Chapter 12.3 - Root of Evil
Su extended his left hand in front of his face. Even under the dim lightning, this was a hand without any fault; slender, fine, and perfect. However, was this truly the case?
A slightly bitter smile appeared on his face, and his left hand lightly clenched together. He naturally knew that below this left hand that was comparable to Persephone’s were tissues that were already far different from that of an ordinary human.
Within the tissues underneath his skin were countless extremely fine bone granules. These little granules that were as tough as teeth could quickly piece themselves together to substantially increase his arms’ defensive and offensive strength. Meanwhile, his forearms’ bones were covered in cracks. However, his evolution was already nearing completion, and these cracks were just the gaps between bone plates. When needed, these bone plates could completely move aside, dividing his muscles into hundreds of standalone systems. This achieved a similar effect as having countless miniature motors. Not only could they instantly generate tremendous power, they also allowed his arms to attack in any direction.
These were already arms that didn’t belong to a human.
If he continued along this path, would there be no path of return?
For the sake of paying back his debt towards Persephone, Su finally began to substantially increase his combat ability, but it was still only through the evolutionary points normally obtained from battles to spontaneously form abilities in specific ability domains. During this process, Su discovered somewhat unexpectedly that even though he was always increasing his strength, his potential never seemed to have reached any bottlenecks. At the very least, he could completely develop a new eighth level ability in the Perception Domain. What did this mean? It meant that Su already reached the doorstep to becoming a general!
However, there was something else that did not make Su happy at all, and that was that large amounts of genetic variation were happening within his tissues. In this era, this variation was called evolution, but for some reason, Su couldn’t get himself to feel happy about this kind of evolution at all.
However now, Su was already left without a choice.
A light crack sounded. The dark blue crystal below Su’s right hand suddenly shattered into pieces, and then, from within the cracked pieces strands of dark blue mist flew out. The skin on Su’s palm wriggled about, revealing countless tiny pores that completely absorbed this dark blue mist. An icy cold energy continuously entered his palm. Then, it was led into various parts of his body through his bloodstream. This energy did not harmonize with Su’s body, so along the way, it brought Su a stinging sensation. This energy continuously seeped into Su’s cells, but it would flow out as well. Each time it entered and exited, its attributes would change slightly as well.
Soon after, all of the dark blue mist was completely absorbed. The crystal fragments that remained dulled quite a bit, already becoming a bit white in color. However, Su didn’t want to waste the remaining half of the energy inside these crystal fragments. He picked up the fragments, and then he placed them into his mouth before swallowing them piece by piece. From his throat, chest, and even belly, crack crack sounds continuously sounded. The crystal fragments were forcefully smashed by his digestive organs and ultimately turned into nutrients.
Then, Su sat there quietly for an entire hour, waiting for dawn to arrive.
Borrowing the morning light seeping in from the window, Su stretched his right hand in front of his face. What he saw was still a clear white and faultless hand, but immediately after, the skin on this hand began to wriggle about, revealing white patches of varying sizes. These patches were all exposed bone armor. Even though the faint whiteness meant that it wasn’t sturdy enough yet, its toughness still wouldn’t fall below that of ordinary steel. A half meter long crescent blade slowly extended from the outer edge of his forearm, its sharp sawtooth containing a faint black color.
Su stood up, placing his right hand flat against a wall. The muscles on his arm lightly trembled, and then his arm already embedded itself deeply into the sturdy concrete.
This small test would bring Su a hundred yuan bill. However, he already couldn’t care about this. Instead, he quickly put on his uniform and equipment before leaving his own apartment.
When he walked through the apartment doors, Su suddenly felt as if the sunlight outside was a bit blinding, making him narrow his left eye. Su immediately noticed that this was a sign of his sight being strengthened. His body immediately made an adjustment, altering his sight that had strengthened by at least 10%. As his body adjusted, Su suddenly felt waves of strange feelings within his heart. He wanted to slaughter, devour, rest, and mate. These thoughts were extremely, extremely great.
The last time he devoured the abilities of another creature’s body should be when he obtained infrared sight from the living corpse queen, right? Su recalled this while suppressing all types of emerging desires.
At this moment, the rumbling sound of an engine sounded. A light off-road vehicle rushed out from the corner of the street with crazy speed, and then with a drifting turn, it cut off the road in front of Su. It suddenly released an ear-splitting breaking sound, the tires grinding out thick smoke against the surface of the ground before fiercely stopping in front of Su’s face.
The car window lowered, revealing a young and gorgeous face. Her rich blonde hair looked like flowing sunlight.
“Hey! Lieutenant Commander Su, where do you want to go?” The young lady asked with a face full of excitement.
Su’s powerful and precise memory told him that he had met this girl before at Persephone’s birthday evening banquet. She was the daughter of a certain great family chief, and she was currently serving as the assistant officer for some dragonrider lieutenant colonel from the family.
If it was before, Su would have respectfully and coldly refused her clearly good intentions, but today, he replied, “Outside the city.”
The girl’s eyes lit up. With a smile, she said, “Perhaps I can give you a ride?” She obviously knew that Su was used to running. This was something that almost everyone who recognized Su knew.
Su hesitated for a moment, and then he agreed. Under this girl’s gaze that looked like flames were going to shoot out, he sat in the passenger seat. The off-road vehicle rumbled, and then it sped out of Dragon City.
“The place you are going to is quite barren. What exactly are you doing there?” The young lady pressed down on the accelerator while asking over the ear-splitting engine. While changing shift, she casually held Su’s hand.
This couldn’t be considered a type of hinting. During that evening banquet, she and her companions had already clearly expressed their desires towards Su.
"Learn a few things, and then go out to battle." Su replied with a smile. He didn't refuse the girl's temptation. This decision made even himself become on guard.
“Immediately?” A trace of disappointment flew past the girl’s eyes.
“Correct.” Su replied. At that moment, he was full of longing for the girl’s young and powerful body, but the importance of this matter was still below that of going to battle first.
Under the crazy speed, the off-road vehicle quickly stopped in front of a worn-out but spacious warehouse. Su jumped off the off-road vehicle, and then he saw the warehouse that was piled high with damaged mechanical parts.
“When you return, take me out on a date!” The girl shouted from the vehicle. Her sharp and clear voice seemed to even suppress the engine’s rumbling sounds.
“...Alright.” Su actually gave a reply of confirmation, making the girl’s eyes shine.
“Then come back alive! Also, I wish you luck in getting rid of Mitchels earlier!” The girl left behind a melodious laughter. She then started up the off-road vehicle before driving off.
“This girl is quite wild, quite interesting. However, her identity is a bit troublesome. You have to be careful of her boss becoming jealous though! He is a lieutenant colonel, you know!” Unknowingly when, Captain Curtis appeared at Su’s side, watching this girl leave behind surging smoke and dust in an amused manner.