Chapter 639: Analysis

Gao Jie Ming hovered at an altitude of about ten meters from the sea surface, with seawater constantly surging beneath his feet.

Although he had already left Fog City, the thick fog on the sea surface was even thicker than on land.

It was as if someone had stuffed the entire sea into a huge steamer, and an ordinary person's visibility here would probably be less than two meters.

The air was filled with a salty, fishy smell, mixed with some indescribable rotting, sweet smell.

Gao Jie Ming calculated slightly; he had already left the coastline of Fog City and flown about one hundred nautical miles in the southwest direction.

The signal from the Glimmer Eye was getting stronger.

That shark monster was less than two nautical miles ahead, the signal stable, without moving.

Gao Jie Ming had originally hoped it would enter some hidden base, or have accomplices to pick it up, or at least have a hiding place.

But in the information sent back by the Glimmer Eye, no other enemy energy fluctuations were detected.

Confirming that he had approached the area of the Glimmer Eye, Gao Jie Ming slowed down and slid silently in the thick fog.

The Grand Void Step reduced his sense of existence to the lowest point, and the wind on the sea surface brushed past him without bringing up any ripples.

Gao Jie Ming quickly found the target.

That monster was floating on the sea surface, half of its body exposed above the water, swaying with the constantly surging waves.

The five- or six-meter-high body looked exceptionally small in the gray-black seawater.

Although he had already received the message sent by the Glimmer Eye, Gao Jie Ming was still a bit disappointed when he saw the actual situation.

Not only did this monster have no backup, but it was also collapsing itself.

Those scales covering the fine skin were falling off in large patches, the falling parts revealing the muscle tissue below without epidermal protection, the muscles covered with festering spots and white pus.

Its dorsal fin was also broken, and dark liquid was slowly seeping from the break, staining the surrounding seawater into an unhealthy brown. That shark head was still there.

But the pure black eyes had become turbid, the surface of the eyeballs covered with a layer of grayish-white film.

The inward-hooking teeth in its mouth had also blackened and atrophied, and a few teeth were loose, swaying slightly with its weak breathing. And that twisted human face tightly attached next to the shark head had completely changed shape.

Before, one could barely see the outline of the facial features, but now those outlines were like being crushed by an invisible hand, leaving only some blurry pits. Gao Jie Ming hovered at a position less than a few meters away from it, looking down at all this.

Without a doubt, this monster had already been abandoned.

It was left on this desolate sea surface to fend for itself.

The other party was very cautious.

They knew this monster had been exposed in the battle, knew it might be tracked, so after it completed the task, they abandoned it without hesitation.

Gao Jie Ming was silent for a moment, then descended.

His feet stepped on the sea surface, the seawater forming a small depression under his feet, but it didn't wet his shoes.

He walked to the monster, stretched out his right hand, five fingers spread, and grabbed a scale on its shoulder that was still relatively complete.

Even though the monster's body was on the verge of collapse, its reaction was still fast.

Its body shook fiercely, the turbid black eyes suddenly focused, staring at Gao Jie Ming.

That shark head opened its mouth, emitting a confused roar from deep in its throat.

Its left arm raised fiercely, slapping toward Gao Jie Ming.

For this monster's dying struggle, Gao Jie Ming didn't even have the interest to dodge.

His right hand holding the scale remained motionless, casually taking this blow with a cheek that looked completely defenseless.

Boom!

The sound of the impact was very dull.

Even though it was dying, the monster's power was still astonishing; the force of that palm slap was enough to flatten a car.

But Gao Jie Ming's body didn't have any shaking, and even the seemingly soft parts of his face didn't have any deformation, just like catching a leaf falling from a tree.

A hint of confusion flashed in the monster's black eyes.

Its left arm exerted force, trying to push Gao Jie Ming's palm away, but Gao Jie Ming's fingers were like five steel nails, firmly embedded in its palm. Gao Jie Ming didn't care about this monster's dying struggle, just silently activated the Eye of Myriad Uses and the fate system.

Golden light lit up on his forehead, and a massive number of runes lit up deep in his pupils.

The Eye of Myriad Uses penetrated the monster's skin, muscles, and bones, reaching its core structure.

Gao Jie Ming wanted to find out as many technical means applied in its body as possible before it completely collapsed.

Information poured into his consciousness like a tide.

Sealing structure.

Fusion method of anomalies. 【63

Traces of biological modification.

Channels for energy transmission...

Every layer was being rapidly stripped away and analyzed by the Eye of Shimmer.

Time passed second by second.

The monster's body continued to rot in Gao Jie Ming's hands, its scales falling off one by one.

The muscles beneath the skin began to liquefy, and dark liquid dripped from Gao Jie Ming's fingers into the seawater.

Its struggle grew weaker and weaker, its roars turning into indistinct whimpers, until finally, even the whimpers ceased.

Finally, Gao Jie Ming withdrew his hand.

He levitated upward, leaving behind the body that was rapidly disintegrating.

The monster had lost all signs of life; in a few more hours, it would completely decompose into the most basic matter, returning to the energy cycle of this plane.

Gao Jie Ming did not look at it again.

He stood above the sea, eyes closed, organizing the information he had just collected in his mind.

The results of the analysis made his brows furrow slightly.

The wizarding techniques hidden within the monster, the methods used for modifying the anomaly... were quite crude.

It was not that the techniques themselves were crude, but rather that the techniques applied to this monster were clearly some kind of "downgraded" version.

The core principles were correct, but there were many areas in the execution that were not refined enough.

This indicated that this monster was not the work of a wizard, but that the natives of this world had obtained knowledge provided by a wizard.

Gao Jie Ming could clearly distinguish that a portion of these techniques was compatible with the knowledge system he had mastered.

The other party's level... at least in the field of anomaly modification, did not exceed his own.

Perhaps it was even slightly lower.

But Gao Jie Ming did not rush to a conclusion.

This was because these techniques were the product of cooperation between the local natives and a wizard.

That wizard might have only provided a lower-tier technique, or perhaps held something back while instructing the natives on the modifications.

After all, no one would hand over their trump cards entirely to a collaborator.

Gao Jie Ming opened his eyes, gazing at the churning thick fog on the sea, and began to ponder another question.

This wizard's operational efficiency was much faster than his own.

From the time he entered this plane until now, it had only been a little over two months.

He had been lurking in Fog City, studying anomalies, collecting materials, and deploying the Eyes of Shimmer.

His progress was not slow, but the wizard behind this monster was clearly faster than him.

That person had already found local collaborators, established a force of a certain scale, and was even capable of creating this level of deep-fusion anomaly. Although the technique was crude, being able to let the natives of this world achieve this from scratch showed that the other party's operational plan was quite mature. Find agents, find collaborators, and let local forces do the work for you.

This plan was indeed excellent.

Gao Jie Ming also had a similar plan, but at the current stage, it was still at the level of preliminary deployment.

Those black-market middlemen could at most be considered temporary measures, helping him run errands, buy things, and provide some intelligence; they were far from being qualified collaborators. Yet that unknown wizard already possessed an organizational force capable of infiltrating the Psychic Association's operations, launching surprise attacks from the sea, and even discarding a "pawn" without hesitation.

In this plane, all the wizards, including him, had entered through the tasks of the Great Wizard Auston.

Although they were not necessarily hostile to one another, they were definitely competitors.

The problem now was that there were only one thousand task slots at the time, and none of those who could snatch a slot among so many competitors were simple characters.

Generally speaking, there were three types of wizards who could snatch a task slot.

The first type: powerful strength.

They could multitask, keeping a portion of their attention on the Magic Net terminal at all times to search the task system for elite combat units. The moment they saw this task, they had enough spare capacity to surpass other wizards and snatch a slot.

This type of wizard was usually not low-level, at least Tier 6, or perhaps even Tier 7.

The strength of these wizards was their greatest asset.

The second type was a wizard like Gao Jie Ming.

Having better luck, seeing this task at the right time, and having decent enough strength to snatch a slot.

The number of this type should be the smallest, their strength uneven, with a large gap between their upper and lower limits.

The third type was the most terrifying: the "lucky" wizard.

The "good luck" here was not true random luck, but "good luck" manipulated by fate-based knowledge.

For a wizard skilled in fate-based knowledge, luck was something that could be manipulated.

A high-level fate-based wizard only needed to "pluck" the strings of fate slightly at the moment the task appeared, making the result of "snatching the slot" the most likely fate line to occur.

A wizard capable of this level had a quite deep mastery of fate-based knowledge, far beyond what a greenhorn like Gao Jie Ming, who had only just begun to learn fate-based knowledge, could compare to.

Regardless of the type, as competitors, they were quite difficult to deal with.

After all, resources were limited.

The number of anomalies that could be studied per unit of time in each area of this plane was fixed; if you caught one more, I would catch one less. With the Great Wizard Auston in this plane, even if the wizards were competing, they would ensure the intensity did not get too high.

But the competitive relationship objectively existed.

Moreover, that unknown wizard had already demonstrated a faster layout capability than him.

If he did not speed up his pursuit, once the other party harvested all the research resources in Fog City and the surrounding areas, it would be difficult for him to find high-quality research samples.

"It seems... I need to speed up."

Gao Jie Ming withdrew his gaze from the sea and flew toward Fog City.