The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 207

As the situation in the cargo hold spread, it was as if a cold storage unit had been opened in the cabin. An eerie chill instantly permeated every corner.

Shen Ge had originally gone to the economy class section to search for the missing drop of the Blood Spider detector. He hadn’t expected to sense the abnormal shift in the strange energy in the air the moment he stepped in.

He had considered that the people from the Freak Organization might not care about civilian lives and could act at any moment. But he hadn’t thought they would choose to act on an airplane without the slightest hesitation.

One must understand, the cruising altitude of typical civilian flights is above seven or eight thousand meters, even up to ten thousand meters. At such an altitude, even second or third-order freaks would face near-certain death or severe injury if they fell.

Because, ultimately, freaks are different from anomalies. Anomalies can perfectly fuse with strange energy, but freaks rely on transplanting anomaly cells capable of fusing with this energy. Unless they undergo a complete, mindless transformation into a full anomaly, most of their bodies remain at human strength levels and couldn’t possibly survive such a fall.

Before boarding, Shen Ge had Little Seven and the System conduct a scan, confirming there were no freaks of the third order or above on the plane, not even first or second-order ones.

Taking action under these circumstances undoubtedly meant they intended to perish together with Shen Ge.

But after clashing with Shen Ge for so long, the Twelve Branches couldn’t possibly be unaware that he possessed the world’s most advanced strange energy combat armor. That thing had the resilience of a third-order anomaly; handling a mere “fall” would be trivial.

The moment Shen Ge stepped into economy class, a short-haired man in a white shirt immediately stood up and approached him politely. “Mr. Shen.”

“Who are you?” Shen Ge had no time for pleasantries and continued walking forward without even turning his head.

The man before him was named Du Mingwu. He ran a seafood aquaculture business in Sichuan. In recent years, with the frequent occurrence of anomalous events, the mutation rate of real seafood had skyrocketed, which had gradually improved and expanded his business.

However, after his seafood cultivation techniques were leaked, people from the Rong City Special Response Division found him and collaborated on cultivating seafood… or rather, anomalies.

If Du Mingwu hadn’t personally witnessed the anomaly disaster at Deer Lake Water City, he might have still thought of remaining a “honest and law-abiding” businessman, quietly running his seafood trade. But having seen the horror of an anomaly disaster, he had long wanted to cling to the big tree that was the Special Response Division. Thus, his company was effectively “recruited” by the Rong City branch.

As a “subsidiary company” of the Rong City Special Response Division, even if he hadn’t had the chance to meet a figure like Shen Ge personally, he certainly knew of him.

Especially when Shen Ge was taken aside during boarding security for that bag of items, only to be released and even upgraded to first class.

Cross-referencing various pieces of information, Du Mingwu instantly understood that Shen Ge was on some kind of “incognito inspection.”

Seeing that Shen Ge didn’t seem very interested in engaging with him, Du Mingwu didn’t mind. After all, their relationship was essentially superior-subordinate—a minor leader from a subsidiary meeting the number two from headquarters. It wasn’t strange for the latter not to know him.

“I am the person in charge of ‘Mingwu Seafood Company,’ which collaborates with the branch’s Research Department. My name is Du Mingwu. If there’s anything I can assist you with, Mr. Shen, please don’t hesitate to ask.” After saying this, Du Mingwu didn’t deliberately try to curry favor further and simply followed quietly behind Shen Ge.

“Ah, Mingwu Seafood Company. I know of it. The company that supplies research materials to the Research Department. There’s nothing requiring your help at the moment. Please return to your seat.” Shen Ge said.

Du Mingwu nodded. “Understood, Mr. Shen.”

With that, he obediently returned to his seat and fastened his seatbelt. Although their conversation wasn’t loud, the people around them overheard.

Mingwu Seafood Company had risen meteorically this year, becoming the largest seafood company in Sichuan. Du Mingwu was a somewhat prominent entrepreneur in the region. For such a person to speak so respectfully to this young man inevitably led others to speculate about Shen Ge’s identity.

The flight attendants following Shen Ge began to understand why the airport manager had repeatedly emphasized before boarding that Shen Ge was a “VIP.”

Just then, a somber ringtone sounded from Shen Ge’s pocket. He paused, took out his phone, and answered. “Director? You can get through even with the phone powered off?”

“You’re using the Special Response Division’s dedicated phone. If we couldn’t solve a minor technical issue like that, what’s the point of calling it ‘dedicated’? That’s not the point. The point is… are you on flight ‘******’?” Deng Yuqi asked.

“Yeah, why?” Shen Ge countered.

He then heard what seemed like a sigh from the other end of the line, accompanied by phrases like “As I thought, I knew it” spoken to someone else.

Half a minute later, Deng Yuqi continued, “Team Leader Feng’s Anti-Anomaly Team 3 has been investigating a case of concentrated mutations recently. It’s related to the previous attack on Rong City by the clone freaks assisted by the Twelve Branches. We caught the Twelve Branches operative, but the batch of animals he tampered with last has gone missing.”

“Wait, you’re not telling me… those things are on this plane, are you?” Shen Ge was instantly speechless. Was his luck this bad? Just randomly choosing a flight and ending up on one shipping anomalies?

Deng Yuqi replied, “Correct. The Twelve Branches wanted to cause us trouble, but the branch has been tightly guarded lately, leaving them no opportunity. So they targeted companies collaborating with us. Heard of Mingwu Seafood Company? We found out the tampered seafood batch was under their responsibility. And that shipment is on your current flight.”

“Heard of it… I just knew that when a random passerby suddenly introduces themselves, according to supporting character logic in novels, they’re either cannon fodder or a plot device.” Shen Ge muttered.

Deng Yuqi said, “What are you talking about? I know dealing with some low-level anomalies is beneath your skills, but there are many civilians on that plane. You absolutely must not let the situation escalate.”

“Hold on, I scanned before boarding and confirmed there were no strange energy reactions on the plane… How did a batch of anomalies suddenly appear?” Shen Ge asked, puzzled.

Deng Yuqi replied, “According to information from the Research Department, that batch of seafood was originally octopuses fused with the ‘Formless’ blood sample collected by Li Xiang, sent to headquarters for joint research. But our scheduled time was a week later. We didn’t expect the Twelve Branches to secretly tamper with the shipment and forge orders, making Mingwu Seafood Company ship it early, causing the operatives we arranged to miss it.”

“Understood. I’ll handle this.” Shen Ge said.

Deng Yuqi briefly explained the situation regarding Mingwu Seafood Company and the batch of modified octopuses that had absorbed the “Formless” blood. The process was convoluted, involving a lot of internal corruption (matters deemed ‘404’), leading to a chain of failures.

The Twelve Branches originally wanted to use this opportunity to infect all the seafood research materials Mingwu Seafood supplied to the Special Response Division.

Who knew that after the responsible person was caught by Feng Chengxiu, that person decided to go down swinging, not caring if their planted informants were exposed, and directly forged Special Response Division orders for Mingwu Seafood to ship early.

The Information Department director was consequently dismissed. Deputy Director Liu Jiayi took over and was put in charge of this operation. They were preparing to arrange a team to intercept the plane when they checked the passenger manifest…

Well, that saved the mission budget.

Feng Chengxiu and Liu Jiayi’s information team gathered at the airport, only for the newly appointed director to say, “Stand down.” Everyone was confused.

Feng Chengxiu instinctively leaned over to look at the passenger list in Liu Jiayi’s hand. The name “Shen Ge” was circled in glaring red.

With Shen Ge on board, what else was there to do but stand down?
…

After hanging up, Shen Ge’s gaze swept to Du Mingwu’s seat. “Hey, Du… Boss Du, I really need your help with something now.”

Du Mingwu’s seat wasn’t far from Shen Ge. Hearing him address “Director” on the phone, he knew he had definitely stumbled into an anomalous event this time.

Hearing Shen Ge’s call, Du Mingwu immediately stepped forward. “Mr. Shen, what do you need me to do?”

Shen Ge led Du Mingwu to the aisle and asked, “Boss Du, you’re responsible for shipping a batch of octopuses from Rong City to the capital headquarters this time?”

“Yes.” Du Mingwu nodded.

Shen Ge asked, puzzled, “You’re the head of Mingwu Seafood Company. Do you need to personally handle such ‘delivery’ matters?”

“Huh?” Du Mingwu was taken aback by the question, then said, “Didn’t the Rong City branch issue the order, saying this batch of research materials was extremely important and we should send a trustworthy person to escort it?”

“…” The trustworthy person is you, personally? Should I commend your responsibility, or does your company truly lack capable personnel?

Shen Ge didn’t tell Du Mingwu about the internal issues within the Special Response Division that led to this, as Deng Yuqi had already verified Du Mingwu was “clean.” It was just a failure in the division’s information chain.

Moreover, Deng Yuqi had only thought to fortify the branch like an iron bucket, never expecting the Twelve Branches, backed into a corner and unable to strike the branch directly, would vent their anger on a subsidiary company.

“How many items are in the shipment? The packaging details, the sturdiness of the containers, their specific location in the cargo hold—do you know all this?” Shen Ge fired off the questions in one go.

Although Du Mingwu didn’t understand why Shen Ge was asking these things, he answered truthfully one by one. “Mr. Shen, rest assured. I knew this experimental batch was crucial, so I sealed it with standards three times higher than usual. Even if the plane crashed, the containers wouldn’t be damaged.”

“…Brother, you dare tempt fate like that on a plane? That’s pretty bold.” Shen Ge looked at Du Mingwu, somewhat speechless.

Du Mingwu chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry, didn’t think about that. I just wanted to assure you, Mr. Shen, that the containers are very sturdy.”

Normally, shipping such seafood would involve dedicated cargo planes. But the “orders” Du Mingwu received this time were peculiar, and he didn’t feel it was his place to question the specific arrangements.

Shen Ge called over two flight attendants, asking them to take him and Du Mingwu to the cargo hold where the seafood was stored. Before they even opened the door, a faint, rotten stench was detectable.

When the staff pushed the door open, the foul odor assaulted them, causing one to gag. Before she could even look inside, she felt a tight grip on the back of her collar—Shen Ge yanking her backward and throwing her behind him.

“Ah—!”

The staff member landed painfully. Before she could complain, she saw something crawling out of the doorway and screamed in terror.

“Hmm, although these bugs are scary, your scream is even more terrifying.” Shen Ge said, then snapped his fingers. With a hand gesture, he willed the Rotblood Armor to form into something like a Blaze Gauntlet and directly spewed fire into the compartment.

The parasitic-type anomalies inside crackled as they burned. Although he controlled the armor’s flames through gestures, to Du Mingwu and the others, it looked like he had summoned fire from thin air with a snap of his fingers. They were stunned, wide-eyed at this display of “fire conjuring.”

However, compared to the bugs in the hold, Shen Ge setting the compartment ablaze so directly seemed somewhat reckless regarding the aircraft’s safety.

Du Mingwu was about to tentatively raise the issue of damaging the plane when he saw Shen Ge stride directly into the cargo hold, now engulfed in roaring flames.

“Mr. Shen!”
“Mr. Shen!”

Du Mingwu and the others cried out in alarm.

Once inside the cargo hold, Shen Ge used a System scan, confirmed the surrounding parasitic anomalies were burned away, then immediately deployed his “Non-Combustion Anomaly Domain,” extinguishing the flames instantly.

Before everyone could recover from the shock of him setting the plane on fire, they witnessed him douse the flames in an instant. They stammered “th-th-this…” for a while, too shocked to utter another word.

“Boss Du, is this what you meant by… ‘the containers won’t be damaged even if the plane crashes’ packaging?” Shen Ge stood before a large metal container with a gaping hole torn in it, calling out to Du Mingwu at the door.

Du Mingwu swallowed hard, nervously glanced inside, confirmed he saw no more of those disgusting, terrifying bugs, and then entered.

“This… how is this possible? Those octopuses underwent special treatment. They were more like ‘specimens’ than live creatures. There’s no reason they could come back to life?” Du Mingwu exclaimed in surprise.

Seeing the tear on the several-meter-high metal container—as if ripped open by hand—Shen Ge realized the situation was likely developing in the worst possible direction.

The greatest characteristic of anomalies is their “battle royale” nature. One of the trapped octopuses had revived and begun consuming its companions, rapidly mutating into a high-order anomaly within a short time.

This scenario wasn’t unfamiliar to Shen Ge. Even the original “Formless” had completed its mutation this way before the anomaly disaster fully erupted.

These octopuses had not only absorbed the “Formless” blood but had also been subjected to Li Xiang’s various “experiments.” Who knows what else Li Xiang had done to them, not to mention the tampering by the Twelve Branches.

“Sigh.”

Shen Ge knew that when he first visited the branch’s underground research facility, the System’s prompt about “entering anomaly headquarters” wasn’t just a casual remark but a “prophecy.”

Especially after bringing back Yoona—who was parasitized by a “freak sample”—from Korea, and Li Xiang subsequently forming a dedicated team to study freaks.

If one day the Special Response Division created an army of freaks, Shen Ge wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

“E-Explorer Shen, h-have we encountered an anomalous event?” Du Mingwu’s voice trembled, his legs feeling weak.

Shen Ge said calmly, “It’s not a big problem. Based on quantity and strange energy reactions, it’s at most a third-order anomaly. It’s just tricky because it absorbed the ‘Formless’ blood…”

The most troublesome part was that the “red dots” shown on the System scan couldn’t be precisely located on the [Map] to see which area the anomaly was hiding in.

Upon hearing “third-order,” Du Mingwu’s legs gave way, and he fell to his knees with a thud.

“The New Year just passed, why are you kneeling?” Before Shen Ge could finish, he suddenly sensed a strange energy fluctuation from the right-side shelving. Immediately after, a shadowy tentacle seemed to emerge from the darkened area, lashing toward a flight attendant.

“Tch. I was just wondering where to find you, and you deliver yourself right to me!” Shen Ge reached out and grabbed. Several Rotblood tentacles extended from his arm, tangling with the shadowy one.

Holding the shadowy tentacle firmly, Shen Ge immediately commanded, “Little Seven, scan for strange energy, lock onto its position!”