With Priest Jiang dealt with, the next step was to follow the original plan and take care of these few high-tier anomalies, then find the node that could establish a connection with “reality.”
Shen Ge opened his [Map] for a look. The red dot representing the anomaly insects had vanished, while the anomaly rats had retreated deeper underground—and the red dot was growing larger. This meant that the battle between the two high-tier anomalies had ultimately ended in the rat’s victory.
As for the “giant whale” hovering above the Penguin Building, although it couldn’t be detected directly, the “storm clouds” gathering in the air indicated that it hadn’t left yet.
On top of that, several new red dots of rank 3–4 anomalies had appeared on the [Map]—clearly some creatures skilled at concealing their anomalous energy, stirred awake by all the commotion.
All things considered, the “chimeric beast” right beneath Shen Ge’s feet was the most convenient target to go after. He didn’t even have to waste time searching for it.
Shen Ge opened his anomaly eyes and looked upward. He still couldn’t pinpoint the “giant whale’s” exact position, but the black mist of anomalous energy it was releasing, while affecting him, was also corroding the chimeric beast.
Last night, when the “giant whale” had suddenly attacked Defense Line 3, Shen Ge had noticed that its black mist was highly corrosive, and anyone caught inside it would also suffer from hallucinations.
Fortunately, the corrosive effects of that mist were neutralized by Shen Ge’s own anomalous energy. Given his rating, unless he simply lay down and gave up resisting entirely, there was no way he’d fall into a hallucination.
Standing on the elephant-like head of the chimeric beast, Shen Ge silently summoned his anomaly domain and conjured an invisible barrier right in front of the creature.
Crack. As expected, the barrier didn’t stop the beast’s advance. The creature slammed into it, and a fissure appeared, then the whole thing shattered like glass.
Shen Ge condensed another barrier. A few seconds later, it shattered again.
Back in the day, this kind of high-intensity barrier construction would have drained his anomalous energy dry, but now it consumed only about a tenth of his reserves.
The invisible barrier couldn’t halt the chimeric beast’s forward march—but that wasn’t Shen Ge’s goal anyway. He was using it to subtly alter the beast’s trajectory.
He was just about to fully steer the chimeric beast into the “giant whale’s” black mist when the frequent use of barriers finally tipped the beast off to his anomalous energy signature.
Suddenly, the beast’s trunk whipped forward toward him. Fortunately, Shen Ge—no longer having his crimson mist armor—had developed the habit of keeping an invisible barrier around himself at all times during combat.
Crack! The trunk slammed into the barrier. The impact didn’t shatter it outright, but it did leave cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
A second later, over a dozen black energy tendrils extended from the trunk, wrapped around Shen Ge’s barrier, and flung him off the beast’s back.
Thud!
Shen Ge crashed into the rubble of the Penguin Building. The moment he landed, two half-human-sized insectoid anomalies scurried out from between the stones and lunged at him.
Clang! Clang!
Two soft metallic sounds rang out as the anomalies were easily stopped by the invisible barrier. Shen Ge couldn’t even be bothered to deal with them—he simply walked straight ahead.
He watched the distant chimeric beast lumbering toward the wreckage of the Penguin Building. Every step it took shook the ground with overwhelming force. The few remaining floors of the building were kicked aside; piles of collapsed debris were flattened underfoot.
The chimeric beast was massive, and its strides were just as huge. It was practically a one-creature demolition crew, like some giant monster rampaging through the city.
It had originally been lured here by the black mist’s influence, but the “giant whale” refused to engage it directly, instead trying to corrode it with the mist bit by bit.
When the “giant whale’s” black mist had first shrouded this area, it had already made the surrounding low-tier anomalies unusually aggressive. Now, with the chimeric beast’s own anomalous energy added to the mix, many of the anomaly insects were desperately trying to burrow into the cracks in the ground to avoid being devoured.
Only mindless creatures like the parasitized hosts and the anomalies that had swarmed Shen Ge—beings devoid of even basic survival instincts—were drawn in by the commotion, throwing themselves at the chimeric beast in wave after wave.
The beast’s trunk—covered in black tendrils—swept across the ground. The tip of its nostril released a powerful suction force, hoovering up anomalies and parasitized hosts alike. Meanwhile, the black tendrils on its trunk continuously coiled around targets and stuffed them into its mouth.
In the blink of an eye, the rubble was cleared of hundreds of parasitized hosts and low-tier anomalies. But this level of sustenance was no longer enough to satisfy the beast. Its real target was the high-tier anomaly lurking within the black mist—the “giant whale.”
Shen Ge’s original plan had been to sit back and watch the tigers fight, waiting until the chimeric beast and the “giant whale” were close to finishing each other off before making his move. But even after the chimeric beast had pushed right into the “whale’s” territory, the whale still showed no sign of engaging. It was, without a doubt, the most cautious high-tier anomaly Shen Ge had ever seen.
Or, to put it bluntly—cowardly.
The “giant whale” wouldn’t fight directly. It just hid in its black mist, corroding everything around it through erosion, as if trying to slowly wear the chimeric beast down to death.
The “giant whale” could afford to wait. Shen Ge couldn’t.
He had no way to deal with the hide-and-seek-playing “giant whale,” but taking care of the chimeric beast right in front of him wasn’t much of a problem—especially since it was only a rank-4 anomaly.
Taking advantage of the moment when the chimeric beast was using its trunk to scoop up anomalies, Shen Ge leaped up, stepped onto an invisible barrier, and launched himself straight at the trunk. The black tendrils coiled around him—just as they were about to send him into the beast’s mouth, he used his anomaly domain to counter the force and break free. Then, with [Collapse], he pierced through the beast’s defenses and got inside.
While Shen Ge was dealing with the chimeric beast, Fang Mingyue had successfully rendezvoused with Deng Yuqi’s forces. She’d also come face-to-face with another “herself”—tied up and restrained.
“Deputy Commander, she—this—how is this… possible?” Fang Mingyue stared at the imposter being held by Deng Yuqi’s personal guards, utterly stunned. Anyone would freeze at the sight of someone who looked exactly like them.
Fortunately, thanks to Shen Ge’s “Make-Me-Pretty Fist,” Fang Mingyue had successfully healed the scar on her face. Standing next to the still-scarred imposter, the contrast was stark.
When the fake Fang Mingyue saw that the real one’s scar was gone, her face twisted in shock. She seemed to realize why she’d been caught despite playing her role so perfectly.
“Your scar—it’s healed?! That’s impossible! I saw you the day before yesterday, and you—you were still—” the imposter stammered in disbelief.
Deng Yuqi shot her a cold glance. “The day before yesterday? So you’re not just someone from the shelter—you also have access to the exploration team’s movements. That’s fine. Even if you won’t talk, the scope just got a lot smaller. I don’t believe you can erase every trace of your existence.”
The imposter seemed not to hear Deng Yuqi at all. She just stared at Fang Mingyue in stunned disbelief—but Fang Mingyue could see a mix of regret and fury burning in her eyes.
As a woman, she’d gone so far as to disfigure herself to impersonate someone else, only to find out that the person she was imitating had already healed her scar. No one could take that well.
“So what?! So what if she has?! You’ve already angered the New God! The New God will rain down divine punishment upon you! These past two days of anomaly riots are the perfect proof! Hahahaha! Only we—only we, the New God’s Church—can achieve rebirth! Only we are worthy of reaching the Promised Land!”
“Death is not the end. We will live forever…”
“Death is not the end. We will live forever!”
The imposter grew more and more agitated. Deng Yuqi sensed something was wrong and opened her mouth to order her men to restrain her—but before she could get a single word out, the frenzied imposter bit down hard on her own tongue, severing it. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she grinned maniacally and crumpled to the ground.
Watching the imposter die in such madness, Deng Yuqi felt a pang of pity—but her disgust for the New God’s Church only deepened. The world was already at its end, with humanity barely clinging to survival. This was a time when everyone should be pulling together to overcome their hardships—not tearing each other apart from within.
Though Deng Yuqi was determined to wipe out the New God’s Church, they were powerful and well-established for now. It wasn’t something that could be done overnight. The immediate priority was completing the final step of the mission—
Search and rescue survivors.
With all the commotion at the Penguin Building, plus the sudden appearance of the “giant whale” and the chimeric beast, the anomalies and parasitized hosts wandering around Defense Line 3 had been thrown into disarray. Search-and-rescue operations were going much more smoothly. The joint rescue team had to take advantage of this window to save as many survivors as possible.
“You said that after the flare went up, Shen Ge went to rescue the armored vehicle squad?” During the rescue operation, Deng Yuqi asked Fang Mingyue for a full debrief on their mission. When she heard that Shen Ge had volunteered to save the vehicle squad, she was a bit surprised. To her, Shen Ge was just a “newcomer” who’d joined only a day ago—but his sense of “belonging” seemed far too strong, going so far as to volunteer for such a dangerous task.
Between “high moral character” and “ulterior motives,” Deng Yuqi instinctively leaned toward the latter. After all, even people like the New God’s Church—who’d been “comrades in arms” in the shelter, sharing the same hardships—could turn on each other in an instant. It was only natural to be suspicious of a stranger suddenly showing up and acting so selflessly.
But when Fang Mingyue said that Shen Ge was from another world and that the reason he was so “friendly” toward them was because there were people just like them in that other world, Deng Yuqi’s expression grew strange.
“…And you believed that?” Deng Yuqi asked, looking at Fang Mingyue with a face that practically screamed “I don’t even know where to start.” She was clearly struggling to hold back a wave of sarcasm.
Fang Mingyue didn’t seem to catch the meaning behind her expression. She nodded seriously. “I think it has some credibility. After all… so far, Shen Ge hasn’t done anything to harm the exploration team or the shelter. On the contrary, he’s always at the forefront whenever an anomaly incident occurs.”
“Most importantly, our capital city is the economic center of the Great Dynasty, and the largest anomaly research institutes are all located here. Yet after all these years, the anomalous equipment we’ve developed is far inferior to what Shen Ge has brought out. That shows his world’s technology is way ahead of ours.”
“Deputy Commander, I know that in this apocalypse, it’s hard to trust a stranger’s goodwill. But I can feel it—Shen Ge genuinely wants to help us.”
“…”
Deng Yuqi was silent for a long moment. Finally, she gave a slight nod. Regardless of whether she believed it or not, given the strength Shen Ge had displayed so far, he was a more formidable presence than even the New God’s Church.
“Deputy Commander! Deputy Commander!” Just then, an exploration team soldier who’d been conducting the rescue operation rushed into the temporary command post.
“What’s wrong?” Deng Yuqi asked.
The soldier reported: “An armored vehicle—a vehicle—one of our armored vehicles has entered the blockade line! The soldier leading them claims to be Qian Weiguo, former captain of the Anomaly Hunters. He’s requesting to see you.”
“Shen Ge succeeded? Is he outside too?” At the mention of Qian Weiguo, Fang Mingyue immediately realized that Shen Ge had successfully rescued the vehicle squad and started heading for the exit.
The soldier shook his head. “Four people got out—three men and one woman. Shen Ge wasn’t with them.”
“Let’s go take a look.” Deng Yuqi strode outside, Fang Mingyue hurrying after her.
When they reached the outside, an armored vehicle was parked in front of the blockade line. Qian Weiguo stood at the front, with A-Pao and Luo Zi flanking the young girl Liang Yin.
“Captain Qian.” Deng Yuqi stepped forward.
Qian Weiguo had been several ranks below Deng Yuqi back in the Anomaly Hunters, and now, serving the New God’s Church—an organization neither of them respected—he stood at attention and saluted crisply. “Commander Deng, thank you for sending your soldiers to help. If it weren’t for that warrior, we never would have gotten out safely.”
“What about Shen Ge? Didn’t he come back with you?” Before Deng Yuqi could respond, Fang Mingyue blurted out.
Qian Weiguo replied, “After he rescued us and told us your evacuation route, he said he wanted to take this opportunity to… ahem… handle another mission, and he left ahead of us.”
Qian Weiguo had originally planned to relay Shen Ge’s exact words about taking out Priest Jiang, but after glancing around, he realized there could be New God’s Church informants among the crowd. He caught Deng Yuqi’s eye and changed course, simply saying that Shen Ge had gone off on another task.
Deng Yuqi understood. She dismissed the others and led Qian Weiguo and his group into the temporary command tent to get the full story.
When she heard that Priest Jiang had transformed into a monster and that Shen Ge had volunteered to take him on, Deng Yuqi frowned slightly, as if weighing Shen Ge’s true intentions. But at the same time, it did lend some credence to Fang Mingyue’s earlier words. Much like Qian Weiguo, Deng Yuqi figured that anyone who was an enemy of the New God’s Church was automatically an ally.
“You’re Liang Yin? One of this year’s Saintess candidates?” Deng Yuqi turned to the girl.
Liang Yin nodded. She’d heard of Deng Yuqi’s reputation even back in the shelter. She’d once dreamed of joining the exploration team herself—until her parents handed her over to the New God’s Church.
Now, standing before her “idol,” Liang Yin’s expression grew emotional. She answered every question Deng Yuqi asked, and even volunteered secrets about the New God’s Church that Deng Yuqi hadn’t asked for. Her cooperation was total.
If they hadn’t known that Shen Ge had rescued her from the New God’s Church, Deng Yuqi and the others might have suspected she was a plant sent to lead them into a trap.
After listening to Liang Yin’s account, Deng Yuqi had a pretty good guess as to why Shen Ge had killed all the other church members but spared this one Saintess candidate.
Clearly, Shen Ge was planning to stir things up during this Saintess selection.
