MCL CH120

Chapter 120: “I would be afraid?”
 

Black thorn patterns, as if alive, silently entwined around Lin Xi’s neck. Beneath his falling hair, what was hidden were pupils of different colors that had gradually turned scarlet.

This mutation began to occur half a day ago, undoubtedly the effect of that glass of active water.

Lin Xi could clearly feel the changes happening deep within his body, as if a long-suppressed nature had been completely activated. The violent instinct of a contaminant, hidden beneath his human guise, was gradually and uncontrollably stirring. This was perhaps the price for his supernatural ability fluctuations remaining stable under the effect of the active water. The result of suppressing it with contamination value was a momentary, skyrocketing surge.

The blood in his body felt like boiling water, constantly roaring and seething. Yet, a strong smile appeared in Lin Xi’s eyes, which had completely turned into vertical pupils.

[Laugh, laugh, laugh. You can still laugh.]

In his mind, a certain contaminant’s voice was filled with speechlessness.

“Why not laugh?” Lin Xi’s voice was stretched to its limit, but it was unclear whether from discomfort or excitement, and the end of his voice trembled slightly.

The curve of his lips widened even more, making the emotion revealed in his scarlet pupils more direct and crazed. “So far, at least it’s proven that my guess was correct. All this time, I thought you, the King of Contaminants, were a piece of trash. But now it seems you’re not entirely useless.”

[…Can’t you speak without cursing?]

[Make it clear to me, how am I trash? You’re the trash, your whole family is trash!]

“Heh.” Lin Xi let out a couple of low, unconcerned laughs, ignoring the noisy voice.

He looked down at the bulging green veins on the back of his hands. In his dizzy state, all his senses seemed to have been infinitely magnified. Even in the isolation room, he could still clearly capture the faint sound of conversations from a distance, lingering in his ears like whispers, impossible to shake off.

But even so, he still felt very good.

The project Shen Nanyang was currently conducting was clearly using Calamity’s crystal core fragment to realize the possibility of inducing ordinary people to awaken their supernatural abilities through contamination radiation.

And conversely, once this technology was realized, it would also mean that a link would be successfully established between supernatural ability and contamination value. If it were applied to the current ability users, would it also be possible to solve the historical problem of ability users losing control?

Just like him now. Even Shen Nanyang’s active water couldn’t make him lose control of his ability, which was enough to show that Yan Xingzhou’s once-unsuppressible ability could also be completely controlled.

[Fine, fine, I can’t read the mind of a madman like you, but don’t you really feel that something’s not right?]

Lin Xi’s head was lowered, layers of sweat dripping from the tips of his hair. “Not right?”

[This is very not right!]

[Look at you now, you don’t look normal at all, do you? Isn’t there some kind of observation room here? Hasn’t anyone noticed?]

[I can guarantee there’s definitely something fishy going on! Aren’t these wolves in sheep’s clothing at the research institute brewing up some evil plan?]

“As long as no one can handle me, they can’t brew up any evil.” Compared to Calamity’s desperate conspiracy theories, Lin Xi seemed much more at ease.

He lazily raised his eyelids, his gaze sweeping over the surveillance camera in the corner of the room, a half-smile tugging at his lips. “The fact that no one has burst in yet means that Shen Nanyang doesn’t want others to see me like this and has already sent everyone away. He’s a smart man and has always been clear about what he wants. Whatever his purpose, it seems he has no intention of making a move on me again for now.”

[Yo yo yo, you’re not going to be grateful just because someone isn’t planning to make a move on you, are you? That doesn’t sound like something you would do, Great Executor Lin.]

“‘Grateful’?” Lin Xi savored the four words with interest. “Of course not. Everyone has to take responsibility for what they’ve done. It’s just that he’s still useful to me right now.”

[Useful? To cure your dear President Yan?]

This question clearly didn’t need an answer. Calamity clicked its tongue mockingly: [But are you sure that, given your relationship with this Professor Shen, he’s willing to cooperate with you? You’ve practically shoved your ID number in his face, yet he’s still locked you in here and left you to dry. I think he’s using one of your ancient Thirty-Six Stratagems to deliberately mess with your mind.]

“I think he just hasn’t figured out what to do with me yet and is hiding in some corner, secretly preparing himself mentally. When he’s figured out how to explain things to me, or has prepared his bargaining chips to negotiate with me, he’ll naturally come to me.” At this point, Lin Xi suddenly remembered something and asked slowly with interest, “You’re more experienced in provoking humans. What do you think? In my current state, overturning seventeen or eighteen Joint Agencies shouldn’t be a big problem, right?”

As his voice fell, a long silence ensued.

Lin Xi blinked slowly and suddenly understood. “Oh right, you don’t really have experience. Back then, before you even had a chance to unfold your grand ambitions, you were already taken in by me.”

[…I suspect you’re deliberately humiliating me.]

Calamity’s teeth-gritting voice finally sounded. After a moment, it said resentfully, [But if you really want me to say, it probably wouldn’t be a big problem. Although the ones we entered recently were all A-rank rifts, their quantity was sufficient. Never mind you, even my energy has pretty much recovered. If it weren’t for the fact that only a tiny bit of my precious crystal core is left, I could go out and fight them myself, let alone the fact that we had so many unexpected gains.]

Lin Xi’s tone was approving. “The effect of our two abilities merging is indeed quite surprising.”

[Hey, someone’s coming! According to you, is that Professor Shen finally mentally prepared and has figured out how to face you?]

Lin Xi was not surprised by this and didn’t answer Calamity’s words, just looked up.

The door to the isolation room only opened a crack. In the blink of an eye, it was neatly closed as the person entered.

But even so, with Lin Xi’s hearing magnified to its limit, he still caught the sharp sound of alarms from a distant place.

The intensity of his contamination value burst seemed a bit exaggerated. In just that brief moment the door was open, the leaked radiation actually triggered a detection alarm from over a thousand meters away.

Lin Xi looked up and saw Shen Nanyang walk up to him, placing a glass of water on the table directly in front.

His eyebrows raised slightly. “Looks like the observation is over?”

Shen Nanyang’s gaze had been locked on Lin Xi since he entered the room and had not moved away. “It’s over.”

Lin Xi sat on the bed, leaning lazily against the side, and looked at Shen Nanyang with his head tilted. “I wonder if Professor Shen is satisfied with the results of this observation?”

The black thorns on his neck were still spreading, making his skin appear even fairer. Those vertical pupils, completely unlike a human’s, were filled with a crazed, violent aura.

Under such a gaze, Shen Nanyang, in the same room, was like prey that he could dispose of at will.

And in fact, that was true.

Although they both possessed X-rank abilities, as long as Lin Xi was willing, he could make the non-combat-type Shen Nanyang stay in this isolation room forever.

The surrounding temperature seemed to freeze in an instant with these words. In that moment, Shen Nanyang could even feel death silently closing in on his neck, his whole body turning ice-cold.

Just like in the past, this man before him never deigned to hide his killing intent, even while smiling and talking.

Shen Nanyang did not directly answer Lin Xi’s question. “What should I call you now? Lin Ni, or, Lin…”

The name from the past was stuck on the edge of his throat, and for a long time, he could not say it.

Lin Xi, however, didn’t care at all. “You can continue to call me Director Lin.”

“Alright, Director Lin.” Shen Nanyang gently tapped the glass he had placed on the table. “This is a regulator for the active water. Drink it first.”

Lin Xi adjusted his posture slightly but still had no intention of taking it. “Offering unsolicited courtesy is either villainy or theft. Is there some trouble outside again? But this regulator, besides suppressing cell activity, will also suppress the strength of my ability, right? After drinking it, I’m afraid it will be inconvenient for me to go out and help clear the rifts.”

Shen Nanyang: “You don’t need to worry about the rifts.”

This answer made the playful look in Lin Xi’s eyes gradually recede.

The man before him had gone around in such a big circle to probe his background. Now that he finally had a result, there should be many things to “reminisce” about. But the first thing he did upon meeting again was to anxiously arrange for him to leave. And the reason behind this, if it had nothing to do with rifts, nothing to do with the United Administration, then the only possibility was…

Lin Xi: “Professor Shen, can you briefly tell me what exactly happened?”

Under the instantaneous burst of contamination radiation, even Shen Nanyang felt a faint, needle-like pain on his exposed skin. This was enough for him to realize that Lin Xi had clearly guessed.

Shen Nanyang frowned slightly. “Calm down a little first.”

Lin Xi’s tone was icy. “I am very calm right now.”

“…” Shen Nanyang said, “An S-rank rift tide has appeared on Country A’s side. An international force of all X-rank ability users has been assembled to fight it. The battle has been going very smoothly until now, but the latest news just came in. Yan Xingzhou…”

He hesitated for a rare moment and glanced at Lin Xi. “I’m afraid he has lost control of his ability.”

What responded to him, however, was Lin Xi’s laughter. “How nice. He just received stability treatment a while ago, and in a flash, he ran straight to the front-line battlefield. He really didn’t consider the consequences at all.”

[Actually, when it comes to courting death…]

The perpetually silent Calamity spoke up weakly. Choking under the immense pressure, its voice became smaller and smaller. [I don’t think you’re… in any position to talk about others… are you?]

Shen Nanyang said in a deep voice, “The last treatment was very successful. Theoretically, there shouldn’t have been any risk in normal combat in the short term.”

Lin Xi sneered, “Theoretically?”

Even at this point, Shen Nanyang’s answer was still rigorous and calm. “That is indeed the case under a normal time flow. The battlefield this time is outside the rift, so there wouldn’t be an issue of uneven time flow. Therefore, something must have happened in this short period of just over a day to cause Yan Xingzhou to…”

However, the next second, he caught a glimpse of the figure getting off the bed, and his tone rose sharply. “Where are you going?”

“The front line is tight. Of course, I’m going to the front line to have a look.”

Lin Xi looked at Professor Shen, who was blocking his way, with a half-smile, his eyes like a bottomless abyss. “What, you want to stop me?”

Shen Nanyang said, “I just want to remind you to drink the regulator first.”

Meeting the gaze that seemed to be looking at a dead object, he did not avoid it at all. “You can’t go over looking like this, can you?”

“Why not?”

Lin Xi’s reply was almost instantaneous. “When facing a ability user who has lost control, what kind of decision the International Ability General Administration will make, everyone knows very well. Even if I drink the regulator and return to my normal appearance, what’s the use? Are you expecting me to go over there and plead with them, using emotion and reason, to let Yan Xingzhou go? Impossible. You and I both know very well that what will happen next will just be a repeat of what happened to me back then.”

At this point, he no longer hid the mockery in his expression at all. “Sometimes, the simplest and most brutal methods are more effective in resolving these farces.”

This was the first time Lin Xi had so directly torn down the shaky paper window in front of Shen Nanyang.

A brief few seconds seemed to stretch into centuries. Finally, Shen Nanyang spoke again. “If you go over like this, you’ll let everyone see what you look like now.”

A curve appeared in Lin Xi’s vertical pupils, making his face look even more bewitching and inhuman. “So what?”

The moment the isolation room door opened, alarms blared throughout the entire laboratory building.

The Central Research Institute, which had been running in an orderly manner, was instantly thrown into chaos due to the sudden, excessive contamination radiation.

The door of the isolation room swayed silently as Lin Xi left. Amidst the sound of the wind blowing in from outside, only that final, soft laugh remained.

“I would be afraid?”

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