Shrouded Seascape

Half-meter-thick isolation walls descended, dividing all the cells in the site into tiny squares, ensuring that the Anomalies in each cell were isolated from each other.

In the blink of an eye, Anna, who was being escorted to her room, and the combat team escorting her were boxed in by the isolation walls.

Anna looked up to find flickering blood-red lights on the ceiling. Anna leaning in her chair dragged the corner of her lips into an exaggerated smile, saying, "Hehe, I told you, didn't I? Haphazardly perusing the memories of others can sometimes bring about disastrous consequences."

"Shut up!" A group of burly men surrounded Anna, and they glared at her as if they were tigers eyeing prey. Naturally, they all pointed their guns at her.

The flickering red lights lasted for half an hour; throughout the ordeal, the walls around them even trembled slightly. To Anna's disappointment, however, no Anomaly shattered the walls of their cell and breached containment.

When the lights on the ceiling turned white again, Anna was transported to her room and isolated once more.

Unable to move, Anna could only stare at the ceiling as if she were a puppet. Her placid expression ensured that her thoughts remained indecipherable to anyone staring at her.

Half a day later, the anesthetic wore off, and Anna could finally move, but she could only move half of her body. The other half was still completely paralyzed.

And just like that, Anna remained imprisoned in her room. It was unknown if it was due to the incident with 451, but Carlo and Lucius never showed up again.

Anna received a wide variety of visitors every day, and they all either attempted to deceive her or interrogate her. The IMF members then noticed something peculiar about 315.

315 had become more withdrawn and quiet, but sometimes, she'd become agitated and cry her heart out. She'd become cooperative when it came to answering questions, but the majority of her answers weren't true.

Her food preference had also changed drastically since the 451 incident. Before that incident, she'd eat whatever was given to her, but recently, she had been requesting specific dishes.

As the months ticked by, Anna still showed no signs of improvement whatsoever, and her paralyzed half had begun to atrophy due to the prolonged immobility. As a result, Anna's figure became frightening to behold—half of her body was still gorgeous, but the other half was frighteningly emaciated.

As her confinement grew longer and longer, Anna spoke less and less. In the end, she refused to communicate with the IMF members altogether.

Today was another day, and Anna was wheeled into another room. However, the individual behind the door wasn't one of the IMF's staffers but someone else. The figure was tall, towering almost two meters.

However, the figure's tall was so thin that one could mistakenly think that perhaps there was nothing but a skeleton beneath the clothes.

The figure's wrists and neck were wrapped tightly in green cloth as if the figure didn't want anyone to catch even a glimpse of what was underneath.

There was a yellow mask hanging on where the face was supposed to be. The smiley face on the mask seemed to represent joy, but it appeared eerie and bizarre due to its thin, towering, extremely thin stature.

The electric collar around its neck made it clear to Anna that the figure was one of the contained Anomalies in this site.

"Hello, Anna. I'm 940, but I prefer to be called Happy," 940 said, sitting across from Anna.

Happy took in Anna's indifferent face and added, "I know you're in pain, and I know that you're angry, but the truth is, everyone cares about you."

Hearing that, Anna finally spoke, and her words laced with thick sarcasm as she replied, "Really? They tore off a part of my soul and made me like this. And you say that they care about me?

"Let me guess; those guys have finally decided to mobilize their dogs to persuade me into surrender. Do they want me to become a dog, too?"

The round, yellow smiley face shook. "I'm not a dog. I'm a contractual employee of the IMF. I've been working for the IMF for eighty years now, and I can guarantee that the IMF never violates its contracts and contractual obligations. ꭆ

"In other words, if you agree to their requests and sign a contract with them, they will absolutely never go back on their word."

Anna tilted her head to the right and asked, "You've it sound so tempting, so how come the old man next door has yet to sign any contract with you?"

"That's different. 681 is a madman. His thought process is completely different from normal people, but you are obviously not like him. Your thoughts are logical and cohesive. I believe that you'll definitely join us as soon as you understand our great cause.

"Actually, I'm aware that there are individuals unable to differentiate between right and wrong due to various reasons, and they treat killing as mundane as eating and drinking. However, I believe that they can become controllable—they can become harmless once we've corrected their mistakes."

"Which floor of this site are you being contained?" Anna asked.

"I have my own dormitory. I live at the very top, just like my colleagues."

"Colleagues? Are your colleagues also wearing dog collars like you? Stop deluding yourself; you're nothing but their tamed dog!"

Anna used her right arm to prop herself up and look down at the big smiley face before her. "Contracts and agreements are only going to work if both sides are equal in strength.

"Otherwise, contracts are just pieces of paper that can be discarded at any time in the eyes of those people. With just a flick of their fingers, the poison in your collar will take your life!

"They're acting as both the referees and athletes. Are you really that dumb, or are you just pretending to be dumb? As soon as I hand over what they need from me, I'm afraid they're going to kill me on the spot!"

940 was infuriated by Anna's tirade, and his voice became a bit solemn as he said, "Is there any meaning to dragging this out? Let me tell you this straight—451 isn't the only method that they can use to interrogate you.

"You have to make a choice soon, or they'll turn to their last resort. 451 went berserk because of you, so they raised your threat level to the next class. By then, you won't just be paralyzed."

Despite 940's lengthy words, Anna ignored them all and simply said, "Goodbye, I won't see you off. Tell them that I still want salt-grilled pork chops today. Remember to grill them with sea salt; I don't eat rock salt."

940 stood up and left, but when Anna was wheeled into her room, forget about salt-grilled pork chops; she was given only a tiny little cup of fresh water.

The IMF had finally ripped off their masks, but Anna had seen through all these. They had already said everything, including pretty words and threats, so it was about time they resorted to using some tricks.

The next morning, the lights on the ceiling shone red.

Having lived here for so long, the sight was no longer strange in Anna's eyes.

Containment breaches would happen from time to time, but the IMF would always make quick work of it. Clearly, they had prepared many countermeasures against a huge variety of anomalies.

Pulling away her blanket, Anna supported her half-paralyzed figure and moved toward her breakfast with great difficulty. Heavy dark circles were beneath her eyes, and she looked extremely haggard.

Recently, they had been waking her up with a piercing alarm every thirty minutes during the nights. Needless to say, Anna was in an extremely sleep-deprived state, leaving her dazed during the day.

They had also lowered the temperature of her room, and with only one blanket in hand, the chilling cold would always awaken Anna every night.

With great difficulty, Anna finally made it to her door but found only two potatoes and a bowl of frozen water.

Anna's mental state became worse and worse due to the lack of sleep, the low temperature, and the hunger, but she knew that this was just the beginning. There was no way the IMF only had these cliched tricks up their sleeves.