Shen Ge clearly hadn’t expected that coming over to “join the fun” would end up making him the center of attention. And for a moment, he also couldn’t figure out exactly what he had taken from Sakura Country that would make them send the Watanabe siblings—two of their strongest anti-weirdness agents—all the way to Great Tianchao, even while facing a national crisis of their own.
Watanabe Natsumi turned to the balding middle-aged man and said in broken Chinese, “Councilor Luo, we brought Mr. Nohara here to give you one last chance. If you want to live… just tell us everything you know. Otherwise, not even Mr. Nohara can save you—and neither can Great Tianchao’s number one anti-weirdness agent.”
“?”
That cocky, huh?
If he wasn’t so curious to see what kind of show these people were trying to put on, Shen Ge would’ve popped out right then and there to show her what the “number one anti-weirdness agent of Great Tianchao” was really made of.
The middle-aged balding man addressed as Councilor Luo turned to his lifeline, Hiroshi, but the man’s face was blank. He just gave him a faint, indifferent look, which sent a chill down Luo’s spine. “Hiroshi, you promised me that if I cooperated with you, you’d keep me and my family safe. Sure, I didn’t get the item, but I did everything I could. You know that—I reported every single move to you. But now the higher-ups are onto me, and I’m out of options.”
Watanabe Natsumi said coldly, “Councilor Luo, it seems you’re still not willing to cooperate. Do we really have to make you suffer a little?”
As soon as she finished speaking, her brother Watanabe Natsutaka rattled off a long string of Sakura-language gibberish. Natsumi nodded at what he said, walked over to the side, and picked up a dagger.
“Wait, wait—what are you doing? What do you want me to say? I reported every step to Hiroshi! Why won’t you believe me?” Councilor Luo panicked as he watched Natsumi close in with the blade.
Watanabe Natsutaka let out a cold snort and said, “Councilor Luo, I really like an old saying from your Great Tianchao… ‘He who dances with death is Wei Junjie.’ I hope you won’t refuse the olive branch we’re offering. Cooperate nicely, and we promise to keep our end of the deal.”
Luo said urgently, “I’m telling you the truth! The item is really with Agent Shen Ge of Rong City. Think about it—he handled the Yu State weirdness disaster, he was the first into the headquarters lab during the Daijing weirdness disaster, and later when the Monster Organization released monster cells in Rong City, he was there too. If anyone has what you’re looking for, it’s him… Really, I’m not lying to you! Hiroshi, Hiroshi, help me! You’re the one who made me that promise, and now you’re just going to abandon me?”
At that, the bald man called “Hiroshi” spoke with a flat expression: “Watanabe, I believe he wouldn’t dare lie to us about this. I think rather than wasting time on him, we’d be better off looking into this agent named ‘Shen Ge.'”
Then Hiroshi turned to Councilor Luo and said seriously, “Councilor Luo, I’ve already kept my word and moved your family to a safe place in Pretty Country. I just need you to cooperate one last time, and I’ll have you sent over too.”
“W-What do you need me to do?” Luo asked nervously.
Hiroshi thought for a moment and said, “Simple. I need you to get us Shen Ge’s file within three days. And if you can take him out, we’ll triple your pay.”
“Me? Take out Shen Ge?” Luo’s face was filled with disbelief.
Hiroshi snorted coldly. “Councilor Luo, with your standing in Great Tianchao and your decision-making power in the Special Policy Department, you can’t even handle one little anti-weirdness agent? I held up my end of the deal, but you don’t seem sincere about cooperating. Don’t blame us for getting rough.”
Luo said anxiously, “He’s not just any ordinary anti-weirdness agent—he’s Great Tianchao’s number one! Even the department head’s orders mean nothing to him. Sure, he’s only one of two branch chiefs in Rong City, but in that branch, he calls all the shots!”
“Just an anti-weirdness agent, and you’re telling me he runs the show in Great Tianchao’s most authoritative department? Councilor Luo, are you trying to fool me like I’m three years old?”
Before Hiroshi could finish, Watanabe Natsumi cut in: “Nohara, you’ve been stationed in Pretty Country until now, so you don’t know the situation in Sakura Country or Great Tianchao. He’s not lying. My brother and I worked with Shen Ge during the Sakura weirdness disaster. His strength is unfathomable. The fact that he’s appeared in every major weirdness event and walked away unscathed says more than enough—he’s no ordinary agent.”
Hiroshi frowned at that, and after a long pause said, “If he’s been involved in every major weirdness disaster and always comes out clean, hasn’t anyone suspected that he and the Monster Organization are in cahoots?”
?
??
???
At those words, everyone in the room froze—including Shen Ge, who was enjoying the show from the sidelines. He honestly hadn’t expected this bald guy’s brain to work in such… creative ways.
“Am I wrong?” Hiroshi asked, turning to Watanabe Natsutaka.
What was Natsutaka supposed to say to that? Sakura Country’s reach clearly didn’t extend that far, so he deflected: “Councilor Luo, what do you think of Nohara’s suggestion? If you can get us Shen Ge’s file within three days, we’ll get you out of Great Tianchao.”
“I-I’ll do my best.” With a knife at his throat, Luo had no choice but to agree to whatever the Sakura folks proposed.
The rest of the conversation between Watanabe Natsutaka and the others wasn’t particularly useful—mostly just chatter in Sakura language that Shen Ge couldn’t understand.
With nothing better to do, Shen Ge sidled over to Maple Flower Yucai and peeked at her laptop. She seemed to be processing some data. Even if it wasn’t useful, he figured he’d memorize it anyway.
After all that fuss, aside from the painfully obvious plot twist of “there’s a mole in the Special Policy Department”—something even a toddler could guess—Shen Ge still couldn’t figure out what exactly Sakura Country had brought to Great Tianchao as their “bargaining chip.”
The key point was: there were so few of them here. If the item was really that “important,” there’s no way Watanabe Natsutaka wouldn’t have it on him.
But Shen Ge had scoured the room and found nothing that screamed “important”—except maybe Maple Flower Yucai’s laptop.
“Could it be… a set of experimental data?” Shen Ge wondered if he should find a chance to swipe her computer later.
Just then, Watanabe Natsutaka and the others wrapped up their discussion. Natsutaka and Nohara Hiroshi each grabbed one of Councilor Luo’s arms and shoved him into the backseat of the car. Since the backseat was now occupied, Shen Ge couldn’t squeeze in this time, so he sent the license plate and possible route to Fang Mingyue.
With Fang Mingyue’s skills, even without a plate and route, as long as they were “entering the city,” the city’s surveillance network would have them covered.
Shen Ge then returned to Watanabe Natsumi’s room and glanced at Maple Flower Yucai, who was still busy with her files. He sighed inwardly. If only Xiao Qi were here—she could’ve used the Blood Spider to quietly copy everything on that laptop without anyone noticing.
“Ah, technology really does make people dependent,” Shen Ge muttered to himself.
After the others left, only Watanabe Natsumi and Maple Flower Yucai remained in the room. The two Sakura girls naturally chatted in their own language, which Shen Ge couldn’t understand, so he just sat there waiting for them to hit the sack so he could swipe the data.
About twenty minutes later, Natsumi said something in Sakura language, walked over, and sat down next to Yucai. She took the laptop from her hands and casually placed it on a nearby table. Her tone had also shifted from the serious business talk to something more intimate and soft.
Shen Ge’s eyes lit up at the sight of the laptop on the table. He slipped over while the two girls weren’t paying attention and saw that not only was the laptop still on, it wasn’t even locked.
Apparently they felt pretty safe here—or maybe Yucai was planning to use it again soon. Shen Ge quietly tapped a few keys, ready to find the files and send them out.
But just as he was fiddling with the computer, noises came from the bed. He glanced back instinctively—and his eyes got even brighter.
“Whoa, you Sakura folks really know how to have fun. Jujitsu, huh?” While the two Sakura girls were having their fun, Shen Ge successfully found several files on the laptop. He uploaded them to a secret website, deleted the access logs, and even restored the mouse pointer to its original position so no one could tell it had been touched.
“Tsk tsk.” Shen Ge took one last look at the bed before leaving, marveling at their flexibility.
After stepping out of the residential building, Shen Ge sent his location to Fang Mingyue, telling her that the abducted “Maple Flower Yucai” and the Sakura spies were all here.
Soon after, Fang Mingyue replied, confirming that the Special Policy Department had already intercepted Watanabe Natsutaka’s car and successfully stopped Hiroshi from silencing Councilor Luo.
As for Councilor Luo, his actions clearly constituted treason. Before his sentencing, they’d use his connections to root out other moles and spies.
This was Daijing, after all. Whether it was investigating Councilor Luo or apprehending the Watanabe siblings, none of it was Shen Ge’s job. Besides, his main mission here was to look into the Monster Association and Dr. Chen—and he still hadn’t resolved Cheng Shengnan’s situation either. He simply didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with the Watanabes.
After handing everything off to Fang Mingyue, Shen Ge went to a residential area, dropped his invisibility, hailed a cab, and headed to the research institute.
He knocked on the door, and soon Yang Yuxin opened it. She looked surprised to see him: “Agent Shen? You’re back already? Did the banquet end that fast?”
“The venue had some issues. I got worried about things here, so I came back to check,” Shen Ge said as he walked inside.
He passed through the villa’s main hall and took the stairs down to the underground lab. There, the Red Mist Battle Armor was still wrapped around Cheng Shengnan like a giant, boiling blood sphere on the operating table. Li Xiang stood nearby, monitoring data on the control computer, while Tu Doupi guarded the entrance.
Seeing Shen Ge return, Tu Doupi quickly stood up: “Agent Shen, I—I’m sorry. I failed to detect the weirdness intrusion and let Director Cheng and the others fall into danger.”
Shen Ge patted his shoulder. “This is a weirdness incident—we can’t predict these things, otherwise they wouldn’t be called ‘weird.’ Don’t beat yourself up. You did what you had to do, and that’s enough. As long as everyone’s alive, there’s still hope.”
“Yes…” Tu Doupi’s voice was heavy with frustration. In his eyes, as the only male team leader on this delegation, he’d let Yang Yuxin and the others get hurt without lifting a finger to help.
“Li Xiang, how’s the situation?” Shen Ge walked over to him.
Li Xiang replied, “Xiao Qi is the most advanced AI tech in the country—honestly, there’s no AI in the world that can beat it. With her monitoring the data, I’m not really doing much. But judging from the readings, Director Cheng’s vitals haven’t changed much. Xiao Qi’s doing a great job protecting her.”
“The monster sample Yun’er provided was the key. It successfully suppressed the spread of the monster cells. The only issue now is that quite a few monster cells have already invaded Director Cheng’s epidermis—her hands are the most severely affected. It’s like… scales have grown over her original skin, making its surface strength over ten times stronger.”
“If this were one of our test subjects, it’d be a major breakthrough. But for Director Cheng, who’s in logistics, it’s hard to say whether this is good or bad.”
Shen Ge couldn’t help but sigh. For now, the antibody developed from Yun’er’s monster sample seemed to be working—at least it was keeping Cheng Shengnan alive.
As for the “transformation,” Shen Ge felt helpless about that too. Gaining monster abilities did offer her some protection, but he didn’t want her to become a monster. As a man, if he couldn’t even provide basic safety for the people around him, that was just downright embarrassing.
Suddenly, Shen Ge had an idea. He grabbed a nearby computer and said, “According to the Minister and headquarters’ intel, Sakura Country brought something ‘very important’ to Great Tianchao. Though the info we’ve gotten so far is mostly fake, and we can’t confirm if it’s a physical object or some weirdness data, I just found the Sakura spies’ hideout and uploaded everything from their computers to my private server. Let’s take a look—maybe there’s new data on the Primordial Weirdness.”
Shen Ge’s guess wasn’t baseless. After all, the Sakura weirdness disaster started when “Tiangan” used Primordial Weirdness cells to create a new Weird King. Though the new king was temporarily “suppressed,” it wasn’t fully destroyed, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Sakura’s anti-weirdness organization had gathered some intel.
Shen Ge opened his private server and pulled up the files he’d uploaded earlier. But when he and Li Xiang saw what was on the screen, they were dumbfounded.
Since many of Maple Flower Yucai’s documents were encrypted, Shen Ge hadn’t had time to open each one. He’d just uploaded everything in bulk. As luck would have it, the first encrypted file he opened turned out to be Maple Flower Yucai and Watanabe Natsumi’s “one-on-one blockbuster.”
“…”
Li Xiang sighed. “This is the top-secret intel you brought back?”
“Agent Shen found top-secret intel?” Yang Yuxin, who’d been talking with Tu Doupi nearby, perked up and started walking over—only to see Shen Ge quickly close the window and open another encrypted file.
This time, not only Shen Ge and Li Xiang froze—even Yang Yuxin, who’d just arrived, widened her eyes. On the screen was an underground space shaped like a beehive, and inside it sat a gigantic heart. Its blood vessels spread across the entire island, and it was beating—thump, thump, thump!
This heart’s “blood vessels” stretched like the roots of a massive tree, extending endlessly underground. And along those vessels, “eggs” were being squeezed out one after another.
