Infection

Ten seconds later.

Marcus's head in the goldfish bowl stared in stunned silence.

The hundreds of Zombie Rats that had been packed densely throughout the entire tunnel just a moment ago were now reduced to nothing but scattered fur drifting in the air.

One had to understand that these swarming zombie rodents were terrifying; their fangs could easily snap steel bars, let alone flesh and blood, and their aggression surpassed even that of the Zombie Piranhas.

Even a steel-boned Tyrant, if thrown into a swarm of hundreds of these rats, would likely be picked clean to the skeleton in under a minute.

Yet this young man, facing these mutated rodents, had not only failed to retreat but had acted like a cat seeing a mouse—appearing even more excited than the rats themselves?

In just one or two moves, he had instantly cleared out the zombie rat den ahead, leaving not even a single corpse behind!

Throughout the slaughter of those rats, he had even held the goldfish bowl containing his own head with one hand, without spilling a single drop of water.

Now, Marcus finally understood where he got the confidence to go and trouble Spencer all by himself; he truly possessed the capability...

"What kind of divine being are you? Is that Seven-Colored Spiral Rainbow Virus really that powerful? After you kill that old thing, can you let me study it?"

Marcus couldn't help but speak up again, taking the virus name Xia Tianming had fabricated on the spot as the truth...

"If you say one more word, I will smash this bowl."

Xia Tianming lowered his head, his pitch-black eyes staring coldly at the fishbowl.

This gaze made the head of Marcus, composed of viral leeches, shudder involuntarily, even though his leech form should have been incapable of sensing external temperatures.

After being warned, Marcus didn't chatter incessantly for the rest of the journey, only speaking up to provide directions when they needed to turn or detour.

After climbing for nearly fifteen minutes through the winding, maze-like pitch-black pipes, and then moving along a parallel path for a distance—having climbed who knew how many meters in total—they finally reached the end of the pipe.

At the top of the pipe's end was a filter grate, and faint light filtered down from above; they had finally found a light source.

However, even in the pitch-black pipes where one couldn't see their own fingers, the Blacklight Virus granted him powerful night vision comparable to night-vision goggles, and even a certain degree of infrared thermal imaging, allowing him to detect any creature hiding in the darkness.

"Be careful now. After going up, we still have to pass through a section of road before we reach that old immortal's location," Marcus whispered.

Xia Tianming reached out, silently lifted the filter grate, and poked his head up.

He discovered that this was a dimly lit and dry restroom, which looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time; the sinks, stalls, and toilets were all covered in a thick layer of dust.

"After leaving this restroom, you will pass through a corridor. I don't know if there are surveillance cameras or patrols installed there now, so it's best to be careful and not alert the enemy," Marcus reminded him again.

Suddenly!

A burst of footsteps came from outside the door!

"Damn it, I wonder if the cook gave us the boss's leftover food from last night; my stomach suddenly hurts."

"You must have caught a cold yourself; why am I fine?"

"Never mind that, I remember, is this a restroom?"

"Hey, hurry up. I don't know what kind of madness the boss is having today, sending people to patrol even this dump. Don't get us caught slacking off later."

Creeeak~

The door, which hadn't been moved for a long time, was pushed open, and a large amount of dust immediately drifted down.

A fully armed soldier clutched his stomach, his expression pained as he rushed in, ignoring the filthy environment and heading straight for a stall.

He did not see that when the restroom door closed automatically, a pitch-black figure appeared behind it...

After a while, the soldier waiting outside grew impatient and was about to knock on the door to urge him on.

As his finger lifted to knock, the door suddenly opened. He saw his companion, who had just finished his business, wearing a cold expression and holding a goldfish bowl in his hand?

When he looked closer, he discovered that there was actually a head soaking in the fishbowl, giving him a bizarre smile?!

After a brief moment of shock, the soldier reacted and subconsciously opened his mouth to scream.

However, the moment he opened his mouth, a large cluster of tentacles surged violently into his throat. He could only stare with terrified eyes, letting out muffled wheezes...

Two seconds later, the soldier's expression also became cold and vacant; he had now become a viral puppet obedient to Xia Tianming!

Marcus, inside the fishbowl, watched the entire process of Xia Tianming consuming, camouflaging, and infecting others, and couldn't help but sigh: "How colorful..."

Slap!

Xia Tianming punched into the water, scattering the leech-formed head to make the old guy shut up.

Afterward, he disguised himself as the soldier and continued patrolling with the other virus-controlled soldier.

This was the extreme convenience of possessing the Camouflage ability; one could infiltrate anywhere one wanted to go in any guise without anyone noticing.

Even if one were to disguise themselves as a father-son relationship, the Blacklight Virus's powerful replication ability could ensure that any paternity test would show no doubts.

Consuming the soldier who had the stomachache, he learned from the acquired memories that they had been suddenly pulled in by their superiors to patrol without being told the reason, but they were ordered to report immediately if they discovered anyone suspicious, even if it was a companion they had seen before.

It was estimated that they already knew Xia Tianming possessed the ability to disguise himself as others, but they were hindered by the inability to distinguish the real from the fake.

And based on the patrol deployment on this level, Spencer should not be far away.

"I intended for you to avoid surveillance and the like, but I didn't expect you to have such transformation abilities. Then continue along this corridor," Marcus, who had re-formed his head, said.

Next, Xia Tianming, disguised as a soldier, continued forward openly and honestly.

And during the march, he also silently assimilated and infected other patrolling soldiers he encountered along the way, turning them into puppets of the Blacklight Virus.

When those infected soldiers came into contact with others, they caused secondary infections, though these remained latent for the time being; none of them knew they had already been devoured by the virus.

Before they even realized it, the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of patrolling soldiers on this floor had all become Xia Tianming's people!

As long as he issued a command through his Blacklight senses, he could instantly transform them into ferocious Blacklight Zombies, turning them into Blacklight puppets!

Witnessing this, Marcus the Leech Man could not help but be left dumbfounded; this ability of his was even more perverted than his own Leech Queen Virus!

The Leech Queen could also create puppets that obeyed her every command, but it required implanting a virus-leech into their brains to maintain control, and their appearances would become extremely grotesque while losing all intelligence; once they lost her control, they would simply turn into ordinary leech zombies.

The Blacklight Virus, however, allowed the infected to autonomously execute any command—just like those soldiers still patrolling normally, whose eyes had actually long since been eroded by darkness...