Shrouded Seascape

"Stop tracking the collar! Look at the right wall!" The surveillance camera turned, and they saw that the titanium alloy wall on the right side of the cell had been burned through, leaving a pitch-black hole.

Scattered green flames could be seen on the edges of the hole; clearly, the hole was made by 351's special ability.

"Oh no! 681's cell is on the other side of the wall! What the hell is that woman trying to do?! Quick! Switch to the camera in 681's cell!"

The monitors flickered, but they saw nothing but static. The camera inside 681's cell had obviously been destroyed.

"Sound the alarm! Lock down all floors and deploy all the combat teams!"

While the IMF members were moving around anxiously as if they were ants on a hot pan, Anna was using her corrosive green flames to burn holes in the walls as she slowly made her way to her destination.

She was staggering, but she was not paralyzed at all. In fact, the paralyzed half of her body had recovered two months ago. She had only been pretending that she had yet to recover for the sake of lowering their guard.

Just then, Anna stumbled forward, and she almost fell to the ground. Although she could move, she was still too weak. Moreover, she was really hungry.

Anna opened her mouth, revealing gums that had swollen from malnutrition. She bit down fiercely into her own forearm, and she tore at it frantically, splattering blood onto the ground.

Anna devoured her pronator teres muscle, consuming even her own blood. It tasted delicious to the famished Anna, and it was the heartiest meal she had ever eaten in the past few months.

Having received something to digest, her stomach stopped hurting, and she became slightly energized. There was intense pain radiating from her forearm, but the silver lining was that it dominated every other unpleasant sensation.

However, Anna knew that this feeling was fleeting. She had to find a way to escape while she could still move.

Steel walls were falling from the air to block her way, but they were of no use in the face of Anna's green flames of rot. Instead of the obstacles in her path, Anna was worried about the beeping collar around her neck.

The collar was definitely injecting an anesthetic drug into her, and she had to find a way to counteract it before it was too late.

Just then, a steel wall plummeted toward Anna.

Anna reacted quickly and raised her bloody left arm at a certain angle toward where the steel wall would land.

Crack!

A crisp and grotesque noise echoed as Anna's arm was crushed and split into two sections. However, Anna had raised her arm at the perfect angle, ensuring that the steel wall would sever her arm in a way that would transform it into a sharp weapon.

Anna bit her lips bloody to withstand the extreme pain as she forcefully propped herself up on the ground. The flesh trapped at the bottom of the wall was then forcibly torn off, splattering shards of bone and blood onto the ground.

Anna raised her hand and burned a hole in another wall. This time, Anna found herself in a room identical to her room.

The layout of this room was exactly the same as the layout of Anna's room, but this room was much more disgusting than Anna's room. Human blood and feces were smeared everywhere on the walls and the floor. 𐍂

The nauseating miasma was so thick that anyone would find it hard to breathe in here.

After destroying the surveillance camera, Anna turned her gaze to one of the filthy corners of the room. There was an old man curled up there, and his appearance was not any cleaner than this room. There were even green flies crawling over his dry, matted hair.

The old man was none other than 681. The IMF members had told Anna that he was capable of phasing through walls and manipulating puppets made out of flesh and blood.

"681, I'm your neighbor! There's no time, so we have to move now! We must release the others to escape from here!"

The old man stood up slowly, and the flies all over him dispersed with a buzz.

"Escape?" The old man looked at Anna's miserable figure, and then he glanced at the flickering red lights up above. The next moment, 681's indifferent face shifted into delight. Clearly, he seemed to have understood what was going on.

Without hesitation, he made his way toward the hole in the room.

"Wait! We still need to make a plan," Anna said, and she reached out to grab 681's filthy arm.

As soon as their arms touched, Anna's green flames of rot climbed up 681's sleeve, stupefying him. He reacted quickly, and his figure began to tremble at a high frequency, but his special ability was useless against the flames that had come from the Primordial Fire.

681's figure was still being reduced to ashes.

"You…!" 681 stared at Anna in disbelief. He truly didn't expect that Anna would attack him upon making a hole in his cell. The last thing he saw before the green flames engulfed his skull was Anna's joyful smile.

Just as the flames were about to reduce 681 to a pile of ashes, Anna took to the air like a cheetah, pouncing on 681 and disemboweling him using her sharpened bone that was sticking out of her arm.

The pitch-black Origin Essence—exclusive only to relics—was about to be devoured by the green flame, but Anna hurriedly scooped it out just in time with her intact hand. Then, she fished out the sea salt hidden in her underwear and hurriedly drew the relic fusion array on the filthy ground.

This was all the salt Anna had accumulated from demanding salt-grilled pork chops. It had taken her many days to accumulate enough salt just for today. By the time Anna was done drawing, 681's Origin Essence had already shrunk by half.

There was no time to waste. Anna raised her sharpened bone and disemboweled herself. Then, she pressed the Origin Essence on her pancreas.

The sea salt on the ground turned pitch-black, and an agonized look took over Anna's delicate face as her figure began to tremble at a high frequency.

It was not an ordinary tremor, as it looked like multiple Annas were overlapping in one place. As Anna trembled violently, her skin cracked open, splattering blood into the air.

Moments later, Anna's electronic collar phased through her neck and was thrown into the wall.

At the same time, a combat team finally reached Anna's location. They raised the rifles in their hands and fired at Anna.

However, a bizarre scene soon unfolded. No matter the kind and number of bullets they fired at Anna, they all phased through her and struck the wall behind her instead.

"This is bad! 315 has absorbed the special ability of another Anomaly! She absorbed 681! Send in Thunderstorm!"

Just as the combat team captain's words fell, a ball of corrosive green flame manifested and flew toward him. The combat team members dodged and poked their heads out of cover immediately afterward, but 315 had already disappeared, leaving behind a circular, burnt hole on the ground.

The combat team captain stared at the big hole with a grim expression. He then pressed on his earpiece and said, "Director Carlo, the α alloy that can restrain 681 is like a piece of paper to 315. This is going to be troublesome."

"Mmhm, I understand. Initiate the final plan."

Anna darted through the site like a fish in water. She seemed to have thrown all caution to the wind as she broke the containment of every Anomaly around her.

The site's countermeasures were basically non-existent in the face of Anna. Those capable of blocking her brand-new ability couldn't stop her corrosive flames, while those capable of blocking her corrosive flame couldn't block her new ability.

The higher-ups of this polar region site became even more anxious upon realizing that 315 was capable of absorbing more than just one Anomaly and that she was growing even stronger upon each absorption.

The entire site—full of contained Anomalies—had become nothing more than a treasure trove for Anna.