Chapter 122: Madness

Twenty-two
The operation went smoothly, and we secured all the high-intelligence life forms, but I made a small mistake. While passing through a mining zone belonging to Sand City, I couldn't help but kill a few people. It might expose our operation, but so what?

Twenty-three
Damn it, I can barely control myself. I must not show it, absolutely not!

Twenty-four
That instinct to infect everything is now uncontrollable. Returning to South Port felt like burrowing into a heap of flesh; the entire city is exuding a fragrance that awakens my hunger. I want to devour all of South Port! No, wait, I can’t eat it all; I must leave some. Zhou Ze and Yao Lun had a conflict today over a newly promoted ability user. They should have great potential. I’ll let them all live, and the rest will be infected by me and then consumed!

Twenty-five
They have departed for the Hive Laboratory. I sent out all the young, high-potential ability users—let them take this chance to join other city-states. South Port… it must be doomed. This city I created with my own hands is finally being destroyed by my own doing… No. That wasn't me, it was it—that genetic prototype, it’s influencing my brain. What on earth has it done behind my back!

Twenty-six
I feel excellent today. My memory has suddenly become very clear; I remember everything. Yet, there is no sense of abruptness at all… I. I think I understand. I am dead. No, he is dead. Hahahaha, he is dead!

***

The diary ended there. Including the title page, there were only twenty-seven pages in total. Ji Cheng fell silent, not making a sound for a full minute after finishing the last entry. It took him a long while to recover his composure.

The lingering echoes of the nuclear explosion above had ceased, and a pattering sound began to emerge from the soil layers overhead, like fine rain seeping into the earth. This meant the black rain had begun. The nuclear blast had hurled countless cinders and dust into the air—cinders from the fire, dust from the vibrations—and these were carried by rising thermal currents into the atmosphere, only to be brought back to the surface by raindrops. The sound of the rain was neither hurried nor loud; had it not been for Ji Cheng’s hearing, which far exceeded that of an ordinary person, he wouldn't have heard it at all.

"The situation is clear enough now," he said, glancing at Shana. Appreciating a beautiful woman always eased his mood when he felt down. "Councilor Zhang was ruined by the prototype he injected later, which led to symptoms resembling schizophrenia."

In truth, the genetic prototype did not control him as he had believed; he had done all of this himself.

"As for Pang Weiwei, it’s even simpler. Zhang Sheng, already half-mad, infected her in a way she couldn't detect. Once they entered the Hive, Zhang Sheng went completely insane, and Pang Weiwei was simultaneously fully infected and became a part of Zhang Sheng’s body."

"Using the limb-perception ability of the 'Genetic Prototype: Cyanobacteria,' Zhang Sheng learned from the headset that all ability users were heading to the Central Zone. Driven by the instinct to feed or infect, he sent that 'limb' to the Central Zone to hunt us."

Pang Weiwei was not carrying energy crystals, which meant the one who actually harvested the crystal mine was that unknown 'living bodhisattva.' She must have entered the Central Zone only a split second before them.

Shana was startled by this and immediately retorted, "Didn't you say he was already insane? Then how did he get Pang Weiwei into the Central Zone? She didn't have a special ID card on her, did she?"

"This kind of madness isn't a loss of intelligence, but a distortion of character, thoughts, and values," Ji Cheng sighed. "I’m not sure, but he mentioned in his diary that after absorbing an infected person, he could briefly take on their appearance."

"Perhaps he used Pang Weiwei to infect the corpse of a researcher within the Hive and then assumed that researcher's form. That way, he could pass through the biometric scanners and enter the Central Zone directly."

After saying this, Ji Cheng shook his head. He had originally held some resentment toward Zhang Sheng, as the ability user selection process had nearly cost him his life, but after reading the diary, he felt only sadness and sympathy. There was no point in holding a grudge against a dead man, especially one who had been insane long before his death. Moreover, the fact that Zhang Sheng had managed to maintain his final shred of sanity at the end of his life to send them away from South Port left Ji Cheng unsure of how to judge him. To call him evil was accurate, as it had spared them from a life-or-death crisis; yet, to call him good wasn't quite right either. So many ability users in the new city of South Port had been recalled, and by now, they had likely all been infected and killed by him.

Forget it; let the dead rest.

"I even feel a sense of 'the fox mourning the death of the hare,'" Ji Cheng tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Perhaps one day I, too, will lose control due to rejection reactions and end up completely insane or dead." Even if the injection of every tier of genetic prototype ensured 100% assimilation, there was still a significant probability of rejection reactions at higher tiers. Countless examples existed.

Shana gently massaged his temples and leaned her face against his. "I believe you won't. You definitely won't."

"Even if you die, wouldn't I be here to accompany you to the grave?" An Chan also 'comforted' him in her cold, robotic tone within his mind.

"Alright, I’m just feeling temporarily down," Ji Cheng stood up briskly. Zhang Sheng’s situation had indeed made him want to retreat for a moment, thinking about how he could use his knowledge of the plot to find a star system far from the flames of war and just live out his life as a wealthy recluse. He knew at least seven or eight systems that would never be touched by the war.

But he quickly regained his fighting spirit. He had spent decades as a corporate slave in his past life, only to die miserably in a cheap, second-hand gaming pod. This second life was a bonus; what would be the point of living it in a daze?

In Shana’s eyes, Ji Cheng, who now had his back turned to her, suddenly appeared sharp and possessed a compelling charisma. His entire temperament seemed to have undergone a sublimation.

"Ahem, by the way, what exactly do you think that genetic prototype Zhang Sheng injected later was?" She smiled, steering the conversation in a different direction.

Ji Cheng closed the diary and carefully tucked it into the pocket of his combat suit before replying, "I don't know, but based on the word 'infection,' I suspect it was some kind of virus."

Third-tier prototypes were extracted from microorganisms, and viruses were also classified as such.

"Actually, logically speaking, third-tier genetic prototypes shouldn't even appear on White Mountain Star. First and second-tier prototypes only require Level 1 biological genetic knowledge, but third and fourth-tier ones require Level 2 knowledge." Ji Cheng expounded.

"According to Imperial law, commoners can only reach Tier 1, and nobles up to Tier 3. One must reach the rank of 'Minister'—meaning one has to hold some official position—to have the right to access knowledge above Level 2."

An Chan popped out of his wrist computer and curiously chimed in, "Could it be that mysterious criminal organization again?"

Shouldn't you be the one analyzing this for me? Why has it turned into me analyzing it for you? Ji Cheng sighed and patted her. "Actually, I suspect that organization is the predecessor of the Black Island Group, but I have no evidence."