The glamorous woman's various abilities were mostly auxiliary and lacked powerful direct offensive means.
Facing an all-rounder like Yue Shi, she was inherently at a disadvantage.
Normally, when the laboratory's defensive forces were intact, she could have stayed in the rear, coordinating resources and supporting other combatants to maximize her effectiveness.
But now, the laboratory was facing pressure from multiple sides.
Not only was there an intruder like Yue Shi, but another intruder was also causing trouble at the same time. Furthermore, a major incident had suddenly occurred in Chijing City, which worked in deep cooperation with Lab 0. For various reasons, the laboratory's defensive forces were severely scattered, making it impossible to join forces for a pincer attack.
“I must stall him,” the glamorous woman thought, gritting her teeth. This was her best option at the moment.
As long as she stalled for enough time, she could wait for the battles in other areas to end or for reinforcements from the core area to arrive, creating a situation where they could surround him.
“My abilities might not be able to kill him, but stalling him isn't necessarily impossible.”
With that thought, the glamorous woman no longer hesitated.
Countless illusory light screens, like a peacock spreading its tail, emerged and rotated around her.
She had tried Data Collection before, but Yue Shi seemed to be shrouded in an invisible barrier; the effective information she could collect was meager.
She suspected Yue Shi possessed some powerful defensive or anti-reconnaissance capability.
So, her first wave of probing attacks chose the simplest and most primitive weapon that was effective against more than half of humanity—lust.
In an instant, those illusory screens began to scroll through extremely erotic scenes.
Handsome men and gorgeous women displayed their beautiful bodies with suggestive movements and dazed gazes. Some screens even directly presented scenes of intercourse, filled with blunt physiological stimulation.
These short videos themselves did not possess lethality or mental erosion, nor did they have the attribute of forcibly breaking through defenses.
Their insidious nature lay in the fact that they often aroused the target's deepest instinctive desires, causing the target to voluntarily lower their guard, watch the videos, and accept the information, thereby becoming addicted without realizing it.
In the past, countless transcendents who claimed to have iron wills had fallen to this vulgar information bombardment.
As long as one was human, regardless of gender, they had carnal desires.
However, Yue Shi's reaction caused the glamorous woman's heart to sink.
He did not show the slightest emotional fluctuation. He calmly glanced at the screens and parted his thin lips to utter two words:
“Vulgar.”
There was no disgust or contempt in his voice, only a pure indifference.
The temptation brought by these little movies was too low-level. In his eyes, it was not even as good as admiring his own reflection in the water while bathing.
Data flashed in the glamorous woman's pupils. Although she was frustrated, she was not discouraged.
She quickly switched strategies. Since primitive desires were ineffective, she would attack the opponent's potential mental weakness—hatred.
The content on the illusory screens switched immediately.
The lewd images were gone, replaced by meticulously edited pseudo-documentary footage.
On the screens, Yue Shi saw his original body imprisoned within the laboratory, looking wretched and miserable.
Meanwhile, the laboratory's researchers were behind glass, recording his pain with cruel, indifferent smiles.
Then the scene shifted to Yue Shi finding Su Yuanhe. After a fierce battle, Su Yuanhe actually managed to counterattack, stepping on Yue Shi and mocking his overestimation of his own strength in a sarcastic tone. He talked about how the laboratory viewed him as a lab rat and how ridiculous his revenge was.
These videos were produced with extreme realism, merging information obtained from the Otherworldly Visitor's experimental records and using Yue Shi's deep hatred for Lab 0 to render the scenes. They attempted to strike at the most sensitive and fragile revenge-seeking nerves in his heart, provoking a massive emotional fluctuation. Whether it was anger, fear, or anxiety, it would become a gap for her subsequent ability penetration.
“Look, this is your destined end. Your revenge is just a joke.” The glamorous woman's voice sounded like an AI synthesis, attempting to strengthen the psychological impact of these fake images.
“Boring tricks,” Yue Shi evaluated calmly.
He was not without emotional fluctuation.
His killing intent had grown even stronger.
He took a step forward, and the space around him began to ripple.
The glamorous woman's pupils shrank violently; she sensed a massive danger.
She made a decisive move, concentrating her power on defense.
Yue Shi, however, did not give her any more time.
“Die!”
Death Sentence was activated, and the instant death curse descended upon the glamorous woman.
Her phone screen suddenly went dark, and her entire being stood frozen in place like a scrapped giant phone model.
Ghost had also finished the battle on the other side.
The Protein Queen's protective golden light was completely extinguished. She had been sliced in half at the waist, blood splattering as she collapsed to the ground, left in a state of living death.
“Solved?” The plush teddy bear looked at Yue Shi, holding a blood-dripping short sword.
Yue Shi frowned slightly; he felt a trace of dissonance.
The glamorous woman was likely a high-level member of the laboratory. Would she be killed so easily?
Just then, a gaudy virtual interface suddenly popped up on the phone screen of the glamorous woman's Transcendent Form.
On the interface was an extremely exaggerated and crudely made advertisement:
【Legend of the Realm! Start with a dog, pick up all your gear! You have died. Watch a 90-second advertisement to resurrect at full health immediately! Countdown: 89, 88...】
The advertisement's visuals were low-quality and the sound effects were noisy. A character wearing shiny golden armor was frantically hacking away at pixelated monsters inside.
Ghost was stunned.
“What the hell is this thing?”
Yue Shi, however, looked quite interested, the third eye on his forehead flickering continuously.
At this moment, the glamorous woman seemed to be in a state of superposition between "life" and "death." The moment of her death was frozen, and she could resurrect by watching an advertisement.
The 90-second advertisement countdown indicated that this was her third time using her resurrection ability.
The countdown ticked away rapidly.
Yue Shi smashed a fist into the advertisement screen, only to find that the thing was incredibly hard; ordinary physical attacks were completely ineffective.
“...27, 26...”
He tried using other offensive means, only to find that this resurrection advertisement was exactly like those annoying web pop-ups—impossible to close, impossible to break, and forced to be watched.
When the glamorous woman triggered this resurrection ability, her defense was at an unbelievably high level to ensure she could resurrect successfully.
“...5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Advertisement finished! Congratulations, resurrection successful!”
As the noisy advertisement sound effects ended, the glamorous woman opened her eyes. Her screen rebooted, her body returned to its optimal state, and a glint of triumph appeared in her eyes.
“Didn't expect that, did you?” she panted and shouted. “You can't kill me! No one in this world can truly kill me. I can resurrect infinitely!”
Her response was Yue Shi's fierce attack!
Ravens interfered with her vision while talons went straight for her throat.
The glamorous woman dodged and blocked wretchedly, new wounds appearing on her body. Decay spread continuously from the wounds, and a new phone turned into an old one just like that.
She tried to activate Information Bombardment and Desire Push, but the effects were negligible.
In less than ten seconds, Yue Shi used Death Sentence on her again.
The glamorous woman's phone screen went dark once more.
The world became quiet.
Not quite.
That bizarre advertisement interface popped up again.
【Slaying Dragon Blade, free with one click! You have died. Watch a 120-second advertisement to resurrect! Countdown: 119, 118...】
This time, the advertisement duration was extended by 30 seconds. It featured a gravelly-voiced streamer screaming at the top of his lungs to sell fake artifacts.
Yue Shi took out his own phone, opened the camera, and recorded the advertisement.
Something like an advertisement was unlikely to be generated out of thin air; there had to be a producer.
Who exactly produced these resurrection advertisements related to supernatural powers?
The teddy bear stepped forward, looking at the glamorous woman who was playing the advertisement with great amazement.
“Her Transcendent Form is actually a smartphone? She probably has the ability to manipulate information as well. My being captured by the laboratory might have had something to do with her,” Ghost said sinisterly.
He swung his blade twice as if to vent his anger, but couldn't cut through.
“...3, 2, 1! Resurrection successful!”
The glamorous woman resurrected again, her state reset once more.
She looked at Yue Shi's face and couldn't help but let out a cackling electronic laugh.
“Don't waste your energy, little brother. Every time you kill me, I can resurrect. The laboratory's reinforcements will arrive sooner or later; you can't afford to waste time!”
Yue Shi remained silent and killed her yet again.
Sure enough, the advertisement interface popped up for the third time.
【If you're a brother, come and have me! Resurrection wait: 150 seconds! Keep watching to rejoin the battle! Countdown: 149, 148...】
The advertisement content had switched to an even more moronic fencing mini-game.
Yue Shi did not attack immediately. Instead, he stood before the advertisement, his Insight vision staring at the ticking countdown and the low-quality advertisement visuals, analyzing and searching for the root weakness of this ability.
The teddy bear controlled by Ghost also quieted down and said, “Should we lock her up first? Or just take her with us?”
“She looks like a high-level member of the laboratory; she should know a lot of intel. We can take the opportunity to interrogate her.”
Yue Shi shook his head. “Her ability is troublesome and unpredictable. I won't be at peace until she's dead.”
“Then use that move of yours to throw her into the spatial turbulence,” Ghost suggested, gesturing with its hands.
It was referring to Banish.
Yue Shi still shook his head. “Even if she's sucked away by spatial turbulence, there's still a possibility of survival. Since she's a high-level member of the laboratory, she cannot be given a single shred of a chance to survive. She must be killed thoroughly on the spot!”
“You really don't know how to show tenderness to the fair sex~” Ghost flicked the blood off its short sword and teased.
“According to certain tropes, if you give up on killing her now under the pretext of 'interrogating for intel,' 'being unable to kill her,' or 'not wanting to waste time' and take her with you, you might end up falling in love over time, successfully turning her to your side. Then you'd have a teammate and a harem member.”
Yue Shi looked at Ghost as if it were an idiot. “What kind of nonsense have you been consuming lately?”
Ghost giggled. “It's best if you don't have those thoughts. Never forget that everyone here is an enemy and deserves a miserable death.”
This woman also seemed to possess information collection abilities; Ghost was afraid of being replaced.
“Fine, enough nonsense. If you have time to joke, you'd better think about how to kill this woman for good,” Yue Shi said.
“She seems to be a high-level member. Are we really not going to dig for intel?” Ghost asked.
Seeing Yue Shi's gaze suddenly turn fierce, Ghost immediately changed its tune: “I think you might be overthinking the problem. The opponent's Transcendent Form is a phone, so her fatal weakness is likely related to phones as well. No matter how powerful a phone's functions are, they're all useless if the battery is dead.”
A flash of realization crossed Yue Shi's face. “You mean, destroy the 'battery'? In a smartphone of this Transcendent Form, where would the battery be? Is it also in the back?”
Ghost shrugged. “I don't know either, but you can take her apart. She enters a near-invincible defensive state when she dies, so you should be gentler this time and dismantle this crappy phone while she's alive.”
Seconds ticked by.
The glamorous woman resurrected once more, her state fully restored.
Yue Shi looked closely at her screen but couldn't find a battery display.
“It's useless, you can't stop—” The glamorous woman's smugness was cut short.
Yue Shi smashed a fist into her screen, sending her flying.
Ghost, controlling the plush teddy bear, happily ran over to deliver more strikes.
Yue Shi took Ghost's advice and didn't kill her with one blow, only corroding away her outer shell.
Without needing Yue Shi to act, under the glamorous woman's shocked gaze, Ghost began to dismantle her haphazardly with its blade.
Inside this special phone were "electronic components" made of flesh and blood.
Ghost didn't find a "battery."
Even if it couldn't find a "battery," it didn't matter; it could destroy all the circuits inside.
Ghost aimed its blade at a wire, which was actually a blood vessel. Cutting it likely wouldn't cause immediate death, but it would certainly have very bad consequences.
“Wait, stop! What are you doing!” A look of terror appeared on the glamorous woman's face.
Squelch!
The sound of something being severed rang out.
The glamorous woman felt a surge of sharp pain, and her vision went dark.
“No, how can you... you can't do this to me...” she screamed in terror, various data flickering wildly in her pupils.
Ghost said with utter malice, “Ever heard of a 'limbless stump'?”
“Oh, sorry, I forgot. You must know it. It's the method you use on test subjects—cutting off their limbs immediately after capturing them.”
“Your ability to resurrect is indeed troublesome. But we don't need to actually kill you. We just need to turn you into a 'limbless stump.' Unable to move, unable to speak, with no vision, no hearing, and no sense of smell.”
“Your consciousness and body will still be alive, but you'll never be able to interact with the outside world again. It'll be a fate worse than death~”
The glamorous woman could no longer maintain her cold elegance and began to curse directly. “Treating me the same way you treat test subjects? How dare you!”
“What are test subjects? They're nothing but bottom-tier ants, low-class people!”
“The heavens are so unfair to let you trashy bottom-feeders, who contribute nothing, awaken supernatural powers.”
“Lab 0 seeing value in test subjects is their honor. Test subjects like you being sent to the laboratory was tacitly approved by all sides; even your relatives received huge compensation. You took the money and now you want to back out?”
“Our laboratory is conducting the world's greatest scientific research. This is a feat to save the entire world and all of humanity! What right do you have to seek revenge? Are you even worthy!”
Rate on N.U.
