Chapter 21: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

Adaptation to Site 17 (11)

Having seen the despairing words written on the pillar, Agent Henry collapsed there, seemingly in a daze.

He managed to pull himself together and resumed exploring the shopping mall.

Of course, he had no idea how much time had passed.

All the electronic devices he had when he entered this place had run out of battery.

It had been too long to gauge the passage of time, and his mind, which had begun to feel hazy at some point, was already at its limit.

He stumbled quite often now, a stark contrast to the occasional stumble he experienced before. He repeatedly rubbed his face raw, trying to clear his fading consciousness.

"Damn it, my mind..."

He bit his lip and spat out meaningless curses.

Ever since encountering that thing, whenever he tried to think deeply,

a headache and some unknown sensation kept surfacing in his mind, tormenting him.

Especially since it had been a long time since he had eaten anything, his mind was incredibly sharp.

If he didn't release some of his emotions, he felt like he would go insane before collapsing.

Fortunately, his time wandering around this place hadn't been entirely fruitless.

After the massive pillar appeared in the center of the shopping mall, new graffiti, which he had never seen before, had been added throughout the stores.

Most of it was just pleas for help, asking where this place was.

Meaningless phrases, simply begging for assistance.

But among them, there were a few that were quite useful.

'At least, that weirdo doesn't show up that often.'

Information about the thing that was chasing him.

The graffiti stated that it wasn't always present in this space, that before it appeared, the store lights would always start flickering like crazy, and that it could never enter the emergency exits, so if the lights started flickering, he should run there as quickly as possible.

Well, at least that was all true.

Since he first escaped from it, he had encountered it again several times, but just as the graffiti said, he could easily shake it off by running straight to the emergency exit.

At first, he didn't know the cause of the flickering lights and couldn't think of escaping until it was close to him, but now that he knew its characteristics, escaping wasn't a big problem.

'And there was definitely information about escaping, too.'

Clues about escaping, written by people who had been here before.

Rough phrases repeatedly telling him to find the color orange.

He didn't know what that orange thing was supposed to be, but since the countless graffiti he had seen so far made it seem like it was the only hope, he had been scouring this space, trying to find something he didn't even know the appearance of.

And finally, now.

He was moving, planning to explore the only place he hadn't been able to go yet.

'If there's nothing even here...'

He was about to dwell on the negative thought, but he quickly shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

There would be time for despair later.

More than anything, he still wanted to live.

As long as there was hope, he would struggle as much as he could, at least until then.

What appeared before him as he stopped walking was a collapsed staircase.

A staircase so severely collapsed that it was impossible for people to pass through, let alone move the debris.

The space above this staircase was the only place he had never been in this location.

'But if I have this, it's different.'

He placed the object he had brought in front of him.

A crudely made ladder, with junk haphazardly intertwined.

Whether it could be called a ladder was debatable.

But at least, for him right now, the appearance didn't matter as long as he could climb to the place above.

Adjusting the position, he propped the top of the ladder against the wall.

Now, all that was left was to climb up.

With a heart full of anticipation, just as he was about to take his first step on the ladder—

—Flicker

Suddenly,

the lights throughout the store began to flicker.

—Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker

"Damn it, appearing at a time like this...!"

As the now-familiar sign appeared, he started running, his voice strained.

To appear at a moment like this, it was truly a malicious act.

At first, it was just a terrifying creature, but now that he was used to it, anger was taking precedence.

But this would be the last time.

Once it showed itself, it wouldn't reappear for quite a while.

He would run to the nearby emergency exit, hide there for a while, and when it was gone, he would finally go up there, find the orange thing, and escape this place.

And so, after running for a short time, he began to see the familiar red door in the distance.

A safe zone where it couldn't follow.

The emergency exit.

'Somehow, it seems quiet today...'

The flickering lights had returned to normal, and by now, it should be starting to scream, but strangely, this time he didn't hear the chilling sound that had been tormenting him.

Normally, it would be a very suspicious situation.

He glanced back little by little, wondering if something was there, but after confirming that there was nothing behind him,

he simply continued running towards the emergency exit in front of him.

Yes, what did it matter?

He had already reached the vicinity of the emergency exit, and there was no sign of it.

Even if it appeared now, it would be impossible to catch up to him.

Maybe it was starting to give up.

He continued to have such hopeful thoughts,

and reached out his hand in advance to open the door that was now close.

No, to be precise, he was about to reach out his hand.

"Wh-What?!"

Something with a black form blocked the door.

It looked like a hand, it looked like a branch, and at the same time, it felt like a twisted hook.

But the most certain thing was, as soon as he saw it, he was overcome with a severe headache and an unbearable feeling of nausea.

"Ugh—"

His body collapsed forward along with the stomach acid rising from within.

An unidentified existence that made it impossible to stand just by looking at it.

It was currently emerging from right next to the emergency exit.

"You son of a bitch...!"

Not caring about the stomach acid pouring out, Henry reflexively turned around and just started running aimlessly.

All sorts of questions were raging in his mind about why it had appeared right next to the emergency exit, whether that was even possible, but having encountered that, there was no time to think about such things.

To live, he just had to run.

'But where?'

An important question arose in his mind.

The only place he could escape from it was blocked in front of him, so where was he supposed to run?

He didn't have the stamina to run for long, weakened as he was from being in this place, and if he just kept running like this, he would only be destined to be caught by it soon.

'...Right, there's nowhere else.'

The place that came to his mind was the collapsed staircase.

The place where he had to run away right before climbing up, leaving the ladder leaning against the wall.

He was worried about what was there, whether it was a dead end with nothing, but at least right now, there was no other way but to climb up there.

Not long after, Henry managed to escape to the staircase.

Fortunately, the ladder leaning against the wall was still there as it had been before.

—Aaaah, a, aaaaaah, aaaaaaaah, aaaaaah

"Quickly... quickly... quickly...!"

Sweating profusely, he began to climb the ladder.

Sweaty hands, a crudely made ladder, a pursuer chasing closely.

Nothing was stable, but fortunately, without the ladder collapsing in the middle, he grabbed the railing on the upper floor at the end of the ladder and barely managed to reach it.

—Thud!

"Kuh...!"

The railing was higher than he thought, so he put as much strength as possible into getting his body over the railing.

His body fell to the floor with a thud.

It was a pain that made him dizzy, but there was no time to writhe in pain.

The scream coming from it was already following him to the floor right below.

The top floor of this space, which he had never been to before.

Praying that whatever orange thing he was looking for would be here,

He ignored the aches and pains that were starting to creak in his body and got up, looking around.

"――――――――――"

Soon.

He realized that there was nothing there.

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