The “bishop’s” cover had been completely blown by Shen Ge, and he no longer had any leverage to put on a mystical front. He knew Shen Ge could kill him with just a twitch of his finger, and all his earlier arrogance had vanished.
“Since we’re both abnormal humans, you know our situation isn’t much better than ordinary people’s. Our organization has a dedicated research division for abnormal humans that can significantly extend our lifespans. Why don’t you join us? This world will eventually belong to us new humans!” the abnormal human said, trying to seduce him.
Shen Ge ignored the invitation and asked instead, “Since you say you’re not the real bishop, where is he, and when exactly were you swapped in?”
“Huh?” The abnormal human was taken aback, clearly not expecting that to be Shen Ge’s main concern. Still, he obediently came clean.
A few days ago, the organization had ordered him to infiltrate the shelter, posing as a priest stationed beside the bishop, and then find an opportunity to replace him.
The bishop always wore a mask and a cloak, so after the swap, no one would notice for a while. So after the abnormal human had won over the bishop’s close female companion, he took advantage of the bishop’s plan to launch a search-and-rescue operation—which had sent his trusted aides away to deal with Shen Ge—and sneaked into the underground chamber beneath the church, killed the bishop, and completed the replacement.
After taking the bishop’s place, the abnormal human immediately followed orders by moving an iron box the bishop had kept hidden. He was just about to arrange for people to replace the high priests when the allied forces came storming back.
Seeing that the New God Cult was no match for the allied forces, the abnormal human followed orders and awakened a high-order anomalous worm that had been sleeping beneath the shelter, aiming to deplete the shelter’s defenses and lay the groundwork for the organization’s future counterattack.
“The shelter had already been thoroughly corrupted by the New God Cult. You’ve seen the kind of things they did. Compared to them, we’re more human!”
“The shelter’s higher-ups only care about their own pleasures and never give a damn about ordinary people’s lives. Even if you’ve joined the Expeditionary Force now, sooner or later you’ll just become a disposable pawn.”
“Anomalies have already taken over most of the world. The only ones who can stand against them are us new humans. Sure, implanting anomalous cells shortens our lifespans, but our research division has already made major breakthroughs. One day, we’ll definitely overcome the life-shortening problem—and even achieve ‘immortality’!”
“And I’ll tell you this much: our organization has already uncovered the truth behind the anomalies’ arrival. Only by joining us can you survive the apocalypse!”
The more the abnormal human spoke, the more excited he became, carrying that familiar manic fervor of someone who had convinced even himself. Believing in the organization had become his sole reason for living.
“I want your organization’s data,” Shen Ge said bluntly.
The abnormal human, still riding his high, was suddenly cut off by Shen Ge’s demand—and for their organization’s data, no less. He stared at Shen Ge in disbelief and sneered, “Hey, you don’t think that beating me means you can take on our organization, do you? Let me tell you, guys like you—ahhhhh!”
Shen Ge couldn’t be bothered with the chatter. Before the man could finish, he reached out, tore off one of his arms, and tossed it at his feet: “One more useless word, and I take another limb. Let’s see how many you’ve got to spare!”
“…”
Even with one limb torn off, the abnormal human didn’t dare talk about the organization’s secrets. As a “test subject,” he knew all too well what happened to those who didn’t obey.
Even if he spilled everything to Shen Ge and managed to survive, going back to the organization would mean facing something a hundred or a thousand times worse than losing a limb.
More importantly, the abnormal human himself knew that as an organization “pawn”—and one of the lowest-value ones at that—the intel he had access to didn’t even count as “classified.” Telling Shen Ge might not even buy him his life.
He hesitated for a moment, and Shen Ge saw his concern. “I know what you’re worried about. But you need to decide: die right now… or keep your life in your own hands. As for that life-extension serum your organization is supposedly developing—let me put it this way: it’s not happening. At least not with your organization. And even if it existed, by the time it reached you, how long would you have to wait in line?”
“Besides, it’s just the two of us here. If you tell me, the organization won’t know. You can go back to playing ‘bishop,’ and I promise I won’t lay a finger on you. As a man, keeping your word is the bare minimum… don’t you agree?”
The abnormal human asked tentatively, “Y-you’d really let me go?”
“A promise is a promise,” Shen Ge said seriously.
“Fine!”
The abnormal human gritted his teeth and spilled everything he knew.
But as Shen Ge had guessed, even though this guy had managed to infiltrate the shelter and take out the bishop, it had all been orchestrated by the abnormal human organization behind the scenes.
He was nothing more than a pawn deliberately thrown out by the organization—easily abandoned if anything went wrong.
The only useful information was a few locations that were suspected to be organization strongholds, and one laboratory where this abnormal human had once been kept.
Through this man, Shen Ge also confirmed his earlier suspicion: the New God Cult had only risen to power because the abnormal human organization had been pulling the strings behind it. And it wasn’t just this one abnormal human—even the high priests like Priest Jiang who had acquired abnormal abilities had long been in contact with the organization.
The “bishop” had been one of the earliest collaborators with the organization. But as the New God Cult grew, he became dissatisfied with being controlled and started harboring his own ambitions.
However, before the “bishop” could put his plan into action and seize control of the shelter from the organization-controlled Council, Shen Ge’s sudden arrival completely upended everything.
Of course, the formation of the allied forces had Shen Ge’s involvement, but it had been pushed forward mostly by the puppet masters behind the scenes. Clearly, they wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of the “bishop” as an unstable element.
Sigh.
Shen Ge let out a silent sigh. Whether in peacetime or in the apocalypse, humanity’s true enemy was never the anomalies—it was “humanity itself.”
“Alright, you can go,” Shen Ge said calmly.
The abnormal human’s face lit up with joy, clearly not expecting Shen Ge to keep his promise so readily: “Thank you, boss! Thank you, boss!”
All his earlier arrogance was gone. He scrambled toward the stairwell, only to run straight into a team led by Deng Yuqi.
Deng Yuqi and her squad blocked his way. The abnormal human, worried that they were Shen Ge’s allies, shot a helpless look back at him: “Boss, this…”
Deng Yuqi also turned to Shen Ge and asked, “Shen Ge, who is he…?”
“Oh, he’s a member of the abnormal human organization that’s been controlling the New God Cult from the shadows—and also the hidden hand behind the Council. While we were out on the search-and-rescue mission, he killed the real bishop and took his place to manipulate the cult. Their goal was to eliminate an uncontrollable pawn. That giant worm? They raised it too. They planned to release it when the shelter became unstable, drain your defenses, and then take full control, turning the shelter’s residents into test subjects to create more abnormal humans.”
After laying out the situation in a few sentences, Shen Ge continued, “Since he cooperated fairly well, I promised to let him live.”
On the surface, Shen Ge’s words seemed fine—except for the deliberate emphasis on “I,” and the implication that the organization behind him was no small matter. The meaning was clear enough.
The abnormal human realized something was wrong the moment Shen Ge said that. But his reaction wasn’t nearly as fast as Deng Yuqi’s. Before he could slip away, she had him subdued.
“Take him back and keep him under tight watch,” Deng Yuqi ordered. Though she hadn’t dealt with many abnormal humans, she knew how dangerous they could be. She had her men bind him tightly with supernatural restraints.
“Hey! You son of a bitch—you broke your word! You said you’d let me go! Hey!” the abnormal human shouted as he was being tied up.
Shen Ge looked at him with an innocent expression: “Dude, I didn’t lift a finger the whole time, did I? I gave you a chance. If you couldn’t beat them, whose fault is that?”
“You!”
Before he could finish, one of the soldiers stuffed a wad of cloth into his mouth.
“That worm anomaly is incredibly destructive. If it keeps tunneling like this, the shelter won’t last. Shen Ge, do you have any ideas?” Deng Yuqi asked, turning to him.
Though Shen Ge had only joined the Expeditionary Force a few days ago, his contributions and combat record showed that he was genuinely helping them. Whether his motives were really what Fang Mingyue had suggested was still up for debate, but for now, his actions were beyond reproach and trustworthy.
In the past, the shelter’s standard response to high-order anomalies was to “hide” or “lure them away.” But this time, the anomaly was right beneath them. Hiding was out of the question. And as for luring it away—in Deng Yuqi’s view, Shen Ge was the only one capable of pulling that off.
For Shen Ge, whether he lured it or killed it outright, it wasn’t a big deal—just a matter of time. What he was really thinking about was what the abnormal human had said about the organization pulling the Council’s strings from the shadows.
“Shen Ge? Shen Ge?” Deng Yuqi called out twice when he didn’t respond.
After a moment’s thought, Shen Ge briefly summarized what the abnormal human had told him, then said, “From what you and Fang Mingyue told me earlier, the Council doesn’t serve much purpose. Basically, it’s just a bunch of parasites feeding off resources. But don’t forget—this is the apocalypse. Things are different now. In peacetime, we had no choice. Now, it’s all about who’s got the bigger fists.”
“…But—” Deng Yuqi instantly understood what he meant, but as a former regular military officer, she found it hard to accept.
Shen Ge continued his “persuasion”: “You need to realize this is the best chance to root out those parasites. And now that we know the abnormal human organization is pulling the strings, if you don’t tear them out by the roots now, it’ll be much harder to pick them off one by one later.”
“But… we can’t just kill them all, can we?” Deng Yuqi hesitated.
Shen Ge replied, “Kill them? That’s not necessary. People are resources in themselves. My suggestion is to abandon the shelter. The temporary base has better geography and resources for a new stronghold, and with the factory equipment from the research institute, you can turn it into a base that truly belongs to the Expeditionary Force. As for the shelter, put it under supervision first, screen everyone one by one, and only send those confirmed safe to the new base.”
Shen Ge’s idea was simple: turn the shelter into Expeditionary Force Base No. 2. Only people they trusted would qualify for Base No. 1—the current temporary base.
Sure, this highlighted the importance of “taking sides,” but the people in the Expeditionary Force now were brothers who had fought and bled alongside Deng Yuqi. At least they were more trustworthy than the shelter’s crowd.
In truth, this was a last resort. Even if they knew the abnormal human organization was controlling the Council and the New God Cult, pulling all of them out at once was practically impossible.
Shen Ge had confirmed the organization’s infiltration of the Anti-Anomaly Department back in the “real world” over a year ago. But Director Fang had worked himself ragged for a whole year and still hadn’t wiped them out completely—if anything, they’d just gone deeper underground.
And on top of that, they later discovered that beyond the Twelve Branches, there was also an Abnormal Human Association involved, which had successfully rebranded itself as a legitimate force.
So there was a reason the Four Great Classical Novels were called classics—they kept reminding people that the world runs in cycles.
Shen Ge hadn’t originally planned to get so involved in this world. He just wanted to help Fang Mingyue, Deng Yuqi, and the others as much as he could before he left.
But when he heard that the abnormal human organization was behind yet another mess in the shelter, he got the idea to have Deng Yuqi cut through the knot with a swift blade and wipe them out in one fell swoop.
“Think it over. Whether you can seize this opportunity is up to you.” With that, Shen Ge turned to deal with the worm anomaly.
Deng Yuqi grabbed his arm: “Wait. The way you’re talking… it sounds like you don’t plan on staying with the Expeditionary Force.”
“Didn’t Fang Mingyue tell you?” Shen Ge asked.
Deng Yuqi frowned, hesitating: “You… are leaving?”
Shen Ge nodded: “I’m not from this world. The world I come from hasn’t fallen to the apocalypse yet, but it’s still a huge mess. Right now, the abnormal human organization is causing trouble behind the scenes too. That’s exactly why I’m urging you to act fast—because once they realize what’s happening and go even deeper underground, the trouble will never end.”
Deng Yuqi was silent for a long moment, then finally nodded: “Alright. We’ll do as you say. I’ll contact Liu Jiayi and the Hunter Guild leader right away. The shelter is still being evacuated. If you can take care of that giant worm, we can keep the shelter intact and won’t have to move everyone over.”
Her original plan had been to transfer everyone to the temporary base. But now the problem wasn’t just the anomaly—it was the hidden abnormal human organization. And Shen Ge was right: if they moved everyone over, distinguishing friend from foe later would be next to impossible. The best option was to eliminate the worm, secure the shelter, and then screen everyone slowly.
“Good. Leave the worm to me.”
