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

"With these..."

Holding the living alloy sample, Li Xiang couldn't wait to rush back to the lab.

“Give me three months! No, one month! I can reverse engineer the preliminary alloy formula! Give me another six months, and I can equip all of our ‘Azure Dragon’ mechs with this armor! Even… creating a mass-produced ‘Candle Dragon’ mech that surpasses the ‘Azure Dragon’ class, and establishing an unmanned ‘Raider’ legion, is not impossible!”

Shen Ge smiled and promised him that although large-scale personnel and supplies could not be exchanged at present, he would study and establish a stable teleportation channel as soon as possible. At that time, the massive industrial production capacity of "Iron Heart" could be transformed into the most solid support for the "real" world to fight against the strange phenomena.

As the meeting ended, Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen practically rushed out of the meeting room with the samples in their arms, forgetting to even say goodbye.

Only Shen Ge and Deng Yuqi remained in the room.

"Hermes..." Deng Yuqi's expression, while excited, also revealed a deep worry. "This kind of 'man-made monster' technology, and the 'Iron Heart' technology route that fuses flesh and blood... don't you think it's too similar to the mistakes of the 'Purification Faction' of the pioneers?"

Her concerns were not unfounded, but rather the most instinctive vigilance of a leader against the risk of things getting out of control.

"I understand your concerns." Shen Ge looked at her calmly.

"But the tools themselves are neither right nor wrong. The failure of the pioneers lies in their madness and infighting. As for us, we have bottom lines, and we also have supervisors like you and me."

"Rest assured, Minister," he promised, "I will personally oversee the research on this technology to ensure that it will always be a sword in our hands, not poison pointed at us."

After handing over the future technological blueprint of "Iron Heart" to Li Xiang and others, Shen Ge's life finally ushered in a moment of peace.

After his return, Rongcheng entered a strange "euphoric period," with everyone full of energy, while he chose to dedicate his time to the person who had been quietly waiting for him for three years.

It was evening, in Cheng Shengnan's information center office.

"Still busy?" Shen Ge leaned against the door frame, looking at the figure who was still engrossed in his work.

Cheng Shengnan looked up and saw it was him. A gentle smile involuntarily appeared on her face: "It'll be ready soon. The final analysis report on the recent activity patterns of the 'polluters'."

“We’ll write the report tomorrow,” Shen Ge walked up behind her, gently put his arm around her shoulder, and whispered in her ear, “Tonight, your time is mine. Let’s go for a walk.”

Cheng Shengnan's heart skipped a beat, and a blush rose to her cheeks. She couldn't help but tease, "Tell me, when have we ever had a smooth shopping trip?"

"this time?"

"Haha, okay then."

Shen Ge glanced at the file on the table out of the corner of her eye, but a barely perceptible cold glint flashed in her eyes.

After reviewing all the recent unsolved cases about the "polluters," one name caught his attention—"Rosemary."

This is a newly opened high-end private club that operates on a strict membership system and has been open for less than six months.

Over the past three months, several cases of disappearances of social elites recorded by the Special Investigations Department have all pointed to this location as the last known location of the missing persons. However, due to the complex networks of relationships involved and the lack of direct evidence, the investigation has been unable to proceed further.

"Instead of waiting like a headless fly for the next alarm to sound."

Shen Ge leaned closer to Cheng Shengnan, his nose almost touching her earlobe, his voice tinged with a hint of teasing: "Why don't we take the initiative to 'knock on the door' and see what kind of monsters are hiding inside? So... how about we go on a date tonight?"

Cheng Shengnan instantly understood his intention. This was no date; it was clearly a meticulously planned "entrapment."

She rolled her eyes at him, scolding him for his inappropriate behavior, but a long-lost excitement welled up inside her—the thrill of fighting alongside him.

……

Night falls and the lanterns are turned on.

A low-key black sedan pulled up in front of the dazzling entrance to the "Rosemary" club.

The car door opened, and Shen Ge, dressed in a well-tailored custom suit, appeared dashing.
Beside her, Cheng Shengnan had changed into an elegant black evening gown. Her long hair was slightly curled, and her face, lightly made up, was breathtakingly beautiful under the lights.

The two walked arm in arm, like any upper-class couple coming to relax, and were respectfully led into this luxurious den of iniquity by a waiter.

Inside the club, soothing jazz music flowed through the air, and well-dressed men and women chatted quietly amidst the clinking of wine glasses.

Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan chose a corner booth, ordered two glasses of red wine, and ostensibly enjoyed their time together, but in reality, they had already begun a silent hunt.

Shen Ge leaned casually against the sofa. Through the vision of the [Strange Eye], the strange energy reactions of everyone in the entire lounge were as clear as points of light in the dark.

"Three strange people?" Shen Ge narrowed his eyes, not expecting that there were actually strange people around here.

Moreover, these strange beings were the same kind he had discovered on the ghost plane before—the kind that were deeply hidden and had a very faint aura of strangeness.

However, with Shen Ge's current strength, even if he possesses a trace of supernatural power, it would be completely exposed in front of the Supernatural Eye.

Cheng Shengnan, under the guise of touching up her makeup, silently scanned everyone present using a miniature detector disguised on her earring, transmitting the data to the back office in real time.

Meanwhile, a temporary command post had been set up in an inconspicuous cleaning vehicle 500 meters away from the clubhouse.

Fang Mingyue, dressed in a smart parking attendant uniform and wearing a baseball cap, was conducting mobile surveillance in the outer parking lot.

Inside the vehicle, Tu Doupi was leading his information warfare team, his fingers flying across the virtual keyboard, providing precise support to his teammates ahead.

“Captain Shen,” Tu Doupi’s voice came through encrypted bone conduction headphones.

"The target in booth number three is male. His vital signs are stable, but emotional spectrum monitoring shows that he has experienced three abnormal spikes of extreme excitement in the past ten minutes, which are seriously inconsistent with the atmosphere of the environment. He has been classified as a first-level suspect."

Just then, the target, a refined-looking man with gold-rimmed glasses who looked like a university professor, walked towards Shen Ge and Cheng Shengnan's booth with a smile, holding a wine glass.

He politely joined their conversation under the pretext of "discussing art." He was witty, knowledgeable, and extremely charming. However, when he met Cheng Shengnan's gaze, Shen Ge still caught a glimpse of a hidden, almost imperceptible, eerie light in his eyes.

An extremely subtle and twisted spiritual tendril, like an invisible venomous snake, silently infiltrated Cheng Shengnan's mental defenses.

However, the moment the tentacle extended, it seemed to have run headlong into an absolute defense constructed of pure will.

Shen Ge didn't even lift his eyelids; he simply brought the wine glass to his lips and took a small sip. A terrifying mental force, far beyond the other's comprehension, instantly backfired through that fragile "link"!
"puff--"

The "polluter" was struck dumb, his body trembling violently. The wine glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground with a sharp crack. His face instantly turned ashen, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. The confident and elegant light in his eyes was completely replaced by boundless horror and a fear as if he had seen a ghost.

What exactly is he?
His once-proud and invincible mental attacks were now as fragile as a baby's babbling in the face of this opponent. He finally realized that he hadn't been eyeing a plump sheep tonight, but a terrifying and bizarre creature disguised as a human!
"Sorry, excuse me."

The "polluter" forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, then immediately turned around and frantically tried to blend into the crowd on the dance floor to escape.

Shen Ge did not get up to chase after them. He simply smiled at Cheng Shengnan and then gently snapped his fingers in the direction where there was no one.

"Snapped."

A soft sound was drowned out by the loud music.

Without any of the ordinary guests in the club noticing, the dimly lit corridor leading to the back restroom was suddenly twisted and folded by an invisible force.

"Do not leave the realm of the supernatural!"
The "polluter" who was running wildly suddenly felt a blur in his vision. He was rushing towards the exit, but he found himself crashing into a small, temporarily created space that was completely isolated from the real world and had only pale white walls.

No matter how much he charged, he could only spin around in place.

To the guests mingling and exchanging toasts, the elegant man who had lost his composure seemed to have vanished into thin air after walking down the corridor.

"Notify Captain Tu," Shen Ge said, taking Cheng Shengnan's hand. Amidst the envious gazes of the crowd, she gracefully rose and walked to the center of the dance floor. They were there for a "date," so naturally they had to dance.

At the same time, Shen Ge notified Fang Mingyue at the rear via the channel.

“The fish is in the net. Time to wrap up.”

All the targets marked by Shen Ge were captured by the special operations team's anti-terrorist agents. After handing Cheng Shengnan over to Fang Mingyue for protection, Shen Ge pushed open the seemingly ordinary corridor door.

Behind the door lies another dimension.

Trapped in its isolated space, the "Polluter," whose distorted form had already been partially revealed, was trembling and watching the slowly approaching figure with despair.

Shen Ge wore a playful smile, as if offering the most "friendly" greeting to his first "research sample" since his return.

The outside noise and celebrations did not affect the temporarily converted corridor of the "Rosemary" club. Within Shen Ge's "Domain of the Ghostly Realm," time and space seemed to be separated from the real world. This place became his exclusive, absolutely isolated, silent interrogation room.

The "polluters" trapped here are no longer the refined and composed people they were when they first met.

His human-like exterior slowly peeled away like melting wax, revealing his non-human form beneath, covered in fine black lines and radiating an ominous aura.

He stared in horror at the smiling man before him, and in the man's unfathomable eyes, he read something more terrifying than death itself.

Fear was frantically eroding his mind!

"Telling me before I do anything will save you a lot of pain," Shen Ge said calmly.

A sinister glint flashed in the eyes of the "polluter," and a weak yet strangely distorted mental fluctuation suddenly erupted from his body. He actually attempted to detonate his own demonic energy core and self-destruct.

However, it was all in vain.

Within Shen Ge's bizarre domain, the flow of time had already been slowed down to its extreme.

His action of detonating the core appeared to Shen Ge like a snail crawling. Even the ferocious expression of despair on his face was clearly visible.

“It seems you’ve chosen the more troublesome path.” Shen Ge shook his head, abandoning the traditional verbal interrogation method.

The next second, he appeared in front of the "polluter." He slowly raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and aimed at the other's forehead.

Evil energy erosion!

“Ahhhhh——!”

The screams echoed wildly in the "polluter's" sea of ​​consciousness. He felt as if his consciousness and body had been thrown into a high-speed shredder, and all his memories, emotions, and thoughts were being crushed, decomposed, and read in the face of that irresistible force.

After being severely corrupted by Shen Ge's strange energy, the man suffered from various terrifying hallucinations and his mind was greatly tormented.

On the verge of a mental breakdown, the "polluter" seemed to be under control, answering Shen Ge's every question "seriously".

This "polluter" was indeed just an activated "beacon," born from a seemingly accidental "listening."

Before this, he was just an ordinary office worker dissatisfied with reality. In his memory, there was no information about his original self or the nest, only a vague will.

Unsurprisingly, it's another masterpiece by the "New God Cult".

The transmission mechanism of these "polluters" is just as Shen Ge had previously speculated. Their "mental plague" is not a virus or a supernatural power, but a terrifying infection based on "information memes".

Through a specific melody, a seemingly meaningless geometric symbol, or even a greeting containing a special mental frequency, one can exert a kind of eerie erosion on the target's subconscious deepest level.

Then, in conjunction with the "parasitic anomaly," it absorbs the host's negative emotions as nourishment, quietly grows stronger, and under certain specific conditions...

For example, intense mental stimulation or receiving a "whispered" call can instantly activate the host, irreversibly transforming them from the inside out into a new "polluter".

The task of these "polluters" at this stage is not destruction, but "sowing".

Like dandelions, they spread "parasitic anomalies" as widely as possible among the upper echelons and elite groups of human society, turning the entire civilization into a huge "breeding ground" waiting to be harvested.

They firmly believed that when the sowing was complete, that great and supreme being would descend upon the world and usher in a new era.

"A new god will surely descend!"

It will save this deformed world! (End of Chapter)