Leaving that hellish pottery studio.
Miko Yotsuya habitually activated her [Eyes of Truth], scanning the surroundings.
Spirals were everywhere. The town's buildings, streets, and even the dust permeating the air were all twisting into spiral shapes.
Suddenly, she discovered an extremely bizarre "safe zone."
The house on the street corner was completely out of place in Kurouzu Town.
There were no traces of spirals around it. Observing the interior, one could see that the walls, windows, and eaves showed not a single sign of spiral erosion.
But this house didn't bring a sense of peace; instead, it exuded an even more spine-chilling terror.
Miko's pupils contracted. She saw that the surface of the house was covered in densely packed circular holes.
Those holes were smooth and uniform, as if carved out by some precision instrument.
From the dense clusters of holes, the silhouettes of insects would occasionally poke out—an absolute treat for anyone with trypophobia.
...
A few months ago, inside a secret base that could not be erased by information deletion, a cold electronic voice echoed through a conference room.
"The final assessment report on Kurouzu Town has been generated."
"Conclusion: The 'spiral' memetic contamination in this area has entered an irreversible final stage. It is classified as an inevitable destruction event."
"The application to initiate the 'Fight Poison with Poison' experimental protocol has been approved by the higher-ups."
On the screen, the files of several anomalies—marked as indestructible and possessing bizarre properties similar to Kurouzu Town—were listed one by one.
"Deploy the anomalies into the designated area, observe their interactions with the spiral curse, and collect data."
The file for one of the anomalies was enlarged.
[Codename: Emerald Insect Jade]
...
Inside Kurouzu Town.
The group approached, all drawn in by this bizarre sight.
Tomie stepped forward and kicked open the courtyard gate, and the group walked inside.
As they entered the courtyard, a door to the house was pushed open.
A young girl poked her head out from inside.
The group noticed that her exposed arms were similarly covered in holes of various sizes.
Bizarrely, however, there was no trace of pain on her face; instead, she wore a radiant smile.
She looked at Yang Yi and the others, tilted her head, and asked with feigned cuteness,
"Are you guys here looking for that thing too?"
She excitedly stepped aside and pointed toward the center of the courtyard.
There sat a completely emerald-green piece of insect jade.
The surface of the insect jade was riddled with numerous hollow holes.
Because of the holes in the arm she used to point at the jade, one could even see straight through to the other side.
Tomie furrowed her brows, feeling a visceral, physiological disgust toward these utterly unesthetic holes.
"What ugly, disgusting holes!"
Tomie made no attempt to hide her revulsion.
Those words caused the smile on the hole-riddled girl's face to instantly freeze, her radiant expression turning gloomy.
"You ugly freak! You dare glare at me? Once I deal with this piece of junk emerald, I'll wipe you off the face of the earth!"
Tomie shouted angrily, pulling out a six-barrel Gatling gun and aiming it at the emerald.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!"
Furious tongues of fire poured relentlessly toward the emerald.
However, the torrential rain of bullets was completely deflected upon making contact with the surface of the insect jade.
The round of strafing ended.
To their surprise, the emerald was completely unscathed.
Yang Yi saw through the "conceptual" nature of this cursed object.
Any conventional physical attacks were completely meaningless against it.
He slowly walked up to the insect jade and kicked it away.
The indestructible insect jade was sent flying by Yang Yi's kick, vanishing into thin air mid-flight.
It was as if Yang Yi's kick had punted it straight into another dimension.
In the courtyard, the girl let out a piercing scream.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Earth.
Inside the most heavily guarded underground facility of a certain containment organization.
The massive creature designated 682, codenamed "Hard-to-Destroy Reptile," was continuously tearing into the special alloy walls of its containment chamber with its terrifying, giant jaws.
Suddenly, its biting movements paused.
Because a cold, hard object had abruptly appeared in its mouth.
682's teeth grated against the insect jade, and a surge of furious rage welled up within it.
It violently snapped its massive jaws shut.
"Crunch—!!!"
Its terrifying bite force, capable of crushing diamonds, failed to affect the insect jade. Instead, several of 682's own teeth fell out.
682 let out a furious roar, then directly swallowed the insect jade along with its fallen teeth.
A few minutes later, alarms blared throughout the entire base!
On the monitors, thousands of circular holes began appearing on 682's skin—skin that not even high-concentration hydrofluoric acid could corrode.
The entire base instantly descended into chaos.
The commander roared at the CT scan of the insect jade on the screen, "How could this thing possibly be inside 682?!"
"How did that anomaly get in there?!"
On the screen, 682's body was rapidly being perforated.
An even more terrifying event followed immediately after.
The insect jade swallowed by 682 seemed to have been angered.
Countless bizarrely shaped insects phased directly through the containment apparatus, appearing out of thin air inside 682's containment chamber.
They let out shrill screeches and swarmed madly toward the holes on 682's body, attempting to burrow inside and lay eggs.
The researchers watched this scene in horror, already preparing to initiate the base's defense protocols to brace for a containment breach.
However, as the insects flew to the edges of the holes, mouthparts of varying sizes sprouted from within the cavities on 682's body.
These insects were instantly devoured by 682, then dissolved and absorbed.
682, initially in a frenzied rage from the pain of being "perforated," slowly quieted down.
On the observation monitors, its life energy readings didn't drop from the curse; instead, they began to skyrocket.
It was enjoying this uninvited feast.
At the highest level of the organization, an emergency meeting of the O5 Council was convened.
They had just contacted the Japanese branch and confirmed that the insect jade was previously in Kurouzu Town, and the last person to make contact with it was the humanoid anomaly "Yang Yi."
The O5 Council was extremely grave as they quickly reviewed Yang Yi's series of actions.
Ignoring the blockade of the [Isolation Signpost].
Feeding the [Emerald Insect Jade] to the [Hard-to-Destroy Reptile] across space in an incomprehensible manner.
Finally, they unanimously decided to elevate Yang Yi's threat level directly from Euclid class to Keter class (the same level as 682).
When determining his codename, the council members were influenced by an invisible force.
Ultimately, Yang Yi was designated as [Blockman].
"Relay the highest directive: All forms of contact are strictly prohibited. Stall him until the end of the world."
...
Inside Kurouzu Town.
The young girl, having lost the insect jade, was now lying on the ground, letting out continuous shrieks of agony.
The dense clusters of holes on her body did not heal with the disappearance of the curse's source.
Instead, an even more terrifying mutation began to occur.
The flesh and blood at the edge of every single hole twisted, rotated, and collapsed inward.
The omnipresent spiral curse of the town had finally breached this house.
And the girl seemed to become an outlet, the twisting power surging madly into her body.
Two entirely different kinds of terror underwent a bizarre fusion within the girl's body.
In excruciating agony, her body was reshaped.
She was no longer human, but had transformed into a monster that fused both horrors.
Every hole on its body turned into a miniature spiral, and these spirals continuously devoured the surrounding buildings.