Liu Zongrui’s current state reminded Shen Ge of the anomalous taxi driver—both were human shells that had mutated, hiding their original appearances.
But was the human face inside the insect mouth the same as the one in the anomalous taxi?
“Hey!” To test his theory, Shen Ge canceled his dual traits and boldly revealed himself in front of Liu Zongrui.
In truth, there were many ways Shen Ge could have verified his hypothesis, but he chose the most time-efficient and effortless method, one that also happened to be slightly insulting.
With a look that seemed to say, “If you’re dissatisfied, come fight me,” Shen Ge stared at Liu Zongrui. But Liu Zongrui showed little reaction—or rather, no reaction at all.
His six hands kept grabbing the parasite anomalies flying into the room, stuffing them into the three insect mouths as if enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet.
“No consciousness?” Shen Ge frowned and retreated to the wall to observe Liu Zongrui’s movements.
Liu Zongrui’s feet were fused with the blood-red flesh floor, further confirming Shen Ge’s suspicion. The anomaly sustaining this space, like the turtle in Dongyu Village, possessed a “fusion-type” anomalous energy.
If possible, Shen Ge would have loved to capture this thing and hand it over to Li Xiang for research. After all, the success of the “LiXiang II Armor” was rooted in the anomalous brain and this fusion-type energy.
With Liu Zongrui happily eating, Shen Ge decided to spice things up.He retreated to the corner and opened the lottery system.
Draw!
“System, do me a favor. Give me something explosive on the first try!” Shen Ge muttered inwardly. The wheel in his vision spun once and landed on consumables.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the consumable “Molotov Cocktail x20.”]
Though it wasn’t a bomb or grenade, getting Molotov cocktails was still decent. The system had finally given him a break.
“Again!”
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the weapon “PF98 120mm Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher” x1, with x3 rocket rounds.]
“Look at that. Not bad at all.”
The system was unusually generous, and Shen Ge also gave the system a rare “good review”.
Shen Ge threw all the Molotov cocktails into the room. Flames instantly spread, but Liu Zongrui continued his buffet, now with a side of fiery spice.
With the “Non-Flammable” trait, the flames didn’t harm Shen Ge. He shouldered the rocket launcher and fired a shot into one of the insect mouths the moment it opened.
Boom!
The insect mouth swelled rapidly from the explosion but quickly returned to normal. However, the human face inside twisted and contorted, letting out a ferocious roar.
Boom!
Boom!
Shen Ge fired the remaining two rockets at the other two heads. The loud explosions attracted more parasite anomalies.
These parasites ignored the fire in the room, charging toward Liu Zongrui even as they burned and crackled.
Liu Zongrui’s three insect heads hung limply after the rocket attacks, his upper body looking half-melted. But as he devoured the parasites, he recovered in the blink of an eye.
Shen Ge was about to press the advantage and finish him off with his Cleaver when the floor beneath him suddenly “came alive,” undulating like a wave, as if a worm were crawling beneath.
As the floor shook, Liu Zongrui’s lower body slowly merged with it.
Just then, the ground beneath Shen Ge gave way again. He fell rapidly, as if dropping into another tooth-filled mouth.
Shen Ge grabbed the edge of the wormhole entrance, but the opening was closing slowly. All around him—ceiling, floor, everywhere—similar “wormholes” were appearing, swallowing the parasite anomalies. The entire room had become a genuine “honeycomb.”
Shen Ge prepared to climb up using the “Unyielding” effect of his anomalous gloves, but the wormhole closed rapidly. Before it sealed completely, he saw Liu Zongrui fully merge with the floor.
Liu Zongrui gave Shen Ge the impression of someone who had come out for a quick buffet before returning to merge with the villa. Seeing this, Shen Ge let go and allowed himself to fall.
When he landed, he was surprised to find himself back in the “living room.” But this living room was different from before—not only was it covered in a thick layer of flesh and blood, but the floor was also flowing with green, viscous liquid, and the air was filled with a black mist of anomalous energy.
Shen Ge stepped onto the sofa and coffee table to move forward. On one hand, the upgraded “LiXiang II Armor” could absorb anomalous energy from the air to replenish itself. On the other hand, he wanted to see what changes had occurred in the “living room.”
He put Little Seven on alert mode and prepared to activate his traits at any moment before proceeding through the black mist.
After walking for seven or eight minutes, Shen Ge still hadn’t left the living room. Normally, even a large villa would have been crossed by now, but he seemed trapped.
Strangely, he was still inside the villa. It felt as if the “living room” shrouded in black mist had been enlarged countless times, making it impossible to escape.
Though trapped, Shen Ge wasn’t worried. In just seven or eight minutes, the armor had absorbed enough energy to fully replenish itself, even filling the “Crimson Mist Form.”
But after walking for another twenty minutes with no end in sight, Shen Ge tried turning back—only to find he couldn’t leave.
“This place is interesting. Chaotic space, chaotic time, and the rooms are like they are spliced together. Now even the living room has been infinitely enlarged.”
With no way forward or backward, Shen Ge tried expanding his intangible anomalous domain, using “Collapse” on the area above, and enhancing his anomalous leather boots with “Crimson Mist Form” to maximize his jump height.
The good news was that Shen Ge managed to escape the black mist. The bad news was that he was still in the living room.
After falling, he landed back on the coffee table. The black mist was gone, but the surroundings remained unchanged.
He tried moving forward again. Bizarrely, while he moved, the environmental feedback felt normal, but he remained in place.
Shen Ge stopped and stood on the coffee table. Looking down, he saw numerous burned footprints on the wooden surface, as if someone had stepped in the green liquid and then walked on the table.
The footprints fit his own perfectly. Clearly, he had been walking back and forth here.
“So these are my own footprints?” Shen Ge looked around the dark “living room.” The only light source was his flashlight.
As he swept the beam upward, he could see the curved staircase, the second-floor corridor, and the doors.
But seeing them was one thing. Shen Ge felt trapped in the coffee table area, unable to leave even after几十 minutes of walking.
Shen Ge’s eyes flickered. He immediately used “Collapse” on the coffee table beneath him and jumped down.
With a sensation of falling, he “returned” to the living room—but this time, he was standing on the right-side sofa.
“After Liu Zongrui merged with the villa, this became his stomach. The anomaly’s internal organs are constantly squirming, causing the rooms to shift continuously. But now it’s not just rooms—even small areas are changing?”
Shen Ge had a hypothesis and recognized the “danger.” If he remained trapped in the villa, would he eventually be confined to a single point?
He tried walking forward on the sofa. After about twenty minutes in the enlarged living room, he finally managed to cross the sofa.
In those twenty minutes, he felt as if he had been shrunk a hundred times smaller, walking through a normal-sized room.
Shen Ge remained cautious throughout. He noticed faint traces of black anomalous energy mist drifting in the air, something he had never seen in the villa before.
Was it because Liu Zongrui had devoured so many parasite anomalies?
“Wait, if Liu Zongrui merged with the villa, and this is his stomach… why are there so many parasite anomalies, and why did Liu Zongrui appear personally to devour them?”
Shen Ge frowned in thought, then suddenly had an idea…
If this was the anomaly’s “body,” wouldn’t it function like a human body? When viruses invade, the immune system attacks them.
The parasite anomalies were invaders, food, and energy. They had breached this area and caused damage, so “Liu Zongrui” appeared as the immune system?
Shen Ge had a plan. He sat cross-legged on the sofa and started spending the 4,000+ system points he had saved from killing the Tier 3 anomaly.
After twenty draws, the system was unusually generous: three large cases of “cocktails,” bombs, grenades, various firearms, instant noodles, and drinks.
Everything except trait equipment and vehicles.
Shen Ge stuffed a few packs of instant noodles into his backpack and moved the rest to the windowsill. Then, he went into scatter mode, throwing Molotov cocktails and explosives everywhere.
The fire spread rapidly, accompanied by explosions. With the “Non-Flammable” trait, Shen Ge patted out the flames on the instant noodle boxes, opened one pack, and ate it like crunchy noodles.
The fire grew fiercer, drying up the green liquid on the floor and charring the thick layer of rotten flesh on the furniture.
“Here it comes!” Shen Ge swallowed the last of his noodles and looked up at the ceiling. Sure enough, wormholes began appearing one after another.
From each wormhole, a Liu Zongrui emerged—hanging upside down, with only the upper half of his body visible, six arms, and three insect-like heads.
“So the immune system really came out to kill the virus, huh?” Shen Ge decided to end things quickly. He activated “Crimson Mist Form,” gripped the Black Bone Dagger in his left hand and the Cleaver in his right, and leaped into the air with a kick from his anomalous leather boots, slicing off one of the insect heads.
Squelch!
As the insect head was severed, black liquid sprayed from the wound, extinguishing a patch of flames.
The “Liu Zongrui” clones now identified Shen Ge as the intruder and attacked him simultaneously.
But with the “Crimson Mist Form” enhancing his speed, Shen Ge was faster than the flying parasites. Liu Zongrui couldn’t catch him.
The fire in the living room grew increasingly intense. The flames alone were already damaging Liu Zongrui, and combined with Shen Ge’s black anomalous fire and Cleaver, the half-bodied immune clones were mostly eliminated within minutes.
Just then, the flesh-covered door of a second-floor bedroom exploded with a bang. A burly, fully formed “Liu Zongrui” burst through the wall and emerged.
As this complete “Liu Zongrui” appeared, Shen Ge clearly felt the space in the living room distort and shake, even affecting the spreading flames.
“Is the main event here?”
Liu Zongrui opened the middle insect mouth, the human face inside staring at Shen Ge with a ferocious, terrifying smile. Then, he stepped forward.
Shen Ge was already fast in “Crimson Mist Form,” but Liu Zongrui could keep up with his speed as he pounced.
They clashed mid-air. In that moment, Shen Ge understood what it meant to be “outnumbered.” Each of Liu Zongrui’s six arms was incredibly powerful. Without his armor, Shen Ge’s bones would have been shattered by the barrage.
“Little Seven, help me restrain him!” Shen Ge flashed behind Liu Zongrui, using the “Non-Emergence Anomalous Domain” to create a transparent barrier and buy a moment.
“Yes, Master!”
As Shen Ge moved behind Liu Zongrui, eight rotten flesh tentacles extended from his sides. One tentacle tie up each of Liu Zongrui’s six arms, while the remaining two wrapped around his neck and abdomen, “pinning” him in place.
Watching the armor’s energy plummet, Shen Ge knew how fiercely Liu Zongrui was resisting. At this rate, the energy would be depleted in seven or eight seconds.
Once “Crimson Mist Form” ended, he would lose all control over Liu Zongrui.
Shen Ge had to act fast. He retracted the armor from his right arm. The moment his hand appeared, it turned intangible, and he thrust it into Liu Zongrui’s back.
Intangibility!
Shen Ge made his right hand intangible, ignoring physical collision, and entered Liu Zongrui’s body. Then, he canceled the intangibility, grabbed what felt like a heart, and pulled it out!
This was the ability he had used to remove the bullet from Fang Mingyue, now modified for “heart extraction.” He had even given it a fitting name—
Great Serpent’s Heart Extraction!
Under the effect of “Intangibility,” Shen Ge directly pulled out Liu Zongrui’s “heart.” His left hand was already holding the Black Bone Dagger, ready.
Stab!
The moment the heart was extracted, Shen Ge plunged the dagger into it.
Liu Zongrui’s three insect heads shook violently, their mouths wide open, emitting disgusting swallowing sounds. His six arms struggled wildly, breaking free from the rotten flesh tentacles one by one.
But he was a few seconds too late. Shen Ge successfully used the Black Bone Dagger to peel, slice, and dice the heart—all that was left was plating.
Suddenly, the space around them distortion and shook crazyly. Then, Shen Ge felt an incredibly powerful pulling force dragging him…
Most importantly, the crisis mission in Lahu Water City rewarded 1 trait enhancement point. He wondered if this was a change brought about by reaching Tier 3.
Moreover, higher mental energy meant longer trait durations, especially for frequently used abilities like “Collapse,” which was typically measured in seconds. With nearly 700% mental energy, he could now use “Collapse” 14 times consecutively—a qualitative leap for Shen Ge.
“How do you plan to deal with him?” Deng Yuqi asked.
Shen Ge swallowed the last of his apple. “He expelled me from his body, which means he feels threatened. If he can kick me out, I can find a way back in. I’ll go back in and cause havoc. You attack from outside with the helicopter. We’ll hit him from both sides and drain his energy.”
The ***** armed helicopter was equipped with machine gun bullets, a Gatling gun, and plenty of throwables and Molotov cocktails.
Although firearms had near-zero effect on large anomalies, fire and bullet wounds could still drain their energy to some extent.
Deng Yuqi and Cheng Shengnan would attract the anomaly’s attention from outside while Shen Ge wreaked havoc inside.
“Good!” Deng Yuqi turned to head toward the helicopter.
Shen Ge grabbed her. “Wait. Another dozens minutes won’t hurt.”
“?” Deng Yuqi looked at him, confused, thinking he had other plans.
Shen Ge pulled out a few packs of instant noodles from his backpack. “Intermission. Let’s have some instant noodles.”
“…”
After eating, the three took a short break. Deng Yuqi and Cheng Shengnan went to man the helicopter, while Shen Ge activated “Intangibility” and approached the anomalous villa.
“Collapse!”
Shen Ge clad himself in full-body armor, used “Collapse” on the wall, and leaped into the villa, reappearing in the living room.
Now that he understood the chaotic space and time inside Liu Zongrui’s stomach, Shen Ge skipped “exploring” and directly drew explosives to cause trouble.
“System, I know you’ve felt Little Seven’s pressure lately. Your draws have been generous. Plus, I’ve figured out your drawing mechanism. There are no ‘abandoned’ trait equipment around Rong City, so I won’t push it. Just give me more explosives!”
“Rong City has the Quanlong Mountain base and so many armed police bases. Is ten or eight cases of grenades and bombs too much to ask?”
Shen Ge negotiated with the system in a friendly tone, then hummed the bgm of “The World Is Always Better” and spent his last 2,000+ system points.
“Ten draws!”
The first ten draws yielded two free point allocations, a case of instant noodles, a case of drinks, two guns, a case of Molotov cocktails, and the rest were explosives.
“Not bad, not bad. System, you’re getting better!” Shen Ge was satisfied with the prizes. Feeling he had enough explosives, he decided to try a few single draws to top up on Molotov cocktails.
[Ding!]
Thud!
With a loud noise, a massive object appeared out of thin air in the spacious living room.
[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the vehicle “ZTZ-99A Main Battle Tank.”]
A true miracle from a single draw! The system had generously given him a tank!
Shen Ge was in high spirits. He flipped open the hatch and found ten artillery shells inside. He began setting up the living room, placing timed explosives in various locations.
Then came the Molotov cocktails and explosives.
After finishing, Shen Ge jumped into the tank, handed control to Little Seven, and became the artilleryman. He fired a shell at the ceiling!
Boom!
A loud explosion shook the entire living room. Then, Shen Ge ignited the Molotov cocktails around the room and began artillery mode!
Meanwhile, Deng Yuqi piloted the armed helicopter to the outside of the villa and opened fire on the wormholes on the roof.
Cheng Shengnan sat in the back, accurately throwing Molotov cocktails and grenades into the wormholes.
As Shen Ge had predicted, the three of them attacked from inside and outside, draining Liu Zongrui’s energy even if firearms and artillery didn’t deal significant damage.
When Liu Zongrui realized another intruder had appeared inside him, he immediately activated “virus removal” mode. Clones of him appeared everywhere in the living room.
After using up all ten artillery shells, Shen Ge drove the tank around recklessly. Liu Zongrui controlled the rotten flesh around the living room to restrict the tank’s movement.
When the rotten flesh invaded the tank, Shen Ge felt that familiar pulling force again. Clearly, Liu Zongrui was trying to expel him.
Shen Ge had already prepared a countermeasure. As the domain’s power enveloped him, he used the Non-Emergence Domain to create a transparent barrier around himself.
The Non-Emergence Domain clashed with Liu Zongrui’s domain, causing the air to distorted violently. Faint sounds of glass cracking could be heard.
Shen Ge climbed out of the tank, munching on an apple. The Non-Emergence Domain moved with him. When he reached the living room, the distortion intensified.
“Little Seven, scan for the area with the highest anomalous energy concentration!” Shen Ge ordered.
“Yes, Master!” Little Seven immediately extended seven or eight rotten flesh tentacles to scan, quickly identifying the most energy-dense area.
“Master, the bathroom in the bedroom above!”
As expected!