Chapter 7 / Chapter 8
Su Chen regained consciousness. At the same time, he could no longer feel any pain.
He lowered his head and opened his right hand, only to find that his disintegrated skin had healed. As if time had flowed backward, the pieces of his ruined body were whole again, even though nuclear energy still assailed him from all sides.
[Man of Steel +500] [Man of Steel +500]
The system he had constructed clearly revealed every detail of his genetic transformation.
The constantly evolving strands of genetic code seemed to have found a direction for their evolution, greedily devouring the immense energy sweeping in from all around him.
An inch, two inches, then tens and hundreds of square meters around him, energy began to be drawn in and devoured by his body. It was as if a black hole had formed inside him, greedily absorbing energy from the outside world.
[New ability 'Energy Manipulation' generated]
The complex genetic chains underwent an entirely new change, and the system he had constructed expressed it clearly and simply.
At that moment, Su Chen understood that he could absorb or release energy in any form.
And so.
He raised the tip of a finger on his right hand. Energy in every form gathered from all around him and surged toward it.
Soon, the immense light of the nuclear blast began to fade, and the terrifying mushroom cloud collapsed. As he devoured everything like a black hole, even the light began to warp.
At last, Su Chen saw that he was standing in a vast crater thousands of square meters across. Every structure that had stood there seconds ago had been reduced to nothing.
The plan had fallen through...
His plan to rescue the others had failed, just like that.
The entire cell area had vanished without a trace. Not even the remains of the prisoners could be found.
"Why?"
"Why did good people have to be locked up and sent to slaughter like helpless lambs? Why could bad people do whatever they wanted..."
Su Chen's shoulders trembled slightly, his voice shook, and tears glistened in his eyes.
At last, his stubborn, youthful face gradually grew cold, and his expression of pity gave way to boundless killing intent. He slowly raised his head and looked into the distance. His eyes could easily make out the armed helicopter flying away.
"Go to hell!"
A terrifying light suddenly flashed from Su Chen's fingertip, becoming a dreadful beam that shot straight into the sky.
P.S. New author, new book. Please support me with flowers and rating votes! At least four updates guaranteed.
Chapter 7
A little over ten seconds earlier.
The people aboard the Black Hawk gunship saw the same sight.
"This..."
General Marcus was dumbstruck. The mushroom cloud rising in the distance had begun to collapse, and the brilliant light of the nuclear blast on the ground had vanished in an instant.
What had happened?
His heart suddenly began to pound as an ominous answer surfaced in his mind.
Could that damned boy have caused this?
"Impossible! There's no way that brat could have survived. No one can survive at the center of a nuclear blast!"
Everyone aboard the gunship was startled.
Only a little over ten seconds had passed since the self-destruct device detonated, yet the rising mushroom cloud had already dissipated in an instant.
Looking down, they saw an enormous crater in the snowfield, a testament to the terrifying force of the nuclear blast. It was as if a meteorite from beyond the heavens had struck the earth, leaving a crater so deep its bottom could not be seen.
"Something's wrong. There seems to be someone down there!!"
A soldier wearing tactical goggles shouted. With the smoke, dust, and energy shock wave no longer blocking their view, a figure had abruptly appeared in the crater.
"It's him!"
General Marcus turned pale with fright. At this moment, Su Chen's extraordinary performance no longer delighted him. After all, extraordinary healing and the ability to keep transforming and evolving were still within the bounds of his imagination.
But what did this mean now?
A person who could stand at the center of a nuclear blast and emerge unharmed was far beyond the limits of his imagination.
This was not human, or even a living creature, at all!!
This was a devil, a monster!
Suddenly.
General Marcus remembered the hysterical words the doctor in white had spoken before his death.
Let us cheer for the birth of God...
God?
Soon...
General Marcus stared wide-eyed as a brilliant light flashed in the distant crater.
Su Chen had raised his right hand. The light blooming from his fingertip swelled in an instant, becoming an immensely thick golden pillar of light that tore through the heavens and pierced the sky, taking aim at a helicopter flying far away.
"No!!"
Everyone aboard, including General Marcus, roared.
But the brilliant light shooting toward the heavens swallowed them and the entire aircraft. Beneath the immensely concentrated pillar of energy, even Weapon X aboard the aircraft, who possessed a healing ability, could only be reduced to nothing in an instant.
Boom!!
Orange-red flames blossomed in the sky like a firework.
"All bad people deserve to die. How could you kill so many people and still think you could just walk away?"
Su Chen's stubborn face spoke of utterly cold killing intent.
He lowered his right hand.
Now that he possessed Energy Manipulation, he could freely devour and release every form of energy in the outside world, including nuclear energy. He could absorb every kinetic impact directed at him.
"I've gotten stronger, too..."
Su Chen clenched his right hand as a surging force rose continuously from his palm.
The nuclear blast had tempered his body once again, strengthening it and granting him even greater physical power.
"Su Shan..."
Having escaped from his prison, Su Chen could think of nothing but his sister.
After their mother died, he and his sister had only each other to depend on.
But an accident had separated them.
I have to go back...
Su Chen stepped forward and gradually made his way out of the crater.
He had promised his mother that he would keep his sister alive, help her grow up healthy, and live to be a hundred.
He had to survive.
And he had to get back to his sister...
"But where am I?"
After walking out of the bottomless crater, Su Chen looked around at the endless snowfield. Everything he could see was white. Snowflakes drifted down, and the world stretched out vast and bleak.
Thirteen-year-old Su Chen had no way of telling where this snowfield was.
All he could do was trudge through the snow, his feet sinking to different depths with each step.
Half an hour...
An hour...
The world around him was still a boundless expanse of white. The endless snowfield was like a prison stretching between heaven and earth.
His ever-growing undying body felt no cold, because the freezing conditions outside had maxed out his body's resistance to the cold.
But Su Chen felt cold inside, and his stubborn face looked ready to crumple.
Where am I?
He felt he could not get out.
Energy swirled around him, lifting his long black hair. His feet left the snow, and he continued forward, but after several hours, everything was still white. There was not a soul in sight.
The damned experimental base had been built in an unknown snowfield, making it nearly impossible for him to cross the endless expanse on foot.
Su Chen felt utterly out of control inside.
After his mother died of illness, he had sworn he would never cry again. He would be a strong man and hold up the sky for his sister.
He could not cry.
But the utterly unfamiliar snowfield around him seemed to mock how ridiculous it was for him to want to see his loved one.
He did not even know where he was.
He could not even find another person.
Even the world was bullying him!!
"Damned bastards, couldn't you let me see just one person?"
Su Chen's emotions suddenly spiraled out of control.
Before the next second had passed.
The colors of the world changed in an instant. The white around him gave way to a riot of colors.
At that moment, Su Chen's vision blurred for an instant, and he found himself in a city beneath neon lights, with people passing back and forth along the streets.
His emotions had run out of control, indirectly triggering the mysterious and unfathomable ability, Reality Warping.
P.S. This ability is based on Wanda. In the comics, the Scarlet Witch nearly wiped out the Mutant race with one sentence when her emotions went out of control. That's right, just one sentence!
Chapter 8
"Hmm..."
The sudden change before his eyes left Su Chen slightly stunned.
Less than a second ago, he had been in an endless snowfield.
The next second, he had appeared in an alley in a city beneath neon lights.
"Reality Warping..."
He immediately realized that this ability had caused the change in his surroundings.
In the laboratory, he had been bound and his emotions had spiraled completely out of control, allowing him to take many lives with words alone.
A single word, "Scram," had sent everyone around him flying.
A single word, "Die," had been enough to leave no trace of a person's body.
That was the power of Reality Warping: mysterious and unfathomable, elusive and intangible, yet possessing terrifying destructive force and immense power that could not be captured.
When his emotions had just run out of control, Su Chen's desire to see a populated city had fully triggered the ability, Reality Warping.
Suddenly finding himself in a city beneath neon lights, Su Chen felt all the gloom in his heart vanish at once.
He walked out of the alley, looking curiously at the tall buildings around him.