They say I'm a world-destroying anomaly.

Chapter 91 [Silent Raggedness]

An indescribable sense of absurdity filled Cheng Xu's heart.

This is the second time this feeling has appeared in a short period of time.

He hadn't told Fields that after seeing the Shadow's remains disappear, he had tried to "pull" it out of the ground using his matter manipulation abilities.

But he soon discovered that he couldn't select any targets by manipulating matter.

Beneath the ground within the range of the ability, there was absolutely no trace of the viscous liquid; it was as if it had simply evaporated from the world.

Even partial time travel cannot restore the vanished Shadow Slug.

And now, the [Silent Cage], which should have been properly contained by the Administration, has also appeared before him.

New and bizarre phenomena kept appearing, and the initial absurdity gradually faded, replaced by a sense of curiosity and excitement in Cheng Xu's heart.

Fields, who had been observing Cheng Xu's micro-expressions, leaned closer and asked, "Brother Cheng, do you recognize this?"

"Hmm, this is a security-level anomaly [Silent Raggedness]."

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Cheng Xu nodded, searching his mind for detailed information about this anomaly.

"The first time the Bureau of Anomalies came into contact with its intelligence was about 3,300 years ago, when it was reported by an interstellar fleet."

"One of the escort ships in the fleet mysteriously disappeared. After multiple investigations by the Administration, it was discovered that the culprit behind the disappearance was the Silent Ragged."

"Hidden within its tattered fabric is a highly distorted local space, into which anything, including light, will be transmitted upon contact."

Fields asked curiously, "And then what happens after you're teleported?"

"According to research, time flows faster inside the space than outside. If you are unfortunately swallowed by it, you will be quickly digested by it."

"When the escort ship that was initially swallowed was discovered, only a small amount of irregularly shaped debris remained."

Fields silently took a step back, gripped his weapon tightly with both hands, and shifted most of his attention to the tattered cloth floating in the sky.

He didn't want to be swallowed by this thing for no reason and die without knowing why.

Although Omar, who was not far from the two, could not fully understand the professional terms Cheng Xu used, he could still grasp the meaning.

Under Omar's command, the members of the Bone Tribe were on high alert, and all pointed their guns at the [Silent Cage].

"Don't shoot! Firearms are ineffective against it!"

Cheng Xu instinctively stopped everyone from taking the next step.

After searching his memory, Cheng Xu was certain that he had not misremembered; this security-level anomaly had been contained by the Administration Bureau.

Since this anomaly first appeared, the Administration has devoted considerable manpower and resources to an extraordinary search.

The fundamental reason for launching the search operation is that the existence of the [Silent Barrier] has threatened the normal interstellar travel order.

According to statistics, in the hundreds of years from its initial discovery and naming until its containment by the Anomaly Management Bureau, it has devoured 79 ships of various sizes, as well as a large number of unmanned devices distributed in outer space.

At the same time, its activity range and trajectory lack regularity, and its existence form, which is almost entirely composed of vacuum dark matter, makes it difficult to detect its whereabouts by conventional means.

So it wasn't until hundreds of years after it was discovered that the Anomaly Management Bureau finally found its trail by chance and successfully contained it.

After containment was completed, the Administration conducted a comprehensive inspection and analysis, and found that the Silent Cage did not have self-awareness and could be regarded as a spatial distortion phenomenon caused by extremely rare factors.

The phenomenon of it devouring others is merely a passive behavior.

In other words, the Silent Raggedness itself is wandering in the universe, and the ships and equipment that it "eats" are just unlucky enough to come into contact with the anomalous entity without realizing it.

It lacks strong active threat, and the containment method of the [Silent Cage] is exceptionally simple, ultimately resulting in this anomaly being rated as the lowest level of security.

But this only deepened Cheng Xu's doubts.

The containment site of the Silent Cage is at least five star systems away from the planet Taranis. If what appears before us is the true form, it means that the Anomalies Management Bureau's containment procedures have failed.

However, during his journey to Taranis, he never heard the Authority issue any announcement regarding the Silent Cage's release from containment.

Cheng Xu quickly analyzed the situation in his mind.

All signs indicate that what appeared before everyone was not the actual anomaly.

Unless there exists another identical [Silent Threshold] in the universe.

A thought seemed to flash through Cheng Xu's mind, but before he could connect the scattered thoughts, Fields' exclamation rang out beside him.

"It's coming closer!"

In mid-air, the fluttering black fabric resembled swirling clouds, slowly magnifying in Cheng Xu's vision.

"Mr. Cheng! What should we do!"

Omar's voice was filled with anxiety. Everyone else also turned their gazes to Cheng Xu, their muscles tense.

After Cheng Xu's big cat found this crevice, the group already showed signs of implicitly accepting him as their leader.

And coincidentally, he was the only one present who knew about the strange things above, so he naturally became the backbone of the group in the emergency.

"Do I even need to tell you?! Run!"

Cheng Xu shouted and ran towards the other side of the desolate Gobi Desert.

Even if what's hanging overhead isn't the actual [Silent Threshold] anomaly, you can't just stand there and watch that thing crash down on you, can you?

The others reacted just as quickly, clearly prepared. At Cheng Xu's command, they took off running.

Fortunately, the area covered by the suspected "Silent Raggedness" was only about the size of a basketball court. With everyone running at full speed, they quickly distanced themselves from its expected landing point.

It's unclear whether it was because it sensed the escape of its own target, but the black matter in the air was falling at a noticeably faster speed.

Layer upon layer of darkness poured down, engulfing the spot where they had just been.

"Gurgle————"

The sounds of swallowing filled the air as they watched the edge where the earth met the darkness begin to dissolve, as if a gluttonous maw were devouring it.

The earth began to sink, and a bottomless pit appeared before everyone's eyes.

At the edge of the pit were irregular, jagged marks. One can imagine that if they hadn't run away in time, they would probably be nourishment for the black substance by now.

"Brother Cheng, this, this—"

Fields' voice trembled slightly.

For some reason, seeing the deep pit in the ground gave him a strange feeling of unease.

It's as if I've experienced a similar scene before, but I can't recall the specifics.