“Sir!”

The office was pristine, devoid of any contaminants. In fact, there was only a chair and a table inside the office, as well as two men conversing.

One of them was Chief who was sitting at the table, while the other man was standing in front of Chief.

“One Anomaly has gone missing,” the man gave his report. He had white hair with strands of blue, and he was wearing a black and white uniform paired with a pair of white pants.

Unlike Chief who was always wearing mechanical armor, the man looked as though he was still attending school. His youthful appearance didn't help this case.

“Explain,” Chief said to Alex, the man in uniform. Chief's mechanical armor faintly shimmered with blue light as he breathed and spoke, but the blue eyes of his mechanical armor remained brightly shining.

Alex sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. His brain was madly knocking on his skull, and thinking about the recent events made the pain worse.

“Anomaly H-109, ‘Lion Statue,’ made a mess and destroyed three of the containment chambers. Anomaly C-101, H-118, and O-394 were set free,” Alex took a deep breath, pausing his speech. Chief gave him time to pick his words.

“C-101 and H-118 were detained after three days, killing many agents in the process. However, the O-394 is nowhere to be seen,” Alex finished, opening his eyes and revealing his slightly bloodshot eyes.

“Hmm… How did you contain C-101? ‘Bee King’ is not exactly few in numbers,” Chief asked, slightly impressed by his agents.

“H” stands for Hybrid-Type Anomaly, “C” stands for Colony-Type Anomaly, and “O” stands for Object-Type Anomaly.

Chief knew that H-118, “Flying Snake,” was a mix of a snake and a bird and apart from its lethal venom and ability to fly, it barely had any fighting power. Not to mention, it had weak stamina.

However, C-101 “Bee King” commands a colony of magic-infused bees numbering in the tens of thousands! Chief could easily contain the bees using “Blue Pistol,” but the Agents didn't have such cheat codes.

“Sir, Bee King simply returned to its containment chamber after we handed it an agent's body,” Alex replied.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“You sacrificed an agent?” Chief raised his voice in surprise, but soon chuckled to himself. Bee King could easily kidnap many agents during its outbreak, but it stopped obediently after one sacrifice? Chief’s interest was piqued, but he can't go and investigate the matter as of now.

“Whatever. Now tell me how O-394 ‘Phoenix’ escaped?” Chief asked, though his mind was already elsewhere.

“We don't know, Sir. It simply vanished.”

“Hmm,” Chief nodded, promptly dismissing Alex.

Alex was confused, but he refrained from questioning the founder of their organization. After leaving, he beelined to his bedroom.

“So Phoenix vanished,” Chief hummed.

O-394 Phoenix was a piece of feather that was continuously on fire. It would never stop burning, and after seven days, it would turn into ashes. However, on the next day, it would reform from its own ashes and start burning again.

“I remember that Phoenix appeared along with another object-type anomaly, but what was it again?” Chief furrowed his brow.

He mulled about the feather for a few minutes, before letting out a sigh whilst rubbing his thumb and index finger.

“I suppose it doesn't matter. Once an anomaly appears anywhere on Earth, the detector will instantly know its location,” Chief then closed the lights to his office, bathing in the darkness as he himself glowed in the dark.

Before he began his meditation, he sent a message to one of his top agents, Alex.

Poor Alex just turned off the lights in his bedroom when his phone lit up brightly.

+++-+++-+++

Meanwhile, Helzar was enjoying the hard work of his Spawns. After three days of utmost caution, Helzar was able to grow the Swarm back to two hundred. In fact, the Swarm was about to hit the three hundred milestone!

‘The Swarm would be past 300 by now if not for that damned cockroach last night. The fucker ate seventy of my Spawns right outside the nest entrance!’

After losing seventy Spawns, Helzar produced sixty more Spawns overnight before he stopped. He liked to save about half of the maximum amount of energy he could store in case of an emergency.

For example, what if he had to abandon his current Swarm?

‘I hope it doesn't ever come to that, but if it does, then I can easily rebuild another Swarm,’ Helzar nodded, agreeing to his own thoughts.

Clack! Clack.

Helzar turned to his side, seeing a Spawn clacking its mandibles together. It was his official “bodyguard.”

‘Right, this Spawn has managed to live for a week already. It ate a lot of insects too, but its need to eat is becoming bigger and bigger. I wonder if it's time to eat it… ahem! I mean, recycle it,’ Helzar turned away from the Spawn for now.

‘I tried upgrading the Nest, but no matter what I did, nothing happened. I even tried overfeeding it,’ Helzar shook his head in embarrassment. In his frustration, he forgot about the powerfully digestive abilities of the Nest.

‘The excess energy went to waste,’ Helzar sighed. After being depressed for a while, he contemplated eating the Nest, but quickly burned the idea. He hurriedly reattached the Nest to his body to avoid regretting his impulsive actions later on.

‘On the other hand, I made progress with the Eaters,’ Helzar looked at the worm-like bug with one leg and a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Its body was constantly squirming, and its lonely leg was moving erratically.

‘I think I gave it epilepsy.’

Nevertheless, Helzar did indeed make progress with the Eater. He was able to stop it from detonating after eating, and the Eater he was looking at was theoretically holding fifty Spawns worth of energy.

‘I guess it's time to find out,’ Helzar crawled over to the Eater. When he was in front of it, he ordered it to devour its own leg.

Shrrk… Squelch—Crunch!

Following the instructions from Helzar, the Eater raised its leg, before shredding it apart with its many teeth. And then, its squirming body halted.

Crk… Crk…

Cracks formed all over its skin, and blue blood was leaking out of the cracks. A moment passed, and the Eater violently twitched, forming an arch with its body before it popped open like a balloon filled with sticky blue blood and tiny worms!

Sqchh— Squelch!

The worms wiggled about, as though a newborn that was freshly dunked in boiling water. Then, Helzar watched as the dozens of worms grew in size, threatening to forcefully expand the underground chambers and hugging everything inside it with its slippery and sticky body.

‘Shit, how do I stop it?’