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

Shen Ge raised his hand and quickly used "Leave the Ghost Domain" to create an invisible barrier that sealed off the old soldier.

Apart from him, no one else underwent any abnormal changes.

Upon discovering the anomaly, Shen Ge immediately ordered everyone to evacuate.

Simply sealing off the altar was not enough; Zhao Xinhong ordered the entire area within a radius of dozens of miles centered on the altar to be sealed off.

Afterwards, he personally led his troops to oversee the scene. This veteran general, who had emerged from a sea of ​​corpses, directly drew the most elite heavy anti-deception troops from his "First Anti-Deception Army Group".

For a time, on the ruins of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the roar of heavy anti-mech engines drowned out the wind, day and night.

However, the difficulty of the lockdown project exceeded the assessment of the contingency plan.

Once conventional engineering machinery enters the range of "abnormal point zero" within 100 meters, its metal parts will show visible corrosion and embrittlement, as if decades of service life have been instantly drained away. In the end, the operation can only be completely handed over to a dozen of the latest heavy anti-monster mechs.

These heavy anti-monster mechs have been temporarily fitted with thick shields cut from the bizarre shells of fifth-tier "monster turtles" on their mechanical arms, to prevent the land from being eroded by the monster energy while simultaneously carrying out blockade construction.

The project lasted for seven days and seven nights. Centered on the altar, a huge cubic block with sides exceeding one hundred meters was forcibly ripped from the earth.

This decision was made after Shen Ge used the eerie energy detector from Rong City to detect and confirm the source of the pollution, and after discussing it with Zhao Xinhong and others.

After the cube was removed and tested again, the eerie energy readings in the underground area of ​​the original grand theater returned to normal.

As for how to deal with the source of pollution from the altar, that became another problem.

After discussions at the Dajing Special Policy Research Institute, it was finally decided to inject a special bio-gel, which incorporates extracts of the eerie tissue from the deep-sea "Silent Jellyfish," layer by layer between the land and the isolation layer to absorb and buffer any possible leakage of eerie energy radiation.

The alloy walls encasing the land contain a large amount of high-level, bizarre bone powder to enhance its physical inertia.

When the last truckload of concrete was poured, a huge cube, completely black with a smooth, mirror-like surface and without any gaps or joints, was successfully "sealed."

It was named "Black Coffin" by Dajing.

Until a solution is found, it can only be temporarily sealed away.

……

Rongshi Special Policy Department, Quanlongshan Underground Research Base.

Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen, along with their core research team, are at a loss as to what to do about a sample that is tightly confined by an "invisible barrier".

The sample was that veteran who was being slowly eroded by the "bad color".

"All tissue samples show a continuous decline in activity... the 'strange energy' reaction is approaching zero." Jiang Peiwen stared at the cellular tissue slowly turning grayish-white under the microscope, her brows furrowed. She adjusted her glasses, her tone filled with an unprecedented sense of bewilderment.

“I’ve tried all the known psychic stimulation protocols and cell activators, and there’s been no response. This erosion… it’s not ‘killing’ the cells, it’s ‘assimil’ them. You see,” she projected a microscopic image onto the main screen.

"The physical structure of the eroded living alloy cell was not destroyed, but its interior was completely filled with a gray strain that we had never seen before."

"This strain does not reproduce by conventional fission, but rather, like a biological viral program, forces all organic matter it comes into contact with to reconstruct into a lifeless structure just like itself, devoid of any life activity."

“This is quite different from the ‘psychic corruption’ we’ve seen before.”

On the other side, Li Xiang's expression was equally grim. On the instrument screen in front of him, all the readings regarding the strange energy fluctuations were displayed as a flat, unchanging straight line.

“Its strange properties are ‘siphoning’ and ‘neutralization’,” Li Xiang pointed to a tiny diagram of energy flow on the screen.

“Any supernatural energy that gets close to it will be forcibly absorbed by the microscopic ‘supernatural energy vacuum’ formed by this strain, and then… return to nothingness. This explains why all the detectors malfunction. It’s like a black hole at the level of supernatural energy.”

The two looked at each other and saw the same conclusion in each other's eyes.

They were facing a terrifying and bizarre phenomenon unlike anything they had ever seen before. After further research, the research team gave this strange strain a temporary code name – the "Dead Silence Strain."

Late at night, Shen Ge ended a remote meeting with Rong City and stood alone by the window of his dormitory in Warehouse No. 13, dialing Cheng Shengnan's private number.

In the holographic projection, Cheng Shengnan's familiar face, tinged with worry, appeared. She didn't ask anything about the battle or classified information, but simply asked softly, "Is things... very troublesome?"

“Hmm,” Shen Ge nodded, a rare occurrence, leaning against the window frame: “I encountered something new, and conventional fighting methods are useless against it.”

He briefly described the characteristics of the "dead strain," emphasizing its "contamination assimilation" and "psychic neutralization" properties.

"...Pure destructive power has limited effect in the face of it. According to Li Xiang, there is currently no way to eliminate it, and the only option is to isolate it." Shen Ge looked out the window at the false prosperity and lights of Dajing City, his voice low.

On the other end of the phone, Cheng Shengnan listened quietly, pondered for a moment, and then responded from her professional perspective as an intelligence analyst: "I understand. This kind of enemy, which requires a huge project to 'bury' rather than 'eliminate,' could have a devastating impact on public morale if mishandled and the information leaks. I will immediately have the intelligence department secretly screen all reports of unexplained environmental anomalies nationwide to see if there are any similar signs."

Her words reminded Shen Ge.

He was preoccupied with how to deal with the immediate threat, but he overlooked another, more important question: was this threat really only present in front of him?

If so, it would be a "good thing" because it would be certain that it was something "summoned" through the ritual of the "bishop".

Once the "altar" is sealed off, a solution can be found gradually.

However, based on Shen Ge's understanding of the eccentric organization and the New God Cult, they would not have conducted such a test directly in Dajing if they possessed such methods.

It is quite possible that they had already begun such "rituals" in some remote places.

For example, the "nests" in the Amazon rainforest.

Just as he was pondering this, a report came from Dajing that the "black coffin" had been completely sealed off, and all the surrounding supernatural energy readings had returned to normal.

At that underground altar, the moment he personally detonated the "aggregate," the terrifying shockwave would inevitably scatter countless invisible "dead bacteria" outwards.

Although Shen Ge had already ordered Da Jing to isolate and treat all those involved in the operation after realizing that these "things" had caused the veterans' abnormalities, the problems caused by the contaminated individuals would likely become increasingly difficult to resolve until Li Xiang could provide effective treatment for the veterans.

Two days later, the Data Analysis Department of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Bureau first discovered the problem.

A young analyst scratched his head in confusion, staring at a set of graphs on the screen. "Strange... the soil microbial activity index in District F in the west of the city, the industrial area outside the North Fifth Ring Road, and this wetland park in the southern suburbs... has been slowly declining for the past three weeks. There have been no reports of industrial pollution, nor have any abnormal strange energy radiation been detected."

This report, marked as a "low-priority anomaly to be observed," was uploaded to the database along with hundreds of other routine reports.

In front of the huge holographic map, Dajing's information analysts marked these anomalies one by one.

Then, they pulled up a prediction map of atmospheric circulation and aerosol deposition after the "aggregate" explosion, provided by the Beijing Meteorological Center.

Two images, slowly overlapping.

On the map, the yellow spots representing "decreased soil activity" fall almost perfectly within the orange-red area predicted by atmospheric models as having the highest probability of "dead bacteria" settling.

“…Found it.” The analyst’s fingertips traced the overlapping areas, his eyes growing extremely serious. He immediately encrypted the report, which included detailed data analysis, and sent it to command center.

At the same time, a request for assistance from the US Central Intelligence Agency was also received at the command center.

Their "anti-monster city-state" system is being severely troubled by a fusion-type anomaly codenamed "Iron-Eating Anomaly Worm".

According to intelligence reports, this anomaly is a mutated worm that lives deep underground and feeds on metal ores, and a silicon crystal ore that has been corrupted by a strange energy and is able to self-replicate.

They are frantically gnawing away at the city's foundation steel bars, communication fiber optic cables, and energy pipelines underground, turning these cornerstones of modern civilization into nutrients for their own proliferation.

As a result, several satellite cities suffered large-scale foundation collapses and were completely abandoned.

The United States' proud high-tech mech forces were almost paralyzed in the face of this attack that undermined its infrastructure from within.

The European theater of operations faces a similar predicament to the United States, as evidenced by a report from the Europa Commonwealth to the Deception Command.

They are facing the silent infiltration of a new type of parasitic monster, the "Nightmare Moth".

The scales of this strange moth are colorless and odorless, and when inhaled, they do not cause any immediate physiological changes in the host.

However, it can invade the host's dreams like a virus, altering their memories at the subconscious level and implanting false emotions and instructions.

The intelligence report included a chilling interrogation video: a highly decorated German anti-monster armored grenadier regimental commander was arrested after opening the gates of the Berlin anti-monster wall and letting in a large number of monsters.

He suffered a mental breakdown during interrogation, repeatedly crying out that he was merely following the Führer's orders to meet "the Empire's reinforcements."

Internal suspicion and distrust spread like a plague among various anti-cooperative organizations in Europe.

No one expected that the "Polluters" would pose an increasingly serious threat to global anti-cyber organizations, infiltrating not only Beijing but also other countries.

These two pieces of information made Shen Ge's brows furrow even more deeply.

Both the "Iron-Eating Worm" and the "Nightmare Moth" are extremely troublesome, but their attack patterns are still within the range that humans can understand.

This is fundamentally different from the new thing sealed in the "black coffin," which is tentatively named the "dead bacteria."

Shen Ge did not believe that this was an experiment conducted directly in Dajing by the polluters, even though it would be easier to destroy a city by attacking from the core city.

But the Great Celestial Empire is different from other countries. Even without Shen Ge for the past three years, under the protection of the Special Affairs Department, the Great Celestial Empire is still the country with the highest security index against treachery.

Taking such a huge risk, yet the outcome is uncertain, is not in line with the style of the eccentric organization.

Furthermore, based on Shen Ge's previous understanding of the monster organization, he could even conclude that the twelve earthly branches and the heavenly stems, and even the "absorbed" monster association, had nothing to do with the "New God Cult" and the "Contaminated Ones".

The former is about seeking a future for humanity, or simply about amplifying human desires and wanting only to "enjoy" the present world.

Unlike the "New Gods" and the "Contaminated Ones," the "New Gods" are more like a group of fanatical believers who have no idea what they want to do.

Welcoming a new god?

How about bringing the tenth-tier Ghost King from the fragmented world into "reality"?
Shen Ge couldn't find a better way to describe them than as a bunch of mentally unstable lunatics.

In the face of the "New Gods," all twelve zodiac signs became more agreeable.

At this moment, Shen Ge received a call from Zhao Xinhong's assistant, who sent a new data report to his database.

Shen Ge opened it and saw an old folder marked "data corrupted, no research value" containing a report from several years ago.

The report comes from a multinational research station, codenamed "Vostok-II," located in the heart of the Antarctic ice sheet, that conducts deep ice core drilling.

The written record of the report was very simple, and even somewhat vague.

[Event ID: 634-Antarctica]

[Date: Three years ago]

[Abstract: At a depth of 3107 meters, all sensors on the deep ice core drilling equipment momentarily malfunctioned, returning 'NULL' values. The high-precision atomic clock at the site experienced an inexplicable instantaneous fluctuation on the order of ■■■ seconds.]

The research station was out of contact with the outside world for 4.7 hours.

After communications were restored, all team members reported being unharmed, and all equipment at the station tested normal. The incident was initially determined to be a collective equipment malfunction caused by a polar geomagnetic storm.

If that's all there is to it, the report is indeed quite unremarkable.

But what caught Shen Ge's attention was a low-resolution photomicrograph attached to the end of the report, along with a brief note.

The photo shows a layer of gray microorganisms whose composition is unrecognizable, sandwiched between very thin ice crystals.

That note came from the chief biologist of the research station at the time, who wrote in his private diary the day after the incident:
We all had a strange dream, a dream where everything was gray. That color... reminded me of death.

The gray microorganisms in the photo, with their unique geometric spiral structure, resemble the morphology of "dead bacteria" under a high-magnification microscope, as reported by Li Xiang from the Rongshi laboratory...

Highly similar! (End of Chapter)