaly inside wasn’t growing; it always held the potential for Grade B. This isn’t development—it’s resurrection!”

But what good did this realization do? Fu Ying turned to look out the window at the city guards, their cannons aimed squarely at the mall.

She wanted to issue orders, yet found herself hesitating.

Qi Chen, what is happening now?

After a moment’s pause, Fu Ying switched her earpiece channel and spoke in a low, commanding voice:

“All anomaly walkers, proceed to Minsheng Mall immediately!”

...

...

The instant the amber figure awoke, agonized screams echoed through the entire mall. The massive trunk of the great tree lost its color in seconds.

What had been a sturdy, vigorous body became as brittle as wood weathered for decades, crumbling to dust at the slightest touch, as if all life had been drained from it.

The thick vines entwined around the tree turned from a demonic green to a dull yellow, snapping in pieces and collapsing in heaps with the hollow shells they had pierced, adding new colors to the tangled roots below.

For a moment, wood dust filled every inch of the mall’s interior, drifting through the air, while the bloated amber figure floated slowly down from above, seeming weightless as it descended.

But while it still hovered a dozen meters above the ground, a segment of root, violently torn free, whistled through the air straight at it!

Yet before the broken wood reached its target, an invisible psychic force halted it mid-flight, then shattered it with a thunderous crack.

The amber figure bowed its head slightly, gazing at the ashen, spectral figure that had attacked it.

“ROAR!!” The bellow thundered out. Fused once more with the Overlord, Qi Chen was now consumed by an overwhelming fury—gone was the calm he’d shown with the citizens.

It seemed he had yet to fully master the fused state with the anomaly.

But at this moment, all that filled his heart was a fire that burned ever fiercer.

He had struggled up that tree for so long, only for the tree itself to vanish in an instant?

The hollow corpses strewn throughout the mall had weighed on him all along; he had willingly entered the mall to investigate, all for the sake of those missing citizens.

But they had long since become empty shells, consumed by the anomaly.

As he landed, all that pent-up rage exploded within him. Qi Chen had never been so furious. He wanted to tear everything apart, to destroy the anomaly before him, and to crush the fiend who had sacrificed so many lives for his own selfish ends!

“Die!”

His massive frame erupted with immense power. Qi Chen’s feet left two deep imprints on the floor as he launched himself forward. The Overlord’s grotesquely twisted black-and-white mask contorted on his face, and with a frenzied howl, his powerful fists tightened to the utmost, channeling his seething anger as he hurled himself at the amber figure!

Instantly, a formidable psychic force pressed upon him, arresting his motion in the air for a moment. But with the Overlord’s Grade A strength, it could not fully stop Qi Chen.

This force did more than impede him—it invaded his senses.

He felt as if a bomb of pure bitterness, so intense it could not be dispelled, had detonated inside his heart!

It was, truly, the most bitter taste in all the world.

...