The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

At Shen Ge's instruction, Xiao Qi answered via her wristwatch: "Yes. Colonel Hansen claimed that she was receiving treatment and in isolation, but I checked all the surveillance footage in the base's medical and isolation areas, and even used the Blood Spiders' secret search, but I couldn't find any trace of her. It's as if she vanished into thin air. However, the Blood Spiders who remained at the IDEA base are still exploring, and perhaps they can find something."

"However, I planted a blood spider inside Camille to monitor her state of being corrupted by the psychic energy. Shortly after entering the IDEA base, my connection with that blood spider was completely severed by a powerful interference."

“I suspect that Camille’s ‘disappearance’ is related to certain forces within IDEA, or even to that organization impersonating you. She may know something, or… she herself is a target.”

Deng Yuqi remained silent for a moment, and the only sound in the office was the soft tapping of her fingers on the table.

"Impersonating high-ranking officials, attempting to mislead and control Shen Ge's actions; forcibly seizing research targets of special value; Camille's mysterious disappearance; and that 'Hunter' organization hidden behind multiple layers of bizarre spaces, which even you find troublesome..."

Deng Yuqi slowly summarized, each point like a heavy stone: "The Australian disaster seems to have subsided, but beneath the surface, undercurrents are surging, even more turbulent and complex than we had anticipated."

She raised her head, her gaze sweeping over Shen Ge and Liu Jiayi, her eyes becoming incredibly sharp and determined: "Shen Ge, the information and samples you brought back are extremely crucial. Next, Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen's team will go all out to try and find a breakthrough from Sally and York."

"I will personally exert pressure on Camille's whereabouts through official international channels against the treacherous organization. At the same time, I will have Zhang Quan activate our own intelligence network to secretly investigate. That organization that dares to impersonate me and Li Xiang... must be brought to justice!"

"As for the 'hunter'..."

Deng Yuqi's gaze finally settled on Shen Ge. "They are a more mysterious and dangerous existence than the 'Weird Organization.' Shen Ge, you need to recover your strength as soon as possible and sort out all the experiences and clues from this incident. I have a feeling that we may be standing on the edge of an even bigger storm. And Rong City may be the next target."

Shen Ge picked up the cup of tea he hadn't drunk yet and downed it in one gulp, his eyes as deep and unfathomable as a cold pool: "I understand. If the storm is coming, then let it come. The hunters... I will find them."

After leaving Deng Yuqi's office, Shen Ge did not go straight to rest.

The things he brought back were far more important than his personal rest, so he headed straight for the heavily guarded research center located deep underground in the Special Operations Department.

In the handover area specially prepared for highly confidential experimental samples, Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen, along with their team, were already on high alert. Upon seeing Shen Ge, their eyes gleamed with eager anticipation.

"You brought everything?" Li Xiang rubbed his hands together, unable to hide his excitement. He knew that Shen Ge's trip to the multiple strange spaces had yielded amazing results.

Shen Ge nodded without saying a word. He and the fully armed group arrived at the high-level bizarre containment chamber. Then, invisible bizarre energy fluctuations spread out, expanding the bizarre domain. Accompanied by a spatial ripple, a large number of contained and bound "experimental samples" appeared out of thin air and floated neatly on the isolation platform.

There are bizarre humanoid remains of various shapes, exuding a cold aura. Their twisted limbs and empty eye sockets silently tell the horror of the eerie space.
There are samples of a new type of parasitic and eerie tissue sealed in specially made eerie containers, some of which are still wriggling slightly and emitting ominous eerie energy fluctuations;
There were also metal plates covered with unknown symbols seized from the monster organization's stronghold, encrypted hard drives storing massive amounts of data, and some strange instruments of unknown purpose.

"It's all here. Apart from the two anti-monster agents, there are 27 other humanoid monsters of varying completeness; 18 parasitic monster samples, with varying activity levels; and a batch of research records and equipment from the monster organization. Xiao Qi has a backup of the specific classification and preliminary analysis."

Xiao Qi stepped out from behind Shen Ge, her secondary armor form materializing at the opportune moment. The red mist armor slightly adjusted its form, and a data interface extended: "Minister Li, Deputy Minister Jiang, the preliminary scan data of all samples, the capture environment records, and my preliminary decryption results of some of the freak organization's encrypted data have been compiled."

Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen immediately instructed their assistants to connect the equipment, and a massive data stream instantly flooded into the research center's supercomputer.

As they watched the rapidly scrolling information stream on the screen and the bizarre, unprecedented samples, the two experts in the research field took a few deep breaths.

This is like opening up a whole new treasure trove of information about eerie spaces and freak organizations!
"That's...that's amazing!"

Jiang Peiwen stared fervently at a sample of a parasite that pulsated slowly in a container, resembling a black heart: "The value of these samples is immeasurable, Captain Shen, you've done another great service!"

Li Xiang, however, was more focused on the research records and equipment. He adjusted his glasses, his gaze sharp: "With these, we can not only gain a deeper understanding of the ecology of the strange space and the technical routes of the monster organization, but we may even find a breakthrough in combating the unknown methods of the monster organization. Old Shen, don't worry, my junior sister and I will personally oversee the work to ensure that the research is carried out with the highest efficiency and safety standards."

Shen Ge looked at the two experts in front of him, who were immersed in their research, and nodded. He naturally trusted their professional competence and sense of responsibility.

"Okay. The subsequent in-depth analysis and experiments will be your responsibility. Xiao Qi will stay and assist you; its sub-armor system can help with some high-precision operations and real-time monitoring. If you encounter any tricky problems, or if the sample shows any uncontrollable anomalies, notify me immediately," Shen Ge instructed.

"Okay." Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen said in unison, their understanding perfect.

Leaving the research area and arriving at the Special Affairs Department's playground, the afterglow of the setting sun bathed the Special Affairs Department building in a warm golden light.

Shen Ge headed straight for the agents' dormitory area. For some reason, after leaving the multiple strange spaces, he was overwhelmed by both physical and mental exhaustion. What he needed most right now was a deep sleep.

As they passed the Information Department, the three little ones poked their heads out and waved the encrypted tablet in their hands: "Captain Shen, Director Cheng asked me to tell you that she and Ms. Cheng went to the hotel across the street and won't be coming back tonight. She told you to get some rest."

Shen Ge paused, then nodded. Cheng Shengnan and her mother, having survived the ordeal, must have endless things to talk about and need some alone time.

He returned to his simple, almost deserted dormitory room, quickly washed up, and then threw himself heavily onto the bed. The soft mattress enveloped his body, and the long-lost sense of security and comfort almost instantly lulled him into a dream.

"call."

Finally home.

But he forced himself to stay conscious and took out the fragment containing only "1 point" of dream power from his pocket.

It lay quietly in his palm, emitting a faint yet exceptionally pure soft light.

"ark……"

Shen Ge murmured the name, that colossal creation that floated and sank among countless fragmented worlds, carrying humanity's last hope but ultimately lost its way.

He closed his eyes, concentrated all his energy, and tried to guide the faint power of the dream to sense and locate the coordinates of the ark lost in the turbulent flow of time and space.

hum...

The fragments were slightly warm, their soft light flickering erratically. Shen Ge's consciousness seemed to be drawn in, plunging him into a bizarre, shattered, and inverted kaleidoscope world. Countless distorted images, broken rules, and chaotic flows of time washed over him like a torrent. He struggled to search within this chaos for that familiar, stable, unique fluctuation belonging to the "Ark."

However, that 1 point of dream power was as weak as a candle flickering in the wind. It could only allow Shen Ge's consciousness to linger briefly at the edge of this chaos, to feel the boundless sense of loss and confusion, but it could not penetrate deep enough to pinpoint any specific coordinates.

After several attempts, the rapid depletion of his mental energy made Shen Ge feel dizzy. He opened his eyes helplessly, looked at the fragments in his palm that were still emitting a faint light, and sighed.

“Still…not enough,” he muttered to himself. This amount of power couldn’t even create a ripple in the ocean of fragmented worlds, let alone locate a lost “giant ship.”

Carefully collecting the fragments, Shen Ge didn't insist any further. The accumulated physical and mental exhaustion completely overwhelmed him, and he quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

……

……

The next two days were a rare, almost luxurious period of peace for the Rong City Special Operations Department, especially for Shen Ge, who had just returned from a harrowing ordeal.

There were no sudden alarms of strange disasters, no emergency combat meetings, and no looming threat of attacks from freak organizations.

At the research center, Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen were leading their team to analyze samples day and night. The occasional news they received was good news about a key piece of data being cracked or a sample characteristic being initially grasped. For the time being, there was no trouble that required Shen Ge's intervention.

Thanks to Jiang Peiwen's efforts, Sally and York's freaking was successfully controlled, building on previous research into suppressing Cheng Shengnan's freaking.

Cheng Shengnan accompanied his mother on a tour of various places in Rong City to help her relax and make up for lost time.

Mother Cheng seemed to have completely let go of the constraints of family affairs and was enjoying the happiness of family life, with more smiles on her face than ever before.

Shen Ge also completely relaxed. After experiencing this multi-dimensional strange space event, he was surprised to find that his "sleepiness" had returned, and he was able to need sleep like a normal person.

He sleeps until he naturally wakes up every day, does restorative exercises at the Special Operations Department's training ground, leisurely eats a meal at the canteen, and even goes to the Information Department to play a couple of games of chess with his mentor when he's bored.

This long-awaited, mundane daily life brought unprecedented relief to his nerves, which had been tense for so long. Consequently, the gaze he gave Cheng Shengnan lost some of the sharpness he had displayed in battle, and gained a touch of warmth befitting an ordinary person.

That afternoon, the sun shone brightly. After finishing her backlog of work, Cheng Shengnan went to the research center to find Shen Ge, who was cooperating with an experiment.

"The weather's nice today, shall we go for a walk?" She looked at Shen Ge with a relaxed smile on her face.

Shen Ge was stunned for a moment, her expression somewhat tense. It wasn't that she didn't want to go shopping with Cheng Shengnan, but it seemed that every "date" between the two of them always had some kind of little incident.

As luck would have it, all of these little incidents were related to the supernatural.

"Where do you want to go?" Shen Ge asked.

"I'll take you somewhere." Cheng Shengnan smiled mysteriously and led Shen Ge to the garage to get a car. Since her left foot and left hand had not fully recovered, the driving job was naturally handed over to Shen Ge... or rather, to Xiao Qi, since someone didn't even have a driver's license yet.

Guided by Cheng Shengnan, the car arrived at the bustling city center and finally stopped in front of a rebuilt upscale hotel.

Shen Ge stared at the building before her, now completely renovated yet still bearing traces of its former appearance, and paused for a moment.

"This place... has been rebuilt?" He recognized it; it was the hotel where they had their first official "date" but encountered a strange incident.

“Hmm.” Cheng Shengnan parked the car, looking at the hotel with a complicated but mostly relieved gaze. “It’s even more beautiful than before after the reconstruction, and the facilities have been upgraded. The owner specially kept that terrace restaurant, saying it’s a ‘lucky place’ because… our great Celestial Empire’s first pair of ghost detectives caused two bizarre incidents there.”

As he spoke, Cheng Shengnan laughed, making Shen Ge feel somewhat helpless. He was like a certain elementary school student who was destined to cause trouble wherever he went.

Cheng Shengnan turned to look at Shen Ge, a gentle smile in her eyes: "So, Detective Shen, how about rewatching it? This time... there shouldn't be any surprises, right?"

Looking into Cheng Shengnan's eyes, at the calm after surviving the ordeal and the anticipation for the future, Shen Ge felt a surge of warmth in his heart. He reached out and took her hand, feeling its real warmth.

"Okay." A relaxed and genuine smile appeared on his lips. "This time, I promise, I'll only eat, not fight monsters."

"That's not up to you to decide," Cheng Shengnan joked.

The two smiled at each other, as if all their burdens had been lifted, and walked hand in hand into the hotel.

After the two entered the hotel, they noticed a small red dot on the sole of Shen Ge's shoe before it disappeared into the nearby green belt in the blink of an eye.

On the other side, at the entrance of the parking lot where Shen Ge parked, a middle-aged woman dressed very casually walked into the parking lot, stopping and starting as if looking for something. Finally, she stopped at the intersection where Shen Ge parked and looked at Shen Ge's car.

Then, the woman took out a black test tube from her bag, tossed it, and it fell to the ground near the front wheel of the car, scattering fragments everywhere. The black, oil-like substance inside "flowed" under the wheel and merged into the groove of the wheel.

After the woman entered the underground parking lot, the surveillance footage there briefly showed static, and the woman was not visible on the screen.

After throwing away the test tube, the woman left the underground parking lot without looking back and got into a black sedan parked on the side of the road.

After getting into the car, the woman wiped her face, revealing her true appearance—it was none other than the leader of one of the twelve tribes who had met Shen Ge once before! (End of Chapter)