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

The "dead strain" is not a creation of the New Gods.

The New God Cult's ceremony merely awakened it.

National Astronomical Observatories, Department of Strange Phenomena Monitoring.

The piercing alarm shattered the tranquility of the night.

"Warning! Signs of a high-intensity paranormal storm detected. Coordinates: ***, ***, ***. High-intensity fluctuations. It is recommended to activate the paranormal shield for defense in advance!" A young monitor stared in shock at the paranormal flux data that suddenly spiked on the screen.

Despite the powerful ghost energy shield and resistance to ghost energy erosion that have been in place for the past two years, such a strong ghost energy impact is still a severe test.

The order was swiftly issued, and all non-combat units entered energy control mode, with the city's energy shield power set to maximum.

As this bizarre energy storm appeared, in the F district of the western city, inside an abandoned underground drainage pipe.

On the pipe walls, the "deadly strain" spores that descended with the eerie storm, with strands of gray mycelium thinner than a hair, peeked out from the cracks in the cement, like newly sprouted vines, touching the damp air and murky water inside the pipe.

Any organic matter that comes into contact with the hyphae—microorganisms in sewage, moss in the corners of walls, or insects that accidentally wander in—instantly loses all its vitality, is rapidly decomposed and reconstructed, and ultimately becomes a "fungal carpet" that has assimilated with the hyphae.

The fungal carpet began to spread in the underground drainage system in the suburbs, and the incidence of strange events in the surrounding villages and towns suddenly increased.

A few days later, panic, like a plague, began to spread in the suburban villages and towns.

"Breaking News! An unidentified gray moss-like substance has appeared in District F of the western part of the city, causing large areas of vegetation to wither and die. Residents in the vicinity are advised to keep their doors and windows closed and not to go outside!"

"A chemical warehouse in the North Fifth Ring Road industrial zone leaked? No, experts say it's an unknown microbial contamination, and several homeless people have gone missing after being exposed to it..."

Gray fungal carpets began to slowly grow from the soil, corners of walls, sewers, and all sorts of dark and damp places.

They do not actively attack any living creatures, but any plants or animals that come into contact with them will be quickly assimilated and become part of them, causing the complete collapse of the ecosystem in a small area. Large amounts of grayish-white "fungal carpets" appear, gushing out from the underground drainage system and spreading to the surrounding areas.

Long Zhenguo's command center was once again thrown into chaos by the appearance of the "dead bacteria" and the fungal carpet. Their first reaction was still the traditional isolation and elimination.

The "cleaning" troops, belonging to the "Second Anti-Cult Army Group," were urgently dispatched to various contaminated areas. Soldiers wearing heavy protective suits, armed with high-powered flamethrowers and high-pressure chemical spraying equipment, attempted to burn and dissolve the gray fungal carpet in the most direct way.

While intense flames can temporarily carbonize the fungal carpet and strong acids can corrode it into a puddle of slime, this approach is still only a temporary fix.

Because just a few hours later, beneath the scorched crust of the ground, gray, psychic mycelium will regrow from deeper soil, spreading even faster than before.

The toxic aerosols produced during incineration and chemical reactions, carrying spores of "dead bacteria," contain even stronger corrosive properties, causing more difficult-to-control secondary pollution through the air.

Amidst this chaos, some people who enjoy watching the drama saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and couldn't resist stirring up trouble again.

A well-equipped squad of eccentric individuals silently infiltrated the most polluted area in the western part of the city, District F.

Ignoring the threat of the fungal carpet, they instead carefully collected the freshest and most active samples of the "dead" strain.

However, during their evacuation, they encountered the monster warriors who came to deal with them, and a battle ensued, which in turn exposed the whereabouts of the monster organization.

Not long after, in a secluded underground laboratory, a strange scientist with several compound eyes implanted in his face was staring intently at the gray fungal carpet in a petri dish.

"A perfect specimen, if only this characteristic of 'absolute stillness' could be fused with the bizarre flesh and blood of the 'Deep Sea Creeping Nest' that has infinite regenerative abilities through organ implantation..." He muttered to himself, his eyes flashing with a mad light, and his breathing became rapid.

"We will create... a bio-weapon that can regenerate infinitely and cannot be completely killed by any known means!"

At this moment, on the control panel, a woman glanced at the "dead bacteria" in the petri dish through the observation window and sneered, "So, those guys from the 'New God Cult' aren't entirely useless after all."

Meanwhile, the research team led by Li Xiang at the Rongshi Research Department, which named the "dead strain," is still searching for a way to completely kill it.

"Trying to deal with it with fire and strong acid is like trying to extinguish a parasitic storm with water—it's pointless."

In Rong City, inside that familiar underground laboratory, Li Xiang and Jiang Peiwen were watching the doomed "cleaning" operation from Dajing via holographic projection.

Li Xiang astutely pointed out the core of the problem.

“Physical and chemical methods are ineffective against pollution at the level of ‘bacterial rules’.” Jiang Peiwen’s expression was more serious than ever before. She pulled up another set of images, which were microscopic videos of “bacteriophages” hunting bacteria in nature.

"In nature, everything has its counterpart. Since the 'dead and silent strain' is a special and strange microorganism, does it also have 'natural enemies' in the larger and more cruel ecosystem of the strange?"

"Or we can go a step further. Could we find a kind of weird creature with extreme 'vitality,' 'purification,' or 'regeneration' properties, and extract the key weird energy from its weird energy sequence to 'design' a 'weird microbial weapon' specifically designed to hunt down 'dead bacteria'?"

This idea instantly sparked the thinking of all the researchers present.

The bizarre is constantly "evolving," and the approach of "using the bizarre to counter the bizarre" must also change.

From using bizarre flesh and bones to create macroscopic weapons, to using bizarre core characteristics to conduct microscopic bioengineering warfare.

"Your idea is good, but to realize it, we need one more thing. A material. An extremely powerful core characteristic that is completely opposite to the 'Deadly Strain' in its strangeness," Jiang Peiwen concluded.

The situation at the Dajing front is more complicated than anyone anticipated.

Long Zhenguo was no mediocre man, but he seemed helpless in the face of the spread of the "dead bacteria".

The "cleanup" operation was forced to halt, and all participants were immediately quarantined. However, by this time, the entire underground drainage system of District F in the west of the city had been completely compromised.

In Long Zhenguo's office, the ashtray was already overflowing with cigarette butts.

As he watched the ever-expanding red contamination area on the screen, and the shocking casualty report—three dead and 127 suspected cases in quarantine—he finally had to admit a fact: conventional methods were ineffective against this newly emerged anomaly.

All hopes are pinned on the research teams at the Special Operations Department headquarters and its various branches, hoping they can find a solution as soon as possible.

Fuzhou, research base.

On the enormous holographic screen, an extremely complex spiral structure model composed of countless light points and energy flows was slowly rotating. This was the complete bizarre energy sequence map of the "Deadly Strains" that Li Xiang and his top team had finally successfully drawn after halting all research at the base, utilizing the new artificial intelligence "Xiao Ba" (a clone of Xiao Qi), expending unimaginable computing resources, and combining it with some eerie information that Shen Ge had extracted from the "Bishop's" corpse.

"Incredible..."

Li Xiang stared at the screen and couldn't help but sigh, "From the perspective of the strange energy, its structure is unusually 'simple'. It doesn't seem like a strange creature that has 'evolved'."

He reached out and pressed heavily on the holographic model, instantly magnifying an almost negligible energy node.

"Here! Within its elusive energy sequence lies a theoretical 'target,' a core node that maintains its 'deadly' nature!"

"To attack this target, we can no longer use conventional weapon thinking. We need to 'create' something, a 'cryptic weapon' that can hunt it down!"

Jiang Peiwen immediately understood his intention and added from a biological perspective: "A kind of 'trick phage'. We need two core 'genes', or rather, two trick sequences with extreme characteristics, to 'splice' our 'insecticide'."

She pulled up two blank theoretical models.

"First, we need a strange energy sequence with extreme 'cell regeneration and proliferation' properties. We need to use its violent vitality to forcefully break through the stable structure of the 'dead strain' and open a breach for our attack."

"Secondly, we need a strange energy sequence with strong 'purification' or 'decomposition' properties. After the structure of the strain is destroyed, we can use it to completely eliminate the residue and prevent any possibility of resurgence."

"What we are about to create is the first in human history that is entirely designed and defined by ourselves—an 'artificial bizarre sequence'!"

Just as the team in Rongshi was engrossed in theoretical discussions in their search for suitable "genetic raw materials," the information department's analysis work achieved a decisive breakthrough.

"found it."

Looking at the supply line that finally emerged on the screen after countless data cross-comparisons, Liu Jiayi said, "The logistics and personnel rotation of that exposed strange team all ultimately point to the same place—an abandoned factory in the Zhoushan Islands on the eastern coast."

Liu Jiayi sent the message to headquarters, and soon, headquarters replied with an urgent intelligence sharing from the American ACIA.

Intelligence indicates that their "Anti-Ghost City-State" on the west coast is currently under continuous attack from a giant, eerie entity with terrifying regenerative abilities originating from the deep sea.

Upon receiving the message, Liu Jiayi convened an information department meeting to summarize and analyze the information at hand, integrate the intelligence, and encrypt and transmit it to Shen Ge.

In Shen Ge's temporary command room, he looked at the information on the screen.

"A nest of deep-sea crawlers".

The target of the freak organization is that deep-sea monster with extreme regenerative abilities.

Four hours later.

"The spectral analysis is complete."

Li Xiang's voice carried a hint of weariness, but more than that, it was filled with the excitement of discovering a new world.

Jiang Peiwen appeared on the other side of the screen and explained to Shen Ge in the communication: "My biological analysis also came to the same conclusion. It does not carry out 'metabolism' or 'reproduction', it only does one thing - 'assimilation'. It forces all the organic matter it comes into contact with to become the same structure as it. If I had to describe it, it would be a newer and more extreme 'fusion-type weirdness'."

Li Xiang picked up the conversation and said, "I also have a clear direction for the idea I proposed earlier: to create an artificial bizarre sequence to neutralize this new type of fusion-type bizarre."

“I named it ‘Artificial Bizarre Sequence’, codenamed ‘X’. This is the next stage of ‘fighting the bizarre with the bizarre.’ It’s no longer about simply using bizarre corpses, but about analyzing, editing, and even creating bizarre core sequences for our own use.”

"A deep-sea crawling nest?" Shen Ge said in a deep voice.

Li Xiang nodded: "That's right. Strange organizations don't do things without profit. Since the last Dajing disaster, they have rarely been active in Dajing. This time, they are willing to risk exposure to come here to collect samples. According to the report provided by the Information Department, their activity location is near the 'Deep Sea Creeping Nest'."

"I understand. I'll handle the sample issue." Shen Ge hung up the call and then connected to General Zhao Xinhong's private line, his tone calm and direct.

"General, I need to deploy one of the most advanced submarines."

General Zhao Xinhong's efficiency was astonishing.

Under special escort, Shen Ge left Dajing and went to the nearest military port. Two days later, a special submarine codenamed "Jiaolong" secretly left the port.

This all-black submarine, resembling a giant sea monster, is the most advanced anti-surveillance unit in the entire Chinese navy.

Its outer shell armor is forged from the bizarre carapace and skeleton of high-level marine life, enough to withstand the terrifying water pressure of the deep sea at a depth of 10,000 meters and most bizarre physical attacks.

Shen Ge only brought two people with him onto the ship: Yoon-ah and Yu Tiexiong.

Fang Mingyue was quite familiar with the situation in Dajing. She stayed in Dajing to continue coordinating with Li Xiang and others, and to cooperate with the Dajing Special Affairs Department in dealing with the "dead bacteria" problem.

The captain of the "Jiaolong" was an experienced veteran. When he saw Shen Ge, he simply gave a clean and crisp military salute: "Captain Shen, the 'Jiaolong' and all its crew are at your command."

Without any unnecessary words, the heavy alloy hatch slowly closed.

The Jiaolong submersible glided into the deep sea, heading towards the area where the "deep-sea crawling nest" is located.

After sailing for some time and entering the target sea area, as the diving depth continued to increase, the world outside the porthole changed from deep blue to pure black.

Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was quiet, with only the beeping of the sonar system.

"Depth 2200 meters, everything is normal."

"No abnormal biological signals were detected by sonar."

However, on the third day of the submarine's voyage, when it descended to a depth of 6000 meters, the surrounding environment underwent drastic changes.

It was as if we had driven into a "nest of flesh and blood." (End of Chapter)