Zhou Lin

"Speaking of...don't we really want to help him?" This was the first question Zhang San asked after Shi Sanwen hung up the video communication.

At this moment, the two of them were standing in an open space, with corpses lying on the ground around them, and a dozen cars parked.

The double-layer pure alloy self-destruction chamber that trapped them not long ago had been moved away from its original position by Shi Sanwen and moved to a farther place.

"It's not necessary." Two seconds later, Shi Sanwen replied confidently, "If you wait a little longer, Hunter Tyrant will be teleported here just like us."

Hearing this, Zhang San raised his eyebrows and said, "How can you see it?"

Shi Sanwen shrugged and continued: "The effect of the guy who teleported us here is to 'return a target's state and position to a day ago'. An ability like this... cannot be killed." The current hunter's."

"Oh?" Zhang San asked again, "How do you know that his ability is to make people 'go back a day' instead of 'teleport people to a distance'?"

Shi Sanwen responded: "First of all, you must have noticed... We visited this place yesterday, but now it has changed beyond recognition; secondly, assuming that the other party's ability is really 'teleporting people to a distance', then why doesn't he We teleport to outer space or the center of the earth to kill us instead of having such a big battle here?”

Zhang Sandao: "Perhaps there are limitations on his abilities, such as 'you can only move the target to places you have been to' and so on. Besides, teleporting the ability user to outer space or the center of the earth cannot ensure that The other party will definitely die, and there is no way to identify the other party’s body.”

"Okay, stop making excuses." Shi San asked, "You know that's impossible...According to your assumption, that guy can just send the person to be arrested directly into the prison. As long as he goes to various places in advance. Just walk around in a special cell."

"Haha... I just want to test how far you have guessed." Zhang San smiled. It was obvious that he was asking questions knowingly. "Actually, I had already recognized him when he showed up. He came out. He is Jessed Newman, the deputy director of EF. His ability is indeed as you said... it allows people to 'go back to a day ago'. However, his ability is often mistaken for long-distance teleportation. , most people don’t think about ‘time’.”

"It's okay if I don't think about it." Shi Sanwen replied, "Because I can clearly feel that my physical condition has returned to the day before."

"Huh?" Zhang San really didn't understand now, "Could it be that you come by the content of feces in your body..."

"That's not right." Shi Sanwen rejected the guess before he could finish his words, "How could I remember that kind of thing?"

"Then you are..." Zhang San asked doubtfully.

"Don't forget..." Shi Sanwen continued, "I am an Omega-level mutant, and the kind that has survived for many years..."

"Oh~" After his reminder, Zhang San understood.

Even if Omega-level mutants do not do any training or hone any skills, their abilities will naturally grow over time, and the speed of this growth is usually proportional to age.

For example, suppose there is an Omega-level mutant who has never done any training, and his combat power is 1 when he is born. After that, every five years, his combat power will naturally grow to twice what it was five years ago; then, In the first five years, his combat power will only grow by 0.2 every year, but in the second five years, he will grow by 0.4 every year, and so on... Starting from the year he turns fifty, his combat power will increase by 102.4 every year; also That is to say, when he is fifty years old, his combat power increases every day is close to the amount he increased in the whole year before he was five years old.

Although this is just an example, in fact it is unlikely that the growth rate of Omega-level mutants will increase at this "doubling" rate, but in general, "the longer they live, the faster they grow" is certain.

An existence with a three-digit age like Shi Sanwen, his ability has reached the level where "every day he can feel that he is stronger than yesterday", so he can find it immediately after being teleported - not only The geographical location and even my physical condition are back to where they were a day ago.

"But..." After a few seconds, Zhang San changed the topic, "This still doesn't make sense..." He paused, and then said, "First, you said Newman's superpower can't kill Hunter Tyrant. That's right, but now Hunter Tyrant has been tortured by you to the point where he doesn't even have half his life left. To kill him... it seems that you don't need to use any abilities, right? Secondly, the video communication between you and Newman just now is equivalent to After telling him that 'using the power on Hunter Tyrant will only send him to a safe place', then what reason does the other party have for 'teleporting Tyrant Hunter here' as you said?"

"Heh..." After hearing this, Shi Sanwen smiled confidently, "It's just to survive."

"What?" Zhang San asked slightly surprised, "Are you mistaken? Are you saying that Hunter Hunter can force Newman to the point where he has to teleport him away to save his life?"

"Of course." Shi Sanwen replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"It's impossible..." Zhang San still didn't believe it, "I've read Newman's information more than once. He is a super-cyber who combines EF's strongest technology. In the history of more than two hundred years of the development of human-cyber technology, he has received There are only twenty people who survived the 'whole-body mechanical transformation plus biochemical transformation hybrid surgery'... There are only twenty documented cases, of which twelve became plant (machine?) humans and five became He was severely disabled and could not take care of himself, and two of them became irrational monsters (the creature locked in the restricted area of ​​the Nine Hells was one of them, at least the person who created him believed that he was no longer rational), and Newman was the only one. 'Successful case', even leaving aside his superpowers, he still has peak ferocious combat power; with Hunter Ba's current physical condition, even if he lets his DNA-devouring ability run rampant again... I'm afraid he won't be a match for the opponent."

Unexpectedly, before he finished speaking, Shi Sanwen suddenly said: "Who told you that Hunter Tyrant's superpower is the 'DNA devouring ability'?"

As soon as these words came out, Zhang San's expression immediately changed: "What do you mean by this?"

"FCPS, EAS, EF...so many so-called professional institutions, but none of them have discovered the 'truth'." Shi San asked, "Everyone...even Levin himself was deceived by appearances and took his abilities for granted. It means 'swallowing the DNA of living things and using it to strengthen itself', and then gave him the codename 'Hunter'..."

Shi Sanwen paused for a few seconds, looked at Zhang San with a half-smiling expression, and asked: "You have read so much federal confidential information, and you must also know how Levin 'obtained supernatural powers' and Become a hunter, right?"

Zhang San nodded: "I know roughly."

"Then tell me. I'll see if it's consistent with what I know." Shi Sanwen also read the information Tianyi gave him, but he still wanted to check the information from both parties with Zhang San.

Zhang San thought for a while and said: "Levin was originally a cleaner in an experimental institution... One day, the federation sent a group of dangerous elements who were studying 'molecular transmission technology' to that laboratory, and officially transferred them to that laboratory. In vivo experiments of this technology are on the agenda.

"The 'experimental subjects' they need include, in addition to various animals, living people; men, women, the elderly, children... samples of all genders and ages are required.

“Adults are easy to deal with, just use prisoners from the Ninth Prison, but children are hard to find, so they use innocent family members of resistance organization members, street children, and even children abducted by human traffickers.

"Levin couldn't stand it and wanted to use his position to rescue those children. However, the laboratory was heavily guarded and there were surveillance cameras everywhere. He couldn't do it alone, so he took the adult 'experimental subjects' They were also released in an attempt to break through through violence.

"As a result, the escape turned into chaos and massacre. The escapees were chased and intercepted by heavily armed security personnel. In the end, a dozen people who survived escaped to the room where the molecular teleportation experiment was conducted, and tried to use this machine to escape, but due to the operation Improperly, the device overloaded and exploded...involving all the escapees and most of the security personnel.

“After the explosion, only Levin survived, and he suddenly had superpowers.

"After surviving, he used the DNA obtained from nearby animal corpses to strengthen himself, destroyed the entire laboratory, and killed everyone remaining inside...

"While these things were happening, the Federation, which learned about these situations through monitoring in the laboratory, wanted to cover up the matter quickly; they urgently summoned a cleanup team to kill people and silence them, but... the team When we arrived, Hunter Ba was nowhere to be found.”

When Zhang San said this, he stopped. Later, Hunter Ba was positioned as a "mad level" in a short period of time, was hunted down, and was imprisoned in the Nine Prisons. He did not continue to talk about it.

"Hmm... I know about the same thing." Shi Sanwen quickly added, "There is a very important issue in this whole matter that has been completely ignored by the Federation. Have you noticed it?"

"I didn't pay attention to it at first, but now that you said it..." Zhang San thought thoughtfully, "Among the people who were involved in the molecular teleportation device, only Levin survived. That's probably the problem."

"That's right." Shi San asked, "People nowadays...when they see something like 'a man survived an accident in the laboratory and gained superpowers,' the first reaction that comes to his mind is 'This is an accidental event with a very low probability', and 'It was this accident that turned an ordinary person into a superpower.'" He spread his hands, "I can only say that comics and movies have a subtle influence on human thought. The impact is really amazing... But sorry, there are not that many Flashes and Sentinels in the world. You should throw away that inertial thinking and think about it... Is it possible that Levin survived the accident, in fact, he was a Kind of 'inevitable'."

"So..." Zhang San completely understood what Shi Sanwen meant, "Your inference is... Levin did not become an esper because he survived the accident, but because he was already an esper, so To survive the accident?”

"It's more reasonable to think this way, isn't it?" Shi San asked in response.

"Then..." Zhang San asked again, "What exactly is his ability?"

"'The appropriateness of death'" Shi Sanwen said these four words without hesitation, and continued, "In Levin's past life, he never discovered his own powers because his powers were very special; The 'fit of death' is a power that has been awakened since birth, but to be truly activated, the owner must suffer enough damage to cause death."

"Such as that accident?" Zhang San answered.

"Yes." Shi Sanwen replied, "In that accident, ordinary people were obviously bound to die, but Levin was not an ordinary person. When death was about to happen, he adapted to the 'death meme' at that time, thus Gained the ability to 'recombine molecules'.

"The so-called 'swallowing biological DNA and integrating its characteristics' effect that you see is just an ugly use of this ability. Because Levin's knowledge and imagination are very limited, he uses it. In this form; if it is you who uses it, you can easily master the operations of turning stone into gold, turning water into wine, etc... When the ability level reaches a high level, you can turn the entire earth into marshmallows."

"Well..." Zhang San then followed the other person's thoughts and said, "You mean... the effect of Levin's superpower is that when a person is about to die, based on the 'factors that led to his death', he will instantly derive Do you have enough power to fight against or even control this cause of death?"

"Basically correct." Shi San asked.

"Let me choke..." Zhang San also marveled for a rare moment, "Then he will never die?" He immediately thought of several examples, "For example, if he is burned to death, then he will In the moment before death, he will gain the power to withstand high temperatures and even control fire; if he is drowned in water, he will gain the ability to breathe in water before death... uh... wait, if he never discovers the superpower and lives to the day he dies of old age, Will he gain the power of immortality when he dies?"

Shi Sanwen looked at Zhang San and chuckled: "Your analysis is correct... and incorrect."

"What do you say?" Zhang San asked.

"The 'fitness of death' is indeed that you can play the role as you said, but it is not unlimited." Shi Sanwen continued, "For example, if a person is burned to death, with 'death "Zhi Shi' has gained the power to control fire, so from now on his superpower will be to control fire. The next time he encounters death, 'Death Suit' will no longer react."

"Hey..." Zhang San said, "Isn't this a roundabout way of talking about it?" He curled his lips, "Since the Death Suit can only be used once, and Levin has already used it, then his ability is not equal to DNA phagocytosis ability? With his current body, he will still be killed by Newman."

"The statement 'can only be used once' is not accurate..." Shi Sanwen continued, "Indeed, under normal circumstances, once the 'adaptation of death' becomes another form of superpower, it will There is no way to change back, but I, the 'superpower teacher'... certainly know how to reverse it."

At this time, Zhang San showed a look of realization: "Is this why you asked Levin to deprive Levin of water, food and sleep these days?"

Shi Sanwen nodded slightly and said with a smile: "When I first met him, I realized that this guy is in a mess both physically and energetically... What do you think of the 'molecular reorganization ability'?" Using the DNA phagocytosis ability will inevitably lead to many sequelae. His previous "rage" was because humans...especially the molecules of ability users...were too complex, which made it difficult to control when he reorganized.

"Actually, if you think about it carefully, you should understand that the ability of mutants and modified people is okay, but the ability of 'ability users' comes from 'sin' and has little to do with DNA. How can it be achieved through 'DNA devouring ability'? Obtain?

"Some of the special powers that he thought were obtained through 'devouring' are actually just forcibly 'imitating' them in the form of molecular recombination. Their principles are fundamentally different from the original ones, and he himself doesn't even know it.

"In short, this ability is too complicated, and it is a burden to put on him.

“So, I started ‘reverse transformation’ on him...

"I made Levin not eat, drink or sleep and run all night, which is a transformation on the physiological level; almost all superpowers themselves have a certain degree of 'instinct'. In recent days, this kind of consumption far exceeds the limit. , has caused his superpower to start 'self-feeding'. As of noon today, his body has almost exhausted itself. From a physiological point of view, he has returned to a state that is inferior to that of an ordinary person.

"As for energy, for a fool like him who barely knows how to use energy, I have already sorted it out for him quietly without him noticing...

"Everything is ready now. Levin's abilities have been reset by me. All I need is a gust of east wind from Mr. Newman to allow his 'death comfort' to react and change again..."

…………

At the same time, the Orient Express parked its carriage.

The hunter, who was beaten into a human shape and fell on his back, staggered up from the ground after a short breath.

Newman, who was already close, was surprised when he saw this, and he quickly stopped.

Since Newman was relatively close to Hunter at the moment, it was temporarily inconvenient for the group of agents scattered in a fan shape behind him to shoot again.

"Why didn't I die?" After Lieba stood still, he muttered to himself in confusion.

Although Newman remained silent on the surface, he was still muttering to himself: "Yes, I want to ask too, why aren't you dead yet?"

"Not only is he not dead, it feels like..." As Hunter Ba spoke, his body was also healing and recovering, and the recovery speed was extremely fast, at least ten times faster than those common "self-healing powers" , "Hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain...all disappeared." He tried to make a fist, "And this steady stream of power...what's going on."