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

In the temporarily converted operations command room of Warehouse Area 13, the atmosphere was oppressive, with only the low hum of the equipment and the deliberately suppressed breathing of the people in the air.

Long Zhenguo, Zhao Xinhong, and a group of high-ranking officials from the Dajing headquarters watched the simple command room with complex expressions through a huge holographic screen.

What they saw was a battlefield they could not comprehend. There were no staff officers running around shouting orders, no constant confirmation of commands, and none of the tense and excited clamor that was typical of the pre-battle period.

Shen Ge stood alone in front of the huge three-dimensional sand table. On the sand table, the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Memorial Hall disguised as an art museum, and the intricate subway maintenance passage were three target locations that were flashing with an ominous red light.

His face was expressionless, and his eyes were as calm as a bottomless ancient well.

He didn't even glance back at the anti-demon warriors behind him, who were holding their breath, waiting for their orders, their eyes burning with renewed fervor.

To the bigwigs watching remotely via screens, it was an almost eerie calmness, an arrogant indifference to the impending bloodshed.

Finally, Shen Ge slowly raised her hand, her index finger tracing a line in the air.

Through the "Hive" network, commands are transmitted to the control terminals of each anti-creeper.

"Action, begin."

Inside the memorial hall, disguised as a modern art museum, dust and a faint smell of formaldehyde floated in the air. It had long been transformed into a fortified outpost by followers of the New God Cult. Behind the distorted modern sculptures in the corridors, the eerie glow unique to phantom weapons shimmered.

In the darkness, figures moved silently.

Fang Mingyue knelt behind a statue of a one-armed angel, the magical sniper rifle in her hand seemingly becoming one with her.

Through the shared "hive" view, the heartbeat and breathing rate of a guard at the corner 200 meters away were clearly displayed on her tactical goggles.

She doesn't need to wait for instructions. Under Shen Ge's preset "free combat" rules, every target that the "Hive" AI determines as the "optimal kill point" will be automatically marked.

Pull the trigger lightly.

A barely audible sound.

A specially crafted, energy-infused warhead, made by Li Xiang, silently pierced through two walls, precisely entering the eye socket of the fanatic guard and instantly energizing his brain and all the tissues within his skull. There was no blood, no screams, only a lifeless shell slumped limply to the ground.

The team members behind Fang Yueming rushed in simultaneously the instant she used her psychic sniper rifle to eliminate the sentries, and used psychic assault rifles equipped with silencers to clear out the remaining enemies.

There was not a single superfluous exchange during the entire battle; all tactical intentions were perfectly synchronized through real-time calculations by the "Hive" network.

As the energy amplification node beneath the memorial hall turned into a blue arc of electricity with a muffled thud, Fang Mingyue glanced at the timer.

Exactly.

She led her unscathed squad on a stealthy advance toward the outer perimeter of the main altar.

……

The subway maintenance tunnels that run directly through the city have long been transformed into "nests" where flesh and steel intertwine.

The "stitched flesh and blood monster," pieced together from countless corpses and mechanical parts, blocked every path forward.

Their eyes, of varying sizes, gleamed with a bloodthirsty thirst for all living things.

"boom--!"

The mud wall, half a meter thick, was blasted open with a single punch, and shattered stones shot out inward like a torrential rain.

Yu Tiexiong was the first to rush in, without even wearing his full Ghost Armor. His most terrifying weapon was the pair of grotesque, double-strengthened arm armor made of "living alloy."

He crashed head-on into the chest of a "stitched flesh monster" the size of an armored vehicle. Amidst the creaking of bones and metal, he used his bare arms to tear a massive gash through the monster's chest, then reached inside and pulled out the still-beating, monstrous heart, crushing it with force!

A veteran who had lost both legs but now walks with incredible speed while wearing the "Qilin" superhuman armor let out a roar.

He activated the sprint module of the "Qilin" power armor, and like a cannonball, he used his shoulder to smash a slightly smaller "stitched flesh monster" directly into the wall.

Their fighting was devoid of any skill, consisting solely of the most extreme unleashing of power. These warriors, once considered "useless," channeled years of pent-up humiliation into the fury in their fists, unleashing it upon these twisted monsters.

The battle here ended even faster than Fang Mingyue's. Yu Tiexiong and his team cleared a path to the "nest," cutting off the energy supply.

The final strategic point: the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the underground main altar.

The enormous "aggregate" at the center of the altar resembled a tumor about to be born, and with each pulsation, it caused eerie ripples in the surrounding space.

The visible "crack" in the sky has already taken shape.

Suddenly, a pitch-black figure fell vertically from the theater's shattered dome, ignoring all supernatural obstacles, and landed in the very center of the altar.

Shen Ge.

Behind him, Yoona, like a phantom in the night, gracefully landed in his shadow.

All chanting abruptly stopped.

The highest-ranking "bishop" presiding over the ceremony, an elderly man whose body had been partially transformed into some kind of fleshy substance, slowly turned around.

His face showed no fear, but rather a morbid, fanatical joy, like that of a believer who had finally witnessed a miracle.

He opened his arms as if embracing a long-lost friend.

"Hahahaha... You've finally arrived!" His voice trembled with excitement, carrying a chilling reverence.

"The Tuner!"

"We have waited too long! Your arrival is the final key to the ritual, and your existence will calibrate the final coordinates leading to this world for 'His' great logic!"

Shen Ge raised an eyebrow slightly. He sensed an extremely dangerous conspiracy in the other party's ravings. But he didn't have time to delve into it. He could clearly feel that the strange energy within the "aggregate" had reached a critical point and was about to completely spiral out of control.

“Noisy.” Shen Ge coldly uttered two words.

The realm of mystery unfolds!

All the believers present, including the "bishop," clearly felt that an indescribable, powerful, and sinister energy instantly enveloped the entire "nest."

The flow of supernatural energy that was presiding over the ceremony instantly became uncontrollable and chaotic. Several of the closest "preachers" even exploded into a cloud of blood mist on the spot due to the backlash of supernatural energy.

Immediately following, the [Immovable Ghost Realm] arrived in quick succession!

It was as if time had been slowed down.

The horrified expressions of all the cultists, the splattering blood and flesh, the chaotic flow of strange energy... everything was frozen in that instant. In this frozen spacetime, under Shen Ge's precise control, Yoona's figure, ignoring the effects of the domain, transformed into an elusive black lightning bolt.

Her right hand turned to blood and flesh, and the putrid tentacles condensed into sharp claws, slashing out deadly streaks of cold light, severing all the energy-transmitting tentacles connected to the "aggregate".

After doing all this, Yoona retreated back behind Shen Ge.

Finally, Shen Ge slowly walked to the huge, still pulsating "aggregate".

He slowly raised his right fist, his strange energy converging at a single point.

One punch, thrown out.

The terrifying energy began to spread across the "aggregate" from the point of contact, tearing apart everything, including the altar and the cultists frozen in terror.

The bizarre storm subsided, the strange phenomena in the sky dissipated, and the nauseating smell in the air disappeared as well; it seemed that everything was over.

With a single blow, the Defiler's proud Hallownest was destroyed.

Shen Ge slowly turned around and looked at the "bishop" he had left behind.

The old man's bizarre flesh was rapidly disintegrating, his life hanging by a thread. But the eerie, relieved smile on his face lingered in Shen Ge's mind.

"Welcome...the arrival of 'He'..."

With his last breath, the bishop uttered these words of blessing, and then completely turned into a patch of pale fungus.

Shen Ge had seen that smile before; it was when the Neo-Gods in the Fragment World tried to release "Omnissiah".

While the development of the Neotheistic Church in "reality" may not be that rapid, their progress in attempting to open a passage to the Fragmented World is remarkably swift.

The moment Shen Ge's brief report, "Operation complete," was transmitted back to the command center at the Dajing headquarters via an encrypted channel, the huge operations room, large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, fell into a deathly silence.

On the screen, the terrifyingly powerful energy reading representing the altar area, capable of tearing the city apart, was instantly wiped away by an invisible hand, returning to zero. All the surrounding energy signals disappeared, leaving only the clear and stable green dots representing Shen Ge and his team.

Won?

Just like that... they won?
Long Zhenguo's cigar slipped from his hand and fell to the ground, burning the expensive carpet without him noticing. The group of high-ranking officials around him, whose faces still showed the fear of the altar's out-of-control energy, were now replaced by an even greater shock of disbelief.

A minute later, the deathly silence was completely shattered by a deafening roar.

"They did it! They really did it!"

"Zero casualties... My God, how did they do that?"

Those bureaucrats who were originally waiting to see Shen Ge make a fool of himself, and who had even prepared how to shirk responsibility after the operation failed, now looked at Shen Ge's few green dots with eyes that no longer held any political calculation or contempt. Instead, they were left with only awe of absolute power and... a trace of undisguised fear.

Humans have always been afraid of powers they cannot control.

"Immediately! Dispatch the A-level research task force and the 'cleaning' unit! Seal off the site and collect all data! Hurry!" Long Zhenguo was the first to react. His voice was slightly hoarse with excitement, but he couldn't hide his eagerness to uncover the secrets of victory.

At dawn, as the first rays of sunlight pierced the eerie haze over Beijing, the ruins of the National Centre for the Performing Arts were already completely sealed off, layer upon layer.

Researchers in heavy protective suits moved about, and the beeping sounds of various sophisticated detection instruments rose and fell.

However, the expressions on their faces became increasingly solemn and confused as the investigation deepened.

The scene was...too "clean".

Apart from the traces of the battle left by Shen Ge and his group, almost no remnants of the New God Cult or that evil ritual could be found.

It was as if last night's crisis, which could have destroyed half the city, was just a phantom nightmare.

Soon, everyone's attention was focused on the center of the destroyed altar. A circular area, about three meters in diameter with perfectly regular edges, appeared there.

"Report to command center, an 'anomaly' has been detected!" a research team leader reported urgently into the communicator.

"No valid readings can be obtained in this area; all ghost energy detection equipment has malfunctioned!"

On the screen, the thermal image of this circular area appears as a pure black block representing "missing data," as if a piece of space had been cut out there.

Optical detectors, eerie energy sensors, life detectors... all known human detection methods become useless scrap metal in its presence.

After receiving authorization, a daring researcher carefully operated a remote-controlled probe robot, attempting to extend a probe made of a special alloy into the area.

Under the horrified gazes of the command center and all personnel on site, the sturdy probe, upon touching the edge of the circular area, vanished without a sound or any energy fluctuation.

It's not broken, not melted, and certainly not decomposed.

It's as if it was wiped cleanly from the real world by an invisible eraser.

When Shen Ge returned to the scene, he was greeted by an extremely solemn atmosphere.

He waved for everyone to step back, and walked slowly alone toward the "anomaly point zero." He could feel a deeper and more eerie sense of unease emanating from that area than when he faced the "aggregate" the previous night.

Shen Ge opened his eerie eyes and looked down. There was no energy, no life, no eerie power, and not even the concept of "space".

"what--!"

"My hand! What happened to my hand?"

A piercing scream shattered the deathly silence of the scene.

Everyone turned around in horror and saw a ghost warrior in charge of the outer perimeter blockade staring in terror at his left arm.

He was the first amputee veteran to receive the "living alloy activator".

During last night's battle, he was at the forefront, closest to the epicenter of the "aggregate's" explosion. At this moment, a small, nail-sized speck of "bad-colored" dust, resembling a stain, was clinging to his living alloy arm, which gleamed with a metallic and biological sheen.

To everyone's horrified dismay, his arm began to grotesquely "fade."

The living alloy, strong enough to withstand artillery shells, quickly became dry and brittle, like flesh and blood, and its surface luster rapidly dimmed, like rotten wood that had been weathered for thousands of years.

"Click."

The veteran subconsciously twitched a finger, and his entire arm melted away like flesh, dripping onto the ground to form a carpet of fungus. (End of Chapter)