The moment Shen Ge activated his three traits, the monsters formed from congealed plasma instantly lost their target. They stood frozen in place, utterly dumbfounded.
After circling the area once, Shen Ge realized the environment was far more complex than he had imagined. The surrounding walls of flesh were significantly tougher than those on the upper levels. Even if he wanted to use “Collapse” to force a path open, it would require an enormous amount of anomalous energy.
Just then, Little Seven suddenly warned, “Master, the red viscous substance on the ground is highly corrosive to the Crimson Mist Armor. I suggest that after you get a better understanding of the layout, you find higher ground first to avoid contact with the corrosive material before planning your exit.”
The level of decay and erosion here was worse than anywhere Shen Ge had entered so far. The original structure was barely recognizable—only vague outlines of buildings remained. Whether walls or pillars, everything was covered in a layer of foul, stinking rot.
Shen Ge looked around but found nowhere suitable to land. In the end, he used his Rotblood Tentacles connected to the Anomalous Glove “Unrelenting” to grapple onto something resembling a stone pillar. He hoisted himself up, suspending his body in the air to avoid touching the corrosive ground. Only then did the drain on the Crimson Mist Armor’s energy stop.
Now, Shen Ge was faced with two choices.
The first was to go back the way he came—climbing back up the massive hole he had free-fallen through for over ten minutes. The problem was, ever since he had dropped down, the rotting flesh on the “ceiling” had already sealed shut, completely blocking the entrance.
The second option was to search for a “weak point” here and try to break through using the Anomaly-Killing Revolver and the Anomalous Energy Rocket Launcher in conjunction with “Collapse.”
But no matter which choice he made, it would put a massive strain on his anomalous energy reserves.
Using “Unrelenting,” Shen Ge swung from one flesh-encased pillar to another, while Little Seven focused on detecting any fluctuations in anomalous energy nearby.
“Master, there’s an energy fluctuation reaction in the front corner,” Little Seven said, extending a Rotblood Tentacle to point toward a shadowy nook.
Shen Ge moved in the direction indicated, and sure enough, he noticed something off about the rotting flesh in that area. As soon as he drew near, the flesh split open with a wet tear, transforming into a gaping, bloody maw. Rings upon rings of teeth lined the inside, looking utterly repulsive and nauseating.
“I have a bold idea,” Shen Ge suddenly said.
Little Seven replied, “Master, I don’t think that’s a good idea!”
Shen Ge had been searching the area for several rounds without making any progress. Clearly, his so-called “good idea” was to use this grotesque bloody maw as a point of entry.
“Collapse!”
Shen Ge retracted his Rotblood Tentacles and leaped straight into the gaping mouth, immediately activating “Collapse.” The closing rings of teeth were forced apart by an invisible rift, allowing him to plummet downward.
Inside the eerie, crimson passage, the fleshy walls undulated. The horrifying rings of teeth contracted, as if trying to chew up the falling object that was Shen Ge.
Falling headfirst, Shen Ge waited for the teeth to snap shut, then kicked hard against them with his Anomalous Leather Boots, using the force to accelerate his descent.
After passing through several layers of teeth, Shen Ge drew his Butcher Knife and drove it deep into the crimson flesh wall. Gripping the handle tightly with both hands, he slowed his slide further downward.
Splat!
Upon landing, Shen Ge felt his feet sink into a patch of soft mud. Little Seven swept a Rotblood Tentacle over the area to clear a view, only to reveal it wasn’t mud at all—it was the remains of those plasma monsters.
In other words, despite clearly heading “downward,” Shen Ge had somehow re-entered the same space from the “ceiling” again.
“Tch. The spatial distortion of this overlapping dimension is even more complicated than I imagined. This Tier 6 anomaly isn’t as simple as it appears on the surface,” Shen Ge muttered grimly.
Little Seven extended several Rotblood Tentacles to survey the surroundings. If the environment had allowed it, it would have preferred using the more reconnaissance-efficient Blood Spiders.
“Master,” Little Seven noted, “after you tore through the throat-like fleshy tube of that maw, I observed the viscous fluid seeping from the walls. It seems different from what’s in here. And ever since you successfully injured it, the surrounding environment has undergone noticeable changes.”
Following the beam of light emitted by Little Seven, Shen Ge looked around and indeed spotted significant differences. The distant walls, once blood-red with rot, had turned pitch-black, like solid ebony barriers.
The red viscous substance on the floor had increased in volume, visibly oozing out from the direction of the corner maw and bubbling with disgusting red froth.
“So, the weak point is inside that ‘mouth’?” Shen Ge mused. Initially, he had just followed basic logic—to break out of the anomaly’s abdominal space, he needed to keep heading down.
He hadn’t expected that this downward journey would lead him to stumble upon the space’s “weak point.” If he could just keep damaging it, he might find a way out.
But just as Shen Ge prepared to dive back into the bloody maw and continue tearing through the fleshy tube, he noticed the plasma monsters converging in the corner. They formed a wall of bodies, completely sealing off the area.
This behavior only confirmed that Shen Ge’s guess was correct. Without hesitation, he hurled several Molotov cocktails into the crowd of monsters and ignited them with Anomalous Fire.
With his three traits active, Shen Ge could have stabbed each of these low-tier creatures one by one with a dagger, and they would never have detected his presence.
However, he had been trapped in the anomaly’s belly for quite some time now. By his calculations, the meeting of the Asian Anomaly Research Council was about to begin. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time here, so his methods grew more direct. Rather than taking the slow, exploratory route, why not just blow the whole place sky-high?
Just as Shen Ge was gleefully mowing down monsters, the pustules dotting the surrounding flesh walls burst open. From within surged a tidal wave of various parasitic anomalies.
Spider-scorpion hybrids, writhing black worms, repulsive creatures resembling Facehuggers… Shen Ge felt like he was seeing every type of parasitic anomaly he had encountered since becoming an Anomaly Investigator.
“So this is just a monster hatchery, huh?” Shen Ge had sensed something was off from the start. It was as if this Tier 6 anomaly existed solely to breed monsters and the parasites that transformed living beings into anomalies. Its innards were filled with nothing but monsters and these infectious creatures.
With a sweep of his arm, Shen Ge unleashed a torrent of black Anomalous Fire, instantly incinerating a large swath of enemies. He then focused his assault on clearing the corner where the bloody maw was located.
Two minutes later, a thunderous BOOM echoed through the space as the corner “wall” was smashed open by a Rotblood Giant Hammer condensed from his Rotblood Tentacles.
Still under the protection of his three traits, neither the monsters nor the parasitic anomalies could do anything to him. They swarmed around like headless flies, unable to pinpoint his location.
Shen Ge dove back into the bloody maw, but this time, Little Seven left two Blood Spiders at the entrance to monitor the surroundings. This was to ensure that Shen Ge’s plan was actually working and that he wasn’t just being transported to another identical space.
This time, Shen Ge went full “octopus monster” mode. Butcher Knife, Anomaly-Killing Revolver, Black Bone Dagger, Rotblood Spear… Multiple tentacles extended from his Crimson Mist Armor, each wielding a different anomalous weapon. From the moment he began his descent, he relentlessly tore into the fleshy walls of the tube.
But this time, the fall lasted several times longer than before.
“Master,” Little Seven reported, “based on the feedback from the Blood Spiders, the more damage you inflict here, the more severe the upheaval above becomes. Now, even the walls up there are starting to crack!”
“Oh?” Shen Ge’s interest was instantly piqued.
“Well, what are we waiting for?!”
“Art is an explosion!”
As he spoke, Shen Ge’s Rotblood Tentacles hoisted several Anomalous Energy Rocket Launchers. After deploying his Immovable Anomalous Domain to create an invisible barrier for protection, he fired them all at once!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The explosive anomalous energy from the rocket launchers triggered a violent reaction within the fleshy tube. Colliding with the anomaly’s own energy, it caused the entire space to warp and twist.
“Master,” Little Seven called out, “that bloody maw seems to be devouring the plasma monsters and parasitic anomalies to absorb their energy for regeneration!”
The footage from the Blood Spiders showed the maw, originally confined to the corner, suddenly gaping wide open. It began swallowing the surrounding monsters and parasites in massive gulps.
These creatures lacked Shen Ge’s skills to evade the rings of teeth in the “throat.” They were instantly crushed, followed by the sickening squelch squelch of chewing—like biting into juicy grubs. The sound alone was enough to make one’s stomach turn.
After being pulverized, the remains didn’t even fall far before the fleshy tube contracted. The walls directly absorbed the shredded flesh and plasma.
As this “energy” was assimilated, the wounds Shen Ge had inflicted on the tube walls began healing at a visible rate.
Now certain that damaging the fleshy tube had a real effect, Shen Ge stopped holding back. He began hurling everything from his Bloodskin Backpack—Molotov cocktails, grenades, anomalous explosives—into the fleshy passage. As explosions rang out, flames rapidly spread throughout the tube.
Shen Ge switched one of his traits from “Silent” to “Unburnable,” ensuring the raging inferno within the tube couldn’t harm him.
After his relentless bombardment, the fleshy tube finally reached its breaking point. The walls convulsed violently, like a throat trying to vomit, and eventually spat Shen Ge right out.
As Shen Ge was ejected upward, he noticed that while he had returned to the space filled with red viscous fluid, the sealed opening in the “ceiling” had been forced open by the collapsing flesh. It seemed the anomaly was now desperate to expel this “calamity” from its domain.
But if the anomaly wanted Shen Ge to leave, he was determined to stay. He fired wildly into the surroundings with his infinite-ammo Anomaly-Killing Revolver while spraying Anomalous Fire from his other arm.
Strangely, as Shen Ge’s “destruction” intensified, the surrounding space began to contract drastically. It shrank from the size of an underground shopping mall parking garage to an area no larger than a few storefronts.
Given Shen Ge’s current level of anomalous energy mastery, he was not susceptible to hallucinations like Fang Mingyue or Hu Tinglan had been under its influence.
Therefore, this was undoubtedly a more complex form of spatial distortion. The anomaly, under Shen Ge’s assault, had been forced into a defensive contraction.
The shrinking space made Shen Ge’s search easier, but when he returned to the corner where the bloody maw had been, he found it had “hidden” itself due to the spatial changes.
“Hey, you’re hiding now? A Tier 6 anomaly, and you’re this cowardly? How about a deal? You already spit me out of your ‘mouth’… why not just spit me out of your belly entirely?” Shen Ge deactivated his trait effects and shouted into the void.
He didn’t actually expect the anomaly to possess the intelligence to answer. He was simply using himself as bait, hoping to lure the bloody maw out again.
Unfortunately, the anomaly seemed to have been badly rattled by Shen Ge’s earlier bombardment. Even though he deliberately exposed himself, it refused to attack recklessly.
Shen Ge sighed and continued exploring, trying to find the anomaly’s “weak point” once more. And then, something strange happened.
Shen Ge was clearly walking forward. He felt himself moving, but visually, he remained in the same spot, like a dancer performing the moonwalk without making any forward progress.
“So it’s trying to trap me in place? Little Seven, you give it a try.” Shen Ge transferred control of the Crimson Mist Armor to Little Seven.
After taking control of Shen Ge’s “body,” Little Seven extended Rotblood Tentacles, used “Unrelenting” to grip the rotting flesh on the wall, and then pushed off forcefully with the Anomalous Leather Boots.
However, after executing these maneuvers, the armored Shen Ge did “jump”—his legs bent accordingly—but his position in space didn’t change.
It was an incredibly eerie sight, making Shen Ge look like a performance artist stuck in a loop.
“Tch. It’s probably afraid I’ll find it again, so it’s using this method to pin me down, right?” Shen Ge pondered for a moment, and a new strategy formed in his mind.
Traceless!
Shen Ge activated his “Traceless” trait to shroud himself. Immediately, he felt an invisible, giant hand clamping down on him, trying to hold him in place while draining his anomalous energy.
“Just as I thought! Trying to trap me with energy!”
Shen Ge had witnessed how this Tier 6 anomaly dealt with a Tier 6 monster earlier—it simply engaged it in a battle of attrition, draining its energy.
He was inside the anomaly’s belly. The anomaly had its own internal system for generating anomalous energy, and it could also absorb ambient energy from the air by “breathing.” That was far more efficient than Shen Ge, who needed to convert energy through his Crimson Mist Armor. A war of attrition would be a foolish move.
“You want to trap me? Not a chance!” Shen Ge pulled out an Anomalous High-Explosive Grenade and detonated it right in front of himself.
It was the epitome of a man of action, not words. To fight the anomaly and drain its energy, he was willing to blow himself up along with it. Even the emotionless Little Seven was momentarily “startled” by this move.
With a deafening BOOM, the detonation of the high-explosive grenade created a vortex of anomalous energy. This vortex collided violently with the invisible anomalous force trying to restrain Shen Ge, causing severe spatial distortion.
Shen Ge’s audacity stemmed from his absolute confidence in the Crimson Mist Armor. While the explosion would consume a large amount of the armor’s energy, being locked in a stalemate with the anomaly would also result in a massive energy drain.
Shen Ge had effectively taken the swift, decisive path, cutting through the knot and shattering the anomaly’s plan to wear him down!
The blast made the anomaly instinctively recoil, pulling its energy back to escape the distorted space. But this reflexive retreat was instantly caught by Little Seven, who once again pinpointed its location!
“Master, two o’clock direction!”
