Chapter 9: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

New Anomalous Entity, 163-19 (Interlude)

Audio Recording

Recording Details: Communication log of the Special Operations Team during the Escape Incident of Anomaly 871.

Personnel: Special Operations Team, five members of Bravo-█ Team.

Additional Information: Agent-1 is a veteran operative with █ participations in the Anomaly 871 suppression operation.

In a later interview, he mentioned that he felt like he was walking into a trap throughout this operation.

[Start of Recording]

Agent-1: Roll call begins to verify recording procedures and check for abnormalities before the operation starts. One.

Agent-2: Two.

Agent-3: Three.

Agent-4: Four.

Agent-5: Five. Roll call complete.

Agent-1: Good. We are now deploying to suppress the escaped Anomaly. Currently, all entrances to Site 17 are sealed with bulkheads, and additional personnel are installing lighting around the emergency exits before deactivating the blockade. Our mission is to enter, restrain it with the special suppression device, contact headquarters, and watch as the people outside come in and send it back to the isolation chamber. Any questions?

Agent-4: Agent-4, I have a question.

Agent-1: Speak.

Agent-4: Regarding the armaments we've been issued, aside from the special suppression device, the stopping power seems quite lacking. Is this really sufficient?

Agent-1: Physical suppression methods are ineffective against Anomaly 871. If you reach a point where you need to shoot that auxiliary weapon at it, consider yourselves already dead.

Agent-4: Then, is there a need to issue auxiliary weapons separately?

Agent-1: Yes. Occasionally, there are times when we need to calm down a Agent who is in a state of confusion and threatening the entire unit. Let's hope we don't need to use it for that purpose this time.

Agent-4: …Understood.

After the conversation ends, there is a rattling sound along with the sound of several people walking.

The footsteps make a rustling sound as if walking on dirt, then change to the sound of stepping on a hard floor, and soon the footsteps echo from all directions.

Agent-2: No one's here.

Agent-1: Of course not. It would have devoured all the humans who couldn't evacuate. The survivors will be behind the barricade, and we won't encounter them until this operation is over.

Agent-2: That's a relief. At least we won't have to distinguish whether the living researchers are traps or not.

Agent-5: Have you participated in such an operation before?

Agent-2: Indeed. It was an Anomaly that mimicked human appearances, and when it escaped from Site 21――

Agent-1: Hold on, stop.

After Agent-1's stop command is heard, there is a moment of silence.

Following that, Agent-3's voice is heard.

Agent-3: If my eyes aren't deceiving me, I see someone collapsed over there, is that correct?

Agent-1: I see it too.

Agent-3: But, surely, you just said there wouldn't be any living people――

Agent-1: Don't panic, Agent-3. First, we need to determine if this is a trap. Everyone, from now on, except for Agent-4, illuminate all directions. I will now check the unidentified life form in front.

Agent-4, take out your auxiliary weapon, and if that unidentified life form attacks or shows abnormal behavior, fire immediately. Do you understand?

Agent-4: Confirmed.

Agent-1: Good. Then move out now.

Along with hurried footsteps, a clanking mechanical sound begins.

Not long after, a few cautious footsteps are heard, then silence persists for several tens of seconds.

Agent-1: Is it simply in a coma? There doesn't seem to be any problem with its life activity.

Agent-4: But, why is it naked?

Agent-1: Anomaly 871 doesn't like miscellaneous organic matter like clothing. If it swallows a human, most of what that human was wearing remains in place.

Agent-4: Are you saying it's a person that thing regurgitated?

Agent-1: No…, I've never seen it regurgitate what it swallowed.

Agent-4: Then, how is this person still alive?

Agent-1: …I don't know either. At least, this has never happened in previous operations――

Agent-2: Hey, I see something ahead!

While Agent-1 and Agent-4 are talking, Agent-2's urgent voice is heard.

From Agent-1's side, there is a sound of hastily gathering equipment that was placed on the floor.

Agent-1: What do you see?

Agent-2: A foot, I see a human foot.

Agent-1: Is the leg just cut off separately?

Agent-2: I don't know. It's leading to a corner, so only one body part is visible.

Agent-1: Wait. I'll go. I'll be at the forefront, two in the middle. Two in the back, be vigilant on all sides and follow.

Along with a tense voice, there is a sound of reorganizing the formation.

After a few footsteps slowly echoing inside the building, the voices of confused Agents are heard.

With a static sound, something is captured on the screen.

Soon, a scene is captured on the screen where naked humans fill the corridor floor, sprawled out haphazardly.

Agent-5: What is this…

Agent-4: Have you ever seen such a sight in previous operations?

Agent-1: …Most of the time, you couldn't even see a human shadow.

Agent-4: It's the complete opposite of the current situation.

Agent-5: Should we check if they're alive?

Agent-1: No, it will take too much time. For now, let's follow this trail.

Agent-1 points a finger in a certain direction.

In that direction, there are traces as if something deliberately dropped people off.

As the screen begins to move, footsteps echo throughout the corridor.

Finally, when the number of fallen people gradually decreases.

The Agents arrive at a dead end.

Agent-1: This is…

As Agent-1 begins to speak, a beeping sound emanates from the equipment, signaling something.

Agent-1 alternates between looking at the equipment's screen and what's in front of him, then falls into silence as if deep in thought.

The other Agents are also just watching from behind.

Agent-1: Headquarters. Anomaly 871 has been found. Request immediate deployment of personnel waiting outside the base.

Command: Confirmed. Report the current location where you are isolating the Anomaly.

Agent-1: The current location is….

Finally, the long silence ends, and Agent-1 begins to send a radio message to headquarters.

To headquarters' question, Agent-1 hesitates to speak, opening and closing his lips as before.

Soon, he begins to say the name of the place where he and the Agents have arrived.

Agent-1: …It's Anomaly 871's isolation chamber. It seems to be isolating itself right now.

[End of Recording]

—Click

With the sound of something being pressed, the screen on the monitor stopped.

The video recording that had been playing until just now remained on the monitor screen.

"Hooo…."

A deep sigh escaped from the mouth of the Head Researcher, Oliver Smith.

The reason for that sigh was, of course, the video he had just been watching.

After the perilous incident of Anomaly 871's escape, surprisingly, the escaped Anomaly returned to the isolation chamber on its own,

And although it was thought that all the personnel left behind the barricade would have been completely done for, for some reason, they were all found in perfect condition.

Thanks to that, he, in his high position as Head Researcher,

Had no choice but to spend days poring over everything that had been recorded that day and investigating the traces within this base.

Even so, the really important records within the base were all lost or destroyed due to the aftermath of the Anomaly's escape.

Still, there were still clues to be obtained, and the work he was in charge of was not so light that he could easily give up just because the records were not easy to find.

Of course, he himself was very pleased that the incident had ended without much happening, despite the escape of an Anomaly with a hazard level of Ⅳ.

This was because there were too many cases where people died like flies, even though this work never took human lives lightly.

Thinking about the fate that awaited the personnel left behind the barricade, even he, who was pretending to be ordinary, felt a pang in his heart.

However, that was why he knew very well.

That simple endings are not so easily given in this world.

Stories in fairy tales, where the prince and princess happily marry, the dead return, and they live happily ever after.

Are, in fact, stories that are accomplished on top of a skull tower built with someone's corpses.

That is why he had no choice but to thoroughly investigate this incident as well.

Investigating the personnel left behind the barricade, examining their mental contamination levels in detail, and subjecting them to more physical examinations than necessary.

Whether there were any traces of something different in this base, whether there were any changes in the other Anomalies that had been left behind, everything.

'But, I couldn't find anything.'

However, everything was normal.

With the exception of the personnel left behind the barricade not remembering the breakout, nothing was detected in their examinations.

No suspicious traces remained anywhere in the base, no matter how thoroughly they searched.

The Anomalies that had been isolated in the base at the time also showed no particular changes.

Everything was the same as before.

The breakout was resolved far too easily, without any issues.

Yes, like a story from a fairy tale.

Oliver Smith was confused.

It was what he had wanted so badly, but actually experiencing it felt unnatural and unsettling.

It was as if fate, which had always toyed with him, had given him a sweet fruit to trick him.

But no one knew whether that fruit was poisoned, or whether it was a sincere gift from fate.

So, what exactly is that gift?

He didn't believe that a being incapable of communication, filled only with malice towards humans, would simply spit out all the humans it had swallowed that day and return to its place due to a momentary whim.

Surely, something must be different from before.

Before him lay countless records and research logs.

The only change he found in the piles of documents was――――――

――Knock knock

The sound of a light knock on the door brought him back to reality from his deep thoughts.

He had definitely been thinking about something important just a moment ago,

But even so, he wasn't so difficult as to send away the person he had called because of it.

He rubbed his face roughly with his palms, as if trying to shake off his drowsiness,

And called the researcher he had summoned, who was standing outside the door, into the room.

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