Chapter 46: The Angel Project

The “Infinity” quietly drove out of Beiwang Station in the dark, continuing eastward. On the way, KIKI asked Lin Xian, “Why are you in such a hurry? There are still many places we haven’t searched.”

“There’s no end to searching for supplies. Being too greedy might lead to a great loss,” Lin Xian said lightly.

“That Tang Hai doesn’t seem to be dead. I’m worried there might be other troubles.”

“Not dead!?” KIKI frowned. “I thought he was already dead.”

“No…”

Lin Xian took a deep breath and recounted what he had seen.

“I feel that Tang Hai might have some kind of ability, and the situation just now might be a change in his ability.”

He then turned to Lou Shasha and Lou Ye and asked, “How much do you two know about abilities?”

Lou Ye was stunned and shook his head earnestly.

“I’m not sure…”

Lou Ye didn’t seem to know much about his own ability, only that he suddenly became much stronger one day.

“By the way, brother, have you forgotten?”

At this time, Sha Sha revealed a key piece of information. “When that Feng Yuming turned into an insect and attacked you just now, he said you were still a low-level product, and that you didn’t even know that abilities can evolve after killing strange creatures and ability users…”

Lou Ye scratched his head. “I think so.”

“Really?” Professor Chen on the side exclaimed, “Abilities can be upgraded?”

“They should be able to.”

Lin Xian took a deep breath. “If there are levels, then that Feng Yuming should not be the lowest level. His strength is very strong, and he knew that there were three of us ability users, but he was not afraid at all, which means he was very confident.”

After he finished speaking, he found that KIKI, who was usually the most talkative, was silent at this time. So he raised his eyes and saw KIKI looking at him with a smile, her eyes a little strange.

“If you have something to say, just say it!” He knew that this little girl knew a lot. The moment he saw her smile, he felt a toothache and immediately said.

“If I tell you how abilities can be upgraded, and that abilities are divided into many categories, do you want to know?”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at KIKI in surprise.

Lin Xian frowned. “What, from the sound of it, are there still conditions?”

KIKI raised her eyebrows and suddenly leaned close to Lin Xian’s ear and said something. Lin Xian couldn’t help but pinch his trigeminal nerve with a headache and said helplessly, “Okay, I promise you.”

“Hee hee, you have to keep your word~”

KIKI said with great satisfaction, “First.” She raised her finger. “After the first polar night, tens of thousands of cases of mutated humans have been discovered worldwide. This is only a very small part of the post-disaster statistics. After the apocalypse, in order to deal with extreme disasters, the federal government urgently established a special research bureau for ability users called the ‘Angel Project’. The purpose, besides research, I estimate is to use this power to explore the secrets of the Star Abyss and find a way to save the world…”

“How do you know this?” Chen Sixuan looked at KIKI in surprise.

KIKI pouted and said proudly, “It’s not difficult to hack into the federal government’s internal network. Besides, it’s the end of the world, who can control me?”

“Go on.”

Lin Xian looked at KIKI with a scrutinizing gaze. This girl was able to take a rescue helicopter after the polar night. Whether she was the daughter of the Linglong Group or not, her identity was definitely not ordinary. However, since she knew useful information, Lin Xian did not pursue the details.

Ahem~

KIKI cleared her throat.

“This ‘Angel Project’ gathered some of the few remaining top scientists on the day of the apocalypse. Through research, they found that all survivors who did not mutate into zombies after the polar night had a very similar energy that had a repulsive effect on the outside world. They called this energy the ‘Spirit Value’. Even the weakest women and children among the survivors who survived after the polar night had a value of at least 1. In contrast, when observing zombies or some dark and strange creatures, this value was less than 0, a negative number.”

“This discovery was initially thought to be some kind of screening mechanism, but because no pattern could be found, it was regarded as the ‘life force energy’ of the survivors.”

“Then, the interesting part came. All ability users, or strong adults, had significantly high values in this item, especially ability users. This ‘Angel Project’ has already compiled a catalog of 34 similar ability classifications after the first polar night, and has conducted data evaluation on these ability users from the perspectives of functionality and destructiveness. They have also made a positive comparison between this value and the Spirit Value, and found that it is indeed correct.”

“The Spirit Value represents the life force or the survival value that can resist the invasion of the night. The stronger the person, the higher this value.”

“This is the first point.”

KIKI continued, “And the second key point is that abilities are evolvable. The data even shows that a small number of people’s own values have already exceeded the third or even fourth level when they were discovered…”

“Third level, fourth level?” Lin Xian frowned and asked, “Did you forget to say something?”

KIKI shrugged. “Oh, I just took a rough look. It’s probably a group of guys in the laboratory who have made a lot of weight assessments on the Spirit Value, and what physical strength, the energy and destructive power output to the outside world, the lethality and threat to living things, and so on. I took a brief look. All ordinary people, or ability users, have a Spirit Value within 1-100, which is called the [Source Seed Level]. For example, the third level, the Diamond Level, has basically completely surpassed the limits of the human body. Unless heavy thermal weapons are used, it is difficult to be killed. The Spirit Value is defined as 500-1000.”

“The fourth level, the Berserk Level, is regarded as a huge threat to a region, requiring a large number of troops, heavy chariots, and various armored weapons to suppress. The Spirit Value is defined as within 1000-3000 combat power units.”

“As for the Destruction Level and above, there is no detailed information, because they don’t have data in this area for the time being, so it’s just an estimate of exponential growth based on the previous levels…”

Lou Shasha’s eyes widened as she listened, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Then, Sister KIKI, how exactly does this ability evolve?”

“Well… it might be different from what everyone imagines.”

KIKI said with a complicated expression, “I did see some from those top-secret materials. It does show that after reaching the evolutionary level (2), ability users will gain a certain degree of growth in their Spirit Value by fighting, defeating dark and strange creatures, and even other ability users. However, because it was an early initial report, there was not much content.”

“After the second level?” Lin Xian’s eyes narrowed. “What about the first level?”

“Hey!” KIKI looked at Lin Xian with great interest. “You’ve asked the key question.”

She paced with a serious expression. “The strangest thing is that this ability user research bureau found through some early data that different types of abilities are actually very unstable when they are in the Source Seed state. This part of the ability users seems to need to go through some kind of ritual, event, or change in mentality and emotion in order to evolve. The ‘Angel Project’ even believes that from the second level, they can truly transform or complete a comprehensive evolution, so they call this the evolutionary level or breakthrough level.”

“Ritual?” As soon as these words came out, everyone reacted in unison. This sounded like it had a bit of a religious and mythological meaning.

“That’s right.” KIKI continued, “For example, Feng Yuming’s type, I think it should belong to the No. 16 limb mimicry type or the No. 21 strange form proliferation type in the ‘Angel Project’. No matter which of these two types it is, it has been found that as long as they can kill dark and strange creatures or ability users, and then absorb flesh and blood through their own strange limbs or mutated torso, they have a chance to complete their evolution.”

“But…” KIKI suddenly turned around and looked at Lou Ye. “Like Big Brother Lou, from your description, you should be a No. 3 body strengthening type ability, which is a relatively common type among all ability users. But the strange thing is that if this type of ability wants to evolve to the second level, there are many uncertain evaluation reports in the ‘Angel Project’. It is completely impossible to use Feng Yuming’s method, which is called a different evolutionary path!”

“Really?!” Lou Shasha exclaimed, “That sounds so scary??”

“Who knows.” KIKI shrugged. “This statement, whether from a biological or physical perspective… well, okay, anyway, these two disciplines no longer exist in this world. Let’s just treat it as theology.”

“There is another point. This research bureau believes that the evolution of abilities is two-sided, which means that ability users also have the same weaknesses as zombie infected people. If they do not have specific conditions, they will be eroded by this power and gradually move towards evolutionary errors or become zombies. That is to say, when a person’s Spirit Value is lower than 1, they call this situation… degeneration!”

“Degeneration?”

“What about Tang Hai?” Lin Xian looked at her. “Have you seen the situation I just saw in the data?”

KIKI nodded with a serious expression. “Not only have I seen it, but I can be sure that he belongs to No. 32. This type of ability is called the uncertain infection type, which is very interesting.” KIKI frowned and said, “The data shows that this ability is very difficult to detect in the Source Seed stage, because they have no physical or mental changes. The only characteristic is…”

“Not easily detected by zombies?” Lin Xian thought of that scene, and his face sank.

“That’s right!!”

KIKI nodded. “But this type of ability is also the easiest to complete its evolution.”

Lin Xian frowned and said, “Does it mean that as long as you are bitten to death by a zombie, you may be upgraded…”

“Yes, and no.”

KIKI tilted her head, her eyes a little dim.

“From the statistics of some of the cases collected inside, evolution is not inevitable or has a certain specific result. It is also possible… to evolve incorrectly!”