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

Chapter 658 The New Cult Reappears, Gear Continent!

The ability of "Zero" caught the attention of Shen Ge and Hephaestus. The two went into the room to ask her about her ability, but unfortunately, she still knew nothing about it.

There was no other way; these things obviously couldn't be rushed, so Shen Ge could only let "Zero" rest first.

After leaving ample medical resources and caregivers in the isolation medical room, Shen Ge returned to the central control room to discuss the next steps with Hephaestus.

Zero was temporarily placed in the infirmary, accompanied by Ellie and others.

Her body is recovering at an extremely fast pace, but her memory is still fragmented, requiring Alai to help her gradually rediscover the world, just like teaching a child.

Her occasional, unconscious ability to resonate with the technology of the pioneers was treasured by Hephaestus's "Pandora Project Team," who carefully recorded and studied it.

As the route continued northward, the color of the sea gradually transitioned from deep blue to an ominous grayish-black, and a faint stench of blood and rotting flesh filled the air.

"Sir, we have entered the 'magnetic storm area' marked on the 'chart'." Roca's voice came through the communicator in the central command hall. He was leading a "Raider" squad on a routine patrol on the outskirts of the city.

“The magnetic field here is extremely chaotic. Our conventional compass has completely failed, and the detection range of the ‘Prophet’s Eye’ has been reduced by nearly 70%.”

“‘Hermes,’ switch to gravitational field navigation. Have ‘Zero’… um, have the medical team keep an eye on her reaction, see if she has any special sensitivity to this coordinate,” Shen Ge said.

“Command received,” Hermes replied.

"According to the EEG feedback of 'Patient Zero,' she showed a slight 'affinity' response to the current course, which proves that we have not gone the wrong way."

Relying on this semi-technical, semi-mystical navigation method, "Iron Heart" struggled to navigate the chaotic seas for another half month.

During this time, they encountered "electromagnetic jellyfish swarms" that could interfere with the operation of machinery, and also hunted "mysterious ships" formed by the fusion of decaying warships and marine life. Although they escaped unscathed, they made everyone realize that the northern seas were a completely different and dangerous place from the past.

Finally, on the morning of the sixteenth day, as the first rays of sunlight pierced through the thin mist on the sea, the "Iron Heart" sailed into a mirror-like ocean.

The seawater here has a leaden gray, viscous texture. There is not a ripple on the surface, and no sound can be heard.

Looking into the sea with Shen Ge's eerie eyes, the concentration of eerie energy in this area was astonishingly high, almost liquefied, yet strangely there were no signs of any eerie activity, as if it were a "sterile zone" soaked in a deadly poison.

“This, it’s too quiet here…” a young guard muttered to himself over the communications channel, his voice standing out starkly in the deathly silence.

"All personnel, level one combat alert." Kyle's voice immediately lowered, carrying a hint of solemnity: "This place is more dangerous than the Strange Tide."

The speed of "Iron Heart" has slowed down.

Everyone held their breath and carefully made their way through this leaden-gray "Dead Sea".

For three whole days, they encountered nothing.

The oppressive silence gripped everyone's heart like an invisible hand, more agonizing than any visible enemy.

Just when everyone's nerves were stretched to the limit, Hermes' alarm suddenly sounded!

[Warning! Extremely high intensity paranormal energy detected rapidly approaching from the 7 o'clock position to the left rear! Target level: Tier 7!]

On the main screen of the command center, an enormous red dot of light was hurtling toward the "Iron Heart" in a reckless manner!
“It’s injured! Its strange energy fluctuations are very unstable, it seems to be… trying to escape?” Ellie pointed sharply at the screen.

Before the words were even finished, the smooth surface of the sea was suddenly torn apart, and a huge head, as big as a small mountain and covered with countless pale white eyeballs, burst out of the water with a foul stench!

It was a terrifying monster that was over a thousand meters long and looked like a combination of a giant starfish and a tumor. Half of its body was covered with neat wounds that were deep enough to expose the bone, as if it had been cut by some kind of sharp blade, and it was flowing with magma-like, eerie blood.

It clearly used "Iron Heart" as a "supply station" on its escape route, and its largest single eye was filled with savage greed.

"Armed units, all artillery, fire!" Shen Ge didn't even get up; he simply calmly issued the order.

On the living alloy shell of "Iron Heart", hundreds of cannons instantly "grew" out, and plasma cannonballs flashing with electricity, bone spears and giant crossbows whistling like a rainstorm poured out, frantically bombarding the wounds of the Ghost King!

"Ow!"

The intense pain caused the monster king to let out a deafening roar. It recklessly swung its thick tentacles and slammed them hard against the "Iron Heart's" energy shield.

boom!
The entire city shook violently!
"Raider Legion! Attack!" Kyle and Roca could no longer contain themselves and led the fifty "Raider-III" mechs that had been fully prepared into battle.

"when---"

A bell suddenly rang out over the sea.

Time and space seemed to freeze eerily at this moment.

The seventh-tier demon king, who was in a frenzy, suddenly froze.

For the first time, a look of "fear" appeared in those countless pale eyes, as if they had seen something terrifying.

"when---"

The second chime followed immediately, even more urgent than the first, as an invisible force swept across the entire sea like a tidal wave.

That ferocious seventh-tier monster king didn't even have a chance to struggle against this power.

Its massive, mountain-like body seemed to have been thrown into a decomposition furnace, disintegrating inch by inch from the outside in. Its tough flesh and powerful demonic energy were forcibly dissolved under the tolling of the bell, reduced to the purest form of demonic energy, which dissipated into the leaden-gray seawater.

Now Shen Ge finally understood why the "concentration of strange energy" in this sea area was so high.

In just over ten seconds, a powerful entity that could give anyone a headache, an entity capable of destroying a country in "reality," was dealt with just like that.

Even though Shen Ge had already reached the eighth level, he was still shocked at this moment.

The command hall of "Iron Heart" was deathly silent.

Everyone was speechless with shock at the scene before them. Kyle and Roca's "Raider" squad also stopped their mechs and stared blankly at the empty sea.

"It's that bell again..." Shen Ge slowly stood up, squinting as he looked in the direction from which the bell sound came.

The last time I heard this bell was when I encountered the Neo-Cult fleet.

"when---"

The third chime sounded.

On the leaden-gray sea, a "road" paved with countless brass gears and white bone fragments stretches from the distant horizon all the way to the front of the "Iron Heart".

At the end of the road, a strangely shaped ghost ship waited silently. "It really is them again." Shen Ge's gaze darkened slightly.

The ship's hull was entirely pieced together from the skeletons of humans and unknown creatures, but between the gaps in the skeletons were countless slowly rotating brass gears and springs.

The figurehead is a faceless, hooded statue of a praying figure. The entire ship eerily blends three distinct styles—holy, death, and mechanical—into one.

On the boat, two rows of figures stood.

They wore white robes embroidered with golden gear patterns, even more magnificent than those of the "Faceless Messengers" Shen Ge had encountered before.

Their exposed limbs had been completely replaced by gleaming brass machinery, with only a pair of empty eyes emitting a dim, brass-colored light in the shadow of their hoods.

Like... two light bulbs that are about to run out of power.

This was Shen Ge's first reaction.

"Lost pilgrims".

A voice devoid of any emotion, seemingly synthesized from countless machines, resounded above the "Iron Heart".

"You have passed the test of the 'Sea of ​​Trials'."

“Any strong individual who can persevere in the ‘silent pasture’ designated by our Lord without being swallowed up by the ‘noise’ is qualified to go to the seat of the ‘new god’ and listen to the teachings of the ‘bell of truth’.”

"..." Good grief, here we go again?
The last "envoy" was just fooled, and now another one is coming?
The voice paused, as if scrutinizing "Iron Heart," this steel behemoth that stood out starkly from its surroundings.

The living alloy shell, the lush green vine network, the huge ecological dome at the top... these elements, full of "flesh and blood" and "disorder," should have been the objects of their "purification."

However, the immense power displayed by the "Iron Heart," and the fact that it withstood the attack of a seventh-tier Ghost King unscathed, clearly changed their judgment.

"Your 'forms' may appear chaotic, but your 'cores' are resilient enough."

"Our Lord has issued a divine decree: You are qualified to have an audience. Come with us and bask in the glory of the 'Mechanical Kingdom'."

Shen Ge was about to say, "What are you babbling about? Get me fired first," but the pilot bone ship had already slowly turned its bow, signaling "Iron Heart" to follow.

?

Is he trying to take us to his lair?

A year ago, Shen Ge might have hesitated. Back then, the reason he refused the "Faceless Messenger" was because his supernatural powers had not yet been restored.

He has not only regained his ability to use his supernatural powers, but has even reached the eighth rank. In addition, with the cells of the Primordial Supernatural, unless the fully-formed Primordial Supernatural arrives, it is impossible for it to pose a threat to him.

Looking at the ghost ship, Hephaestus's face revealed a complex expression for the first time, a mixture of fanaticism and vigilance: "My lord, they say... a mechanical heaven? A new god? This is exactly the ideal I have pursued all my life, but... it is too bizarre."

"So...should we go, or not?" Alai looked at Shen Ge, her eyes asking.

A playful smile appeared on Shen Ge's lips.

"Go, why not go?"

He sat back in his commander's seat, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest.

"I'd like to see what kind of 'new god' dares to treat a seventh-tier Ghost King as a 'substandard product' and casually eliminate him."

"Hermes, notify the entire city to remove all our messy 'biological' features and activate the 'Armed Spawn' system to its maximum. Let them see what real... 'mechanical ascension' looks like."

The pilot ship maintained a steady speed ahead, its course not a straight line, but following a complex, precise arc, like the hairspring of a clock.

Shen Ge noticed that whenever the "Iron Heart" deviated slightly from this invisible course due to inertia, the surrounding seawater would generate a subtle repulsive force, gently pushing it back onto the right track.

Shen Ge tapped his fingertips lightly on the armrest of the commander's chair, his eyes slightly darkening: "The 'rules' here have permeated every drop of seawater."

The new cults in this world are probably more difficult to deal with than I imagined.

Shen Ge even suspected that this was a world where a new cult had triumphed.

After sailing for about half a day, a "Great Wall at Sea" appeared on the horizon ahead, stretching across the sky and composed of countless interlocking giant brass gears.

The smallest of these gears was hundreds of meters in diameter, while the largest was comparable to a small island. They rotated slowly with a complex rhythm, and dazzling arcs of energy burst between the gears, forming an insurmountable barrier on the sea surface.

Shen Ge could clearly sense that the rotation of these gears did not produce a simple physical force field, but a higher-level "space cutting" effect.

Any object that attempts to force its way in, no matter how sturdy, will be instantly engulfed in countless tiny spatial fractures and crushed into the most basic particles.

"This is... a more advanced multi-dimensional ghost space?" Shen Ge immediately became interested.

"Is this something that could be built by human hands?" Roca exclaimed in amazement as he gazed at the "Great Wall" before him, a feat that could only be described as a miracle.

Even with the current size and defensive capabilities of "Iron Heart," trying to force its way through this line of defense would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

“This wasn’t ‘built’,” Hephaestus adjusted his glasses, his eyes no longer showing fear, but only an almost obsessive fervor.

"This is something that 'grew' out!"

"Sir, you see, those gears are not made of simple metal. They have biological activity; they are self-repairing and slowly expanding. It's a living mechanical ecosystem!"

The pilot boat did not stop; it sailed toward an area on the Great Wall that seemed to have no road.

As it approached, the two enormous main gears smoothly separated to the sides in a way that defied the laws of physics, revealing a narrow waterway just wide enough for the "Iron Heart" to pass through.

After passing through the Great Wall, a breathtaking view suddenly appeared.

A "world" that defied everyone's imagination was unfolding before their eyes.

There are no islands, no land.

What comes into view is a vast mechanical continent floating on the sea.

The entire continent is like a huge, intricate, slowly turning brass clock that defies description.

The city is not static; countless towering architectural modules, a perfect blend of Gothic and steampunk styles, are moving, rising, falling, and rotating at their own speeds along precise tracks.

(End of this chapter)