Chapter 657: Conjectures on Fusion and the Visitors

In the pale, glowing light of the underground laboratory, Jie Ming stood before his workbench with three metal containers spread out in front of him, each sealing a sample of The Strange. Several days had passed since he obtained the Shadow Strange.

Since that night, he had barely left this laboratory.

The process of the Shadow Thief and Rift Dweller fusing into the Shadow Strange had given him immense inspiration… not regarding the strength or weakness of The Strange itself, but about the “possibilities” of such entities.

The moment those two Hazard-level Stranges fused, they crossed the threshold into Disaster level, and under the boost of favorable timing, they even brushed against the edge of Catastrophe level. While the sudden surge in power was astonishing, what truly captured Jie Ming’s attention was the fusion of the two Stranges itself.

This illustrated one point: certain Stranges possessed a natural “affinity” toward one another.

Although not every Strange could fuse, many did share compatible traits.

Jie Ming opened the lids of the three containers one by one.

Inside were sealed fragments of three different Hazard-level Stranges: one that could induce mild fear, one that could spread faint cold air in darkness, and one that could cause brief dizziness.

These three fragments came from different sources and had no connection to each other.

Yet in the vision of the All-Purpose Eye, their energy fluctuation frequencies displayed a subtle, stepped overlap.

He brought the fear fragment and the cold air fragment closer together.

The moment the two energies made contact, they produced a slight repulsion, like two magnets of the same pole pushing apart.

But when he brought the dizziness fragment near as well, the three energies formed a triangular balance.

Fear suppressed the agitation of dizziness, cold air tempered the sharpness of fear, and dizziness filled the gaps between cold air and fear.

This showed that the earlier fusion of the Shadow Thief and Rift Dweller was not a unique case—Stranges could indeed be compatible with one another.

Even if two Stranges were not pairwise compatible, under specific conditions they could coexist with the coordination of a third or even more. Jie Ming separated the fragments and used his spiritual power to quickly record a string of data into a memory crystal.

He then set down the crystal, leaned back in his chair, and let his gaze fall on the silver-white metal panel of the ceiling.

Theoretical deductions continued to extend in his mind.

If there were enough Stranges, and if their traits were sufficiently complementary, then in theory it would be possible to fuse all of them into one, creating a terrifying entity.

An existence that gathered every trait of The Strange, one that could not be categorized, could not be assessed, and might even be impossible to define.

That thought lingered in his consciousness for only an instant before he suppressed it.

It was not impossible—it was simply unrealistic.

He had far too little material on hand.

He possessed only a few dozen Hazard-level fragments and just two complete Hazard-level Stranges: the Shadow Thief and the Rift Dweller.

And they had already fused into the Shadow Strange, becoming a single Disaster-level sample.

He could not disassemble it again; that would be a waste of precious research material.

He needed more materials—more Strange fragments, more complete Stranges, more research data.

Only then could he continue to deeply explore the fusion mechanisms of The Strange and verify the hypotheses and conjectures constantly emerging in his mind. Jie Ming sighed, closed his notebook, and placed it in a corner of the workbench.

Then he blinked.

His gaze pierced through the ceiling, passed through the floor of the first-floor bookstore, crossed the damp stone-paved road, and landed in an alley less than two hundred meters from the bookstore.

Two people wearing dark blue uniforms were standing in the shadows of the alley, leaning against the wall and speaking in low voices.

On the left chest of their uniforms was embroidered the emblem of the Spirit Medium Association, and their collars had silver trim.

Jie Ming was quite “familiar” with both of them.

One was Dirk, young, with a tightly drawn face, as if tense about something.

The other was Harding, in his forties, with a calm expression, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed as if standing in his own living room. The corner of Jie Ming’s mouth twitched slightly.

It seemed the problem of insufficient materials would soon be resolved.

In the alley, the light from a gas lamp in the distance shone over, casting a blurry halo on the damp stone pavement.

Dirk and Harding stood at the boundary between light and shadow, half their bodies illuminated and half submerged in darkness.

“Is this the place?” Harding’s voice was not loud, carrying a casual tone.

“This is the place.” Dirk nodded, his gaze sweeping across the old building opposite the alley entrance, which bore a wooden sign reading “Old Bookstore.” “According to our investigation over this period, this shop has indeed acquired a large quantity of Strange materials. Fragments, sealed containers, and some semi-finished gene reagents. The volume is considerable, but the types are quite mixed, without a clear primary focus.”

“What about personnel traffic?”

“Very little.” Dirk shook his head. “We’ve observed for nearly half a month. Only occasional people who look like ordinary customers enter the shop… but those people come out again soon, and they don’t necessarily carry anything. Aside from that, there’s almost no regular personnel traffic. It doesn’t look like an organizational stronghold.”

Harding nodded.

This was precisely why he had not brought people directly to seal the place.

If this shop were an underground base for that cult, it should have seen a large number of suspicious individuals coming and going long ago.

But more than half a month of tracking and surveillance had revealed no abnormalities. This meant either it was not a cult stronghold, or the cult members were hiding extremely deeply… so deeply that even the Association’s elites could not spot any flaws.

However, if it truly were cultists hidden that deeply, they should not have exposed such a large flaw in resource transactions. Therefore, there was no need to consider that possibility.

“Moreover,” Dirk added, “relative to the quantity, although he has acquired a lot of materials, it’s not enough to supply an entire organization’s consumption. It looks more like personal activity. One person, or a small team, researching something.”

Harding withdrew his gaze from the wooden door of the old bookstore and looked at Dirk.

“Don’t you find this place familiar?”

Dirk was startled, then re-examined the building’s appearance.

Old, mottled, two stories, with a wooden “Old Bookstore” sign at the door…

“Should I be familiar with it?”

Harding shook his head. “Although we haven’t seen actual pictures, we’ve seen products related to this shop in the newspapers.” Dirk thought for a moment, then his pupils suddenly shrank. “This is the place mentioned in the newspapers before… the one that improved the success rate of gene reagents?”

Harding neither nodded nor shook his head, simply saying, “I asked those black-market intermediaries. I questioned all those who have dealt with the Association and were willing to cooperate. Although they spoke hesitantly, most of their statements pointed to the same place… right here.” Dirk’s brows furrowed.

He certainly remembered that intelligence.

Two months ago, an improved gene reagent suddenly appeared on the black market, supposedly with a success rate five percent higher than the theoretical value. The number was not large, but it was enough to alert the Association.

They had conducted a risk assessment, but because no negative reports emerged, it was temporarily shelved.

He had not expected the source of that reagent to be right before them.

“So…” Dirk said slowly, “the owner of this old bookstore is publicly a black-market doctor, but in reality hides the identity of a high-level technician?”

“Most likely.” Harding’s tone remained calm, but a trace of eagerness appeared in his eyes. “According to the black-market intermediaries, this guy only arrived in Mist Capital recently. No one knows where he was or what he was doing before. But judging from the improved reagents flowing out of his hands, his technical level is quite high—not something a self-taught amateur could achieve.”

“What is his purpose in hiding here?”

Harding shrugged. “Unclear. But by normal reasoning, he most likely conducted some illegal experiments elsewhere, got wanted, and fled here.”

Dirk was silent for a few seconds, then nodded, his face showing an expression of “so that’s how it is.”

Regarding illegal experiments, both he and Harding held an indifferent attitude.

Human rights in this world were not that high. Even within the Spirit Medium Association, there was a habit of using death-row prisoners as experimental subjects. Moreover, many so-called “illegal experiments” were actually illegal simply because they had infringed on the interests of certain powerful figures.

If a researcher developed a new technology in a city but did not give the city’s rulers a share, then it was “illegal.” If your research method was too advanced and displeased certain old scholars, then it was “illegal.”

Even if you simply appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time and a minor bureaucrat casually slapped a label on you, it was “illegal.”

Conversely, being wanted for illegal experiments proved that this person possessed the ability to surpass an entire research team of powerful figures on his own.

Such researchers were even hot commodities in other cities. Many were willing to spend money and effort to help them clear their wanted status in exchange for their technology. After realizing this, Dirk also grew excited.

After all, they were truly short on personnel right now.

The recent cultist incident had indeed caused quite a stir and prompted the Spirit Medium Association to urgently launch an internal self-examination.

Although quite a bit of corruption was uncovered, they had not caught the other side.

However, that deeply hidden spy was not the main source of their anxiety. Though troublesome, it was not beyond the Association’s ability to handle.

What was truly troublesome was the terrifying Strange that had suddenly appeared a few days ago.

Late at night, a Disaster-level Strange had erupted on the sea not too far from the city. No one could tolerate that.

Dirk still clearly remembered how chaotic the Association had become when they calculated that Strange’s energy intensity.

In the following days, the Association had urgently investigated clues about this Disaster-level Strange but found nothing useful. This result instead made the people of the Spirit Medium Association even more paranoid.

After all, entities like The Strange were far too easy to hide.

If they could not find or deal with it now, and it suddenly erupted someday, the entire city might be destroyed in an instant.

Moreover, such a Strange had erupted right as they were investigating the cultists. To claim the two events were completely unrelated would be an insult to their intelligence.

Thus, in recent days, the Spirit Medium Association in Mist Capital had begun doing everything possible to increase their combat strength in preparation for the coming crisis. Besides requesting reinforcements and combat personnel from other cities’ Spirit Medium Associations, recruiting every useful person in the city as a precaution was also one of their methods.

In the current situation, recruiting a technically powerful researcher could bring effects no weaker than the headquarters sending a Catastrophe-level Spirit Medium.

Moreover, according to the intelligence, this researcher was likely very skilled at improving gene reagents.

Even if he could not provide new research results for the time being, just this point was enough to help the Spirit Medium Association increase its combat strength in the short term. “Let’s go in and take a look.” Harding stepped away from the wall and walked toward the old bookstore.

Dirk followed, the two of them walking one after the other across the damp stone pavement before pushing open the wooden door whose hinges creaked.