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

A terrifying storm of supernatural energy swept wildly in all directions from the two of them as its center.

Even though they were far apart, Yu Tiexiong and Yun'er, who were standing at the edge of the cave passage, were shaken by the aftershocks and had to retreat again until they had nowhere left to go and were leaning against the cold rock wall to barely steady themselves.

In their view, the once vast and empty underground space has now been split in two.

The two forces squeezed, devoured, and annihilated each other in mid-air, tearing out several dark rifts in space with each collision.

But in the heart of that darkness, Shen Ge's situation was far worse than it appeared.

The top-grade living alloy combat suit meticulously crafted by Hephaestus on his body was now crumbling like paper. His skin, muscles, and even bones were disintegrating and turning to sand under the force of "decomposition."

pain!
A pain that penetrates to the bone and tears the soul apart!

This is like an ordinary person trying to swallow a red-hot iron; it's not just the pain of swallowing, but also the intense heat of having one's internal organs burned.

But he cannot back down, much less stop!
Once the momentum of [devouring] weakens even slightly, even for just a second, the unrestrained torrent of "decomposition" will completely obliterate him in an instant!

However, just as the two sides were locked in a stalemate, the skeleton seemed to "sense" that Shen Ge's devouring was not unstoppable.

In order to resist this terrifying suction force, it instinctively reacted by calling for help.

It began frantically drawing energy from the rising sea of ​​black flesh and blood below. The skeleton, already nearing its limit, suddenly erupted with an even more dazzling and intense black light. The [Devouring] darkness, which had been fighting against it, seemed to be being pushed back!
"warn!"

"Didi dididi——"

In Shen Ge's mind, the system interface that hadn't shown a red alert for a long time suddenly went crazy, frantically popping up a series of scarlet garbled characters and warning boxes.

[WARNING! The system is operating under extremely high load!]

[Ultra-high purity "source material" reaction detected... Forced analysis is underway...]

[WARNING! Devouring sequence overload! Expected body collapse countdown: 10 seconds!]

[Target identified: Incomplete eighth-order (fragmented state, torso)...]

[Real Name Analysis: ? ? ? (Data Masked)]

[WARNING: You are attempting to devour a high-level being possessing the "Immortal" attribute! This action carries extremely high risk!]

Looking at the information flashing wildly on his retina, Shen Ge's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints in his strange eyes, which were constantly collapsing and rebuilding.

Eighth level?

This skeleton was not the peak sixth or seventh rank he had previously estimated, but a genuine eighth rank being with "immortal" characteristics.

Furthermore, the system message indicated "Incomplete state - torso"...

In other words, whether it's this skeleton, the so-called "extraterrestrial" heart below, or even the third part that the monster organization is still searching for, they are essentially just... parts of the corpse left behind by a real monster king after his death?

"Damn it, no wonder even my devouring is so difficult..."

Shen Ge cursed inwardly, and the speed at which his body was collapsing suddenly accelerated.

His left arm had been completely destroyed by the destructive force, and he was only barely holding on thanks to the regenerative ability of the [Progenitor Strange Cells], but even that was no longer keeping up with the speed of destruction.

But then, the situation changed again!
The black sea of ​​flesh and blood formed from the "monstrous heart" below seemed to sense that its "other half" was being forcibly taken away.

This act of "stealing food" thoroughly enraged the monster that had just escaped its clutches.

"Boom——!!!"

The sea of ​​blood and flesh below instantly boiled!

Dozens of black tentacles, each several meters in diameter and covered with grotesque barbs and eyeballs, carrying a foul and corrosive energy, suddenly shot out from below!

The tentacles tightly wrapped around the lower half of the skeleton, unleashing an astonishing force, attempting to drag the skeleton, along with Shen Ge who was stuck to it, into the polluted abyss below and forcibly complete the fusion!

Above, there is "decomposition" and erosion; below, there is "assimilation" and pulling.

Two different streams of strange energy attacked, and the surrounding strange energy storm was already tearing space apart. Shen Ge was like an ant caught in the middle of a millstone, and if he was not careful, he would be crushed to pieces.

"Captain Shen!"

Seeing this scene from afar, Yu Tiexiong's eyes widened in fury.

He roared and tried to rush forward to help, but the spreading aftershocks pinned him to the spot, preventing him from taking even a single step.

In the face of that level of rule clash, any external intervention is futile.

however.

At the very center of the storm, Shen Ge watched as the disgusting tentacles wrapped around him, trying to drag him down with them. Yet, a chillingly insane smile appeared on his face, which was now only half-covered with skin.

"Want to drag it back? Want to merge it?"

"OK……"

Shen Ge's left hand, which was only half intact, did not attempt to sever the tentacles.

Instead, he suddenly loosened his last line of defense!
"Since you're so eager to be together... then let's reunite inside my belly!!!"

boom!
The next second, the [Devouring Domain] that had only covered the surface of the skeleton suddenly expanded downwards like a runaway black hole!
Shen Ge stopped resisting the pull from below. Instead, he used the force to extend his strange domain downwards, engulfing the skeleton, the dozens of black tentacles that rushed up, and even a part of the "assimilation" rules connected to the sea of ​​flesh below... all in one bite!
This is a true "snake swallowing an elephant"!
This is an attempt by a mortal to simultaneously digest the violent collision between the torso and the heart!

"Uhhhhhhhhh-!!!"

Under the impact of this force, which was a hundred times greater than the limit, his already battered body finally reached its absolute limit.

"boom!"

Under the horrified gazes of Yu Tiexiong and Yun'er.

In mid-air, Shen Ge's body...

A cloud of blood mist exploded out!
"Swallow...swallow it, you son of a bitch!!!"

Immediately afterwards, the miniature black hole located at the center of space, which was frantically rotating and compressing, seemed to have finally reached a critical point. Instead of collapsing inward, it suddenly erupted outward with a visible, semi-transparent, grayish-black shockwave!
As the shockwave swept past, the black tentacles that had been tightly wrapped around the lower half of the skeleton, attempting to pull it into the abyss, instantly broke off and disappeared, leaving not even a trace behind.

The enormous, bizarre skeleton of the progenitor that had sparked countless disputes was completely disintegrated under the extreme "digestion" power of the black hole's core, and was swept into that bottomless abyss.

Without the pull of its target, the black sea of ​​flesh below let out a violent roar, instantly stirring up towering waves, but it could no longer reach the being in the air.

The storm suddenly stopped.

The smoke and dust that filled the cave and the strange, turbulent energy seemed to stand still at this moment.

In the center of that completely emptied void, the miniature black hole slowly dissipated. Countless red, eerie energy particles and black fragments of rules re-aggregated, wove, and reconstructed in mid-air.

First came the pale bones, then the bright red flesh, and finally a new layer of skin as pale as jade.

After a few seconds.

A naked, slender figure slowly descended from the void, its bare feet landing on the ravaged rocky ground.

Shen Ge was almost torn apart in the raging storm of strange energy, but he kept healing thanks to the regenerative ability of the progenitor's strange cells.

His current state, however, exudes an eerie quality.

There wasn't a single scratch on his body, but his face was as pale as paper, and you could even faintly see the almost transparent pale gold veins under his skin.

Several wisps of gray, eerie black mist constantly surrounded his body.

"Captain Shen...?"

Yu Tiexiong and Yun'er, who were hiding in the distance, looked at that figure but dared not approach for a moment, for fear of triggering Shen Ge's "self-healing".

They only breathed a sigh of relief when Shen Ge slowly opened her eyes.

"It's okay." Shen Ge's voice was hoarse, as if he had swallowed a handful of sand: "...Although I had a little indigestion, I managed to eat it."

"..." Good, you can still laugh, which proves that you are indeed fine.

Just as Shen Ge said, at this moment, system notifications were flooding his mind like a waterfall, bringing about an unprecedented transformation.

System repair process... Reboot successful.

[The current system integrity has been improved to 87%!]

[Congratulations! Successfully devoured the "Incomplete Progenitor's Torso," the purity of its contained rules has reached the threshold.]

[Reward: 1 Trait Enhancement Point!]

[Based on the analysis of the target's characteristics, you have obtained a new characteristic—]

【The Mysterious Sequence 2 - Immortal (Incomplete Version)】

Shen Ge's pupils contracted sharply when he saw the glaring "Sequence 2" on the system panel.

【Trait: Immortal (Incomplete Version)】

[Note: This is not immortality in the sense of life itself, but rather a "state lock" originating from the dimensional level.]

[Effect: Upon activation, the host will, for a short period (depending on the amount of Ghost Energy consumed), forcibly "anchor" their physical and mental state to the moment of activation. During this period, the host will be immune to all physical damage, energy shocks, mental contamination, and temporal interference, except for "rule erasure (such as high-level devouring/decomposition)".]

[Cost: During activation, the consumption of supernatural energy will increase exponentially; and after activation, the user will suffer a period of weakness due to the backlash of the rules.]

"Status locked... Absolutely invincible?" Shen Ge looked at the words and a smile appeared on his lips.

Although it's an "incomplete version" and has consumption limitations, it's undoubtedly an ultimate trump card. In this bizarre world where rules reign supreme, this means that as long as his bizarre energy isn't exhausted, he possesses the ability to force a comeback in any seemingly hopeless situation!

He finally understood why the skeleton had not disappeared even after millions of years of decomposition, and why it could even withstand such a terrifying devouring process for so long.

Because its former owner possessed a characteristic known as "immortality"!
However, just as Shen Ge was immersed in the joy of the system's reward, a violent roar, seemingly coming from the depths of the earth, pulled his thoughts back to reality.

“BOOM Boom Boom Boom!!!”

The entire underground space began to tilt violently, countless boulders fell from above, and the surrounding space, like a shattered mirror, began to show dark and terrifying cracks.

"Oh no!" Yoona's expression changed drastically as she looked at the energy monitoring device in her hand. "Captain Shen! Without that skeleton as 'suppression' and 'neutralization,' the balance below has completely collapsed!"

Shen Ge forced himself to endure the stiffness in his body caused by the intense evolution and the rejection of the rules, and looked up at the ground below.

Without the suppression of the "skeleton," the "extraterrestrial object" that had been released—the monstrous heart—lost its target for fusion, but also completely lost its restraint.

The black ocean of flesh and blood below was boiling wildly. It was furious because it had lost its "other half" and was releasing the terrifying "assimilation" pollution without any restraint, trying to completely devour this bizarre space that was on the verge of collapse!

"Let's go! Get out of this hellhole quickly!" Shen Ge grabbed the spare clothes Yoona handed him, hurriedly put them on, and quickly prepared to leave.

His current condition is extremely poor. The devouring that exceeded his limits just now has nearly exhausted the strange energy in his body, and he is in an extremely unstable "rejection period". His current combat power is less than one-tenth of his peak, and he is completely powerless to deal with the berserk "heart" below.

"This way!" Yu Tiexiong had already blasted open a passage that was blocked by falling rocks.

The three of them were running for their lives through the ruins that were collapsing in the apocalypse.

The spatial rift continued to devour everything around it, and the once magnificent "Central Laboratory," along with the ancient ruins below, were destroyed in this unbalanced catastrophe.

Just as the three were about to burst out of the closing spatial gate behind the waterfall, a chilling sensation made Shen Ge subconsciously turn around and look.

Deep within the chaotic, shattered space below, torn apart by the eerie energy storm, the enormous, unbound black tumor did not perish along with the surrounding space. With its terrifying life force, it withstood the annihilation of the energy storm!

Immediately afterwards, it extended thousands of tentacles from its body, and actually tore open a rift to other fragmented worlds in the chaotic collapsing space!
With the "disappearance" of the tumorous heart and the collapse of the eerie space, everything returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

"call out--"

With a sharp sound as if the air was being torn apart, three figures were suddenly ejected from the eerie space and slammed heavily onto the damp ground of the Amazon rainforest, which was filled with the smell of decaying leaves and mud.

Behind them, the spatial fluctuations hanging behind the giant waterfall collapsed completely after a violent ripple of water twisting and emitting a final, crisp sound like shattering glass.

The roar of the cascading waterfall once again filled the air, as if the devastating sound of spatial collapse that had preceded them was nothing more than a dream. (End of Chapter)