The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 102: Please let it be a small baby goblin

Lucian sprinted out of his house in a burst of motion, his head turning as he rapidly scanned his surroundings.

Cold air struck his face, carrying with it the faint metallic smell that never left the streets.

His eyes flickered down briefly to the ground, taking in the corpses, before lifting again, sweeping across the entire space as far as his vision allowed.

He didn’t know where Lia had gone, and there was no way of knowing it.

There was no network—otherwise, he could have simply called her.

His fists clenched as he took a random route, running in that direction.

The sky was dim and dark, though faint hints of orange were beginning to bleed through. The sun was about to rise.

But it was still dark—though that didn’t matter to him, given his night vision.

His hurried steps echoed in his ears as they struck the road.

About a minute passed, but there was no one—only corpses and a heavy, suffocating silence.

“Huh?” Lucian’s eyes suddenly sharpened as he noticed a faint silhouette in the distance.

A flicker of hope crossed his gaze, and he dashed in that direction without hesitation.

…

On the other side—some time earlier—

Three young men were out in the dark, each holding a weapon in hand.

The night around them felt heavier than they had expected, as though it had grown denser after everything that had happened in the past few days.

One carried a baseball bat, another a small kitchen knife, and the last one a metal pipe—whatever they had managed to find in nearby houses or their own.

“Do you think we’ll be fine…?” the one with the pipe asked, his voice hesitant and slightly trembling, his grip tightening unconsciously around the cold metal.

“Dork, you’re worrying too much,” another said, resting the baseball bat over his shoulder with exaggerated ease.

“But—”

“Ah! shut up, Dork. Don’t start acting like a pussy after coming out here,” the one with the knife cut in immediately, rolling his eyes.

“And we’ve already discussed it, right? We ambush the monsters together—and then kill them.”

He paused for a moment, then added with a grim look on his face—

“I’ve seen those monsters with my own eyes. Those goblins running after that fatso.”

His body trembled faintly as he said it, as if the memory itself was too unpleasant to bear.

“Yuck, they killed him so brutally.”

All of their faces darkened at that, and even their bravado cracked slightly.

Though they tried to act cool and brave, even they were shaken by the sight of the monsters.

Each of them had witnessed a different—yet equally cruel—scene of how the monsters fought, how they killed people without any hesitation.

How they fed over them, though none of them had the guts to watch that far.

All of them had run away, hiding in their houses, and closed their doors tightly.

“But we’ll have to protect our neighbourhood.” The baseball guy said with a conviction that made both of their faces relax.

“Well said, bro!”

His chest puffed slightly as a confident smile lit his face.

The man with the glasses—whom they called Dork—sighed faintly.

He didn’t feel fully convinced, but all he could do was nod.

He wondered if he should have really listened to his friends, or if he should have refused when they’d previously told him about their plan.

But he didn’t even dare to say no to them due to his lack of courage.

They talked for a minute longer before walking away in search of a monster—or anything.

They had seen monsters, so they were convinced that something magical might be happening in their vicinity.

They held a faint hope that the monsters might be like the ones in their games—that they could gain XP or find magical items that might make them overpowered.

Their expression turned into disgust as they went through a few corpses.

The smell hit them first, and then the horrifying sight.

Each of them had a few parts of their flesh torn, eaten by birds, or maybe by those monsters.

All of them nearly vomited—and Dork had to do his best not to throw up, not wanting to make a disgusting sight before them.

It seemed he was a guy under peer pressure, someone trapped between his friends’ words.

He nodded faintly as he listened to the one with the knife talk about the goblins’ brutality.

The words barely registered in his mind as he raised a hand to his face, covering his mouth and nose at the same time.

He, himself, had seen the sight as their claws ripped a man’s chest.

It had been a few days since that event, but the image and the fear that came along with it hadn’t vanished.

A couple more minutes passed as they roamed the streets, hoping to find a monster… and kill it.

The idea was simple—to ambush a monster and attack while it wasn’t focused on them—but the execution was something they hadn’t thought through at all.

They all hoped to find a monster, while another part of their minds silently prayed that they wouldn’t encounter any creature at all.

‘Please let it be a small baby goblin,’ Dork thought, unaware that the other two were having similar thoughts.

None of them wanted to admit it, but none of them wanted to face anything bigger either.

Just then—

All of them heard something.

Footsteps.

Footsteps that were getting louder at a very fast rate.

Their heads snapped back, and the moment they did—

“Fuck…!” the one with the baseball bat cursed loudly in fear, seeing the person who had just arrived before them—his steps coming to an abrupt, unnatural halt.

His heartbeat rang loudly in his chest as he almost jumped back in panic.

For a split second, he had thought it was a monster trying to ambush them—the same thing they had been planning to do to another creature.

Dork had even fallen onto his butt the moment the figure appeared before them—almost as if he had suddenly materialized like a ghost.

But—

It wasn’t a monster.

All of them sighed at the same time, relieved.

Their tense bodies relaxed, their grips over their weapons loosened slightly.

“Scared the shit out of me…” the one with the baseball bat muttered under his breath, his voice so low that none of them heard it—though Lucian could hear him clearly.

He was the one who had just arrived and scared the shit out of them.

“Hey… bro, what are you doing here? And how in the heck did you come here?”

The knife guy asked, somewhat annoyed that they’d just gotten scared over him, his tone carrying an awkward irritation, masking his inner embarrassment.

Lucian looked at the three men before him.

They seemed to be in their early twenties, judging by their faces and their odd way of talking.

His eyes flickered over them for a moment longer, quietly assessing them.

All three of them had weapons, and also… there were metal utensils strapped over two of their heads—dented bowls tied on like makeshift protection—while the one with the bat wore a cricket helmet along with other mismatched gear that didn’t quite fit together.

Lucian didn’t care about all of that.

“Have you seen a girl around here?” he asked instantly, his voice carrying a faint hurry that none of them noticed.

“What?” The baseball guy muttered in confusion, his brows knitting together at the sudden, unexpected question.

All of their expression were the same.

Confusion.

Annoyance.

Knife bro turned his head, glancing at Dork—who was still on the ground, dazed—before clicking his tongue and helping him up.

“A young woman, about this tall… have you seen her around?” Lucian repeated, this time raising his hand to indicate her height.

Despite the urgency coursing through him, he had no way of knowing where Lia was—and there wasn’t even anyone outside he could ask.

The streets were empty, and the only ones out in the open were corpses.

The rest were either locked inside their houses… or had already run away.

He neither knew nor cared.

In this silent, dimly lit world, these were the only people he could find—people who had come out for reasons he couldn’t begin to understand.

The man with the bat frowned.

He thought for a small moment before he shook his head in dismissal.𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“No, we haven’t seen anyone here.”

He answered, though there was a sort of disinterest as well as annoyance that dripped from his tone.

The reason he felt annoyed was because of… Lucian.

Why?

Because—

They were here, wearing ridiculous items over their bodies to protect themselves, along with the weapons they had found from wherever they could.

Each of their steps was hesitant, careful—

Afraid that something might jump at them at any moment.

And then there was this man.

He was just wearing loose pants and a baggy hoodie, like he was out on a morning walk.

Even if he ignored his handsome face—which made him feel jealous—

There was no fear in his gaze, only a steady, unwavering focus, nothing like the expressions on their faces.

It felt like the man didn’t even know about the monsters and their killings.

Lucian narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Are you sure? You might’ve seen her. She has black hair, and she’s wearing…” he vaguely described her clothes, his words rushed as he gave as much information as he could that might help them remember if they’d seen her.

His mind churned violently beneath his calm exterior, running through multiple scenarios of what could have happened to her.

His patience was running thin, and he wanted to see his Lia as soon as he could.

“We don’t.” The baseball guy said again, this time raising his bat to his shoulders in a slow, deliberate motion, trying to scare him off, trying to reclaim the sense of control he’d lost for a minute just now.

His friend, too, raised his knife faintly, the blade catching a sliver of the dim moonlight.

Lucian barely noticed what they were doing.

His gaze flickered past them, settling on the last guy who had fallen earlier.

He had been nervously watching the confrontation.

“Have you seen her?” he asked again, his tone colder than before.

The two of them frowned in dissatisfaction, irritation flaring as they realized they were being ignored—Lucian wasn’t even looking at them.

He was asking the one with the glasses.

Dork flinched, seeing Lucian’s dark, cold eyes staring directly into his.

He shifted nervously, eyes widening, his shoulders trembling faintly under the weight of that gaze.

“Wh-what…?” The question came out uncertainly.

He had heard him clearly, but he didn’t understand why Lucian was asking him.

Why him?

“Oi, why are you asking him?” The baseball guy interrupted, his tone holding annoyance as he stepped slightly to the side as if trying to force himself back into the center of attention.

But Lucian didn’t even turn toward him.

Without sparing a glance, his attention remained entirely fixed on the man with the square glasses.

Both of Dork’s friends narrowed their eyes.

The baseball had had enough.

He stepped forward and raised his baseball bat, placing it over Lucian’s shoulder, the metal surface pressing lightly in a clear warning.

“Don’t think you are a big shot, you know?” he said with a threatening tone.

“Get lost, or I’ll make sure you do, and the process won’t be enjoyable to you.”

Lucian finally turned to him, his gaze dropping briefly to the bat resting on his shoulder before lifting again, giving the man his full attention.

The baseball guy thought Lucian was frozen and that would finally go away.

After a few seconds passed, Lucian finally took a step back, the small movement making him smile in quiet, triumphant satisfaction.

“You leave me with no other choice,” Lucian said with a soft sigh.

The man frowned, confusion flashing across his face before his eyes widened suddenly, not even realizing he had already lost control of the situation—or maybe he never had the control to begin with.