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Thump!

His heart suddenly jumped, and the sensation of [Genetic Hunger] struck again, but Li Cheng's expression was only slightly serious, without much panic.

He had already prepared thoroughly, and immediately took out a finger-thick paper tube from his pocket.

The tube was filled with wood shavings, and deep within was a female cricket.

Male crickets have sound-producing organs on their forewings, consisting of scrapers on the wing veins, friction veins, and mirrors, they raise their forewings and rub them together to vibrate the mirrors and produce sound.

However, female crickets have no forewings or extra organs, and do not chirp, hence they are gathered by Li Cheng as an option for addressing [Genetic Hunger] under special circumstances.

Now it was too late to bike home, Li Cheng took the tube into a bathroom stall, poured the cricket into his palm, and began to absorb its genes.

Buzz—

His phone received a message on WeChat from Yuan Zhixia. Last time, she substituted for Li Cheng as the school newspaper's photographer to interview and photograph Xue Luomeng and was very pleased, thus requesting Li Cheng to ask for leave next time—she wanted to indirectly save her country, by approaching Xue Lingyu next time to get closer to his sister Xue Luomeng.

...Sisters, you can't really be such jesters, right?

Rainbow, Woman, Hands.gif

Li Cheng intended to reply, but the dramatic changes in his body rendered him unable to move.

In the not-so-spacious stall, his arms began sprouting dense, ant-like hairs, the Mantis Bone Blade unconsciously extended, and the muscles in his thighs continued to swell and spasm uncontrollably.

What's going on? Weren't all the previous times smooth? Why not this time...

Li Cheng was sure he didn't mess up the process, he desperately resisted the severe pain from the muscle spasms, silently screaming, and quickly stripped off his clothes to prevent them from getting torn.

At the same time, he had to fully suppress the impulse to smash the entire stall into shambles.

Boom!

That familiar muffled sound echoed again from high above, and the lights in the restroom flickered violently.

Someone, or something, had opened the Shadow Realm.

————

Half an hour ago, hospital, single room.

A middle-aged man slowly pushed open the door, his gaze sorrowfully looking at his son, about eight or nine years old, wrapped in bandages on the bed.

From the medical card placed on the bedside table, the little boy was named Cai Zixuan. The middle-aged man was his father, Cai Yongyuan.

"Zixuan? Are you awake? If you are, look at daddy. Daddy knows his mistakes,"

Cai Yongyuan's eyes filled with grief as he sat beside his son.

"It's all daddy's fault, daddy's gambling drove your mom away."

His left hand gently grasped his son's right wrist, while his right hand quietly reached into his pocket, pulling out a syringe filled with a transparent liquid.

"Daddy neglects home, spending whole nights outside playing cards, leaving you to cook alone."

He flicked the syringe with one hand, expelling the air.

"Daddy would get drunk and yell at you, hit you, blaming all his faults on you, making it unbearable for you, leading to you jumping off the building."

He gently removed the IV cannula from his son's hand, wiping away the excess liquid with a tissue.

"The doctors say you'll wake up eventually. Once you do, daddy will mend his ways, and we'll have a good life together."

He held the syringe, slowly inserting it along the needle hole on his son's hand.

It might have been an illusion, but Cai Zixuan, who had fallen from a seven-story building and been in a coma for several days, seemed to slightly open his eyes in weak gaze at his father.

Cai Yongyuan was instinctively startled into cold sweat, but then he realized, forcing an ugly smile on his face,

"Son, daddy will always love you."

He gently kissed his son's forehead, yet his finger pressed the plunger down to the end.

It was done, Cai Yongyuan took away the syringe, restored everything to its original state, and quietly left the room, resembling an ordinary father drained by his son's severe illness, walking to the end of the hallway to feel the night breeze.

And in the single room, the clear liquid known as the Cationic Cleaner, had already flown through Cai Zixuan's entire body.

Cationic Cleaners are surfactants with a positive charge, also known as zwitterionic soaps. They are not suitable for washing clothes, but are quite useful as fabric softeners, antiseptics, emulsifiers, and antistatic agents.

When absorbed by the body through ingestion or skin, it interferes with the functions of tissue cells, causing nausea, vomiting, collapse, respiratory paralysis, and even death. Immediate medical intervention is necessary to induce vomiting.

And if administered via intravenous injection... then, there is no cure. And, it's extremely difficult to detect with ordinary forensic methods.

"..."

Cai Zixuan lay on the bed, a tear streaming down the corner of his eye.

Time ticked away, intense pain sweeping over his body, but he was unable to even make a sound of crying.

Sizzle. Sizzle.

Above the hospital bed, a black crack suddenly opened, a bizarrely shaped clown mask peeked through, tilting its head and gazing at Cai Zixuan, whispering with a low chuckle: "Do you want to survive?"

Cai Zixuan blinked forcefully.

"Even at a great cost? Your emotions, your humanity, your soul?"

Silent blinking.

"So be it, contract established."

The clown's hand extended from the crack, smeared black grease over the boy's face, sketching a maniacal smile.

"Cry, scream, kill. [Theater Troupe] will witness your rebirth, welcoming your arrival."

Accompanied by the murmuring voice, the clown withdrew its hand, and along with the crack, vanished into thin air.

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