Chapter 3: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

New Anomalous Entity, 163-19 (2)

Roughly a day has passed since I successfully returned to my hometown.

I was receiving an extremely warm welcome from people I didn't even recognize, having set foot on my homeland after so long.

Of course, this is sarcasm.

If pointing firearms at my face that could turn an elephant into a beehive in an instant doesn't mean a warm welcome in this day and age, that is.

'...So, what is this place, exactly?'

I looked around, craning my neck.

Not too wide, not too narrow, with a desk in the center and two chairs being the only things visible.

And an invisible, massive wall dividing the middle, placed as if to cut the desk exactly in half.

If this were my life before my first death, it was a room I would have considered a decent enough home.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so impoverished as to be overjoyed with a single room, and considering the situation I was in, I couldn't possibly think that way.

Barely a day since I set foot on my homeland.

I was experiencing the unprecedented situation of being kidnapped and imprisoned by an unidentified armed group...!

'It's not because of dimensional travel... is it, of course?'

My hometown was ordinary.

In other words, it was a world quite distant from the hidden secrets of the other side or magic that you see in urban fantasy.

That meant they wouldn't have captured me because of how I came to this world, or to prevent an invasion from another world.

Of course, things would be different if a technological singularity had occurred while I was away from home.

Frankly, if it were a world with a singularity, they would be aiming a plasma weapon at my forehead instead of an ordinary gun, so I shook my head and decided to exclude that possibility.

'Judging by the fact that they haven't tied my hands and feet, it doesn't seem like they brought me here to do anything particularly strange...'

There's also the fact that I came along willingly without much resistance,

But anyway, aside from being locked in a room, I wasn't particularly restricted in my actions.

Considering my not-so-threatening appearance, it's only natural to think that throwing me into a locked room would be enough to confine me.

If they were going to do something like human trafficking or human experimentation, they would have tied me up to prevent resistance, so they probably didn't bring me here to do anything that extreme.

Then the question is, who the hell are these guys and why are they suddenly locking me up in a place like this?

I've been thinking and thinking about it since earlier, and as a result,

Frankly, I can't come to any conclusion other than that I have no idea.

No, honestly.

I feel like I've been saying this over and over again, but I haven't been in my hometown for very long.

And of course, I haven't committed any crimes or anything similar in that short amount of time.

If I had to guess, it could be that the first place I set foot on happened to be a restricted area.

But even so, isn't it an overreaction to point so many guns at an unarmed and non-resistant person?

Wasn't that area all ruins in the first place? What important thing is there in such a place that they would take someone into custody without any explanation, and then lock them in a remote room without a single word of explanation?

Maybe I should have said 'No, I don't want to!' while being dragged here?

...Well, okay.

Let's just move on from this for now.

It's better to save my energy for what might happen later than to worry all night about a reason I don't even know.

Besides, I can get out of here whenever I want if I really set my mind to it.

Of course, escaping from here is only after I know the identity of this group.

If it's a warlord or a criminal organization in a combat zone, I can just beat them up, but if it's a state-affiliated organization, it would be quite problematic if I forcibly escaped from here.

A handful of lawless criminal groups can be beaten down and that's it,

But if it's an investigation agency run by the state, they're sure to find me even more aggressively, not stop the pursuit.

Well, strictly speaking, it's not like it's an unprecedented situation that can't be undone.

Still, the first thing I do when I set foot on my homeland is a chase with a state agency? That's something I really didn't want to do.

Even in my past life, I was a model citizen who had hardly ever committed any illegal acts other than jaywalking, let alone being a criminal.

As I said before, I spent a lot of time and effort finding my hometown,

And I hated more than death to be in the news for some strange reason, or to be wanted internationally, because I couldn't wait a moment and caused a ruckus.

Is it a personal experience?

Well... people are animals that learn from their mistakes.

And frankly, isn't it partly the fault of those dimensional guys who suddenly attacked me without even explaining the reason properly?

Whether I could have understood their language properly even if they had explained it properly is another matter.

Anyway, thanks to learning once in another dimension, I don't rashly do such things in my one and only hometown, so how fortunate is that?

I learned a lesson.

How commendable.

'...No, let's stop thinking about useless things.'

I shook my head from side to side as if to shake it off and stopped blaming myself.

It's not a wise thing to dwell on the past, and I've been sensing someone's presence from beyond the door for a while now.

It's been quite a while since I was brought here, so I thought someone would contact me soon...

To be honest, I was wondering what to do if no one spoke to me for several days.

Well, for now, let's stay as quiet as possible until I find out the identity of this group and the purpose of imprisoning me, as I thought earlier.

I thought about countless possibilities and started to worry about how to react depending on the appearance of the person who came in.

—Clunk.

With a heavy sound, the door attached to the far wall began to open.

Unlike the usual kind of doors, the futuristic design made me guess that this facility was not an ordinary one.

Strictly speaking, it looked more like something you would see in a science fiction movie than in reality, so it was only natural to think that way.

A unique mechanical sound, Tsssh.

At the same time as hearing the sound indicating that the door was fully opened, someone stepped into the room from behind the door.

A white coat and a tie, a file and a stack of documents in her hand, long blonde hair tied back so as not to get in the way.

It was a young woman with an air of having a rigid personality.

'Hmm, the first impression is quite...'

After seeing the woman who came into the room, I decided not to show hostility for now.

I know that judging people by their appearance is not always right, but it's also true that it allows me to make at least a rough guess.

If someone with an abnormal appearance approaches a person who is imprisoned, wouldn't it be normal to think that their intentions are quite impure?

In that respect, the woman in the white coat was quite different from those appearances.

In the first place, a white coat is usually worn by doctors or scientists, anyway, I remember that it wasn't a garment that gave a bad impression.

Anyway, it meant that I wasn't caught by a perverted group, so I could rest assured about that.

One step, two steps.

The blonde woman slowly began to walk towards the center of the room.

Soon, she made eye contact with me, who was leaning against the opposite wall, and immediately stopped as if frozen in place.

A moment of silence.

The woman, whose face was so expressionless that it was difficult to read her emotions, continued to stare at me for a while, even stopping her footsteps.

"...Wow, wait a minute. Who's this cute kid?"

Then, she covered her mouth with her hand and muttered like that.

"..."

After hearing words that I had never expected,

That is, words that I couldn't imagine coming from the mouth of a woman with such a rigid atmosphere, I froze for a few seconds.

Soon after, I quickly revised my first impression of this woman and began to analyze the situation I was in.

Well, I knew it.

It seems I was caught by a perverted group after all.

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