Claw Form

There was another thing that baffled Li Wei: after his cells were compressed to their limit, he could fall from hundreds of meters in the air at an unimaginable speed and slam into the ground, yet a thin layer of airflow created by the impact would prevent him from getting hurt in such a collision.

When several helicopters surrounded him, Li Wei had no choice but to retreat for the moment, dodging the dense hail of metal bullets and darting into a nearby building.

The Blackwatch aircraft lost sight of Li Wei and began to climb, not daring to linger between the buildings.

They had hunted Alex Mercer before, and he often destroyed helicopters by hurling large objects or suddenly flying into a kick. They had suffered repeated losses, and faced with such ubiquitous attacks, they had to act cautiously.

Blackwatch had deep pockets and fearless soldiers, but neither their equipment nor their personnel could withstand such heavy casualties every few days.

Now they had received orders: if they felt they were in danger, they could evade or retreat first without facing punishment.

Li Wei wasn't particularly interested in shooting down helicopters anyway. Seeing that the Blackwatch choppers were preparing to climb and retreat, he slipped out the back door of the building and headed deeper into the Infected Zone to hunt down infected creatures.

But he hadn't gone far when a violent crash came from above. He looked back and saw a helicopter colliding with a car, both falling from the sky.

Soon after, another car flew up and smashed into another helicopter.

The helicopters' climb speed suddenly increased, but the third car launched from the ground didn't take down a chopper—it just crashed into a nearby building, destroying part of it.

Seeing this, Li Wei knew exactly who was behind it.

At this stage, aside from him and Blackwatch's super soldiers, the only one capable of casually throwing cars around was Alex Mercer, the protagonist of Prototype.

Although he knew A-God was nearby, Li Wei had no intention of greeting him.

This world was very different from the game—more realistic. The virus didn't spread as fast as in the game. Over a month had passed, and the virus had only infected a fifth of Manhattan. According to TV statistics, about 21% of the citizens had been infected.

But whether that data was accurate or not was a matter of opinion.

Li Wei didn't go looking for Alex, but Alex came looking for him.

As Li Wei pushed deeper into the Infected Zone, assimilating nearby infected along the way, Alex glided between the tall buildings, using the burst speed from compressed cell gas to slam down right in front of Li Wei.

The flying dust made Li Wei wave his hand in annoyance, then he looked at the hooded man slowly rising to his feet.

Alex stared back at Li Wei. The two locked eyes for a moment, but in the end, Alex couldn't hold out. He stepped forward, extended his hand, and with an expression tinged with the excitement of finding a kindred spirit, said, "Hello, my name is Alex Mercer. Maybe we'll have some common ground to talk about!"

Li Wei studied the still somewhat "green" A-God for a moment, then finally stepped forward and reached out his hand. "Li Wei, from the Yan Kingdom. Actually, we don't have much common ground."

At this point, Alex was still tangled up and confused, projecting himself into the role of "Alex Mercer" while deeply doubting his own existence. He was less of an anti-hero and more of a self-doubting chuunibyou patient.

He wanted to destroy everything Blackwatch stood for, but he couldn't see where the root of it all lay. Even after killing Blackwatch's highest leader, he still didn't know the truth behind everything.

The Alex of the first game was a man struggling with self-doubt. The A-God of the second game finally saw the essence behind things, but he limited himself, fixated on that one patch of Manhattan, never bothering to go stir things up in Washington.

If he had gone straight to Washington to cause trouble, a lot of things might not have mattered anymore. Or he could have directly "assassinated" the people behind the plan, infiltrated Wall Street, and seen if those idiots still dared to continue their experiments!

With A-God's unfathomable assimilation and disguise abilities, all of this would have been easy. But he just didn't do it!

Once Li Wei figured out the key to the Prototype world, he could no longer take the plot of Prototype seriously.

Faced with Alex, who was still somewhat dazed and confused, his attitude was lukewarm. He just wanted to gather enough energy and go home as soon as possible.

"You... did you also escape from the lab? Last time I saw you, it seemed like you had just gained this... ability." Alex had been fixated on Li Wei ever since he saw him three days ago, believing Li Wei was just like him.

But Li Wei's attitude toward him didn't seem very friendly—not what he had imagined—which brought him down from his excitement.

Li Wei looked at Alex and nodded. "Do you mind if we talk while we walk?"

"Uh... of course!"

So the two walked and talked nearby. Li Wei told Alex about his experiences, and Alex told Li Wei about his. The confusion in his voice was practically slapping Li Wei in the face.

Alex had pieced together a large part of the information from the fragments of memory he had recovered. He used to be a Blackwatch employee, but out of a sense of justice, he stole a vial of the virus to report it. He was discovered, and in desperation, he smashed the vial on the subway.

In the end, he came back to life but lost a lot of his memories.

"I'm searching for my lost memories. And I'm going to destroy everything Blackwatch has built!" Alex lowered his head, watching his hands slowly turn into huge claws, his expression gloomy.

But Li Wei was staring at those huge claws with great interest. Cool. He wanted a pair too!

"Ahem! Alex, let's swap arms!"

"What?" Alex, who had been lost in his own emotions, looked at Li Wei in confusion and asked uncertainly, "Arms?"

Li Wei nodded, rubbing his hands together with a grin. "You know, we can gain new abilities through assimilation. How about we swap arms? A little bit of you in me, a little bit of me in you~! And besides, only by getting stronger can you take revenge on Blackwatch, right?"

Clearly not expecting Li Wei to have such a strange idea, Alex stood still for a full thirty seconds before nodding. "So... does this mean you're willing to help me?"

"Blackwatch has to be eliminated. You know that." Li Wei didn't give a clear answer, brushing it off with a clever bit of wordplay.

Alex automatically interpreted it as Li Wei agreeing to his proposal. His expression relaxed a little. He nodded, turned his left hand back to normal, and with a slash of his right claw, his left arm fell off.

So ruthless!

Li Wei was impressed by the sight. He cut off his own arm without even blinking!

Li Wei couldn't do that. He hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he just held out his hand to Alex and let him cut it off.

By then, Alex's severed arm had already grown back. Seeing Li Wei offer his left hand, he shook his head. "No need. We're the same."

Li Wei picked up the severed arm from the ground and assimilated it. Pure energy merged into his body.

Holy crap!

One arm was worth more than a dozen infected creatures. No wonder A-God had been running around for almost a month!

Feeling the changes in his body, the black-red tentacles on his hands writhed, and a pair of claws identical to Alex's earlier ones appeared.

But they looked even more ferocious, because Li Wei had modified them to his liking, making them even more menacing than Alex's.

He clashed the huge claws together, producing a metallic ring and a shower of sparks, with no sign of wear.

Based on the biomass density of one arm, he guessed his current strength was about the same as Alex's, maybe even a little higher. Perhaps the difference came from variations in the virus.