Under the “escort” of Zhang Hu and the others, Shen Ge and his group successfully brought the insect cocoon back to the Quanlong Mountain Base without drawing attention. Li Xiang’s master and junior sister had already been waiting there with their team.
“Where is she?” Jiang Peiwen looked at the insect cocoon being pushed into the research room and asked Li Xiang.
Jiang Peiwen and Cheng Shengnan had a fairly good relationship. Apart from work-related interactions, they often got together privately for meals.
So when she heard that something had happened to Cheng Shengnan, she became extremely anxious and transferred the entire team originally responsible for researching strange-person samples at the Rong City branch to the Quanlong Mountain Base to stand by.
The reason they chose to send Cheng Shengnan to the Quanlong Mountain Base instead of the Rong City branch was that this place was guarded by troops, and its defense facilities were more advanced, offering better protection for Cheng Shengnan’s safety.
Li Xiang pointed at the “insect cocoon” on the hospital bed. Jiang Peiwen was stunned for a moment, because the phone call had only mentioned that Cheng Shengnan’s hands had been corroded by strange-person cells. At that time, it really had only been her hands that were corroded. She had never expected that in just a day or two, her whole body would turn into an insect cocoon.
Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen had not communicated much over the phone. At this point, he could also see Jiang Peiwen’s confusion, so he explained, “Director Cheng’s situation is quite complicated. The strange-person sample inside her body doesn’t have high activity, but its corrosive power is very strong. At first, it really was only her hands that were corroded, but to prevent the strange-person cells from spreading, we used the auxiliary armor of the Red Mist Battle Armor to keep it under control. Who would have thought something would go wrong…”
After Li Xiang recounted Cheng Shengnan’s situation at the time in full detail, he pulled up several days’ worth of monitoring data on the computer and continued, “Currently, Student Xiao Qi is monitoring Director Cheng’s mutation. As the country’s most cutting-edge AI technology, Student Xiao Qi is an artificial intelligence whose superior cannot be found anywhere else in the world. From the data feedback, Director Cheng’s bodily data hasn’t changed much. She has been very well protected by Student Xiao Qi.”
“My preliminary deduction is that the key reason the mutation was successfully suppressed is likely that the strange-person sample provided by Miss Yun’er played a critical role, successfully holding back the spread of the strange-person cells. The only problem now is that quite a few strange-person cells have already invaded Director Cheng’s epidermis. The mutation in her hands is the most severe, equivalent to ‘scales’ growing on her original skin, increasing the strength of her outer epidermis by more than ten times.”
“If this had happened to one of our soldiers undergoing experiments, it might be a major breakthrough. But happening to Director Cheng, who is in logistics, it’s hard to say for the moment whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
“However, Detective Shen doesn’t want Director Cheng to go to the front lines, and the minister has no intention of that either. According to their wishes, the best solution is to strip the strange-person cells from Director Cheng’s body.”
The reason Li Xiang said “according to their wishes” was that, from his perspective, someone like Cheng Shengnan was a once-in-a-century perfect research subject.
But unfortunately, anyone who knew Shen Ge well knew that he valued family and friends more than the world. Even if this research might affect the world’s strange equilibrium, as long as it involved the safety of his family and friends, he would reject it without hesitation, even if it meant making enemies of the whole world.
If Li Xiang really had any intention of using Cheng Shengnan for experiments, then the very next day they wouldn’t even be friends anymore. Shen Ge might even take Cheng Shengnan and leave.
One had to know that Shen Ge held a large number of dream-world fragments in his hands. As long as he was willing, he could completely ignore the safety of “reality” and seek out a “paradise” in the dream world.
After all, the dream world wasn’t completely uninhabitable. Even if one world became impossible to live in, he could simply switch to another world.
If he only brought one person along, the consumption of dream power would basically be negligible. In other words, after gaining control of dream power, Shen Ge could be said to be the only person in “reality” with a “way out.”
Precisely because Li Xiang knew Shen Ge well, no matter how much he desired to conduct research, he would never touch Shen Ge’s reverse scale. Moreover, he also regarded Shen Ge as a close friend. How could he possibly do anything to harm his family?
Not to mention that if one day he encountered danger, Shen Ge would likewise risk everything without hesitation to rescue him.
After hearing Li Xiang’s explanation, Jiang Peiwen looked at Shen Ge and said seriously, “Detective Shen, rest assured. We will definitely find a way to cure Director Cheng.”
“Thank you for your hard work.” Shen Ge said in gratitude.
In fact, Shen Ge trusted Li Xiang and his team very much. But even if this strange-person team had other ideas, there was still Student Xiao Qi standing there like a wall.
This was also why Shen Ge would rather take on an extra risk himself and still keep Student Xiao Qi by Cheng Shengnan’s side to control the auxiliary armor.
Jiang Peiwen gathered the strange-person team and began analyzing and testing the “insect cocoon.”
Cheng Shengnan’s problem mainly lay with the “auxiliary armor” and the “dream fragments.” Since the concept of dream fragments was rather mystical to Jiang Peiwen and the others, and could even shatter their worldview, Shen Ge adopted a more plain and easy-to-understand way of explaining it—
The strange energy belonging to “Earth,” that is—the power of the world!
Of course, this explanation also sounded very mystical. But ever since Shen Ge witnessed the dream ending where the moon crashed into Earth, this report, as a confidential document, could only be seen by researchers of Li Xiang’s level. Therefore, both he and Jiang Peiwen knew that Earth was probably the biggest strange entity of all, a true “Strange King.”
And humanity was merely one of the countless parasites on Earth’s body. It was just that this parasite’s harm was growing greater and greater, making “Earth” furious enough to strange-transform other parasites to deal with humanity.
“Student Xiao Qi, please release one of Director Cheng’s hands. We need to collect some samples.” Jiang Peiwen, wearing a protective suit, said to the insect cocoon.
After receiving Shen Ge’s authorization, Student Xiao Qi tried to retrieve the Corrupted Blood Battle Armor wrapped around Cheng Shengnan’s left hand.
At that moment, what was revealed after the Corrupted Blood Battle Armor was retrieved was not Cheng Shengnan’s smooth, fair left arm, but a corrupted-blood hand bubbling with dark red blood blisters.
Seeing this, Jiang Peiwen immediately stepped forward with her assistant and used instruments to absorb samples. The whole process took less than a minute, but Cheng Shengnan’s arm was continuously “melting.”
“All right, please continue suppression.” Jiang Peiwen was also afraid something might happen to Cheng Shengnan. After extracting the sample, she immediately had Student Xiao Qi seal the melting arm again.
Because the auxiliary armor had absorbed the power of the dream fragments, after the strange energy fused with dream power, its strength increased hundreds of times. This also made Cheng Shengnan’s flesh completely unable to withstand such terrifying power, leaving it only able to be devoured and fused by the auxiliary armor’s strange-person cells.
In other words, if no method was found to deal with the strange-person cells, then the probability of Cheng Shengnan becoming a fused strange person was far greater than becoming a strange person who retained consciousness.
However, at this moment, Student Xiao Qi’s “retrieval” was not going smoothly. Cheng Shengnan’s arm was bubbling with dark red blood blisters. The boiling Corrupted Blood Battle Armor slowly began to extend, and soon the entire insect cocoon entered a state of melting and then boiling again. It looked absolutely horrifying.
Li Xiang’s research attainments in strange persons were not as good as Jiang Peiwen’s. But because he had been responsible for coordinating with Student Xiao Qi on data monitoring these past few days, and because he had talked quite a bit with Shen Ge about Cheng Shengnan’s situation on the road, he naturally understood dream power much better than Jiang Peiwen did. Therefore, he also stayed in the research room to assist Jiang Peiwen.
He knew that the auxiliary armor’s condition was not caused by external control leading to an abnormality, but by the influence of the “power of the world,” attempting to fuse with the body and absorb strange energy.
When Cheng Shengnan, wearing the auxiliary armor, captured the glowing dream fragments, a “assimilation” effect occurred, causing her, with the auxiliary armor’s help, to absorb the power of the dream fragments with a human body. But the Red Mist Battle Armor was essentially still a strange entity. After sensing the strange energy of the dream fragments within Cheng Shengnan’s body, it wanted to devour and fuse with it, which was what led to the current situation.
And as time passed, the auxiliary armor, affected by the dream fragments, underwent multiple stages of mutation. This also meant that after Student Xiao Qi released it, it was like a galloping wild horse. Wanting to catch it again would not be so easy.
“What method did you use before to temporarily suppress the spread of the strange-person cells?” Jiang Peiwen looked at Li Xiang anxiously and asked.
Li Xiang said, “The situation at the time was rather urgent. I couldn’t think of a better solution, so I decided to fight poison with poison, using Miss Yun’er’s strange-person sample inhibitor—that is, the x-23 type strange-person sample you researched—to suppress and fuse it. The suppression effect was pretty good, successfully buying Student Xiao Qi time to regain control.”
“The x-23 type strange-person sample inhibitor?” Jiang Peiwen murmured, already having a response plan in mind.
At this moment, Student Xiao Qi was still trying to control the Corrupted Blood Battle Armor and stop Cheng Shengnan’s arm from boiling. But as soon as the Corrupted Blood Battle Armor touched the boiling arm, it was instead devoured by the boiling blood.
“Xiao Chen, prepare strange-person sample xx-0001.”
“A Jing, open the injector. No, judging by the condition of the left arm, direct injection will probably be very difficult. Use a spray form.”
“Except for Xiao Chen and A Jing, everyone else leave the research room first.”
“Prepare the strange-person cell extermination procedure. When the three of us leave the research room later, we must carry out full extermination to prevent carrying strange energy on our bodies.”
“…”
Jiang Peiwen methodically assigned everyone their tasks. Even Li Xiang, her senior fellow disciple, could only silently follow her commands and assist. After all, if Jiang Peiwen dared to claim second place in the field of strange-person research, then no one in the entire Special Strategy Department would dare claim first. If anyone really could compete with her, it would have to be a top researcher from the strange-person organization.
Cheng Shengnan’s current state, affected by the auxiliary armor, had already half-stepped into the ranks of strange persons. Once the strange cells in the auxiliary armor successfully fused with her cells, even if the fusion rate was less than 1%, based on current strange-person research conclusions, there would already be no way to restore her to a human.
Fortunately, Student Xiao Qi discovered through scanning and monitoring that the auxiliary armor was currently mainly absorbing the strange energy of the dream fragments, rather than doing its utmost to seize Cheng Shengnan’s body.
Therefore, Jiang Peiwen decided to break through from this point, attempting to shift the auxiliary armor’s “target” and make it absorb other strange-person samples, buying a chance for Cheng Shengnan’s human cells to catch their breath.
However, when everyone followed Jiang Peiwen’s instructions and treated Cheng Shengnan’s mutated arm, they found that the auxiliary armor did indeed shift its target to absorbing the newly injected strange-person sample. But Cheng Shengnan’s arm did not improve. Instead, it continued to mutate.
“That’s not right. You must have taken other measures back then too. Old Li, hurry and tell me exactly what happened that day, in full detail!” Jiang Peiwen rushed to the control console and spoke through the amplification equipment to Li Xiang and the others waiting outside the research room.
“The situation at the time was exactly what I said earlier. I’m certain I haven’t left anything out… Wait, before the experiment, Shen Ge used some medicine on Director Cheng to treat her wounds. I remember there seemed to be a strange-energy medicine developed by the research department!” Li Xiang hurriedly looked at Shen Ge.
At the time, Shen Ge had seen that Cheng Shengnan’s condition was rather serious, so he used recovery items extracted from the system to treat her, preventing the auxiliary armor from causing too much harm to her body.
And these recovery items were products developed based on strange entities, able to produce recovery effects even when the human body rejected strange energy.
“Internal Injury Healing Pill and Healing Bandage. Those two things were used at the time!” Shen Ge quickly took out the recovery items and handed them to a designated person to bring into the research room.
Jiang Peiwen looked at the “Hua Hua Dan” and “extra-large sanitary pad” brought in on the tray. If the situation had not been so urgent, she would have thought Shen Ge and Li Xiang were playing a trick on her.
“Are you sure… this was used? This is no joking matter. Are you certain it was these two things?” Jiang Peiwen asked.
Shen Ge nodded firmly. He would naturally not joke about Cheng Shengnan’s safety. Setting everything else aside, items produced by the system still had guarantees. Before this, Fang Mingyue had also relied on these things and had been saved many times. It was just that when Shen Ge originally used the medicine on Cheng Shengnan, he had only been trying to treat her injuries and relieve her pain. But he had never dreamed that this unintentional act would actually affect the mutation rate of the strange-person cells.
After receiving Shen Ge’s confirmation, even though Jiang Peiwen was still doubtful about the “Hua Hua Dan” in her hand, she still swallowed back the question, “You actually used Hua Hua Dan to save someone?”
After repeatedly asking and confirming how to use these two strange-energy medicines, Jiang Peiwen had her assistant cooperate with Student Xiao Qi to use the medicine and inject the new strange-person sample inhibitor.
According to Student Xiao Qi, Cheng Shengnan had captured a total of six glowing dream fragments. Two of them had likely been directly devoured by the auxiliary armor, and the remaining four had been fused into Cheng Shengnan’s body.
Previously, Li Xiang and Student Xiao Qi had concluded that before the strange energy of the remaining four fragments was completely absorbed by the auxiliary armor, a way had to be found to solve the fusion problem.
But now, after a new round of comprehensive examination by Student Xiao Qi, it was discovered that the dream fragments sustaining Cheng Shengnan’s life force had less than two fragments’ worth of energy left.
At this moment, affected by the new type of strange-person sample inhibitor, the powerful strange-person strange energy immediately drew the auxiliary armor’s attention. At the same time, under the influence of the system medicine, Cheng Shengnan’s arm stopped melting, and the boiling blood gradually calmed.
Student Xiao Qi seized the opportunity to extend the Red Mist Battle Armor again, successfully turning Cheng Shengnan back into an “insect cocoon,” giving Jiang Peiwen the chance to analyze blood samples.
But whether it was analyzing samples or treating Cheng Shengnan, neither could be completed in a short time. Right now, the problem with the Asian Strange Research Association had not yet been resolved, the mysterious seventh-order strange entity in the dream world had not been clearly investigated, and there was still the high-order strange person hidden in the system mission…
These problems were each more troublesome than the last. Even though Shen Ge could not let go of Cheng Shengnan, he could not stay in Rong City forever. So after discussing with Li Xiang, he decided to return to Dajing tomorrow.
