However…
When he lowered his head, nothing was underfoot.
The woman in red who had lain within arm's reach a second ago had vanished into thin air.
"Hmm?"
Steve snapped his head up, instinctively sweeping his gaze ahead.
The next instant his pupils shrank.
Fifty metres straight ahead, beneath a streetlamp, that vivid patch of red appeared again.
Still lying prone.
Still in red.
Still motionless.
"Director Steve, the pattern's pinned down."
"Hypothesis one: viewpoint refresh. When your gaze leaves the abnormality, it vanishes instantly and reappears fifty metres ahead of your current line of sight."
"When Director Steve turned to check the walls, the Red-Clothed Abnormality may have already disappeared and re-formed fifty metres away; the walls blocked your view."
"Hypothesis two: follow and reset. No matter how you move—even if you step right up to her—the moment you look away she resets to a fixed safe distance."
"Brains are a wonderful thing."
"It didn't appear just now because you kept staring straight ahead; with no break in gaze it had no window to spawn inside your field of view."
"A normal person would blink, and to the abnormality that counts as a viewpoint shift—letting it appear right in front of them. Zombies don't blink, so it never showed up."
Steve exhaled. With rule-type abnormalities, information was everything; once the rule was cracked, the danger plummeted.
"So you like to play refresh games? Let's play."
To test further, Steve focused his mind.
Buzz.
A ripple tore through space and another Fifth-Tier Zombie sprang from it.
"Watch the front."
He ordered the clone to lock its eyes on the newly refreshed Red-Clothed Abnormality.
Then Steve's main body turned around, back to the abnormality, and looked behind.
Predictably, the street was empty; no new anomaly had spawned.
He swivelled back to face forward.
The red figure still lay in the same spot, unmoved.
Because the clone's gaze had never left it, the abnormality couldn't register a break in vision and therefore couldn't trigger its teleport refresh.
"Looks right. It only moves when no one's watching."
Steve stared at the distant red shape, rule confirmed. Time to get serious.
"If you're shy of being seen, let's see how you like being blown up."
He gave the watching clone a new order.
The clone raised its right hand; freezing air condensed instantly.
Whoosh!
An ice-blue beam lanced precisely to the fifty-metre mark.
Frost erupted, thick ice plating the ground.
Steve smiled, then deliberately looked away and snapped back.
The moment he did—
The Red-Clothed Abnormality had refreshed again, but this time in a ridiculous pose: still lying prone, now wedged inside a block of ice.
The very ice the clone had created.
Steve's eyes flashed. Perfect.
"Detonate."
His lips moved.
Boom!
The ice imprisoning the abnormality exploded; savage cold energy burst at fifty metres, shards whirling through the air.
But when the frost settled—
The woman in red lay quietly as ever, her dress bright and uncreased.
The blast had passed through a phantom, leaving no real damage.
"So it only gains substance once the kill-rule is triggered?"
Steve narrowed his eyes.
"Tricky."
Under the night, an experiment continued.
Steve had the clone pin the abnormality with its gaze while he stepped forward, planning to use the thousands of Totems of Undying on his body to brute-force the rule.
He reached the red figure, bent down, and gripped her shoulders.
"Up."
He flipped her over like a fish, face to the sky.
In the dim lamplight he saw her full face at last: deathly pale, features twisted, almost masculine and rough—nothing like a woman's.
The instant his eyes registered it—
Crack!
A crisp pop sounded inside him.
A golden Totem of Undying shattered into motes of light, blocking a fatal rule kill.
"Hmm?"
Steve straightened, frowning.
"Triggered a death-rule? From contact—or something else?"
"Again."
With thousands of lives in reserve he felt no rush.
He stepped forward, flipped the abnormality back to lying prone, and drew a breath.
Then, like a surgeon, he began to deconstruct every motion.
In the Command Center a thousand experts held their breath, eyes glued to the slowed replay on the giant screen.
"Contact with shoulders… no reaction!"
"Flip complete… no reaction!"
"Gaze rises to neck… still nothing!"
"Gaze reaches chin… normal!"
Following the prompts, Steve inched his scrutiny upward.
At last his eyes met hers.
Four blank orbs stared back—no pupils, only white.
Crack!
Gold burst again; another Totem of Undying broke.
"Found it."
A playful smile tugged at Steve's lips; he casually tossed the abnormality back to the ground.
"Rule is: eye contact equals death. Look into your eyes and you die, right?"
Rule known—but the thing was still intangible; physical attacks were useless. How to kill it?
"If I can't kill you, I'll bleed you dry."
A sly glint flashed in Steve's eyes. Abnormalities were energy beings; every kill-rule cost power, and power wasn't infinite—except in MC.
"Out, all of you!"
Buzz-buzz-buzz!
With a sweep of his arm a hundred Fifth-Tier Zombies appeared, packing the street.
"Tie her up. Lock her head in place."
The Zombies lunged like wolves, trussing the Red-Clothed Abnormality into a rice-dumpling bundle.
Then they forged a solid ice wall, embedding her so only her head and eyes showed.
"Everyone—listen up!"
Steve stepped to the front and roared.
"Stare into her eyes. No blinking, no exceptions!"
A hundred pairs of unfeeling Zombie eyes snapped to those pale orbs.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
The street sounded like firecrackers as golden Totems of Undying shattered in rapid, endless succession.