“Master, detection shows aberrant energy intensity is at Tier 1, but it is increasing at an extremely rapid rate.” After scanning the strange figures in the office area, Xiao Qi reported.
Seeing the figures begin to converge towards the entrance, Shen Ge didn’t retreat. Instead, he stepped forward into the office area and immediately activated his “Formless” state, attempting to bypass the nearest creature.
“To have aberrant energy intensity increase right after ‘birth’, before even doing anything… that alone makes them stronger than the aberrants and twisted humans back in the real world. However, these twisted humans have completely lost their consciousness; they can essentially be equated with aberrants…” Shen Ge observed the figures while moving towards a corner.
Strangely, the creature kept its gaze fixed in Shen Ge’s direction, emitting the guttural swallowing sounds unique to aberrants, and continued its slow, steady advance toward him.
“Not targeting by sight?” Shen Ge continued backing into the corner. While these Tier 1 twisted humans posed no real threat to him—a couple of swipes with his butcher’s cleaver would suffice, let alone using the Aberrant-Eradicating Revolver, and he could even earn some system points in the process—his primary goal wasn’t to eliminate them. He needed to understand the behavioral patterns of these “new-type twisted humans” so that the Special Countermeasures Department would have strategies to deal with them if they ever appeared in reality.
“Soundless.”
Shen Ge entered a dual-trait state and continued backing away. The twisted human didn’t stop, still growling and moving forward, seemingly locked onto his position.
“Traceless.”
Upon activating “Traceless,” the twisted human suddenly halted, standing motionless and dazed as if it had lost its target.
“So, it doesn’t track by sight or smell?” Shen Ge dropped the Formless and Soundless states, retaining only Traceless. The creature remained inactive.
Even when Shen Ge approached it, even when he struck its neck with his butcher’s cleaver—chopping off its head in a few blows, then slicing open its abdomen and shattering its heart—the twisted human showed no reaction.
[Host successfully eliminated a Tier 1 aberrant. Reward: 50 system points!]
[Sell Tier 1 aberrant corpse? Price: 200 system points.]
“Yes.”
After dispatching one twisted human, Shen Ge experimented with the remaining ones using different methods. He ultimately determined that these creatures only reacted to human presence and aberrant energy.
Shen Ge instructed Xiao Qi to record the data on these “hatchling-type” twisted humans, planning to take it back to the Rong City branch for the Research Department to study. It wasn’t a sudden interest in twisted human research on his part; recent experiences had shown that twisted humans were “evolving” at a pace far exceeding that of aberrants. It was likely they would become the primary enemies in the future.
Whether in the “future” he visited in Japan or the apocalyptic versions of Rong City and Daijing in the dream world, the twisted humans there were several tiers higher than those in reality. Clearly, the twisted humans in reality were progressing toward that “future.” Now that he had the chance to collect data on their evolutionary direction, he naturally had to seize it.
After clearing the office area of twisted humans, Shen Ge searched and investigated the space. He discovered this area was likely the “logistics department” for the entire spire building, functioning like a property management office.
Aside from resident information for each floor, resource allocation, and task scheduling, it was also responsible for monitoring the areas around the spire. Consequently, behind the office area was a spacious surveillance room filled with hundreds of monitoring screens.
However, it was unclear how long this place had been abandoned. The power had been cut long ago, making it impossible to view conditions in other areas through the screens.
Nevertheless, in a locked cabinet, Shen Ge found hard drives containing surveillance footage. Scanning by Xiao Qi revealed that this logistics department only handled floors below the 50th. Floors above the 50th were highly classified; even basic resident information was unavailable.
Exiting the office area and returning to the first-floor lobby, Shen Ge found that with the spire’s power outage, the elevators were naturally unusable. He headed for the stairwell and ascended to the second floor.
Reaching the second floor, corridors to the left and right led to two different dining halls. A faint crimson mist lingered in the hallways. The double doors to both dining halls were tightly shut. Their style resembled those of the first-floor office area, looking disturbingly like organs of twisted humans.
Shen Ge used the Aberrant-Eradicating Revolver to shoot off the lock on the left set of double doors. Pushing them open revealed pitch darkness inside. Sweeping his flashlight beam across the space, he saw it was vast and chaotic. Tables and chairs were overturned, and many skeletal remains lay about. The entire area reeked of a pungent, foul odor.
A rustling sound came from the corners, seemingly originating from behind the food counters.
Maintaining his “Traceless” state, Shen Ge approached a counter. The items on the serving trays had long since rotted into unrecognizable, blackened mush.
In the corners, several Parasitized—topped with flesh-and-blood man-eating flower heads—were gnawing on the corpses of their dead kin. The scene was both gruesome and nauseating.
As Shen Ge was in his “Traceless” state, these Parasitized, driven solely by feeding instincts, couldn’t detect his presence.
Just then, one Parasitized, its head buried in a corpse’s abdomen, suddenly “exploded.” Countless fist-sized parasitic aberrants burst from its body, scrambling in all directions. The scene was like disturbing a nest of cockroaches—a densely packed, hair-raising sight.
A single parasitic aberrant, once it parasitized a human, could cultivate thousands more within a short time. No wonder, once a Parasitized incident occurred in a human settlement, the number of parasitic aberrants would multiply like cockroaches, inevitably leading to a horrific aberrant disaster!
If the emergence of parasitic aberrants couldn’t be prevented, it was impossible to truly establish an absolutely safe sanctuary.
The seemingly weakest “Parasitized” were, in reality, the most thorny problem in establishing settlements!
According to the latest findings from Li Xiang’s Twisted Human Research Team, parasitic aberrants created from samples taken from Yun’er, once they parasitized a host, didn’t always immediately transform into terrifying Parasitized.
These parasitic aberrants could have a long “latency period” within the host’s body. Once this period ended, it meant they had already laid numerous eggs inside the host. Upon the host’s death, they would release a swarm of parasitic aberrants, just like the Parasitized behind the food counter moments ago.
Shen Ge swept his flashlight beam, flicked his other hand, and a Corrupt Blood Tentacle transformed into a sharp, barbed spike, impaling one of the parasitic aberrants.
Retracting the tentacle, Shen Ge observed the impaled creature closely. These parasitic aberrants were identical to the ones he’d seen fused within the walls and ceilings of the villa where Liu Zongrui had been, except the ones here were much smaller, only about the size of a palm.
The surrounding parasitic aberrants, unaffected by “Traceless” as they couldn’t detect Shen Ge’s presence, ignored him and crawled away.
Shen Ge gripped the parasitic aberrant in his hand and snapped it in two.
Plop!
After being split open, the aberrant’s blood dripped onto the floor. The crawling parasitic aberrants nearby immediately caught the scent and scurried over to lap it up.
This scene wasn’t unfamiliar to Shen Ge. He had witnessed parasitic aberrants consuming their own kind in the high-rise research lab of the apocalyptic Rong City.
Moreover, after devouring their kin, their bodies would visibly grow, and their aberrant energy intensity would skyrocket, enabling rapid secondary mutation.
Wanting to test if these parasitic aberrants shared the same trait, Shen Ge killed a few and tossed their corpses into the midst of the swarm.
Detecting the scent of flesh, even if it was from their own kind, the parasitic aberrants couldn’t resist their feeding instinct. They quickly devoured the corpses clean and promptly began to mutate.
In the blink of an eye, parasitic aberrants originally palm-sized swelled to the size of basketballs. Having tasted blood, their appetites surged. This time, regardless of whether their fellow aberrants were dead or alive, they pounced and began to feast. The situation quickly devolved into “the big fish eating the small fish, growing larger with each meal…”
“They’ve already completed Tier 2 mutation this quickly?” Shen Ge realized that whether it was the hatchling-type twisted humans from the office area earlier or these parasitic aberrants that rapidly mutated by consuming their kin, if even one type appeared in reality, given the current global capabilities of anti-aberrant organizations, containing the spread would be nearly impossible.
Shen Ge retrieved several aberrant containment bags from his Bloodhide Backpack, placing a few of the smaller parasitic aberrants inside each. Then, without waiting for the larger ones to mutate further, he used his Aberrant Domain in conjunction with his butcher’s cleaver to eliminate them all, preventing the “feeding” from creating a boss-level aberrant.
While this approach served to “farm points,” Shen Ge’s current primary objective was to find a way out of this aberrant space or to explore the area. He didn’t have much time to spare on cultivation-style point farming here.
Passing through the dining hall, Shen Ge prepared to ascend to the third floor to continue exploring. However, upon entering the stairwell, he encountered a creature whose body resembled a gaping flesh-and-blood man-eating flower, each petal lined with sharp teeth.
From its back extended putrid, fleshy tentacles adhered to the ceiling and walls around it, as if fused with the structure. But the most horrifying part was at the center of its flesh-flower body: the upper half of a woman’s body, largely decomposed.
The woman gave the impression of being half-“swallowed” by the flesh petals, but upon closer inspection, it was clear her body had fused with them.
Half of the face had lost its original features, leaving only skinless muscle tissue and “melted” flesh, while the other half, which still resembled a human face, wore a strange smile.
This “female twisted human” bore an eighty percent resemblance to the one that had grown in the stairwell of the high-rise in the apocalyptic Rong City. The difference was that its human torso was more corpulent here, as if better nourished, causing the grayish-white skin to stretch taut, looking as if it might “explode” at any moment!
Shen Ge’s first thought was how utterly creepy this thing looked. His second was that the appearances of these twisted humans were becoming increasingly abstract. Soon, there might be no need to distinguish between aberrants and twisted humans.
Shen Ge was still in his “Traceless” state. When he rushed into the stairwell, initially, the female twisted human showed no reaction.
But when the stairwell door thudded shut, the eyeball nestled within the flesh-petal maw rotated, fixing its gaze in Shen Ge’s direction.
“Tsk,as expected of a Tier 4 aberrant energy intensity twisted human. Beyond tracking by scent and aberrant energy, it’s regained sight and hearing.” Shen Ge had intended to test the acuity of its vision and hearing, but before he could act, several of the female twisted human’s tentacles shot towards him simultaneously. Mid-flight, their tips split open into gaping maws of flesh-and-blood man-eating flowers, coming at him from different angles to cut off his retreat.
Shen Ge didn’t immediately deploy his Aberrant Domain to deal with the creature. Instead, he fought while retreating, probing its attack patterns. To his surprise, it wasn’t attacking purely with brute force and instinct. It seemed to be strategically and deliberately forcing Shen Ge into a corner with calculated steps.
“Is this… a degree of consciousness preserved? Hey, are you conscious? How about we sit down, have a cup of tea, and chat for a bit?” Shen Ge asked tentatively.
The moment the female twisted human heard Shen Ge’s question, its tentacles noticeably hesitated, freezing mid-air. But the next second, they attacked with even greater ferocity. The feeling was like a beast encountering a natural predator, fighting with all its might in a desperate struggle to overcome its foe!
Shen Ge couldn’t keep retreating indefinitely. Moreover, the stairwell was cramped. If he retreated further, he’d be back in the dining hall.
The commotion from the female twisted human’s attacks also drew the hidden Parasitized and the hatching parasitic aberrants from the dining hall, which began swarming towards the stairwell.
However, these newcomers were like delivery meals. The moment they entered the stairwell, the female twisted human’s tentacles detected them. The flesh-flower maws would snap open and swallow them whole, purely for nutritional replenishment.
Shen Ge noticed that after consuming the Parasitized and the parasitic aberrants, the creature’s aberrant energy intensity seemed to increase. It appeared these twisted humans here all possessed the ability to rapidly digest their kin. Deciding not to hold back any longer, he activated his Aberrant Domain. Coordinating with his butcher’s cleaver, he first severed the tentacles, then hacked through the limbs connecting the female twisted human to the ceiling.
The battle between Shen Ge and the female twisted human resembled a contest of aberrant energy intensity. Although Shen Ge’s consumption was higher, his Red Mist Armor provided protection, conserving the energy he would have used for defense.
The strategy of trading blows for blows ultimately resulted in the female monster being injured alone. She only lasted for ten minutes before Shen Ge sliced her into a human pig, leaving her with only half a human body and the huge flesh-eating man-eating flower body.
Shen Ge brandished his butcher knife, intending to cut open the flesh-eating man-eating flower to find the female monster’s weakness, her “heart.” However, after dissecting her body, he found not the heart, but a woman’s head.
Using the tip of his cleaver, Shen Ge adjusted the head to face him. Although the face had melted like a candle, he could still vaguely make out its general features.
“This person… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before?” Shen Ge had a nagging sense of familiarity but couldn’t immediately recall where he’d seen her.
Xiao Qi promptly understood and began scanning the facial features of the head, comparing them against its vast database of information and personnel files.
“Master, this individual was an anti-aberrant agent of the Daijing Headquarters. During the previous attack on the headquarters, after your confrontation with the leader of the Twelve Branches, she was among the anti-aberrant agents who entered the disaster zone with Elder Fang to provide support. You had brief cooperation with her!”
