The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 158

After killing the strange man in the fog, Shen Ge successfully approached the several high-level grotesques locked in combat. Using the tentacles of his Rotten Flesh Armor, he climbed onto the back of the giant grotesque. His initial plan was to find a way inside the giant grotesque to destroy its heart, but it was covered in many parasitic grotesques.

Not wanting to attract the attention of the other high-level grotesques, Shen Ge activated “Formless + Soundless” and hid on the giant grotesque’s back to watch the show.

“Well… you go ahead with what you’re doing then.” Luo Jing felt it was inappropriate to insist that Shen Ge help, as, to put it nicely, they were here for support, but to put it bluntly… everyone had their own hidden agendas.

Shen Ge replied, “Alright. Once I’ve dealt with the situation here, I’ll go assist those colleagues.”

“…”

Just look at that.

Sitting in a horde of monsters, facing a large group of high-level grotesques, and he says, “Once I’ve dealt with this, I’ll go…” Who in the entire Special Response Department had the nerve to talk like that?

The key point was, he wasn’t boasting; he genuinely had the capability!

After Luo Jing ended the communication, Xiao Cheng and the others looked at her. She nodded imperceptibly and then glanced subtly in Natsumi’s direction.

After the convoy passed Seisen Women’s University, they were less than two kilometers from Tokyo Tower. The grotesque fog grew increasingly thicker, reducing visibility to less than one meter.

Since traveling by vehicle wasn’t much faster than walking at this point, and after consulting with Xiao Cheng and the others, Natsumi decided the group would proceed on foot towards Tokyo Tower.

However, from the original convoy of over forty people, only three vehicles reached the area with Xiao Cheng’s group. The three drivers were all special forces soldiers, the liaisons were Natsumi and another middle-aged man, and the remaining Anti-Grotesque agents came from three different countries.

The team consisted of the four Heavenly Dynasty agents led by Xiao Cheng, a five-person team from America, and a three-person team from Korea, totaling twelve Anti-Grotesque agents.

Natsumi was not only fluent in Chinese but also spoke excellent English and Korean, acting as the “translator” within the team, facilitating communication among the members.

Xiao Cheng specialized in infiltration and reconnaissance. Besides three standard-issue Anti-Grotesque equipment pieces, his two additional items were both related to “stealth.”

Furthermore, he was equipped with a set of the Heavenly Dynasty’s most advanced “detection-type” tech gear.

Although this nearly twenty-person squad was moving together, they had essentially split into four factions, each sticking close to their own teammates.

Under the cover of his teammates, Xiao Cheng took the opportunity to release several thumb-sized “Recon Bees” to roughly survey the surrounding area.

“Miss Natsumi, the Grotesque Energy fog in this area is too dense. It not only hinders our progress but also makes us vulnerable to surprise attacks by grotesques. I’ve heard that Sakura has recently developed a Grotesque Energy Fog Dispersal Grenade that can temporarily clear the fog formed by Grotesque Energy in an area. Why isn’t it being used now?” a Korean Anti-Grotesque agent asked Natsumi.

Luo Jing glanced at the man. She remembered him introducing himself during the assembly at the Self-Defense Force base; he seemed to be a team leader-level agent from Korea named Park Jeong-hwan.

According to the information reported by the Heavenly Dynasty, their Anti-Grotesque agents didn’t speak Korean, so Luo Jing naturally wouldn’t “expose” herself. She just glanced briefly before looking away.

Natsumi replied in Korean, “Mr. Park, please don’t worry. Headquarters has already dispatched aircraft equipped with the Grotesque Energy Fog Dispersal Grenades. They will take action once we enter the Tokyo Tower area.”

“How far are we from Tokyo Tower now?” Park Jeong-hwan asked.

Natsumi replied, “Approximately two kilometers.”

It wasn’t that Natsumi was unwilling to give an exact number, but the fog made it difficult to determine direction accurately. They could only check their position via satellite position maps. But no one could be sure if the signal in this area was truly unaffected.

Xiao Cheng spoke to Brother Li in a Dianzhou local dialect: “There are quite a few grotesques in the fog, not high level, but there are many infected.”

As he spoke, he tapped a few keys on the communicator on his left wrist. The deployed Recon Bees immediately transmitted the locations of the marked high-level grotesques to the equipment of Luo Jing and the others.

Park Jeong-hwan noticed Xiao Cheng’s group communicating and immediately spoke in a displeased tone in Korean, “Hey, what are you guys muttering about over there? Can’t you share any information with the rest of the team?”

Xiao Cheng and the others looked at Park Jeong-hwan with puzzled expressions. Seeing this, Natsumi quickly translated, “Mr. Park is asking if you have obtained any new intelligence. He hopes you will consider him a teammate and share this information so everyone can cooperate better.”

Xiao Cheng glanced at Luo Jing. Seeing her subtly move her fingers, he knew Natsumi wasn’t being entirely truthful. So, he shared a mix of truth and falsehood about the situation in the fog.

He didn’t mention deploying the Recon Bees, only saying he had a piece of Grotesque Energy equipment that could roughly detect grotesques within the fog.

Park Jeong-hwan was about to question this when suddenly, the ground shook violently as if a major earthquake had hit.

Cracks appeared on the ground, sinkholes collapsed not far away, and most terrifyingly, large centipede-like grotesques began emerging from underground.

The grotesque fog limited the team’s effectiveness, and it was easy to get lost in the mist. Seeing the situation deteriorating, Natsumi contacted headquarters via communicator, urging them to immediately deploy the Grotesque Energy Fog Dispersal Grenades.

Just as the Anti-Grotesque squad was battling the insectoid grotesques, the roar of aircraft sounded overhead, followed by a loud explosion in the distance. The thick fog in the air gradually began to disperse.

“According to previous experimental reports, the Grotesque Energy Fog Dispersal Grenades only last between 10 to 30 minutes. Everyone, please make haste to enter the Tokyo Tower area.” Natsumi, seeing the Grotesque Energy black fog in the air clearing, first shouted to everyone in English, then relayed the message to the three teams separately.

With the fog dispersed, everyone could at least clearly see the monsters swarming around them. The sounds of battle also attracted the infected, who were extremely sensitive to noise.

“Damn, I feel like I’m surrounded by a tidal wave of zombies while playing games.” Brother Li is also an old game fan. When he played CF back then, his favorite mode was the biochemical mode.

Unexpectedly, more than ten years later, he was able to experience the real-life biochemical mode.

Zhao Dezhu was an old acquaintance of his. Back in their army days, the two would hang out at internet cafes whenever they had free time and knew each other’s hobbies.

Now, standing back-to-back with Brother Li, each dealing with infected from one direction, Zhao Dezhu couldn’t help but add, “Well, at least we can be thankful these guys’ parasitic grotesques aren’t contagious, otherwise we’d have to worry about a grotesque suddenly popping out from the crowd.”

“Right, why is it that almost none of us Anti-Grotesque agents get infected, while civilians are so easily parasitized?” Brother Li had clearly noticed the issue too.

Luo Jing said, “Based on the strange disaster in Dajing and the bizarre events in Luhu Water City in Rong City, the Twelve Zodiacs are disguising parasitic monsters as food for civilians to eat. Have you heard of worms? They use this method to quickly cultivate and spread parasitic monsters.”

“Eh? There’s such a thing? Why haven’t I seen that report?” Brother Li frowned.

Luo Jing replied, “The cause of the Daijing grotesque disaster is still under investigation. What I mentioned is from a new report issued by the Rong City Branch following the grotesque incident at Lake Deer Water Town.”

“I see.” Brother Li had been busy investigating a grotesque incident himself recently and hadn’t had time to read many reports from headquartersachev, let alone those from Rong City.

Xiao Cheng added, “I remember the report saying that after killing a target, a parasitic monster would take the opportunity to infect its own body with its parasitic eggs, thus creating a new monster. Civilians are almost ineffective against monsters, and once injured, the parasitic monster would have an opportunity to take advantage. Sakura originally wanted to resolve the Takukou City disaster privately, so she missed the best time for rescue.”

The others thought it made sense. Daijing had lost an entire district in just a few days. Sakura Country had suppressed the news for almost a month, no wonder the situation had escalated to this extent.

This was precisely why Luo Jing mentioned the situation of “each having their own hidden agendas.” After all… when it’s not your problem, you tend to ignore it.

Only Korea seemed a bit more anxious.

“Agent Luo, watch out!” Brother Li had just decapitated several infected when he saw the heads roll on the ground, grow several legs from the neck stumps, and quickly scurry towards the cracks in the ground.

He was still shocked that these things could grow legs and run after being decapitated, when the next moment, the ground shook, causing the cracks to widen significantly. Then, a large centipede grotesque crawled out from underground.

This centipede grotesque looked like hundreds of large centipedes clumped together, with a squid-like head in the middle. As it emerged from the ground, its centipede-like tentacles grabbed the several heads and stuffed them into its mouth.

But what surprised Brother Li wasn’t the several-meter-tall centipede amalgamation, but the figure standing on its body—a person wearing a green cloak.

Because he wore a hood, his face was unclear, but a red glow could be seen beneath the hood.

The moment Brother Li shouted for Luo Jing to be careful, the cloaked man raised his hand, and dozens, even hundreds, of centipedes surged out from underground, swarming towards her like a tide.

“Fall back!” Zhao Dezhu stepped forward, shielding Luo Jing. He raised his arms, which were clad in Grotesque-Bone Gauntlets. Activating them, he released two waves of fire that scorched the ground ahead.

The cloak wasn’t embroidered with any characters, nor was it the distinctive black hoodie. Given the Twelfth Branch’s previous habit of “exposing” themselves, it was actually harder to determine if this person was from the Twelfth Branch now.

But regardless, in this situation, he was undoubtedly an enemy.

“Be careful, that’s nearly Level 4 Grotesque Energy!” Natsumi, after scanning the centipede grotesque with a Grotesque Energy detector, exclaimed in warning.

However, her warning came too late. The several-meter-tall centipede amalgamation wasn’t the grotesque’s entire body; most of it was still underground.

As the grotesque centipede fully emerged, a massive sinkhole suddenly appeared. Brother Li, Zhao Dezhu, Luo Jing, and several American Anti-Grotesque agents all fell into the pit!