Chapter 85: The Gate to the Black Forest

In the dead of night, you walk through a silent forest, accompanied only by a bird...

Ms. Carmen, who hadn't been online for a long time, suddenly started speaking, even deliberately lowering her voice in an attempt to create a terrifying atmosphere.

X remained expressionless and continued walking, as if he hadn't heard anything, though his movements seemed to have a subtle stagnation.

But... what does it mean to only have birds for company?

The supervisor, who was in the darkness, subconsciously glanced back. Gregor should have been there, but now there was no one behind him.

When did he disappear?!

Ms. Carmen continued to speak in a low voice.

Oh! You finally noticed... that your companion disappeared without a trace.

X stopped because of his discovery. The big bird was still walking, but when it realized that the person behind it had stopped moving, it stopped and turned to look at him in confusion... but he didn't turn around. So the big bird decided to change direction.

When He stopped, the tremors that should have caused by His footsteps should have disappeared, but the ground continued to tremble slightly.

The trembling stopped, and the large bird's rear eyes suddenly saw something strange: a beautiful double-petaled white flower, its buds still radiating a bright green light.

He turned the whole bird around again, and countless eyes stared at the little flower, curiously taking a step forward.

"Wait a moment!"

X saw that flower and understood why. Gregor was probably eaten by the flower itself. Although the bird stopped in time and stood on one leg like a toothpick with a meatball on it, it still entered the hunting range of the TETH-class Anomaly - the Terrestrial Anglerfish.

The furry, gaping maw of the abyss slammed shut, the soft fur almost brushing against X's cheek as it closed heavily... It didn't close properly; the large bird was stuck in the middle, squeezed up.

For the first time, the large bird, which had always been grounded, experienced the feeling of flying. It was firmly wedged between the giant molars of the land anglerfish, its two feet hanging down naturally in mid-air.

This feeling was incredibly novel. The only slightly uncomfortable thing was that some of the land-dwelling anglerfish's teeth had poked into its eyes, and it was still grinding against them, trying to close its mouth.

The terrestrial anglerfish's two bright black eyes were almost squeezed together, but the big bird was a ball, and it kept getting stuck in its mouth.

Finally, it closed its little eyes completely and used all its strength in its beak, but the big bird wasn't crushed; instead, it was pushed out.

A large black ball flew straight into the deep blue night sky.

X stood there dumbfounded, staring at this absurd scene, with only one thought in his mind—Will Big Bird come back for dinner today?

Carmen was stunned. She opened and closed her mouth several times before she could speak, and even the voice that had been deliberately suppressed earlier could no longer be suppressed.

Wow... such a realistic physics engine... Wait! X! Bird! The big bird flew away!!!

If it weren't for the fact that it didn't have a physical form, Ms. Carmen would have already started shaking the X. Nobody knows if the anomaly will suffer fall damage, let alone where it will fly to.

The big bird didn't have wings at all; its wings turned into claws that carried lanterns. It couldn't even flap its wings to reduce gravitational potential energy.

As X ran in the direction the large bird had "flew away," he called the branch and asked Abram to bring back the inexplicably appearing terrestrial anglerfish.

But then the ground started shaking again, and the little white flower that had been emitting a green glow disappeared. The land anglerfish had run away.

Is this the terrestrial anglerfish that has broken free of the reverse Kabbalah inhibitor? Does it bite once and then move on to another spot?

*

Ango Sakaguchi was sent by Mori Ougai to monitor the movements of L Company. Originally, the Special Ability Special Agents Section would also send an agent to do the same thing as him, but after hearing that he had been assigned this task, their surveillance work was also handed over to him.

Today was another amazing day working for both of my employers!

There's not much to worry about with Company L. Their activities are mostly underground, and he can't go underground to monitor them properly. However, recently, a manager at Company L named X has been taking that jet-black bird out for a stroll every night.

Today was no exception. After calculating the time, they should go back. Ango Sakaguchi adjusted his glasses. According to the usual pattern, he could get off work in half an hour at most.

Lately, he's been having his days and nights reversed. X is clearly a nocturnal creature, always out and about with his bird in the middle of the night.

The unexpected happened at this time; he saw two identical Dazai Osamu!

Haha, I'm so sleepy, my vision is blurry, and I don't want to accept the bizarre scene I'm seeing that makes my heart stop.

The poor office worker rubbed his eyes and looked again, only to find it was dark.

This time, without Dazai Osamu, let alone two, his vision was completely black. What was going on?

Ango Sakaguchi took the binoculars down to see what was wrong, and that's when he saw a large black ball flying around.

Normally, black wouldn't be noticeable under the deep blue night sky, but this sphere was a glowing sphere, with star-like yellow dots on it constantly emitting light, making it extremely conspicuous.

Just moments ago, this large black bird, which should have been strolling on the ground, had flown into the air. Before long, the bird, which followed the laws of physics and flew in a perfect parabola, disappeared from his sight.

So fast! Dazai Osamu, whose physical skills were not even ranked in the top in the Port Mafia, was chasing after the birds one after the other. When he got closer, Sakaguchi Ango could see clearly that one of them was even blindfolded.

As an intelligence officer urgently recalled from Europe, Ango Sakaguchi could only say that he had heard about what had happened in Yokohama some time ago, as he was not there at the time.

However, he knew that Dazai Osamu had been fostered at L Company because of his eye problem, and later he was detained for breaking something. Mori Ougai was not angry at all, nor did he forcibly recall him. Instead, he acted as if his own child was on a trip.

The one with the blindfold must be the real person, and the other one is a product of supernatural abilities?

However, as the two Dazai approached rapidly, he finally saw that the blindfolded one had the same bright yellow eyes as the large bird on its head, and one of them even turned towards him, meeting his gaze.

They ignored the person spying on them. Dazai Osamu was not familiar with this person, only knowing that he was an informant for the Port Mafia, and he knew that he was sent by Mr. Mori.

Dazai Osamu from the other world of X knew him, but now was clearly not the time to expose his undercover identity; the most important thing was to catch up with the great bird that had set sail.

*

Tonight was a sleepless night for Mori Ougai. He had already gone to bed when Sakaguchi Ango called him directly, and his first words were quite weighty.

"Dazai-kun has become two?"

His mind cleared instantly, and he confirmed with the other party again. Only after receiving a positive answer from Ango Sakaguchi did he hang up the phone.

Mori Ōgai's first thought was that it was a parallel world, the same place as the Rándō who had never experienced death, the world of Dazai Osamu from the X world.

"What a convenient technology." He didn't believe that Dazai Osamu had appeared out of thin air; it was either some kind of supernatural ability or a special technology similar to a supernatural ability suppressor.

Dazai Osamu's constitution meant he couldn't use other people's supernatural abilities, so it all came down to technology. He was getting more and more curious about what that world was really like.

X was unaware that a purple-eyed fox was curious about his technology. He only knew that land anglerfish could indeed run. He was initially chasing the large bird, but quickly realized his own physical limitations and chose to call for reinforcements to chase it.

The large bird is not very dangerous right now, and its light is still in its possession, so there's no fear of accidents if employees are sent to chase it.

He then searched for the small flower of the terrestrial anglerfish nearby. Although it could not cause too much damage, the supervisor could not allow this "landmine" type anomaly to roam around, given the accident that had just happened. What if something similar happened again?

After arranging everything, he remembered Gregor who had gone missing. Sure enough, he had been eaten by the terrestrial anglerfish.

"I never want to see a flower that glows in my life."

Gregor was still shaken by the sneak attack; being eaten out of the blue was completely different from having a vague premonition that he would be eaten.

He joined the mine-clearing team with utmost concentration, but the Lu Sheng Anglerfish seemed to have turned off a blocking device on him, completely disappearing without a trace.

Finally, X found the swaying little flower among the grass. Upon closer inspection, not only was the soil color wrong, but there were also no teeth next to the flower. It turned out that it was in a state of not having broken through containment.

Two bright little eyes were still secretly watching me. When our eyes met, the head that had been peeking out quickly shrank back, leaving only a small, bright flower in the spot.

Thinking of the extra trouble He had caused tonight, the supervisor grabbed the terrestrial anglerfish's little lantern. With his movement, the furry terrestrial anglerfish swam out of the soil and was arrested in a very cooperative manner.

Gregor watched in terror, fearing that the alien would chew him up and stuff X into its mouth at any moment.

When X dragged Xiaohua back to the company, he found that neither the people sent to retrieve the big bird nor the big bird had returned. He had spent a long time looking for the land-born anglerfish, so they should have returned by now.

Dazai Osamu X2 actually succeeded in catching up with Otori, but some unexpected things happened.

In another world's Lobotomy Corporation, Adam, as the acting head, generously plans to send the Twilight God of War to X, thus completely eliminating the possibility of the three birds entering the Black Forest.

But coincidentally, as the cabbage crossed the gap between worlds, a land anglerfish bit the large bird and, without feeling the twilight, threw the bewildered bird into the entrance to the dark forest that had opened at the landing point.

Just a hair's breadth away, Dazai and his friends watched helplessly as the ball crashed into the goal where there was no goalkeeper.

"Ah..." Employee Dazai Osamu made an ambiguous sound, shrugged at his blindfolded self, "We're doomed now, the other two birds will probably be here soon."

"The two of us can't break down the gate on our own. Let's wait for the supervisor to send reinforcements."

He pulled out two guns, one black and one white, decorated with butterfly patterns, and, along with his own self in this world, who was known as the Wasp, began to painstakingly dismantle the door, figuring that every bit of damage counted.

What they didn't expect was that shortly after the ball went in, the cabbage, wearing a thin cloak, arrived in this world, while the remaining two birds didn't move at all and stayed in the company.

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Author's Note: As you know, anomalies are products of science, so... we have the most realistic physics engine!