95. Chapter 95: Adapt to Damage and Evolve Countermeasure Mechanisms!
As rustling sounds echoed, the spider monster crawled out of the Room, hanging upside down, allowing the two to see its full appearance.
It had a human face and a spider body, with six slender spider legs growing from its back, firmly embedded in the Ceiling. From its abdomen sprouted tentacles of varying lengths, like a messy pile of hair, looking exceptionally disgusting.
It roared at the two, seemingly venting its anger after its spider silk was cut.
"Doctor Xia, I have a weapon in my hand. I can cover you while you go first." Cha Hyun-soo gripped the electric gun tightly with both hands, his gaze fixed on the spider monster before him.
"It's too late," Xia Shang said, shaking his head.
Judging by the monster's posture, it clearly had no intention of letting them go.
"Roar!" The spider monster's mouth split open in a roar, and a silver-white strand of spider silk shot towards Xia Shang. Seeing the spider silk about to reach him, Xia Shang calmly pulled out two surgical knives from behind him and swung them forward. A flash of knife light passed, and the spider silk snapped.
Unfortunately, the spider silk was extremely sticky. Even after being severed by Xia Shang, a considerable amount remained on his knives.
Cha Hyun-soo, standing nearby, naturally wouldn't stand by. He mustered his courage, pressed the switch on the electric gun's power generation device, and accompanied by the sizzling sound of electric current, he raised the electric gun high and thrust it towards the spider monster.
However, his speed was too slow, far from matching the completely mutated spider monster.
The spider monster controlled the tentacles on its abdomen, instantly wrapping up the electric gun. But the electric current attached to it immediately caused it to instinctively release the tentacles in pain.
Puchi, Cha Hyun-soo seized this rare opportunity and plunged the electric gun into the spider monster's abdomen.
Sizzle!! The electric light flashing on the knife tip surged wildly into the spider monster's body. The spider monster let out a shriek, its six spider legs instantly splayed out, and it fell heavily to the ground. Its massive body twitched slightly, clearly having been stunned by the electricity.
"Is it dead?" Cha Hyun-soo said, still shaken.
"It's not dead, just stunned by the electricity. To kill a monster completely, you have to burn it to ashes."
Xia Shang walked up to the spider monster and silently used his Analysis Ability.
"I know where there's gasoline. Wait here."
What surprised Xia Shang was that Cha Hyun-soo's first reaction after stunning the monster wasn't to escape, but to completely kill it.
When Cha Hyun-soo handed him the electric gun, Xia Shang asked curiously, "Why aren't you running?"
Unexpectedly, Cha Hyun-soo replied, "I've run away from too many things. This time, I don't want to run. Leaving it alive will only cause more people to be harmed, and I won't allow that to happen."
After speaking, he turned and left. Xia Shang watched his back disappear into the dim Corridor and couldn't help but sigh softly, "His willpower isn't strong, but he's very resilient. No wonder he could last fifteen days and ultimately overcome his Desire to become a Special Infected."
If he remembered correctly, Cha Hyun-soo's Desire was to protect others, so he yearned to be like an angel, sheltering those he wanted to protect with wings.
"Alright, quiet down." The spider monster on the ground quickly adapted to the electric current attack. When it tried to struggle to its feet, Xia Shang, standing before it, stomped on its head, making it explode.
Bang! As its head exploded like a watermelon, the spider monster collapsed onto the ground again, as if truly dead.
A few minutes later, the Panel displayed a notification.
[Analysis Complete]
[Talent Skill: Adaptive Self-Healing]
[Fusion Condition: Kill the complete form spider monster]
[After Fusion, the Player will generate the Desire not to die, and this Desire will continuously grow stronger as time passes. When the Player cannot restrain this Desire, the Player's Physique will undergo Mutation, gaining extremely fast Self-Healing Ability. Furthermore, once the Player takes Damage, while recovering from the Wound, they will adapt to the Damage and evolve Countermeasure Mechanisms.
In addition, this Talent possesses strong Growth Potential and is difficult to restrain... but once the Player shatters the Desire Mirror Image, this Talent will no longer have Growth Potential.
Friendly reminder: Once the Player shatters the Desire Mirror Image, the Desire brought by this Fusion will dissipate, with no Side Effects]
After reading the Talent description on the Panel, a trace of unprecedented solemnity flashed in Xia Shang's eyes. Compared to the spider monster's Desire, the muscular monster's Desire from before seemed so insignificant.
After all, one of the deepest Desires in his heart was the fear of death. Xia Shang had reason to suspect that after he Fused the Ability, the spider monster's Desire would merge with his true Desire. At that point, the strength of the Desire Mirror Image would likely be unimaginable.
"Damn it, since when did my personality become so hesitant? If I don't even have the resolve to shatter my Desire, then I'll accept becoming a monster without complaint!" The solemnity in Xia Shang's eyes quickly dissipated, replaced by extreme confidence.
If he didn't dare to face his own Desire and was afraid of every risk, then no matter how strong he became later, his heart would still be that of the ordinary human who had just transmigrated.
"Come on, let me see a deeper level of Desire." A smile curved up Xia Shang's lips, and the fear and worry in his heart shattered instantly.
Meanwhile, the spider monster on the ground grew a brand new head. Compared to before, the newly grown head was covered in a layer of hard armor and had spikes, looking even more hideous and terrifying. "I don't want to die, I don't want to die." It roared while opening its massive mouth full of fangs at Xia Shang.
"Only evolving this much in five minutes, you really disappoint me."
Just as Xia Shang was about to kick this guy's head apart again, his peripheral vision caught sight of Cha Hyun-soo arriving with a gasoline barrel, and Pyeon Sang-wook behind him holding a steel pipe.
Thus, he had to change his attack method. He raised his arm and fiercely plunged the electric gun into the spider monster's throat. Accompanied by crackling electric current sounds, a puff of black smoke rose from the spider monster's mouth.
At the same time, a pungent smell of flesh and blood being electrocuted gradually filled the air.
However, the spider monster at this moment was not only not stunned by the electricity, but instead let out a mournful roar. Enraged to the extreme, it had been completely provoked by Xia Shang. In an instant, several tentacles shot out with hatred, directly restraining Xia Shang's hands and slamming him towards the ground! Clang! The electric gun in Xia Shang's hand was flung away, finally landing at Cha Hyun-soo's feet.
"Save him first." Pyeon Sang-wook rushed forward, carrying the steel pipe. Seeing this, Cha Hyun-soo put down the gasoline barrel, bent down to pick up the electric gun from the ground, and followed without hesitation.
The spider monster's hatred for Xia Shang far surpassed that for the other two. It wrapped all its tentacles around Xia Shang, lifted him up, and with a sudden burst of force from the tentacles, it actually tried to tear off Xia Shang's limbs. Unfortunately, even using all its strength, Xia Shang showed no signs of injury.
Seizing this opportunity, Pyeon Sang-wook aimed at one of its spider legs and smashed down hard. With a crack, as the steel pipe bent from the impact, the spider leg joint snapped, and dark red blood flowed out.
The pain from its leg made the spider monster increasingly frantic. It couldn't understand why this prey of its was so tough, that it couldn't tear him apart!
Cha Hyun-soo, who arrived shortly after, saw Xia Shang wrapped up by the tentacles and felt extremely anxious. Ignoring the spider leg attacks, he directly plunged the electric gun into the spider monster's abdomen. Puchi, an extremely sharp spider leg instantly pierced his thigh, and in the blink of an eye, blood stained his pant leg red.
Cha Hyun-soo endured the pain and pressed the electric gun's switch. But to his surprise, the spider monster seemed to have developed immunity to the electric current attack. Seeing another spider leg from the monster stabbing towards his neck, Cha Hyun-soo had no time to react.
Fortunately, Pyeon Sang-wook reached out, grabbed the back collar of his clothes, and flung him away. Otherwise, Cha Hyun-soo's neck could have been pierced by the spider leg.
The attacks from Pyeon Sang-wook and Cha Hyun-soo made the spider monster feel a sense of crisis.
So it spat spider silk towards Xia Shang, wanting to temporarily restrain this difficult prey.
Then, it would shift its attention to the other two.
Unfortunately, the idea was good, but it depended on whether Xia Shang would agree. Pfft! The tentacles were torn apart by Xia Shang with both hands. Then, like a thousand-pound hammer, he slammed down, instantly crushing the spider monster's entire back.
Xia Shang stood amidst the decaying flesh and blood, kicking out expressionlessly. He sent the blood vessels, neck bone, and the spider monster's head flying together.
In an instant, the tide of battle turned.
Cha Hyun-soo propped himself up with his hands on the ground. Just as he was about to get up after being flung away, he saw the spider monster's head kicked into the Wall beside him.
Watching the blood flow down the corner of the Wall to his hand, Cha Hyun-soo's face was filled with shock, unable to believe the scene unfolding before his eyes.
"Don't be so quick to be surprised, it's not dead yet."
Xia Shang walked over to Cha Hyun-soo, reached out and grabbed the spider monster's head that was embedded in the Wall, and then threw the head onto the pile of corpses.
"Even like this, it's not dead?" Cha Hyun-soo couldn't help but ask.
"Monsters have astonishing Recovery Ability, so it's better to burn them completely to death." Pyeon Sang-wook, standing nearby, picked up the gasoline barrel from the ground, twisted open the lid, and handed it to Xia Shang.
"Astonishing Recovery Ability?"
Cha Hyun-soo subconsciously looked at his thigh. He saw that the Wound pierced by the spider leg had actually begun to heal.
"Like this?" he murmured softly.
Xia Shang was currently pouring gasoline onto the spider monster's corpse. While he was pouring the gasoline, the mangled flesh on the ground was still wriggling, trying to aggregate and regenerate. It had to be said, the monster's Life Force was truly tenacious.
"Lighter."
Hearing Xia Shang's words, Pyeon Sang-wook took out a lighter from his pocket and handed it to Xia Shang.
The lighter was a common plastic one. With a snap, a flame rose from Xia Shang's hand. The fire light illuminated Xia Shang's shadow, which looked like some kind of massive and terrifying monster, reflected on the Ceiling, silently watching the spider monster's tattered corpse on the ground.
After the flame ignited the plastic, it was thrown out by Xia Shang.
In an instant! Flames shot up into the sky, and a wave of heat hit Xia Shang. He stood unmoving, the emotions in his eyes incredibly calm, like an ancient well without ripples. The sudden burst of fire light caused the shadow behind him to expand countless times!
[Adaptive Talent Fusion in progress, current Progress 2%]
(End of Chapter)