Chapter 117: Artificial Soul 44
The train’s speed gradually increased, the sound of wind in her ears growing louder as the long cars traveled through the remote, dense mountain forest.
There were surveillance equipment along the railway, and Kui Xin had to allocate some of her focus to manipulate these cameras and hide herself well.
Whether it was Kui Xin or the man in black on the opposite side, both stood stable on the roof of the train, seemingly unaffected by the wind and train speed.
Kui Xin slightly bent down, spreading her legs to stabilize her posture.
The passive skill Investigative Eye activated.
With a glance, Kui Xin figured out the specific information about the extraordinary abilities her opponent possessed.
“Self-Regeneration C Rank… Nightmare Manipulation C Rank…” Kui Xin scrutinized the man in black, a look of disdain appearing on her face as she observed his extraordinary abilities.
Nightmare Manipulation allowed the user to split off embodiments for combat. The longer the Nightmare embodiment was maintained and the more numerous it became, the more it consumed the host’s energy. However, the key was that the “Nightmares” needed to be artificially created, and the method of creation was… consumption.
If the person being devoured possessed special extraordinary abilities, there was a chance that those abilities would be retained when they transformed into Nightmares.
The holder of Nightmare Manipulation was akin to a different kind of Remover, proving that extraordinary abilities were indeed fascinating, covering every type imaginable.
Heterogeneous Blooded individuals typically had self-regeneration abilities, and certain exceptionally lucky ones could awaken additional extraordinary abilities after resisting the corrosion of Divine Blood. The man in black could either be a Heterogeneous Blooded individual or a Remover who had seized the abilities of a Heterogeneous Blooded.
C rank was not a low level; Kui Xin speculated that most self-awakened players would still have extraordinary abilities at E or D rank. The probability of becoming extraordinary at awakening was exceptionally low.
Under Kui Xin’s watch, the man in black twisted his body a couple of times, and a blood-soaked monster emerged from his torso.
Its limbs were similar to a human’s but lacked skin, exposing raw muscle and fascia. Its body oozed mucus continuously, making one want to vomit at just one glance.
The arms and legs of the Nightmare embodiment were disproportionately grotesque, with spindly, cone-shaped protrusions for hands. It crouched, legs overlapping, staring at Kui Xin like a predatory frog.
The Nightmare let out a roar, baring its toothy mouth, its long tongue licking its lips.
“Speed type,” Kui Xin made her judgment.
The body structure of this Nightmare embodiment was very light, with powerful legs suggesting exceptional mobility and agility.
While in the Investigation Bureau, Kui Xin learned that Awakened individuals’ physical enhancement type extraordinary abilities had greater advantages at lower levels. This was because such abilities provided tangible boosts to the body, whereas abilities like water or fire manipulation did not perform well initially; low-level mages had little chance against equal-level assassins or berserkers.
The Nightmare embodiment before her resembled a physical enhancement type extraordinary user and posed a certain threat.
But how many Nightmare embodiments did her opponent have in total?
How long could the Nightmare embodiments be maintained? C rank abilities shouldn’t be overly strong.
Kui Xin wanted to avoid getting reported for murder on the forum, so her initial plan was to solve this without personally killing anyone if possible, ideally creating an accident that would deal with the enemy. However, the opponent’s self-regeneration rank was not low, so if Kui Xin didn’t ensure they were truly dead with her own hands, it would be difficult to judge whether the person was really finished off.
She could only wait for the right moment.
After a brief standoff, the man in black lost his patience.
The blood-red Nightmare suddenly kicked off with its legs and leaped at Kui Xin like a frog, its spines targeting her eyes.
The train’s roof was uneven, it wasn’t night, but the sunlight created many small shadows. She effortlessly activated Spatial Teleportation using the shadows to evade this attack and then flashed to the side of the Nightmare, delivering a powerful kick that sent it tumbling off the train.
It let out a piercing shriek, rolling several times along the tracks.
Then it quickly turned around and madly pursued the train, moving so fast that it appeared as a red blur, quickly leaping onto the roof and launching a fierce attack at her.
Kui Xin dodged again, but the spines used for the attack were so poorly retracted that they pierced the roof, embedding themselves into the car.
Kui Xin wore a troubled expression, not because the Nightmare was too difficult to deal with, but because she heard the frantic screams of passengers…
“No way… I can’t become an outlaw, can I?” Kui Xin muttered.
This matter couldn’t escalate!
Seeing the Nightmare about to pull out the spines it had embedded in the car, Kui Xin raised her leg and delivered a knee strike, knocking it away. Its body fell onto the tracks, and while it was running to catch up with the train, Kui Xin rapidly executed several Shadow Transitions, arriving less than a meter in front of the man in black.
The man in black reacted swiftly, tearing open his coat with one hand and drawing a knife from his belt, while another Nightmare head was about to emerge from his bare chest.
Kui Xin’s heart raced; she lunged forward and spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick that sent the knife flying from the man’s hand.
The gleaming blade twirled through the air. Kui Xin extended her right hand as if to grasp it, and to her surprise, the knife, having flown several meters away, returned as if drawn by a magnetic force, piercing directly into the twisted flesh of the man’s chest, causing the half-emerged Nightmare to be pushed back inside.
Kui Xin heard the man’s agonizing scream, yet her expression remained impassive.
Magnetic Sword C Rank!
Using a magnetic field to manipulate metal, some powers had limited attack capabilities, but in the right context, they could render unexpected results.
From the back of her head, Kui Xin sensed the wind. Her body transformed into black mist and dissipated, just as sharp spines swiped past where she had been standing, the blood-red Nightmare’s attack missing her.
The black mist gathered in the shadow behind the man in black, and an unseen hand swiftly pulled the embedded knife from his chest. The blood spurted for a moment before quickly stopping, the wound healing at a terrifying speed.
The bloodied knife curved and flew into Kui Xin’s hand. She grasped the slick blade and deftly stabbed it into the gap between the cervical vertebrae of the man in black with precision rivaling that of a butcher.
His body spasmed and convulsed, then flopped to the ground.
With a pale face, the man breathed out his first words after their battle: “You can’t escape. I’m not alone… God is watching you! You… you can’t escape!”
The Nightmare did not give up its assault; it screamed and charged at Kui Xin, but the train was about to enter a mountain tunnel.
Kui Xin’s body instantaneously transformed into black mist, her vision plunging into darkness as the Nightmare was flung away by the low, confined tunnel opening. The horrifying sound of the impact and the monster’s howls intermingled with the tremendous noise of the train passing through the tunnel, echoing repeatedly in the pitch-black cave.
With the cumbersome Nightmare out of the way, Kui Xin crouched low and crawled along the train roof to the vicinity of the man in black, extending her leg and delivering a ruthless kick that sent him tumbling off the train.
She heard a distorted scream, as the train’s gears compressed the man’s body against the narrow tunnel, rendering him unable to escape with his incapacitated form.
About ten seconds later, light flooded into Kui Xin’s eyes as the train exited the tunnel.
The twisted, haunting screams ceased, and the blood-red Nightmare chasing the train suddenly staggered, collapsing onto the tracks and melting into a pool of blood.
Kui Xin straightened her body, her eyes fixed intently on the tunnel entrance, waiting several seconds without seeing anything emerge.
She did not receive a kill notification, as she wasn’t the one to personally kill the man in black; instead, he died due to the train and tunnel.
Kui Xin opened her phone to check the forums. As soon as the page refreshed, she saw a new notification at the bottom of the player death list.
“Proxy 9986, deceased on August 12.”
Returning to the forum homepage and refreshing again, sure enough, a player who constantly monitored the death list had posted, the title reading: “Another Proxy has died; the death time matches the recently posted time, and there’s only one person on the list. It wasn’t player versus player.”
Kui Xin let out a sigh of relief and put her phone back into her pocket.
She didn’t immediately return to the car but walked along the train roof against the fierce wind, confirming that there were no suspicious individuals hiding before messaging He Kangshi.
“Was there any commotion in the car just now?”
He Kangshi seemed terrified, quickly replying: “Oh my god, you scared me to death, big shot! Just now, the people in our car heard several loud crashing sounds. Someone from another car came to tell us there was a hole in their roof, and some said a claw-like thing somehow got inserted. Passengers speculated it might be something like a wild animal from the mountain that fell onto the roof; the screeches were creepy. The attendant reported it to the train driver to stop and check, but the driver notified the station, and they told him not to stop, to keep going. Now the attendant is calming the passengers down, saying it’s not a big deal… Did we get attacked on this train?”
Kui Xin replied: “It’s been dealt with for now. A Heterogeneous Blooded individual attacked the car; he might have accomplices, but it’s uncertain if they are on the train or elsewhere. They should be off the train; the roof has already been checked. Keep an eye on the passengers around you; don’t let any suspicious individual blend in.”
She pondered for a moment, “There’s surveillance inside the car, and unless the one who attacked has a face-changing extraordinary ability, they likely wouldn’t be able to disguise themselves as passengers.”
“That’s good. I’ll keep an eye out,” He Kangshi said.
After a while, he nervously sent another message: “Something’s off; the first thing they should do when the train has issues is to stop and check. The main train station should also know the dangers of forcing the train to continue; why are they still allowing the train to proceed? That doesn’t align with normal procedures.”
Kui Xin also contemplated this critical issue.
Typically, the train would need to stop for inspection, but it hadn’t. Unless… the person giving the order knew that the unusual situation was not due to a problem with the train or the tracks… but because they were being pursued by someone.
Kui Xin raised her arm to shield her eyes from the sunlight, glancing up at the bright blue sky.
In the vastness of space, controlled satellites silently captured a series of photos.
In a technological society, surveillance methods were never limited to mere cameras.
