The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 208

“Report, Master. Strange energy has been detected spreading to the upper deck. The closest point is now less than twenty meters from the economy class cabin,” Little Seven reported.

Shen Ge frowned. If the parasitic anomalies spread through economy class, the passengers on this flight would be in grave danger.

He had to finish this quickly!

Shen Ge activated “Strength Enhancement.” Using the ‘Unreleasing’ property of the Anomaly Glove to firmly adhere to the shadowy tentacle, he combined it with Strength Enhancement to yank it out of the darkness.

Rip—

Rip!

With two sounds of tearing flesh, the shadowy tentacle in the darkness actually performed a “lizard’s tail-shedding escape,” directly severing the part Shen Ge was holding to prevent its main body from being dragged out.

But by now, Little Seven had already detected and locked onto its strange energy signature. Even sacrificing its tail couldn’t help it escape pursuit.

Several more tentacles shot out from the shadows, this time targeting Du Mingwu and the flight attendants at the door. Unfortunately, Shen Ge had long anticipated that the anomaly wouldn’t resist the temptation of “food.” He stomped down and shot forward like an arrow.

The moment Shen Ge charged into the shadowy area, his ‘Immobility Anomaly Domain’ was already deployed. Affected by “Bullet Time,” the speed of the shadowy tentacles lashing towards Du Mingwu and the others slowed significantly.

“Let’s see where you hide now!” Utilizing Bullet Time for control, Shen Ge precisely pinpointed the “source” of the shadowy tentacles—an indistinct mass curled up in a corner.

Swish!
Swish!
Swish!

Under the effect of Strength Enhancement, the Pig-Slaughtering Knife moved so fast it left afterimages in Shen Ge’s hands. First, he severed the tentacles reaching for Du Mingwu and the others, then aimed for the body!

Perhaps influenced by the “Formless” blood, this octopus, even if not fully “invisible,” could still blend into shadows.

If not for Little Seven locking onto the strange energy, it wouldn’t have been easy to fish it out of the cargo hold so quickly.

[Host, majestic and peerlessly brave, single-handedly slain a Tier 3 anomaly. Reward: 300 System Points, Random F-grade Supply x1.]

[Sell Tier 3 anomaly corpse? Price: 1500 System Points.]

“Yes.”

Shen Ge immediately disposed of the Tier 3 anomaly octopus corpse and walked towards the door to meet Du Mingwu. Unexpectedly, Little Seven warned, “Master, although the Tier 3 anomaly is dead, the spread of strange energy has not stopped. The closest point is now less than ten meters from economy class!”

Shen Ge wasn’t surprised by this outcome. Although those parasitic anomaly bugs were related to the anomaly octopus, the two weren’t the same “species.” The bugs were merely parasites on the octopus.

Shen Ge chose to deal with the anomaly octopus first because he was worried that while searching for the parasitic bugs, this thing might literally “eat” the plane.

He could stop the spread of anomalous events, but he didn’t have Superman’s ability to carry a plane.

“Lock onto the locations. Begin cleanup now,” Shen Ge ordered.

“Yes, Master,” Little Seven replied.

Seeing Shen Ge emerge, Du Mingwu immediately approached. “Mr. Shen, are the monsters inside… dealt with? Are we… safe now?”

“More or less,” Shen Ge replied casually, heading towards the upper deck.

The flight attendant standing beside Du Mingwu, supporting the staff member who had been terrified at the door, subconsciously asked, “So… are we safe, or… not?”

Du Mingwu’s face paled. He naturally knew who Shen Ge was. The answer wasn’t “safe” but “more or less,” which meant there were still dangers on the plane. After some thought, he decided sticking close to Shen Ge was safer and quickly followed him upstairs.

Just as they reached the top of the stairs, they saw slender bugs falling from the pipes onto the floor. Shen Ge ignored them and walked straight towards economy class.

As he crossed the threshold, Little Seven automatically controlled a Rotblood tentacle to form an Anomaly Stomach at its tip, sweeping up and swallowing all the bugs in one go.

The movement was so fast that Du Mingwu and the others following behind only saw a red flash. They didn’t even catch a glimpse of the bugs.

“Think of a reason to keep the passengers quietly in their seats. It’ll make it easier for me to inspect,” Shen Ge said, standing at the entrance to the aisle. He took the flight attendant’s loudspeaker and handed it to the attendant who had been assisting him.

“Huh? Me?” The attendant was stunned. What reason could she give to keep passengers… Wait, wasn’t this essentially her usual job?

Thinking this, the attendant quickly took the loudspeaker and announced, “Dear passengers, due to weather conditions, the aircraft may experience turbulence. Please remain seated as much as possible and fasten your seatbelts. For your safety during turbulence, the lavatories will be temporarily closed, and cabin service will be suspended. Passengers having meals, please be careful to avoid burns or staining your clothes. Thank you!”

She then repeated the announcement in English.

While the attendant was speaking, Shen Ge found two parasitic anomaly bugs in economy class that had almost reached the last row and had the Anomaly Stomach devour them.

“Master, I’ve detected strange energy reactions on that middle-aged man to your right as well,” Little Seven reported after scanning the economy class cabin, immediately identifying a target.

Shen Ge walked to that seat, patted the headrest, and said to the man, “Sir, I need to speak with you about something. Please come out.”

The middle-aged man had a fierce-looking face, a shaved head, giving off the错觉 of a recently modified and released Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

“Who are you? You tell me to come out, so I come out?” the man said viciously.

Shen Ge took out a pistol, clicked the slide, and pointed it at the bald head. “I don’t like repeating myself. You have two choices now. One, cooperate willingly. Two, I blow your head off and inspect the corpse. Police operation. Everyone stay quietly in your seats!”

When Shen Ge pulled out the gun and pointed it at the bald man, many people who had been watching him reacted. Two young women instinctively screamed upon seeing the gun.

Someone muttered, “Who is this guy? He can bring a gun on a plane… Is he really police? Or a hijacker?”

“…Come on, watch fewer movies. When have you ever heard of a hijacking news story in China? That man is probably really police. When boarding, I saw several guns taken out of his bag! You know how serious the crime of possessing firearms privately is here. He wasn’t detained; he was even upgraded to first class. What does that tell you about his identity?” an older man next to the woman whispered.

A young man on the other side of the woman said, “Mom, think about it. Unless the airport is colluding with hijackers, how could someone bypass all those security checks to bring guns on a plane? And look, he openly pulled out the gun and announced his identity. We should be wary of that bald guy!”

Quite a few passengers were having similar discussions. The commotion quickly drew the attention of the air marshals on board. But when they came out and saw it was the “VIP” whom the airport manager had “repeatedly emphasized” needed special care causing the disturbance, they were momentarily stunned.

The air marshal leader instinctively stepped forward and asked, “Um, do you need our help?”

The leader’s voice wasn’t loud, but many nearby heard him. This confirmed Shen Ge’s “lawful” identity for them, letting them breathe a sigh of relief.

But the next second, they realized another problem. If Shen Ge was openly announcing a “police operation” now, didn’t that mean the bald man’s identity was…

Combined with the airport’s desperate attempts before boarding to get them to switch flights or reschedule, even offering double compensation, many passengers deeply regretted not listening to the advice!

Seeing the air marshals approach, Shen Ge cut straight to the point. “I am an Anti-Anomaly Investigator from the Rong City Special Response Division. From this moment, I am taking command of everything on this aircraft. Everyone, whether passenger or crew member, including the captain, must follow my orders!”

Hearing the words “Anti-Anomaly Investigator,” the air marshals couldn’t help but swallow hard. The leader leaned in and asked quietly, “Investigator, is it… has an anomalous event occurred on this plane?”

Shen Ge gave the leader a look. The man immediately understood, turned, and arranged for his subordinates to guard key points in the aisles, starting to control the scene.

“Ah—!” Just then, a scream came from the direction of the lavatory.

A flight attendant stumbled over, nervously saying to the air marshal leader, “C-Captain Zhang! S-someone’s dead! Died… horribly!”

Everyone’s attention was drawn by the attendant’s words. No one noticed the bald man Shen Ge was pointing the gun at suddenly make his move.

The bald man thought Shen Ge was also looking at the attendant—which he was—but before he could fully rise from his seat to grab Shen Ge’s gun, a red light shot from Shen Ge’s wrist with a whoosh. It coiled around his neck, lifted him into the air, and slammed him thud onto the aisle floor.

Shen Ge then kicked out, sending the bald man flying straight into the crew rest area, using Rotblood tentacles to completely restrain him.

The people around only saw Shen Ge kick the bald man into the rest area but didn’t notice the Rotblood tentacles extending from his body to subdue the man.

Two air marshals wanted to follow and help, but upon seeing the bizarre scene in the rest area, their legs went weak, and they collapsed at the doorway.

Fortunately, as air marshals, they had received some training regarding anomalies. They were just momentarily overwhelmed, seeing “live” anomaly equipment for the first time.

“Scorpion, the world’s number one mercenary-type anti-anomaly organization… I’m curious who your backer really is. Some big shot in our country? Otherwise, without inside help, how do you rats keep scurrying into our territory?” Shen Ge examined the area near the bald man’s collar. Below the collarbone was a tattoo resembling a scorpion’s tail stinger.

“You… how do you know…” the bald man asked in surprise.

Shen Ge said dismissively, “Come on, I’ve wiped out at least three to five of your squads. You still don’t know my capabilities? Besides, you have this thing tattooed on you; you might as well write ‘Scorpion’ on your face! Oh, right, apart from you ‘Scorpion’ guys, no one tattoos a scorpion tail like that.”

While Shen Ge’s observational skills were good, this kind of “detail” wasn’t something he spotted. Little Seven, with its powerful computing capabilities, had identified it.

As Shen Ge’s most solid backup, Little Seven ensured his safety. It scanned anyone who came close. Upon scanning the scorpion mark on the bald man’s chest and cross-referencing, it immediately confirmed his identity from the world’s top mercenary anti-anomaly organization, “Scorpion.”

“Then go die—!” The bald man suddenly lunged, his left hand shooting towards Shen Ge. The moment he extended his arm, fat-like bubbles emerged on the skin surface, gathering together like boiling viscous matter.

The next instant, his entire arm melted like a candle, then rapidly solidified, transforming into a sharp, large blade slashing at Shen Ge.

“Whoa, Prototype, huh? Looks like you’ve made some decent breakthroughs in freak research?” Shen Ge was faster. He slightly tilted his head, dodging the slash.

By the time the bald man realized, Shen Ge was already close. He raised his hand, and his palm was instantly covered by the Rotblood Armor, morphing into a gaping maw—

The Anomaly Stomach swallowed, and the bald man’s entire head vanished!

In just one encounter, the Tier 2 freak bald man was instantly killed by Shen Ge.

Shen Ge didn’t rush to sell the corpse to the System. Instead, he had Little Seven conduct a strange energy scan to see how they prevented energy leakage, allowing them to evade detection by both the System and Little Seven.

“Master, as you suspected, the freak organization may have indeed found a more suitable fusion method with anomaly cells. Compared to previous freaks, the strange energy reaction from this freak is less than one-tenth in intensity. While this significantly reduces the amount of anomaly power they obtain, it also similarly reduces the degree of corruption by strange energy. Simply put, compared to the average lifespan of around a dozen years for first-generation freaks, judging from the cell activity test results of these freaks, their lifespan could at least be doubled,” Little Seven reported.

To Shen Ge, this was not good news. “Short lifespan” was one of the few weaknesses of freaks. This “breakthrough” essentially eliminated their shortcoming, giving freaks more time to search for better fusion methods with anomalies.

Shen Ge walked to the rest area entrance, told the air marshals to guard the aisle, then stuffed the freak bald man’s corpse into the Anomaly Sleeping Bag and placed it in the Bloodskin Backpack.

The Rong City branch now had a department dedicated to freak research. This “new type of freak” was undoubtedly the best research material, far more valuable than a few hundred System Points.

After dealing with the bald man, Shen Ge walked to the lavatory door guarded by the air marshal leader, who was holding it shut firmly.

“Investigator, there are a lot of bugs inside!” the leader said urgently.

Shen Ge glanced at the space under the closed door. Perhaps due to the hurried closing, several bugs trying to crawl out had been severed by the door.

The leader obviously hadn’t noticed these bugs were still moving. Shen Ge quietly pushed him aside, grabbed the door handle with one hand, and stepped on the bugs with his foot.

“Little Seven, scan them for any strange energy reactions,” Shen Ge instructed.

Little Seven replied, “Report, Master. No strange energy reactions detected.”

So these air marshals were still safe. Shen Ge let them return to economy class to guard the other passengers. He then prepared to deploy his anomaly domain and open the lavatory door.

As the door opened, even Shen Ge’s strong will nearly made him vomit from disgust. Inside the cramped lavatory lay a corpse covered in crawling bugs.

The bugs seemed to have crawled out of the toilet, burrowed into the corpse’s orifices, pierced through the skin, and were devouring its flesh.

The smell of blood and rot mixed together was nauseating.

But strangely, some of the bugs gnawing on the corpse were actually “fusing” with the body’s tissues, then “melting” like wax and “spreading” over the body.

Thus, at first glance, half the corpse appeared to be in a “melted” state.