Title: I swear I didn’t see it wrong, something is definitely wrong at the abandoned chemical plant in the East District!
Poster ID: Robed in Yellow
Content:
“OP here, this news is absolutely authentic!
I’m a night-shift delivery driver.
About half a month ago, around two in the morning, I passed by that unfinished chemical plant in the East District and heard…
how should I put it, like the sound of a giant dog gnawing on bones, crunching and snapping away.
It made my skin crawl.
I was curious and took a peek inside.
I saw a shadow by the second-floor window.
It looked like a person, but those hands…
those hands were ridiculously long, practically dragging on the ground!
I was so scared I twisted the throttle to the max and bolted.
The next day I heard the area was sealed off, supposedly to investigate a hazardous chemical leak.
It still hasn’t been unsealed.
Why would a simple chemical leak investigation take this long?
There’s definitely something fishy going on!”
Attached Image: A blurry nighttime photo heavily distorted by digital noise.
One could barely make out the silhouette of the dark factory in the distance, looming like a crouching behemoth, with a few eye-catching yellow caution tapes faintly visible around the perimeter.
“Chemical plant?
Long-armed monstrous shadow?”
Cyrene stared at the lines of text on the glowing monitor.
Her fingertips tapped against the wooden desk in a rhythmic clack-clack-clack.
She quickly switched windows, pulling up a map application and punching in the approximate coordinates.
The crisp clatter of her mechanical keyboard echoed in the quiet room.
A moment later, the screen shifted, dropping a bright red pin labeled ‘Hongda Chemical Plant’ right on the desolate edge of the East District.
“There’s only this one chemical plant in the East District right now,” she murmured.
“And the ‘Wicked Maps’app shows that this facility recently halted production and is currently in a’maintenance’ state.”
Cyrene rested her chin in the palm of her hand, her azure, diamond-shaped pupils narrowing with sharp interest.
“The timing matches, and the location aligns perfectly.
That delivery guy wasn’t spinning a ghost story.”
Immediately after, she skillfully tabbed over to her browser and typed ‘Hongda Chemical Plant’ into the search bar.
The moment she hit Enter, a bolded news headline hijacked the top of the screen.
[Breaking!
Serious Chemical Leak at Hongda Chemical Plant in East District, Emergency Controls applied in Surrounding Area]
Cyrene clicked the link, her eyes skimming the dense paragraphs of sanitized official rhetoric.
“News Report: In the early hours of Month X, Day X, a storage tank valve rupture occurred at the Hongda Fine Chemical Plant located in the East District of our city, leading to the leakage of irritating gases and industrial waste liquid.
The environmental protection department rushed to the scene immediately for disposal.
According to official reports, the leaked substances may cause respiratory irritation.
To ensure citizen safety, a temporary lockdown has been applied for the plant and the surrounding 500-meter radius.
The unsealing time is to be determined.
Police remind citizens: Do not listen to or spread rumors.
It is strictly forbidden to enter the cordoned-off area without authorization to avoid inhaling residual harmful gases and causing irreversible physical damage.”
Reading over the information, Cyrene leaned back in her ergonomic chair, crossing her arms.
Her face practically screamed, ‘Do I look like I was born yesterday?’
“What kind of leaked chemical substance stays locked down for half a month without fully evaporating?
If it were nuclear radiation, sure, I could understand that.
But standard industrial gas?”
She let out a soft huff of amusement, her fingertip tapping directly on the monitor over the words ‘Do not listen to or spread rumors.'”And specifically emphasizing’rumors’…
isn’t that just a guilty conscience talking?
It seems the Special Anomaly Bureau knew something was nesting there a long time ago and are just suppressing the media hype to prevent a city-wide panic.”
Seeing this, Cyrene already had a solid grasp of the situation.
There was a high probability that an Abomination had entrenched itself in that factory., its threat level couldn’t be low; otherwise, the Special Anomaly Bureau wouldn’t be struggling to clear it out after two full weeks of lockdown, forcing them to maintain such a massive quarantine zone.
“Since even the Special Anomaly Bureau is nursing a headache over this, it means this monster’s experience…
oh, wait, no.
Its Memoria trace value must be quite high.”
Cyrene glanced at the digital clock in the bottom right corner of her monitor: [00:14].
Right on cue, a heavy wave of fatigue washed over her.
She couldn’t suppress a wide yawn, squeezing two small physiological tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Forget it.
Visibility is terrible late at night, and since the perimeter is cordoned off, there are bound to be guards patrolling.
I’ll just go use the radar to scout the path during the day.
Tonight, I’ll focus on conserving my energy.”
Muttering softly to herself, Cyrene reached out and pressed the power button on her PC tower.
As the whirring of the cooling fans gradually died down, the screen faded to black, plunging the room back into a tranquil silence.
She stood up and stretched her arms high above her head, her joints letting out a faint, satisfying pop.
Then, she turned her head, her gaze falling upon the figure sitting quietly on the living room sofa.
Phainon was holding a smartphone.
The faint, cool light of the screen illuminated his well-defined profile as he focused intently on absorbing information about this new world.
“Phainon!”
Hearing Cyrene’s voice, Phainon paused.
He lowered the device and turned to look at her.
The sharp, calculating focus in his eyes instantly melted into a deep gentleness.
“Cyrene.
What is it?
Did you find something?”
Cyrene padded over to her bedroom door and pointed across the hallway to the spare room.
“Nothing major.
It’s just getting late, and it’s time to rest.
You can sleep in that room tonight.
It’s the ‘parents’ bedroom’ fabricated by the System anyway, so the bed and all the bedding are already perfectly set up.”
However, hearing her arrangement, Phainon showed absolutely no intention of getting up.
He shook his head gently, his tone perfectly level.
“There is no need, Cyrene.
Although my power is temporarily limited in this realm, my physical constitution as a warrior remains intact.
For me, sleep is not a biological necessity.”
As he spoke, he stood up—but instead of walking toward the bedroom, he strode straight to the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room.
He pulled the curtain back just a fraction, his sharp eyes scanning the dark streets outside with high alert, before returning to his seat on the sofa.
“I will keep watch in the living room and continue searching for information.
This world’s technological network is fascinating and contains a massive repository of data; I need to master it as soon as possible.
You go to sleep first.
I will ensure the absolute safety of this perimeter.”
Seeing Phainon’s stubbornly dutiful posture, Cyrene’s brow furrowed slightly.
She marched quickly over to the sofa, planting her hands firmly on her hips as she looked down at him.
“How can you say that?
Even if your body can handle the strain, what about your spirit?
You were just summoned here and immediately went through a high-intensity battle.
How could you possibly not be tired?”
Phainon looked up, meeting her demanding gaze.
He shook his head slightly, attempting to explain his reasoning.
“There is no need to worry about my mental endurance either.
Back in Okhema, I was accustomed to long-term—”
Before he could finish that sentence, Cyrene raised a hand, cutting him off completely.
“Phainon.
This isn’t Okhema.
And this isn’t that desperate, war-torn Amphoreus.”
Her voice softened considerably.
She looked at the young man who was so thoroughly used to carrying the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, her expression growing complex.
“You told me before that you originate from my Remembrance, which means you know everything I know.
Then you should also know exactly what happened over there afterward through my memories, right?”
At her words, a sudden ripple disturbed the surface of Phainon’s eyes, which were usually as calm and unyielding as still water.
He fell silent for a long moment.
Then, he slowly nodded, his voice dropping to a low, quiet register.
“I know.
That place…
has been saved.”
“Yes.
It has been saved.”
Cyrene leaned down, bringing her gaze perfectly level with his.
Her tone was incredibly serious, stripped of all her usual playfulness.
“You sacrificed far too much for that outcome.
In those countless cycles of reincarnation, you never lived for yourself for even a single second.”
She reached out, her small hand gently patting the back of his hand where it rested tensely on his knee.
“So…
take a rest, okay?
There aren’t so many bitter, tragic fates here, and you don’t need to keep your nerves constantly taut like a bowstring just to be a Deliverer.
Rather than watching you continue to burn yourself out in endless battles, I hope that you—and the other companions who will arrive later—can finally live a stable, peaceful life in this world.”
Cyrene’s words swept over him like a warm spring breeze, gently dissolving the invisible layer of cold, hard armor that Phainon always wore.
He looked at the girl standing before him, her bright eyes brimming with genuine concern.
In a daze, he almost seemed to see the ethereal figure at the very end of his memory, smiling softly and reaching a hand out to him.
He no longer needed to bear the agonizing weight of eternal reincarnation.
He no longer needed to be a living weapon that only knew how to kill.
After a long stretch of silence, the rigid tension in Phainon’s shoulders slowly melted away.
He stood up and offered Cyrene a warm, incredibly pure smile.
It was a smile that held far less divine detachment and far more human softness.
“I apologize, Cyrene.
I was stuck in my old ways of thinking and caused you to worry.” His voice was clear and soothing, like a frozen lake finally warmed by the morning sun.
“You are right.
The current me should indeed learn how to live like an ordinary person.”
With that, Phainon turned and walked toward the designated bedroom.
When he reached the doorway, he paused.
Grasping the handle, he looked back over his shoulder at Cyrene, who was still standing in the middle of the living room.
“Well then, I will go rest first.
You should sleep early as well, Cyrene; staying up late is detrimental to your health.”
Seeing his compliance, the lingering worry on Cyrene’s face vanished in an instant.
She flashed him a brilliant smile and waved her hand vigorously.
“Okay, I will!
Goodnight, Phainon!”
“Goodnight.”
With a soft click, the bedroom door closed, shutting out the ambient light from the living room.
Cyrene stared at the closed door, a heavy weight finally lifting from her chest.
‘Phew…
I finally managed to convince him to actually go to sleep.’
She rubbed her slightly sore cheeks, flicked off the main light switch in the living room, and fumbled her way back to her own room in the comforting darkness.
[Elysian’s Note:
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