The Maverick in the Sunflowers

Chen Miemie had a rather subtle personality trait: he responded better to a soft approach than a hard one.

When encountering arrogant ones, whether humans or anomalies, he would fight them without hesitation. But when faced with those who looked easily bullied, he wasn't very overbearing.

"Social Anxiety Shadow, right? I'll just call you Little Introvert. Tell me, what kind of abilities do you have?"

"D-don't just casually give people names. We aren't that close yet."

"Hmm?" Chen Miemie grunted.

"Alright, you can call me Little Introvert. But I have social anxiety, so I can't be friends with you," the shadow instantly cowered.

"I was born from the shadows of people with social anxiety. When they are in social situations and feel extremely uncomfortable, a shadow that only they can see appears beneath their feet. The more people there are, the worse they feel, and the larger and more twisted the shadow becomes. Eventually, I manifest."

"Right, and what's your passive ability?"

"I pull at people who can see me from the shadows, making them say inappropriate things, or causing them to develop autism from then on."

"Then why aren't you pulling at me?"

"You don't have social anxiety. Besides, your whole body is made of moonlight; I would be dispersed by the light the moment I touched you."

"Go, go, go back to your mist. If you have social anxiety, just stay at home. What are you running around for?" Chen Miemie stepped out of the shadow, not wanting to bother with this anomaly anymore.

"Oh, okay. If it weren't for the mist at my home suddenly bringing me here, I wouldn't want to run into anyone either."

Off to a bad start and failing to find a desirable anomaly, Chen Miemie flew out of Sixiang City.

After flying for about half an hour.

Chen Miemie came across a flower field.

It was a massive patch of sunflowers.

Out in the wilderness, in the dead of night, stood a forest of sunflowers slightly taller than a person.

The sunflowers, with their large floral disks, bowed their heads slightly, looking like faceless visages silently watching anyone who wandered into the field.

Chen Miemie originally thought that these sunflowers would come alive, suddenly attack, and grind intruders into meat paste to use as fertilizer.

However, after walking a full circle around the field, there was no movement at all.

"What's going on? Little anomaly bro, where are you?"

The two half-moons in Chen Miemie's eyes continuously scanned the flower field.

Soon, he noticed something unusual.

There was no wind in the field right now, so almost all the sunflowers were perfectly still, except for one.

It was a moving sunflower, almost indistinguishable in appearance from the others.

Wherever Chen Miemie walked, the head of that sunflower followed him, turning in his direction.

Chen Miemie approached it.

He poked the moving sunflower with his hand.

"Hey, can you communicate?"

The sunflower twisted its stalk below, and its very first sentence was actually flattery: "You look really good."

"Thanks, you have a great eye."

"I am very happy right now, and I really like you," the sunflower's tone became increasingly gentle.

Before Chen Miemie could speak again.

The center of the sunflower's disk split open into a massive mouth, revealing ferocious fangs shaped like sunflower seeds, and swallowed Chen Miemie with lightning speed.

Chen Miemie didn't panic at all; this situation was completely within his expectations.

This was only natural. If the flowers in this sunflower field didn't attack people, wouldn't this whole terrifying atmosphere be a waste?

Less than three seconds later.

A surprise came.

After swallowing him, the sunflower didn't bite him. Instead, it formed a soft sofa inside its floral disk, letting him sit comfortably.

The huge mouth on the disk didn't close either, as if it was intentionally left open for him to breathe and admire the moonlight.

"Aren't you going to attack me?"

"I like you, why would I attack you?" The sunflower was very confused.

"Why do you like me?"

"I don't know either. Tonight, as soon as you entered the field and I saw you, I couldn't look away."

"Alright then. I encounter this kind of situation often, I'm used to it." Chen Miemie was a bit thick-skinned.

One person and one flower quietly watched the sky for a while.

"I have to go," Chen Miemie spoke, breaking the silence.

"Oh."

The sunflower didn't pull any crazy stunts like "You can't go, you have to stay and accompany me forever." Instead, it gently sent him out of its disk.

"I'm leaving then."

"Mhm. Can you come play with me often? The sunflowers here won't play with me," the sunflower's tone was full of expectation.

"If I have time, I will. But they are all your own kind here, why do they give you the cold shoulder?"

"They are all sunflowers; they are active during the day and move toward the sun.

I'm an outlier. I don't react to the sun. Only at night do I move toward the moon.

They all say I'm a monster and even gave me a nickname, calling me Moonflower."

Chen Miemie blanked for a moment.

Good heavens, so it was "one of his own flowers".

"Are you willing to come with me?"

The sunflower nodded, then shook its head.

"I can't go with you. Our entire flower field is a single entity. I only come out at night when they are asleep, and during the day, they are the ones active."

"What if I dig you out separately?"

"It's useless. Tonight I am this flower, but the next time I come out, I'll be a random different flower in the field."

"So that means, to take you away, I have to take the whole flower field, and during the day, it'll still be a bunch of actual sunflowers."

"Mhm."

Chen Miemie found this a bit tricky.

First of all, he couldn't bring such a massive flower field back to Sixiang City. Secondly, he didn't like daytime sunflowers either.

"Alright, I'll slowly think of a way. If there's a chance, I'll see if I can separate you and take you away individually."

"Oh, okay."

"Goodbye then."

"See you next time."

Even long after Chen Miemie flew away, this sunflower remained facing the direction he left in, motionless for a long time.

Chen Miemie flew through the air.

He also wanted to take that Moonflower with him, but he couldn't think of a good method for the time being.

To be precise, that flower field was the true anomaly. The Moonflower and the regular sunflowers were two different personalities of the flower field; they couldn't be forcibly separated by external force.

"There's always a way. For now, let's find an anomaly I can take home today."

Flying in the air and looking down from above, his twin-moon eyes had astonishing vision. Even with the mist blocking the way, he could spot anomalies from far away.

For some whose appearances were an immediate, ugly rejection, he didn't go down to fight and kill them; he simply flew past.

Before long, he arrived at a small lake.

He saw the aura of an anomaly in the water.

Although he wasn't afraid of death, he didn't really want to go into the water.

Thinking back to the Brain in a Vat he encountered during his graduation exam, he still felt slightly uncomfortable.

He definitely didn't want to get covered in brain matter.

The water in the small lake was very clear, and no living creatures could be seen.

This was highly unusual.

In normal bodies of water, even if there was an anomaly inside, it wouldn't completely wipe out the entire ecological chain.

Fish, shrimp, microorganisms, duckweed, shellfish, and so on would still be present.

Here, absolutely nothing could be seen. The water was excessively clear.

Chen Miemie decided to try peaceful measures before resorting to force.

"Hello there, is the anomaly friend in the water home? Come out and let's have a chat."

The next moment, Chen Miemie's entire body shuddered, and then... there was no "and then."

After a good while, a voice came from the water: "Why don't you have any blood in your body?"

"Oh? So it was you trying to extract my blood just now. I'm an Ultraman who can turn into light now, you can't extract anything from me."

A ripple spread across the surface of the water.

Followed by the appearance of a small whirlpool.

From the whirlpool, a transparent humanoid figure made entirely of water slowly emerged.

"High-tier Mystic, I am the [Water-form Artist]. It seems I will be adding another fine piece to my collection today."