Virus Weapons

The Zombie kept approaching, its heavily decayed face twitching in time with the cocoon's shuddering.

It reached out with a withered hand, beyond its control, and was about to touch the cocoon.

Swish!

A shrill sound suddenly rang out, like a blade tearing through cloth!

Three enormous claw marks ripped through the cocoon from the inside out!

At the same time, the approaching Zombie froze in place. Three bloody lines appeared across its body!

A second later, it moved again—only now its body had been sliced vertically into four pieces. The smooth, even cuts split apart, and the pieces toppled to the ground...

At last, the cocoon began to crumble and disintegrate on its own. Its dried Tentacles flaked away into black dust and scattered on the wind. Xia Tianming, who had been wrapped inside, was once again revealed to the horde of Zombies.

But his hands had transformed into a pair of imposing black-and-red claws!

Each claw consisted of four blades of biomass, each about half a meter long. An eerie black-and-red glint gleamed along every sharp edge, sending chills down the spine!

The joints between the claws and his arms were bound in dense Blacklight Tentacles, as if welded in place, and bristled with sharp barbs!

The whole thing was a perfect example of brutalist beauty!

There was no doubt that any carbon-based life-form caught beneath those claws would be no different from tofu!

Looking at the claws his hands had become, Xia Tianming instinctively thought of one of the signature viral abilities from the game Prototype—the Blacklight Claws!

The Blacklight Claws were viral weapons formed through the Blacklight Virus's extraordinary adaptability.

So breaking through the viral threshold for the first time had unlocked the claw ability for him!

At the same time, however, the evolution value for the next stage had changed to [Blacklight Threshold: 0/3000].

Did that mean he would have to consume nearly three thousand Zombies to break through the threshold again?!

Fortunately, Zombies were everywhere in this biochemically ravaged wasteland.

He could fully evolve his abilities in this world. The little Zombies here posed no threat to him at all; they were nothing but bite-sized snacks.

The Blacklight Virus seemed to have no limit to its evolution. He wondered whether it could eventually reach the point of devouring entire planets.

Wait!

Xia Tianming suddenly recalled that when he had first crossed over into this world, a mission prompt had appeared in his mind.

He was supposed to "purify" this biochemically ravaged world.

What did "purify" mean?

Eliminate the bioweapon viruses and save all of humanity?

Or let the Blacklight Virus spread to every corner of the world, achieving some so-called purification...

In the second Prototype game, the protagonist, Alex Mercer, had completely lost faith in humanity and decided to infect the entire world with the Blacklight Virus.

That way, everyone would carry the same virus and have the same abilities, allowing humanity to evolve together. There would be no more "you" and "me," nor distinctions of disease, poverty, or status. There would be no more wars, conflicts, or disputes.

To Alex Mercer, that was what purification meant.

So did his own mission involve infecting the entire world with the Blacklight Virus?

But the world was so vast. Infecting the whole globe would hardly be easy, especially in a short time.

Forget it. He wouldn't dwell on that for now. Improving his strength was more important. Who knew what other dangers might exist in this world? It was far too soon to assume he was invincible.

Xia Tianming flexed his Blacklight Claws. They moved with incredible ease, as if he had been born with them.

The remaining Zombies stopped attacking. They only flailed and snarled impotently from more than ten meters away, not daring to take another step closer.

The T-Virus inside them instinctively sensed how dangerous that man was, yet at the same time, it hungered for fresh flesh.

That was because the Blacklight Virus was also giving off an enticing scent, tempting other infected creatures to approach—just like the Zombie that had come near the Blacklight cocoon moments ago.

That was why they now hesitated, milling about at a distance that was neither too close nor too far from Xia Tianming.

"If you won't come to me, then I'll come to you."

Xia Tianming snorted coldly. Darkness once again consumed his pupils, and he charged into the horde, swinging his Blacklight Claws!

Wherever his claws swept, Zombie bodies broke apart like paper, their severed limbs flying through the air!

As the Blacklight Claws tore through the Zombies, they absorbed and consumed them in one fluid motion. It was faster than shredding them with Tentacles before devouring them!

The sounds of flesh tearing and Zombies roaring rose and fell, weaving into an eerie symphony that played across the wasteland!

He was like a human-shaped meat grinder, charging through the tide of Zombies and leaving empty ground in his wake!

His Blacklight ability continued to rise without pause!

But just as Xia Tianming was losing himself in the bloody carnage...

Hundreds of kilometers away, in a base buried a hundred meters underground, more than a hundred workers in matching black uniforms stared intently at the enormous electronic screen before them.

The giant display was divided into a thousand smaller screens, each showing live footage from a different region. Every screen showed the same thing: a desolate wasteland and a nauseatingly vast Zombie horde.

They were using satellites to monitor key locations across the surface. In addition to searching for endangered human survivors, they were also trying to find the resistance—and the woman who had opposed the company for years.

Every worker wore the same red-and-white umbrella logo embroidered on the chest of their uniform.

That's right. These people were employees of the Umbrella Corporation, and this was its main base!

The Umbrella Corporation, also known as Umbrella Corporation, was the world's largest company, with operations spanning biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, weapons, security, and much more. It was also the true culprit behind the biochemically ravaged world of today.

Under the pretense of "extending human life and improving the human physique," they had revived the Progenitor Virus—also known as the T-Virus—and used it for all manner of inhumane live experiments.

Then an accident had caused a virus leak, creating the situation the world now faced.

Yet the Umbrella Corporation still hadn't given up. They were still dreaming of creating an improved virus that could evolve humanity. Later, through a stroke of luck, they really did create the G-Virus.

The G-Virus was also known as the God Virus. Those selected by and infected with this virus mutated at an extraordinary rate. They could even develop different forms according to their surroundings, giving them tremendous adaptability and the potential for unlimited evolution!

However, the G-Virus remained unstable and difficult to control. It was also hard for the infected to retain their reason, except for a few individuals with special genetic traits.

That was why the Umbrella Corporation had deployed Sky Eye surveillance satellites around the globe: to find Alice, the perfect T-Virus evolver!

They wanted to keep using her as a G-Virus test subject and make her serve the company!

If she still refused to show herself, then they would have no choice but to launch rockets and spread the bioweapon virus through the atmosphere, infecting every survivor on the surface. That would make her give up her futile plan to save humanity and come to them of her own accord!

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