Although there was a business class section separating first class from economy, Tang Laoya and the others could still hear the commotion when the gunshots rang out.
Tang Laoya glanced sideways toward the end of the aisle. He noticed that the flight attendant who had originally been stationed there had multiplied… into several. It seemed like all the flight attendants for this flight had gathered there. Stranger still, the connecting door, usually just closed with a curtain, was now actually shut.
First-class cabins don’t always have an aisle door. Even when they do, to avoid giving economy class passengers the impression that the airline is intentionally highlighting the wealth gap, the door is typically left open with just a curtain drawn across. The current situation was truly unusual.
Tang Laoya faintly heard another burst of gunfire. Seeing the surrounding passengers remaining relatively calm, he felt awkward about calling a flight attendant over to ask. Using a trip to the restroom as an excuse, he got up and walked toward the aisle.
But the moment he stood up, the attendant on watch noticed him and immediately approached. “Sir, the aircraft has encountered severe turbulence. The shaking is quite significant at the moment. Please return to your seat and remain seated. You can attend to other matters once we’ve passed through this strong wind zone.”
“I need to use the restroom,” Tang Laoya said.
The flight attendant looked troubled. “There’s a minor malfunction with the restrooms at the moment, and they’re temporarily unavailable. We hope you can bear with it. If it’s truly urgent… I could find you a bottle.”
“Huh?”
Being asked, a first-class passenger, to make do with a bottle instantly made Tang Laoya feel that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. Combined with Shen Ge’s departure, the young woman who had briefly interacted with Shen Ge earlier also being called away, and the cabin door being sealed off…
Tang Laoya decided to stop probing. Lowering his voice, he asked directly, “I thought I faintly heard gunshots from the economy cabin just now. Has something happened?”
The flight attendant said apologetically, “Sir, please rest assured. Specialists are handling the situation on the aircraft. You just need to return to your seat, remain quiet, and cooperate with our work.”
“The specialist you mentioned… is Mr. Shen? Has an anomalous event occurred on the plane?” Tang Laoya recalled Shen Ge’s identity. Connecting that with the kind of incidents that would require his intervention, a growing unease settled in his heart.
“Sir, please return to your seat first,” the flight attendant urged again.
Tang Laoya could only pray silently in his heart that Shen Ge could resolve this anomalous event smoothly and not let him have the “privilege” of witnessing the horror of an anomaly firsthand.
Just as Tang Laoya, sitting in his seat, grew increasingly restless and anxiously waited, he faintly caught a whiff of a putrid, rotten smell beginning to permeate the first-class cabin.
It must be noted that this was first class. Not only were there air purification systems, but the flight attendants would immediately address even the slightest unusual odor. A smell like rotting corpses simply shouldn’t be possible here!
Tang Laoya cautiously looked around, leaning to peer at the passengers in front and behind. They didn’t seem to have noticed anything amiss yet—listening to music, watching movies, sleeping.
Then, a passenger in the same row, to his right, caught Tang Laoya’s attention.
That passenger had both hands resting on the armrests, head bowed, looking as if asleep. But this was first class, not economy. The seat’s comfort level was akin to lying on a soft bed. If one wanted to sleep, it would make much more sense to recline fully, not sit upright like this.
Strangest of all, a white, viscous substance was dripping from the person’s fingers resting on the armrest. Looking more closely, it seemed as if the person’s hand was… melting.
Just as Tang Laoya was about to call a flight attendant to check on that passenger, the passenger suddenly slowly raised their head. As if noticing Tang Laoya’s gaze, they turned their head to look at him.
The passenger’s face was deathly pale, as if coated with a layer of white wax. Both eyes were entirely black, eerily reminiscent of the smoky makeup of vengeful ghosts in horror movies. Most terrifyingly, after meeting Tang Laoya’s eyes, the passenger’s lips twisted into a sinister, horrifying smile. Their lips moved as if saying something.
Being “looked” at by that passenger, Tang Laoya felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. An intense wave of fear surged through him, and he instinctively cried out.
“Ah—!”
“A ghost!”
Tang Laoya’s sudden shouts attracted the attention of the surrounding passengers and flight attendants. Everyone turned to look at him in unison.
He raised a trembling hand, pointing toward the seat of the strange passenger. Everyone followed his direction and witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives—
The passenger sitting in that seat rotated their head a full 360 degrees. Their neck twisted into a spiral shape, and as it twisted, white wax dripped onto the floor. Then, the entire passenger melted, turning into a puddle of “white wax.”
The surrounding passengers were stunned. Some, coming to their senses, immediately screamed and ran toward the aisle or squeezed over to Tang Laoya’s side of the cabin. Others, panicked, tried to head toward the business class area. But before their hands could touch the cabin door switch, two flight attendants desperately held them back.
“Don’t! You can’t! You mustn’t open the door!” a flight attendant pleaded urgently.
The passenger yelled angrily, “Didn’t you see the monster? Are we supposed to wait here to die? Get out of the way! If you won’t leave, stay here yourselves!”
The strength of the two flight attendants was clearly no match for the man. Seeing they couldn’t hold him back, one of them blurted out, “Sir, an anomalous event has occurred over there! An Anomaly Investigator is handling it. It’s even more dangerous out there!”
Although a “melting” corpse had also appeared in first class, it wasn’t yet clear if this was a victim or the monster itself. But these flight attendants had fled from the economy cabin. They had seen those monsters with heads like man-eating flowers with their own eyes, and there were many of them. Clearly, the outside was more dangerous!
“An anomalous event on the plane?” The passenger was dumbfounded.
Although, since the public revelation of anomalies, their frequency worldwide had skyrocketed from annual occurrences to hundreds per month, the vast territory of the Celestial Empire, coupled with the increasingly mature response capabilities of the Special Response Department, meant that once an event occurred, it would be immediately contained.
Moreover, anomaly energy detectors were becoming more sophisticated. Many events could be detected before they spread, allowing for the early evacuation of survivors. Therefore, not everyone had the “privilege” of experiencing an anomalous event firsthand. For most people, impressions of anomalies still came from TV and short videos.
The man’s words immediately caused panic among the other passengers. The man in the suit who had argued with Tang Laoya earlier said anxiously, “What about the gentleman who was sitting here earlier? He’s an Anomaly Investigator from the Rong City Branch. If he were here, he might be able to resolve this. Where is he?”
A flight attendant replied, “Mr. Shen has already gone to the economy cabin to handle the anomalous event. He ordered the cabin sections sealed off while the incident is being dealt with.”
Hearing this, the suit-wearing man complained, “Seriously? Couldn’t he have just stayed in first class? Why go to economy? The combined value of the people there isn’t worth one of us here. They’re just societal parasites without any contribution anyway. What’s the use of saving them?”
Tang Laoya, who already disliked the suit-wearing man, snorted coldly. “I hope you have the nerve to repeat that when Mr. Shen gets back!”
A female passenger chimed in, “Exactly. We’re all human. No one is inherently superior. You may have more money than them, but in the face of an anomaly, there’s no difference. I think everyone should stay calm. Although the way this person ‘melted’ is strange, there haven’t been any dangerous signs yet.”
Although this female passenger was calm and spoke the truth, at that moment, no one wanted to share a space with a puddle of “wax” that was slowly spreading across the floor. Several passengers, and even flight attendants, had climbed onto their seats, standing to distance themselves from the spreading “wax” on the ground.
“Look inside this white ‘wax.’ Is there something moving?” the calm female passenger, standing on her seat, stared at the “wax” on the floor, noticing something seemed to be wriggling within.
Tang Laoya looked down at the white wax. Sure enough, it seemed there were small, pinky-finger-length white worms burrowing in and out of the wax.
“Worms! There are worms!”
“Not just one!”
“There are so many worms!”
At that moment, the man sitting next to the melted passenger spoke up. “I exchanged a few words with that person when I took my seat. He seemed perfectly normal. His sudden transformation into this… it might be caused by these worms in the wax.”
“Has anyone read the Special Response Department’s latest anomaly report? Besides non-human animals, even insects can become anomalous!” someone said.
Hearing this, another immediately added, “I remember something about a parasitic-type anomaly. Once bitten by this kind of worm, a person might become anomalous themselves. Everyone be careful, don’t get bitten!”
The calm female passenger used objects to wake up the few passengers who were sleeping or listening to music, urging everyone to climb onto their seats to avoid the worms on the floor.
The newly awakened passengers were clearly disoriented. Some panicked and screamed; others, frantic, tried to run toward the economy cabin.
This led to one passenger who ran into the aisle. After just a few steps, they stepped on the “white wax” that had spread everywhere, making squelching sounds as their feet landed in the viscous substance.
“Ah—!”
The passenger felt a strange sensation on their leg. Losing their balance, they fell to the floor. The “white wax,” sensing the presence of a living being, instantly crawled toward their body, completely covering and engulfing them.
Watching a second person be covered by the “white wax” and, in the blink of an eye, suffer the same fate—slowly “melting”—those around were utterly terrified.
Some couldn’t help but scream and wail. The calm female passenger immediately shouted, “Stop crying! These worms seem to react strongly to sound. The louder you cry, the faster they move!”
After quickly saying this, the calm female passenger fell silent. Everyone looked down and indeed saw the “white wax” moving more actively toward those who were screaming. Some had already climbed up to about a foot high on the chairs, like a thick layer of white protective paint coating a tree.
Now, everyone could see the “worms” climbing the chairs more clearly: white, wriggling larvae secreting a disgusting, viscous fluid. Their numbers were so vast that clustered together, they looked exactly like “white wax.”
Once it was confirmed these worms reacted to sound, those hiding on their seats didn’t dare to breathe loudly. They carefully climbed to higher positions.
The suit-wearing man looked at a flight attendant and said, “I recall modern commercial aircraft have specially reinforced cockpit doors, very sturdy. There’s also quite a bit of space inside. It should be able to accommodate all of us. Go open the door. We’ll all move to the cockpit.”
The flight attendant was taken aback. “Me?”
She glanced at the “white wax” covering the floor. If she fell into that, wouldn’t she immediately become “nutrients” for these worms, just like that passenger earlier?
“You’re the flight attendant. If you don’t go, should I?” the suit-wearing man said displeased.
The calm female passenger snorted coldly. “Even if she is a flight attendant, she has no obligation to sacrifice herself for you now. As a man, when there’s danger, you send a woman forward. Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Weren’t you all clamoring for gender equality every day? Now that there’s danger, you know to send a man? If you’re so capable, you go!” the suit-wearing man retorted with a sneer.
“I’ll go then!” the calm female passenger said, perhaps having already planned to or truly falling for the man’s provocation. Holding onto the seatback, she adjusted her position and slowly began moving forward.
“Be careful not to fall and get eaten by the worms!” The suit-wearing man’s words sounded concerned, but his tone carried a hint of schadenfreude.
Tang Laoya said with disdain, “If I were you, I’d shut up. Keep arguing, and I guarantee you’ll die faster than her. Look under your seat!”
Hearing this, the suit-wearing man instinctively looked under his seat. Perhaps because of his earlier argument with the female passenger, the surrounding “white wax” had gathered around his chair, climbing to nearly half a meter high. A little more, and it would reach the underside of the seat cushion.
“Ah!” Panicked, the suit-wearing man let out an involuntary cry. This cry only made the wriggling white worms climb faster.
The suit-wearing man half-crouched, half-clung to the seatback, trembling comically. He wanted to jump to the adjacent seat but his legs felt weak. Shaking, he stretched his hand toward the flight attendant on the neighboring seat. “H-help me… pull me over… quick, pull me over!”
The more frantic the suit-wearing man became, the louder his voice. The louder his voice, the faster the worms climbed. His tone was urgent, pleading. The flight attendant’s heart softened, and she immediately reached out her hand.
The suit-wearing man grabbed the flight attendant’s hand, gritting his teeth to calm himself. Once his legs stopped shaking as violently, he immediately tried to jump to the side.
But his movements were too forceful. The flight attendant was sharing a seat with two colleagues. The suit-wearing man crashed straight into her, knocking her off the seatback.
Fortunately, the flight attendant’s two companions instinctively reached out to grab her, and she desperately clung to the seatback, barely stabilizing herself, but her body was still sliding downward.
“Quick, pull Xiao Li up!” The flight attendant Xiao Li’s two colleagues urgently called to the suit-wearing man.
The collision with Xiao Li had left the suit-wearing man unsteady himself. Seeing he was about to fall, a ruthless thought crossed his mind. Instinctively, he pressed down on Xiao Li’s body, using the force to climb up. This push sent Xiao Li tumbling toward the floor.
“Ah—!”
Just as Xiao Li thought she was about to fall into the pile of “white wax,” Tang Laoya, quick-eyed and swift-handed, reached out from the side, grabbed her, and with gritted teeth, hauled her up onto his seat.
The suit-wearing man, using the force from pushing Xiao Li, barely managed to clamber onto his chair, but his legs were still weak. Perhaps off-balance, he toppled sideways.
He instinctively tried to grab the two flight attendants in front of him. But having seen how he treated Xiao Li, why would they help him now? They both shrank back.
The suit-wearing man grabbed at empty air, crashed into the tray table, lost his balance, and with a splat, fell right into the “white wax.” Instantly, the wriggling white worms covered his body.
As they watched the suit-wearing man screaming and writhing in the “white wax,” completely engulfed within a dozen seconds, the two flight attendants snapped out of it and quickly, holding onto seatbacks, moved to the side.
“The door is open!” Just then, a surprised cry came from the front. It was the calm female passenger. Using her flexible body, she had managed an incredibly acrobatic pose, pressing against the seat and cabin wall, successfully hitting the cockpit door button. With a soft click, the cockpit door slowly swung open.
Just as she was about to signal the other passengers to move into the cockpit, she looked through the doorway. What she saw froze her in place: the pilot seats were empty, with only clothing fused into the “white wax” remaining.
The cockpit was filled with even more “white wax” than first class. It was everywhere—on the seats, the control panels—covered in a thick layer over a foot deep!
