One.
Two.
Three.
…
More and more humanoid figures materialized within the Anomaly Energy black mist, slowly walking towards Shen Ge. They trod through the bloody sludge without making a sound, as if their feet had completely merged with the mire.
As the distance closed, Shen Ge could finally make out their features. Their necks were elongated, just like the ones that had stretched from the walls earlier, almost identical to some kind of “neck-stretching legend.” The difference was that atop these necks sat the typical four-petal, fleshy, blood-flower mouth of a Parasitized.
“Shen, Shen Tan, m-m-monsters!” Fang Yaori stammered nervously.
Shen Ge retorted bluntly, “Un-tie your tongue before you speak.”
Fang Yaori was on the verge of tears. Just managing to get the words out while staring at those terrifying creatures was his absolute limit. There was no way he could untie his tongue.
When the monsters all turned in unison to look at Shen Ge and Fang Yaori, they noticed something else: inside those fleshy, blood-flower mouths seemed to grow a terrifying human face.
This type of monster, with a face inside its mouth, first appeared with the Anomaly Vehicle. Compared to low-rank Parasitized, these were monsters capable of using special abilities.
Shen Ge was pondering what those abilities might be when he noticed the red viscous substance under their feet beginning to boil. The corridor, now resembling a pool of blood, bubbled and gurgled, and the temperature in the entire passage was rising rapidly.
“Master, the rate at which the Red Mist armor’s Anomaly Energy is being consumed is increasing!” Xiao Qi reported. As the red sludge in the blood pool boiled, the parts of the armor in contact with it were being damaged, causing the energy used for defense to deplete faster.
Then, the monsters with the fleshy, blood-flower heads extended their python-like necks. Their bloody mouths opened and closed as if trying to speak, but the only sounds that came out were gurgling swallows.
Fang Yaori was so terrified he barely dared to breathe, wishing only to curl up like a silkworm baby under the protection of the Decayed Blood tendrils. But then, a series of strange plop plop sounds erupted, like flesh being violently squeezed and burst. Before he knew it, his vision blurred, and he was with Shen Ge, several meters away.
They had directly passed through the line of monsters. The elongated, python-like necks of the creatures were all severed, their heads bursting like bloody flowers.
To Fang Yaori, it happened in the blink of an eye. In reality, upon hearing Xiao Qi’s warning, Shen Ge had instantly activated his Immovable Anomaly Domain and, aided by the bullet-time effect, surged forward at incredible speed.
As he sprinted, Shen Ge wielded his butcher knife, constantly slashing, severing the monsters’ heads. Meanwhile, Xiao Qi controlled several Decayed Blood tendrils to attack simultaneously, either transforming into Anomaly Energy spears for thrusting or solidifying into Black Bone daggers to pierce their skulls. Their tacit cooperation resulted in the instant annihilation of all the monsters.
[Host is valiant and invincible, instantly killing 2 Rank 2 monsters. Reward: 100 System Points, 1 Rank F Recovery Item.]
[Sell the bodies of the Rank 2 monsters? Price: 500 System Points.]
“Yes!”
Shen Ge casually sold all the corpses, netting another several thousand System Points. Added to his previous savings, even after spending quite a bit on recent “scans,” he still had 53,000 points.
“Th-this is…” Fang Yaori was stunned. Even as slow as he was, he couldn’t miss the discrepancy. It wasn’t just that Shen Ge kept annihilating these anomalies and monsters in seconds; the main thing was, he couldn’t even see Shen Ge’s movements at all.
Could it be?
Was this the legendary Super Saiyan with a power level over 9000?
Shen Ge was obviously unaware that the “accessory” on his back had an even more jump imagination. After dealing with the immediate monsters, he continued down the corridor.
Strangely, the end of the corridor held neither the room Fang Yaori mentioned nor the stairwell to the upper floors. There was only a pitch-black wall.
Near this wall, the flashlight’s effective range had shrunk by another two meters, but it could still reluctantly illuminate the wall’s surface.
The entire wall showed clear signs of Anomaly Energy black mist dispersing around it, and a huge face could be vaguely seen hidden within the darkness.
But when Shen Ge reached the wall, this ghostly face didn’t extend from it to attack him like the previous ones had.
Shen Ge reached out, attempting to deploy his intangible Anomaly Domain and use “Collapse.” Strangely, when his Anomaly Energy passed through the wall, it felt like it was being sucked into a bottomless black hole. He could only sense the energy depleting, unable to detect anything on the other side, which caused “Collapse” to fail.
This situation was rare. Shen Ge felt something was off. Even with disordered space, ever since the boiling blood pool corridor appeared, this place had deviated from the office corridor’s style. It felt like they had entered a completely different area.
“Could it be that when we passed through that Anomaly Energy black mist, we were affected by the spatial distortion and transferred to another area?”
“If that’s the case, it’s not surprising. If what Fang Yaori said is true, and that monster disappeared inside the interrogation room to merge with the building, then the interrogation room is likely the location of the ‘heart.’ So, upon detecting an intruder, the monster would definitely take measures.”
“Sending those parasitic anomalies to resist is just the simplest method. The key point is to hide the interrogation room’s location by releasing Anomaly Energy black mist to distort space.”
“If that’s so, to completely eliminate this monster, the key is figuring out how to find the ‘heart’ in the interrogation room!”
After some thought, Shen Ge quickly formulated a plan. He moved along the wall, deeper into the area, first needing to determine how wide this wall actually was.
He didn’t feel anything unusual leaning against the wall with the ghostly face. But Fang Yaori, carried like baggage on the back of Shen Ge’s Red Mist armor, suddenly felt an inexplicable chill envelop his entire body. He trembled uncontrollably, shivering as he said, “Sh-Sh-Sh-Shen Tan, d-do-do you, f-feel, s-so cold, s-so cold!”
Before Shen Ge could answer, Xiao Qi reported to him, “Reporting, Master. The surrounding temperature has dropped below zero degrees Celsius and is still decreasing.”
With his full-body Red Mist armor, Shen Ge wouldn’t be affected even at几十 degrees below zero. But Fang Yaori wasn’t wearing the armor; he was only wrapped in a few Decayed Blood tendrils, which didn’t provide the same defensive capabilities. In just this short time, he was nearly frozen stiff.
Gurgle.
Gurgle.
Then, from deeper within, came the faint, characteristic swallowing sounds of anomalies.
There was only this one path ahead. To find the Fused Monster’s “heart,” even knowing this corridor was problematic, they had no choice but to continue exploring forward.
And the temperature was still dropping. Shen Ge couldn’t ignore Fang Yaori’s well-being; he was a monster test subject rarer than a giant panda.
“Wait!”
Shen Ge suddenly paused, struck by a crucial thought.
Fang Yaori was a pawn deliberately “cultivated” by the monster organization to use against the Fang family. They had not only succeeded in transplanting monster cells into him but also successfully “brainwashed” him into believing the experiment was a confidential test authorized by the Special Strategy Department, completely unaware he was working for the monsters.
Achieving this step was no small feat. It meant Fang Yaori was a very important chess piece. So why would the monster organization not lock him up for secret research, only releasing him when needed against the Fang family? Why let him run around outside, even fooling around?
Weren’t they afraid of attracting the attention of Fang Mingyue and the Fang family?
Not to mention anything else, just the “Blood Tumor,” the artificial anomaly unique to the monster organization on Fang Yaori’s neck, would definitely alert the Special Strategy Department if discovered.
So, why?
Shen Ge felt he might be overlooking some important information, but he couldn’t pinpoint the exact problem. However, this was clearly not the time to dwell on Fang Yaori’s issues. He had to find the Fused Monster’s “heart” and destroy it as soon as possible, find a way out of the dream world. Perhaps then, all the mysteries would be solved.
“Hang in there.” Shen Ge comforted Fang Yaori briefly, then instructed Xiao Qi to do her best to extend some Red Mist armor to protect him.
Of course, this was while ensuring his own full-body coverage was maintained.
Fortunately, after several upgrades, as Li Xiang incorporated more Ancestral Anomaly cells and high-rank anomaly corpses into the Red Mist armor, it had developed the ability to generate a secondary armor mode.
Previously, when protecting Cheng Shengnan, the secondary armor was created at the expense of Shen Ge’s defense and full-body coverage. Back then, they were only in an anomalous space, facing at most Rank 2 or 3 anomalies and monsters. Even without the Red Mist armor, Shen Ge wouldn’t have been in danger.
But now was different. Not only were they inside a Rank 5 Fused Monster, but the environment and monsters hidden in the shadows could threaten Shen Ge at any moment. Xiao Qi could only reduce the number of Decayed Blood tendrils used to protect Fang Yaori, not touch the part of the armor safeguarding Shen Ge.
Shen Ge continued deeper along the wall shrouded in Anomaly Energy black mist. In this completely dark corridor, the flashlight’s visibility was now less than two meters.
Although the disgusting, boiling rotten blood was gone from the floor, the ground still felt soft and spongy underfoot, like walking on a thickly padded mat.
The corridor was terrifyingly dark and silent. Besides the occasional swallowing sound, the only thing audible was one’s own breathing.
With Xiao Qi’s help, the frozen Fang Yaori managed to hold on. But after that initial wave of cold, although his body had recovered somewhat under the Red Mist armor’s protection, he could still feel a faint chill on his neck, and it felt like bugs were crawling on him.
“Shen Tan, I, I feel something’s wrong,” Fang Yaori said urgently.
Shen Ge asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It feels like something’s crawling on my neck!” Fang Yaori was bound tightly by the Decayed Blood tendrils, unable even to reach up and touch his neck.
Shen Ge was about to move him in front to take a look when Xiao Qi had already examined him. She reported, “Reporting, Master. The monster cells on his neck seem off. I’m detecting a very strong Anomaly Energy fluctuation, as if the parasitic anomaly that was dormant in the ‘Blood Tumor’ is about to wake up.”
“It was fine before. Why is it suddenly waking up now?” Shen Ge frowned.
After a quick analysis, Xiao Qi said, “It might be related to that sudden cold. Before the Fused Monster awakened, although there were many corpses and newly born parasitic anomalies in the building, their numbers weren’t large, and their intensity was low. But as the Fused Monster woke up, more and more anomalies and monsters dormant inside it are awakening. And influenced by the Fused Monster’s Anomaly Energy, the intensity of these parasitic anomalies is increasing.”
“Therefore, based on analysis and judgment, the monster cells inside Fang Yaori might be similar to those parasitic anomalies, awakened by the influence of the Anomaly Energy black mist. Comparing the monster cells inside him with the data on Artificial Anomaly Sequence 14 stored in the database, it’s highly probable he will uncontrollably grow a second head.”
“According to Li Xiang’s research report, the十二 Branches monsters with ‘multiple heads and multiple arms’ share a collective consciousness. So destroying one or more of their heads cannot directly kill them. But the activity level of the monster cells inside Fang Yaori is very high. Based on this, it’s more likely that the monster cells will become dominant upon awakening.”
Xiao Qi rapidly presented her comparative analysis data and conclusion: Fang Yaori’s current situation was not optimistic.
Anomaly Energy rejects humans. Only non-human beings can absorb it for aberrations. Therefore, the only way for humans to use Anomaly Energy is to transplant anomalous cells.
But not all anomalies are suitable for transplantation. Based on the intelligence Shen Ge had gathered, only two types of monster cells had a relatively high success rate for transplantation.
One is transplanting cells from an Ancestral Anomaly. The other is from anomalies whose Anomaly Energy possesses a “fusion effect.” The latter is rare enough, let alone the fact that there’s only one “Ancestral Anomaly” in the world.
But even after transplantation using these two methods, it doesn’t guarantee the subject will become a powerful monster. There are two possible outcomes—
The first is that the human cells successfully suppress the spread of the monster cells, “containing” them in a specific part of the body, thereby gaining the power to control Anomaly Energy.
The second is that the monster cells become dominant. They spread through the human body like cancer cells, consuming the human cells. At this point, the human rapidly aberrates, transforming into a mass of flesh and blood monster!
According to Xiao Qi’s judgment, the monster cells inside Fang Yaori were currently becoming dominant. This meant that once the “Blood Tumor” fully awakened, he would turn into a flesh and blood monster!
Shen Ge felt a wave of headaches after hearing this. He wasn’t Li Xiang, so he naturally didn’t know how to effectively suppress the spread of monster cells in Fang Yaori’s body.
Besides, even Li Xiang might not be able to do it. The reason monsters are “short-lived” is precisely because Anomaly Energy causes pathological changes in the body, gradually allowing monster cells to take over.
If there truly was someone in this world who could suppress the spread of monster cells, they would be fiercely contested by every major monster organization and treated like a living Buddha!
“Shen Tan, what’s on my neck? Just tell me!” Fang Yaori had only felt something crawling on his neck and wanted Shen Ge to check if it was a bug. But with no response for so long, he was starting to panic.
Shen Ge didn’t know how to answer Fang Yaori. He couldn’t just tell him, “Buddy, you’re about to turn into a flesh and blood monster,” could he?
