Fusion Skill

"After all that commotion, didn't Xie Wen hear anything? Or had something already happened to her? Or was this thing only targeting me?" Zhang Chen ran along the old city's night streets, the blood flowing from his limbs already making him dizzy.

"Damn it." Zhang Chen nearly collapsed face-first onto the ground. Looking ahead, he could only vaguely make out a small section of the bridge. He was still far from the entrance to Anxin Bridge.

"You eat so much normally, yet you can't handle losing this little blood? Can't you pull yourself together? Get up already." But the dizziness only worsened. His left foot suddenly gave way, and he fell to the ground.

However, Zhang Chen tried to get up from the ground but simply could not do it. Just as he kept pounding the ground with his fist, an ominous presence came from behind him.

Zhang Chen turned around and saw more than twenty mutilated Ghosts approaching him. Some were missing arms, some had no heads, and some had been sliced beyond recognition by something like blades. There were even quite a few seal people—people whose limbs had all been cut off—writhing their bodies across the ground.

"Heh, taking advantage of someone when they're down? Fuck, am I really going to die here? What about Wang Yizhi? I really don't want to die." Zhang Chen wanted to get up and reach the entrance to Anxin Bridge, but the moment he propped himself up with both hands, his head spun and he collapsed again.

Before long, the twenty-odd mutilated Ghosts had completely surrounded Zhang Chen. He struggled to lift his head. Through his blurred vision, Zhang Chen saw one Ghost in front of him repeatedly mouthing something. Only its lips moved; no sound came out.

"Please... eat... us..." Zhang Chen barely managed to read its meaning.

By then, Zhang Chen was truly at his limit. Without thinking further, he used his last bit of strength to open his mouth. But his entire body was already unable to move. How could he eat them?

Yet when the Ghost in front of Zhang Chen saw his mouth open, it began to turn into specks of starlight and poured into Zhang Chen's mouth together with the others.

A notification sounded.

Devoured 23 pure souls of resentment. Saturation gained: 23%. Fragments of a resentment target's limbs detected within the body. Assimilation initiated. Skill acquired: Nail (Severely Incomplete).

Skill discovered: Growth (Incomplete). Compatibility with Nail (Severely Incomplete): 62%. Fuse them?

Zhang Chen could no longer make sense of what was happening, but his situation was far from good. After devouring those twenty-three Ghosts, the blood in his body gradually began to replenish, but the wounds on his limbs seemed not to have healed, and the nails were still embedded within them.

"Yes," Zhang Chen replied in his mind.

Suddenly, the nails embedded in Zhang Chen's limbs directly sank into his body, while the half-devoured Nail Man's body inside him seemed to grow restless as well.

"Ah!" Zhang Chen felt something in his body seeping into the bones of both his arms. It hurt hundreds of times worse than when he had broken his left arm as a child.

"Hold on!" Zhang Chen was about to lose it. The bones in both his arms seemed to be crushed and then reassembled. Five minutes passed, and the pain began to lessen. Zhang Chen endured it. Sweat had already soaked through his clothes.

A voice sounded: Skill fusion successful.

Zhang Chen

Main Soul Slot Status: Activated

Main Soul: Gluttonous Ghost

Saturation: 95%

Compatibility with current **: 35%

Secondary Soul Slot Status: Not Activated

Skill Slots: 3

Used Skill Slots: 2

Skills: Telekinesis (Can Evolve, Used), Nail Growth (Arm Section, Used)

Telekinesis: Can manipulate invisible force through thought. Current proficiency: 42%.

Nail Growth: Strength of both arms increased by 350%, nail hardness increased by 1000%, nail length can be controlled freely.

Physical Condition: Poor

Perceptive Ability: High

Overall Evaluation: Average

Zhang Chen rose from the ground. The weakness and anemia had vanished, replaced by newfound strength.

"This feeling..." Zhang Chen moved both hands, and his ten nails instantly grew to half a meter long. Then he swung them at the ground, carving five claw marks four centimeters deep into the concrete road.

Zhang Chen smiled, retracted his nails, and ran toward Anxin Bridge.

It was only just past ten o'clock. There were still plenty of vehicles crossing the bridge. Although the wounds on Zhang Chen's hands had healed, blood had stained many parts of his body red, making passing pedestrians stare at him.

"Yi Zhi!" Ignoring the stares of passersby, Zhang Chen stood at the bridge entrance and shouted Wang Yizhi's name.

"Fuck, nothing happened to her, right?" When Zhang Chen did not immediately see Wang Yizhi, anxiety began to rise in his heart. He remembered that when he had sent Wang Yizhi out through the window, she had been holding her phone.

Zhang Chen immediately pulled out his phone and found that this Ruojia was still holding strong after the battle, completely undamaged. Just as Zhang Chen searched for Wang Yizhi's number, a voice sounded behind him.

"Zhang Chen!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Zhang Chen immediately turned around. Wang Yizhi, dressed in pajamas and riding his bicycle, was beneath a charging station not far behind him.

Zhang Chen ran over at once. Seeing that Wang Yizhi was completely unharmed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, when Wang Yizhi saw Zhang Chen covered in blood, she began to cry again.

The pedestrians by the roadside saw a boy covered in blood embracing a girl in pajamas while she cried. For a moment, they thought a movie was being filmed.

Zhang Chen rubbed Wang Yizhi's head and said, "Idiot, this blood isn't mine. Look at me, I'm completely fine. By the way, do you have a key to your place? We'll sleep at your house tonight. We can't go back there."

Wang Yizhi was still crying, but her sobs gradually softened. She slowly said, "I waited for you for so long. I was so scared you wouldn't come back."

"It's okay now, it's okay. Do you have a key?" Zhang Chen asked.

"The key is in my backpack, and I didn't bring it out. But when my parents left, they put a spare key with the security guard." Wang Yizhi gradually stopped crying as she spoke.

"Let's go. I'll explain everything when we get to your place. That thing isn't dead yet, so we need to leave quickly." After saying that, Zhang Chen got on the bicycle, carrying Wang Yizhi across the bridge.

However, after the two rode away, a figure slowly emerged beside the charging station where Wang Yizhi had been earlier. It was Puhu. He wore a smile, and his eyes were filled with kindness, completely lacking the authority and fury he had shown at the hospital. Looking in the direction Zhang Chen had left, he said,

"Decisiveness, perseverance, fortune, and intelligence all gathered in one person. Congratulations. Congratulations."

With that, he leisurely left.

Before long, Zhang Chen carried Wang Yizhi to the street outside her residential complex.

"Yi Zhi, ride the bicycle inside first. Take the key and wait for me inside. I'm covered in blood. If the guards see me, they won't let me in even if you say you know me." Zhang Chen got off the bicycle and spoke to Wang Yizhi behind him.

"Then how will you get in?" Wang Yizhi asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out. Don't go too far after you get inside. Just wait for me," Zhang Chen said.

Wang Yizhi nodded and rode Zhang Chen's bicycle into the complex. After watching her enter, Zhang Chen went to the fence beside the complex and stared at the camera installed above it. With a crack, the rotating camera sparked a few times and stopped.

Zhang Chen jumped with both legs and pushed himself up with both hands, easily landing inside the complex. After locating Wang Yizhi, he found her beside a flower bed not far from the entrance. Zhang Chen walked over, greeted her, and asked,

"Got the key?"

Wang Yizhi nodded, grabbed Zhang Chen's hand, and led him toward her home.

Wang Yizhi's home was not as large as her cousin's. It had three bedrooms and two living rooms, and a relatively spacious living room lay just beyond the entrance. Zhang Chen looked truly frightening in his current state. As soon as Wang Yizhi entered, she had Zhang Chen sit on the sofa before running into the bedroom. Soon, she brought out several sets of clothes and pants.

"These are all my dad's clothes. Pick out something that fits and change into it first," Wang Yizhi said.

Zhang Chen looked through them and chose a light green V-neck T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts. Perhaps because he was used to living alone, Zhang Chen directly took off his own clothes. Fourteen-year-old Zhang Chen had an excellent physique. At 1.8 meters tall, his abdominal muscles were faintly visible.

"Ah, what are you doing? Go change in the bathroom." Wang Yizhi covered her eyes and pointed toward the bathroom.

Zhang Chen scratched his head awkwardly, hugged the clothes, and headed toward the bathroom. "Oh, right. Can I take a shower here? I'm covered in blood."

Wang Yizhi froze for a moment before saying, "Go ahead. Use the pink towel hanging on the second rack. I don't think there are any other towels at home."

Zhang Chen looked at the second rack. There was a pink towel with Hello Kitty printed on it. His face immediately grew a little hot.

"Could this be Wang Yizhi's towel?" Zhang Chen stood there in a daze, seeming to forget that he had just returned from death's door.

After he turned on the faucet, icy water poured over Zhang Chen's body and jolted him back to reality.

"Those Ghosts..." Zhang Chen thought of how, when he was about to die, those twenty-odd Ghosts had sacrificed themselves to help him. Why did they help me? I don't think I ever did anything for them, and I don't know them. Could they be resentful souls created after that Nail Man killed them? Then why did Xie Wen's boyfriend kill so many innocent people? Could it be that I was wrong from the very beginning? Zhang Chen formed a bold guess, but he did not dare to be certain. Everything would have to wait until his older sister replied to him.

Cold water poured down from Zhang Chen's head. He looked at both hands, and suddenly, all ten of his nails shot out.

"With my current strength, I wonder if I can deal with him. But after his body merged into the walls, how am I supposed to find him? Do I look for his true body like I did in my bathroom last time? Even if I know his true body is inside the house, I don't know its exact location. The moment I enter, he'll attack me. Even though I'm much stronger now..." Thinking of countless nails shooting toward him, Zhang Chen instantly abandoned his plan to confront the Nail Man head-on again.

"Forget it. I'll wait and see how Wang Yizhi is first." After thinking that, Zhang Chen took out the Hello Kitty towel, swallowed, and used it anyway.

After showering and changing into Wang Yizhi's father's clothes, Zhang Chen found that they fit rather well. He looked in the mirror. They did not look bad.

However, when Zhang Chen entered the living room, he smiled lightly at Wang Yizhi, who was staring at him. But the next moment, Zhang Chen's expression changed drastically. Wang Yizhi's right ring fingernail and left pinky fingernail had turned a vivid red. In other words, while Zhang Chen had been showering, two more of Wang Yizhi's nails had turned red.