Predator

Lou Shisui was in a pitch-black secret realm, unable to tell how much time had passed.

Now that he had stopped damaging the space, the turbulent energy had gradually begun to settle.

His Kagune, having completed their evolution, circled obediently around Shisui, holding him aloft as he floated through the secret realm.

He was in no hurry to open the exit. Instead, he waited leisurely for the realm to stabilize.

By now, Shisui was practically an awakened one nearing the peak of the First Realm.

With nothing else to do, Lou Shisui closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts, preparing to check the new abilities he had gained through Metamorphosis one by one.

After sorting through his awakened talent, Shisui felt that rather than having awakened a talent, he had shed his old self and evolved into another species.

[Predator] was the name of this talent. The instant he sensed it appearing, its name had been engraved on his soul along with it.

As a [Predator], he would occupy the top of the food chain, hold a dominant position in the biosphere, control energy, and have an extremely high trophic level.

Specifically, this meant rapid growth, a strong body, specialized predatory organs, greater efficiency in devouring, converting, and outputting energy, and a "killing aura" directed at prey.

First was rapid growth. As the name implied, it meant that an individual grew and developed quickly after absorbing Psychic Energy, with competitiveness and adaptability far exceeding those of other living beings.

But he had already possessed that as an ordinary Ghoul, before his Metamorphosis.

The individual advantages granted by the [Predator] talent went far beyond that.

The appearance of the [Metamorphosis] skill was what truly widened the gap between Lou Shisui and other living beings.

With plenty of energy still left in the secret realm, Lou Shisui sacrificed all the Psychic Energy in his body and instantly formed a cocoon.

[Metamorphosis], activate!

A membrane made entirely of Rc Cells wrapped around Lou Shisui. His Psychic Energy was consumed at tremendous speed, and moments later, he emerged transformed and renewed.

Feeling the slight improvements in every aspect of his body, Shisui leisurely absorbed the Psychic Energy around him to replenish his depleted reserves and continued drifting contentedly through the secret realm.

When his Psychic Energy reserves reached their limit, he could expend all the Psychic Energy in his body to strengthen himself further and remove all negative status effects after his Metamorphosis.

The biological membrane formed during the strengthening process could possess the attributes of all his Kagune or consist entirely of Rc Cells, depending on how the Psychic Energy consumed was allocated.

If more was allocated to defense, the membrane would possess Kagune attributes;

If more Psychic Energy was allocated to strengthening himself, the biological cocoon would consist only of Rc Cells, but the strengthening effect of Metamorphosis would be greater.

The time required for Metamorphosis and the extent of the improvement varied according to the amount of Psychic Energy consumed and the speed at which it was consumed.

Once he reached the peak of his current realm and could no longer strengthen himself by shedding his skin, this evolution would become a true Metamorphosis in a cocoon.

Shisui quickly absorbed the abundant Psychic Energy in the space and once again expended a large amount of it to activate Metamorphosis.

This time, the Psychic Energy did not form a biological membrane. Instead, it enveloped him and formed a giant cocoon.

The giant cocoon had the same composition as the biological membrane, but its function was to help Shisui break directly through his current realm!

That was the true power of [Metamorphosis]: it required no spiritual treasures of heaven and earth, ignored bottlenecks and limits, and offered pure, unrestricted, rapid growth!

Once Shisui reached the limit of his current level through repeated shedding, he would undergo Metamorphosis in the truest sense. He would evolve in a cocoon and emerge reborn!

What was an advantage? This was an advantage!

Shisui broke out of the cocoon again, his realm elevated. At the cost of the Psychic Energy remaining in the secret realm, he reached the early stage of the Second Realm.

Next was bodily strength.

The all-around enhancement of his Rc Cells strengthened Lou Shisui's body, his capacity to withstand strain, and his predatory organs in tandem, while also improving the weak points of his Kagune.

Essentially, the enhancement of his Rc Cells had raised Lou Shisui's baseline.

After that came the specialization of his predatory organs.

A Ghoul's Kagune each had their own strengths depending on their type, but they all had weaknesses too.

Ukaku were capable of ranged attacks, were extremely fast, and had strong bursts of power, but lacked stamina;

Koukaku had strong defenses but were extremely heavy;

Rinkaku had high attack power and regenerated quickly, but were easily damaged;

Bikaku were well-rounded, but for that very reason had no particular strengths and were mediocre in their abilities.

Lou Shisui had been born with a pair of Ukaku and two Bikaku. Only after preying on a large number of Ghouls had he managed to acquire the five sets of Kakuhou he now possessed.

Two pairs of Ukaku ensured ranged attacks, flight, and a speed advantage. His Koukaku strengthened his defense, his Rinkaku delivered lethal blows, and the combined might of his eight Bikaku raised his attack power even further.

Not a single weak point—a perfectly balanced build!

That was why even before his Metamorphosis, Shisui had possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary Kakuja.

After his evolution, this pattern of specialized predatory organs complementing one another had naturally been taken to even greater heights!

His Ukaku had devoured most of the spatial energy;

His Koukaku exoskeleton had become sturdier and tougher, and had also gained some spatial attributes;

After the spatial attributes forced the Rinkaku Kakuhou's toxins out of his Ukaku and Koukaku, the toxins had concentrated in the Kakuhou in his lower body and undergone an epic enhancement;

Besides gaining toxicity, his Bikaku's Blade Scales had also gained greater attack power.

On top of that, [Predator] had strengthened other parts of his body, but there was no need to go over each one.

Lou Shisui's Kagune swayed gently. He glanced at the battered secret realm around him and abandoned the idea of testing their strength here.

Hmm, what was next?

Oh! Right, right, the efficiency of devouring, converting, and outputting energy.

Of those, the greatest improvement was in the efficiency of devouring energy.

Before, Lou Shisui had always needed to eat food with his mouth to devour energy, but now he could absorb it through his predatory organs.

The speed at which he devoured energy had increased dramatically, which was also why Lou Shisui could remain so relaxed amid the spatial turbulence.

The violent energy in the spatial turbulence would be absorbed before too much of it could gather, so naturally it never reached the intensity needed to break through his defenses.

As for conversion, using the Ghoul world he had originally come from as an example, under certain conditions, a living being's maximum energy conversion rate could reach 37.5%.

Although he did not know what the energy conversion rate in this world was, Lou Shisui could now maintain a rate between 35% and 60%, allowing him to acquire energy extremely quickly.

While acquiring energy rapidly, his evolved self could also output it efficiently.

When Psychic Energy was converted back into Rc Cells or used directly, the energy lost and wasted was also minimized as much as possible.

All of this formed the foundation that sustained Lou Shisui's combat endurance and growth speed.

Finally, there was the most intangible thing of all: "killing aura."

Lou Shisui tried releasing a little of the Predator's killing aura, but felt no improvement in himself.

It probably only works when I encounter prey.

That was what he thought, but he was still somewhat puzzled, so he decided to leave it alone for the time being.

Having roughly sorted out [Predator]'s abilities, Lou Shisui belatedly felt a sense of shock.

If he were sent back to the Ghoul world now, it wouldn't be quite right to say he was invincible; it would be more accurate to call it a dimensionality reduction strike.

Not to mention that, after gaining the talent, he could explore and learn how to control Psychic Energy and the Rc Cells in his body more precisely.

And apart from the enhancements related to his talent, his body had gained other improvements from this evolution, though Shisui still needed to adapt to them through actual combat.

The Shisui of now might not even need missiles; he could probably plow through the entire Ghoul world himself.

Ah, but crushing everyone wouldn't be much fun anyway.

Besides, the average Rc Cell content in the Ghoul world is low, which left me, a Ghoul who lives on Rc Cells, hungry all the time. No way am I going back!

Lou Shisui frowned in distaste. He still thought this planet called Ruo Lan was better!

I don't have any grand ambitions in life. I just want to go outside and get some "fries," that's all.