With the appearance of the “Alien Queen,” the surrounding fungal carpet began bubbling and gurgling with green viscous foam-like substances. Not far away, the green glow of the “firefly bug” corridor also started spreading toward this space.
The eeriest part was that the lower half of the flesh-and-blood gorilla—the part Shen Ge had decapitated—was still standing upright. And the severed area, just like the fungal carpet on the ground, was gurgling with green bubbles. Then, at a visible rate, it began healing and growing new flesh.
The severed stump of the head that had fallen to the ground also started bubbling with green foam, and then the green foam transformed into several greasy green tentacles that served as legs, propping the head up. Just like that, the flesh-and-blood gorilla that Shen Ge had killed with a single slash had become two separate aberrations with the Alien Queen’s awakening.
“No wonder I didn’t hear a reward notification after killing the flesh-and-blood gorilla—turns out it can revive? Is it because of the Alien Queen’s influence, or the aberrant energy around here?” Shen Ge had originally assumed the Alien Queen was also part of the Sixth-Tier aberration, but now it seemed things weren’t that simple.
The Alien Queen gave Shen Ge the impression of being more like an independent aberration—not the Sixth-Tier aberration’s heart, or some organ.
But regardless, because of the Alien Queen’s appearance, the flesh-and-blood gorilla couldn’t be killed anymore. Shen Ge could only shift his target to the Alien Queen herself.
At this moment, the man-eating petals at the bottom of the Alien Queen—the ones that had birthed the flesh-and-blood gorilla’s blood egg—spread out completely, covering the entire ceiling after fully unfurling.
It now looked like a fleshy grapevine, with basketball-sized blood eggs hanging from it, dripping black corrosive liquid.
As the corrosive liquid dripped onto the fungal carpet below, the carpet’s spread became even faster—in the blink of an eye, it had submerged up to knee level.
Although Shen Ge was protected by the invisible barrier and wouldn’t be harmed physically, he had to constantly reinforce the barrier to withstand the corrosive attacks. The aberrant energy consumption was even greater than his contest with the Sixth-Tier aberration—which showed just how strong the corrosiveness of these liquids was.
Meanwhile, the aberrant energy black mist in the entire space was growing thicker and thicker. Shen Ge felt there was some inexplicable seductive quality to the black mist, making him subconsciously want to walk into it.
This feeling was exactly like when he’d first explored the underground research institute and entered that strange aberrant space. It even made Shen Ge wonder if the aberration hidden there back then had been the Alien Queen he was facing now.
Shen Ge subconsciously reinforced the invisible barrier’s defense, but at this moment, he faintly heard some familiar voices from within the aberrant energy black mist.
The voices felt intimate to him, yet he couldn’t immediately tell whose they were. He instantly realized this might be a sonic attack.
Fortunately, sonic attacks were what Shen Ge feared least—his “Formless” existence made him immune to all sound. So using sound to control him and induce hallucinations was simply impossible.
The instant the sound arose, he immediately deployed the “Soundless Aberrant Domain,” directly nullifying the hypnotic voice.
With the sound unable to reach Shen Ge, he immediately became much more clear-headed.
Shen Ge had thought that after escaping the sonic attack, he’d be able to smoothly get away from the aberrant energy black mist and the hatching aberrations. But the Alien Queen clearly had no intention of letting him go.
Under the Alien Queen’s control, the bisected flesh-and-blood gorilla, the newly “born” aberrant blood eggs, and the thick fungal carpet on the ground all closed in on Shen Ge simultaneously.
Even though maintaining the invisible barrier was consuming enormous amounts of aberrant energy, Shen Ge still maintained his Three Traits state. So the flesh-and-blood gorilla and the newborn aberrations were all unable to see him—they could only slowly approach his position under the Alien Queen’s guidance.
Since the Red Mist Armor wasn’t with him, Shen Ge didn’t have the Bloodskin Backpack’s assistance—he only had the backpack on his back, so he hadn’t brought many supplies.
Apart from a few pieces of aberrant energy equipment, there were only some recovery items, emergency medicine, three Molotov cocktails, and a few grenades.
He’d used one Molotov earlier, so now only two remained. And these ordinary items—forget Fourth-Tier aberrations, even against First or Second-Tier aberrations their effect was limited.
The reason Shen Ge had brought a few was purely with the mindset of “just making some noise”—when encountering a troublesome aberration, he’d throw a few and use the “Silent”-controlled explosion sounds to lure the aberration away.
But the current space was only so big—luring aberrations away was definitely impossible. And since they couldn’t hurt the aberrations either, they’d become a pile of useless junk.
“Wait!” A bold idea suddenly flashed through Shen Ge’s mind. These bombs couldn’t hurt the aberrations—the problem was that the defensive barrier formed by the aberrant energy emanating from the aberrations absorbed the energy generated by the explosions.
It wasn’t that the bombs were useless—it was that their effect was being neutralized. In other words, if he could unleash the energy the bombs released, maybe it could have a miraculous effect?
At this thought, Shen Ge immediately spread out his aberrant domain as much as possible. The Sixth-Tier aberration detected the aberrant energy he released and immediately controlled the aberrant energy black mist to counteract it, just like before.
And what Shen Ge wanted was exactly for the Sixth-Tier aberration to obstruct him. When the two forces of aberrant energy collided and created a distortion, Shen Ge pulled out two grenades and threw them at the center of the distortion.
The explosive energy released under the influence of the two distorted energies broke through the equilibrium point, and the chaotic aberrant energy frantically tore at the space.
This was part of Shen Ge’s plan—when two forces of energy were evenly matched and entered a state of balance, forget a bomb—even a toothpick could disrupt the balance.
“Gurgle.”
“Gurgle.”
The black hole created by the tearing space grew larger and larger, frantically tearing at the aberrations in the room. The Alien Queen, spread across the entire ceiling, naturally couldn’t escape either.
The black hole generated by the aberrant energy madly devoured the flesh-and-blood gorillas, the fungal carpet, and the firefly bug aberrations. The absorbed aberrant energy made the black hole grow even bigger. If Shen Ge hadn’t been constantly condensing invisible barriers to block it, he probably would have met the same fate as those flesh-and-blood gorillas.
Before Shen Ge could make his next move, the surroundings began to shake violently, and then the underground research institute fused with the Sixth-Tier aberration started to collapse.
A fifth of the Alien Queen’s body had been devoured by the black hole, and the distorted spatial black hole was still showing signs of expanding—this had clearly enraged it completely.
At this moment, the Alien Queen merged with the flesh walls condensed from the firefly bug aberrations on the surrounding walls, then connected with the fungal carpet on the ground—as if the entire room was its body.
Shen Ge had already exhausted his energy blocking the black hole’s erosion and had no way to spare any effort to deal with the Alien Queen’s attacks.
In fact, even Shen Ge himself hadn’t figured out why two ordinary grenades breaking the equilibrium of the aberrant energy collision could trigger such a terrifying chain reaction.
But the Alien Queen clearly wasn’t giving him time to think. Those disgusting tentacles combined with the fungal carpet launching attacks from above and below made Shen Ge’s head ache terribly.
The Alien Queen couldn’t see Shen Ge, but it could sense the locations where his aberrant energy was being deployed, so its attacks covered the entire area.
Shen Ge had no way to avoid them and could only rely on reinforcing the invisible barrier to withstand them head-on.
The invisible barrier’s defense was naturally nothing to worry about—what he needed to worry about was only the aberrant energy consumption. Shen Ge’s aberrant energy was already running low.
He simply allocated part of his remaining aberrant energy to reinforce the invisible barrier and part to enhance his own attributes, then pulled out a Mental Apple and took a bite.
In the surrounding environment of nausea and stench, an ordinary person—forget eating—would pass out just from breathing. Fortunately, Shen Ge had been through all kinds of big scenes. He could handle it even with rotting meat roasting around him, let alone eating an apple.
After replenishing his aberrant energy, Shen Ge immediately felt the pressure drop sharply. But the Alien Queen’s attacks were still ongoing—he had to find a way out of this predicament.
Suddenly, Shen Ge noticed that the section of invisible barrier beneath his feet had collapsed. It felt like the floor had been corroded away, and the invisible barrier covering it had simply fallen through.
It seemed the Alien Queen, affected by the Three Traits’ interference, couldn’t pinpoint Shen Ge’s exact location. So it simply melted away the entire area with Shen Ge’s aberrant energy signature, forcing him to fall downward.
“Trying to kill me with a fall?” As Shen Ge wondered this, his whole body was already plummeting. He instinctively tried to grab onto the falling passage, but found the surrounding walls covered in viscous slime—too slippery to grip at all.
The vertical fall continued for several minutes. Then, with a sudden “splat,” he finally hit bottom—his feet landing with a squelching sound on the viscous substance.
All around was blood red—writhing floor, walls, an invisible ceiling. From the structures protruding from the walls and some facilities on the ground not yet fully covered in flesh, he could tell this should be some kind of research lab.
Shen Ge had long since confirmed that the Sixth-Tier aberration had fused with the underground research institute, so appearing in this kind of environment wasn’t surprising.
Blood-red viscous substance flowed on the ground. Shen Ge spread out his aberrant domain to condense an invisible barrier isolating him from the viscous substance. Standing on it, he found the transparent barrier quickly developed cracks—clearly the corrosiveness of this viscous substance was extremely strong. If he fell in, he’d probably be dissolved to nothing in seconds.
Just then, Shen Ge suddenly heard strange noises from a corner ahead—like the sound of balloons being popped, echoing continuously in the dark corner.
“Blood eggs?” Shen Ge then realized the entire room’s corners were full of blood eggs laid by the Alien Queen. Looking more carefully at the walls on both sides—these weren’t walls at all, but walls stacked from blood eggs. And those popping sounds were the sounds of blood eggs bursting open.
After the blood eggs burst, half-meter-tall flesh-and-blood gorillas stood up from them. The second one, the third one—some half a meter tall, some one or two meters tall, the biggest even approaching three meters.
In the blink of an eye, the entire space was full of burst blood eggs, and the number of flesh-and-blood gorillas had exceeded three digits. They roared and howled.
Shen Ge wasn’t panicked facing these flesh-and-blood monsters. He was still maintaining his Three Traits state—without the Alien Queen and the aberrant energy black mist to help locate him, these newborn aberrations couldn’t see where he was at all.
Besides, these flesh-and-blood gorillas were smaller than the ones born up above—who knew if they were the “malnourished” ones that had been discarded.
Shen Ge activated his aberrant eye and looked up at the large hole in the ceiling through which he’d fallen. Sure enough, he could see aberrant energy black mist already starting to descend.
Although the system points from killing these flesh-and-blood gorillas were tempting, Shen Ge wasn’t sure whether they’d been separated from the Alien Queen’s revival buff down here. If he slashed away for ages without killing them, and the aberrant energy black mist that the Sixth-Tier aberration used for locating arrived, he’d definitely be surrounded.
Even if these flesh-and-blood gorillas couldn’t hurt him, being trapped here longer meant more danger. Shen Ge could only choose the safer option.
Shen Ge took out his last grenade and threw it toward a corner. The explosion instantly drew the flesh-and-blood gorillas’ attention.
Seizing this opportunity, Shen Ge used the Three Traits’ effect to quickly slip through the flesh-and-blood gorillas’ “encirclement” and charge deeper in.
After going about a hundred meters in, Shen Ge found the environment here was more complex than expected. Especially the surrounding flesh walls—their strength was a notch above the upper levels. Even if he wanted to use “collapse” to break a path through, it would definitely draw the Sixth-Tier aberration’s attention.
If he got located by the Sixth-Tier aberration here “deep down,” then trying to shake it off again wouldn’t be as easy as up above. Not to mention that up above, he hadn’t successfully escaped either—the Alien Queen had thrown him down here. That was also something Shen Ge couldn’t figure out.
Was it because it found him too troublesome and threw him here to fend for himself? Or was there something here that could restrain him, slowly draining him to death here?
However, after making a round, Shen Ge discovered there was no “exit” here at all. The only entrance and exit seemed to be the passage he’d fallen through.
This place was very much like a garbage disposal room—the red viscous substance on the floor was the “fire,” and when workers threw garbage down from above, the “fire” would burn it away.
Since Shen Ge had just eaten a Mental Apple to replenish his aberrant energy, his aberrant energy was still quite abundant. If he just maintained his Three Traits and kept the invisible barrier up while hiding in a corner, he could last several days. So there was almost no chance of him being trapped to death here.
“Maybe I should just climb back up?” Shen Ge looked up at the pitch-black passage with his aberrant eye. Although he really didn’t want to climb that dark, slippery passage, it seemed to be the only way.
“Guess that’s the only option!”
“Attribute amplification!”
Shen Ge amplified his attributes to a hundred times, then took out his pig-killing knife and leaped, transforming into a blur as he used his extraordinary jumping power to leap into the pitch-black passage. Then he stabbed the pig-killing knife into the disgusting fleshy wall of the passage, gripping the handle with both hands to stabilize himself and observe his surroundings.
Then, Shen Ge used his materialization power to create several “stepping platforms” to stand on, continuing to use the explosive jumping power of his amplified attributes to keep moving upward.
But Shen Ge was quickly blocked by the aberrant energy black mist. To prevent him from escaping back the way he came, the Sixth-Tier aberration seemed to have directly sealed the passage with aberrant energy black mist.
Unless Shen Ge was willing to consume aberrant energy to continuously “burn” his way up and neutralize the aberrant energy the Sixth-Tier aberration was using to block the path, he simply couldn’t get up.
He couldn’t go up, there was no path below, and he couldn’t use “collapse” to pass through the flesh walls from the side either. For a moment, Shen Ge was stuck in a dead end.
Shen Ge pulled out his pig-killing knife and let himself fall back down, returning to the bottom-level aberration space. Looking at the red corrosive liquid beneath his feet giving off a foul stench, then at the flesh-and-blood gorillas around him that were avoiding the corrosive liquid as much as possible—
“Could these flesh-and-blood gorillas be defective products? So the Alien Queen threw them down here, trying to dissolve them with the red corrosive liquid and turn them into nutrients?”
