As that colossal aberration flickered in and out of sight within the black aberrant fog, the terrifying tentacles began emerging from the ground once again.
Shen Ge was still maintaining his Invisible Barrier for defense. But as these aberrant tentacles launched their attacks on him, his aberrant energy started plummeting at an alarming rate.
He’d already crossed paths with seventh- and eighth-tier aberrations multiple times, so this wasn’t anything new to him. Still, given the overwhelming pressure from the creature, he reinforced his Invisible Barrier a notch further.
What struck him as odd, though, was that neither the massive fog bank that filled his entire field of view nor the gigantic aberration within it seemed interested in attacking him. Instead, it was only those tentacles that kept “probing” him.
Why was that?
At his current Tier 5 rating, Shen Ge posed no real threat to a seventh-tier aberration—certainly not enough to make it wary.
And if it “couldn’t be bothered” with him, then why bother with the probing tentacles at all? It would’ve just swarmed him directly and turned him into one of those farmed snacks.
The dark clouds gathered in the sky, and within moments, a torrential downpour broke loose, accompanied by lightning and thunder. Tornadoes mixed with the rain swept up the abandoned buildings, as if the world were about to end.
Shen Ge held up his Invisible Barrier against the storm’s assault. In just a few short minutes, a fifth of his aberrant energy had already been drained—and this was merely the seventh-tier aberration’s “probing.” If it actually went on the offensive, he’d have no choice but to activate all three traits and make a run for it.
He pressed forward along the route Wang Dong had provided, but the closer he got to the aberrant fog, the fiercer the tentacle attacks became.
And yet, the more they tried to stop him, the more determined he was to see what lay ahead. Besides, the seventh-tier aberration was his only shot at reconnecting with “reality.”
Using his Invisible Barrier for protection, Shen Ge continued moving through the street blocks ahead, doing his best to avoid areas dense with tentacles.
About a hundred meters away, amid the old buildings in the ruins, was the “Freak Outpost” Wang Dong had mentioned. Just as he was about to head over, he noticed some eerie red lights flickering faintly by the battered roadside. They looked like a group of “people” in hazmat suits, holding instruments and scanning the area.
Shen Ge activated his Aberrant Eye to get a better look. They were wearing something like black leather outfits, with black canisters strapped to their backs, resembling fire extinguishers.
Strangest of all, from beneath those canisters extended numerous wire-like tubes, each connected to floating red rings hovering in the air.
“Wait a minute—I’ve seen these people before.” They looked oddly familiar. After a moment’s thought, he realized that back when he was trapped in the “future” of Sakura’s Takoguchi City and first encountered “Misfortune,” he’d seen people dressed exactly like this.
Last time, they’d slipped away before he could catch them. This time, Shen Ge instinctively expanded his Aberrant Domain, ready to trap them—but once again, a ripple of invisible distortion passed through the air, and their figures grew twisted before fading into the dense fog.
“Did they spot me?” He frowned. He’d only been able to see them through the aberrant fog thanks to his Aberrant Eye. Unless they had a similar ability, there was no way they could have detected him.
This was already the second time he’d encountered these strange people in areas where seventh- or eighth-tier aberrations roamed—and it only reinforced his suspicion that these high-tier aberrations were connected to them in some way.
He used to think they were members of the Twelve Branches, but after everything that had happened, that seemed increasingly unlikely.
Still, whoever they were, their origins were deeply mysterious. If he could capture one, he might finally get answers to many of his questions about aberrations and freaks.
Shen Ge continued charging toward the marked Freak Outpost on his map. But just as he crossed the street where those strange figures had been standing, the ground began to shake violently. Several aberrant tentacles burst up from below, homing in on him and lashing out.
The first tentacle broke through the earth, followed by a second, a third… Over a dozen tentacles tore the ground apart, and from the fissures, blood-red magma erupted.
“Magma?” Shen Ge stared at the wave of lava surging toward him, stunned. Considering Great Jing’s status, there was no way it could have been built on a magma zone. Besides, even across the entire Great Tian Dynasty, you’d be hard-pressed to find many cities with underground magma belts.
And yet, those tentacles, soaked in the molten rock, weren’t burning—they were taking on an eerie red glow instead.
With a massive wave of magma and blood-red tentacles bearing down on him simultaneously, Shen Ge had no time to hesitate. He activated all three traits at once—Invisible, Silent, and Untraceable—then used his Invisible Barrier as footholds to vault upward through the tornadoes and rain, putting distance between himself and the ground.
The fleshy tentacles suddenly lost his “trail” and froze midair, swaying limply in the storm.
Shen Ge wasn’t about to waste time on them. He sprinted across his Invisible Barrier platforms toward the aberrant fog, trying to break into the ruined streets and find the Freak Outpost.
The giant aberration in the fog remained motionless, showing no sign of action. Since it wasn’t making a move, Shen Ge certainly wasn’t about to pick a fight with a seventh-tier aberration.
Leaping from one Invisible Barrier platform to another across the collapsed buildings, Shen Ge watched as the aberrant tornadoes expanded their reach. His energy consumption was skyrocketing.
Just as he was considering using “Misfortune’s” power to hurl a meteor at the giant aberration and divert its attention, he suddenly sensed the presence of Dream Fragments.
“Where?” He scanned the area around the giant aberration with his Aberrant Eye. If only the Red Mist Armor and Little Seven were here—they could have pinpointed the Dream Fragments and navigated this chaotic environment without draining his energy so fast.
Without his two trusty aides, Shen Ge had to handle both offense and defense on his own. For the first time, he felt just how limited his stamina and energy truly were.
Then, he noticed something—at the heart of the chaotic aberrant fog and the tornadoes, right above what seemed to be the giant aberration’s head, a red light stood out vividly.
“That looks like… a ‘portal’?” Not a real portal in the traditional sense, but the kind he’d seen on Sakura Island—the ones used to travel through artificial Aberrant King cells.
“Wait—could this thing… be an artificial Aberrant King too?” A possibility struck him. According to Wang Dong, this was supposed to be a Freak Outpost. It wouldn’t be surprising if these guys had been secretly building an artificial Aberrant King beneath Great Jing.
Regardless of whether it was artificial or not, Shen Ge could already sense the Dream Fragments within that red glow. He burned through a fifth of his aberrant energy to hypnotize himself, boosting his strength, agility, and endurance to their limits. He then condensed and reinforced his Invisible Barrier, pushing toward that red dot.
Even though “Untraceable” prevented the giant aberration and its tentacles from pinpointing his exact position, just being inside the aberrant fog was already eating away at him. Between the corrosive environment, the tornadoes, and the acid-like rain, his energy was draining too fast to reach the red light.
He had three Spirit Apples left. Based on the distance, he’d likely need at least two of them just to maintain his defenses and keep moving forward. But this was no time to be frugal. He chomped down one apple in a few bites, speeding toward the red light.
But the moment he pulled out the Spirit Apple, he clearly sensed the giant aberration shift within the fog, as if an invisible gaze had locked onto him.
“Huh?”
What, you want this apple too?
Sure enough, as soon as the giant aberration caught the scent of the Spirit Apple, it seemed to have found some delicacy. Even the aberrant fog grew agitated.
“Oh, come on—you’re actually gonna steal my apple?” Shen Ge realized the aberration had set its sights on him. The fog and tentacle attacks intensified dramatically. Even without a clear bead on his position, it didn’t let up—it simply launched area-wide strikes.
His energy drained even faster. He had no choice but to speed up his barrier construction, lifting himself higher to evade the magma and tentacles below.
“Come out and fight me if you’ve got the guts!” he yelled, dodging and weaving.
At that, the thick aberrant fog condensed into a colossal hand, blotting out the sky—like the Buddha’s palm reaching for the Monkey King.
“Damn it, I was just kidding!” Shen Ge watched the massive hand swoop down as if to crush the entire area in its grip. Without a second thought, he shattered the Invisible Barrier beneath his feet, dropping like a stone to evade the attack.
At the same time, he downed his second Spirit Apple. He’d wanted to save one, but now it was clear that the last one had also become a liability.
He poured all his remaining aberrant energy into “amplification,” maxing out his stats, then dashed toward the red light at full speed.
His sudden burst of speed as he stepped off his invisible platforms created sonic booms, shattering the barriers and leaving cracks in the air itself.
Once he stopped worrying about energy consumption, the stat boost from “amplification” reached terrifying levels—his Tier 5 body was now on par with a Tier 6 aberration’s physicality.
Even though this boost was only temporary, his stats wouldn’t drop back to normal until his energy bottomed out.
But in just a few dozen seconds of this “burst,” Shen Ge had already surged into the red-lit zone. Just before his energy ran dry, he shoved the third apple into his mouth.
He’d been maintaining “Untraceable” all along, which should have shielded him from detection—whether it was aberrant equipment or Spirit Apples, both should have been cloaked by the Untraceable mist. And yet, either because the seventh-tier aberration outclassed him by two tiers, or because the Spirit Apples carried too much aberrant energy, he’d been locked onto even with Untraceable active.
But once the last Spirit Apple was down his throat, he was once again safely under Untraceable’s protection. The giant aberration lost its target and could only thrash about in impotent rage, smashing the ruins around it.
Shen Ge didn’t stick around to brawl with a seventh-tier aberration. Seizing the opening, he broke through the defenses and charged straight into the red light, plunging headfirst into it.
Normally, he’d say something like: “Little Seven, scan and locate the Dream Fragments,” then focus on capturing them.
But unfortunately, his trusty assistant wasn’t here, so he had to do everything himself—which meant it was yet another day of “missing Little Seven, day 365″…
After channeling the power of Dream Fragments, Shen Ge quickly locked onto the fragment’s signature within the red light. He’d initially thought it might be hidden inside the aberration’s body, like a heart, and had even prepared to use “Collapse” to phase through.
But to his surprise, the Dream Fragment was floating in midair—right at the center of the red glow. If you zoomed out, the entire red-lit area looked like the head of the giant aberration, and the glowing Dream Fragment was smack in the middle of its “brain.”
Now it all made sense. No wonder the towering aberration had felt so off to him—it turned out there was no “giant aberration” at all. The whole mass of aberrant fog was just an aberration formed around that glowing Dream Fragment!
Standing at the heart of the fog and looking around, Shen Ge finally “saw” the entity for what it was—it looked just like the fusion state on Sakura Island. The difference was that this time, influenced by the Dream Fragment, the aberration had fused not only with the land but also with the vast, spreading aberrant fog itself.
Shen Ge considered locking onto the aberration’s “true form,” but the Dream Fragment was right in front of him. Between fighting the aberration and reconnecting with “reality,” he chose the latter. After all, once he successfully established a connection and pinpointed the fragment’s location, he could always come back later to deal with the aberration.
And if he could bring his two powerful aides—the Red Mist Armor and Little Seven—dealing with this Aberrant King would be much easier. No need to burn through consumables fighting it now.
His last three Spirit Apples were already gone. All he had left to rely on were the few lottery draws he’d saved up—hopefully, he’d get lucky and pull some more Spirit Apples.
With the Dream Force locked on and his Aberrant Domain expanded, Shen Ge successfully “captured” the Dream Fragment within the aberrant fog and sensed the connection to “reality.”
Cracks began spreading across the sky of this entire world—just like every other time he’d shattered a world to return to reality. The next second, he started plummeting at breakneck speed.
And this time, without the Red Mist Armor’s protection, or his aberrant tendrils and the “Adhesion” trait to cling to walls, Shen Ge had to rely solely on his own Invisible Barrier.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
He condensed three layers of Invisible Barrier in midair, and shattered all three. It wasn’t until the fourth layer, reinforced with Dream Force, that the impact was finally absorbed and he stabilized himself in the air.
Feeling like his bones were about to rattle apart, Shen Ge staggered to his feet and looked around. Below him was a bustling downtown district, and in the distance, a cordoned-off alert zone.
Great Jing—he’d made it back!
