A paper origami crane, somehow, quietly perched on Cervantes’ shoulder.
The next moment, Li Cheng’s figure emerged from the void, right hand clutching a rusty machete, plunging directly into Cervantes’ abdomen, left palm open, covering his skull, releasing the temporary skill [Absorb Brain Entropy].
Absorb Brain Entropy could extract the target’s most vivid recent memories for intelligence gathering, with a certain control effect.
Cervantes’ eyes rolled back, more terrifying than being stabbed in the abdomen and the extraction of brain memories,
was a certain horrifying possibility—brainwashing, control, possession.
Like that Bateman, forever reduced to a puppet.
Time seemed to slow down countless times, Cervantes was straining against the influence of [Absorb Brain Entropy], scanning his Backpack and Skill Bar, desperately looking for a glimmer of hope.
In the Skill Bar, the Fighting skill [Qiankun’s throw], whose power depends on the number of Game Coins owned?
No, the Special Affairs Bureau had collected all the Game Coins before the mission, so Qiankun’s throw’s power was zero, like tickling when used.
The [Benjamin Button Rejuvenation Skill] that reverses another’s apparent age?
No, this skill merely makes one temporarily appear younger, without altering physical condition.
It’s useful in Script Tasks, for deceiving those old but delusional power-hungry elites, making them go mad and becoming obedient. Google seaʀᴄh NoveI~Fire.net
But in this situation...
Cervantes had no doubt that even if his opponent reverted to a primary school student’s physique, he could still crush his skull.
In the Backpack, the [Resilient Drum] which improves the action and attack speed of nearby allies;
the [Poison Arrow Frog Bell] that summons a group of poison dart frogs out of nowhere;
the [Bad Blade] that prevents the opponent’s wounds from healing...
All these could not help Cervantes escape the dilemma under the current circumstances. There was only one way out.
He marshaled all his willpower towards the second to last item in the item column, the [Emergency Escape Card], activating its special effect.
[The task "Superpower Uncontrolled" has failed.]
[The punishment has been applied; the next task will become a penalty task.]
As the system’s prompt tone lingered, a reluctant Cervantes disappeared on the spot, not even having time to say a typical villain line like "I will definitely come back!"
He ran away just like that?
Li Cheng arched an eyebrow as Cervantes vanished, and at the same time, he also heard the system voice for completing the mission.
Gray Rain still hasn’t brought Caroline and the others to Angel City, which means Cervantes didn’t use some kind of long-distance Teleportation skill, but rather expended an [Emergency Escape Card] to leave this world, causing the deathmatch task to end prematurely.
It’s a pity, if he could have chopped off Cervantes’ head, pried open the skull, and implanted part of the brain, Li Cheng could have experimented to see if he could truly control other players.
Then by controlling them to carry bricks on the construction site, with the Transcendent’s physical condition, they could carry dozens or hundreds of tons a day and earn several thousand or tens of thousands, making a fortune.
Li Cheng looked up at the pure white airship rotating the direction of the Weapon pod in the sky and raised the Avenger Cannon to fire.
The dense barrage of gunfire easily burst one helium bag after another, and the entire airship, losing its buoyancy, began to tilt and fall slowly to the ground, coincidentally crushing Alexander and others standing on the beach below.
On the coast of Angel City, across from the bridge, many passersby had also gathered. Some were locals, and some had just fled from the other side of the bridge, clutching mobile phones still displaying the false alarm of a missile attack.
Everyone watched, dumbfounded, as the bridge collapsed like dominoes and the airship descended slowly.
"North Korea! It must be missiles from North Koreans!"
A middle-aged man of South Korean appearance shouted excitedly, "The big one is coming, run for it!"
With his instigating, the bewildered crowd started to run too, making a dash for the underground shelters in Angel City.
This actually made things easier for Gray Rain. She morphed a streamlined cover underwater, enveloping the entire motorcycle, and carried Caroline to the shore. Overflowing with gratitude, Caroline, holding Angelica, ran towards the city—
As previously arranged, members of the Avalon Organization were to meet them at a designated location.
With everything dealt with, Gray Rain happily called Li Cheng, "Hey, I’m done here, how about you?"
Li Cheng, holding the phone, glanced around and spotted Professor N trying to sneak away by sliding his wheelchair along the street corner without drawing attention, "Don’t move."
Professor N, the egg-headed professor, stiffened. He was well aware that he didn’t stand a chance to retaliate, so he obediently raised his hands, "Yes, sir."
"Cervantes has set up a virus bomb in the Chicago headquarters of Vanguard Company. The bomb uses a negative countdown; as soon as it fails to detect Cervantes’ heartbeat, it will detonate by itself.
As we speak, the bomb has already exploded for a minute."
Li Cheng, who had acquired a portion of Cervantes’ memories through "Absorb Brain Entropy," said, "I don’t know the specific type of virus, I can only be sure of one thing—it can be spread through the air.
My advice, you’d better notify the United States government immediately to lock down the whole of Chicago—trouble yourself if you must, but don’t bring calamity to all humanity."
In the world of the script, using biological weapons could be fatally stupid, easily leading to the script going off the rails and the system doling out punishment.
But Cervantes had thought it through clearly. If he could complete his mission smoothly, he could remotely defuse the bomb.
If he died or the mission failed, then with debts piled up, one feels no itch, and with countless lice, one has no worry—better to stir up something big, dragging down more people with him.
This epitomized the spirit of the Shit Stirrer to the utmost, making one suspect that in his previous life, he might have been British.
Professor N, frozen like a wooden chicken, didn’t come to his senses until Li Cheng and Gray Rain teleported away. He hurriedly activated his Spirit Power, reaching out to a Democratic Party official hiding in an underground bunker in Los Angeles.
Hopefully... it’s not too late.
An hour later, the virus erupted citywide in Chicago, turning infected individuals into bloodthirsty zombies that had lost all reason, biting and attacking all living beings, spreading the infection.
Three hours later, the Illinois National Guard cordoned off Chicago, prohibiting entry or exit.
Five hours later, cases of air-transmittable virus infections emerged within the National Guard; soldiers bit each other, leading to the collapse of their defense line, and a vast number of asymptomatic infected fled by vehicles to states across the United States.
Thirteen days later, a zombie virus outbreak occurred across the United States, and many civilian Superpower Users came forward to protect their communities, with mutants no longer a secret.
Thirty days later, scientists confirmed that the unidentified zombie virus reacted strangely with mutant genes in human bodies. In the city ruins, a large number of superpowered zombies with rational minds and self-will began to appear.