Cellular Whispers

"Feels good, feels good!"

"Eat, eat, eat!"

"Hungry, hungry, hungry!"

Once those "burdens" were removed, Lu Zhan's body let out a satisfied moan.

"Moan" was not a figure of speech. It was a sound Lu Zhan had actually "picked up."

None of it was an illusion-or an auditory hallucination!

As those "voices" clamored for more, a fierce hunger engulfed Lu Zhan.

Having never gone hungry in his previous life, Lu Zhan almost felt as though he were the reincarnation of someone who had starved to death.

Fortunately, although the hunger had erupted violently, its intensity gradually diminished.

That kept Lu Zhan's reason from being overwhelmed by hunger.

Otherwise, he might have started gnawing on his hospital bed.

Thank goodness.

My body has started expressing its own wishes, but it hasn't gone completely out of control.

The hunger subsided just as swiftly as it had erupted.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Zhan's body returned to normal.

Yet the joy Lu Zhan had felt over passing the "screening" was once again overshadowed by gloom.

It was not that he lacked mental fortitude.

Anyone whose body suddenly started "talking to itself" would have been frightened to the core.

What on earth is going on?

My brain tells me those sounds really came from my body.

So is something wrong with my body, or with my brain?

The sudden "change" in his body forced Lu Zhan to put aside his plans for his "life as an Armored Warrior" and start studying his body instead.

Yet what drove him mad was that when he tried to listen carefully to his body's "demands"-

His body fell "silent."

Lu Zhan could no longer hear any meaningful sounds. If he had not still been able to hear some chaotic, jumbled murmuring-

He would have thought he had returned to normal.

These jumbled noises must be coming from the cells in my body.

They've been there all along, without showing any signs of fading.

Enduring the discomfort, Lu Zhan studied the chaotic noise for fifteen minutes and reached his own conclusion.

According to the biology he had learned in his previous life, human cells had magnetic fields.

It seemed only natural that they could produce disorderly "noise."

Following that line of reasoning, the "voices" were most likely produced by all his cells working together.

Even if not all of them were involved, an "organ" would at least have to be the basic unit.

As for why he could no longer hear them-or why they had fallen "silent"-

That was, of course, because this was the "normal state."

What normal person's organs banded together to speak?

One thing's certain now: I really have gained a miraculous [hearing] ability.

I can pick up the information emitted by my body's cells.

This miraculous ability most likely originated in my brain.

But that would mean there's something wrong with both my body and my brain.

When it came to the problem with his body, Lu Zhan's first suspects were those "high-tech" machines.

Xin Ya had said he had passed the final screening and showed no abnormalities at the genetic level.

In that case, the Mutant Beast probably was not responsible for his body's ability to "speak."

The likeliest explanation was that those high-tech machines had "overtreated" his body-or "overcharged" it.

An injury that had ripped his belly open had healed in three days. He could only imagine how much "vitality" his cells had received.

Honestly, once he accepted that hypothesis, Lu Zhan felt lucky his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys had not "gone rogue."

Seen that way, the idea of his organs speaking became somewhat less difficult to accept.

If my body really started speaking because it was overcharged, it makes sense that it would fall silent again once that charge ran low.

Overcharging the body might be standard practice at the Ninth Medical Security Center.

That kind of treatment would fit a high-end hospital's prestige. Normally, if nothing were wrong with my brain, I wouldn't hear those voices at all.

The more Lu Zhan considered it, the more reasonable it seemed.

But that made the problem with his brain all the stranger.

Lu Zhan was absolutely certain that when he first woke up-or rather, when his memories finished merging-he had not heard any "noise."

In other words, his brain had not possessed the ability to "pick up" his cells' magnetic fields at that point.

So when had he acquired it?

Shit, could those two antennae in my head be the culprits?

I did start hearing my body's whispers after they appeared in my mind.

More precisely, this ability emerged after I drew the antennae on that sheet of paper.

The more Lu Zhan thought about it, the clearer it became, but a chill began to creep through his head.

Those two blood-red antennae had come from a Mutant Beast.

In this world, being connected to a Mutant Beast was never a good thing.

Could I already be infected by the Mutant Beast?

That can't be right. Didn't I pass the final screening?

If there really were something wrong with my genes, Xin Ya would never have let me pass so easily.

Lu Zhan instinctively resisted the idea that he had "turned into" a Mutant Beast, terrified that two blood-red antennae might sprout from his head at any moment.

That resistance came not only from his predecessor's influence, but also from practical concerns about survival.

A Mutant Beast had no future in Yero City.

Unless Lu Zhan was willing to run off into the Wilderness and "eat dirt."

In this world, eating dirt was no figure of speech.

The monsters living in the Wilderness really did eat dirt every day.

Forget it. I'd better stop letting my imagination run wild.

The most important thing now is to fit into this world.

Now that I'm here, I might as well settle in. Besides, back on Blue

Star, I had nothing tying me down anyway.

If I spend all day looking miserable and worried, other people might think I haven't come clean and am hiding some secret.

After studying the "Mechanical Antenna" in his mind for a while and finding that there was nothing he could do about it, Lu Zhan decided to stop banging his head against that wall.

Something as incredible as transmigration had already happened to him. Mysteriously acquiring a Mutant Beast's ability was not entirely beyond what he could accept.

What mattered most now was for Lu Zhan to show his excitement and delight.

After all, he had the talent to become an Armored Warrior.

"Nurse! Nurse! I need premium service!"

"Bring me the best food your hospital has."

"I'm a special talent Commissioner Xin of the Inspection Office thinks highly of. Isn't your hospital going to show me some appreciation?"

Having gone three days without food, Lu Zhan decided to give his stomach a proper treat.

Although that earlier hunger had been a little "excessive," it had ultimately come from his body's genuine needs.

Whenever he had a choice, Lu Zhan, who had never suffered hardship in his previous life, had no desire to suffer it in this one.