Shen Ge was still maintaining his triple-threat state of “invisible + silent + traceless.” Even if he landed in a busy downtown area, he wouldn’t have to worry about causing a commotion. Still, to be on the safe side—in case the hidden Monster Organization had any other detection methods he didn’t know about—he used the Invisible Barrier’s “sealing” ability to drop himself onto the rooftop of a commercial building.
Standing at the edge of the rooftop, Shen Ge looked toward the quarantined zone in the distance. Over the past two years, paranormal incidents had become increasingly frequent, and Dajing was no stranger to lockdowns. The citizens had gradually grown accustomed to it.
What was different this time, however, was that because of Asia’s importance to the Paranormal Research Association, they had deployed paranormal-response mechanized units to enforce the blockade. This had stirred up a fair amount of panic among the public, and a large crowd of reporters had gathered just outside the quarantined zone.
“Beep-beep-beep—”
Just then, the paranormal-energy communicator in Shen Ge’s pocket let out a series of urgent alerts. A flood of messages popped up all at once, nearly overwhelming the device.
When Shen Ge opened the communicator, he saw that most of the messages were from Deng Yuqi, followed by Fang Mingyue, Li Xiang, and a few others. Deng Yuqi and Fang Mingyue were both checking in on him while also filling him in on the current situation—after all, Shen Ge had once again gone off the grid without a word.
Li Xiang’s messages, on the other hand, were updates on Cheng Shengnan and the Red Mist Battle Armor. Based on the timestamps of the messages, about eight hours had passed in the “real world” since Shen Ge had entered the Dream World.
In other words, the eight days Shen Ge had spent in the Dream World amounted to just eight hours back in reality. The banquet was long over, and not only had Dajing failed to capture the Monster Organization members lurking in the shadows, but several representatives from other countries’ paranormal-response delegations had also run into trouble. Now, all parties were locked in a heated dispute over the matter.
Shen Ge didn’t understand politics, nor did he care to get involved. Now that he had confirmed the “feasibility” of traveling through the Dream World, the top priority was, of course, to relocate Cheng Shengnan.
But before that, there were still many details he needed to iron out. On one hand, he had completed the “crossing,” but there was an eight-day to eight-hour time discrepancy. While that delay was due to getting tangled up with a paranormal entity in the Dream World, what if another entity latched onto them during the actual transfer? The very method meant to save time and keep things under wraps could end up putting Cheng Shengnan in even greater danger.
Shen Ge first sent out replies to everyone letting them know he was back, and told Li Xiang about his successful “spatial crossing” through the Dream World, instructing him to prepare for the relocation. He then got on a call with Deng Yuqi to go over the next steps.
During the call, Shen Ge also used Dream Force to lock onto the Dream World where the seventh-tier entity resided. It had taken him a few days to help Deng Yuqi and the others in that world seize control of the shelter, effectively giving them an extra “branch base.” Naturally, he planned to put it to good use.
After successfully locking onto the location, Shen Ge also got a general picture from “real world” Deng Yuqi of what had happened during the eight hours he was gone.
After Shen Ge had left, aside from the initial incident involving the female representative of the foreign paranormal-response delegation and her security team, who had been trapped in a paranormal space along with Wang Han, two more paranormal incidents were uncovered—one involving the U.S. and the other Australia. Unsurprisingly, these two nations were the loudest in demanding that Dajing provide an explanation.
On another front, Fang Mingyue had arrested the Sakura Country spy and conducted interrogations, but unfortunately, the intel she gathered wasn’t particularly useful.
As for the hidden Monster Organization—unless the system mission had “malfunctioned”—they had gone to ground far too effectively. Fang Lao and Fang Mingyue personally led the search, tearing apart the banquet venue and even the entire quarantined zone, but couldn’t find a single trace of Dr. Chen.
That said, there was some good news: by following the “Councilor Luo” lead, Fang Mingyue had rooted out quite a few of Sakura Country’s hidden operatives. It wasn’t a small haul.
However, when Fang Mingyue moved in to arrest the Watanabe siblings, she successfully captured Watanabe Natsumi and Fuka Ari—but Watanabe Natsutaka managed to slip away.
Meanwhile, back in Sakura Country, when they learned that several of their top agents had fallen into the hands of Dajing’s paranormal investigators, they quickly began negotiating with the Chinese side, hoping for their release.
Dajing hadn’t expected Fang Mingyue to quietly drop such a bombshell. They used the opportunity to pressure Sakura Country into trading Sakura Island’s paranormal data and the “negotiation chips” they’d brought with them. The final outcome was still up in the air, but that wasn’t Shen Ge’s concern.
Due to the paranormal incidents at the banquet and the unresolved “negotiations” with Sakura Country, the Asia Paranormal Research Conference was, unsurprisingly, postponed.
Although the banquet’s main objective—”finding the hidden Monster Organization members”—hadn’t been achieved, at least the feasibility of traveling through dreams had been confirmed. So when Shen Ge informed Deng Yuqi about relocating Cheng Shengnan, she mobilized her hidden assets in Dajing to offer full support for the operation.
The final—and most dangerous—step of the relocation plan was to reconfirm the “feasibility” of traveling back and forth to the Dream World.
After hanging up the communicator, Shen Ge directly channeled Dream Force to unfold his Paranormal Domain and attempted to re-establish contact with the locked Dream World.
This time, the connection went smoothly. When Shen Ge took a step toward the rooftop’s edge, he indeed found himself back in that rain-lashed, abandoned city.
He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d snatched away the Dream Fragment from within that crimson glow, but the originally sky-obscuring expanse of paranormal black mist had shrunk by nearly a third. The once-flickering giant entity had also vanished, as if nothing remained but endless darkness.
This eerie development immediately set off alarm bells in Shen Ge’s mind. Although he had successfully wrested the Dream Fragment from the entity by expending a massive amount of Dream Force, he had expected the creature to “disappear” along with the fragment. Yet the paranormal black mist still lingered.
Shen Ge had pulled off the snatch using his triple-threat state of “invisible + silent + traceless,” coupled with a huge expenditure of Dream Force, striking with the element of surprise. He’d initially been quite pleased with himself for taking down a seventh-tier entity this way, but clearly, he’d celebrated too soon.
The seventh-tier entity wasn’t dead—it seemed more like it had gone into hiding. For Shen Ge, who intended to use this world as a “logistics base” and a “passageway,” that was far from good news.
Shen Ge rushed back to the shelter and found Deng Yuqi from this world. He’d only been back in “reality” for a little over an hour, but factoring in the time from his departure from the shelter to the seventh-tier entity’s territory, about a day had passed here. Deng Yuqi and Fang Mingyue had been equally worried when they couldn’t reach him.
Shen Ge first briefed Deng Yuqi on the seventh-tier entity’s situation and its haunting grounds, advising her and the shelter to start planning an escape route. Living next door to an elephant that could turn over at any moment was never safe.
The shelter now faced only two options: first, stick to the original plan and use the shelter as a backup base while focusing on developing the new one. But with the knowledge that a seventh-tier entity was just a few dozen kilometers away—and less than a hundred kilometers from the new base—whether to continue development at all was now in question.
The second option was to keep expanding, but find a way to lure the seventh-tier entity away from Dajing, creating a safe development zone for both bases.
But aside from Shen Ge, who “might” have the ability to pull that off, the shelter simply didn’t have the combat power to draw the seventh-tier entity away, even if they threw everything they had at it.
Even though Shen Ge agreed to give it a shot, it wasn’t something he could accomplish overnight—after all, he didn’t even know where the entity’s “true body” was.
Shen Ge could only ask Deng Yuqi to make preparations and request a long-range-capable battle vehicle, telling her he needed to conduct a thorough reconnaissance near the seventh-tier entity’s territory—but in reality, this was his cover for transferring Cheng Shengnan.
Deng Yuqi didn’t hesitate much before agreeing to Shen Ge’s plan. She arranged for the most advanced and durable battle vehicle available, along with ample supplies of food and fuel.
After once again turning down Fang Mingyue and the others’ offers to “come along,” Shen Ge drove out of the shelter and headed to the abandoned building where he had first appeared.
Once inside the building, Shen Ge released Dream Force to unfold his Paranormal Domain and attempted to reconnect with “reality.” Since he had already locked onto both “reality” and the “Dream World” with Dream Force, the reconnection was exceptionally smooth and effortless.
After successfully returning to the villa district, Shen Ge made his way to the underground research lab beneath the villa. There, Li Xiang had already made all the preparations—together with Yun’er and Yang Yuxin, they had Cheng Shengnan all “packed up.”
The Asia Paranormal Research Conference wasn’t over yet, so Yang Yuxin and Tu Doubi couldn’t head back to Rong City with them. As for Yun’er, she had originally been Cheng Shengnan’s “bodyguard.” Given her special status and her own combat capabilities, Shen Ge decided to bring her along to the Dream World.
Finally, he blocked someone who was trying to step into the room: “Whoa, whoa, whoa—don’t tell me you’re planning to come with us to the Dream World too?”
Shen Ge looked speechlessly at the calm and composed Li Xiang, who was trying to nonchalantly walk into the room. To his surprise, Li Xiang didn’t seem to share any of his concerns and shot back without missing a beat: “Duh! This is a spatial leap! It’s a field that countless scientists have devoted their entire lives to researching, and now this golden opportunity is right in front of me. How could I possibly not go?”
“…”
Shen Ge sighed. “Dude, you’re the keynote speaker for the Chinese delegation at this Asia Paranormal Research Conference. Who knows how long this round trip will take? What if we run into some paranormal entity along the way and get held up? Forget the danger for a second—if a big shot like you suddenly vanishes from Dajing, things are going to go haywire over here!”
Li Xiang seemed to have anticipated Shen Ge’s objection and replied calmly: “First of all, I’m just one of the speakers for this conference. You know what ‘one of’ means, right? It means they can replace me with whoever they want as long as they feel like it. As long as I hand over my speech script, there’ll be plenty of people lining up to take my place.”
“Fame and fortune are just clouds to me. In this chaotic era of paranormal disasters, no one knows if the world might end tomorrow. If I get the chance to see what the end of the world looks like firsthand, that’s a pretty novel experience in itself.”
“Besides, I’ve been monitoring Director Cheng’s assimilation data around the clock these past few days. Having me and my junior apprentice sister handle the handoff ensures Director Cheng’s safety. You might be okay with not letting me experience the apocalypse, but you can’t just ignore Director Cheng’s safety, right?”
“…”
For once, Shen Ge was left completely speechless by Li Xiang. The guy had spent so much time in the lab, and with his status rising day by day to become the undisputed top dog of the research department, people had gradually forgotten that he was the same guy who used to throw around insults like “country bumpkin” and could verbally spar with anyone.
“Think this through carefully,” Shen Ge said helplessly. “The Dream World is full of uncontrollable factors. Plus, that world has already gone to hell—the intensity of paranormal entities there is several levels higher than ours. If this turns into a one-way ticket, don’t come crying to me.”
Li Xiang patted Shen Ge’s shoulder with confidence. “No worries. I know you well enough. I’m sure that before you kick the bucket, the rest of us will be perfectly safe. If even you end up dead, then honestly, we’d only have a few more years to live in the real world anyway—not much difference.”
“…You believe in me more than I believe in myself,” Shen Ge said, exasperated.
Li Xiang added, “Think about it—even though you’ve been bringing me all sorts of research materials from the Dream World, there’s still a whole world of difference between that and actually seeing it with my own eyes. Who knows? Maybe if I take a look, I might even find a way to avert the apocalypse.”
“Fine, fine, fine. I can’t argue with you. Let’s go, we’re moving out.” The moment Shen Ge finished speaking, he noticed Yang Yuxin and Tu Doubi staring at him with eager, sparkling eyes.
“Don’t even think about it, you two. If you don’t want to get locked in a dark room by the director, go report to her right now.” Shen Ge scolded them helplessly.
“…”
Yang Yuxin and Tu Doubi didn’t have Li Xiang’s confidence, nor the guts to talk back to Shen Ge. Dejected, they shuffled off to report to Deng Yuqi.
Shen Ge carried the “cocooned” Cheng Shengnan up to the bedroom on the upper floor and laid her on the bed. Then he had Yun’er and Li Xiang stand on either side of him.
He then channeled paranormal energy into the glowing Dream Fragment, spreading his Paranormal Domain outward from himself as the center, and re-established the connection to the locked Dream Fragment.
The moment the connection was successfully made, the entire space took on an eerie, gloomy cast. The lights in the room could be heard flickering with a distinct zzz sound, blinking as if they were about to go out at any second.
While this was a familiar scene to Shen Ge, Yun’er tensed up and moved protectively in front of the cocoon, worried that something might happen to Cheng Shengnan.
Beside them, Li Xiang was acting like a curious child, utterly fascinated by the changes around him. If it weren’t for Shen Ge’s earlier warning and the risk of being thrown into the chaotic spacetime of the Dream World, he would have been touching everything and examining it up close.
“Let’s go.” Once the connection was established, Shen Ge lifted Cheng Shengnan in his arms and called out to Yun’er and Li Xiang as they headed out of the building.
It had been two years since Li Xiang last worked on the front lines, participating in a few paranormal incidents with his team, but his experiences inside paranormal spaces were few and far between. This was the first time he’d ever seen such a clear transition from “reality” to “paranormal space” in real time.
After leaving the villa, Shen Ge and the others arrived at the battle vehicle he’d prepared. Li Xiang circled it twice, studying it briefly, then remarked, “Judging by this vehicle, it doesn’t seem like the tech level of this world is that far ahead of ours?”
“No kidding. Timeline-wise, it’s only a few years ahead of us—and the paranormal disaster broke out even earlier there. You expect them to have accelerated development after that?” Shen Ge said.
Li Xiang turned to look at Shen Ge. “Theoretically speaking, our own research into the paranormal only really took off after these incidents started happening more frequently.”
“…”
