Fang Mingyue noticed a hint of something odd in Shen Ge’s eyes but didn’t think much of it. She assumed he was just adjusting after being unconscious for two weeks, so she continued, “We’ve already sent out three exploration teams to look for a suitable evacuation site. Once we find a good place, we’ll move. The first team is already back, but the results aren’t great. There’s a very strong distortion-energy reaction in the Rongyu direction—its intensity is no less than the Grade Seven anomaly in Dajing.”
“The coastal areas are completely out of the question due to the distortion-energy storms. The minister’s idea is to head north. Although a lot of areas have become extreme cold zones because of the distortion disaster, there are relatively fewer anomalies in those regions. Life would be harder, but at least we wouldn’t have to live in constant fear under the influence of high-grade anomalies every day.”
“Secondly, the new council has set its sights on overseas areas that haven’t been hit by distortion-energy storms, but exploring abroad is naturally much harder than domestically.”
“Oh, right, I haven’t told you yet—while building Base No. 2, we discovered a distortion-energy communicator in the underground research lab. Through this communicator, we made contact with the Anti-Distortion Combat Department that evacuated from the Rongyu region. But the signal isn’t very stable, and we haven’t received their latest reply yet.”
Shen Ge frowned slightly at this. The high-intensity anomaly in the Rongyu area that Fang Mingyue mentioned was most likely the “Invisible” that had similarly mutated into a Grade Seven—or possibly even broken through to Grade Eight.
Or it could be the high-grade anomaly “Buchu” hiding in Yuzhou. But “Buchu” was less likely, because based on the intelligence they had so far, “Buchu’s” appearance had something to do with the Weirdo Organization. And although the Weirdo Organization had been constantly dropping anomalies or weirdos around the world for research, they usually kept a backup plan. They wouldn’t go so far as to blow up the entire world like this.
Of course, there was always the possibility that things had gotten out of hand. But Shen Ge felt that after the “Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches” went their separate ways, their philosophies had diverged enormously. The Twelve Branches, who valued “living in the moment,” would never stand by and let the Heavenly Stems destroy the whole world for the sake of their next civilization.
What’s more, there was also the “Weirdo Association,” which thrived on chaos. These three weirdo organizations definitely had some kind of connection behind the scenes, but they would never be of one mind.
The situation with the weirdo organizations was like the neighboring Great Alliance—after dissolving, they seemed to have close relationships with each other, but in reality, each had its own agenda. The moment trouble arose, they’d all be eager to watch their “neighbor” screw up.
Based on Shen Ge’s investigations with the Special Strategy Department over the past two years, among the three weirdo organizations, the “Twelve Branches” was actually the “safest” one. Following their principle of living in the moment, they conducted small-scale anomaly experiments. When creating global panic, their members embedded in various anti-distortion organizations would appear in the role of “saviors,” gaining the organizations’ approval while refreshing the presence of the “Twelve Branches.”
They tried to create the illusion that only their weirdos could fight anomalies, encouraging more humans to join their “big family” and believe in weirdos, thereby gaining the right to “live in the moment.”
This was also why traces of the Twelve Branches could be found in various anti-distortion organizations, and why their people could successfully infiltrate high-level positions and influence upper-level decisions.
Among the three weirdo organizations, the “Weirdo Association” was the most mysterious and also the one that gave Shen Ge the biggest headache.
First, Dr. Chen and Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital had deep entanglements with Shen Ge. Second, they seemed to be fixated on targeting Shen Ge alone. Shen Ge could sense that they were plotting some kind of scheme involving him, but since these guys were like turtles hiding in their shells—only heard of, never seen—he had no way to deal with them. It felt like punching a cotton pillow with all his strength.
Furthermore, the Weirdo Association had gone through a “rehabilitation” process, which meant that rooting them out would inevitably cause significant damage. Not to mention they had already successfully corrupted a number of people, including high-level members of the Special Strategy Department. Even though Elder Fang had been risking his old bones to expose quite a few over the years, the weirdos were too deeply entangled to wipe out completely. Unless… they learned from a certain one-eyed dragon and played the “destroy and rebuild” card.
Compared to the “Twelve Branches” and the “Weirdo Association,” the most dangerous weirdo organization was probably the “Heavenly Stems,” which Shen Ge had once cooperated with.
Don’t let their talk of targeting the next civilization fool you—the things these guys did to get there were beyond outrageous.
For instance, take the two “Anomaly Kings” underground in Sakura and Bangguk. Shen Ge suspected that the dream fragments leading to those endings were most likely doomsdays caused by these two Anomaly Kings.
Precisely because the “Heavenly Stems” had their sights set on the next civilization, they didn’t care at all about the current world. They wreaked havoc however they pleased, knowing they’d just walk away in the end without having to deal with the consequences.
Looking at it this way, the “Twelve Branches”—those weirdos who just wanted to coast through life—had been taking the blame for the “Heavenly Stems” all along. After the Heavenly Stems’ Anomaly King experiments were discovered, their planted agents in high-level positions and among researchers secretly redirected suspicion toward the Twelve Branches, making anti-distortion organizations around the world point their fingers at them.
And if the “Twelve Branches” wanted to live comfortably, they had no choice but to find ways to eliminate those who stood in their way. But this only exposed their goals even more, drawing even more intense suppression.
Since the weirdo organizations in the “reality” were all deeply hidden, Shen Ge thought he could find some clues through the traces they left in the dream world. But unfortunately, even in the apocalypse, these guys were really good at hiding. If the shelter hadn’t made a wrong move this time and exposed the New God Cult, it probably wouldn’t have been so easy to investigate.
When Fang Mingyue mentioned the communicator they found in Base No. 2’s underground research lab, Shen Ge suspected that this device was probably not contacting the Anti-Distortion Combat Department in the Rongyu region, but rather the weirdo organizations.
He had several reasons for this judgment. First, Base No. 2 used to be the New God Cult’s territory, and the underground factory here had been working for the New God Cult and the weirdo organizations behind them all along.
Second, whether in “reality” or the dream world, the weirdo organizations had mastered some kind of teleportation ability, which showed they were a step ahead in distortion-energy equipment research.
“What did you say after contacting the Rongyu Anti-Distortion Combat Department? Did they report on the situation there? Do you know their coordinates?” Shen Ge asked.
Fang Mingyue shook her head. “The communicator is still being repaired. The signal is very unstable. We’ve only communicated intermittently a few times. But from what they reported, a Grade Eight anomaly seems to have appeared in the Rongyu region. That’s the main reason why part of that area fell.”
Fang Mingyue then explained in more detail about the communications between the two sides. Overall, very little information was exchanged. Deng Yuqi on their end was also very cautious and didn’t mention any key information about the shelter or Base No. 2. Shen Ge wasn’t surprised by this—if he could think of it, Deng Yuqi should be able to as well. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be sitting in that position.
“So the captain and the others’ plan is to wait for the exploration teams to come back, confirm the evacuation direction, and then evacuate?” Shen Ge asked.
Fang Mingyue nodded. Shen Ge thought for a moment, then asked with some confusion, “Since we’ve already decided to migrate, why waste manpower and resources building Base No. 2?”
“Oh, I heard it was a suggestion from the Research Department. They said there are too many research machines and materials to evacuate completely, so it’d be better to build a research institute here,” Fang Mingyue replied.
The Research Department?
Shen Ge fell into thought at this. He recalled that when he’d helped the shelter with investigations before, whether it was the shelter’s Research Department or the New God Cult’s Research Department, they all reeked of the weirdo organizations.
If the weirdo organizations had also planted some people in the Exploration Team’s Third Division, that would fit their methods.
So if they wanted to keep this research institute stable, there must be some important intelligence or valuable items here.
Shen Ge decided to go check out the newly built Research Department. But just as he tried to get up, he found his body completely devoid of strength—he couldn’t even sit up.
Seeing this, Fang Mingyue quickly came to help him. “You’ve been unconscious for two weeks. Your body is still very weak. The doctor said you should rest in bed even after waking up. Just lie down for now—I’ll go find the doctor.”
Fang Mingyue left the room after saying that. Shen Ge opened his system panel and was shocked to find that all his base attributes had dropped to their minimum values. Clearly, after prolonged attribute enhancement, there had been a backlash that affected his base stats.
Fortunately, the values were slowly recovering, which at least indicated it wasn’t permanent damage. Shen Ge breathed a sigh of relief.
Soon the doctor arrived and had some tests done on Shen Ge. The conclusion was the same—his body was just weak and needed time to recover.
After the doctor left, Fang Mingyue couldn’t help asking, “Shen Ge… why did you suddenly fall from the sky? Did something happen in that other world? Why does it feel like your world is way more dangerous than ours? I mean, how about you just stay here…”
“…”
Shen Ge really wanted to crack open Fang Mingyue’s head to see what kind of fantasies this girl had cooked up in there. Was it possible that his fall had nothing to do with “reality” at all?
But there were too many complicated issues involved, and Shen Ge couldn’t explain much. After finally persuading Fang Mingyue to leave by saying he wanted to rest, Shen Ge lay in the hospital bed staring blankly at the white ceiling.
This experience in the chaotic world made him feel that something was off. First, what exactly was that giant fish anomaly? When he first discovered it in the sky of this world, Shen Ge thought the “big whale” was just a high-grade anomaly of this world. But after entering the chaotic world through the bottom of East Ring Lake in “reality” and seeing the “big whale” again—plus both being hidden in the sky—it was hard for Shen Ge not to suspect they were the same anomaly.
A high-grade anomaly that could freely travel between the dream world and “reality,” and could even transport Shen Ge to the chaotic dream world through its body—this reminded Shen Ge of the “foot hair” of the man-made Anomaly King on Sakura Island. Could it be that this “big whale” was also a monster created from Progenitor Anomaly cells?
Besides the “big whale,” that chaotic twisted space was strange in every way. First, its bizarre patchwork distortion method was so similar to the distortion disaster that occurred in Bangguk at the time. There had to be some kind of connection between the two—it couldn’t be a “coincidence.”
Unfortunately, the situation at the time was too urgent. Shen Ge didn’t even have a chance to explore other patchwork worlds, or he definitely would have found some clues.
Furthermore, the giant weirdo and the “giant hands” that grew after the Earth came to life—what was the connection between these two?
Why did the “giant hands” want to “protect” the weirdo?
And what exactly were these giant hands?
Was the Earth really “coming to life”?
Actually, Shen Ge had always been skeptical of the “Earth coming to life” theory. It was just that compared to the Earth, he was just a tiny human who couldn’t directly interact with it.
Moreover, with the emergence of fusion weirdos, after some anomalies devoured buildings and fused with them, it was actually impossible to tell whether it was a building or an anomaly.
Similarly, who could guarantee that these “giant hands” extending from underground weren’t weirdos that had fused with underground building facilities?
Beyond all this, the chaotic space this time also made Shen Ge notice the special nature of “Misfortune.” He had always been puzzled by this mysterious ability, and this experience seemed to answer why “Misfortune” was so mysterious.
The meteorites it “summoned” didn’t seem to be conjured from nothing—it was more like dropping a giant sphere from a pocket full of “marbles.”
Although the easter egg at the end of “Men in Black 2” where aliens play with marbles was darkly humorous, the situation with “Misfortune” showed that it wasn’t impossible.
“Trait anomalies” themselves were extremely mysterious—their uniqueness, their various bizarre abilities. At first, Shen Ge thought they were characteristics of Progenitor Anomaly cells, or “distortion-energy tools” developed by the weirdo organizations from Progenitor Anomaly cells.
But as the system leveled up and the trait sequences appeared, Shen Ge understood it was far more complicated than that. Not to mention that the man-made anomalies researched by the weirdo organizations had their own unique sequences.
Shen Ge was curious about how many “traits” there were, but from the few trait sequences he had devoured, the number shouldn’t be very large.
What would happen if he collected all the traits?
Would a new Anomaly King evolve?
Unfortunately, collecting all the sequence traits wouldn’t be easy. At least for now, Shen Ge had only encountered a few anomalies, not to mention that his trump card “Misfortune” was found on Sakura Island.
“Could it be that there are only these few trait anomalies in the country, and the rest are distributed around the world?” Shen Ge wondered if he should put a round-the-world trip on his schedule when he had free time.
But then again, this “free time” itself was pretty dubious. He had a pile of things waiting to be done—how could there be any free time?
“Sigh.”
Shen Ge sighed and decided to first connect to “reality” through dream power, then think about the next step after recovering.
“Wait!” Just as Shen Ge was about to mobilize his dream power, he suddenly realized a key situation he had overlooked.
He was in “Dajing” right now?
Logically speaking, “reality” and the dream world were only separated by a wall, and his dream power and distortion domain were the keys to opening this wall.
So wherever he passed through this wall, that’s where he would end up. That was how Shen Ge successfully transferred Cheng Shengnan back to Rong City through the dream world.
But he wasn’t in Rong City’s dream world—so how did he end up at the shelter in Dajing?
