【Emotion Manipulator】: Capable of perceiving, extracting, shaping, injecting, and materializing the emotions of any sentient being. When a target has a certain emotion extracted, they permanently lose the ability to experience that emotion.
The floodgates of memory were slammed open, and Yue Shi finally remembered. Back at the Qingshan Sanatorium, Qiao Xu had told him that there were four escaped experimental subjects from Lab 0 that had yet to be recovered.
One of them was Subject 017, the Emotion Manipulator!
Additionally, there were Subject 036, the Mage, and Subject 079, the Ghost.
As for Yue Shi's former identity?
He was Lab 0's highest-level secret—the Otherworldly Visitor—and was not part of the standard experimental numbering.
In that cold laboratory, that desperate cage of endless torture, it was the Emotion Manipulator who had first seized an opportunity to resist effectively. He had manipulated the researchers, tearing through the laboratory's defenses from the inside and giving the other experimental subjects, including Yue Shi, a slim chance at survival.
Yue Shi's gaze pierced through the churning darkness, forcibly locking onto that blurred figure. His cold killing intent was gradually diluted by a complex swirl of emotions.
The staggering monster before him was once his "guide." Unfortunately, the other party had already lost control; his code name had changed from Emotion Manipulator to The Reveler, leaving behind only twisted madness that made communication impossible.
However, given their past connection, Yue Shi would not stand by and let The Reveler be contained.
At this moment, the containment members from Lab 0 were shaken by the string of deaths. The captain was leading the survivors in a retreat.
But it was too late.
An invisible figure wove rapidly between the remaining team members.
Pfft, pfft, pfft...
Muffled sounds of tearing flesh rang out one after another. Carotid arteries were slashed, windpipes severed, and spines shattered. Every time Yue Shi struck, he left behind a mist of withered blood and a whimper that was cut short.
In just a few breaths, most of the containment personnel in their white protective suits lay dead on the cold ground.
The heavy scent of blood and the stench of rotting corpses filled the air, mixing with the aura of madness radiating from The Reveler to create a nauseating atmosphere of horror.
The darkness surrounding The Reveler's group quickly dissipated. Deprived of the external suppression, The Reveler's blurred figure paused for a moment before becoming active once more.
His frenzy was fully ignited. Though his consciousness was chaotic, the deep-seated hatred for Lab 0 remained. He and all the puppets around him simultaneously let out sharp, ear-piercing shrieks and mad laughter. Like a pack of sharks smelling blood, they lunged toward the remaining Lab 0 members.
Yue Shi swept his gaze over the mess of corpses with an expressionless face and looked toward the direction where The Reveler had gone. The slaughter just now hadn't been a total wipeout; three figures in white protective suits were scrambling away. One of them was extremely fast, clearly possessing an acceleration-type supernatural power, and was sprinting away with the captain and the last remaining teammate.
The ravens circling in the sky stayed locked onto the movements of the fugitives and the pursuers. Yue Shi followed behind both parties, and a three-way chase quickly unfolded within the Chaos Zone.
The speed-type transcendent led his two companions in a frantic dash like headless flies, diving into crowded areas without any regard for the ordinary people who would be caught in The Reveler's contamination.
The crazed Reveler and his puppets were even more reckless. Wherever they passed, terrified screams, uncontrolled laughter, and distorted dances broke out instantly. Chaos spread like a plague.
Yue Shi maintained his distance. Through the ravens' eyes, he could see the expanding zone of panic and the growing crowd of revelers.
The chase lasted a long time, heading deep into the Chaos Zone.
Up ahead, to avoid a reveler puppet lunging from the side, the speed-type transcendent slammed into a pair of people on the roadside who looked far from ordinary.
The man was about thirty years old, with a striking streak of white highlighted in his bangs. The woman had long, flowing hair, a tall figure, and a beauty in her eyes that held a hint of heroism.
In a place like the Chaos Zone, the fact that they wore clean clothes and were exceptionally good-looking meant they were clearly not average people.
Caught off guard, they were knocked off balance. Just as they were about to flare up in anger, The Reveler followed close behind, radiating intense contamination that was about to swallow them whole.
"What freaking bad luck!" the man cursed, his reaction speed astonishing. With a wave of his hand, a powerful tornado suddenly swirled up from the ground. The airflow precisely enveloped him and the woman beside him, and the two were lifted by an invisible hand, instantly rising into the air to narrowly avoid the wave of revelry sweeping past below.
The wind carried them onto a distant roof. Jiang Cifei patted the non-existent dust off his clothes, his gaze subconsciously sweeping the sky, where he happened to catch a pitch-black raven flapping its wings—a bird that looked far from natural.
His brow twitched as if he remembered something, and the corners of his mouth curled into a look of realization tinged with a bit of distaste.
"I was wondering why I had such bad luck today. It turns out I ran into you again." Jiang Cifei looked down at the chaotic street, the breeze carrying his voice in all directions.
"Yue Shi, there's no need to hide. I know you're nearby. I saw your bird; it's as black as ink, I'd recognize it anywhere!"
Amidst the chaotic streets, the frenzied crowd, and the out-of-control monsters, Yue Shi slowly deactivated his concealment in the shadows of a corner.
Ignoring the surrounding noise, he calmly looked at the man with the white-streaked hair on the roof and began walking over.
Jiang Cifei leapt down from the roof, landing as light as a feather, not forgetting to complain as he did so:
"Nothing good ever happens when I run into you. Why aren't you working hard at the Investigation Bureau? Why are you out of the city again?"
"A mission assigned by the Bureau," Yue Shi replied dismissively. He also found it strange why he kept running into this unlucky fellow. He then changed the subject. "You've changed quite a bit."
The original Jiang Cifei had loved pretending to be younger, but now he seemed to have abandoned that hobby. He had a light stubble on his face and wore black-framed glasses with plain lenses. His pant legs were rolled up to reveal his ankles above white socks.
Facing Yue Shi's questioning gaze, Jiang Cifei waved it off nonchalantly. "It's normal to change. Xiao Luo and I have officially become a couple. I'm a mature adult now, no longer a child."
The long-haired beauty beside him cooperatively linked her arm with Jiang Cifei's. A hint of bashfulness appeared on Jiang Cifei's face, and the two began to act all lovey-dovey as if no one else were there.
"Back then, while I was unconscious, you cut off my XX and swapped it with your OO; that was the beginning of our fate. Fortunately, you have the ability to assemble and modify limbs and organs at will. That's how I discovered that being a man or a woman is equally wonderful, and I can even experience double the pleasure..."
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