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

Shen Ge's invisible barrier effectively isolated the terrifying erosion of the strange energy in that instant. Although the instruments in the laboratory were still malfunctioning, the spatial structure finally stabilized.

The alarm of "Hermes" gradually subsided, clearly indicating that after Shen Ge made his move, it shifted its computing power from confrontation to analysis.

"grown ups……"

Hephaestus stared with lingering fear at the invisible barrier and the woman still sleeping behind it: "What is this...?"

Shen Ge did not answer his question immediately, but instead scanned the woman with his eerie eyes.

Judging from the strange powers she possesses, she is a typical "weirdo".

Strangely, the eerie eye could not see the "freak's" characteristic of transplanting bizarre flesh into her body.

In other words, setting aside her supernatural abilities, this woman is a standard "human," but for a person to possess supernatural abilities is inherently abnormal.

Previously, through the outer shell of the hibernation pod, Shen Ge could only see a blurry flow of supernatural energy, but now he could see it very clearly.

“‘Hermes,’ what did you analyze?” Shen Ge asked.

The jumbled garbled text on the main control screen disappeared, replaced by a constantly flashing red warning sign and a line of text that "Hermes" had barely managed to translate from the existing database.

[Warning: Unknown 'information state' parasite detected.]

Naming protocol: Pandora.

Threat Level Assessment: ??? (Exceeds analysis limit)

[Infectivity prediction: Extremely high. It can spread through supernatural fluctuations, physical contact, and even "observation" activities.]

Upon seeing the last sentence, everyone in the lab instinctively took a step back, barely daring to breathe.

Could you get infected just by looking at it?

What a terrifying existence this is!

“Put her back in the hibernation chamber…” Hephaestus instinctively wanted to say “put her back in the hibernation chamber,” but he swallowed the words back down.

The hibernation pods have been completely shut down due to their hacking and the recent incident.

In other words, the terrifying "virus" carrier now named "Pandora" has been completely exposed to them.

They lost one of their most important "safes".

"Don't be nervous." Shen Ge's voice remained calm, breaking the deathly silence in the laboratory: "Viruses, we've seen plenty."

"..." As soon as he said that, if it weren't for his status, a lot of researchers in the lab would have wanted to retort.

However, the governor is no ordinary person; perhaps he has indeed seen countless viruses?

"My lord, what should we do now?" Ellie asked.

Shen Ge looked at the woman's tightly furrowed brows, as if she were enduring immense pain.

"What to do? Well, I guess I'll just have to give it a try." Shen Ge slowly stretched out his hand, ignoring the "No Physical Contact" warning issued by "Hermes".

His palm covered that thin, invisible barrier, as if he wanted to touch the woman's forehead through the barrier.

"Sir! No!"

Hephaestus exclaimed in alarm: "Hermes' predictions show that once the barrier disappears, the risk of infection with the Pandora virus will reach 99.9%!"

"Oh, if she can corrupt me, then she's quite formidable," Shen Ge said calmly.

Shen Ge was previously immune to the erosion of high-level ghost kings' ghost energy across ranks. Now that he is at the eighth rank, apart from the Primordial Ghost, no other ghost can affect him through erosion.

"You're in charge of keeping an eye on the equipment and preparing to record data," Shen Ge instructed.

After saying that, he stepped into the invisible barrier formed by the strange domain.

The moment they made contact, Shen Ge's consciousness was instantly pulled into a bizarre and fantastical world of information.

Countless chains of code, composed of "0"s and "1"s and flashing with an eerie red light, surged into his consciousness like venomous snakes, attempting to corrupt and rewrite everything about him.

[Unknown information state intrusion detected...]

[Activating the system's underlying defense protocol...]

[The protocol determines that this intruder possesses "homogeneous" attributes and has extremely high potential for absorption.]

[The "Devour" feature is automatically activated!]

In Shen Ge's sea of ​​consciousness, a dark vortex representing the origin of the "system" suddenly appeared.

It's like a highly efficient antivirus software, absorbing, breaking down, and crushing all those invading "Pandora" viruses!
Outside, everyone in the laboratory could only see that the point where Shen Ge's fingertips touched the woman's forehead emitted a burst of extremely unstable light, a mixture of black and red.

The woman's body began to convulse violently, and the countless lines of information flowing beneath her skin moved wildly, as if millions of tiny insects were crawling under her skin.

"My heart rate is skyrocketing!"

"The phantom energy reaction is getting out of control; her body can't take it anymore!"

"No, her vital signs are rapidly deteriorating!"

Hephaestus stared at the screen, his heart sinking. Shen Ge's contact seemed to have the opposite effect, accelerating the patient's death.

"No!" Ellie suddenly pointed to another screen: "Look! 'Pandora's' activity level... is decreasing!"

Everyone immediately looked over and saw that the red curve representing the activity of the "Pandora" virus, although still struggling and fluctuating, was generally falling at a steady pace.

Shen Ge's "devouring" is taking effect!

He wasn't just clearing the virus from the woman's body; he was drawing all the virus's attacks onto himself and then using the system to "purify" it.

"Stabilize her vital signs!" Shen Ge said in a deep voice with his eyes closed.

Hephaestus snapped out of his daze and immediately roared, "Prepare the 'Type III Bio-Battery' and reverse power it! Activate the backup life support system and inject the gentlest life essence extracted from the 'Root of the World' on the Root Continent into her body."

Shen Ge's consciousness has become the main battlefield against the "Pandora" virus. In his perception, the scarlet data streams that were "devoured" and absorbed by the system were not simply supernatural energy; they were more like the "artificial supernatural energy" of the Red Mist Armor.

Suddenly, the scene before Shen Ge's eyes changed.

He was no longer in the laboratory, but standing on the deck of the "Iron Heart," where the once vibrant sea city was now deathly silent.

The outer shell of the living alloy was covered with cracks, and countless emerald green vines withered and broke.

All the familiar faces—Alai, Ellie, Kyle, Roca, Hephaestus…—were fixed to the ship in a distorted posture, their bodies fused with the metal, their faces still bearing expressions of fear and despair, as if they had seen something terrifying.

"Illusion? That's too simplistic," Shen Ge's consciousness scoffed.

Having witnessed the illusion of "fragments of a dream," this mental attack, riddled with logical flaws, couldn't even stir his emotions. After a long while, Shen Ge's consciousness returned to "reality," and he discovered that the illusionary attack he had just experienced had caused "Pandora" to erode another 0.01 millimeters into the woman's cerebral cortex.

"A tactic to lure the tiger away from the mountain?" Shen Ge immediately understood the other party's intention.

He no longer paid attention to any illusions, but focused all his energy on the precise control of "devouring".

"It's no good, sir! Her heart is fibrosing, and her energy circulation is about to completely collapse. She is expected to be brain dead in thirty seconds!"

On the screen, the woman's vital signs curve plummeted, heading straight for the bottom.

"Stay calm." Shen Ge remained composed.

At this critical moment, instead of panicking, he made an "extreme micro-management" move.

He mobilized the power of the "Immovable Ghost Domain," covering the woman's body to create a miniature "bullet time" field.

In this field, the flow of time is forcibly slowed down.

The rate at which the woman's heart fibrosed, her energy collapsed, and even the rate at which her cells died were all artificially delayed.

However, this also puts a lot of strain on Shen Ge, because he has to operate "devour" at full power to fight the virus, maintain a high-precision "immovable ghost domain", not to mention he also has to maintain an invisible barrier that does not leave the ghost domain to protect the entire laboratory.

This is the first time he has used his own Ghost Domain while simultaneously opening two additional Ghost Domains with special characteristics. In other words, this is the first time he has opened three Ghost Domains!

But... that's not enough!
Shen Ge's eerie eyes pierced through the woman's flesh and blood, locking onto her failing heart. He then diverted a wisp of his mind to activate the "Invisible Eerie Domain."

Four mysterious realms open!

His supernatural powers manifested as countless invisible, intricate "hands" that probed into the woman's body. Bypassing the collapsing tissues, he forcibly constructed a "heart bypass" made entirely of supernatural power in a way that even surgeons could not have imagined.

This "bridge" temporarily replaced the function of the heart's aorta, maintaining the most basic blood circulation and buying him time to deal with "Pandora".

In the laboratory, Hephaestus and Ellie were completely stunned.

They saw that the woman, who had been declared "dead" on the instruments, had her vital signs curves miraculously pulled back from the "bottom" by invisible forces.

Is Shen Ge so powerful that he can bring people back to life?

“This, this is something only a ‘god’ could do…” a young researcher murmured to himself, his gaze toward Shen Ge now filled with fervent faith instead of awe.

[Pandora virus activity has dropped to 1%... core "information seed" discovered...]

[Warning: This seed contains a high concentration of "evil energy erosion." Consuming it will trigger unpredictable system mutations... Continue?]

"Swallow!" Shen Ge has swallowed countless random things, so one more won't make a difference.

The moment Shen Ge gave the command, the dark vortex in his sea of ​​consciousness unleashed an unprecedented suction force.

The "information seed—Pandora" hidden within the woman's body was uprooted by an irresistible force.

As the Pandora virus was completely eradicated, the woman lying on the experimental table underwent a miraculous transformation.

The strange lines that had been running down her skin faded away, restoring a healthy glow.

The heart that had been forcibly "bridged" began to regenerate at a visible rate under the nourishment of a massive amount of life essence.

The Hephaestus team, who had been maintaining the life support system, were pleasantly surprised to find that they no longer needed external intervention.

A woman's body is repairing itself with unimaginable efficiency.

"I hope the intelligence you bring will be worthy of all the hard work we've put in for so long." Shen Ge, now fully conscious, glanced at the sleeping woman.

A few minutes later.

The woman's long eyelashes trembled slightly.

Then, under the tense gaze of the core members, she slowly opened her silver-gray eyes.

There was no anticipation or murderous intent, nor the legendary pressure of a powerful figure.

Those eyes held only the bewilderment and purity of a newborn baby, and a lingering weakness from recovering from a serious illness.

Her gaze sluggishly swept across the ceiling, then over the surrounding instruments, before finally settling on Shen Ge.

Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but because she hadn't spoken for so long, she could only utter a hoarse, breathy sound.

Alai stepped forward and helped her up, while Ellie poured her a glass of warm water.

The woman seemed somewhat uncomfortable with this contact; her body stiffened slightly, but she did not resist.

"Thank you..." she finally uttered her first words after waking up.

"Who...am I?" she asked softly, seemingly having forgotten even her own identity.

"..." Very well, the first thing she says when she wakes up is who she is. There's no point in having any expectations for this kind of cliché plot.

Shen Ge asked helplessly, "You don't remember anything?"

"I remember." The woman's unexpected answer surprised everyone.

Remember?

Then why are you asking who you are?
The woman said, "I remember a lot of things, but it's all jumbled up. My mind is filled with blurry images and chaotic memories. I want to know, who am I?"

It turned out to be the case.

Everyone suspected that the woman had been asleep for too long, and that Shen Ge's "surgery" had damaged her brain, affecting her memory.

Alai and the others tried asking a few questions, but the women all said their memories were vague and they couldn't remember clearly.

After discussing it, everyone decided that they should wait for the woman to rest for a couple of days and recover before continuing with these issues.

Alai thoughtfully gave her the name "Zero," intending for her to "start from zero."

Finally, only Alai and Ellie, along with a few medical personnel, remained in the room to take care of them, while the rest of the people left to do their own things.

In the afternoon, Shen Ge observed "Zero" talking with the two sisters, Alai and Ellie, through the observation window of the medical room. She saw that "Zero" simply raised her hand and touched the medical machine next to her.

As she touched it, the screen of the instrument, which had previously stopped working, slowly lit up with lines of strange symbols made of silver energy.

Hephaestus, who was recording the events, was dumbfounded and exclaimed in disbelief, "She...she's 'communicating' with a machine?"

Shen Ge really wanted to say, "You're asking me? Who exactly is the researcher?", but then she thought that would be a bit of a blow to her No. 6 fan, so she swallowed her words and nodded in a serious manner.

"should be."

“Hermes,” Hephaestus quickly ordered, “Try to establish a data link with her, but do not conduct any active probes. Act only as a ‘receiver’ and record all the information she transmits.” (End of Chapter)