How Am I Still Alive?-Chapter 1652 - 1648: Hacker

"Wuling’s great crisis!!"

The girl looked at the man approaching her, growing ever nearer, a chill running from her scalp, down her spine, to her tailbone.... She felt as if her doomsday loomed before her very eyes. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The restraint device that covered her eyes and mouth seemed to allow her to see the true nature more clearly, "reading (contamination/taboo)" this Extraordinary Trait, helped her to understand Lu Ping’an’s "reality" better.

Like a black hole, a twisting entity that devoured all surrounding light, countless tentacles extended in all directions... physically!

"Don’t come over... don’t get closer... don’t enter..."

But the girl’s sobbing was meaningless, as the slowly amusing man entered her with countless tentacles.

Don’t misunderstand, they entered from above.

The binding mask, gag, and clothes were torn apart, tentacles penetrating directly into her ears, eye sockets, and mouth.

Brain, nerves, glands... In the eyes of the Top Life Series Observer, no secrets could be hidden.

All sorts of bodily fluids, nervous structures, brain cell traits, arteries and veins were toyed with, analyzed, verified, and ultimately their secrets were obtained.

On the other side of Lu Ping’an, a human body made up of tentacles squirmed... To the naked eye, the spherical entity and Shiraishi Mairei were becoming increasingly similar.

Clay dolls, mannequins, large dolls, one-to-one figurines... the "prototype" became closer and closer to the original, even surpassing the original’s self-cognition, copying not just the internal structure, but also the impression of the soul on the material.

Life evolved continuously in his hands, infant, toddler, girl, adult, middle-aged, elderly... Even though the air was already filled with the girl’s screams, this scene of direct confrontation with her own old lady appearance was too stimulating for her, but Lu Ping’an did not stop at all.

The next moment, life continued to evolve... As if fated, she seemed to sprout wings and tentacles, as three heads shouted blasphemous words at the same time.

She had fallen, or rather, overloaded.

"Snap!"

A finger snap, and time reverted once more, with the girl returning to a younger state, once again starting her extraordinary rampage.

What Lu Ping’an could copy was no longer just a complete body. Now, with a complete "specimen," he could directly replicate the soul’s impact on the body, leading to an escalating result of his Talent Abilities.

"Bang!"

This time, before the "balloon" completely burst, she turned into a stinking mass of flesh, a super-gigantic baboon... In the air, there were already sounds of the girl crying.

The next moment, everything began anew, and Lu Ping’an showed a smile.

This was not because he enjoyed making girls cry, although he had to admit he was somewhat interested, it was more because among the many chaotic Extraordinary individuals, the girl before him was indeed one of the most special.

"Interesting... snap!"

This time, the distorted Tentacle Monster in front of Lu Ping’an transformed into a flame.

To Lu Ping’an, there was no fundamental difference in Life Essence, but generally speaking, mutations followed a similar path... Like a clear Path, even though there might be divergences, it was not completely impossible to find commonalities from start to finish.

Previously, Lu had read an article which discussed the nature of Professional Talent Abilities.

In the end, it’s the mutation of the soul... Humans and some ordinary life forms are not inherently capable of using Talent (contamination), thus they must adapt.

Similar to planting vaccines, except what is actually implanted are "cancer cells"... that mutated part of the body and soul becomes the foundation for their control over Extraordinary abilities.

The most obvious are those like Meow, a Transformation System Ability User... but there’s a problem, according to the initial mutation, more mutations are evolutions and derivatives of the primary one, no matter how many times Meow loses control and mutates, she should always remain in various feline forms.

As a Top Life System professional, Lu Ping’an was already adept at using a mutation to retroactively deduce the essence of its abilities, this direct method of "checking the IP, manufacturer, and species" was basically infallible.

But the girl in front of him, every mutation was completely different, like a randomly growing seed, piquing Lu Ping’an’s curiosity even more.

"...I see, it’s not the body or the soul that’s mutating, but the interface between the soul and the body... Er, in other words, it’s not the computer hardware or the software that’s problematic, but the network..."

"Soul Hacker! Soul Hacker is the name of my ability!!"

And the girl, unable to endure being flipped through any longer... or rather, she had confirmed that she was destined to be exposed.

Now, Lu Ping’an understood... but as a punishment, and also to avoid being misled, Lu Ping’an still did not let her go.

From result to process, Lu Ping’an "verified" again, ultimately affirming his observations.

"This time, I’ve truly stumbled upon a treasure..."

At this moment, Lu Ping’an was genuinely happy. Despite Extraordinary mutations being extremely random, if the population size increased, there would always be the emergence of various freaks and talents.

And now Lu Ping’an was seizing the foundation of the Sakura Kingdom...

"Hacker, huh? Quite fitting indeed. Your ability seems to act on others, directly embedding a part of yourself into them, occupying their cognitive abilities... Er, it should be a dual Erosion of soul and body, assimilating part of the ’self’ of others into your own self," Lu Ping’an pondered as he stroked his chin, finding this ability to be quite rare.

It’s like a hacker turning other people’s computers into zombies... or perhaps a "computational collective."

The intelligence of others around her wanes while her own wisdom grows...

"You remind me of some old friends... the Abyssal Will and the Swarm Will, you are like them; you could potentially keep expanding yourself, fully transforming into a network of Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Power."

"I can’t do that... I would lose control, too much mixed Self Cognition, I would not be me anymore, what difference would there be from death?"

Is that the price? Indeed, quite severe, after all, to Assimilate and Erosion, she must split a portion of her self, but if she kept expanding indefinitely, she would quickly lose her identity.

Actually, before that point, her Clones would likely mutate and lose control since without the restraint of a professional ability, Extraordinary Contamination getting out of control was just a matter of time.

"...Interesting, use your ability on me."

As he said this, Lu Ping’an handed "himself" over to her.

If she needs a zombie computer, there might not be anything stronger than a seventh-tier Scholar who is also an eighth-tier Extraordinary.

Isn’t it just a body made up of points? To the current me, it’s just a slightly expensive consumable.

What Lu Ping’an wanted to see was just the further potential of this "genius monster."