Wang Zhen glanced at Zheng Zha from the corner of his eye, then glanced at Zhang Jie beside him. The old schemer wasn't paying him any attention; instead, he was staring intently at Zheng Zha, who was twitching like he was having a seizure.
As expected, Zheng Zha really is Zhang Jie's true love! Wang Zhen groused to himself.
Knowing he hadn't caught Zhang Jie's attention, Wang Zhen decided he needed to level up again. Otherwise, damn it, he'd be tearing his hair out. At this rate, when would this scratch-like damage finally wear away that last bit of the Xenomorph's health?
Since he couldn't use instant Transmutation Circles, Wang Zhen's strength had been greatly reduced. He didn't even dare raise the flames' temperature by much!
But the moment he realized Zhang Jie wasn't watching him, Wang Zhen couldn't hold back any longer. The longer he waited, the more likely something unexpected was to happen!
Wang Zhen snapped his fingers lightly with his left hand. Nearly fifty long fire spikes appeared before him in an instant!
They were exactly the same size and length as the fire spikes he'd made before. The only difference was their color!
Blue-white flames!
Now, fifty long spikes made of blue-white flames hovered before Wang Zhen!
"Phew..."
"Two thousand degrees. That should be enough, right?"
"After all, steel melts at around fifteen hundred degrees! I refuse to believe that Xenomorph carapace is harder to melt than steel!"
Wang Zhen flicked his little hand, sending the long spikes—made from high-temperature flames and created with the Flame Transmutation Circle—shooting toward the Drone Xenomorph over there. It had been teetering on the brink of collapse for ages, yet somehow still hadn't fallen.
"Pfft..."
"Boom..."
The earlier fire spikes, at eleven hundred degrees, had done little more than leave a dark red coating on the Xenomorph's blue-black carapace. This time, though, the spikes made of two-thousand-degree flames pierced straight through its tough, heavy armor, punching a fist-sized hole in it!
As the spikes pierced the carapace and drove into the Xenomorph's body, the blue-white flames reacted violently with its corrosive, viscous bodily fluids and exploded in an instant!
Wang Zhen had already caused several explosions and had even begun to appreciate the art of blowing things up. But he acted startled by this sudden blast, using the reaction to hide his true strength!
The explosion not only blasted the over-three-meter-tall Drone Xenomorph into a pile of scraps, it also made Zhang Jie, who had been intently watching Zheng Zha's condition, turn to look at him.
"What the hell are you doing, kid? Isn't your superpower Fire Control? How'd you manage to cause an explosion?" Zhang Jie hadn't seen Wang Zhen upgrade himself, so he was pretty baffled. How had he caused an explosion?
"Brother Zhang, I'm not sure either! I just used my Fire Control ability to shape the flames into spikes, then shot them at the Xenomorph, going 'pew, pew, pew.' I don't know what they hit, and then it exploded!" Wang Zhen was an experienced old hand. He naturally knew how to make people believe him.
By telling the truth!
Only by honestly telling the truth could he get people to believe him!
Wang Zhen had been carrying out assassination missions since he was ten, so he naturally knew this little trick of life. Every word and punctuation mark he spoke was as true as could be. Even every sentence was true—but each one contained only part of the truth. The rest was either false information or incomplete.
And after doing this for so long, his heartbeat, expression, and even pupils never changed when he spoke. So even Zhang Jie believed his explanation!
After all, this was everyone's first time fighting Xenomorphs. Wang Zhen was the only one who'd bought the Fire Control superpower, so Zhang Jie didn't know exactly how it worked. He only knew that this dirt-cheap ability couldn't generate its own fire. It couldn't produce flames, which meant it had an inherent flaw and would be easy to counter. So it was nothing to worry about!
What truly shocked Zhang Jie was that Zheng Zha had managed to unlock the Gene Lock on only his second time, could now unlock it at will, and could fight for a long time while bringing out the full power of his two C-rank bloodline enhancements!
It wasn't as though Zhang Jie had never encountered new recruits whom the Main God had judged to have great talent and potential. But not one of them had unlocked the Gene Lock in their second story world—let alone unlocked it at will after only two attempts and kept it active for a long time in battle!
Even Zhang Jie, with his powerful A-rank psychic ability, felt intimidated by such an absurd rate of progress!
And as someone with the unusual dual identity of half-human and half-guide, Zhang Jie understood better than anyone just how troublesome that role was! Especially now that Zheng Zha had unlocked the Gene Lock. It was practically a freshly issued death warrant!
Because Zhang Jie's role as a guide came with an unavoidable, non-negotiable mission: the Zhongzhou Team Captain Trial!
The first condition to activate the mission was... for a member of the Zhongzhou Team to unlock the Gene Lock!
In a sense, the moment Zheng Zha unlocked the Gene Lock, Zhang Jie's life began counting down. The final stage of the Captain Trial required the guide to be sacrificed in a blood ritual to increase the captain's power. That was part of the reward for the trial!
So Wang Zhen could understand why Zhang Jie was watching Zheng Zha so intently!
Seriously, who wouldn't want to go stab the person who'd rung their death knell a few times?
"Brother Zhang, when will Zheng Zha recover? What if two more Xenomorphs show up? I'm not sure I can handle them!" Wang Zhen looked genuinely concerned about Zheng Zha. In fact, he really was.
After all, only with Zheng Zha tanking at the front and drawing aggro could Wang Zhen relax and play a pure DPS, unleashing his full damage output!
Wang Zhen had tried to fish for targets earlier, but after going around in circles and nearly coming up empty-handed, he'd realized he couldn't compete with Zheng Zha as bait. The Xenomorphs charged straight at Zheng Zha! How could anyone beat that?
"The backlash from the Gene Lock will take a little longer to pass. Don't worry! It won't affect his fighting strength. Even if more Xenomorphs show up, we've got nothing to fear... Zheng Zha's here." Zhang Jie continued staring at Zheng Zha, who was gradually calming down, and spoke in a strange, distant tone.
"True! Zheng Zha did buy two C-rank bloodline enhancements, and the Mutant Vampire Bloodline has incredible survivability. He'll definitely get through a little Gene Lock backlash!" Wang Zhen nodded in agreement.
"But... Brother Zhang, what's the Gene Lock you mentioned?" Wang Zhen asked casually.
"You've seen those stories where someone's about to die, then suddenly powers up and turns the tables, right? There are tons of those in anime. The Gene Lock is something like that. Say you're about to get a loving embrace from a Dayun Truck, then you suddenly power up, as if the gods were helping you, and leap from the truck's front to its rear..." Zhang Jie answered casually, thoughtfully giving Wang Zhen an example!
It was a particularly vivid example for Wang Zhen!
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