The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 141

Powered by the mechanical gauntlet, Deng Yuqi delivered a full-force blow that shattered the central head, splattering brain matter and leaving the skull caved in.

She had thought that even with the Twelve Branches’ rapid healing abilities, this would buy some time against him. But then “Yin” produced a syringe filled with a red liquid and injected it into his neck. The crushed head began to regenerate at a visible pace.

Not only that, but all three of Yin’s heads began to mutate simultaneously. A section of their foreheads bulged outward, the protruding bone resembling the character for “king” (王), which reminded Deng Yuqi of a tiger.

Mutation?

In the moment Deng Yuqi was stunned, Yin’s body swelled to three meters tall. His physique and all six arms became as thick and powerful as the Hulk’s.

Whether they were the numbered captains or the “Ke” members of the Twelve Branches, they had fused their human bodies with anomalies through artificial means. However, the extra heads and arms seemed more like eerie equipment rather than the mutable, anomalous abilities of true anomalies.

According to Li Xiang’s research reports, the additional heads allowed Twelve Branches members to negate the head as a fatal weak point, while the arms could serve as storage for eerie energy or as equipment for different forms of eerie abilities.

But after Yin injected that red liquid into his body, his form rapidly changed. In that instant, the feeling he gave off transformed completely for Deng Yuqi—it was as if Yin had become a true anomaly!

Before Deng Yuqi could react, Yin turned into a blur and charged at her. His speed was so immense that even with her reflexes, she couldn’t track his movement.

Bang!

Deng Yuqi felt as if she’d been hit by a car. She was sent flying backward, crashing through the office door with a thud and tumbling inside.

Deng Yuqi coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her whole body felt like it was falling apart. The impact had severely damaged her internal organs; even trying to stand up was incredibly difficult.

Based on her past experience fighting anomalies, Yin’s current strength and speed had reached at least Tier 3, possibly even higher!

Seeing Deng Yuqi “fly” into the office, Cheng Shengnan didn’t have time to think. She grabbed Deng by the shoulders and dragged her toward the safe room.

“Don’t… worry about me. You… get in quickly,” Deng Yuqi forced out, each word costing her another mouthful of blood.

Ignoring her, Cheng Shengnan mustered astonishing strength and dragged Deng Yuqi into the safe room behind the bookcase.

Thud!

Just as they entered, Yin—whose bulk was wider than the door—stepped into the office. His swinging shoulders smashed directly through the office wall; the concrete might as well have been foam against his terrifying physique.

As Yin moved toward the safe room, Cheng Shengnan hit the switch first. With a hiss of pressurized air, the heavy hatch door sealed shut.

“Director! This medicine was given to me by Shen Ge—it can save lives!” Cheng Shengnan ignored the pounding on the door from outside. She first checked Deng Yuqi’s injuries, confirming internal damage, then immediately pulled out the Internal Injury Recovery Pill Shen Ge had given her and fed one to Deng.

No matter how powerful Deng Yuqi was, she still had an ordinary human body. Being hit head-on by a high-speed car and smashing through a closed door showed just how terrifying Yin’s strike had been.

She had been on the verge of losing consciousness from the pain, but the moment she swallowed the pill, a warm current seemed to flow through her body. Wherever it passed, the excruciating pain in her organs suddenly subsided. In just ten seconds… her internal injuries had completely healed!

“Director, are you okay?” Cheng Shengnan asked, seeing Deng Yuqi’s pale face. Since she wasn’t coughing up blood anymore, Cheng wasn’t sure if the medicine had worked.

“I’m fine. I just feel a bit uneasy remembering what this medicine is made from,” Deng Yuqi said, recalling when Li Xiang first developed the healing bugs and jokingly told her not to force them on her if she got injured.

Of course, to survive, she wouldn’t hesitate to swallow them—whether they were pills made from bugs or the bugs themselves.

Cheng Shengnan helped Deng Yuqi to her feet. The hatch door was pounding loudly. After mutating, Yin’s strength and speed had greatly increased, but his intelligence seemed to have declined; his reactions were slower.

This was just Deng Yuqi’s “feeling.” After all, if Yin had retained his previous reaction speed after knocking her away, Cheng Shengnan would never have had time to save her.

Deng Yuqi guessed that after using that drug to mutate, Yin’s body was changing toward that of an anomaly, and his intelligence was changing along with it.

After all, anomalies possessed no intelligence to speak of.

“The hatch won’t hold him much longer,” Cheng Shengnan said, watching the gradually warping door. “I tried calling Shen Ge and the security room, but the calls won’t go through.”

Deng Yuqi tried her own phone, but it was also busy.

She could barely handle Yin in his normal state, but against a mutated Yin whose power had broken through to Tier 3, it wouldn’t be so easy.

“Director! Look!” Cheng Shengnan, also trying to make calls, suddenly noticed the center of the hatch door seemed to tear open. Then, a thick black mist poured in.

The next second, the entire wall around the hatch began to distort and tremble, as if two eerie spaces were colliding.

“Direc—”

Black mist instantly filled the safe room. Before Cheng Shengnan could finish her sentence, upon contact with the mist, she turned into a beam of white light and vanished before Deng Yuqi’s eyes.

Deng Yuqi was stunned. The next moment, she too was touched by the black mist. It enveloped and swallowed her whole. A brief dizziness gave her the sensation of entering an eerie space, and her surroundings underwent a dramatic change.

The once white safe room transformed into a completely different space: deep blue wallpaper, modern-style decor, a soft, large bed.

A bedroom?

As an experienced elite anomaly investigator, Deng Yuqi had entered eerie spaces multiple times. She immediately realized the black mist and the white light of Cheng Shengnan’s disappearance were likely connected—probably a technique of the Twelve Branches, similar to a “teleportation + pulling into eerie space” ability.

Although the entry point into an eerie space was uncertain, if Cheng Shengnan had also entered this space, then at least for now, there seemed to be no danger.

Deng Yuqi quickly calmed down and began observing the room’s layout.

It was an ordinary bedroom with modern decor. The spacious room and luxurious furniture clearly indicated it belonged to someone wealthy.

Deng Yuqi looked around: a spacious bathroom, a luxurious bathtub. But both the bedroom and bathroom were covered in a thick layer of dust, as if abandoned for a long time.

She thought of the different time flows in overlapping spaces mentioned in the Chongqing incident report. She pulled out her eerie space detector from her pocket.

After the capital’s anomaly disaster, headquarters had released the blueprints for the eerie space detector. In two months, the Rong City branch had produced three, assigned to Shen Ge, Deng Yuqi, and Lin Yin respectively.

Deng Yuqi, thinking she’d mostly be “office-bound” lately, had planned to give hers to Tu Doupi and Yang Yuxing for alternating use, but she hadn’t had time to distribute them before this incident.

“Triple eerie space?” Deng Yuqi scanned the area with the detector. The eerie energy black mist above the device condensed into the number “3,” indicating she was in a location where three eerie spaces overlapped.

What did the Twelve Branches intend by sending her here?

Holding the detector carefully, Deng Yuqi opened the bedroom door. The dark hallway was pitch black and eerily silent.

But she had to find Cheng Shengnan. Staying in the bedroom wasn’t an option. Without any lighting tools, she could only rely on her hearing as she cautiously moved forward.

After walking a distance, light seeped in from a window ahead in the hallway. She could faintly tell it was “evening” outside.

The incident at the branch had happened just after 1 PM. For it to be “evening” upon entering the eerie space once again confirmed the issue of differing time flows in overlapping spaces.

The doors on both sides of the hallway were closed. Past the hallway was a curved staircase leading down. Just from the second-floor area and the spacious living room, it was clear this was a villa.

Tap.

Tap.

Deng Yuqi faintly heard footsteps coming from the staircase. She crouched low and slowly moved toward the sound.

Using the light from the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, she made out the figures loitering there.

Their heads were tilted at a ninety-degree angle, faces pressed against their shoulders. At the break in their necks, a fist-sized blood sac bulged.

The Parasitized!

As an anomaly investigator who had supported the capital’s disaster, Deng Yuqi was no stranger to these human monsters parasitized by the parasite anomaly.

What struck her as odd was that the clothes on these Parasitized were dusty and gray, giving them a sense of age, much like the furniture around them.

These Parasitized were highly sensitive to sound. Even though Deng Yuqi had been quiet, her faint footsteps had drawn their attention.

Gurgle.

Gurgle.

Hearing the noise from upstairs, the Parasitized made swallowing sounds in unison and began ascending the stairs.

Faced with hiding in a room or fighting her way out, Deng Yuqi chose the latter. She had experience fighting Parasitized; their combat ability was less than even a Tier 1 anomaly. There was no need to waste time here.

Deng Yuqi clenched her fist, activated the mechanical gauntlet, and charged forward, punching the first Parasitized squarely in the head.

Thud—

The Parasitized took the hit, its already tilted head flying off, hitting the hallway wall, and tumbling down the stairs.

Then, the blood sac on its neck burst open with a pop, revealing a four-petaled, mouth-like orifice.

Fortunately, Deng Yuqi was wearing her eerie gloves. She grabbed both sides of the “mouth,” tore it apart, slammed it to the ground, and pummeled it with the mechanical gauntlet.

Thud!
Smash!

The “man-eating flower” head was instantly reduced to pulp.

Deng Yuqi fought her way down, through the living room and the entryway. As she opened the door, several Parasitized stood outside and immediately surrounded her.

These Parasitized weren’t fast. Deng Yuqi handled them with ease, observing her surroundings while dispatching them.

Outside the villa was a garden. A few meters ahead, past the main gate, was a sidewalk. Beyond that, past some greenery, was an artificial lake.

Having been head of the Rong City branch for six or seven years, and having investigated the area just days prior, Deng Yuqi immediately recognized this as Rong City’s most luxurious enclave for the wealthy—

Deer Lake Waterfront!

A few days ago, while investigating Lü Xianze and Liu Zongrui, they’d learned Liu Zongrui lived in this community. But Deng Yuqi was puzzled: how had she gotten here?

The Rong City branch was dozens of kilometers from Deer Lake Waterfront. Had she been teleported here by the Twelve Branches’ “Yin”?

Deng Yuqi set the question aside for now. Her priorities were finding Cheng Shengnan and escaping this place.

She followed the sidewalk toward the main gate when suddenly, from afar, came the sound of shattering glass.

Crash!

Someone on the third floor of a distant villa had smashed a window with a chair, then tossed out a rope made of twisted bedsheets.

Deng Yuqi recognized the person as Cheng Shengnan and rushed over, calling out, “Director Cheng!”

“Director Deng!”

Hearing Deng Yuqi’s voice, Cheng Shengnan’s face lit up with relief. But something seemed to be chasing her inside the room. Without hesitation, she grabbed the bedsheet and slid down the wall.

Not long after she descended, two figures jumped down from above—two Parasitized whose heads had fully mutated.

The Parasitized, lacking intelligence, simply fell after hitting the window, even reaching the ground before Cheng Shengnan. Their anomalous heads stretched up, mouths open, trying to “catch” her.

Luckily, Cheng Shengnan hadn’t jumped directly. Deng Yuqi reached the garden first, quickly dealt with the Parasitized, and then caught Cheng Shengnan.

Cheng Shengnan had also been teleported into a villa. Like Deng Yuqi, she tried to leave but was cornered by Parasitized in the living room, forcing her to a third-floor bedroom.

Without Deng Yuqi’s combat skills, she had to break the locked window and use a bedsheet rope to descend.

The fright and adrenaline had left her pale. Only after reuniting with Deng Yuqi did she relax slightly.

Cheng Shengnan glanced around and suddenly froze: “This is… Deer Lake Waterfront? How did we get here suddenly?”

“Probably teleported by the Twelve Branches,” Deng Yuqi said.

“Director, something’s wrong here,” Cheng Shengnan said. “Look at the trees—so many have withered. But I remember villa areas like this usually plant evergreens, and even if some wither, they’re replaced quickly. The lake looks off too. I worked on a project here before and visited a few times… the water wasn’t this dirty, and the environment wasn’t this poor.”

Deng Yuqi nodded. “According to the eerie space detector, there are at least three overlapping eerie spaces here. It’s similar to the Chongqing incident—the time flow is different.”

After a pause, she added, “Let’s head to the main gate and check.”

“Okay.”

Cheng Shengnan remembered the way. Under her guidance, they headed toward the main gate of Deer Lake Waterfront. With Deng Yuqi there, the Parasitized along the way weren’t a concern.

They fought their way to the main gate. Attempting to pass through, they unsurprisingly found themselves back inside Deer Lake Waterfront. Clearly, without resolving the eerie space, escape was impossible.

They turned back, using the detector to search for the anomaly sustaining the space while trying other exits.

After over ten hours of effort, they still couldn’t find a way out.

Initially, Deng Yuqi would deal with any Parasitized blocking their path. But as time wore on, they opted to avoid them, only fighting when necessary.

Prolonged exploration and combat drained Deng Yuqi’s energy. Her combat effectiveness plummeted, and her stomach growled with hunger.

Trapped, they tried finding food in the villas.

However, opening a refrigerator released a foul stench that nearly made them vomit. The meat inside had rotted, spoiling and stinking in the sealed space.

Gritting their teeth, they found two bottles of yogurt. The expiration date was a few days away, still within the period. But upon opening them, a spoiled stench hit them.

“How could it spoil so badly in just a few days?” Cheng Shengnan frowned.

Deng Yuqi observed the rotten contents and the yogurt. “It’s probably due to the time flow. The expiration date suggests a few days, but here, months or even years might have passed. Otherwise, yogurt with a six-month shelf life wouldn’t have spoiled.”

“Here are some canned goods.” Cheng Shengnan found two luncheon meat cans in the top corner of the fridge. The expiration date ranged from 2024 to 2028. Even with the accelerated time, these should be edible.

Cheng Shengnan opened a can, smelled it, took a small taste to confirm it wasn’t spoiled, and then handed the other can to Deng Yuqi.

Though the canned food didn’t taste great, they weren’t in a position to be picky.

Eating the canned food, they looked out the floor-to-ceiling window at the Parasitized wandering the greenery. Deng Yuqi sighed and asked casually, “What do you think Shen Ge would say in this situation?”

Cheng Shengnan swallowed her food, thought for a moment, and imitated Shen Ge’s tone: “—Well, well, a special episode of Resident Evil!”

“Hahaha!” Deng Yuqi laughed heartily, slapping her thigh. “See? Only you can keep up with his train of thought!”

“Director, honestly, that’s not exactly a compliment,” Cheng Shengnan said wryly.

Deng Yuqi sighed. “Based on the eerie energy concentration from the detector, there’s a Tier 3 anomaly here. I’m not like your freak of a boyfriend who can tear apart a Tier 3 anomaly solo… I wonder if they can find us before we starve to death.”

“They probably can.” On this point, Cheng Shengnan had faith in Shen Ge.

After discussing, they quickly decided to search the villas one by one, setting up a temporary base in a well-located one.

For now, the only threats were the Parasitized. No anomalies meant good news. They’d secure survival supplies first, then find a way out.

…

…

Meanwhile, not long after Cheng Shengnan left the main building, noticed something wrong, and triggered the alarm, Shen Ge, who was in the dorm, rushed to the scene.

At his speed, it took less than a minute from the dorm to the main building. By then, the patrol team was already engaged with the Twelve Branches members.

“Again?” Shen Ge frowned slightly. Remembering Cheng Shengnan was working overtime and likely in the main building, he decided to end this quickly.

As he approached the main building, Little Classmate Seven alerted him: “Master, detecting eerie spatial energy near the main building!”

[Warning! A Tier 2 anomaly is ahead. Host, prepare for combat. Do not underestimate the enemy to avoid an unexpected defeat.]

The system’s warning echoed Little Seven’s alert. Clearly, the main building was enveloped in an eerie space.

“The main building is inside an eerie space. Combat team, be mindful of willpower consumption. Lin Yin, handle the outsiders. I’m going in to check!” Shen Ge was issuing orders to Feng Chengxiu and others when he saw Lin Yin and other elite anomaly investigators rushing from the dorm area. He left the situation to them and entered the eerie space to find Cheng Shengnan.

“Don’t worry, leave it to me!” Lin Yin brandished her cleaver, sending a “Ke” member flying.

Shen Ge had suspected the Twelve Branches’ motives during their previous attack on the Rong City branch weren’t simple, which was why he’d chosen to stay recently.

Sure enough, within days, the Twelve Branches struck again!

As Shen Ge pondered their true target, he donned his full-body attachment armor, increasing his speed as he charged into the main building.

With the armor’s defense,