The Character Card glowed, and the gloomy young man depicted on it materialized.
He appeared out of thin air, not far away.
Shen Yu himself found an inconspicuous corner and settled in.
An enormous amount of information flooded into Shen Yu's mind like seawater.
Malice!
Malice!
Malice!
What was the malice of human nature like?
Shen Yu had always known that human nature could be evil, and that sometimes its depths surpassed all imagination. But never before had he felt that overwhelming, nauseating malice so directly.
Malice surged toward him from every direction like a tide.
In just a few seconds, he felt as if he had sunk into a swamp of malice, absorbing it, being swallowed by it, and digesting it.
The tremendous malice poured into Bai Zuo's body, devoured completely by that greedy thing!
Stop!
Make it stop!
Bai Zuo's body had nearly burst from taking in too much malice.
Shen Yu quickly took control of the switch that drew in the malice.
The flow of malice stopped, no longer pouring into Bai Zuo's body.
The thing inside Bai Zuo stirred, apparently dissatisfied, but under Bai Zuo's suppression, it could only fall silent for now.
So this was the bizarre entity Bai Zuo had contracted with—Heart Gu?
What a hell of an entrance.
Shen Yu's head was spinning a little. He had to split his attention to control Bai Zuo. The doubled vision and the mental strain of controlling two bodies at once left him feeling rather tired.
But—
After experiencing Bai Zuo's abilities, Shen Yu was so excited he could barely contain himself.
He now had the power to affect someone's memories and perception, brainwash them, reshape their personality, and even control them.
Heart Gu really was an S-rank bizarre entity!
After his excitement passed, Shen Yu remembered something. How was a character's completion rate raised?
It had to be through acting the part, staying as true as possible to the Character Card's personality. In that case, this card was well suited to being a villain.
How could he come up with a plausible reason for a born villain like this to save people and take on the thankless task of containing bizarre entities?
He needed to make up a suitable motive.
"Bai Zuo enjoys toying with people's hearts and testing just how far human evil can go. After the Containment Organization discovered him, they recruited him and put him under supervision. As the price for atoning for his sins, he has to keep containing bizarre entities."
With his script ready, Shen Yu couldn't wait to take the stage.
"My first performance! I'm actually a little excited. Then let's make a proper scene!"
Meanwhile—
To stop the driver from continuing to bite the passengers, Zhang Lin used his own hand to block him.
The driver sank his teeth into Zhang Lin's arm, and blood soon appeared.
"Quick, tie him up!"
Even though pain had brought sweat to his brow, he didn't make a sound.
Using a rope provided by a kind passerby, a few people tied up the driver.
Just then, a man helping nearby cried out, "Patrol Officer, look at him!"
Zhang Lin turned to look.
The passenger the driver had bitten a chunk of flesh from lay on the ground, his limbs twitching nonstop. His face was ashen, his eyes bulging, and strange wheezing sounds came from his mouth.
"Holy crap! A zombie?" a young student shouted.
"Careful! Don't let him bite you!"
Zhang Lin's heart lurched. He shouted at the top of his lungs, almost screaming, "Get back! Everyone, get back!"
At the same time, he pinned the passenger down with his body.
Movies about viral outbreaks and zombie apocalypses came out all the time, but faced with something like this in real life, Zhang Lin couldn't be sure what was happening.
How could zombies possibly exist in the real world?
Zhang Lin looked at his bitten arm. Half-congealed pus and blood oozed from the wound, which was swollen and turning purplish-blue.
He'd been infected too!
Zhang Lin's consciousness began to blur. A powerful urge to attack the people running around him surged up, but he forced it back down.
No!
I'm a patrol officer. I have to protect the people! I can't attack them!
But even the strongest will was no match for the corruption of a bizarre entity.
"Ah!"
Another scream rang out.
A passenger transformed and lunged uncontrollably at the crowd.
Then, one after another, several other passengers began to go berserk.
The corruption was spreading rapidly.
Zhang Lin felt his body undergoing an astonishing transformation. His strength was increasing, his senses sharpening. The people running around seemed to move ten times slower.
Blurry shapes, like huge insects shrieking and scuttling in every direction.
His mind was growing less clear by the second. He was nearly unable to control his body when he seemed to hear a flippant, teasing voice by his ear.
"Oh, look! I've just found an Adaptive. How lucky~"
"Otherwise, even I would have a bit of trouble dealing with so many bizarre entities!"
"Patrol Officer, sir? Hm? Your consciousness is almost gone? Then I won't have to violate the Humanity Code, which saves me a lot of trouble!"
"Would you like to gain power, Patrol Officer?"
The young man's flippant, almost indifferent tone sounded like a devil's whisper, full of temptation and confidence in his ability to manipulate people's hearts.
"Don't struggle or resist. Look, those things have already started attacking other people. How frightening. If this spreads, the whole city will be done for, won't it?"
Zhang Lin's consciousness, on the verge of being consumed, shuddered. He reached out without hesitation and grabbed the thread extended toward him. God or demon, it didn't matter. He needed power—power to protect everyone in the city!
Clinging to his last shred of reason, Zhang Lin roared, "I... will protect them!"
"Good. Then—Mind Control!"
His blurry consciousness seemed to be caught in a spreading spiderweb.
Zhang Lin "saw" a white spider leap onto his face and burrow into his brain through the space between his brows.
His crumbling consciousness was firmly held together by the web.
This time, his mind was clear.
He watched clearly as an unknown force took control of his body, sending him lunging at the frenzied people with the might of a heavenly warrior.
They were strong, so he would use even more brutal force to crush all resistance!
With every punch and kick, he even heard sonic booms as his fists tore through the air.
For the first time, Zhang Lin realized he could unleash such incredible power.
In just a few minutes, he had caught up with all the frenzied people and broken their limbs one by one, tossing them to the ground.
"Huff! Huff!" Zhang Lin panted heavily. His body began to heat up from the intense exertion, and white steam rose from his skin.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap!"
Bai Zuo walked over, applauding. "That was quite a performance!"
The black-haired young man walked toward him one step at a time, against the flow of the fleeing crowd. The morning sunlight fell on him, draping him in a coat of golden orange.
It was a heartwarming scene.
And yet the people running around in a panic, crashing into him, suddenly calmed down when they met his eyes and slowly moved aside.
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