Chapter 359
Chapter 359 Infection of Ability Users
Upon hearing this, everyone else was taken aback.
However, they soon noticed that the monster had indeed stopped trying to attack Ling Mo. Instead, it lay on the ground rolling around, shouting a bunch of incomprehensible syllables, but they could still detect a hint of sobbing in its voice.
This made the atmosphere in the scene even more bizarre.
What started as a horror movie scene suddenly morphed into a sci-fi spectacle, and now it had turned into… whatever this was, it was hard to say.
The hefty guy squinted at the monster for a moment and couldn’t help but comment, “Why does it feel like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum?”
—It really was quite similar; anyone faced with an unpleasant situation would just roll on the ground and cry out for their mom, which was at least a ninety-nine-point-nine percent similarity to a spoiled child.
Xia Xinyan also felt bewildered: “…I’ve never seen a monster like this before.”
Does this count as taming?
Moreover… a beast that could be reduced to tears by a beating should have been more famous than the fox or the dog after that village incident in its previous life…
After all, one doesn’t commonly encounter a monster that humiliating.
And watching this guy cry, Ling Mo found himself at a loss for actions. He remained silent for a while before tilting his head to look at Xia Xinyan and the others: “What should we do?”
Xia Xinyan thought for a moment and said, “Let’s try to communicate with it again…”
However, before Ling Mo could react, Bai Yu suddenly interjected, “Wait! I noticed something!”
“What’s up?” the hefty guy asked instinctively.
“I was just analyzing that monster’s sounds… or rather, what it was saying,” Bai Yu had a strange expression, “Uh… even though you might not believe it, if you process what the monster just said in a certain way, it can be restored to human language—actually, what it was saying was originally human words, but due to the structure of its body, it couldn’t say them normally.”
“There’s such a thing?” The hefty guy stood there in shock and turned to look at the monster. “So what is it saying now?”
The monster was still lying on the ground, yelling.
In response, Bai Yu’s expression grew even weirder: “It’s saying… ‘My dad never hit me.'”
Everyone: “…”
This has turned strange.
However, the brief silence lasted only a moment before Xia Xinyan suddenly recalled something and her expression shifted: “…This guy might not be a monster.”
Neither a demon nor a beast, but a human, or rather, an ability user.
She remembered that in her previous life, there were indeed instances of ability users infected by demonic powers—anyway, that’s how it was referred to online. Xia Xinyan had never seen what demonic power really was, and she had only seen videos of infected ability users online, so her impression wasn’t very deep.
But she still remembered the gist—once an ability user was completely infected, their ultimate form resembled a demon, but they retained some rationality, allowing them to act on their own thoughts. However, in most cases, they weren’t up to any good.
Of course, the most crucial point was that… infected ability users had no way to be cured or restored, which was roughly equivalent to a death sentence.
Additionally, once an ability user was infected, their strength would greatly amplify, often exceeding their original power by several times. So, despite the extreme dangers, some unscrupulous individuals chose to get infected, leading to the birth of a demonic organization that sought this method to enhance strength, referred to by people in the past as a “demonic sect.”
It was said that the members of the demonic sect believed that being infected was the true evolutionary path for humanity, that everything that had happened before was a prelude to this point—and the fact that the infected ability users could retain some rationality was one proof.
Xia Xinyan’s only assessment back then was just two words—【foolishness】.
—One must acknowledge that as the Cataclysm progressed, various settings began to take on an increasingly fantastical flavor.
However, Xia Xinyan hadn’t had any exposure to such existences in her previous life—whether it was infected ability users or the demonic sect, she had only seen related news online.
This time, it was Bai Yu mentioning that the monster could talk that triggered her realization—while beasts have a sense of humanity, none could speak, even indirectly. This monster’s behavior aligned more with the descriptions of infected ability users from the past.
So… does this mean there was some demonic power lurking in this village?
Xia Xinyan didn’t know what demonic power actually was, but based on snippets from related events that circulated online in her past life, she could deduce that its danger level was nearly beyond that of a rule-invading event. Coupled with the bunch of idiots from the demonic sect responding at the increased appearance of demonic power, this thing was even classified by the Ability Bureau as a high-risk event.
Now, putting these clues together… it wasn’t hard to guess why the village incident caused such a massive impact.
She immediately relayed this to Ling Mo and the others—just mentioning the infection and the potential presence of demonic power in the village, leaving out the rest as it didn’t seem necessary to elaborate at this point.
But this was enough to leave them feeling as though things had become magical.
The hefty guy swallowed hard: “Geez… compared to this thing, even the zombie virus might not amount to anything—why do I increasingly feel like this world has turned into a fantasy?”
Ling Mo glanced at the monster again: “So what do we do about it?”
Xia Xinyan thought for a moment and, feeling somewhat helpless, said, “Mo Mo, you decide… I don’t know.”
Infected ability users had no path to recovery, which often led to feelings of helplessness.
She really wanted to minimize the impact of the village incident, but from the looks of it, that seemed impossible now.
Ling Mo pondered for two seconds and quickly made a decision—suddenly, the mech raised its right arm, and countless white strands rapidly formed a giant grenade cannon that was as tall as the mech itself.
Then, the mech grasped the gun and swung it hard toward the monster’s head.
His plan was to trap this thing here for now, and deal with it once everything was resolved.
Who knows, perhaps there would be a way to save it?
However, at the moment the grenade cannon struck, Xia Xinyan suddenly felt the monster’s aura vanish entirely, and the gunstock struck the ground the next moment, causing the monster’s body to explode into a pile of… dead pigs.
Xia Xinyan’s expression froze: “It’s a magical beast! They moved that fellow away!”
A magical beast saving someone?
And coordinating?
When did these guys become so smart?
Ling Mo also quickly reacted, retreating from the mech and returning to Xia Xinyan’s side, preventing another spatial shift from separating him from her. He then handed control of the mech over to Tianji, putting it in autopilot mode to guard the area.
Before they could respond, a voice suddenly came through the intercom—a Chicks member sounding somewhat terrified asking, “Hey… is Boss Ling still there?”
“Yes, what’s wrong?” Ling Mo immediately responded.
The Chicks member sounded even more panicked: “Boss, didn’t you notice? The others… seem to be gone… the lights in the village are out… my teammates are too… wait! What is that…”
Suddenly, the voice cut off.
“Hey? Hey?!” Ling Mo called out a couple of times, but no one replied.
Seeing this, Xia Xinyan’s expression gradually grew serious: “We underestimated the dangers here.”
