Zhuohua carried Maomao into an empty alley, then poked it. “Don’t do that again.”

“Meow~”

“Even if you really wanted revenge, you shouldn’t have burned down the whole street… Burning that shop was wrong, too. And you definitely shouldn’t have framed her and gotten her thrown in prison. You could’ve just left a puddle of cat pee outside her shop.”

“Mrow!” Maomao protested, poking Zhuohua with a tentacle.

I’d never do something that disgusting!

Maomao’s goofy expression made Zhuohua laugh. She rubbed its little head. “I know you’re powerful, but what you did really wasn’t okay.

“They made fun of me, so you can gross them out a little in return. Give them nightmares for a few days, or make them come down with a minor illness. But framing someone and getting them thrown in prison is going too far.”

“The others didn’t insult me, though. And you burned down an entire street, taking innocent people down with you. Now we can’t even buy anything.”

With every sentence Zhuohua spoke, Maomao’s ears drooped a little lower. By the time she finished, they’d disappeared completely.

Zhuohua reached out and tugged at one of its little ears. Only then did Maomao’s ears come back.

“But it’s okay. Luckily, nobody died. I remember that if your shop gets damaged by a fire from another store, you can apply for compensation… You just need to get that woman out of prison and give her some money.”

Maomao tilted its head and looked at Zhuohua for a while, then gave a little yowl.

“Mm. Don’t do that again. Let’s go home.”

Zhuohua carried Maomao toward the apartment building.

Base 17 had plenty of commercial streets, but this was the only one nearby that allowed people with slum-class status to enter.

That was why the rent on this street was unusually cheap. The selection of goods seemed limited, too. Even the clothing stores only sold things that had gone out of fashion ages ago, and they couldn’t compare to the shops on other streets.

The only upside was that prices were much lower than in the other commercial districts.

I’d heard that in the other commercial districts, you could even buy chemical drugs that enhanced your strength, loads of electronic devices, and weapons made from special materials. Flying cars zipped freely through the streets, and zero-gravity tracks stretched above the crowds.

It was almost like a world from the near future.

If only I could go and see it.

The apartment building looked gloomy and run-down. The white paint and plaster on the walls had peeled away, exposing lumps of hardened cement.

“Kitty, I’ll cook with lard for you today, and I’ll have a meat floss cake. How does that sound?”

“Meow.”

“Why was that answer so short?”

Zhuohua headed down to the basement, carrying Maomao and discussing what they should have for dinner.

“Hey, are you the one who lives here?”

A voice shattered their peaceful moment.

Zhuohua and Maomao looked up. A figure stood by the basement entrance.

The figure was shrouded in a black cloak, making it impossible to see his face. All Zhuohua could tell was that he was a tall man.

“Mm, that’s right.” Zhuohua nodded. “I live here.”

“Who were you just talking to?” the man in the black cloak asked. In a flash, he appeared right in front of Zhuohua.

Zhuohua froze for a moment, then answered as if nothing had happened:

“I was talking to my cat.”

Zhuohua stroked Maomao as it rubbed against her cheek, acting spoiled. “You just can’t see it, and I don’t want you to see it.”

After facing a monster that wasn’t human, Zhuohua had grown bolder. She’d realized how powerful Maomao was, and a faint sense of superiority had begun to grow inside her.

My wife is amazing! You’re all jealous, aren’t you?!

That was about the level of her superiority complex.

And so she got carried away. She’d grown gutsy enough to think that even if she couldn’t face an anomaly head-on, at least she could run away.

“Hmph.” The man in the black cloak clearly didn’t believe her.

As far as he could tell, Zhuohua had been talking to thin air the whole time, like a lunatic. Unless some anomalous object or ability was concealing the thing she was speaking to.

But Zhuohua’s steps were unsteady, her body weak, and she had no trace of an Anomalous person’s aura.

She was obviously an ordinary person. Where would she have gotten an anomaly from?

Still, to be honest, when he’d first seen this woman, he’d almost thought an anomaly had appeared in broad daylight. If she hadn’t been so voluptuous, he might not even have realized she was a woman.

Besides, the man in the black cloak didn’t think anything in a slum like this could block his perception.

And anomalies didn’t have much intelligence. They were consumed by an endless hatred of living things. The moment they spotted a human, they’d drop their disguise without hesitation and attack like beasts, throwing caution to the wind.

After thinking it over for a few seconds, the man in the black cloak decided to use [Mind Probe] on the crazy woman.

[Mind Probe] was a perception ability specifically used to search memories. But because it caused irreversible damage to the nervous system and had a high fatality rate, its use was restricted to serious criminals.

Still, this world was always lenient toward the strong, and Base 17 was willing to show the man in the black cloak a little leniency, too.

As long as he didn’t kill an ordinary citizen, he wouldn’t be punished. Even if he did, he could avoid prison by paying a hefty fine.

But people with slum-class status weren’t considered “ordinary citizens.”

And this woman in front of him, whose name was Chi-something, had once been the young lady of a family. But when the family fell apart, she became a fallen phoenix.

No—after taking on a massive amount of debt, she was now worth less than a chicken.

If he killed her, he might even spare her from being taken away by the Weird Shark Gang.

That place was terrifying enough to make even him shudder!

With that thought, the man in the black cloak pointed a finger at Zhuohua. “Since there’s something wrong with your head, let me help jog your memory.”

As he spoke, a long black needle emerged from his finger and shot toward Zhuohua.

“Ah!” Zhuohua let out a startled cry.

The little cat nestled in the crook of her neck lazily opened one golden eye and glanced at the man in the black cloak.

“Bzzzz!”

A deafening buzz erupted beside the man’s ears, loud enough to burst his eardrums. He hurriedly withdrew his hand and clapped it over his ears. The black needle, which had been streaking through the air, crumbled into specks of ash and vanished.

The man in the black cloak’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

In that instant, all kinds of guesses flashed through his mind. But every one of them pointed to the same conclusion: this disfigured woman was an Anomalous Spirit Master far more powerful than he was!

But before the man in the black cloak could think about what to do next, the terrifying buzz suddenly fell silent.

He froze. Everything around him was pitch-black, and every sound had vanished.

He couldn’t see a thing, even with his hand right in front of his face. The constant curses and gunshots of the slums seemed to have been erased from his mind.

“W-what’s going on?” The man in the black cloak panicked. “I’m a member of the Anomaly Affairs Bureau at Base 17. I didn’t mean to offend you, senior!

Senior! Please let me go! Spare me just this once!”

But no matter how desperately he begged or what Occult Arts he used, he got no response. All he could do was wail helplessly in the pitch-black world.

Zhuohua was completely bewildered.

The man had just shot a long black needle at her. The moment she saw it, fear welled up from the depths of her soul, and she couldn’t help screaming.

But the next second, the man suddenly clapped his hands over his ears and then vanished without a trace.

Even the needle had suddenly crumbled to dust.

Was it Kitty?

Zhuohua instinctively looked at the cat on her shoulder.

But Kitty hadn’t even moved. How could it have made the man in the black cloak disappear?

It wasn’t some supreme being who could erase the Great Dao. It couldn’t possibly send someone plunging into an endless hell just by looking at them.

Could it be… that I screamed so loudly I scared him off?

Or did my screaming look so much like that world-famous painting that I frightened him away?

Zhuohua fell into deep thought.

Maomao pretended nothing was wrong and licked its fur, secretly delighted. Zhuohua was so innocent, so easy to fool.

Maybe I can play more pranks on her from now on?