Supernatural Court: I Issue Breach Penalties to Anomalies!

The rain in Jiangcheng had fallen without pause for seventy-two hours.

Sheet after sheet of dirty gray water battered the asphalt. Across the street, neon shop signs bled into murky smears of magenta and bilious green.

Lin Xiao reached the mouth of the Old Quarter subway entrance.

Half-submerged behind cracked construction barricades, the concrete stairway dropped into subterranean dark. The wind rising from the tunnel smelled of stagnant water, wet lime, and stale iron rust. It blew cold against the damp wool of his overcoat.

He stopped on the landing. With steady fingers, he pulled a clean paper tissue from his pocket and wiped the condensation from his silver-rimmed glasses.

He was twenty-four. He was an apprentice paralegal at Justice Law Firm.

Behind his temples, a dull ache hammered to the rhythm of his pulse. He had spent the last eleven hours cross-referencing sixty-eight pages of boiler-plate litigation dossiers for a contractor dispute. His fingertips still felt the dry, scorched heat of fresh laser toner.

He slid the glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

His watch read 23:48.

Twelve minutes until midnight.

The station concourse was empty. Most of the illuminated overhead signs had died hours ago, their plastic casings humming with weak, irregular current. Yellow tactile paving stones sat submerged under an inch of oily puddle water, sour with mildew.

Down in the tunnel, something growled.

It was not the smooth electromagnetic whine of a modern transit train. It was a coarse, grinding shriek. Heavy industrial steel dragged across unlubricated rails, chewing metal into grit.

Twin beams of dead-white light pierced the tunnel's foul mist.

Six cars rumbled into the station. The train slowed to an uneven halt. Blue-white electrical sparks burst from the bogies, hissing as they died against the wet ballast.

On the center car, faded yellow paint displayed the designation: **Train 044**.

Pneumatic doors hissed open.

The air that poured out of the cabin felt like the breath of a cellar sealed since the last century. It carried the stench of wet grave dirt and rotting cotton padding. Every hair on Lin Xiao’s forearms stood on end.

He tucked his leather briefcase tighter beneath his arm.

He stepped inside.

The interior was stark, wide, and almost vacant. The air felt heavy, pressing on the eardrums like diving into deep water.

Only three other passengers were scattered across the plastic bench seating, each marooned in isolation.

Directly across from Lin Xiao, a middle-aged clerk in a rumpled gray suit sat slumped against the stainless-steel bulkhead. His thinning hair clung to a sweaty forehead. Wet, ragged snores rattled in his throat, smelling faintly of cheap convenience-store grain alcohol.

Two windows down, a young woman sat bundled inside an oversized black hoodie. Her face was buried in the harsh glow of her smartphone, her thumbs tapping frantically on an unresponsive screen.

Near the accordion gangway connecting the cars, a youth with dyed peroxide-yellow hair stood leaning against a grab pole. He cracked bubblegum between his molars, his cheap high-top sneakers rhythmically kicking the metal stanchion.

*Thud.*

The doors slammed shut.

There had been no warning chime. No gradual deceleration of the pneumatic pistons. The two alloy panels slammed together with the brutal finality of an iron maiden falling shut.

Above their heads, the long fluorescent tubes surged. The ballast resistors hissed and sputtered.

In less than three seconds, the harsh white light decayed into a thick, clotted crimson. It stained the plastic seats and polished metal floor the color of dried arterial blood.

Lin Xiao’s fingers tightened slightly on the rubber grab strap overhead.

He turned his head toward the reinforced window.

The train had accelerated into the tunnel, but outside, there were no signal lights. There were no cable conduits or emergency catwalks.

Only a boiling abyss of pitch-black vapor.

The fog roared against the outer hull. Within that swirling darkness, dozens of human silhouettes pressed flat against the glass. Distorted faces smashed against the transparent surface, mouths stretched wide in silent, skin-splitting screams. Cheekbones cracked. Lips tore. The glass groaned beneath the weight of hundreds of pale, clawing hands.

Lin Xiao glanced down at his phone.

The carrier icon showed zero bars. The digital clock had locked onto a single, motionless readout:

`23:49:00`

The seconds refused to advance.

"What kind of garbage prank is this?"

The yellow-haired punk spat his gum onto the floor. He kicked the side door with his heel. When his eyes caught the churning black fog outside and the writhing faces crushed against the glass, his jaw dropped.

He stumbled backward, the back of his skull bouncing off the steel stanchion with a dull clang.

"Hey..."

A thin, reedy sob cracked the quiet.

The girl in the oversized hoodie had dropped her phone onto her lap. Her hands were shaking violently as she pointed toward the stainless-steel partition in the center of the car.

"Look at the wall! Look at it!"

The gray enamel paint on the bulkhead was blistering. It bubbled and curled away as if licked by an invisible furnace.

Thick, dark crimson liquid oozed from the seams around the structural rivets. It dripped down the steel in sluggish lines, branching, weaving, and solidifying into jagged Chinese script written in archaic clerical font:

---

Jiangcheng Metro Line 4 Late-Night Safety Code (Passenger Notice)

**Welcome aboard Line 4’s Midnight Circular Service. To ensure the preservation of your mortal continuity, strictly obey the following stipulations:**

**Article 1:** This train operates as a fully automated closed loop. Paper tickets are neither issued nor recognized. All passengers must remain in their original seats. Inter-car transit is strictly prohibited.

**Article 2:** While the train is in motion, passengers are strictly prohibited from touching, striking, or tampering with doors, windows, or the manual emergency airbrake valve. Any unauthorized interference with transit safety infrastructure will be met with summary execution on grounds of endangering public safety.

**Article 3: CRITICAL NOTICE:** This train carries no onboard attendants wearing dark blue service uniforms. Should you hear patrolling footsteps or be confronted with a ticket inspection, close your eyes at once. Hold your breath. Lower your head between your knees. Under no circumstances may you look at the inspector’s brass employee badge.

**Article 4:** Loud vocalizations and acute emotional turbulence are forbidden within the passenger cars. Weeping and screaming will be classified as voluntary abandonment of passenger status.

**Article 5:** Prior to arrival at the final terminus—'Guixu'—any passenger unable to produce valid travel credentials must submit to supplemental fare collection, payable in lifeforce and soul-span at three hundred percent of the baseline tariff.

---

At the bottom of the steel panel, fresh droplets of dark blood pooled. They sizzled against the rubber floor runner, releasing thin coils of sour, stinging smoke.

"An anomaly..."

The clerk in the wrinkled suit scrambled backward along the bench, clutching at the thin strands of hair on his scalp. His eyes were wide and white-rimmed with pure panic.

"The Crimson Moon... the barrier tore open again! Why me? I just signed my severance papers today! Why me?!"

"Open the door! Let me the hell out!"

The punk’s sanity snapped.

He ignored the bleeding script. He snatched the red dry-chemical fire extinguisher from its mounting bracket under the front seat and swung it with both arms.

*Smash.*

The glass cover over the emergency pneumatic brake shattered. Shards scattered across the rubber floor.

"I'm not riding this goddamn hearse! Open the doors!"

His bare hand plunged into the jagged recess. Blood smeared the red lever as he seized the valve handle and pulled it down with all his weight.

Lin Xiao stood motionless. His jaw hardened.

*Too late.*

The instant the brass valve clicked downward, a rusted grinding sound echoed from inside the accordion bellows between Car 3 and Car 4.

*Clack.*

*Scrape.*

A heavy, jagged piece of cast iron was being dragged across the floorboards. It moved with methodical, mechanical patience.

The temperature in the car plummeted ten degrees in a single heartbeat.

The crimson emergency lights overhead flickered violently. At the far end of the car, the heavy black rubber curtain was pushed aside by a hand that resembled bundled birch twigs wrapped in parchment.

The figure that stepped through the threshold was bent and warped.

It wore a faded, deep-navy conductor's tunic. The lapels and brass buttons were crusted in layers of black, dried blood. Its legs bent backward at the knee joint, like the hind legs of a locust. With every forward step, the ankle bones ground together with a dry, splintering crack.

In its right hand, it dragged a massive pair of rusted steel ticket-punch shears.

The tool was nearly two feet long. Its cutting jaws were notched with jagged, serrated teeth. The cold steel dragged over the non-slip steel floor plates, gouging a groove that showered the aisle with dull white sparks.

"Heh... tickets, please..."

The conductor raised its head.

There was almost no intact skin left on its face. Sloughs of gray, desiccated flesh hung from the cheekbones. Where its eyes should have been, two empty orbital cavities leaked wisps of ash-white corpse gas.

When it parted its lips, it revealed three rows of needle-thin, yellowed teeth.

Pinned crookedly to the left breast of its dark blue tunic was a tarnished brass employee badge:

`【044】`

"S-stay back!"

The punk lost his footing. The fire extinguisher tumbled from his limp fingers and clattered against his shin. He pressed his spine flat against the sealed doors, cold sweat soaking straight through his denim jacket. He clawed at the metal seams with fingernails that split and bled against the steel.

"Unauthorized actuation of the emergency valve," the conductor rasped. Its voice sounded like dry sandpaper dragging over bone. "Contractual breach. Destruction of municipal transit infrastructure."

The air tore open.

The creature’s silhouette blurred into an ash-colored streak.

Ten meters of space vanished in a fraction of a second. The wind pressure from the shears deafened Lin Xiao's ears before his brain could register the motion.

*Crunch.*

It was the wet, concussive snap of a human neck being sheared straight through cervical vertebrae.

The punk’s jaw opened for a scream that never formed. His head flew upward on a diagonal trajectory, slamming against the aluminum ceiling vent before bouncing into the center aisle.

The headless torso remained upright for a full two seconds, one bloody hand still twitching around the emergency lever. Arterial blood erupted against the door and showered the blood-written safety rules.

*Hiss...*

The steel wall absorbed every drop of hot blood like a dry sponge. The glowing red characters grew darker, thicker, and more vivid.

The girl in the oversized hoodie clamped both hands over her mouth, biting her own knuckles until blood seeped between her fingers. She dropped to her knees, shoved her forehead hard against her kneecaps, and began to shudder uncontrollably.

The clerk had already soiled himself. He lay face-down on the rubber runner, pressing his nose into the moldy floor, holding his breath until his temples turned purple.

Rule 3: *Close your eyes. Hold your breath. Lower your head between your knees.*

They chose compliance. They chose blind survival.

The creature did not stop.

Its hollow, ash-filled sockets rotated toward the front of the car. It stepped over the spreading puddle of warm blood, its locust-like joints snapping with every stride.

The heavy shears dragged behind it, carving a wet red trench through the linoleum.

*Step.*

*Scrape.*

Every metallic thud slammed against the ribs of the two survivors like a lead weight.

Lin Xiao did not lower his head.

He did not close his eyes.

He remained seated upon the cold bench. His long legs were casually crossed, his posture upright and rigid as a plumb line. Behind his silver-rimmed spectacles, his dark pupils remained fixed upon the approaching abomination.

He was not frozen. He was cataloging.

Years of rigorous legal conditioning dismantled the scene into objective evidence:

The brass badge stamped `044`...

The half-obscured municipal transit crest embroidered beneath the dried blood on the left pocket...

The permanent structural collapse of the right shoulder girdle, characteristic of a catastrophic crush injury sustained before death...

The creature stopped.

It halted directly in front of Lin Xiao.

A wave of ammonia, formaldehyde, and rotting meat washed over his face. The conductor bent forward until its rotten cheek was less than three inches from Lin Xiao’s nose.

In the hollow darkness of its eye sockets, Lin Xiao’s reflection was tiny, clear, and completely motionless.

The conductor slowly lifted the rusted shears.

The pitted, cold cutting edge pressed firmly against Lin Xiao’s Adam’s apple.

One millimeter more, and the serrated teeth would slice through the jugular vein.

The coldness of the iron pierced the skin. Lin Xiao felt the heavy, rhythmic throb of his carotid artery bumping against the blade. A solitary droplet of dark red blood welled up from the steel tip, rolling down his collar.

The conductor parted its blackened jaws. A draft of freezing air escaped its throat:

"Sir... will you buy a ticket... or pay with your life?"

The silence inside the cabin turned absolute.

Under the bench, the clerk squeezed his eyes shut, anticipating the wet thud of another severed head hitting the floor.

Against the leather surface of his briefcase, Lin Xiao’s index finger tapped once.

*Thud.*

Clear. Deliberate. The measured cadence of a gavel striking the sound block.

In the thousandth of a second before the conductor’s rotten tendons could clamp the shears shut—

Deep inside Lin Xiao’s pupils, a golden sigil roared to life.

It was an ancient, monumental silhouette of balanced scales, woven from pure celestial light.

*Clang!*

In the depths of his consciousness, bronze hall gates swung open with deafening force. A basalt gavel weighing ten thousand tons descended from the heavens.

A cold, mechanical voice echoed through his mind, vibrating through the fabric of the trapped dimension:

`[Unauthorized causal contract forced onto subject detected.]`

`[Determining target conduct constitutes severe unlicensed illegal transport operations infringement.]`

`[The Causal Arbitration Tribunal formally intervenes!]`