“Tch.”
“Really knows how to hide.”
With a flick of his wrist, Shen Ge’s Crimson Mist Armor extended a thick, long Rotblood Tentacle. As it reached the corner, the tip spread open like a hand with five “fingers,” each one coiled around a different anomalous weapon—the Butcher Knife, the Black Bone Dagger, and the Rotblood Spear.
The Rotblood Spear struck first, stabbing into the ground to block the ring of teeth that was trying to snap shut. Immediately after, the Butcher Knife and Black Bone Dagger worked in tandem to slice the opening wider.
Shen Ge’s control over the Rotblood Tentacles was so precise it might as well have been his own fingers. He easily stopped the teeth from closing.
Although the anomaly’s teeth were incredibly hard, Shen Ge’s Butcher Knife possessed the “Indestructible” trait. It could shatter the anomaly’s teeth, but the teeth could never break the knife.
So, no matter how stubbornly the anomaly defended itself, trying to shake off Shen Ge’s attack was doomed to fail.
After using the Rotblood Tentacle wrapped around the Butcher Knife to pry open the ring of teeth, Shen Ge had Little Seven channel the red anomalous energy of the Crimson Mist Armor to “charge” his Anomalous Leather Boots. Then, he planted his foot against the ring of teeth and kicked off with explosive force. With a sharp, grating crack, the combined force of the Anomalous Leather Boots and the Butcher Knife shattered the anomaly’s teeth.
“Let’s see you spit me out this time!” Shen Ge leaped into the anomaly’s gullet. This time, however, the Crimson Mist Armor bristled with sharp Rotblood Spikes, turning him into a human “porcupine.”
The undulating fleshy walls tried the same trick as before, attempting to “vomit” Shen Ge back out. But the moment they touched the spiked armor, they recoiled violently from the stabbing pain.
Just as Shen Ge was about to put on another performance of “Art is an Explosion,” Little Seven suddenly reported, “Master, the anomalous energy density here has changed drastically. It’s eroding the Crimson Mist Armor’s defenses. Although it can’t breach the armor in the short term, the interaction between the two energy fields is creating severe distortion.”
In truth, Shen Ge didn’t need the warning. He could already feel a massive, invisible pulling force forming around him. But this time, it wasn’t trying to expel him upward—it was yanking him downward with tremendous strength.
“What’s going on?”
“Is this a last-ditch, fight-to-the-death move?”
“Or is there a new trap waiting for me down below?”
Faced with the anomaly’s powerful dragging force, Shen Ge decided to “give up resisting.” Of course, he merely instructed Little Seven to pull back the anomalous energy used for the Crimson Mist Armor’s active defense, allowing the invisible hand within the fleshy tube to drag him down. As he descended, he kept pulling various anomalous explosives from his Bloodskin Backpack, wreaking havoc on his surroundings.
As Shen Ge continued his destructive spree, his falling speed increased.
The anomaly’s energy was being drained rapidly, and the surrounding flesh walls shrank away from the “porcupine” that was Shen Ge. The fleshy tube expanded to avoid contact, which, in turn, accelerated his descent.
Shen Ge tried using the Rotblood Spikes and the Black Bone Dagger to cut into the flesh walls and slow his fall, but he found that a red, viscous fluid was constantly seeping from the walls. When he stabbed at them, it felt like plunging his weapons into thick jelly; he couldn’t get a grip on the inner flesh wall.
Shen Ge realized the anomaly might indeed be preparing a “grand reception” for him down below. Out of caution, he immediately deployed his Immovable Anomalous Domain, wrapping himself in a protective barrier.
After several minutes of this continuous descent, he hit the bottom with a loud splash. Shen Ge plunged into a space filled entirely with a pool of red corrosive liquid.
Thankfully, he had the foresight to use his barrier. Otherwise, even if the liquid didn’t directly damage the Crimson Mist Armor, it would have drained a massive amount of its energy.
Shen Ge swam through the corrosive pool while Little Seven extended its Rotblood Tentacles above the surface to scout for a place to land.
“Master, eleven o’clock direction. There… it looks like the anomaly’s heart!” Little Seven pointed toward a huge, pulsating lump of flesh in the distance.
At the same time, Little Seven stretched a Rotblood Tentacle to its maximum length. The Anomalous Glove “Unrelenting” at its tip managed to grab onto a black blood vessel attached to the fleshy lump and pulled Shen Ge out of the corrosive pool.
Clinging to the heart and looking down at the blood-red corrosive liquid below, Shen Ge wondered if the anomaly had given up on stopping him from destroying its “throat” and was now hoping the corrosive pool would finish him off.
Unfortunately for it, the anomaly had clearly underestimated the defensive power of his Invisible Barrier and the Crimson Mist Armor.
“Master, the anomalous energy concentration here is the highest anywhere inside this anomaly’s body. This must be its true ‘heart,'” Little Seven stated.
Using the beam from a flashlight held by a Rotblood Tentacle, Shen Ge scanned the surroundings. The layout resembled something like an “office.”
A desk, cabinets, a sofa, chairs… but these were only vague outlines, as everything was covered in a layer of disgusting, rotting flesh.
The “heart” itself hung from the ceiling in the center of the room, taking up most of the space.
Shen Ge had entered through what looked like a “door” and a long hallway. What struck him as odd was that while the corrosive liquid in the hallway was over two meters deep, here he could actually see the outlines of the office furniture.
Given that a standard office desk is usually a bit over a meter tall, the depth of the red corrosive liquid in the “heart chamber” was significantly shallower.
“It looks like there’s more than one level here.” Shen Ge shone his flashlight upward and saw another floor above, almost like a loft-style apartment.
The anomaly had certainly picked a clever spot to hide its heart. Not only that, but it had also created several decoy hearts as a diversion. That was why it had taken Shen Ge days to find the real one.
After all that searching, he had stumbled into the heart chamber by pure chance. Now, all he had to do was destroy the “heart,” and this Tier 6 anomaly would be finished!
Just as Shen Ge raised his Butcher Knife to strike, the “heart” suddenly burst with a bang, releasing a powerful blast of black anomalous mist that sent Shen Ge flying backward.
Just as he was about to fall back into the corrosive liquid, Little Seven reacted swiftly. A Rotblood Tentacle shot out, wrapped around Shen Ge, and pulled him onto a desk covered in rotting flesh.
“Tch. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.” Shen Ge knew that the heart, being the anomaly’s most vital organ, would also be its most heavily defended area.
Take the artificial Anomaly King created by the Tian’gan organization, for example. Its heart was an impregnable fortress. This anomaly was an entire tier above that artificial king. Even having reached the heart chamber, taking it down wouldn’t be a simple task.
Following the heart’s explosive outburst, the entire office filled with a dense black anomalous mist. The already dim space became completely impenetrable to the flashlight’s meager beam.
“Great. Looks like we’re operating blind now.” Shen Ge grumbled, but it wasn’t his first time dealing with complete light deprivation. It seemed to be a standard skill for high-tier anomalies.
“The heart should be about five meters straight ahead… but I doubt it’ll let me find it that easily,” Shen Ge muttered.
During the moment he was thrown back, Little Seven had actually completed a scan of the room and gathered data. However, Shen Ge suspected the purpose of the black anomalous mist was more than just blocking light.
Two minutes later, even when Little Seven extended the Rotblood Tentacles to their maximum length of several dozen meters, they still couldn’t touch the “heart.” This only confirmed Shen Ge’s suspicion.
“Little Seven, keep an eye on the surroundings… Actually, let’s go with the safest approach.” Shen Ge activated his three traits and “vanished” into the black anomalous mist.
But even though it had lost its target, the “heart’s” defenses didn’t relax. If anything, the density of the surrounding anomalous mist grew even stronger.
Shen Ge tried walking across the desk toward where the “heart” should be. Yet, a desk that was originally only a couple of meters long began to feel like the Great Wall. He walked for several minutes without seeming to get any closer to the “end.”
Once again, Shen Ge had that strange sensation—as if he had been shrunk down dozens of times and was moving like an ant across a vast room.
If this were anyone else, it would likely be a hallucination induced by the anomalous mist. But Shen Ge had the protection of the Progenitor Anomaly System and the defense of the Crimson Mist Armor. Even Little Seven couldn’t detect any abnormalities, which meant this was definitely not an illusion.
Because whenever Shen Ge had experienced hallucinations before—whether from dream worlds or other influences—Little Seven had always been able to perceive them as normal occurrences.
“Little Seven, what have you found?” Shen Ge asked.
Little Seven replied, “Reporting, Master. Based on the movement data from the Crimson Mist Armor and the changes in the surrounding anomalous energy, we are moving forward, and we are not trapped in a spatial loop. It feels as if the space itself has been magnified.”
“Tch. Of course the anomalous mist guarding a high-tier anomaly’s heart wouldn’t be easy to deal with!” Shen Ge grumbled.
This was likely a complaint only he could make in the entire world. After all, among all Anomaly Investigators and monster organizations globally, he probably had the most hands-on experience dealing with high-tier anomalies.
Since he couldn’t find a way out normally, Shen Ge decided he had no choice but to reluctantly switch to “Destruction Mode.” Although he had used up a considerable amount of his stockpile along the way, his Bloodskin Backpack was filled with loot from several raided military bases. Even if his supply of anomalous explosives was running low, he still had plenty of ordinary grenades, bombs, and Molotov cocktails.
The next second, Shen Ge went full “octopus monster” again. His Rotblood Tentacles continuously pulled items from the Bloodskin Backpack. He wasn’t even conserving his anomalous explosives, let alone the conventional ones.
Case after case of bombs were hurled by the Rotblood Tentacles into the black mist, erupting in blossoms of fire. Combined with the Molotov cocktails, a raging inferno quickly spread throughout the space, punctuated by a steady rhythm of explosions.
The fire grew larger and fiercer, seeming to react violently with the viscous fluid on the ground and the rotting flesh covering everything. The nauseating stench of decay mixed with the acrid smell of burning.
“Master, anomalous energy fluctuations detected nearby!” Little Seven’s warning came just as several plasma monsters lunged out of the surrounding black mist.
However, these plasma monsters couldn’t detect Shen Ge under the concealment of his three traits. They seemed to be using a process of elimination, blindly attacking any area not currently engulfed in explosions.
Shen Ge had been through this “immune system response” routine—where the anomaly’s defenses lash out to eliminate a threat to the heart—several times before. He couldn’t even be bothered to fight them. He simply leaned to the side, dodging their clumsy lunges.
With a splash, the plasma monster that missed him tumbled off the desk and into the pool of corrosive liquid below.
That made Shen Ge pause.
He had been walking across this desk for nearly ten minutes. No matter which direction he went—forward, left, or right—the desk seemed endless. But when these plasma monsters missed their target, they immediately fell into the corrosive pool below. That was more than a little strange.
Shen Ge made a snap decision. As two more plasma monsters lunged at him, he reacted with lightning speed, twisting his body and sending a Rotblood Tentacle to wrap around one of them.
“Little Seven, don’t resist the drag from the plasma monster!” Shen Ge specifically warned, worried that Little Seven might reflexively yank the creature back instead.
Neither Shen Ge nor Little Seven tried to control the Rotblood Tentacle. Once it was wrapped around the plasma monster, the creature’s momentum carried Shen Ge forward—and then straight down.
“Little Seven, extend the Rotblood Tentacles upward as far as you can!” As soon as Shen Ge gave the order, Little Seven acknowledged and complied, stretching the tentacles toward the ceiling.
A few seconds later, one of the Rotblood Tentacles made contact with something solid. The tip transformed into an anomalous hand, using the “Unrelenting” effect to get a death grip on the object and pull Shen Ge upward.
Thanks to the three traits, the plasma monster had no idea what had happened. It only felt itself being attacked, and in the next instant, its assailant was gone.
By then, Shen Ge was already using the pulling force of his Rotblood Tentacle to haul himself upward. And right above him was the “heart.”
This time, Shen Ge didn’t hesitate for a second. He drew his Butcher Knife and various other anomalous weapons and began stabbing the “heart” furiously.
A series of wet thuds and squelches rang out as the anomalous weapons pierced the heart, tearing through the outer layer of rotting flesh. But the strange thing was, the wounds gushed not blood, but copious amounts of corrosive liquid.
“Master, detecting another intense anomalous energy fluctuation!” Little Seven warned again. The last time it had given this warning was right before the heart had unleashed that powerful blast of black mist that sent Shen Ge flying.
Clearly, even though the “heart” couldn’t sense Shen Ge under the effect of his three traits, it could deduce his location based on where the damage was occurring. It was preparing to repeat its previous trick—erupting with an even stronger burst of anomalous black mist to blast this unwelcome intruder away.
Shen Ge wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice. He immediately called upon his system for a “Strength Amplification.” The moment the system began draining his anomalous energy to activate the boost, he had Little Seven pump the Crimson Mist Armor’s red anomalous energy into him as a replacement.
Fifty times!
Sixty times!
Seventy times!
Eighty times!
“Still not enough!”
Not enough!
Even though the Strength Amplification, boosted by the Crimson Mist Armor, broke through the hundred-times multiplier again, Shen Ge was shocked to find he still couldn’t breach the heart’s defenses.
He could clearly feel the immense amount of anomalous black mist gathering within the “heart.” If he let it detonate, he would likely be thrown into an even “larger” space of black mist and get completely lost.
“Don’t make me use my trump card!” Shen Ge did have one last resort. He had originally planned to save it for the upcoming world collapse event, hoping to use it as leverage to seize more Dream Fragments.
But after being trapped in this anomaly’s belly for days, his patience had worn thin.
Besides, a prolonged battle of attrition with the anomaly was getting him nowhere. Gritting his teeth, Shen Ge decided to bring out his “ultimate treasure”—
The Silkworm.
