What exactly was the “Silkworm”?
How could it be so powerful that it made the “Misfortune” trait drain enough anomalous energy to pull off something as absurd as teleporting the moon through space and slamming it into the Earth? But by this point, Shen Ge didn’t even have time to be shocked, because… the Earth itself had come alive!
In the past, whether from the Haiya Research Institute Report, or from information gathered through monster organization members and the dream worlds, Shen Ge had always felt something was off whenever he came across intelligence suggesting that humanity’s destruction of the planet had given rise to something akin to “negative emotions”, which could mutate non-human life forms and ultimately wipe out mankind.
Seeing the scene unfolding right before his eyes, a bold and utterly insane speculation suddenly took root in Shen Ge’s mind —
The Earth itself might be a colossal anomaly. Or rather, it was the true anomaly king all along.
And the so-called Anomaly King — that “stopper” — might simply be its heart, or some other organ. Because this speculation was the only thing that could explain why the underground was completely filled with anomalous energy. It was exactly the same as how the insides of a mega-anomaly’s stomach were also saturated with anomalous energy!
Ever since the Yuzhou anomaly disaster, when Shen Ge had dealt with the anomaly named “Bu Chu” and learned that the best way to handle a high-order mega-anomaly was to burrow into its stomach and destroy its heart, he had entered the bellies of giant anomalies no fewer than ten times. Because of this, he had witnessed the conditions inside their stomachs on numerous occasions.
And the common trait among these high-order anomalies was that their stomachs were filled with dense, powerful black anomalous mist and all sorts of mutated parasitic anomalies.
On top of that, high-order anomalies also exhibited internal “natural disasters” like lava flows, collapses akin to earthquakes, and anomalous energy tornadoes. If you scaled that up, it wasn’t too far-fetched to say it was a reflection of Earth itself.
But right now, contemplating all of this was utterly meaningless. Shen Ge needed to figure out how to survive this epic collision of cataclysmic proportions. This was a hundred times more terrifying than the battle between two 8th-order anomalies he had witnessed in Sakura’s “future.” Because the instant those two sky-scraping giant hands shot out from beneath the earth, the entire Dàjīng ruins collapsed and shattered in an instant.
Shen Ge suddenly felt a pang of regret that he hadn’t kept the “Silkworm” with the resolve to take it to his grave. But on second thought, without the Silkworm, he wouldn’t have witnessed this epoch-making showdown.
While humanity was still busy filming movies about asteroids hitting Earth, Shen Ge was already living through a real-life moon crashing into the planet. Even more terrifying, the Earth had actually manifested limbs and come alive in self-defense.
Alright, truth be told, Shen Ge still hadn’t fully accepted the “Earth came alive” part.
If he went back to reality and publicly announced, “The Earth is essentially one giant anomaly,” it would probably worry researchers to death. And that particular monster organization that had staked its “future” on the next civilization would likely just give up and end themselves.
If the Earth itself was an “anomaly,” then no matter which civilization they were in, “humanity” would always be the foreign species — the target the Earth was determined to eradicate.
So even if the Celestial Stems’ monsters managed to survive the reset by using their “Monster Bodies” or the progenitor anomaly’s cells and made it to the next civilization, they’d still be doomed. They’d likely just accelerate that civilization’s destruction instead.
At this moment, with the entire city ruins collapsing, Shen Ge didn’t even have a single foothold left. What was even more frightening was that the “Silkworm” effect only had a few seconds remaining.
Shen Ge didn’t dare let “Misfortune” continue siphoning his anomalous energy. He was deathly afraid that the instant the effect ended, “Misfortune” would randomly drain one more time and completely suck him dry.
If he stopped before the effect ended, he could at least ensure his body still had an ample supply of anomalous energy, rather than collapsing from exhaustion right after.
“Master, I’ve already mapped out an escape route for you,” the Xiao Qi system announced. As the city ruins crumbled, it had scanned and identified transfer points that Shen Ge could use, relying on his Anomalous Leather Boots and the “No Release” ability of his Anomalous Gloves. These transfer points were all clustered around the two giant hands that had burst from the ground.
After Shen Ge cut off the supply of anomalous energy, the system’s attribute amplification also returned to normal. He could no longer dash up the giant hands with the joyful speed of Quicksilver; he could only rely on his own reflexes to dodge the falling rocks raining down like a torrential storm.
The scene before him looked like a live shooting of the disaster film *2012*, yet the city was collapsing at a pace far exceeding even that movie. It was annihilated almost in an instant.
Shen Ge’s reaction speed alone made it extremely difficult to manage a transfer under these conditions. Luckily, Xiao Qi was there to cover him, always pulling him out of the destruction zone at the critical moment.
Shen Ge simply handed over full control of the Crimson Mist Battle Armor to Xiao Qi. After all, a human brain’s reactions could never possibly surpass those of the world’s most advanced AI.
In that split second, facing a sky full of a torrential downpour of stone, Xiao Qi even calculated the falling speed and impact point of every single rock within its field of vision, searching for possible survival routes through the minuscule “gaps” between them.
Of course, even if he did die in this disaster, based on the usual rules of the dream worlds, Shen Ge would most likely just break free and return directly to reality.
But the sight of the Earth coming alive and the “Great Moon Collision” left him feeling deeply uncertain. What was more, if he ended up buried deep underground, then later, when the dream world collapsed, there’d be no hope of snatching any fragments.
In the sky above, after the giant hands presented the epic image of holding up the moon, the entire world seemed to fall into a brief “pause.” But in the next second, massive air pressure swept across the land.
The collapsed ruins were blasted away. Amid the entire world, black anomalous mist and fierce air currents formed storm vortexes that ravaged the earth. With the explosive impact of the moon’s immense force, the ground around the giant hands split apart into canyons like a great rift.
“Alrighty then. Other people get to say, ‘In the name of the moon, I’ll punish you.’ Me? I get, ‘I’m gonna crash the moon right into you and end you’…” Shen Ge glanced back at the ground. The emergence of the anomalous eye on his forehead allowed him to see through the obstructing storm of black anomalous mist. Since Xiao Qi had completely taken over movement and survival, he even still had the leisure to crack a joke.
“Master, the probability of us being struck by falling debris next is as high as 90%…” Right as Xiao Qi’s voice trailed off, a “chunk of rock” the size of a two- or three-story building flew out of the anomalous mist tornado. With a deafening bang, it smashed right into Shen Ge. At the critical moment, the extended rotting blood tentacles swung and pulled him sideways out of its path.
But he had barely escaped being crushed by the massive boulder when several abandoned vehicles came flying from the side, slamming into Shen Ge’s body like cannonballs.
Without the Crimson Mist Battle Armor, even if Shen Ge hadn’t been flattened into a meat patty by the “giant rocks” and debris, the anomalous energy tornado would have torn him to shredded flesh.
“Master, the situation is getting worse and worse. According to my calculations, our probability of being buried within two minutes is 93.57%, within three minutes it’s 97.77%, within four…”
“Stop, stop! You don’t need to report such statistics. Why don’t you conserve a bit of electricity and figure out how we can survive this instead?”
“Master, I don’t consume electricity. I operate by absorbing anomalous energy through the Crimson Mist Battle Armor. Theoretically speaking, as long as anomalous energy exists in this world, I will never shut down.”
“…”
Great. Now it’s talking back. The machine uprising can’t be far off.
After a pause, the Xiao Qi system continued, “Master, based on my calculations, it seems even lasting one more minute will be difficult. Would you like to pick a spot with good feng shui and lie down?”
“…”
In that moment, Shen Ge really wanted to rip out Xiao Qi’s battery. Tragically, Xiao Qi didn’t have a battery.
By now, Shen Ge’s situation was truly dire, but the moon crashing into the Earth above was also inflicting massive damage on the planet itself. Those two sky-reaching giant hands, supporting the moon, were like struck stone, constantly collapsing and shattering.
After the moon tore through the “fragment zone” in the sky, which had been bound together by the anomalous black mist, this collision directly shattered that glued sky apart.
“Might as well risk it all…” Shen Ge had no better options at this moment. Rather than picking a nice spot with good feng shui to lie down and give up, he’d rather use this last chance to see if he could snatch any fragments.
“Xiao Qi, redirect all the anomalous energy in the Crimson Mist Battle Armor and focus it on these three pieces of equipment: the Anomalous Leather Boots, the Anomalous Gloves, and the Anomalous Stomach!” Shen Ge commanded.
“Understood, Master!” Xiao Qi had already calculated, using its immense processing power, that the probability of survival for both itself and Shen Ge was approaching zero. Despite this, it wouldn’t show a shred of doubt toward Shen Ge’s decision.
After following Shen Ge’s orders and channeling the crimson mist anomalous energy into those three pieces of anomalous equipment, Shen Ge immediately locked onto the few remaining invisible barriers still existing in the air.
These were the barriers formed by his Immovable Anomaly Domain, which he had deployed back when he was running his cheats with infinite mana. Although most of them had been shattered by the shockwaves generated from the collision of the moon and the Earth, a few had survived. After all, the domain Shen Ge had spread back then covered the entire area of the Dàjīng ruins.
Typically, it was the Crimson Mist Battle Armor that supplied energy to Shen Ge. This time, Shen Ge was the one supplying energy to the armor. The moment he unleashed his anomalous energy, his entire body shot toward the moon like a cannonball.
In that instant, as he smashed into the broken sky, it felt like shattering a dimensional barrier. He moved at extreme speed through the torrent of time, and the scenes within those mirror-image fragments flickered rapidly, depicting countless different outcomes.
In those images, the Earth still exploded time and time again, and humanity was repeatedly annihilated. But this time, the points of light within those fragments were noticeably more numerous than before!
“Could it be… that for some reason, there’s a greater hope for the future?”
“Xiao Qi!”
“Twenty seconds! Do your absolute best to evade for twenty seconds!”
Shen Ge had no time to think further. He issued the order to Xiao Qi according to their prior plan, his eyes locked intently on the changing, fragmented scenes in the sky.
“Understood, Master!” Xiao Qi controlled the Crimson Mist Battle Armor, extending dozens of rotting blood tentacles from its back. Turning into an octopus-like Spider-Man, it darted swiftly through the piles of rubble.
As the scenes in the sky crumbled and shattered one after another, Shen Ge knew the time he had for “observation” was running short. After twenty seconds, he condensed invisible barriers beneath his feet one after another. Then, concentrating the anomalous energy of the Crimson Mist Battle Armor into his Anomalous Leather Boots, he jumped with every ounce of his strength, hurtling toward the center of the mirror-image fragments above.
The glowing fragments in the sky gave off a feeling of being impossibly far away. But in the very next second, Shen Ge was already right near them.
At this point, the fragments were dissipating into tiny specks of starlight. Further up, there it was — a whole, entire moon. Shen Ge had never observed the moon from such a close distance before.
Strangely, he seemed to see a flash of red light streak across the moon’s surface.
In an instant, the sound of rushing air filled his ears as he sped along. Amidst the sound of shattering glass, Shen Ge’s attention was jolted back from the moon’s pull. He immediately focused his mind and began trying to capture the glowing fragments around him.
Based on past experience, he first controlled the invisible barriers to successfully smash through the mirror-image fragments again. It was like breaking the dimensional boundaries of space, moving at high speed through the torrent of time.
Shen Ge had long since gotten used to the way these mirror fragments collapsed. This time, he didn’t pour all his strength into grasping at the collapsing shards like the previous two times. Instead, he converged all the rotting blood tentacles that Xiao Qi had condensed into a single one, connecting its tip to the Anomalous Stomach. Then, he performed a sweeping horizontal spin.
As it spun at a high speed, the Anomalous Stomach continuously opened its gaping, bloody maw, devouring fragment after fragment — glowing ones, non-glowing ones, Shen Ge couldn’t be choosy anymore. In fact, he had practically lost all control over the Crimson Mist Battle Armor and could only do his utmost to let the Anomalous Stomach swallow as much as possible.
Luckily, Shen Ge had Xiao Qi channel crimson mist anomalous energy into the Anomalous Stomach beforehand. Now, the stomach erupted with power and swallowed countless fragments.
Unfortunately, Shen Ge had absolutely no chance to inspect his spoils of war right now. All he could do was fight alongside Xiao Qi to buy the Anomalous Stomach as much time as possible.
Shen Ge continuously unleashed various anomalous domains and trait-based support abilities, while Xiao Qi controlled the armor to dodge the anomalous mist tornadoes as best it could. But all of this came to a swift end after the moon broke through the sky-reaching giant hands and made intimate contact with the Earth.
Forget Shen Ge — when the moon and Earth collided, no life form could possibly survive the impact force of two celestial bodies crashing together.
Shen Ge felt that the moment of impact, a tremendous pulling force yanked him into a pitch-black space, as if he’d been sucked into a black hole.
Afterward, his entire body was stretched, compressed, crumpled into a ball, and flattened as thin as paper… Various bizarre transformations tormented Shen Ge, and those strange “slideshow” images appeared once more.
Strangely, what Shen Ge saw now was different from before. These images felt like “endings” he had once personally experienced, memories being reawakened.
“Ah—”
“Ahhh!!!”
A massive flood of information surged into Shen Ge’s mind. He felt like his head was about to burst. Familiar scenes flashed rapidly through his brain.
These included the memories that were deleted and affected his reality after he died in the dream world, as well as childhood memories of his time with his parents.
And, the memories from the Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital.
In those memories, after the accident during the trip to Haiya with his parents, he was at the police station filing a report when a group of mysterious people took him away. Then, on a pitch-black, windy night, he was delivered to the Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital.
There, Shen Ge endured inhumane torment daily — blood draws, extraction of tissue cells… You could say that short of slicing him into pieces, they conducted all kinds of horrifying research while ensuring he stayed “alive.”
Eventually, Shen Ge’s spirit shattered completely. In the aftermath, dozens of distinct personalities were born within him.
But the Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital didn’t let him go. The “attending physicians,” led by Dr. Chen, discovered that Shen Ge’s “personalities” could be sent into the so-called dream world — a past where various “endings” had already occurred — using progenitor anomaly cells. They could enter in a conscious form and make contact with the intelligence within those “endings.”
Shen Ge, as a living experimental subject, avoided having his physical body sliced apart. Instead, his “spirit was dissected” and sent into different dream fragments.
It was like his soul had been carved into pieces, used by the Monster Association’s researchers to fuse with the progenitor anomaly cells, and then dispatched into the dream world.
That was why, during Shen Ge’s earlier dream world experiences, some of them had been his “soul’s” — or rather, one of his specific personalities’ — firsthand personal experiences within those dream fragments.
“Ah—”
“Ahhh!!!”
The more dream fragments Shen Ge absorbed, the more his memories returned. Familiar image after familiar image sliced through his brain like razors.
Bang!
With a tremendous crashing sound, Shen Ge slammed heavily onto the ground. Around him, traffic flowed and pedestrians crowded the streets. Upon seeing the red, monster-like figure, the bystanders immediately screamed and fled in terror.
In an instant, a major disturbance erupted in the Dàjīng urban district.
