“…” Shen Ge really couldn’t figure out how Li Xiang’s mouth hadn’t gotten him killed yet. Was it because the folks at Rong City Branch were just too nice, or was the guy simply that lucky?
But he had to admit Li Xiang was telling the truth. In the “real world,” China’s paranormal-response tech tree had really only taken off over the past couple of years. Before Shen Ge showed up, paranormal incidents were still small-scale outbreaks, and the Rong City Branch had to “borrow” their paranormal-energy gear.
Then along came Shen Ge—or rather, the more paranormal incidents he got involved in, the more it seemed like he’d thrown a catalyst into the mix. Paranormal events started popping up all over the world, and the Rong City Branch never had to worry about running out of research materials again.
In just two short years, Rong City Branch had overtaken the Dajing headquarters to become the top paranormal-response department in the country—heck, maybe even the world.
As the head of Rong City Branch’s research department, Li Xiang had played no small part in that achievement. Naturally, he was also pretty interested in checking out the Dream World shelter, but for now, the top priority was getting Cheng Shengnan safely back to Rong City. They couldn’t afford to dawdle too long in Dajing.
Shen Ge had previously considered asking Deng Yuqi over there to arrange a plane or helicopter. Unfortunately, from the year the apocalypse hit, full-scale war with paranormal entities had broken out and wiped out the military within just three years.
The battle vehicles the shelter was using now were all refurbished “scrap metal” salvaged from a few abandoned military bases. The entire shelter had fewer than a hundred of them combined. The New God Cult had embezzled nearly ten of those, and with wear and tear over the years, only about fifty were left.
The fact that Shen Ge could request one just by asking showed just how much Deng Yuqi valued him—much like back in the “real world” when he’d first started taking on paranormal missions and practically emptied out the Rong City Branch’s entire arsenal.
The three of them rode in the battle vehicle, escorting the cocooned Cheng Shengnan toward Rong City. Over the past few days, Shen Ge had only familiarized himself with the roads around Dajing, but with the system’s scanning and his Paranormal Eye, he could detect paranormal entities in the vicinity even without knowing the terrain.
Normally, Shen Ge would’ve taken the chance to farm some points or something, but Cheng Shengnan was more important right now. So with the help of the system’s scanning, he even avoided second- and third-tier entities, driving straight toward Rong City.
Under normal circumstances, driving from Dajing to Rong City would take a day or two—and that’s without accounting for post-apocalyptic road conditions or the fact that they were using a modified battle vehicle built more for defense and combat.
Li Xiang also understood the gravity of the situation. If it weren’t for the fact that Cheng Shengnan’s condition required him to coordinate with his junior apprentice sister Jiang Wenpei, he’d have loved to stay in this fascinating space and study the connection between the paranormal space and “reality.”
Thankfully, Shen Ge promised that after delivering Cheng Shengnan back to Rong City, they’d return to Dajing for the Asia Paranormal Research Conference the same way—by crossing through the paranormal space. That helped ease Li Xiang’s “regret.”
Five days later—three days longer than the original schedule—Shen Ge and his group finally arrived at a small town on the outskirts of Rong City.
But as they approached the city limits, Shen Ge’s Paranormal Eye saw… nothing in the distance. And he meant that literally. Stretching out before him was a vast plain with no buildings, no trees, no flowers—just an endless expanse of barren land.
However, upon closer inspection, something felt off. He could clearly see the “foundations” of buildings on the ground, along with the stumps of large trees.
In other words, underground there were foundations, stone pillars, tree stumps, plants, and all sorts of things—but above ground, there was nothing. It was as if the surface layer had been sliced clean off and vanished.
Shen Ge parked the vehicle about a hundred meters away from the wasteland and concentrated paranormal energy into his Paranormal Eye, straining to see farther. Still, there was nothing—just dense black paranormal mist.
Wait a minute!
“This is… Invisibility?” Shen Ge suddenly recalled that in the timeline from the Log, Rong City had also fallen, and the culprit was Invisibility, which had successfully completed its seventh-tier transformation.
After devouring Rong City, Invisibility had continued spreading toward Yuzhou and other regions. The reinforcements sent to help—including Luo Chenguang and other soldiers—had all died in battle.
After that, the eighth-tier entities from Sakura Island and the Korean Peninsula triggered disasters that swallowed the coastal areas, accelerating the high-tier transformations across the board and hastening the world’s end.
That timeline in the Log had ended in complete destruction after that. Although the Log could still be opened now, it no longer showed any information related to “Shen Ge”—meaning he was most likely already gone in that timeline.
“Wait a minute—if the Log is just the record of a single timeline’s destruction, isn’t that pretty similar to a Dream Fragment?”
With that thought, a bold idea suddenly popped into Shen Ge’s mind: if he injected the Dream Fragment he held into the Log, could he see Logs from different timelines?
As intriguing as that idea was, now wasn’t the time to test it. As someone who possessed the Invisibility trait, Shen Ge knew exactly how it worked. The moment he observed the scene, he realized that Rong City hadn’t “disappeared”—it had been devoured by a hidden Invisibility entity.
And Invisibility’s stealth capabilities were top-notch. Even with his Paranormal Eye, Shen Ge wouldn’t be able to confirm the situation inside Rong City without actually entering it.
But judging from the scene before him and the thick paranormal mist in the distance, this Invisibility was at least “seventh-tier.” Combined with the uniqueness of its abilities, dealing with it would be far more difficult than handling the seventh-tier entity back in Dajing.
Fortunately, Shen Ge’s goal here wasn’t to fight Invisibility—it was to use the Dream World as a way to bypass the Monster Organization and the various countries’ surveillance in the “real world,” and safely transfer the cocooned Cheng Shengnan back to Rong City.
So Shen Ge pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road, had Yun’er and Li Xiang stand close to him, then picked up the cocoon and stepped out. He channeled Dream Force to unfold his Paranormal Domain and established a connection with “reality.”
Shen Ge had already locked onto both the “real world” and this Dream Fragment. Once the connection was established, the three of them stepped through Shen Ge’s Paranormal Domain and returned to “reality.”
The moment he withdrew his Paranormal Domain from the Dream World, Shen Ge unfolded his Invisibility Domain to envelop both himself, Yun’er, and Li Xiang.
Under the effect of the Invisibility Domain, the three of them turned invisible. They checked their surroundings and confirmed they were back in Rong City, about ten kilometers away from the Quanlong Mountain Base. They decided to find a secluded spot and contact the Rong City Branch to send someone to pick them up.
But just as they were about to make contact from an empty civilian house, they heard commotion outside. A few vehicles pulled up and surrounded the house.
Several paranormal-response battle vehicles and black sedans arrived, and about twenty to thirty well-equipped paranormal-response soldiers got out, setting up paranormal equipment.
“Wait, it’s me!” Shen Ge opened the door and stepped outside.
Generally speaking, given Shen Ge’s status in Rong City, he might not personally know every frontline soldier, but anyone from the Rong City Branch definitely knew him. At least ever since Shen Ge had become the “top dog” of the branch, he’d never had a problem getting recognized on sight.
To be safe, Shen Ge had Yun’er, Li Xiang, and the cocoon stay inside the room, leaving only himself to step out. That way, if anything went wrong, he could handle it alone.
But when he stepped out, the on-guard paranormal-response soldiers didn’t lower their weapons. Instead, they aimed at him like he was a major threat, and even the heavy gunners had their paranormal-energy Vulcan cannons and rocket launchers ready.
“?”
Shen Ge froze. Seeing their reactions, he almost thought he’d become a wanted fugitive. Then he looked at their uniforms and insignia—they were from the Quanlong Mountain Base’s Paranormal Response Tactical Support Squad. They were his own people, right?
“Raise your hands, move to the wall, stand against it, and don’t make any sudden moves!” The squad leader advanced, aiming at Shen Ge.
Shen Ge stood still and asked, “Paranormal Response Tactical Support Squad? Which squad are you, and who’s your captain?”
If it weren’t for the risk of hurting his own people, these guys—if they’d been from any other department or another country’s paranormal investigators—would already be on the ground.
Neither the squad leader nor the members answered. They just kept issuing warnings and closing in cautiously, ready to fire at the slightest movement.
Just then, two more black sedans pulled up behind the battle-vehicle squad. Several fully armed paranormal investigators got out.
The lead investigator drew his paranormal pistol the moment he saw Shen Ge and yelled, “You have ten seconds to put your hands on your head and get on the ground, or we’ll open fire!”
Although the guy was wearing the full eight-piece paranormal gear set and a gas mask that hid his face, Shen Ge recognized the voice immediately: “Zhang Hu?”
The man clearly hadn’t expected Shen Ge to recognize him just by his voice. He paused for a moment. Though he didn’t lower his gun, he tentatively asked, “Is that really you, Shen Tan?”
“So what’s this all about? It hasn’t even been half a month since I left for Dajing—did someone start impersonating me over here?” Shen Ge asked with a helpless tone. Though honestly, it wouldn’t have been that surprising—they’d already run into that Dong’an Lake Monster that looked exactly like him.
Zhang Hu snorted. “I have to admit, your imitation skills are getting better and better. But too bad—Shen Tan is in Dajing right now, and he’s only been there a little over a week… A fake is a fake. Aim, fire, don’t let him get away—”
Before Zhang Hu could finish, the person at the door had vanished. The next second, a familiar teasing voice sounded right beside him: “Come on, Old Zhang. If I were really a fake, you’d already be on the ground… You’re right that he’s in Dajing, but I’m the real deal. The reason I’m back is because something came up. And it’s not just me—Li Xiang’s back too. He’s in the house right now.”
Actually, Zhang Hu’s calculation of time was accurate. The reason Shen Ge had gotten it wrong was because he’d been constantly shuttling between “reality” and the Dream World, and the time flow in each wasn’t the same. From what he could tell, one day in this particular Dream Fragment world equaled only about one hour in reality.
“You’re really Shen Tan?” Zhang Hu instinctively tried to put some distance between them and said that deliberately to distract him—clearly, the earlier fake had left a real impression on him.
But Shen Ge saw right through his little trick. He reached out and grabbed Zhang Hu’s shoulder. “Want me to rattle off the names of those collectibles you’ve got hidden under your bed?”
“…”
Zhang Hu’s face changed color, and he quickly stopped him. “Shen Tan, you can’t blame me for this! You gotta understand—if you’d seen the crap that’s been showing up around here lately, you’d be just as careful.”
To be absolutely sure, Zhang Hu went through several more verification steps with Shen Ge to confirm he was the genuine article before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
“What exactly happened?” Shen Ge asked.
Zhang Hu explained, “Not long after the director left for Dajing, something went wrong at Dong’an Lake. A massive whirlpool appeared in the artificial lake. Captain Feng sent paranormal-response mechs down to investigate and found a huge paranormal-energy vortex leading underground. But before we could figure out what it was, a monster that looked exactly like you showed up riding a fourth-tier entity and attacked our troops.”
“…” Shen Ge thought, Hold on, is this The One or something?
He hadn’t expected that after the previous clone monster, there’d be more of these things lurking around. Clearly, that Mirror Monster hadn’t been telling the truth.
“And then?” Shen Ge pressed.
Zhang Hu’s expression grew grim. “It was incredibly strong. Captain Feng got trapped while covering a few researchers’ retreat. Luckily, the chief and a few other captains arrived in time and managed to drive the monster and the entity back to the bottom of the lake. Then they sealed off the entire Dong’an Lake area.
“We thought we could at least hold out until you guys got back from Dajing. But over the past couple of days, paranormal-space reactions have been popping up one after another on the outskirts of Rong City. A few captains who went in to investigate all came back saying they’d encountered monsters that looked a lot like you—nowhere near as strong, of course, but some of them were already convincing enough to pass as the real thing.”
“The chief gave the order: if you see anything that resembles Shen Tan, shoot first and ask questions later. With your strength, paranormal-energy weapons are like toys to you anyway.”
“…” Shen Ge was momentarily speechless. He wasn’t sure if Lin Yin trusted him that much—or if she had that much faith in the Red Mist Battle Armor and Little Seven.
If they only knew that Little Seven and the Red Mist Battle Armor were currently unusable, they probably wouldn’t have given such an order.
“Shen Tan, you know the Quanlong Mountain area is Rong City’s key paranormal-response base. They’ve got paranormal-energy detection set up tight all around. About half an hour ago, a patrol team picked up a paranormal-energy signature and called in all the nearby units. We were dispatched to support.
“We just didn’t expect it’d actually be you coming back.”
Hearing this, Shen Ge couldn’t help but marvel at how far Rong City’s paranormal-response development had come—they’d even surpassed Dajing. At least they could detect this level of paranormal fluctuation and react in record time.
As the two were talking, more vehicles screeched to a halt nearby. More captains stationed in Rong City were arriving for backup.
Seeing this, Zhang Hu immediately contacted the Quanlong Mountain Base via communicator to report that this time, it was indeed the real Shen Ge who’d returned.
Their timing was perfect—it saved Shen Ge the trouble of contacting the branch himself. He, Li Xiang, and Yun’er carried the cocoon, hitched a ride with Zhang Hu, and headed straight to the Quanlong Mountain Base.
Li Xiang’s junior apprentice sister Jiang Wenpei had already gotten his call back when Cheng Shengnan first ran into trouble. She’d been preparing ever since she learned about the transfer, and now she was just waiting for them to deliver the patient.
