Chapter 83: [Talent Skill: Hunger Mutation]
"Don't worry, next I'll show you what it means to suffer a fate worse than death." Xia Shang used the tape nearby to re-bind Cui Yongjae's mouth.
The scene that followed made even Pyeon Sang-wook in the Room feel a chill down his spine. Looking at Cui Yongjae twisting and struggling on the ground in pain, he lit another cigarette and silently walked out of the Room.
Half an hour later, Xia Shang finally stopped the torture. He smiled and wiped his hands with a wet wipe. Although the experiment was not successful, Cui Yongjae gave him a deeper understanding of human anatomy.
When he pushed open the Room door, he found Pyeon Sang-wook standing at the doorway, with many cigarette butts scattered around his feet.
"Is he dead?"
"Not yet. This is only the first day. There's still a long way to go. I'll make him experience what despair truly is."
Xia Shang brushed off the dust on his white coat and said in a calm tone.
"It's his misfortune to have met you." Pyeon Sang-wook dropped the cigarette butt in his hand and walked towards the Rooftop.
...
A week quickly passed. To Xia Shang's surprise, there were no signs of infection on Cui Yongjae. This kid had already been tortured to the point of mental collapse, as if even desire had been toyed away by Xia Shang. Although Xia Shang was a little disappointed by this, he still gained something. Overall, it wasn't a loss.
Meanwhile.
Cha Hyun-soo was playing a game on his computer. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from the girl next door. The girl was complaining to her cat, saying she had been trying hard to diet but still wasn't thin enough. Enviously, she said to the cat, "I really wish I could be like you, eating and drinking to my heart's content every day without worrying about losing weight."
Just then, the girl's phone rang.
"Hello? Yes, hello. Okay, okay. It's alright. If there's another opportunity next time... could you please let me know?"
The girl hung up the phone, her eyes vacant. She hadn't expected to be rejected again. She had clearly tried so hard, participating in company selections again and again, but the result was failure after failure. The girl lay on the bed, covered her face with the blanket, and sobbed quietly in sadness.
The blows to her life and career made her feel despair towards the world. Finally, the psychological defense line she had maintained against hunger was completely broken. A terrifying desire for gluttony instantly swept through her entire body.
Under the bright light of the Room, as blood surged from her nose, her originally fair face became covered in blood vessels that looked like black worms. At the same time, her distinct black and white eyeballs were gradually taken over by a deep black. The girl stiffly twisted her head, turning her gaze towards the blue cat nearby, which had its head buried in cat food.
Soon, Cha Hyun-soo in the Room next door heard the sound of something being gnawed. However, he didn't pay attention. He put his earphones back on and focused on playing his game.
In the Room with the number 1419 on the door, Xia Shang suddenly looked towards the direction where the idol trainee was. Just now, he had sensed an abnormal signal. It seemed that an infected had already turned into a monster.
It was now night.
Cha Hyun-soo was woken up by a nightmare. At this moment, the phone he had placed on his nightstand suddenly received a text message.
Sleepily, he picked up his phone. It was a text message from the delivery person. Because the security guard wasn't there, the package had been left at Cha Hyun-soo's door.
So, Cha Hyun-soo, dragging his tired body, opened the door. However, when he opened the door, he found a box of instant noodles he had bought online scattered all over the floor. "What the hell?"
Then, following the trail of discarded noodle packets, he slowly moved forward. The result was a terrifying scene.
He saw a bloody cat head roll in front of him. Immediately after, a woman's hand reached out from the doorway, grabbed the cat head, and dragged it back, leaving a clear trail of blood on the ground.
Cha Hyun-soo was badly frightened by this scene.
"I'm so hungry!" A woman's hoarse voice came from inside the Room door.
Seeing that the situation was bad, the terrified and unsettled Cha Hyun-soo quickly fled back to his Room.
He just didn't see that, at the other end of the Corridor, in the dim light, there was a tall, slender figure.
"I hope your ability can give me a little surprise." Xia Shang put his hands into his white coat, appearing very calm.
As soon as he finished speaking, the hungry woman crawled out in a twisted posture. At this moment, she still maintained a human form and hadn't completely mutated. As she crawled, she kept shouting, "I'm so hungry."
"I'm so hungry, I want to eat something." Her gaze instantly locked onto Xia Shang.
He saw her shakily stand up and pounce towards Xia Shang at an extremely fast speed.
"I'm a bit tough. Are you sure you can eat me?"
In an instant, Xia Shang suddenly drew out his right hand. Swinging it with his fingers hooked, a tremendous force drove the airflow. The next second, his right hand directly clamped onto the hungry woman's face and slammed her violently against the wall.
Boom! As the back of the hungry woman's head was embedded in the wall, Xia Shang calmly withdrew his other hand and adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.
"Analyze."
At this moment, the hungry woman's feet were off the ground, her limbs hanging down. She hadn't completely lost consciousness yet. Xia Shang could see her terrified gaze through the gaps between his fingers.
About two or three minutes passed.
The analysis was finally completed.
[Analysis Complete]
[Talent Skill: Hunger Mutation] [Fusion Condition: Kill the Complete Form of the hungry woman]
[After Fusion, the Player will develop an insatiable Appetite, and driven by Hunger, will devour all digestible Food around them. At the same time, the Player's Body will undergo mutation. When the Player's reason cannot overcome their Hunger Desire, the Player will completely mutate into a Monster.]
In addition, this Talent has a certain growth potential. As long as the Desire is satisfied and Food is continuously consumed, the Player's Physique will continuously improve. Friendly reminder: During this process, the Player's Desire will also gradually increase. However, once the Player shatters their Desire, this Talent will no longer have growth potential.]
To be honest, after Xia Shang finished reading the hungry woman's Talent Skill, he was a little disappointed.
The side effects were too great. It was true that he liked gourmet food, but the premise was that it had to be delicious food. Eating all sorts of random things would only affect his mood. Moreover, judging from its performance in the source material, the growth potential of this ability wasn't very high either. Given his current physique, if he wanted to rely on eating to get stronger, God knows how much he'd have to eat.
Besides, if it was just about gluttony, he might as well analyze the Muscle Monster from the source material.
"Truly disappointing." Xia Shang, like throwing away trash, casually tossed the hungry woman aside.
After the hungry woman awkwardly rolled a few times on the ground, when she looked at Xia Shang again, her eyes were already filled with fear. So she immediately turned her head and fled in the direction of Cha Hyun-soo.
"A useless ability." Xia Shang watched her fleeing back, shook his head, took out a wet wipe from his pocket, and carefully wiped away the blood stained on it.
A few minutes later, the hungry woman changed her target. She stopped at Cha Hyun-soo's doorway.
She raised her hand and pressed the doorbell of Cha Hyun-soo's Room.
At this moment, Cha Hyun-soo was curled up in his blanket, still shaken.
Suddenly! The doorbell rang, making him tremble with fright. He nervously looked towards his Room door.
"Excuse me, is anyone there? Please help me, I'm so scared, please help me."
"Is no one there? Please, help me..." The hungry woman's voice trembled, as if she had really encountered something very terrifying.
Seeing this, Cha Hyun-soo slowly got out of bed and slowly approached the Room door.
Listening to the sound of crying from outside the door, he picked up the landline phone hanging on the wall. Through the screen on the landline phone, he saw the girl who was asking him for help.
"Are you okay?"
At some point, the hungry woman had wiped away the bloodstains on her face. Seeing that there was a response from the other side of the door, she immediately said that as soon as she got Home, she found her Home was a mess, and her cat was also missing.
Hearing her words, the cat head he had just seen immediately flashed in Cha Hyun-soo's mind. To be cautious, he picked up his phone, ready to call for outside help. However, the phone couldn't connect at all. So he wanted to ask the girl to wait for a moment.
But the girl kept asking him for help and wanted Cha Hyun-soo to open the door and stay with her.
"That's some good acting skill." Xia Shang at the other end of the Corridor took everything in.
But he didn't choose to intervene and stop it, because he was also very curious about Cha Hyun-soo's innate ability. Unfortunately, Cha Hyun-soo had just been infected and he couldn't analyze his ability yet. In his opinion, the hungry woman might be able to accelerate Cha Hyun-soo's infection speed.
At this moment, Cha Hyun-soo felt that something was off about the woman outside the door. So he suggested he wanted to see her hand.
"What?"
"Let me see your hand."
After a moment of silence, the hungry woman instantly lost her composure. She roared with a ferocious face: "I told you to open the door! Open the door quickly!"
And at this moment, her eyeballs completely turned black, blood surged from her mouth and nose, looking like a female ghost. She violently pounded on Cha Hyun-soo's Room door, trying to break in.
Seeing such a terrifying scene, Cha Hyun-soo trembled all over, his eyes filled with fear.
At this critical moment, music suddenly came from upstairs. It turned out to be Yoon Ji-su, who lived above him, practicing singing with her guitar. The noisy singing attracted the hungry woman's attention. She tilted her neck and walked towards the direction of the sound.
As she passed by Xia Shang, she deliberately leaned closer to the wall.
"Good acting skill, very realistic." Xia Shang smiled.
The hungry woman stopped, tilted her head and looked at him. He saw a few threads of blood stretch from her lips, which were covered in blood. "Tha... thank you."
After she left, Cha Hyun-soo picked up the dustpan nearby and knocked off the head of the dustpan. Holding the pole, he bravely rushed out. As soon as he got out of the Room door, he met Xia Shang, who was wearing a white coat.
"Excuse me, did you see a strange woman just now?" Cha Hyun-soo asked Xia Shang.
Xia Shang shook his head, indicating that he hadn't seen anything.
"By the way, what are you doing with that pole?" Xia Shang hadn't expected Cha Hyun-soo to be so brave, daring to rush out with just a pole.
Truly commendable courage.
"No time to explain." Cha Hyun-soo was worried that the person living above him might be in danger. So he chased after the hungry woman in the direction she had gone.
(End of Chapter)