Lord Cha's paws didn't stop moving. "Since you're one of us, it doesn't matter if I tell you."
"My ability is indeed related to shadows. Among Anomalies, shadow abilities are quite top-tier!"
"Definitely!" Ren Yi nodded quickly in agreement, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"Lord Cha, what is your rule? Is it convenient to say? I don't mean anything by it, I'm just curious about shadow abilities."
"Hmph!" At the mention of his rule, Lord Cha immediately stopped moving. A human-like expression of pride appeared on his fox face, and his tail curled up smugly.
"I'm a rare 'Clock-in' rule Anomaly! My ability can be used as long as it's a moonlit night. Pretty impressive, right?"
Ren Yi remembered that 'Clock-in' rules were a nickname among Anomalies, referring to rules tied to specific times.
Lord Cha's ability had the most relaxed rules Ren Yi had ever seen.
He couldn't help but exclaim, "That's incredibly powerful! With this ability, you could probably take out all the Participants this time by yourself, couldn't you?"
Lord Cha's expression instantly froze, his ears drooping as he stammered, "Uh... well..."
"Hee hee hee—hee hee hee hee—"
The pile of human-faced watermelons nearby seemed to have heard a joke, rolling over and snickering around Lord Cha.
"What the hell are you laughing at!" Flustered and angry, Lord Cha grabbed a chicken leg and hurled it at the lead watermelon.
The watermelon rolled away with a loud thud, but the laughter didn't stop.
He turned back to Ren Yi and explained with some embarrassment, "Sigh, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but my ability doesn't have much lethality, and my True Form is weak. I can only bully these bastard watermelons."
"I can indeed travel through shadows at will and even steal people's shadows."
"But my influence over shadows is limited. At most, I can make their limbs uncoordinated or make them trip."
"And as soon as the shadow 'realizes' it's not in its original place, the ability loses its effect," Lord Cha said somewhat dejectedly.
"That Participant who flew into the sky before was a total idiot. He flew so high that a little interference from me made him fall, nearly falling to his death."
However, Lord Cha's dejection didn't last long. He quickly perked up again, his tail curling back up.
"Don't look at me being weak now, I'm quite top-tier in Instances! It's just that leveling up is hard for me. Once I level up, I'll definitely be a great Anomaly that everyone knows!"
Ren Yi nodded repeatedly in agreement.
He remembered Dr. Lin saying that 'Clock-in' Anomalies like Lord Cha, who had specific time-limited abilities, seemed to feed by killing people during their active periods.
Lord Cha mainly worked in tandem with the Watermelon Patch Anomaly, making Participants trigger the Watermelon Patch's rules, making him a top-tier support.
But top-tier supports only got assists, while the kills went to the Watermelon Patch.
His situation made it very difficult to kill Participants personally, which caused his difficulty in leveling up.
But as Lord Cha said, once this kind of shadow ability leveled up, its potential was absolutely limitless.
In short, he was a late-game hero.
Seeing that Lord Cha was almost full and starting to wipe his mouth with his paws, Ren Yi quickly brought up his question.
"Lord Cha, I actually came to you to ask about shadow abilities."
He told Lord Cha everything about the scene he had seen where Ren Man used a shadow to store a chair.
"My brother never tells me about his ability, but we're of the same race."
"But I have no feeling for shadows at all, and he doesn't seem like an Anomaly with shadow abilities, so how exactly did he do that?"
"Hmm? There's such a thing?" Lord Cha raised an eyebrow—heaven knows how a Cha managed to raise an eyebrow.
"So what race are you? What's your ability?" Lord Cha wagged his tail and asked.
"Uh... my brother said our race doesn't even have a name and told me to just pick one."
"As for my ability, it's tentatively an illusion," Ren Yi scratched his head, speaking somewhat vaguely.
Lord Cha immediately rolled his eyes and glared at him speechlessly. "What do you mean 'tentatively'? Whatever's written on your Anomaly Web profile is what it is!"
"It's not that I'm being vague, there was a bit of a hiccup when I awakened," Ren Yi quickly waved his hands to explain.
"My brother took me to see a doctor, and those were the doctor's exact words. No definitive conclusion was given."
He really wanted to ask, too, but whenever he asked Dr. Lin, he would just say, "Cubs shouldn't be so overly ambitious," and then spur him on to train.
Hearing this, Lord Cha didn't press the issue and asked instead.
"Then have you seen what your brother's True Form looks like? Describe it, and I'll see if I know what kind of Anomaly you are."
"I saw it once." Ren Yi nodded. "He looks like, uh..."
He was about to describe it but suddenly froze.
He had only seen Ren Man's True Form once, which was right when he had awakened. Ren Man had used his True Form to shroud the entire house, pulled him out from under the sofa, and then helped him reshape his humanoid form.
The feeling of being enveloped by boundless darkness was still fresh in his memory.
But how should he describe it?
Very black, very big?
No, no, no, that wasn't right. Those words weren't appropriate at all.
Ren Yi's mouth opened and closed. He tried several times but eventually closed it for good.
He shook his head helplessly. "I... can't explain it."
"What's wrong?" Lord Cha tilted his head and glared at him, his tone full of confusion.
"Didn't you see it? How big it is, what shape, does it look like a person, does it have facial features... shouldn't those be easy to say?"
"No..." Ren Yi paused with difficulty. "My brother doesn't really look like a person, it's just... forget it, I can't really say it."
That feeling was too strange.
He had clearly seen that sight, and the image in his memory was as clear as if it were yesterday, yet it was as if he hadn't 'decoded' the information his eyes had transmitted. No matter what, he couldn't translate what he had seen into words.
It was like a camera with only a storage module. It could accurately record the image, but it lacked the chip to parse the image and the circuitry to output a description. It could only keep those sights locked deep within his mind.
Ren Yi helplessly gave up on explaining, but Lord Cha's interest was piqued instead.
"Heh, you little thing is being all mysterious."
He put his front paws on his hips, striking a boss-like pose. "Come on, let's add each other on the Anomaly Web. When you're back in the Alliance, let's set a time to meet. I really want to see what kind of Anomaly your brother is!"
Lord Cha's eyes darted around as he plotted in his mind.
This kid's brother might be a hidden big shot in the shadow field.
You should know, even he could only turn himself into a shadow, not put other things inside.
When the time came, he'd shamelessly cling to those coattails. Seeing how young he was, the big shot might give him a few pointers.
Then he'd level up all the way and become an A-rank, no, straight to S-rank Great Anomaly, reaching the peak of his Anomaly life! Hehe!
No one knew that this guy who constantly called himself "Lord Cha" was actually only one year older than Ren Yi and was still a cub who hadn't fully grown.
"Sure." Ren Yi, unaware of Lord Cha's internal monologue, readily agreed. "I'll treat you to a meal then, as an apology for this time."
"Apology for what!" Lord Cha patted his chest with a look of bravado. "From now on, in the Instance circle, Lord Cha's got your back!"
No longer dwelling on the topic of shadows, Ren Yi and Lord Cha, the newly acquainted friends, chatted about everything under the sun.
Ren Yi also took this opportunity to hear many interesting stories and gossip within the Anomaly circle.
On the other side, Lu Zihan was chatting enthusiastically with the Wutong Tree stuck at the door.
The Wutong Tree's vines waved excitedly in the air, occasionally coiling around snacks and sending them into its trunk. It was clearly having a great time.
Lu Qing stood at a distance, watching the juniors get along harmoniously. She nodded with satisfaction and elegantly took a sip of red wine from her glass.
Happy times were always short.
After the feast ended, Ren Yi rested at the Lu family home for one more night. In the blink of an eye, the day to head to the Three Cities World arrived.
Rate on N.U.
