Negotiations

Xia Tianming staggered to his feet, half his head crushed. Beneath him lay the Tyrant's head, covered in virus tendrils.

When he lifted his foot, the octopus-like head began moving again.

But this time, it didn't crawl around aimlessly. Instead, it slithered up Xia Tianming's pant leg and climbed onto him, as if summoned by its host.

When it reached Xia Tianming's badly injured head, the tendrils inside the Tyrant's head suddenly connected with those on his damaged skull and tangled together!

Then the Tyrant's head began to dissolve on its own. In moments, all the flesh and brain tissue had melted into a ball of blood and been devoured!

Only a metal alloy skull remained. It fell to the ground with a crisp clatter.

Virus energy +600

[Blacklight Threshold: 2023/3000]

Devouring the Tyrant's head had given him a whopping 600 points of virus energy.

The Blacklight Virus had gained a massive amount of nutrients. Tendrils filled in the half of Xia Tianming's head that had been crushed, and it healed in an instant, without a trace of injury!

But his eyes looked somewhat dazed.

When his head had been crushed and his brain destroyed, he had already lost consciousness.

Now that he had regained consciousness, he found himself standing there unharmed, his head perfectly intact.

In other words, from the moment he had stood up to the moment he devoured the Tyrant's head, he hadn't been acting of his own free will. The Blacklight Virus had been controlling his body...

Am I still me...

Bang!

The enormous commotion caused by the headless Tyrant caught Xia Tianming's attention.

He turned to look. The brute was swinging its fists wildly, pounding deep pits into the sturdy walls.

It still wasn't dead. What incredible vitality.

But now Xia Tianming was thinking about how to eat it.

Devouring just its head had given him 600 points of virus energy. Wouldn't devouring its enormous body give him even more? Maybe enough to break through the threshold and achieve his next evolution?

So Umbrella Corporation had been raising him like livestock. Perhaps they didn't even realize they were fattening up a monster they wouldn't be able to control!

Xia Tianming approached from behind. Having lost its head, the Tyrant had lost its senses and naturally couldn't detect him.

When he was two meters from its back, he transformed both hands into Blacklight Claws and slashed down hard at its back!

Clang!

The Tyrant's steel-like bones were still impossible to pierce.

Xia Tianming remembered that his infected blood had seeped into the Tyrant's injured eye socket. The Blacklight Virus had used that opening to invade its brain and destroy its brain tissue, triggering a rejection response and activating the Tyrant's self-preservation mechanism. That was why it had forcibly twisted its own head off.

If it hadn't severed its head, the Blacklight Virus would soon have spread from its brain to its entire body.

In other words, he needed to break through its defenses from the inside!

Without another word, Xia Tianming bent his knees and leaped straight onto the Tyrant's shoulder!

He wanted to pour the Blacklight Virus into the Tyrant again through the stump of its neck and take over its entire body!

Perhaps due to a muscular reflex, the Tyrant's headless body sensed something land on its shoulder. It swung an arm and slammed it down at its own shoulder!

Xia Tianming felt a gust of wind rush toward him. He leaped to the Tyrant's other broad shoulder and slit his own wrist, letting a steady stream of black blood flow through the stump of its neck.

Like a raging tsunami, the Blacklight Virus surged into the Tyrant's body and raced through its blood vessels, spreading to every corner with unstoppable force!

The T-Virus, cells, and everything else inside the Tyrant were instantly devoured by the ferocious Blacklight Virus. They were utterly powerless to resist!

In the blink of an eye, the headless Tyrant stopped moving and froze in place like a statue,

Its dark green blood had also turned black-red, the color of the Blacklight Virus!

Seeing that it had stopped struggling, Xia Tianming extended countless tendrils from his body. They burrowed in through the stump of the Tyrant's neck, and he began devouring it from the inside!

Perhaps because the Tyrant contained so much energy, devouring its enormous body took far longer than devouring other infected.

As Xia Tianming devoured the Tyrant, Wesker, inside the Safe House, spoke to him again. "Impressive. You actually killed the Tyrant our Dr. Pym worked so hard to develop. So, did you enjoy the meal?"

He spoke as though he'd known the Tyrant would be no match for Xia Tianming, and had generously offered it as a welcoming gift.

"What exactly do you want?"

This time, Xia Tianming actually spoke. It was the first thing he had said since arriving in this world—and the first line he had spoken in nineteen chapters!

His voice was calm and utterly emotionless, making the shareholders in the Safe House shiver.

Wesker saw that Xia Tianming had answered him. It was a promising start, so he hurriedly continued, "Like I said before, I want us to work together. You provide the company with research samples, and we provide you with whatever kind of life you want. In the end, though, our goal is to benefit humanity."

Xia Tianming listened to him. The very people responsible for humanity's destruction claimed their goal was to benefit humanity???

He wanted to laugh, but couldn't. The Blacklight Virus had stripped away his emotions and expressions.

And this so-called partnership was obviously because they coveted his ability to reproduce and heal endlessly. They wanted to use him as Umbrella Corporation's specimen to dissect—a limitless meat pig that grew new flesh even as they cut it away. They wanted to create an army of viruses like him.

"Fine. But is this how you treat a partner, locking me up in a hellhole like this?" Xia Tianming spoke again.

Wesker was taken aback. After hesitating, he said, "Ahem, I do want to let you out, but the shareholders here can't accept you yet. After all, the power you've shown poses a major threat to our company. So why don't you stay here for now and cooperate with our research?"

In truth, the shareholders around him hadn't said a word. Suspicious by nature, Wesker didn't believe Xia Tianming either, and had made up the excuse himself.

Xia Tianming had been so resistant before, but now he was suddenly willing to cooperate. Who could believe that so easily?

So neither side trusted the other.

After hearing Wesker's bullshit, Xia Tianming said nothing more and continued devouring the Tyrant's remains beneath him.

He felt a steady stream of virus energy pouring into his body, and the Blacklight Threshold kept rising. He could almost sense his evolution breaking through!

Perhaps after this evolution, he'd be able to break through this impregnable facility!

Then he could let these virus-loving researchers experience the Blacklight Virus they so desperately wanted to study!