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

In front of the ramp in the cabin, Shen Ge, dressed in a smart black combat uniform, was conducting a final check.

Yoona and Yu Tiexiong stood on either side of him behind him, with several anti-terrorist agents involved in the operation beside them, but they would not go deep into the jungle with the three of them.

According to intelligence gathered by the Special Operations Department, the jungle environment is extremely complex and too dangerous for non-captain-level agents. Therefore, after discussion between Shen Ge and Deng Yuqi, it was decided that the other team members would stay on the perimeter to provide support, while the three captains would explore deeper into the jungle.

Before the prototype was completed, Cheng Shengnan didn't say much. She just silently stepped forward and carefully straightened Shen Ge's battle clothes, her eyes full of reluctance.

"Be careful."

"Don't worry." Shen Ge held her slightly cool hand and said softly, "I'll be back as soon as I'm done. How about I say a couple of 'flags' to liven things up?"

Cheng Shengnan rolled her eyes at him.

Shen Ge smiled and turned to look at his two comrades.

"Are you ready?"

"We can leave at any time," Yoona and Yu Tiexiong said in unison, their eyes resolute.

"Boarding."

Shen Ge took the first step and stepped onto the ramp leading to the cabin.

The heavy cabin door closed slowly, shutting out the gaze of the people seeing them off.

Four powerful, monstrous engines roared to life, and the massive aircraft slid off the runway under the cover of night, piercing the clouds and hurtling toward the primeval jungle on the other side of the world.

……

Specialized transport aircraft lowered their altitude in the airspace surrounding the Amazon rainforest.

Looking down through the porthole, everyone frowned.

The scene before me was not the lush, boundless forest I had imagined.

The entire vast rainforest was fragmented by strips of gray fungal carpet, several kilometers wide, resembling scars on the earth.

"Reporting to Captain Shen," the pilot's voice came through the communicator, tinged with seriousness, "The fungal carpet below is emitting strong cybernetic interference, affecting the airborne radar and optical systems. Forcing low-altitude flight or airdrop is extremely risky."

"According to the information obtained by the intelligence department, those below should be variants of the 'Dead Strains'." Shen Ge's [Strange Eye] had already seen through the nature of those fungal carpets.

Their strange energy fluctuations are highly similar to those of the strains from Dajing, but they seem to have undergone some unknown mutations in order to adapt to the environment of this rainforest.

This also confirms his guess—the Dajing incident was not an isolated case.

"Execute Plan Two," Shen Ge decided immediately.

The rear door of the cabin slowly opened, and a violent gust of air rushed in instantly.

Shen Ge, Yun'er, and Yu Tiexiong, each wearing a specially designed triangular individual flying wing, jumped out of the cabin one by one.

They quickly adjusted their posture in the air, using the high-altitude airflow to glide at extremely low altitudes without power in the narrow, safe airspace between those gray fungal carpets.

Finally, above a relatively "clean" primeval rainforest canopy, the three retracted their wings and used grappling hooks to land on the ground.

The moment my feet touched the damp soil, a strong, almost viscous, eerie aura rushed towards me.

“The concentration of supernatural energy here is at least five times that outside,” Yu Tiexiong said in a deep voice, sensing the unsettling energy in the air.

Shen Ge cautioned, "Be careful, every tree and every blade of grass here might not look like it."

Before he could finish speaking, a seemingly ordinary vine hanging from a tree beside him suddenly came to life like a predatory python, coiling around him with lightning speed!

A bizarre plant-infused hybrid.

Shen Ge didn't even turn around; he simply swung his hand back.

"Pfft!"

An invisible force swept through, and the vine, thicker than an adult's arm, instantly snapped into several pieces, the cuts as smooth as a mirror. A dark green, highly corrosive sap spurted out, corroding the ground into sizzling pits.

At the same time, a clear and melodious croaking of frogs came from the bushes not far away.

Yoona's expression changed slightly, and she immediately held her breath: "This is the 'Phantom Sound Frog' from the intelligence report. Its cry is not a sound wave, but a spore of ghost energy!"

A parasitic, bizarre spore that can directly induce hallucinations.

Yu Tiexiong reacted extremely quickly, immediately activating the power armor's mask filtration system.

Shen Ge simply unleashed his Ghost Domain, enveloping the three of them and isolating them from the contact of the Ghost Energy Spores.

Following the intelligence map provided by Cheng Shengnan, the three avoided the high-risk "nests" and quickly headed towards the general direction of the suspected monster base.

However, after venturing several kilometers deeper, they entered an extremely strange area.

The surrounding sounds disappeared.

The chirping of insects, the calls of birds, the rustling of leaves in the wind... everything seemed to be instantly extinguished by an invisible hand.

The world fell into a chilling, absolute silence.

"What's going on?" Yu Tiexiong shook his head uncomfortably. He couldn't even hear his own heavy footsteps or the grinding sound of his power armor joints.

Shen Ge only saw Yu Tiexiong open his mouth, but didn't hear him speak.

Shen Ge stopped in his tracks, his brows furrowed. Then, while maintaining the invisible barrier, he activated the Silent Ghost Domain.

But Shen Ge soon discovered that not only the sound, but also his [Strange Eye] was being suppressed like never before.

The field of vision, which was originally enough to cover a range of several kilometers, was now compressed to less than 100 meters.

All electronic devices on the wrist terminal, including the ultra-longwave communication with the temporary camp established on the periphery, were completely cut off, leaving only a blinding static on the screen.

Just as the three of them were on high alert, trying to adapt to the silent environment, a dark, sickle-like shadow suddenly slashed down silently from the shadow of the tree canopy above Shen Ge's head, as fast as lightning!

Shen Ge's body, relying solely on his fighting instincts, shifted half a meter to the side.

"laugh!"

The dark shadow almost grazed his nose, the force of the wind ruffling his hair.

The dark shadow slammed heavily into the ground, cleaving a solid rock in two as easily as cutting tofu, leaving a perfectly smooth cut. Only then did the three of them get a clear look at the attacker.

It was a monster over three meters long, covered entirely in a matte black carapace that could absorb all light, resembling an enlarged mantis.

It has no eyes or ears, and relies entirely on sensing the slightest vibrations in matter to locate its prey.

"Shh! Shh! Shh!"

Before the three could react, one after another, identical black figures pounced from all directions from the surrounding tree canopy, bushes, and shadows on the ground!

With their supernatural detection and auditory/visual abilities completely disabled, Yu Tiexiong and Yun'er only sensed their arrival at the very last moment when they entered the attack range, thanks to the barely perceptible change in airflow.

Any minute flow of strange energy, pressure, or temperature change in the air is magnified infinitely within Shen Ge's strange domain, as clearly as the lines on the palm of one's hand.

"Two to the left rear, at the three o'clock position. One above the head."

He didn't even turn around, but calmly reminded his teammates behind him. Almost the instant his words fell, three jet-black, scythe-like forelimbs were already upon them.

Yu Tiexiong let out a suppressed roar, his fighting spirit already boiling. He turned around abruptly, abandoning all defense, and slammed his grotesque arm armor forward to meet the two dark figures attacking from his left rear.

"Cang! Cang!"

Two dull metallic clangs rang out from his arm armor, the terrifying impact causing his burly body to tremble slightly.

The two strange creatures were blasted away by his violent power, their bones shattered and flesh flying everywhere in mid-air.

The fatal blow from above was intercepted by a faster black shadow.

Yoona's figure had already approached the hunter that had descended from the sky. Her blood-red claws drew an eerie red light in the darkness, striking first and piercing into the gaps in the monster's carapace, instantly shattering its monstrous core.

Shen Ge remained motionless throughout, standing still like a statue.

But any strange creature that tries to approach his body will suddenly stiffen the moment it enters his domain, and then, as if crushed by an invisible force, explode into a cloud of blood mist.

In this "silent zone" that has stripped away all senses, Shen Ge, who possesses a silent and eerie domain, is the absolute ruler.

After the last "weird" was casually crushed by Shen Ge, a suffocating silence once again enveloped the jungle.

The three quickly left the eerie area and walked nearly five kilometers. When the sounds of insects, birds, and wind returned to their ears, even Yu Tiexiong couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. The battle he had just fought was the most oppressive and frustrating one he had ever experienced.

However, not long after, the scene before them made them frown again.

After they left the "silent zone," a wide river came into view.

The river was not filled with clear or muddy water, but with a dark green liquid that was constantly bubbling and resembled concentrated sulfuric acid.

A pungent odor, carrying a strong corrosive and eerie energy, wafted towards us.

On both sides of the river, all the trees, rocks, and even the hardest soil are being decomposed and dissolved at a visible rate.

Before their eyes, a colossal ancient tree slowly collapsed, eventually disintegrating into the most basic particles that flowed into the dark green river without even causing a ripple.

"...'Decomposition' property?" Shen Ge looked at the terrifying river in front of him and slowly uttered a few words.

But he soon realized that this "river of decomposition" was not naturally formed.

It is very likely the "strange skeleton" they are looking for, whose strange energy has now completely eroded and changed the ecology here, forming a "rule pollution zone".

Just as Shen Ge was about to activate [Leaving the Ghost Domain] to create a barrier and forcibly cross the river, Yoona, with her sharp eyes, pointed in a direction downstream: "Captain Shen, look there."

Shen Ge looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a simple suspension bridge spanning the river, appearing and disappearing in the mist, hundreds of meters downstream.

That "bridge" has an extremely rough structure.

The bridge is made up of countless huge skeletons that shimmer with an eerie light; and the cables are strange tendons as thick as pythons.

On the bridge, there are still some strange energy reactions belonging to the freak organization.

"It seems they're afraid of this too," Yu Tiexiong said in a muffled voice.

This also proves that even a high-tech freak organization cannot directly resist this "decomposition" characteristic. They can only barely get through by using the same strange substance, which is a "fighting fire with fire" method.

Without further hesitation, the three carefully stepped onto the swaying bone bridge.

After crossing the river, the deeper they went into the jungle, the more bizarre the scenery became.

The jungle here is no longer a vibrant green, but a chilling gray-white.

All the plants had long since died. They did not rot, but were decomposed, losing all their organic matter and pigments, leaving only fragile fibrous skeletons that made a soft "crackling" sound in the wind, like an endless forest of skeletons.

In the center of the woods, an even larger skeleton shocked them.

It was a bizarre skeleton over a hundred meters long, resembling some kind of prehistoric giant crocodile. Its enormous head and forequarters showed signs of decaying into dust.

Beside the skeleton, Shen Ge discovered some abandoned exploration equipment belonging to the strange organization, as well as a data recording chip that had been crushed in half.

Yoona quickly stepped forward, took out another intact chip from the device, and connected it to her personal terminal.

After a brief decoding process, an audio log with background noise was played:
[...The seventeenth exploration failed...The decomposition field of the 'skeleton' is stronger than expected...Any living thing that approaches the core area will be erased from the level of 'existence'...This sixth-tier 'monster crocodile' only lasted for less than three minutes...We must...]

Shen Ge raised her head and looked deeper into the jungle.

The once lush rainforest has completely lost all its color and vitality here.

[...Conventional physical defenses and psionic shields have proven ineffective. To reach the 'central laboratory' behind the waterfall, one must first traverse the deadly zone known as the 'spore mist.']

[...The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth elite exploration teams have been completely wiped out by the 'spore mist.' The spores can ignore all known defenses, directly infecting the nervous system and turning the infected into creatures that only know how to attack each other...]

[...The only hope comes from...a species called the 'Ghostly Firefly'...whose wings are covered in phosphorescent powder that can neutralize the neurotoxins in the mist.]

[...Based on speculation, the 'Ghostly Firefly' inhabits a 'lightless swamp' deep within the rainforest. This has been reported to the 'Chief,' who recommends prioritizing the capture of the 'Ghostly Firefly'...]

The log entry ends here.

This incomplete intelligence is priceless.

It not only confirmed the existence of the "Central Laboratory," but also revealed a huge obstacle standing in their way—the "Spore Mist."

"It seems we need to change course." Shen Ge pulled up a fragmented map from the chip, marking the approximate location of the "Lightless Swamp." (End of Chapter)