Abnormal second chance

“Sienna seems⁠⁠⁠‍​‌‍‍⁠​‍‌⁠‌‍‌​⁠​‍‍‌​‌ to dream often,” Qin Zhilu recalled, walking through the frost and snow. “It’s said that during those years at Brain, her brain waves were very active during sleep. She said staying in the laboratory for long periods gave her the illusion of being swallowed by emptiness. Fortunately, she could always find healing in her dreams.”

An Yu gathered the trench coat tighter. The coat draped over him remained untouched by snow, while Qin Zhilu and Jiang Xiao were already covered again.

He asked, “Did Brain study her dreams?”

“She would proactively tell the researchers about them. Dreams of joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, all sorts. They were all ordinary dreams. I vaguely remember the researchers all liked her very much, because among that group of monitored individuals, she was rare in showing no abnormalities from beginning to end. Her personality was complete; she could feel fear and vulnerability, but also had liveliness and innocence.”

An Yu’s steps faltered upon hearing this. Only when snow piled up on his shoes did he shake his foot and continue walking forward.

As if in an illusion, he felt the Commander was somewhat downcast when saying these words, even though his voice was as calm and waveless as ever.

Kaos led them to a narrow, three-story building, breathing out puffs of white air. “District 99 revers labor and harvest, and its religious culture is weak. The only religious community doesn’t have clear doctrines and is housed in the abandoned activity room on the first floor. People usually gathered here to read myths of unknown origin to pass the time. The last activity was over a month ago. Every activity has garrison supervision and recording. Hunting was difficult recently, so the members weren’t in the mood.”

“Sienna’s place was on the second floor. Her monitoring Partner lived on the third. We’ll check both together later.”

He pulled open the door, about to lead the way, when his terminal suddenly rang. It was a call from Black Tower in the Main City.

“You take it. No need to come in with us,” Qin Zhilu waved him off. “It’s probably related to this mission. Black Tower likely has adjustment directives.”

Before entering, An Yu saw Kaos lower his head, scuffing the snow with the toe of his boot, responding sullenly into the terminal.

Jiang Xiao explained while inspecting the activity room’s facilities, “Black Tower is probably informing him about the handover. They found someone else in the garrison to liaise with us. I met him yesterday. That person is indeed more organized and skilled, but just a bit pessimistic.” He paused, then gave a wry smile. “Can’t blame him either. Seven or eight out of ten garrison members are missing. Everyone is very pessimistic.”

The activity room was small. Beside the fireplace stood a thick limestone pillar, carved with the image of a man with dense hair and beard. In front of the hearth was a platform two steps high. Old books and manuscripts were scattered on it. A dozen chairs were arranged haphazardly in the empty space before the platform. Old chests of drawers were crammed against the windows on both sides, their open drawers piled with miscellaneous items, even including a half-eaten piece of jerky.

Above the fireplace, a staircase was built, awkwardly dividing the space to create a small loft, covered with a wool felt curtain. It was said to be for divination. The divinations of District 99 residents were mostly related to hunting yields.

An Yu crouched on the platform, picking up the manuscripts drawn with strange totems one by one.

Judging by the drawing styles, they should have been done by different people. Some depicted mismatched creatures pieced together from several animals, with humans holding torches, worshipping below. Others depicted the firmament and constellations, or an eye dripping sparks, an arm covered in spikes… More depicted common crosses, with people of bizarre appearances bound to the execution racks.

“Indeed, a folk activity group,” Jiang Xiao glanced coldly at the drawings. “They mixed together gods from many mythologies, and seem to have invented quite a few themselves.”

An Yu continued flipping silently, pulling out a sheet of dense parchment—this one had more of a totemic feel. Large patches of blood had dried on the parchment. The blood wasn’t continuous; a piece in the corner was separated from the rest, its edges rubbed blurry. Colors like coarse sand outlined a giant figure over the bloodstain. The figure had a book on its chest, and radiating lines around the book created a glowing effect. On the book cover was an eye.

An Yu stared at the drawing for a long time. Seeing this, Jiang Xiao crouched down and sniffed the parchment. “It was stained with sheep’s blood. Still smells a bit fishy. Probably wasn’t drawn long ago. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just felt this drawing is slightly more organized.” An Yu slid the parchment back in and looked up at the loft hidden by the felt curtain. “What’s in the divination room?”

“A pile of cheap candles and crystal balls, messy divination cards, all depicting ominous gods.” Jiang Xiao took a deep breath. “The feeling of a disorganized mob here is too strong. My intuition tells me there won’t be any clues about the Super-Aberrant.”

While they were talking, Qin Zhilu had been standing motionlessly by the window, as if in a daze. An Yu glanced over several times before realizing he was actually staring intently at the frost condensed on the windowpane, even using his terminal to measure it.

The Commander might have been driven mad by this strange place, too, An Yu thought.

Qin Zhilu turned back. “Let’s go to Sienna’s place.”

The three left the activity room and headed upstairs. Jiang Xiao was vigilant the whole way. An Yu believed that if any aberrant appeared, he’d instantly manifest hundreds of thick tentacles and snake tails and whip those filthy things to pieces.

But after last night’s incident, An Yu was also on high alert. He was sensing every space in this building, trying hard to sniff out the scent of distortion, but his intuition told him only the three of them were here.

An irregular piece of parchment hung on Sienna’s door. At first glance, it looked empty, but An Yu’s gaze sharpened. He said in a low voice, “Same as the one downstairs.”

“What?” It took Jiang Xiao a few seconds to react. “The parchment does seem to be the same, but this one’s blank.”

An Yu pointed to a corner. There was a very small, irregular bloodstain, almost negligible if not looked at closely.

“This piece, the drawing downstairs had it too.”

Jiang Xiao frowned, looking for a long time. “Is the shape exactly the same? I thought it looked like a coincidence. The focus of the drawing downstairs clearly wasn’t this small stain.”

An Yu gripped the Order dagger, his wide sleeve falling down to cover the blade tip. He said to Qin Zhilu, “Commander, I’ll go get the drawing from downstairs to compare.”

Qin Zhilu nodded. “I added a temporary device to your terminal last night. It will vibrate if any creature approaches suddenly. Be careful yourself too.”

An Yu nodded. “Thank you, Commander.”

This small building was very old. An Yu returned to the activity room. He could hear the creaking of floorboards overhead as Qin Zhilu and the others walked. He quickly pulled the parchment drawing out again from the messy pile of manuscripts. The isolated bloodstain in the corner was indeed identical to the one hanging on Sienna’s door.

He rolled up the drawing, clutching it in his hand, turned, and took two steps down from the platform.

The moment his foot landed, An Yu’s figure suddenly froze.

The air seemed to ripple for an instant. Just as he abruptly looked back, the fabric against his waist suddenly vibrated. A numbing sensation shot up his skin to his central nervous system. The instant An Yu was about to raise his knife defensively, a tall, bearded man abruptly appeared before him, eyes wide with fury, swinging a sharp axe down at him!

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An Yu let out a breath of relief. Just as he was about to strike with his knife, the figure instantly vanished again. He jerked his head up. The terrifyingly tall figure once again loomed over him, skin close. In an instant, the sharp axe chopped down towards his head. He clearly felt the sensation of flesh and skull being split open. A pain colder than frost exploded downwards from above. But stronger than the pain was the intense fear in his mind.

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Where did this person spring from?

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The thick smell of blood rose up his throat, went through his nasal cavity, hot and pungent, before rushing straight to his brain.

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At the intersection of life and death, listening to his thunderous heartbeat, a thought suddenly cut through his mind—

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An Yu actually felt he was already dead, with only his consciousness frantically intertwining in this instant.

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In a daze, all pain vanished without a trace.

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He immediately touched his neck—no wound, no blood. The carotid artery rapidly and regularly pulsed and there was no pain anywhere on his body.

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An Yu whipped his head around to look at the pillar behind him—this time, he finally looked carefully at the statue. A tall, burly man, with thick hair and beard, holding a sharp axe, staring straight at him.

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After several seconds, his heartbeat calmed. He carefully blinked.

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The harsh sound of cracking bones echoed in the small space.

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An Yu raised his arm and wiped the splattered blood from his forehead and eyelids with the bandage on his wrist, staring at the dismembered pieces on the floor.

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He didn’t know if the death just now was an illusion or a premonition.

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Survival value 100%. He wasn’t injured at all.

Mental strength 100%. Not enough to produce such a strong hallucination.

Then there’s only one possibility. Is it precognition?

He licked his lips, somewhat blankly—he had never thought he’d awaken this type of ability. Forget precognition; at this moment, due to extreme tension and the explosive use of his ability, he felt his brain was somewhat empty.

The octopus chibi on his screen suddenly frowned and popped up a message.

-Is the terminal broken?

An Yu took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and calmed himself.

Only then did he type a reply: Why do you ask?

The octopus chibi looked somewhat worried.

-Time suddenly reset by 2.08 seconds. This isn’t a transient lag. I checked; it’s still 2.08 seconds slower than the standard time now. But the time in your region is normal. It seems only this device malfunctioned.

While An Yu was stunned, the octopus chibi tiredly poked the desk with its fountain pen.

-I was also affected by the terminal. Just now, I was wondering what 21 was doing at this moment. Very strange. The moment that thought popped up, it popped up again.

Author’s Note:

[35 – Where True Knowledge Lies]

Mysterious truths are hard to find.

But ironically,

They are often crudely grasped by the insignificant,

Circulating in those legends you might think of as heretical, absurd, and laughable.

-Loose Pages from an Useless Book

PS: The explanations of chaos and entropy increase include scientific parts, as well as my worldbuild to fit the mysterious worldview. Please don’t get too caught up in it.

Translator’s note:

you see, AY is gradually learning to fight against entropy :))))

btw i’ve finished translating my omegaverse novel, Transmigrating Into An Omegaverse Novel To Save The Paranoid Green Tea Beauty! Please check it out and here’s the synopsis~~

Transmigrating Into An Omegaverse Novel To Save The Paranoid Green Tea Beauty

Song Zhenyan is a genius medical professor who has a Buddha-like calmness and enjoys yangsheng and drinking tea.

After suddenly dying in a violent accident, he transmigrates into a novel with six genders—

[Bad news: You share the same name with the secondary villain.]

Song Zhenyan: What’s my mission?

System: …Your calmness scares me…
System: Your mission is to save the main villain who will end up killing you, and to promote love and peace.
“……” Song Zhenyan: “So where’s the main villain?”
The system showed him a photo: it was a sweet-faced, innocent-looking protagonist. Only Song Zhenyan knew that the monster lurking behind those eyes was the same one from his nightmares.

After a rational analysis, Song Zhenyan concluded that the method to reform an extreme psycho should follow these steps: minimal contact, occasional help, and most importantly: maintain a safe distance.
However, the second time he met Tong Jiannian was at his eighteenth birthday party.
The pretty boy with slightly long hair appeared in his room, suffering from severe post-differentiation complications.

The room was filled with the strong scent of port wine…
A few days later, the kid who said, “I don’t need you to take responsibility,” showed up at his doorstep with a suitcase.
“Uncle Song…” Tears welled in those pitiful eyes. “They said no one wants an omega who’s been marked. I’ve been thrown out… Will you take me?”

Song Zhenyan tried to explain that he was the one who’d been bitten—

“Pling” a single tear fell from Tong Jiannian’s eye.
“……”

Tong Jiannian’s parents died in a car accident, and even the remaining experimental data of their [Pupil] research project was taken by an outsider.
He carefully infiltrated Song Zhenyan’s life step by step, hoping to find evidence that would make his life worse than death, but later he discovered that——
At the funeral, the one holding an umbrella for him was Song Zhenyan; the one placing flowers on the basement window was still him. He even “stole” [Pupil] to save his glands…

From the very first day Tong Jiannian moved into his house, Song Zhenyan had been waiting for the nightmare to come true.
Unexpectedly, at the engagement party plot point where the truth was revealed, Tong Jiannian not only did not hack him into pieces, but instead, flashed him with those beautiful eyes and negotiated with him, “Uncle Song, if you marry me, I will give you everything.”

“…….” The pervert from the dream has turned into another kind of pervert.
Tong Jiannian hugged Song Zhenyan and lovingly said, “Uncle Song, you’re so kind. I really, really like you.”
“……” Song Zhenyan was immune to his cute act and took out a pill, “This is a new suppressant developed by [Pupil]. Want to give it a try?”
Q ^ Q Tong Jiannian: I don’t go into rut every day, okay?

[Scheming, Coquettish, Green Tea Beauty, Alpha Gong X Buddhist-like, Low EQ/High IQ Professor (Normal Person) Shou]

[Small Theater]
When a certain trending celebrity publicly confessed his love for their same-sex lover, the news flooded the internet.
Tong Jiannian blatantly posted a sneaky photo of the involved party.
There was a lot of speculation online about his partner.
That night, Tong Jiannian made it official with a post. The photo was a softly lit dusk scene, showing the refined professor sitting by the window, absorbed in reading a book.

The caption: [My husband.]