Chapter 755 - 636: Intelligence

After a few seconds, Jeming withdrew his hand.

The man collapsed on the ground, and the other two men and a woman also fell under the influence of the Soul Search Spell.

The four people's breathing stopped simultaneously, pupils dilating, life signs extinguishing swiftly like a snuffed candle.

Jeming crouched down and searched through their bodies.

Weapons were meaningless to him, but money in this world was necessary.

He found a leather purse filled with some metal coins and a few paper bills.

The coins were made of copper and silver, and the bills were adorned with exquisite patterns, portraying various portraits and texts.

The amount wasn't much, but enough to support someone in an unfamiliar city for a while.

He stored the purse inside his Inner Grotto Heaven and stood up, taking one last look at the abandoned settlement, before turning to walk into the night.

The Energy Light Ball in his hand emitted a steady, soft white glow, illuminating the surrounding area within more than ten meters.

The sense of being watched from the darkness retreated far away under the shine, not daring to come close.

As Jeming walked, he sorted through the influx of information in his mind.

These four people were the peculiar bandits unique to this wasteland.

They were originally part of a rather large group, but a few days ago, they were swept away by the officials, leaving only these four to barely escape.

And in this person's memories, the most prominent were naturally the bizarre information.

The people of this world had coexisted with the eerie anomalies since ancient times, leading to a fairly clear classification of them.

The world's officials categorized them into five levels based on their maximum destructive force: Dangerous Level, Hazard Level, Disaster Level, Catastrophe Level, Destruction Level.

The most common ones are Dangerous Level, with salty fingers and that fear snake belonging to this tier.

It's the lowest level among the eerie anomalies, capable of killing, but with limited range and single means.

The Graffiti Mysterious is Hazard Level, a notch higher, with a larger killing range, more bizarre methods, and often possessing a certain level of intelligence.

And the Night Mysterious...

Jeming's footsteps paused slightly.

It's Destruction Level.

Of course, because eerie anomalies are fused with the Law, to cause external destruction, various rules need to be followed.

Theoretically, as long as one can delineate an eerie anomaly's killing rules and find the corresponding solution, then even encountering an anomaly with stronger powers might lead to survival.

Thus, although the Night Mysterious's level is high, its killing rules have been clearly deciphered, making its threat less significant to conventional society.

However, even if the rules of eerie anomalies are explicitly deciphered, it doesn't mean the anomaly is without danger.

Not to mention many eerie anomalies' killing rules don't inherently have a "path to survival," even anomalies with clear rules can cause substantial losses if intentionally exploited by some.

Such disasters occurred in that person's memories.

A terrorist organization once cut off all power supply to a city.

Being nighttime, the entire city plunged into absolute darkness.

The Night Mysterious "awakened" in that city.

After dawn, the city turned into a ghost town.

Except for a few particularly lucky individuals, the entire population of over millions disappeared, leaving behind only animals with insufficient Spiritual Wisdom and unmanned buildings.

This is the destructive power of a Destruction Level anomaly; if conditions are met, even erasing entire civilizations is done effortlessly.

Apart from eerie anomaly levels, the technological status of this plane also became clear in his mind.

It's roughly equivalent to the late twentieth century world where Jeming transmigrated from.

But "roughly equivalent" doesn't mean "exactly the same."

In some fields, the trajectories of development are entirely different.

The most evident discrepancy lies in aerospace technology.

Jeming's prior caution proved correct.

In this Plane, high-speed flight is a taboo.

When objects break the sound barrier, the sonic boom induces substantial "ripples" in the eerie world, attracting those sensitive to sound and vibration.

Flying too high bears similar risks; there are eerie anomalies belonging to high altitudes, lurking above the clouds.

Therefore, supersonic fighter jets and high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft aren't present, with the overall aerospace technology stagnating.

Yet oceanic technology presents a different picture.

Massive ocean-going cargo ships traverse the seas, and enormous nets pull tons of fish from the deep sea.

The ocean can be considered the lifeline of human civilization on this Plane.

The reason is that someone once tamed a marine anomaly, using it as a foundation to continually tame new ones.

These marine-type anomalies possess diverse abilities, some calming storms, others repelling dangerous creatures, or "blessing" ships with extra speed and stability.

Still, the deep sea remains off-limits to humans.

In the bandits' memories, descriptions of the deep sea are laced with an almost religious reverence.

Big things reside in the deep sea; nobody knows what they are since no one who ventured into the deep sea has ever returned.

Regarding weapons, the development of individual weaponry on this Plane far exceeds Earth's contemporaneous levels.

The reason lies in certain "gene drugs."

These are muscle-enhancement drugs developed utilizing eerie peculiarities, greatly boosting strength, speed, and response capability.

But the side effects are enormous; apart from a few particularly expensive ones, most ordinary variants have a success rate below ten percent.

Besides gene drugs, there's an even riskier path: becoming a "Spiritualist."

Sealing an anomaly within oneself to harness its power.

The host of the fear snake earlier is such an existence.

Spiritualists have a much higher ceiling than gene drug users, but anomalies may turn on them anytime, with a generally short lifespan.

Overall, most people on this Plane are still ordinary, relying on hot weapons to survive.

Jeming also learned from the bandits' memories that besides some widely-known anomalies, each city, due to varying circumstances, possesses its unique anomaly.

The original destination of these individuals was a city called "Fog City."

Fog City is located on the eastern coastline of this continent, a constantly rainy, densely populated fringe industrial city.

Perpetually shrouded in gray mist and the black smoke exhaled by factory chimneys, the air is suffused with coal smoke, sea fog, and a mix of chemical waste.

The city is large and chaotic, where official power cannot cover every nook and cranny.

A large number of abandoned factories, slums, and underground spaces serve as hideouts for various illegal Spiritualists, black-market merchants, and fugitive criminals.

For those wishing to "hibernate," it's a most suitable place.

These individuals originally planned to head to Fog City to lay low for a while, then return to the wasteland to resume their old trade.

Jeming lifted his gaze towards the northern night sky.

In that direction, approximately a day's journey away, lay Fog City.

His goal now was clear: to find an inconspicuous corner in that city to settle, hibernate, observe, research.

To figure out the mechanisms of anomaly emergence in this world, understand their fusion with the Law, and acquire related knowledge.

Ideally, to devise a way to capture anomalies of different levels, accumulating research materials for the upcoming challenge of reaching the Unity Realm Stage.