Shen Ge’s top priority right now was to find those “sleeping” split-head aberrations and kill them, first earning enough system points—fifty thousand—to transfer the trait equipment “Endless,” and then figure out a way to deal with the Sixth-Tier aberration.
For one thing, this would prevent any complications here that might end up costing him the trait equipment. For another, that trait equipment might actually come in handy when dealing with the Sixth-Tier aberration.
Shen Ge used an invisible barrier to isolate himself from the fungal carpet on the ground and walked forward. Passing through a narrow, half-collapsed door, a stretch of eerie, dark green suddenly “lit up” in the open area ahead—just like that dark green corridor from before. Terrifying. Oppressive.
Shen Ge approached the wall to observe and found that the fleshy walls seemed to be growing something similar to faintly glowing moss—that was what was giving off the green light.
Then Shen Ge materialized a small stick and tried to scrape off a piece of the glowing moss to study it, to figure out why this place was growing such a thing.
But the moment the stick touched those greasy green “glowing moss” patches, they actually wriggled slightly, as if trying to dodge the stick’s prodding.
“Alive?” Shen Ge used the materialized stick to pick up a portion of the glowing moss to observe, and only then did he realize—this wasn’t glowing moss at all. They were green flesh worms the size of fingernails, clustered together and stuck to the fleshy wall.
“What the hell is this thing!” Following his usual habit, if Little Seven and the Red Mist Armor were by his side, he would definitely have grabbed a bottle to collect some of these newly discovered aberrations for Little Seven to analyze, and brought some back for Li Xiang to study as well.
The Rong City Special Policy Division’s anti-aberration development had advanced so rapidly over the past two years largely thanks to Shen Ge’s “little hobby,” which had allowed the branch to far surpass the headquarters in resources.
Though it was a bit of a shame, Shen Ge genuinely couldn’t find anything to carry some bugs away in. And without proper containment, if he brought them back to “reality” and they leaked, it would definitely trigger a chain reaction.
After all, based on Shen Ge’s past 【Logs】 and his experiences in the dream fragment worlds, incidents like the Ratzilla event that Li Xiang caused were exactly the kind of chain reactions Shen Ge had set off.
“Gurgle.”
“Gurgle.”
Shen Ge was holding a flashlight and observing those disgusting green glowing bugs when suddenly, from not far behind him, came the distinctive swallowing sound of an aberration.
Shen Ge swept his flashlight over. Since he was currently maintaining his “Three Traits” state, even though the entire space was filled with the aberrant energy of the Sixth-Tier aberration, it didn’t directly nullify his Three Traits—it merely affected them to some degree.
But while Shen Ge’s Three Traits were affecting the Sixth-Tier aberration, he was also being affected by the Sixth-Tier aberration’s aberrant energy, and his perception of his surroundings had weakened considerably.
Or rather, it was “interference.” Affected by this aberrant energy, it was hard for him to determine whether what was hidden in the darkness was an aberration or something else entirely.
It wasn’t just Shen Ge—even the system was affected to some extent. The aberration markers scanned onto the 【Map】 were all red across the board, clearly having been obscured by the Sixth-Tier aberration.
Due to the severe interference, Shen Ge could only cautiously approach the source of the sound to investigate. Although the Three Traits were affected to some degree, they were fortunately still active—it was just that the aberrant energy consumption was much higher than usual.
Shen Ge passed through the greasy “firefly bug” area and arrived at the dark area, where he discovered a massive fleshy tumor hanging upside down from the ceiling at the center of the space.
By visual estimate, it was at least seven or eight meters in diameter. Its outer surface was covered in black blood vessels, and he could faintly feel it throbbing—thump, thump, thump.
“A heart?” Shen Ge tried to get closer to take a look, but he noticed that as he walked toward the fleshy tumor, the fungal carpet on the ground began to writhe, as if it could sense his presence.
The tumor’s “gurgle gurgle” swallowing sounds echoed through the space, seeming to come from all directions, yet also seeming to originate from the surrounding fleshy walls—that is, the eerie sounds this area was producing on its own.
But this wasn’t strange. This was inside the Sixth-Tier aberration’s belly. As long as it wasn’t an independent aberration like the split-head aberration from before, whether it was the fleshy tumor or the fleshy walls, they were all part of the Sixth-Tier aberration’s body. So it was equivalent to the Sixth-Tier aberration making this terrifying sound, and it was perfectly normal for its swallowing sounds to echo through the entire space.
Just then, the blood vessels on the fleshy tumor suddenly burst open, and black blood sprayed all over the room. Shen Ge condensed an invisible barrier in front of him, and the black blood splattered onto the transparent barrier, immediately hissing and bubbling as it corroded the barrier.
Then the lower end of the fleshy tumor opened up like the flesh pod that cultivated alien monsters in “Alien”—four petals of bloody flesh spreading open like a man-eating flower—and a slimy blob dropped out, splattering onto the ground.
This scene couldn’t help but remind Shen Ge of the Alien Queen laying eggs. And after that slimy blob dropped to the ground, it slowly stood up—it was actually a humanoid “freak” that looked very similar to the split-head aberration from before.
The previous split-head aberration had a head like a vicious dog and a body like a fierce tiger, covered in a thick layer of black viscous substance—like a cross between a Grimer and a demon hound.
But the “freak” before him had a head similar to the split-head aberration’s vicious dog skull, except only a small portion of the head had flesh and blood—more than half of the skull was bare bone. He could even see through the bone holes that the “brain” inside was still twitching slightly.
This “freak” was called humanoid, but its build was more like a skinned chimpanzee—muscular, tall, and large, about a tenth the size of the fleshy tumor.
Since it looked like it had been skinned, he could clearly see blood vessels on the exposed flesh and blood, with black blood seeping out and dripping onto the ground. This black blood was highly corrosive—even the fungal carpet on the ground was corroded into a large hole.
The fungal carpet on the ground seemed to be terrified of this flesh-and-blood gorilla freak. After it stood up from the “egg,” the surrounding fungal carpet writhed away to the sides as if fleeing a plague god.
Shen Ge maintained his Three Traits state, and the flesh-and-blood gorilla freak didn’t immediately notice his presence. It reached out, grabbed a handful of fungal carpet, and stuffed it into its half-skull, half-flesh mouth.
Now Shen Ge understood why the fungal carpet was avoiding the flesh-and-blood gorilla like a plague god. Turns out this thing wasn’t picky at all—right after “birth,” it started by eating the grass around its nest.
But this actually made things quite convenient for Shen Ge. After the fungal carpet was attacked by the flesh-and-blood gorilla, it began writhing toward the fleshy walls on both sides, and the fungal carpet on the path between Shen Ge and the fleshy tumor was greatly reduced, which would save him quite a bit of aberrant energy used to maintain the invisible barrier on the ground.
Shen Ge took a Molotov cocktail from his backpack, infused it with the “Silent” aberrant energy, lit it with the aberrant lighter “Unquenchable,” and threw it at the flesh-and-blood gorilla.
Bang, crack!
The Molotov exploded on the flesh-and-blood gorilla, instantly splashing burning liquid all over it and onto the fungal carpet on the ground as well.
The flesh-and-blood gorilla roared and wiped at the flames on its body, and the flames instantly went out. But this wasn’t strange—although the fire was lit with the aberrant lighter “Unquenchable,” only the flames released by the aberrant lighter itself were inextinguishable. The Molotov it ignited wasn’t affected by the trait.
This was also why back when Shen Ge first got this aberrant energy equipment, he’d complained that the research institute people were wasting something precious. If he could have absorbed this trait, infused his own aberrant energy to work with the Red Mist Armor’s aberrant fire gauntlets and the “Non-Flammable” trait, he could have become a pyromaniac arsonist—lighting fires everywhere he went.
The flames on the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s body were put out, but eerily, the fungal carpet on the ground caught fire instead. Strangely, it wasn’t the color of the flames from the Molotov—it was greasy green, looking like will-o’-the-wisps.
Shen Ge looked closely and discovered that from the ignited fungal carpet, the “firefly bugs”—the parasitic aberrations he’d seen on the fleshy walls earlier—kept crawling out in dense swarms.
“The fungal carpet is full of these bugs underneath? So the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s food isn’t the carpet, but these bugs?”
“The flesh worms on the fleshy walls in the area ahead were all specially ‘cultivated’ for the flesh-and-blood gorilla, so it would have food right from birth?”
“So are these flesh-and-blood gorillas part of the Sixth-Tier aberration, or are they products of the underground research institute like the split-head aberration?”
For a moment, Shen Ge couldn’t figure out whether the fleshy tumor, the firefly bugs, and the flesh-and-blood gorilla in this space had anything to do with the Sixth-Tier aberration at all.
At the same time, this underground research institute beneath the Great Capital made Shen Ge increasingly curious. Was this the work of the Freak Organization, or those “registered” freaks in the headquarters?
But regardless, this underground research institute was like a ticking nuclear bomb. If the underground research institute in “reality” wasn’t dealt with properly, it could very well become the outbreak point for the Great Capital’s aberration disaster—just like the situation in this dream world—and send the entire city toward destruction.
Shen Ge really wanted to report this information to Deng Yuqi in “reality” immediately, but unfortunately, affected and interfered with by this Sixth-Tier aberration, he couldn’t establish a connection with “reality.”
Either find a way to leave the Sixth-Tier aberration’s belly as soon as possible, or release all his dream power and use the system’s newly evolved power to establish a passage.
The former wasn’t something that could be solved immediately, and the latter… the biggest problem was uncertainty. If he couldn’t guarantee the passage would be established successfully, consuming all his stored dream power in one go would mean Shen Ge would likely lose his ability to connect to dreams.
There was also another point: if he established the passage now, rather than in an absolutely safe place, and it was destroyed or attacked by a high-tier aberration—destruction would mean all the consumption was wasted. Even if it couldn’t be destroyed, if he couldn’t seize control of this area, it would still amount to giving it away for nothing.
So Shen Ge had to be cautious. Even if he couldn’t solve the Great Capital’s troubles, at least he should wait until he’d brought the shelter people to a safe place before attempting to establish a connection.
After the flesh-and-blood gorilla devoured a large patch of fungal carpet, the bare bone portion of its head began rapidly growing flesh and blood at a visible rate. At the same time, on its body that had only flesh and blood without skin or fur, black fur slowly began extending from the areas where flesh had grown.
Clearly, the “newborn” flesh-and-blood gorilla was still in a very weak state, so it had to absorb nutrients from the surrounding fungal carpet.
Shen Ge opened his aberrant eye and scanned the flesh-and-blood gorilla, discovering that the black “fur” spreading from the flesh growing at the corner of its eye down to its neck had a very strong aberrant energy reaction. The defensive strength of that fur was evident.
“Can’t let it fully awaken!” After realizing the fur on the flesh-and-blood gorilla had very high defensive strength, Shen Ge immediately decided to finish it off before the coverage was complete.
Attribute amplification, fifty times!
After amplifying his attributes fifty times, Shen Ge kicked off the ground and charged at the flesh-and-blood gorilla as a blur, using the momentum to thrust his pig-killing knife forward, stabbing into the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s chest, then violently slashing downward.
Affected by the Three Traits’ interference, the flesh-and-blood gorilla couldn’t detect Shen Ge’s presence at all. It wasn’t until it took a stab to the chest that it roared and swung its massive flesh-and-blood hand at the “air” in front of it.
Shen Ge condensed two invisible barriers beside him—bang, bang—the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s attack slammed into the invisible barriers.
Then Shen Ge aimed his Aberration-Slaying Revolver at the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s head and fired several shots. The Aberration-Slaying Revolver’s bullets had strong penetrating power, and Shen Ge was aiming at the spots where the flesh-and-blood gorilla hadn’t yet condensed black fur—the bullets instantly pierced through its head.
Then he followed with a horizontal slash. Just as Shen Ge was about to decapitate the flesh-and-blood gorilla with one strike, the aberrant energy black mist drifting around them rapidly converged toward him.
And as the aberrant energy black mist moved, the fungal carpet on the ground that had been hiding far away also quickly writhed toward the battle location.
The pig-killing knife slashed into the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s neck where fur hadn’t yet grown, but the blade only cut in about halfway—even worse than when he’d dealt with the split-head aberration before.
Bear in mind that Shen Ge at this point not only maintained his fifty-times attribute amplification but also had the Three Traits’ assistance in catching it off guard—and he still couldn’t kill it in one blow.
However, Shen Ge then noticed that the blade cutting into the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s neck was being blocked by a mass of aberrant energy black mist. This black mist seemed to be surging from the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s wound, but after surging out, it immediately merged with the surrounding drifting aberrant energy black mist. This made Shen Ge feel as if an invisible powerful force was blocking his attack.
Just like that, what was originally an attack targeting the flesh-and-blood gorilla had once again become a contest of aberrant energy between Shen Ge and the Sixth-Tier aberration.
Shen Ge was about to increase his aberrant energy output—no matter how this Sixth-Tier aberration wanted to protect its offspring, he was going to cut off this head. Even Jesus coming couldn’t change that. But then something unexpected happened—the surrounding aberrant energy black mist seemed to give up “protecting” the flesh-and-blood gorilla and instead surged toward Shen Ge.
With a “splat,” accompanied by black blood splattering, Shen Ge successfully slashed from the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s right neck all the way to its left armpit, cutting half its body off.
Black blood sprayed like a fountain, splattering onto the invisible barrier with a hissing sound—the eerie white bubbles showed just how terrifying its corrosive effect was.
And right after the flesh-and-blood gorilla was killed by Shen Ge, the fleshy tumor hanging in the center of the space began to writhe rapidly, then “splat splat” spat out several eggs in succession.
After spitting out the flesh-and-blood gorilla, the fleshy tumor also underwent some changes. First, the bloody petals at the bottom became larger, and sharp teeth appeared around the outer ring.
Then the blood vessels on its body swelled dramatically, becoming like tentacles.
Finally, there was a coiled mass at the top. As it slowly opened, it seemed to be a terrifying and enormous aberration skull.
“So it really is an Alien Queen, huh?”
