Things were getting more and more confusing.

If they couldn’t figure it out, then they simply wouldn’t. After all, Lin Jianyuan and Xie Yu were still on vacation.

Come to think of it... F**k. Why did he come back to work overtime of his own free will again?

Awesome.

Lin Jianyuan decisively grabbed his roommate and fled.

By the time they got home, it was already evening. On the way, they stopped at the market to buy some fresh scallions and ginger.

The reason was simple. They were having hairy crabs for dinner!

The hairy crabs were already waiting in a basin of water, presumably to soothe their feelings about their impending consumption.

Except the scene looked bizarre no matter how you looked at it.

Every single hairy crab was already the bright orange-red color of a fully cooked crab, yet they were still gurgling and blowing bubbles, even stretching their legs as far as they could in an effort to climb out.

The sheer violation of common sense created an intense sense of wrongness.

“Step one, check whether the hairy crabs are alive. Add salt to the water so the crabs can purge the dirty water from their bodies...” Xie Yu searched “how to cook hairy crabs” on Little Red Book and followed the tutorial step by step.

Lin Jianyuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “They’re obviously alive. They’re still blowing bubbles.”

Also, these aren’t even real hairy crabs. They're Aberrants?!

Do we really need to start from the “purge the dirty water” step?

If these things really did purge dirty water, what the hell would come out?

Lin Jianyuan fell into thought.

Xie Yu smoothly skipped step one and started scrubbing the crabs.

Lin Jianyuan stood beside him at the sink, the two of them shoulder to shoulder as they studied how to scrub hairy crabs.

Once the crabs were clean, they were placed in the pot with their backs down and bellies up, then steamed with scallions, ginger, and cooking wine.

The tutorial said that when steaming hairy crabs, the ropes around them shouldn’t be untied because the crabs would struggle once they were heated and could easily wrench off their own legs or claws. That would make them look ugly, and the roe inside might leak out.

The problem was, none of the hairy crabs in front of them were tied up in the first place, and Lin Jianyuan and Xie Yu obviously did not have the patience to personally bind each one.

Fortunately, they weren’t actually hairy crabs anyway.

Xie Yu: “Don’t move.”

The bubble crabs: “.”

The rank suppression from an S-class Aberrant instantly froze every crab in place, as if someone had pressed pause.

Satisfied, Xie Yu put the lid on the pot.

Lin Jianyuan stared in awe. “Now that's master-level cooking.”

Xie Yu: “~”

To be fair, Lin Jianyuan still had a tiny psychological hurdle to overcome. After all, the crabs in front of him were not actually crabs. They were Aberrants that could make people break out in blisters just by blowing bubbles.

But perhaps because Lin Jianyuan was relaxed and not anxious right now, he didn’t develop a single blister even when he came into contact with plenty of bubbles while washing the crabs.

(Of course, it was also possible that with an S-class Aberrant standing right there, the bubble crabs simply didn’t dare to act up.)

Either way, as far as Lin Jianyuan was concerned, these hairy crabs looked no different from real hairy crabs.

As the fragrant aroma of steaming cooking wine gradually filled the air, Lin Jianyuan couldn’t help falling into thought.

Lin Jianyuan: “If something looks like a hairy crab, smells like a hairy crab, and tastes like a hairy crab...”

Xie Yu immediately followed up: “Then it’s a hairy crab.”

Clang!

A sudden flash of enlightenment!

Lin Jianyuan stopped agonizing over it.

It wasn’t like this was his first time eating an Aberrant anyway.

Back when he was mentally ill, who knew how many bizarre Aberrants he ate? What the hell was he hesitating about now, hahahahaha.

Facts proved that once you added scallions, ginger, cooking wine, and put something in a steamer, even an Aberrant could start smelling edible.

And then there was the “ultimate hairy-crab dipping sauce” Xie Yu found on Little Red Book: vinegar, minced ginger, light soy sauce, sugar, and chopped bird’s-eye chili. Good lord. With dipping sauce this good, even a slipper would taste delicious.

Soon, the hairy crabs were served.

The Aberrant hairy crabs looked basically the same before and after steaming.

Their smell, however, completely changed. They smelled amazing now! They smelled exactly like freshly steamed hairy crabs!

Lin Jianyuan picked one up and measured it against his hand. Good lord, the crab’s underside was bigger than his entire palm!

City A was a major hairy-crab-producing region, so every year when crab season arrived, shops and roadside vendors selling hairy crabs seemed to bloom everywhere overnight like fireworks.

Even so, prices in City A were still what they were.

Before this, aside from business banquets, Lin Jianyuan never actually bought hairy crabs for himself.

If purchased outside, the crab as large as the one in his hand right now would cost at least several dozen yuan apiece even if it were missing an arm or a leg.

But now? It's Free! Take as many as you want!

Lin Jianyuan stared at the two enormous basins overflowing with steamed hairy crabs in front of him. His eyes practically lit up.

Of course, dinner couldn’t consist of hairy crabs alone.

After the steamed crabs were served, Xie Yu went back to stir-fry two more dishes.

Each half of his colon carried a plate as he walked steadily over.

He immediately noticed that in front of his own seat at the dining table, there were already two crab shells filled to the brim with picked crab meat.

The shells were packed full of leg meat, body meat, and golden roe. Extremely mouthwatering.

On the other side of the table was a small mountain of empty shells.

“Baby, come eat. They’ll get fishy once they cool down.”

Lin Jianyuan sat at the table, still struggling clumsily with a hairy-crab shell.

The crabs were still extremely hot from the steamer, making the tips of Lin Jianyuan’s fingers turn slightly red.

...Human hands. Human fingers. Packed with nerve endings.

Getting burned hurt.

For some reason, Xie Yu suddenly remembered the time Lin Jianyuan took him to the wedding banquet of one of his middle-school classmates. Lin Jianyuan broke apart the legs of a Desire Spider for him.

The Desire Spider’s legs were covered in spikes, and Lin Jianyuan was in a stable mental state at the time, yet several cuts opened across his hands.

...Good thing I kissed him then.

Back then, Xie Yu didn’t understand what it meant to be moved by someone yet. He simply thought it was amusing. On a whim, he grabbed the human’s hand.

He kissed it and healed the wounds.

Xie Yu almost wanted to travel back in time and pat his past self on the shoulder.

Well done. No regrets.

There were no regrets in the past. Naturally, there wouldn’t be any now, either, and there wouldn’t be any in the future.

Chu

“?” Lin Jianyuan looked at his wife in surprise as Xie Yu suddenly walked over, picked up each of his hands in turn, and kissed them. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

The corners of Xie Yu's lips curved upward as he sat down like nothing had happened. Then he ate the enormous meat-filled hairy crabs with his lover.

...

Two days later, Lin Jianyuan returned to the Bureau.

Not because his vacation was over, but because Shi Shaoning told him that the Containment Department’s surveillance footage was restored and called him over to watch it.

Lin Jianyuan agonized for two seconds. Then, between “go watch it” and “don’t go watch it,” he chose to go watch it while cursing the entire way.

Damn it. Logically speaking, Shi Shaoning and the Director could watch it themselves. Or they could have the colleague who used to work in the criminal police department watch it.

But Lin Jianyuan wasn’t entirely at ease.

If he was unaware of it, fine. But now that he knew, he wanted to see it with his own eyes.

“Don’t notify me about this kind of thing next time,” Lin Jianyuan told the Director the moment he arrived at the Bureau. “It’s annoying as hell.”

Shi Shaoning: “.”

Lin Jianyuan looked at him suspiciously. “What’s with that expression?”

The Director struggled not to laugh. “Shi Shaoning said the exact same thing five minutes ago.”

Lin Jianyuan: “...”

Fine. Fine!

So you dragged Shi Shaoning back from outside too, huh?

You old bastard!

Despite all the grumbling, the two A-class combatants and one old bastard went to the surveillance room and watched the footage from the incident with everyone else.

Dozens of pairs of eyes repeatedly reviewed the video.

They watched it from beginning to end, then backward, then over and over. After watching it dozens of times, they reached a conclusion:

Xie Li was innocent.

The mentor responsible for training Xie Li was also innocent.

Considering the possibility that Flash Granny was causing trouble, Lin Jianyuan even slowed the footage to its minimum speed and examined it frame by frame.

But still nothing.

Xie Li didn’t press the wrong button. His mentor’s emergency response after noticing the containment-cell door open was also completely proper.

Xie Yu did absolutely nothing wrong. After arriving at the scene, all he did was press the button Xie Li pressed a few more times. Who would have guessed the entire Containment Department would suddenly lose power?

As for the reason for the blackout, that was even more absurd.

The fuses blew, but not one specific fuse.

Every fuse in the entire circuit just blew up simultaneously.

There was no doubt that a massive energy surge hit the circuit, and it was most likely a result of the Aberrants’ collective riot.

Everyone discussed it for a while, but still reached no conclusion.

The most likely possibility was simply that all the Aberrants happened to riot at the exact same time.

Although the containment cells were equipped with bronze circuits, those circuits contained only one ten-thousandth of the power of the Remorse imprint.

They were nowhere near as powerful as the original imprint hanging from Lin Jianyuan’s neck.

If all those Aberrants received the same epic-level power-up as Delirium, then breaking through the imprints and escaping en masse was entirely possible.

Moreover, most of the Remorse imprint’s power was concentrated in the S-class containment sector at the very bottom of the Inverted Spire.

That was precisely why, when the Aberrants rioted, those few S-classes all remained obediently where they were, unable to join the mass jailbreak.

This probably wasn’t over yet.

When everyone left the surveillance room, their expressions were grave.

All of them still had their own assignments to handle. The Director waved a hand and dismissed everyone to go about their business.

Two hours later, in the Director’s office.

“So you suspect Flash...”

Shi Shaoning’s eye-roll progress: 20%. “No, seriously. Can you stop giving Aberrants these ridiculous names all the time? Can you be serious for once?”

Lin Jianyuan: “Then you name one.”

Shi Shaoning: “...”

Shi Shaoning fell silent for two seconds, rolled his eyes to 30%, and said, “Forget it. Let’s not waste time on something this trivial. So you suspect Flash Granny was behind it?”

“It’s possible,” Lin Jianyuan said. “But I think that the more likely explanation is that all the Aberrants got stronger. That’s why they were able to break through the imprints and escape, just like Delirium.”

Lin Jianyuan pulled out the Angel Eyeball and bent one of its wings.

A first-person recording from when Lin Jianyuan rushed toward the Containment Department immediately appeared before the three of them.

It even included the part where he stepped out of the elevator, whipped his head around, and vomited violently.

What an excellent bodycam.

Full color, fragrance, and flavor. It was immersive enough to make you feel like you were right there.

The corners of Shi Shaoning’s and the Director’s mouths twitched. Lin Jianyuan said, “Here. I started getting dizzy and nauseous, and I could hear a bunch of chaotic noises in my ears. At the time, I assumed the surroundings were just too loud.”

Shi Shaoning asked, “But actually?”

Lin Jianyuan: “Actually, it wasn’t just people making noise.”

Shi Shaoning and the Director both leaned forward slightly, brows furrowed.

The recording continued playing. On-screen, Lin Jianyuan was halfway through vomiting against the wall when he suddenly flew into a rage, straightened up, and roared:

“SHUT THE F**K UP!!! ALL OF YOU, SHUT THE F**K UP!!!”

The footage jolted violently. Apparently, even the bodycam was startled.

In the next instant, the image, which was previously blurred by interference, suddenly became crystal clear.

Lin Jianyuan: “Eyeball said that the footage was blurry before because the Contamination concentration around me was too high, and it was affected too. But right after I shouted here, all the Contamination in the surrounding area suddenly disappeared.”

Shi Shaoning and the Director exchanged a look.

The Director: “Continue.”

Lin Jianyuan patted the eyeball and made it play at double speed. “There’s not much after that. Everyone already knows what happened next.”

The Director: “So what you’re saying is...”

Lin Jianyuan scratched his head. “Maybe I’m not an ordinary person?”

The Director & Shi Shaoning: “?”

Shi Shaoning said flatly, “You’re dating a digestive system. Of course you’re not an ordinary person.”

Lin Jianyuan: “...”

Xie Yu, who was floating by the window and idly playing with the curtains, suddenly laughed.

“Be serious!” Lin Jianyuan coughed and dragged the topic back on track. “I’m not just flattering myself here. Before Delirium was contained, didn’t you guys study the routes he took every day...?”

Lin Jianyuan listed the times he went to and from work, worked overtime, went to the mental health center for treatment, ate at restaurants with his wife, went grocery shopping with his wife, and so on.

Those points aligned extraordinarily closely with Delirium’s movements. Anyone who wasn’t blind could tell at a glance that Delirium was chasing Lin Jianyuan.

Lin Jianyuan: “Shi Shaoning, remember the first time we met? At that basketball court? I was actually on the subway before that. The only reason I got off and ran outside was because I saw Delirium on the train.”

Shi Shaoning thought back for a moment, then nodded. “I was originally on vacation that day too. I only went because I received an emergency message saying Delirium was nearby and ordered me to provide support. So I was on the phone cursing out the Director.”

The Director: “...” I didn’t know I showed up in your story this early.

Lin Jianyuan continued, “If all of that was coincidence, then there’s one piece of absolutely conclusive evidence. The time the hundred-thousand-strong army surrounded our run-down little apartment.”

That happened because Delirium showed up at Lin Jianyuan’s door looking for him. He left imprints all over the floor, which the Bureau detected, leading them to surround and attack Xie Yu.

“Delirium was at your house?” Shi Shaoning’s expression suddenly became strange.

“Yeah.” Lin Jianyuan still found the memory hilarious. “There was a little misunderstanding, though. I wasn’t completely lucid at the time and mistook him for Xie Yu. My wife got really upset about it, so he used a single intestine to throw Delirium eight hundred kilometers away.”

“...” Shi Shaoning gritted his teeth. “So it was you two...”

“Ahem.” The Director hurriedly cut him off before Shi Shaoning’s negative emotions could ferment any further. He asked Lin Jianyuan, “So why exactly was Delirium looking for you? Any ideas?”

Lin Jianyuan spread his hands. “As everyone knows, Delirium is a mute idiot.”

Oh. Well, not a complete idiot anymore. He can now understand 'pspspsps'.

Shi Shaoning and the Director: “...”

“Actually, I’ve found something strange too,” the Director said. “Before this year, the frequency of Aberrant incidents was relatively stable. But starting in July this year, the number of Aberrant incidents worldwide rose noticeably.”

Lin Jianyuan’s expression changed.

“July.” The Director clearly noticed the change in his face. He repeated the date and asked, “Did anything unusual happen around you at that time?”

It was as if an invisible hand dragged the progress bar backward, and his memories snapped all the way back to the beginning.

“I... passed out.”

Lin Jianyuan sounded almost skeptical. “That time, I worked overtime and stayed up late for days in a row. I collapsed and was sent to the hospital. After I woke up, I went back to the company and kept working... and then...”

Then he saw vines in his coworker’s eyes.

Then came the frog.

Then he went home.

When he opened the door...

A pink digestive system spoke to him.

Lin Jianyuan emerged from the memory and suddenly thought of something. “Oh, right. Before I joined the Bureau, did [Hesitation] ever escape containment?”

Shi Shaoning and the Director’s expressions both changed slightly. They obviously understood what Lin Jianyuan meant immediately.

Xie Yu asked in confusion, “Why are you asking that?”

Lin Jianyuan: “Baby, do you remember the first time Captain Shi showed us around the Bureau...?”

That day, the moment they entered the elevator, Xie Yu sensed unusual movement from [Hesitation].

He immediately flung out his large intestine remotely, scooped up [Hesitation] just as it was about to escape, and casually threw it right back into its containment cell.

Then came the day they contained [Remorse]. [Hesitation] repeatedly attempted to escape that day too.

“Every time [Hesitation] tried to escape, it happened to coincide with you coming to the Bureau,” Shi Shaoning said in shock. “Could [Hesitation], like [Delirium], be looking for you?!”

“Uh... maybe?” That’s just too much of a main-character syndrome. The thought of secretly being the center of the universe made Lin Jianyuan feel somewhat embarrassed. He scratched his head and said, “And there’s also [Remorse] and Flash Granny. I feel like they’re kind of...”

Everything connected.

The Bureau encountered only a handful of S-class Aberrants in its nearly fifty years of existence.

Yet Lin Jianyuan encountered four of them in less than a month.

And that wasn’t even counting [Evil Domain], which lived with him day and night for ages and somehow became his romantic partner.

Every S-class Aberrant came for him.

No. Not only the S-classes.

From D- all the way to A-class, every Aberrant seemed somehow drawn to Lin Jianyuan. They would inexplicably show up around him.

“So, wife, why did you come to my house in the first place?” Lin Jianyuan suddenly turned his head.

“I was drawn to the negative emotions you gave off,” Xie Yu said. “There was a lot of it, enough to keep me full. Perfect for a long-term meal ticket.”

“I knew it.” The corner of Lin Jianyuan’s mouth curled upward. “So you really had ulterior motives toward me from the very beginning~”

Xie Yu: “~”

Shi Shaoning & the Director: “...”

Can the two of you refrain from letting your love-brain cloud your judgment during times like this?

Their expressions were probably so speechless that Lin Jianyuan coughed awkwardly and snapped himself out of the pink-bubble atmosphere.

“I’m planning to go meet [Hesitation],” he said.

Shi Shaoning frowned. “Aren’t you worried that, like [Delirium], something unpredictable might happen after [Hesitation] sees you?”

Lin Jianyuan: “If I don’t go see them, does that mean they’ll stop coming?”

Years as a corporate slave taught Lin Jianyuan one thing: When you ran into a problem, don’t procrastinate.

The longer you delayed, the harder it becomes. Leaving the problem sitting there wouldn’t make it solve itself. It would only make things worse.

Starting immediately and taking action might reveal that the problem wasn’t nearly as troublesome as you imagined.

Shi Shaoning and the Director exchanged a look, and the Director nodded.

After all, Hesitation was different from Delirium.

Lin Jianyuan had never met Hesitation, but Xie Yu had already fought it several times.

According to Xie Yu, Hesitation itself was not particularly strong in direct combat, but its ability was extremely annoying.

As the name implied, Hesitation meant indecision.

Hesitation wasn’t a combat-type Aberrant, but whenever a combat-type was just about to hit it, Hesitation could forcibly plunge them into a sudden, inexplicable, and irresistible bout of uncertainty.

And as the saying went: He who hesitates is bound to lose...

“It’s disgusting.” Xie Yu pouted. “That’s why I really hate fighting Hesitation.”

Lin Jianyuan smiled and squeezed his roommate’s liver comfortingly.

The group headed to the Containment Department.

Ten minutes later, they reached the deepest level of the Inverted Spire.

Everyone stared at the completely empty Containment Cell No. 2 and collectively fell silent.

The shattered bronze imprint lay on the floor.

The containment cell was empty, and [Hesitation] vanished without a trace.

Lin Jianyuan: “...”

Xie Yu: “...”

Shi Shaoning & the Director: “...”

Lin Jianyuan awkwardly rubbed his face.

All right. Apparently, he was overthinking things.

Sure, Xie Yu became his wife.

Sure, Delirium responded to his pspspsps.

Sure, Remorse randomly went to the night-market street to work as an NPC and happened to run into him.

Sure, no one ever observed Flash Granny throughout her entire existence, and the first time she appeared, she flashed right in front of him accompanied by a flood.

But [Hesitation]’s jailbreak genuinely had nothing to do with wanting to see him.

Lin Jianyuan: “.”

Damn it. Why does my face keep getting bigger and smaller? This is so embarrassing.

Whatever.

If [Hesitation] successfully escaped, it was likely due to the failure of the Remorse imprint again.

Since they were already here, they might as well go and beat the sh*t out of Remorse first.