That earth-shattering roar immediately stirred up all the aberrations and the parasitized in the vicinity. The parasitized that had been blocked outside the shops by the exploration team’s warriors went completely berserk, surging toward the storefronts like a tidal wave.
Then, explosions echoed one after another from the blocks further away, with flames leaping into the sky. That was the area led by Tu Doubi’s team—clearly, they were locked in a bitter struggle.
“Captain!”
Just then, a team member rushed in from outside, panting as he spoke: “The north side—another high-level aberration has appeared in the north!”
Deng Yuqi felt a throbbing headache upon hearing this, because this wasn’t just “another” one anymore—it was “another, and another, and another, and another.”
First, there were the aberrant insects and aberrant rats locked in a ferocious brawl; then, there was the suspicious “dark cloud” in the sky that might be an aberration; and now, yet another one had popped up out of nowhere.
Just end it all. Please. Hurry up.
She was exhausted.
One high-level aberration was already enough to drive anyone crazy, but now four had shown up all at once. For a moment, Deng Yuqi had no idea how to defuse the crisis before her.
The original plan was to blow up the Penguin Building to create a huge disturbance, lure all the aberrations and parasitized in the surrounding blocks over there, and then carry out a search-and-rescue mission along Defense Line No. 3. But now, it seemed like actually executing that plan didn’t even matter anymore, because the ruckus these few aberrations were making had completely drowned out the blast from the Penguin Building.
The difference was this: if they had detonated the Penguin Building, the aberrations would have been drawn to a single concentrated point. But with four high-level aberrations running wild, the commotion was throwing the lower-level aberrations and parasitized into a panic—which made the search-and-rescue operation even harder to carry out.
Headache aside, the problem still had to be dealt with.
Deng Yuqi shot a glance at one of her personal guards. The guard had been with her for years, and a single look was enough to convey her meaning.
Clearly, Deng Yuqi didn’t fully trust Fang Mingyue, who was standing right there. So she had her guard keep an eye on her, and only then did she step out to the street with the scout.
The warriors from the two squads used abandoned vehicles along the roadside as cover, holding the parasitized back on the main road. Once outside, Deng Yuqi pulled out her aberrant-energy binoculars and peered into the distance. In the middle of several abandoned buildings in a far-off block stood a massive aberration over ten meters tall—with a lion’s head, an elephant’s trunk, and a hippo’s body.
This “four-no-similar” beast gaped its bloody maw wide, devouring parasitized and low-level aberrations along the way as it charged straight toward the Penguin Building.
Just then, Deng Yuqi suddenly heard the roar of car engines, and immediately after, she received a signal from scouts stationed in other areas.
“A motorized convoy? How is that possible?” Deng Yuqi’s mind raced. She turned back into the shop, pulled out her gun, and pressed it against the head of the small team leader.
“There’s a motorized unit hidden near Defense Line No. 3. Are they your people?” Deng Yuqi demanded.
The team leader froze for a second, then hesitated: “Th-this—I don’t know. I really don’t know!”
“Fine. If you don’t know, then I’ll just take you out now—saves me the trouble of keeping you around and causing problems later.” Deng Yuqi turned decisively to leave, as if she hadn’t expected to get anything out of him at all.
“Wait! I know! I know!” The leader, seeing that Deng Yuqi wasn’t giving him any room to bargain, quickly begged for mercy and spilled everything he knew.
It turned out that the New God Cult, in order to deal with the Exploration Corps and the Aberration-Hunting Corps, had secretly diverted resources meant to supply the frontline defenses. This was what had caused Defense Line No. 3 to retreat again and again until it completely fell.
These war vehicles, ammunition, and other supplies had been quietly relocated by them. But since the cache was too large to be transported to an outer base in a short time, they’d stashed it in a nearby garage.
The joint rescue team’s detonation plan was supposed to draw all the aberrations and parasitized from the surrounding blocks toward the Penguin Building. The New God Cult had planned to use that opportunity to move their goods out.
But they hadn’t expected that before the plan could even begin, several high-level aberrations would show up. Not wanting their hard-stashed resources to be buried under rubble, the Cult decided to lure the aberrations away at the smallest possible cost, then sneak the strategic supplies out.
A squad wearing the New God Cult’s black cloaks drove out in several modified combat vehicles. Rockets were mounted on the rear—they fired at the distant “four-no-similar” behemoth.
These were just ordinary rocket launchers, not aberrant-energy gear. But their goal wasn’t to hurt the high-level aberration—it was just to get its attention. All they needed was a big enough racket.
Standing at the shop entrance, Deng Yuqi watched the flames erupt from the “four-no-similar” and estimated from the distance that those vehicles were only a few hundred meters away from it.
“A few hundred meters. Looks like these guys aren’t planning on making it back alive.” Deng Yuqi couldn’t help but marvel at how terrifying the New God Cult was—willing to send their followers to die just for some resources.
And from what she knew of the Cult, these “doomed” followers were definitely going to their deaths willingly. In a previous aberration incident, a priest had fallen into danger, and several believers had blown themselves up without hesitation to save him.
“Chen Li, take the team and pull back first. Wait for the signal from the Penguin Building—or rather, from Fang… wait for the signal. If we don’t get it within thirty minutes, regroup with Captain Tu’s team as planned.” Deng Yuqi turned and said to the personal guard who was watching Fang Mingyue.
In truth, through all kinds of subtle details, Deng Yuqi had already realized that the Fang Mingyue standing before her—still pretending to have a headache—was definitely not right. But with so much going on, even though she wanted to investigate this person’s background, she simply didn’t have the chance. All she could do was have her guard keep an eye on her and deal with it after the mission was over.
And the reason she was so certain that Fang Mingyue was an imposter was that, right before the operation, the real Fang Mingyue had come to see her. At that time, with Shen Ge’s help and treatment, the scars on her face had already healed. But this fake Fang Mingyue was still using her hair to cover her face.
Deng Yuqi decided to finish the mission as quickly as possible, then use this fake to find out what the New God Cult was really up to. After delegating tasks, the combat squad that had been guarding the shop entrance began to retreat, while Deng Yuqi took two team members and rushed into the building across the street.
A few minutes later, Deng Yuqi found a spot with a good view and raised her aberrant-energy binoculars to scan the block where the “four-no-similar” was.
The lead vehicle of the squad trying to lure the aberration had its driver flooring the gas—the roar of the engine echoed through the entire block.
But on the cluttered streets, the modified combat vehicles simply couldn’t outrun the “four-no-similar.” The thing’s thick hippo-like leg came crashing down, triggering an “earthquake” across the whole street.
The driver executed a slick drift to avoid slamming straight into the aberration’s leg, but the beast stomped on a building, collapsing it instantly. The shockwave flipped over one of the trailing vehicles that couldn’t dodge in time.
The driver of the lead car was clearly more experienced. Seeing a collapsed building on the left and the “four-no-similar’s” other massive leg blocking the right, he slammed on the brakes, turned around, and shot back under the aberration’s belly.
Flying debris from the buildings the beast had crushed and trampled was blocked by its huge body, which actually saved the few people in the vehicle.
But the “four-no-similar” seemed to catch sight of the ants beneath it. It swung its head, and that tentacle-like trunk reached down. Just as it was about to wrap around the vehicle—whoosh—the warrior on the back of the vehicle fired a shell without hesitation, knocking the trunk off course.
“Luo Zi, you actually didn’t screw up at the critical moment for once! If we make it out of this alive, I swear I’m buying you a proper meal!” the driver shouted, then hit the gas again.
The two remaining vehicles swayed left and right under the “four-no-similar’s” belly, like a scene straight out of a 2012 Godzilla movie. Luckily, both drivers were highly experienced and managed to avert disaster multiple times.
On a distant old building, Deng Yuqi looked through her binoculars and, upon recognizing one of the drivers, furrowed her brow: “Why him?”
If she remembered correctly, this guy was an elite warrior from the Aberration-Hunting Corps and had earned great merits in several previous aberration incidents.
But that wasn’t the point. The point was… his wife and child had died mysteriously after joining the New God Cult. He despised the Cult from the bottom of his heart—so why on earth would he be working for them?
Deng Yuqi couldn’t make sense of it for a moment. But the “four-no-similar” clearly wasn’t going to give her much time to think—it was charging straight in their direction.
“Pull back.”
After assessing the situation, Deng Yuqi had a rough plan forming in her mind. The only thing she needed to confirm now was, now that this fake Fang Mingyue had appeared, what had happened to the real one over by the Penguin Building? Was she still carrying out the plan, or had she been captured by the New God Cult?
That was also why Deng Yuqi hadn’t disposed of the fake Fang Mingyue immediately—she was afraid that if she scared off the snake too early, the Cult might harm the real one.
But what Deng Yuqi didn’t know was that the Fang Mingyue she was worried about was currently enjoying a “chaperoned” service—being carried by Shen Ge to a safe spot. And it wasn’t far from the old building where Deng Yuqi was; it was in a commercial building with only five floors left, standing diagonally across from the Penguin Building.
At this moment, Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue also spotted the squad in combat vehicles trying to divert the “four-no-similar.” After setting Fang Mingyue down, Shen Ge used his aberrant eye to observe both the aberration and the convoy.
“Are these your people?” Shen Ge asked.
Fang Mingyue was also watching through her aberrant-energy binoculars. After making out their attire, she shook her head: “This wasn’t part of the plan. And those uniforms are New God Cult gear… Shen Ge, do you think this has something to do with that priest from earlier?”
Shen Ge said, “The New God Cult is clearly scheming in the shadows. But what puzzles me is—if they wanted to cause trouble, they wouldn’t need to show up right now. And if they wanted to help, given the Cult’s nature, they’d never do it quietly. This really leaves me scratching my head.”
According to Fang Mingyue and Deng Yuqi, the New God Cult was a textbook “no benefit, no action” self-serving organization. Normally, if they did anything even remotely good, they’d make sure the whole world knew about it. If they really had come to help the joint rescue team, there’s no way Fang Mingyue wouldn’t have known.
“Regardless, since they’re ‘drawing away’ one of the high-level aberrations for us, let’s not waste this golden opportunity. Send the signal to the captain—let’s go ahead with the Penguin Building detonation as planned.” Shen Ge didn’t want to keep guessing what the Cult was up to. Right now, he just wanted to execute his own plan: lure all the high-level aberrations into one spot, pull off something big, and then disband the New God Cult.
“Got it!” Fang Mingyue was thinking the same thing. Without hesitation, she took out her signal flare gun and fired into the air.
Bang!
A brilliant firework exploded in the sky. Whether it was Deng Yuqi and her team watching the “four-no-similar” from a distance, the main force pulling back, or Tu Doubi locked in combat with aberrations in another block—everyone saw that magnificent burst of color.
Compared to the joy the others felt upon seeing the signal that the plan was proceeding smoothly, Deng Yuqi finally confirmed that Fang Mingyue was safe, and the weight in her heart was lifted.
Upon receiving the signal, the demolition crew on standby from Fang Mingyue, Deng Yuqi, and Tu Doubi’s teams immediately set down the backpacks they were carrying and pulled out a specially made aberrant-energy control console.
Although this world’s anti-aberration technology hadn’t yet advanced to the point of developing aberrant-energy missiles, they had successfully created equipment capable of triggering aberrant-energy switches within a single-layer aberrant space—thereby detonating high explosives.
Two minutes later, the high-explosive bombs planted inside the Penguin Building began beeping with red lights, one after another—and then, all of them went off.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
This plan was built on the joint rescue team having acquired the blueprints for the Penguin Building. By analyzing the plans, they identified the detonation points and calculated the feasibility of using aberrant-energy explosives to bring the building down.
Even though the four giant aberrations had already caused a commotion no less intense than the building’s collapse—and had even toppled several other structures—as the tallest landmark in the entire block, the Penguin Building’s fall triggered a chain reaction instantly.
First, the aberrant rat, which had been feasting greedily on the bodies of aberrant insects, was startled by the noise. Thinking another high-level aberration had come to steal its spoil, it grabbed the insect carcasses and bolted into its burrow.
Second, the “four-no-similar” was drawn in by the Penguin Building’s collapse and lost interest in the ants underfoot, charging toward the building instead.
Finally, the “dark cloud” hovering above the Penguin Building—which had been releasing aberrant-energy black fog to shroud the structure—was affected by the blast as well.
Not that the blast scattered the fog; on the contrary, the shockwave actually caused the aberrant-energy black fog to spread even farther and cover a wider area.
But the explosion stirred up roars and thunderous swallowing sounds from within the “dark cloud,” like a giant whale—clearly, it wasn’t happy with the result.
That piqued Shen Ge’s curiosity, though. Why was this “giant whale” so fixated on the Penguin Building? What could possibly be inside that tower that interested it so much?
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
At that moment, several more fireworks exploded in the sky—fired from the direction where Deng Yuqi and her team had withdrawn. Fang Mingyue froze in confusion: “Huh? That’s the vice-captain’s signal… She’s telling everyone near the aberrations to support the convoy squad—support the New God Cult if they have the strength. Why?”
Fang Mingyue was completely dumbfounded. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t figure out why Deng Yuqi—who had always been at odds with the New God Cult—would take the initiative to order support for Cult members.
