There was an excruciating pain, as if his body was being ripped apart. The burning sensation of the tattoo on his right wrist was especially unbearable.
Thank God, he lost his consciousness not long after—
—or else the pain would have actually driven him insane.
He didn't know how long after the incident it was, but the soreness of his entire body returned.
"Urg."
Struggling, he finally opened his drowsy eyes. The first image he saw was a gorgeous face in tears.
"You are finally awake." Ayesha leaped from in front of the bed. Her lips trembled, and the mists in her eyes shook, ready to fall at any time.
"How... long have I been sleeping?" Jiang Chen asked weakly.
"An entire day and night." Her face had concern written all over it.
He felt guilty looking at the heavy eye bags on her face.
[Wait! Where the mutated human go?!]
As if a bucket of cold water had just poured onto his head, Jiang Chen scrambled looking around, but he couldn't find the mutated human's body.
"Ayesha, did you see—"
"That body? I hid it in the basement." Ayesha lowered her head, lightly biting into her lips.
She broke her promise with Jiang Chen.
He had previously told her to never come into the room under any circumstances, but the loud noise from the room had woken her up.
She anxiously approached the room, only to hear Jiang Chen's painful screams.
She didn't waste a second to think before dashing into the kitchen, grabbing a knife, and shoving the bedroom door open.
The next moment, she saw Jiang Chen, who lay in bed unconscious, and a disfigured monster.
Never had she seen a more frightening monster. Its body was covered with severed flesh. The head and heart were covered in a pitch-black metal....
[Is this thing even human?]
Suppressing the fear in her heart, she approached the monster and placed her hand over its chest.
There were no heartbeats.
She gazed at the unconscious Jiang Chen and then at the monster that had fallen to the ground. She could tell that the two must have had some conflict. Although she didn't understand the absurd scene, she would always stand on her husband's side.
Putting down the knife, Ayesha forced down the agitated contents of her stomach with a deep breath before dragging the body into the mansion's basement.
She then took disinfectant from the bathroom and cleaned the blood trail, careful as though covering up a crime scene
After taking care of everything, she filled a bowl with water and stripped Jiang Chen to wipe down his entire body.
She couldn't fathom how he had become like this in just one afternoon.
At least the still-beating heart somewhat reassured her.
Only after she finished did she bring a chair from the living room to sit beside his bed quietly, waiting for him to wake up.
...
"Did you see everything?" Jiang Chen asked with a bitter smile.
Seeing such a caring face, he could never blame her for coming in.
Ayesha nodded, then buried her head.
"I am willing to give up my life for you if you wish—"
He lifted his hand and covered her mouth. Jiang Chen smiled at her surprised look.
"I am not a devil, you don't need to give up your life.... Just keep the secret for me."
It was okay if she knew; Ayesha would never leak the secret.
With both hands outreached, Ayesha covered the large hand covering her face. She gently nodded.
"Mhmm."
He craned his head to look at the light in the distance; it was almost dawn.
"Go sleep for a little bit. I want be alone to think."
Ayesha nodded with a worried look at Jiang Chen. She then left the room and closed the already broken door.
Lying on the soft bed, Jiang Chen raised his right hand.
All of the energy in the interdimensional bracelet was gone?
He glanced at the bed lamp. After reaching over to unplug it, he stuck his finger into the socket.
The light bulb in the room slightly dimmed, but due to the voltage limit, he only managed to charge the interdimensional bracelet by 2%.
He breathed deeply and concentrated on his right hand in an attempt to open the storage dimension.
Pain radiated from his wrist.
"The energy wasn't consumed, so I guess that means I can't use it for now?" Jiang Chen looked at his right hand thoughtfully.
He'd been pondering this issue for a while now. If he forcefully grabbed someone to travel with him, then wouldn't it eradicate that person in an instant? But he never had the opportunity to test this "bugged" ability out since in the era of firearms, bullets served the purpose better.
There was an other area of consideration, however. If he spent 40% of the energy traveling, then how much energy would it cost to bring along another person?
The cost of taking someone alive should be different from taking a corpse.
He recalled the last time carrying the hamster, it hadn't cost an excessive amount of energy. But this time with the lead-skin mutated human, it completely drained the interdimensional bracelet. No, the real energy cost definitely far exceeded the 60% limit, which was what caused him to go unconscious.
No need to use it against weak enemies, too costly against strong enemies... A bit useless in battles.
He rubbed his fingers, which were no longer sore, and stared at the interdimensional bracelet on his skin.
He desperately wanted to go back. Sun Jiao must be worried about him.
But the bracelet was most likely "overheated." Seeing as how it could charge, however, it meant it wasn't broken.
Maybe it would return to normal after some time?
Realizing that there was no use worrying, Jiang Chen shook his head and grabbed the EP from the table where it lay after Ayesha had taken it off while wiping down his body.
****
User Name: Jiang Chen
Body Conditions:
Muscle Strength: 30
Bone Strength: 29
Reflex: 32
Brain Cell Strength: 14
Radiation Level: 0（Safe）
Irregular Status: None
****
Muscle strength had increased by 5 points, bone strength by 2, reflex increased by 3, and the genetic potential was further developed. On earth, this body condition would easily destroy superheroes like Spiderman and Batman.
If they existed anyway.
Jiang Chen remembered the Sun Jiao had told him before that once injected with the genetic vaccine, the genetic potential would be somewhat unleashed. But to evolve to a stronger form, it could only be accomplished through life and death situations.
That battle truly had been dancing on a knife's edge between life and death.
He recollected that battle with a forced smile.
A power armor, worth over ten thousand crystals, exploded... But what made his heart ache the most was not the crystals but the fact that it was difficult to buy even with crystals. To help him, Zhao Chenwu had sold him all of his remaining units....
Right! Speaking of the battle, that time....
Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that after Sun Jiao had been thrust away by the power warhammer, the <Heart Ceased> symbol had shown up on the team status, spurring him into a state similar to fury.
He opened the special ability tab in EP.
****
<Hidden genetic code>
???: Muscle strength +35, Reflex+40, Brain cell strength +29. Special effect: Battle instinct. Can grasp the situation and the enemy's ability in disadvantaged situations, ignore all unnecessary factors, and use previous battle actions to instantly carry them out at the maximum success rate.
Side effect: Emotionless
Time of duration: Until the opponent dies or a trigger is used to cease the effects. After 30 minutes, it will begin to drain life force, and the effect will be reflected in the body afterwards.
Note: Once activated, fury is forcefully deactivated.
****
It was not fury, but a new ability!
Jiang Chen gulped at the skill description.
Did the three question marks mean that the ability had yet to be named? This meant that nobody had activated this genetic code before?
After pausing to think, he pressed the three question marks, opening up a dialogue box on the screen.
"This... means that it can be named?"
He pondered for a while. He really didn't have any talent in coming up with names.
Suddenly, Jiang Chen slapped his head as if enlightened before typing in <Invictus>.
Hehe. Invictus had the connotation of putting in a cheat code—the ability did seem unfair.
After typing in the name of the ability, Jiang Chen read over the description again.
Based on previous battle actions... that meant that if he had ever used a gun in the past, then he would become Hawkeye. And he had trained in all functions of the power armor before, so he can fluidly control the power armor without any hindrances.
Jiang Chen mentally went over the battle; the combos he made had been perfect. Such mastery was definitely not something he could normally do, especially when he still had to look at the speed monitor when accelerating.
The fuel rod self-destruction program was also an action he had used before.
But why had he never thought about using the interdimensional bracelet to eliminate opponents before?
He thought deeply before coming to a sudden realization.
That was because he had never used "traveling" as a combat action. After experimenting with the hamster, he had never performed it during combat.
"Therefore, the ability's effect achieves skill mastery," Jiang Chen said with a troubled smile after peering at his hand.
Using the interdimensional travel ability to kill should not be a problem, but it would be pushing the limits if used against a monster with a high life force. A mutated human had made him unconscious for an entire day, and he still could not use his bracelet. If he traveled with a Roshan or a Death Claw... Some experiments indicated that his life force was proportional to crystal energy.
He shook his head and put the EP aside, closing his eyes to rest.
Sun Jiao was still alive.
Her <Revive> must have evolved from her <Tenacious> ability. This must be how hidden genetic codes could be further unlocked.
Speaking of this, as long as they used their ability, they had to bear the side effects from it. Fury made him lose consciousness, invictus removed emotion—then what was the side effect of the next hidden genetic code?
For some reason, he felt slightly uneasy.
Genetic vaccines had eliminated the barriers that constrained DNA, allowing humans to unleash abilities previously sealed. But was this really all right? If eliminating barriers was a good thing, then why was there one in the first place when humans first began to evolve?
Only time could tell.
And it was stupid to worry about an ability being too powerful.
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