Memes aside, he had actually scanned a piece of spectral-energy equipment, and it was an extremely rare “Trait” piece at that.
Usually, the effects of a “Trait” can be roughly guessed from its name—things like “Silent,” “Formless,” “Infinite,” “Indestructible,” and so on. Although the domains and trait skills derived from them are rather extraordinary (read: absurd), the basic ability can be inferred. This “Endless” should carry the meaning of something inexhaustible, so it probably had nothing to do with the “Crit Sword.”
But the specific effect didn’t matter. What mattered was that as long as it was a “Trait,” Shen Ge had no intention of letting it go—even the spectral lighter “Unending” and the spectral eye “Unseeable,” which rarely saw any use. Even if he didn’t use them himself, he had to hold onto them. If something like this fell into the hands of the Monster Organization, it would mean endless trouble.
However, the first problem facing Shen Ge right now was that because the trait equipment “Endless” was so rare, the transfer fee was as high as fifty thousand system points.
Unless he went and killed the two Sixth-Tier specters underground right now, there was no way he could scrape together fifty thousand system points in a short time.
There was another possibility: letting the system perform a random transfer and gambling on that “1%” ??? extraction chance to see if he could transfer the trait equipment “Endless.” But based on Shen Ge’s past experience, that possibility was minuscule—he’d only succeeded once or twice so far.
“Ugh, don’t tell me I have to dig into the ground again?” Shen Ge looked at the [Map] with helplessness.
After a moment’s thought, Shen Ge decided to try his luck—on one hand, to see if he could extract the trait equipment “Endless” at the lowest possible cost; on the other hand, to gather some resources for Fang Mingyue and the others.
Of course, this wasn’t charity. He wanted to turn this world into a “refuge” within the dream world, so it was necessary to “support” the refuge’s development.
Like this time, when he encountered danger in the dream world, at the critical moment he had used dream power to lock onto his position and transfer himself, successfully escaping danger.
And Fang Mingyue and the others had taken care of him diligently—they hadn’t even tried to get their hands on the things he’d brought. That was enough to show their “sincerity.”
If he could turn this place into a stable refuge within the dream world and combine it with the transfer channel unlocked after the system reached Tier 6, Shen Ge would have another trump card in his hand.
Even if he didn’t play anything like “I Have a Dual-World Travel” and engage in cross-world trade, he could still transfer out of danger at critical moments—not to mention he could hunt specters in this world for rewards and search for “Traits” left behind here.
“System, run the lottery.” Shen Ge decided to take the spare change from his remaining thirty-six thousand nine hundred system points—six thousand nine hundred—and gamble on the future. Best case, he’d pull the trait equipment; worst case, he’d treat it as gathering resources, then figure out how to farm specters in this world to save up fifty thousand system points.
Either way, whether or not he transferred the trait equipment “Endless,” Shen Ge had to deal with the two high-tier specters underground within twenty-four hours.
And the lottery after the system upgrade was quite different from before. Previously, each draw yielded very few resources, but now a thousand system points spun out a huge spread.
Watching the white and green markers on the [Map] dwindle while the big golden marker showed no movement whatsoever, Shen Ge knew the system was performing as reliably as ever.
Looking at the small mountain of guns and ammunition behind him, along with all kinds of food and daily necessities, Shen Ge let out a helpless sigh.
He accepted it.
“I really have no luck with lotteries, do I.”
Sighing, Shen Ge took out the communicator made by the refuge and contacted Fang Mingyue, asking her to bring a team to meet him—mainly to help haul the stuff back.
The two high-tier specters underground had been harassed by Shen Ge for quite a while and were quiet for now, but it was most likely the calm before the storm. The refuge had to be ready to evacuate at any time.
When Fang Mingyue received Shen Ge’s message, she was quite surprised—clearly unable to understand how he could have moved so many resources out from underground. But she didn’t doubt whether Shen Ge was lying or deliberately luring them into danger to plot some kind of scheme.
After receiving Shen Ge’s message, Fang Mingyue didn’t hesitate for a moment. She immediately reported to Deng Yuqi, and Deng Yuqi’s response was extremely quick—without even consulting the New Council, she directly dispatched an elite team from the Exploration Corps, driving several armed combat vehicles to the quarantine zone to meet him.
Shen Ge said he was waiting for Fang Mingyue and the others to pick him up, but in reality, he had thoughtfully cleared a route for them. These fully mutated parasites were worth only 1 system point each, but there were so many of them—Shen Ge had farmed over four thousand system points in just a few hours.
So when Fang Mingyue led the convoy to the outskirts of the quarantine zone and saw Shen Ge “strolling” around, her face was covered in “???”
“Shen Ge, didn’t you say… you wanted us to meet you in the quarantine zone?” Fang Mingyue jumped down from the armed vehicle and ran toward Shen Ge.
Shen Ge replied casually, “Oh, I saw there were quite a lot of specters and parasites on the road, and I was worried you’d get held up. I had nothing better to do, so I went ahead and cleared a path for you.”
Fang Mingyue and the exploration team soldiers behind her instinctively looked at the corpses of parasites littering the streets around them, and at the several Third-Tier specter corpses nearby. They unconsciously swallowed hard.
How did that saying go?
Oh, “terrifying as a god!”
One man had “slaughtered” his way through several streets of specters and parasites, and had the nerve to call it “clearing a path” for everyone. How thoughtful.
The key point was that these reinforcement soldiers had expected to face a fierce battle. For the sake of the refuge’s people surviving better, as long as they could bring the resources back, they hadn’t even planned on making it out alive… Who would have expected this outcome?
One soldier stared at the small mountain of parasite corpses nearby, dumbfounded. “Brother Shen, these… you did all this?”
If strength like this could stay at the refuge, even a Seventh-Tier specter wouldn’t be a problem, right?
Fang Mingyue had witnessed Shen Ge’s terrifying strength more than once. What concerned her wasn’t whether these were Shen Ge’s handiwork, but… did they still need to enter the quarantine zone?
“Um… Shen Ge, do we still need to go into the quarantine zone?” Fang Mingyue asked.
Shen Ge said matter-of-factly, “Of course we do. How could I move all that stuff by myself? Come on, let’s hurry up and haul it out and evacuate. I have bad news—there are two suspected Sixth-Tier specters underneath the quarantine zone, and they’re probably about to start fighting.”
?
??
???
As soon as Shen Ge said this, everyone around was stunned. Not only did they have to go into the dangerous quarantine zone to move things, but there were also two Sixth-Tier specters underground?
Sixth-Tier specters—any single one of them could destroy a city, and this time there were two? On top of that, according to the refuge’s notice, there was also a “King” of the Great Capital sleeping in another district. Was the Great Capital really the capital or what—nothing but Seventh-Tiers and Sixth-Tiers?
The soldier was completely dazed. He stammered, “S-Sixth-Tier specters? Two of them? And we’re still going to move things near them?”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I’m here. Come on, let’s go, don’t waste time. Oh, I killed monsters all the way here—didn’t drive. Let me hitch a ride on your vehicle; walking back would waste too much time.” Shen Ge said as he jumped onto a nearby combat vehicle, leaving the whole group standing frozen in the wind.
“…”
Look at that—this is what “terrifying as a god” means!
In the past, when these soldiers faced parasites and specters, every time they were on edge, advancing cautiously step by step, afraid that one wrong move would cost them their lives.
But in the eyes of a truly powerful expert, even a dangerous place full of high-tier specters and terrifying monsters was like a trip to the grocery store.
Along the way, Fang Mingyue and the exploration team soldiers saw the “masterpieces” piled up on both sides of the street. Their feelings went from surprise to shock to awe, and finally turned into “Is this something a human can do?” Clearly, in these people’s eyes, Shen Ge had already been equated with a monster.
Although the specters and parasites along the road had mostly been cleared by Shen Ge, the noise of the modified combat vehicles still drew out monsters hiding in the ruins.
The soldiers were about to open fire, but Shen Ge stopped them, saying “We’re in a hurry right now, and ants are annoying when there are too many of them.” He had the convoy speed up toward the center of the quarantine zone.
The soldiers completely broke down. Listen to this—is this even human speech? They had been ready to fight to the death, and in someone else’s eyes, these terrifying monsters were just “ants”?
When the group arrived at the “destination” and saw the small hill of various resources, their jaws hit the floor.
Fang Mingyue asked in disbelief, “Shen Ge, how… how did you do this?”
Shen Ge raised an eyebrow and pointed at the octopus tentacle fragments that had been thrown out of the pit alongside him. “Are you sure you want to stand on the heads of two Sixth-Tier specters and discuss this with me?”
Fang Mingyue’s expression turned serious. She immediately barked at the stunned soldiers, “What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and load everything onto the vehicles! Time is tight!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
The soldiers sprang into action, and in less than half an hour, most of the cargo was loaded onto the combat vehicles. Just then, everyone faintly felt the ground trembling.
Shen Ge noticed the spectral-energy black mist pouring out of the surrounding pits growing stronger and immediately realized something was wrong. He activated his Spectral Eye and looked down into the pit. Through the thick spectral-energy black mist, he could see something slowly churning in the depths.
“Damn, the Sixth-Tier specter noticed us. We have to leave now.” Shen Ge had thought that after provoking the Sixth-Tier specter, it would definitely be tangled up with the “tapeworm” in its belly for a while—at least it wouldn’t notice their movements for a short time. But now it seemed the discovery had come much sooner than expected.
“But we haven’t finished loading…” A soldier looked at the crates upon crates of resources, unwilling to just abandon them.
“If you don’t leave now, you’ll become specter food.” Shen Ge immediately told Fang Mingyue to lead the team in evacuating. Fortunately, Fang Mingyue didn’t hesitate at all at his command and immediately gathered everyone onto the vehicles.
Reluctant as they were, they had to survive to bring the resources out. The soldiers immediately drove away from the quarantine zone with Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue.
Less than a hundred meters out, the pits erupted with black blood comparable to magma. Then, one after another, spectral toads leaped out from the black blood—a dense swarm, like scooping tadpoles by the river, at least dozens to hundreds per net.
“Go!” Shen Ge’s Spectral Eye could see the situation by the pits clearly, but unfortunately the modified combat vehicles weren’t fast to begin with, let alone loaded with overweight resources.
After a moment’s thought, Shen Ge immediately told Fang Mingyue about the possibility of the two Sixth-Tier specters underground triggering a “god war” among specters, and told her to have Deng Yuqi figure out an escape plan.
Because the battle between two Sixth-Tier specters would most likely attract the attention of the Seventh-Tier specter. When that happened—a battle among one Seventh-Tier, two Sixth-Tiers, and three high-tier specters—the Great Capital would cease to exist.
By then, forget the refuge—even the newly built Base No. 2, even dozens of meters underground, wouldn’t survive.
Actually, Shen Ge had mentioned the Seventh-Tier specter issue to Deng Yuqi before, and the refuge had indeed taken action. But the refuge wasn’t an individual—it couldn’t just up and leave like Shen Ge. Too many people and things were involved. Even if they wanted to evacuate, it wasn’t something that could be solved in a day or two.
Shen Ge also wanted to preserve the refuge’s “manpower.” After all, those researchers were still studying monsters and specters. If a breakthrough could be made here, it would essentially give him another logistics base.
“Why me? Why do I have to go back and tell the commander—Shen Ge, what about you? You’re not coming back?” Fang Mingyue realized something was off as soon as she heard Shen Ge’s explanation and asked instinctively.
Shen Ge said, “The combat vehicles are carrying too many resources. At this speed, it’ll be hard to shake off the specters behind us. I’ll stay and hold them off. You guys go first.”
“But…” As the captain of the refuge’s exploration team, Fang Mingyue knew Shen Ge’s plan was extremely risky, but for the sake of the refuge’s residents, she couldn’t bring herself to say “abandon the resources and flee at full speed.”
Even though these were resources Shen Ge had “risked danger” to snatch from the quarantine zone—without Shen Ge, they wouldn’t have found even a single can. But… the refuge still had the elderly, the weak, women, and children waiting. Base No. 1 was in turmoil, and Base No. 2 was already overwhelmed but still had to allocate some resources for support.
Shen Ge saw Fang Mingyue’s dilemma and laughed exasperatedly. “Hey, hey, hey, what’s with that expression? It’s like I’m going off to die. Don’t forget—before you guys even got here, I’d already had a run-in with those two Sixth-Tier specters. And I’m still perfectly fine, aren’t I?”
“But, that…” Fang Mingyue hesitated.
Shen Ge waved his hand carelessly. “Relax, relax. Sixth-Tier specters? A light drizzle. Go back and warm up some wine for me. I’ll be back once I’ve slain this Sixth-Tier specter.”
Fang Mingyue was about to say something when Shen Ge had already risen and leaped off the combat vehicle. After landing, he flicked his hand—his left hand holding the Specter-Slaying Revolver, his right hand gripping the butcher knife “Indestructible”—standing in the middle of the abandoned street like a god of death.
Facing the flood of black blood magma and the countless spectral toads leaping from it, this god of death shone brilliantly like a world-famous painting.
[Host has been locked onto by a Sixth-Tier specter. Detected that the target’s spectral energy has a strong corrosive effect. Once corroded, the host will fall into hallucinations. Please proceed with caution!]
