Anomaly

Yu Jin swore he saw countless writhing tentacles beneath Mrs. Xia's tear-smudged skin.

But it was only for a split second.

The next moment, Mrs. Xia had returned to normal.

Yu Jin's expression stiffened. These consecutive hallucinations left his thoughts a little scattered. Fortunately, Tang Yaoting wasn't just there to make up the numbers; he occasionally did some actual work, acting the part of a Bureau agent.

He asked, as a matter of routine:

“Is the child okay?”

Mrs. Xia cast a worried glance toward her child's room—where Mr. Xia was standing in front of the door—and forced a smile.

“Thank you for your concern, Agent Tang. The child is fine.”

Yu Jin's eyes suddenly lit up.

Right, the child!

Last night's Nightmare Disaster was related to the child. If the current anomaly was a continuation of last night's disaster, then the child had to be the key to this investigation.

Yu Jin's gaze swept over the child's room as he asked, “May I see the child?”

“What does this have to do with the child?!”

Mr. Xia reacted violently. He immediately raised his baseball bat, pointing it at Yu Jin as he snapped, “Get lost if you're done asking! You're not welcome here!”

Mrs. Xia gave Mr. Xia a pacifying gesture with a complex expression, then turned to apologize to Yu Jin.

“Agent Yu, please don't mind him. He's always like this. He has a bit of a temper, but he means no harm.”

No harm?

Yu Jin smiled in response and offered no comment.

Mrs. Xia also felt a bit awkward. She tried her best to control her emotions and explained to Yu Jin, “The child was a bit frightened and might not be up for seeing anyone right now. If there's anything you need to know, you can just ask me.”

Yu Jin pondered for a moment and said:

“In a family dispute, the child is often the one who gets hurt the most.

They don't have the maturity of adults to distinguish right from wrong, nor do they possess a stable ability to regulate their emotions. They tend to bottle up all their anxiety and grievances.

But as these hard-to-digest emotions pile up, they gradually grow into seeds of apathy, the root of rebellion, and the nourishment for nightmares.

And when nightmares whisper night after night, the Nightmare Disaster will quietly descend.

I believe I don't need to elaborate on how terrifying a Nightmare Disaster is, ma'am. Therefore, it would be best if you let me see the child. I've studied psychology, and timely guidance can help a child find their footing when they are lost.

Don't worry, I won't do anything to harm your child, and you can stay right by their side to watch.

However, I do suggest...”

Yu Jin glanced at Mr. Xia. “Maybe not the father. I, too, was afraid of sticks and bats when I was a kid.”

Though Yu Jin's tone was exceptionally calm, hearing this, Mr. Xia still raised his baseball bat. His face contorted so fiercely that he looked as if he would swing it right at Yu Jin's head the next second.

Yu Jin could only maintain his composure. He didn't know what had happened in this household, but he knew that in this family, the father wasn't the one who called the shots.

Mrs. Xia cast a hesitant look at the bedroom, torn.

Yu Jin was patient; he waited.

Tang Yaoting, however, was getting restless.

Tang Yaoting hadn't noticed any anomalies. To him, this was just a couple doing everything they could to obstruct a post-disaster investigation.

With so many households in this neighborhood, if every single one took this long, would he even have time for crunches today?

Tang Yaoting grew slightly annoyed. He cleared his throat loudly and warned:

“Ma'am, you wouldn't want us to dedicate the bulk of our report to you and your husband, would you?”

“?”

Yu Jin was thoroughly startled by this. He turned to look at Tang Yaoting, thinking to himself, When did you change your nationality?

Mr. Xia let out a low growl, raising his bat as he moved forward.

Worried, Mrs. Xia quickly intercepted Mr. Xia, locking her arms around his waist. After her expression shifted several times, she said:

“Fine, but you can't go inside the room.”

Why couldn't they go inside?

Yu Jin was a bit puzzled, but he didn't dwell on it and nodded in agreement.

Mr. Xia was dragged away, cursing all the way. Tang Yaoting couldn't stand it and wanted to go after him to snap back, but Yu Jin quickly grabbed him, terrified of what might happen.

Tang Yaoting was fuming. “What are you afraid of him for?”

No matter how hard your skull is, it probably isn't harder than his baseball bat.

Yu Jin let out a helpless sigh.

“We're here for a post-disaster investigation, not to cause trouble.”

“I'm not the one causing trouble; his attitude is just terrible.”

“Since you're so brave, why didn't you beat up that dog at the cemetery earlier?”

“?”

Tang Yaoting froze. He thought about it for a moment, and got even angrier.

“Right! Why didn't I beat it up?”

“...”

Yu Jin stopped paying attention to Tang Yaoting and walked toward the bedroom, gently pushing the door open.

The moment the door creaked open, Mrs. Xia instantly appeared at the doorway. She blocked the entry with her body, determined not to let Yu Jin take a single step into the room.

The inside of the room and the outside were two completely different worlds.

Aside from being a little messy, there was not a single sign of damage inside the bedroom. Under the warm yellow light, a little boy curled up on the bed with his knees pulled to his chest. Wrapped in a blanket, he stared blankly at the floor.

Outside the window, it was a quiet, deep night. The shadows of trees swayed gently, and a full moon hung high in the sky...

Wait a minute!

Yu Jin stared at the moon outside the bedroom window, freezing for a few seconds. Then, he turned back to look through the shattered glass curtain wall of the living room at the blinding sunlight outside.

“...”

Was this right?

His entire body tensed up, his heart instantly leaping into his throat.

This was definitely not normal!

Last night's Nightmare Disaster had been resolved, and there were no records of any outbreak or lingering traces of the disaster in the report. Logically, this bedroom shouldn't be so bizarre.

Yet, the bizarre phenomenon of the sun and moon rising simultaneously in different rooms was right before his eyes. This forced Yu Jin to consider a possibility—had his active intervention last night failed to resolve the Nightmare Disaster, and instead dragged him into it?

Was it possible that everything happening today was actually a dream?

This was not a baseless speculation. Nightmare Disasters had a tendency to spread.

When it descended upon a certain nightmare and began to spread outward, the primary dream enveloped by the disaster would continuously swallow surrounding dreams, fusing them into an even more twisted and bizarre nightmare.

This phenomenon was called Dream Entanglement. The person who triggered the Nightmare Disaster was known as the Subject, and those caught in the entanglement were known as the Affected Parties.

Yu Jin felt that he had highly likely become an Affected Party of the Nightmare Disaster.

As for who the Subject was... He cast a grave look at the child inside the cozy bedroom.

Was it him?

Yu Jin wasn't sure. After all, he had already “failed” once.

To break a Nightmare Disaster, the method was simple in theory: one just had to eliminate the Dream Core.

The Dream Core was the projection of the Nightmare Disaster's Subject within their own dream. Destroying it would not harm the Subject's life.

Generally, most people's projections in their own dreams were themselves. However, there were exceptions—exceptions that included changes in identity, gender, species, or even physical form.

To use the simplest example: a destitute man might just be a pauper in reality, but in his dream, he could be the richest man, a beautiful woman, a dog, or even a gust of northwestern wind...

He was both his own fantasy and his own microcosm.

Thus, for the Special Response Team entering a Nightmare Disaster, destroying the Dream Core was probably the relatively simple part of the mission. The real difficulty lay in how to locate and lock onto it.

Yu Jin stood at the doorway and pondered for a long time, while Mrs. Xia's face drew closer and closer to his.

She seemed to sense Yu Jin's emotional fluctuations, adopting a bizarre posture and expression to guard against his next move.

Yu Jin didn't make a move in a hurry; he was wracking his brain.

He knew that if he was truly entangled in a Nightmare Disaster, agents from the Special Response Team would definitely come to save him. He could easily find a safe place and wait for rescue.

But he didn't want that; it was too inefficient.

Coming from a family of agents, he loathed Nightmare Disasters to the bone. He knew full well that every second wasted here could turn into a blade that harmed civilians in reality. He refused to let his family's tragedy repeat itself in another household.

His plan was to ensure his own safety while doing everything he could to help the Special Response Team—who had yet to arrive—identify the Dream Core. Even if he only ruled out an incorrect option, it would still improve the efficiency of breaking the Nightmare Disaster.

In Yu Jin's view, even if the child wasn't the Dream Core, they were undoubtedly deeply connected to this nightmare. Therefore, figuring out the cause-and-effect relationship would be beneficial for handling the Nightmare Disaster next.

But this was no easy task.

Mr. and Mrs. Xia seemed exceptionally hostile to him interacting with the child. Especially Mrs. Xia; as long as she blocked the doorway, he would never be able to step inside.

Looking at Mrs. Xia right in front of him, Yu Jin frowned as he racked his brain for a solution. Suddenly, the dazed child on the bed turned to look at the door and asked with a sob:

“Are you from the Bureau?”

“!”

Yu Jin looked over upon hearing the voice.

Feeling the unfamiliar gaze, the child timidly curled up even tighter.

“Are you here to take Mommy and Daddy away?”

...