The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 135

Lately, the Research Department has seen quite a few changes. Since Li Xiang became the head of research, Deng Yuqi has assigned quite a few newcomers to his team.

Li Xiang’s lab has also been moved from Lab 3 to the largest, Lab 1. Since he’s handling so many responsibilities, Deng Yuqi even assigned Lab 2 to him as well.

When Shen Ge arrived at Lab 2, he found thirteen people, including Li Xiang and his assistants, crowded inside, gathered around a two-meter-tall cylindrical glass incubation tank.

After changing into the lab’s specialized protective suit, Shen Ge walked in and took a closer look. The group was studying a head floating inside the tank.

It was none other than the head of the Twelve Branches leader—the young man’s head Shen Ge had decapitated during the leader’s normal state.

The severed neck of the head was now covered with a layer of crimson mist-like anomalous energy. Its eyes were open, but only the whites were visible—no pupils—giving it a eerie, unsettling appearance.

“What’s going on? Has it come back to life?” Shen Ge asked from the back of the crowd.

Everyone turned around and greeted him politely upon seeing him.

“Investigator Shen.”

“Investigator Shen.”

Over the past month, Shen Ge had practically been living in the Research Department. Officially, it was to give the newcomers more hands-on experience, but in reality, he was just slacking off.

Of course, his main purpose was to assist Li Xiang in upgrading the combat armor.

Li Xiang glanced at Shen Ge and answered his earlier question: “This head’s current condition is somewhat complicated. Biologically, it’s not only ‘alive’ but also an independent entity—an independent being that doesn’t need the rest of its body, just this head.”

“We’ve dissected and examined it multiple times. The head lacks the organizational structure of a normal human brain—in other words, there’s no brain. Instead, there’s something resembling a heart that generates crimson mist-like anomalous energy. If the dissected head is reassembled, this energy quickly repairs the wound.”

As he spoke, Li Xiang had a researcher hand Shen Ge a bottle.

Inside the bottle were two blood-red leeches, somewhat similar to the “worm-leeches” Li Xiang had previously extracted from the corrupted flesh of anomalous rats.

“These are the ‘self-healing worms’ extracted from the rotten flesh of those anomalous rats. You remember them, right? Recently, I extracted the crimson mist energy from this head and fused it with them, enhancing their healing ability. After further pharmaceutical processing, I ended up with this.” Li Xiang picked up a small tray from a nearby counter. On it was a white pill about the size of a fingernail.

“Does it look familiar?” Li Xiang raised an eyebrow at Shen Ge.

Shen Ge used tweezers to pick up the white pill and examined it closely. Then he rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a small medicine bottle, and shook out an identical pill.

Well, I’ll be—Internal Injury Recovery Pill!

Li Xiang smiled. “I have to thank your friend for this. He’s truly an expert in pharmacology. Without the data he provided, I wouldn’t have been able to produce this so quickly. Gong Quan, Zhou Jing, head to Lab 1 and continue the research on the XTPA-9684 anomalous energy equipment.”

“Understood.” The named researchers acknowledged and left for the neighboring lab with their materials.

Li Xiang then assigned tasks to the others, and soon, only he and Shen Ge remained in Lab 2.

“Now that everyone’s gone, care to tell me where you found these pills? According to my tests, the composition of these two pills is almost identical. If you hadn’t brought me one… I’d have thought I made it myself.” Li Xiang spoke seriously.

Shen Ge hesitated. “It’s… a long story.”

“Then give me the short version,” Li Xiang replied calmly.

“I’m a super-soldier from the M78 Nebula. I’ve awakened an Anomaly Elimination System within me that can accurately detect the presence of anomalies.” Shen Ge said with a straight face.

Li Xiang adjusted his glasses. “You’ve told me that before. Forgot to mention—I believed you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had you undergo so many tests. But unfortunately, all the research reports and experimental results confirm that there’s nothing anomaly-related in your body. At least, not detectable with current technology.”

“What a shame,” Shen Ge sighed.

“Indeed,” Li Xiang nodded in agreement.

“Sigh.”

“Sigh.”

The two sighed in unison, almost as if they were disappointed not to have found anything unusual about Shen Ge.

“So, what’s the difference between this crimson mist energy and regular anomalous energy?” Shen Ge asked.

Since they couldn’t confirm the system’s existence, Shen Ge decided not to dwell on it. After all, so far, the system hadn’t caused any negative effects on his body.

Besides, neither Tang Jinze nor Li Xiang could detect its presence. Even if there were side effects, Shen Ge would just have to live with them.

Li Xiang operated the control panel, and two mechanical arms extended into the incubation tank. They used a precision cutter to slice open the anomalous head inside, revealing the crimson mist energy within.

Then, Li Xiang injected several agents into the tank. The crimson mist energy within the head gradually dissipated, revealing a red, pulsating object at the center—about the size of a fist, resembling a brain but also somewhat like a heart, throbbing rhythmically.

“This ‘heart’—let’s call it that for now—is likely a part of some anomaly. And by anomaly, I don’t mean the Twelve Branches members, but a true anomaly. Based on my research and hypotheses over the past month, combined with reports from the Haiya Research Institute, I believe the leader of the Twelve Branches, who was once a member of the Haiya Research Institute, hid part of an anomaly’s corpse after the experimental accident.”

“In other words, this ‘heart’ likely belongs to what the Haiya Research Institute reports refer to as ‘the first anomaly discovered,’ or possibly the second anomaly they located underground through anomalous energy detection.”

“I remember you mentioned that the Twelve Branches leader was nearly 2.3 meters tall. It’s highly unusual for a researcher to be that tall under normal circumstances. So, he likely underwent some form of experimental modification or mutation… or perhaps his torso is his ‘true body.’”

Shen Ge frowned. “What do you mean?”

Li Xiang explained, “According to your previous accounts, you decapitated the leader twice—this head was from his normal state. Aside from a few exceptional creatures, most beings die when decapitated. Unless, of course, the head isn’t really a head but something like a gecko’s tail.”

“You also mentioned that during combat, the Twelve Branches leader prioritized protecting his body over his head and limbs, even at the cost of not using crimson mist energy to shield them. So, I’ve been wondering—what if his body is just a ‘shell,’ or a piece of anomalous energy equipment? What if he’s hiding inside this equipment, controlling the body, while the head, hands, and feet are all part of the equipment?”

Shen Ge thought for a moment and raised a question: “Assuming your hypothesis is correct, what about the other Twelve Branches members? I’ve fought several of their ranked members. Aside from growing extra heads or arms, they weren’t all that different from normal people. Their heads, when dissected, didn’t contain crimson mist energy, right?”

Li Xiang nodded. “Correct. Headquarters has completed the dissection of ‘You’ and found no crimson mist energy in him. However… according to the report, his human tissues and anomalous tissues were still separate. In other words, the human body still rejects anomalies.”

“The anomalous tissues on ‘You’ were also different from those of ordinary anomalies. After comparison, we found that they originated from the two heads you decapitated.”

“After several days of video conferences with the team at headquarters researching the Twelve Branches, we reached a conclusion: the leader, using remnants of the ‘progenitor anomaly,’ became the only known case of successful fusion with an anomaly—or perhaps he created a ‘vessel.’”

“The parts transplanted onto the other ranked members of the Twelve Branches—the red tumors you saw on their necks—came from the leader.”

Shen Ge understood. “So, the leader fused with the progenitor anomaly, and the other members received transplants of his tissue. The human body may reject anomalies and anomalous energy, but it doesn’t reject ‘half-human, half-anomaly’ tissue.”

“Bingo!” Li Xiang snapped his fingers.

Shen Ge fell silent for a moment, then looked at Li Xiang with a strange expression. “So, the solution you’re proposing for the armor’s energy supply… it wouldn’t happen to be…”

Li Xiang shook his head. “Sorry, you guessed wrong. After the temporary research team I formed with headquarters came to this startling conclusion, upper management immediately contacted the minister. They strictly forbade us from conducting any human experiments based on this.”

“In fact, we tried transplanting the leader’s ‘half-human, half-anomaly’ tissues into lab mice and other animals with genetic structures similar to humans. All attempts failed. So, the Twelve Branches must have some special method, or perhaps they achieved their current results through significant… sacrifices.”

“Then how do we solve the armor’s energy supply issue?” Shen Ge wasn’t interested in human experiments. With the system’s issues still unresolved, he had no intention of stuffing strange things into his body—especially not something from the Twelve Branches leader.

“Watch.” Li Xiang continued operating the controls, placing a piece of anomalous flesh emitting black anomalous energy into the incubation tank.

The “heart” inside the head began pulsating rhythmically. The black anomalous energy from the flesh seemed drawn into the heart, which soon “exhaled” crimson energy.

“Based on our tests, the ‘heart’ can absorb anomalous energy and convert it into crimson energy. Crimson energy is completely harmless to human tissues—it’s like a higher-tier form of energy. Most importantly, this ‘heart’ can absorb trace amounts of anomalous energy invisible to the naked eye.”

“The ‘LiXiang Type I Combat Armor’ has the memory function of an anomalous brain and the fusion ability of an anomalous turtle. I thought about integrating this ‘heart’ into the armor. That way, it could absorb ordinary anomalous energy, convert it into crimson mist energy, and achieve self-charging.” Li Xiang explained.

Shen Ge said, “That’s actually a solid idea.”

“If we can successfully integrate this ‘heart,’ we might also be able to incorporate your Anomaly-Fire Armguards and other equipment into the armor. Of course, this is just my hypothesis—actual implementation will depend on experimentation. But you’ve been assisting me for the past month, and I’ve simulated most of the data. All that’s left is the practical test.” Li Xiang said.

Being able to integrate equipment like the Anomaly-Fire Armguards and the Blood-Skin Pouch into the armor would save Shen Ge a lot of trouble. He immediately said, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s start now.”

“Alright.”

However, the actual experimentation process turned out to be far more challenging than either Shen Ge or Li Xiang had anticipated. They worked overtime in the lab for over half a month, using up all the anomalous corpses stored in the containment area over the past two months, but they finally succeeded in upgrading the armor—

“LiXiang Type II Combat Armor”

Its initial form, like the Type I, was a black wristwatch. The difference was that it had widened from two fingers to three, and its thickness had increased by 0.5 centimeters, making it look more like a black “wrist guard.”

The “LiXiang Type II Combat Armor” had three forms—

The first was the split form, which represented the effects of various anomalous energy equipment.

1. Anomaly Shield
   The specific form of the Anomaly Shield could be controlled by Shen Ge. It had a total area of about two meters in diameter and could change shape as needed. It couldn’t be enlarged further but could be zoom out. When zoom out, its thickness changed, and its defensive capability increased accordingly.
   Most importantly, it could attach and solidify on any part of Shen Ge’s body—such as his arms, back, or chest—based on his choice.

2. Anomaly Tentacles
   Shen Ge could control the corrupted flesh to cover his arms and transform them into tentacles. In non-full-body armor mode, covering both arms allowed tentacles up to ten meters long. Covering a single arm allowed tentacles up to twenty meters long. However, as length increased, the tentacles became thinner and their strength significantly decreased.
   With Little Seven’s control, a multi-tentacle state was possible, but length and thickness varied with quantity.
   Including his own two arms, Shen Ge could essentially become an “eight-armed entity.”

3. Anomaly Stomach
   After the upgrade, the Anomaly Stomach could attach to both hands, effectively splitting into two. Although the devour size was halved, it could simultaneously devour two targets.
   Using the Anomaly Stomach with Anomaly Tentacles extended the attack range from five meters to twenty-five meters, with no change in devour effect.

The fourth and fifth forms were the Anomaly Gloves and Anomaly Boots.
Shen Ge’s Anomaly Gloves were already different from the standard-issue ones at the Special Measures Department, featuring an “unreleasable” trait. After the upgrade, they didn’t change much.
The Anomaly Boots, however, could double the original maximum jump height of 8-10 meters by consuming crimson mist energy. But this consumed a significant amount of energy and required Shen Ge to be in full-body armor mode to withstand the physical strain.

6. Anomaly-Fire Armguards
   After successful integration into the armor, the intensity of the anomalous fire increased significantly, but so did the energy consumption. When using crimson mist energy, the black anomalous fire turned red. The power was slightly reduced, but energy consumption decreased considerably.

7. Anomaly-Skin Backpack
   After integration, Shen Ge could freely control the shape of the Anomaly-Skin Backpack and switch between black and red. Its maximum capacity wasn’t much different from an ordinary backpack. But like the Anomaly Shield, it could attach to any part of his body.
   For example, Shen Ge could shape it into a black single-shoulder backpack attached to his back and place his cleaver inside. When he needed it, he just had to tell Little Seven what he wanted, and the next second, the corrupted flesh would deliver the cleaver to his hand. When done, tossing it aside would have the flesh return it to the backpack.
   Most importantly, items placed in the backpack were shielded by the armor. Even the most advanced scanners could only detect an empty backpack, unable to see its contents.

Aside from the split form, the second form of the “LiXiang Type II Combat Armor” was the full-body armor mode. After integrating the anomalous heart, even with seven split forms, there was no additional energy consumption. Defensive capabilities were stronger, and energy consumption was significantly reduced.
The previous maximum energy capacity was 300%. After integrating the anomalous heart, it expanded to 600%. Defending against ordinary blade wounds consumed almost no energy. Handguns, submachine guns, and rifles would only reduce energy by 1% after several shots. Energy recovery remained at 10% per hour, with no significant change.
Visually, it still looked largely the same—full-body coverage of melted, corrupted flesh, like a “villain edition” of Venom, giving off an even more disgusting and terrifying vibe.

The third form was the full-release crimson mist energy state, converting black mist energy into crimson mist to reduce consumption. This put the armor into a “berserk” mode, enhancing all split-form abilities.
As for its appearance… in Shen Ge’s words, it looked more like an anomaly than an actual anomaly.

Two months had passed since the end of the major capital anomaly disaster and the completion of the armor upgrade. Aside from completing weekly tasks, Shen Ge spent most of his time in the lab assisting Li Xiang.

The successful armor upgrade significantly boosted his combat capabilities. Daily survival rewards and weekly task rewards also pushed his mental energy past 600%, achieving a Tier 3 rating!

[Congratulations, Host, on advancing to Tier 3. Reward: 1 Trait Enhancement Point. System function upgraded!]

“System function upgrade?” Shen Ge was surprised by this notification. After all, there was no prompt when advancing from Tier 0 to Tier 1—he just gained the ability to see faint anomalous energy.
Tier 1 to Tier 2 gave one enhancement point, and the [Vehicle] option appeared in the lottery system only when he tried it at the Han City base.
This direct notification of a system upgrade upon reaching Tier 3 made him curious about what changes would occur.

[Shen Ge]
Tier: 3
[Basic Attributes:]
Strength 157%;
Agility 142%;
Constitution 139%;
Mental Energy 601%
[Traits:]
“Silent”
“Immobile”
“Formless”
“Unreleasable”
“Non-flammable”
[Abilities:]
“Formless Anomaly Domain (Type I)”
“Unreleasable Anomaly Domain (Type I)”
[Owned Anomalous Energy (Trait) Equipment:]
“LiXiang Type II Combat Armor* (Little Seven)”
Cleaver (Trait: Unbreakable)
Anomaly Eye (Trait: Invisible)
Anomaly-Elimination Revolver (“Anomalous Energy Magazine” Trait: Infinite)
Black Bone Dagger
[System Points]: 2369
[Free Allocation Points]: 0
[Trait Enhancement Points]: 1
[Unclaimed F-grade Recovery Items]: 13
——————————————

From the information panel, Shen Ge didn’t notice any immediate changes to the system. After opening it, there were still only three sections: [Panel], [Log], and [Lottery].

“So, System, where exactly did you upgrade?” Shen Ge asked.

After waiting for a while, the system gave no response.

“Sigh. Seems this upgrade is similar to going from Tier 0 to Tier 1—there’s probably some change, but I’ll have to figure it out myself.” Shen Ge sighed. The system’s intelligence was still nowhere near Little Seven’s.

Useless system!

…

“Investigator Shen!”

One day, while Shen Ge was following his usual routine of assisting Li Xiang with armor research in the lab, Anomaly Investigator Tu Doubi hurriedly came looking for him.

Since Tu Doubi and Yang Yuxin joined, Shen Ge’s workload over the past two months had somewhat resembled Deng Yuqi’s earlier days—lower-tier anomaly incidents were handled by them, and he only stepped in for Tier 1 or above.

But with Lin Yin, the workaholic, also on the team, even the occasional Tier 2 incident rarely made it to Shen Ge.

Unless the anomalous materials in the underground containment area were depleted, Shen Ge would be pulled out of the lab to scour the streets for more.

This time, Tu Doubi’s arrival clearly meant they’d encountered a problem they couldn’t handle.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Ge asked.

Tu Doubi said with a grave expression, “Captain Lin was investigating an anomaly incident and found members of the Twelve Branches. She tracked them to a high-end club at Shiyan Bridge but lost them. However, she detected an anomalous space there. Captain Lin is holding the position and asked you to check it out. She said the anomalous space seems… artificially controlled!”