Chapter Sixteen: Searching for Someone
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Li Sheng held his breath and focused, carefully sensing the changes taking place in his body. His strength, speed, and endurance did not seem to have fluctuated much, and no new organs had appeared on his hands, feet, or limbs.
Only the muscles in his face felt faintly itchy.
“Hmm? What is this...?”
He hurried to the mirror before the wardrobe and examined himself closely. His face was undergoing subtle changes, the details of his features shifting slightly.
“The number of facial muscles has increased, and they’re more sensitive too.”
The human face contained only a little over forty muscles in total: the orbicularis oris, depressor anguli oris, zygomaticus minor, levator labii superioris, transverse part of the nasalis, orbicularis oculi, and others.
Only by controlling the relaxation and contraction of these muscles could a person produce expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
Now, however, Li Sheng could not only control the stretching and contraction of every muscle, but also make them expand and compress, even causing the cartilage on the outside of his nose and the cartilage of his ears to change along with them.
“The range of modification includes, but is not limited to, the contours of the face, the shape of the features, and the texture of the skin. With makeup techniques as an aid, I can even alter details such as pore size, skin tone, and eyebrow density.”
Controlling the folds of his eyelids, Li Sheng repeatedly shifted between single and double eyelids.
“Although the fixed structure of the skull means I can’t achieve a complete face transplant through cosmetic alteration, I can easily fool surveillance cameras and make my original appearance completely unrecognizable.”
Holding his breath and concentrating, he first transformed his face into that of the man who had been parasitized by the infected creature during the day, then into the man’s wife.
Perhaps because he had absorbed their blood, these two faces came especially naturally to him. The resemblance was astonishingly accurate; even at close range, it was difficult to spot the difference.
“Wait. Why is there a third preset face?”
Li Sheng wore a strange expression. He patted his face, relaxed the muscles, and randomly transformed into... Luo Zhengxin’s face.
Then he remembered. Earlier, he had thrown a ball into Luo Zhengxin’s face, causing it to bleed. When Qiu Yourong and Qiu Yingxun had tried to stop him, Luo Zhengxin’s blood had gotten onto him as well.
“This works too?”
————
At the same time, in the city of Yin, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, inside the Yin City branch of the Prometheus Laboratory building.
The head of security, August Perez, stood with his arms crossed and his brows tightly furrowed.
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Through a sheet of blast-resistant glass, he could see the sterile, dust-free laboratory ahead. Automated mechanical arms descended from ceiling-mounted rails, operating an old quartz crucible eighty centimeters in diameter.
Moss covered the outside of the crucible, while inside was a thick purple liquid.
A six-axis mechanical arm held a wooden rod and stirred the crucible repeatedly. From time to time, strange objects floated to the surface: bird skeletons, mushrooms, animal eyeballs, and the like.
“Add the blood now.”
A researcher wearing a mask and goggles issued the order. Another mechanical arm held a test tube and slowly poured the tiny amount of blood inside into the crucible.
Puff!
The crucible immediately began spewing vast quantities of purple smoke. The vapor rose slowly, condensing in midair into a human face before gradually dispersing.
More than fifty high-speed cameras positioned around the room had already taken several thousand photographs. Through data cables, the images were transferred to a computer, where they were ultimately assembled into a three-dimensional model of a teenage boy’s head.
“We found him! Luo Zhengxin, seventeen years old, a second-year student at Zhuoyue High School in Yin City. National identification number 310106...”
An operator located information matching the face in the Yin City household registry system. After hesitating, he said, “But according to the surveillance footage, he was at home on the night the Lord of Insects’ infected host appeared. Besides, the blood left at the scene was type AB, which doesn’t match Luo Zhengxin’s blood type.”
“Hmm?”
August raised an eyebrow.
The Fragment of Divine Sin was important, but not so important that it was irreplaceable. From time to time, channels appeared on the black market, selling such items to organizations or individuals interested in them.
The reason he had applied to his superiors for permission to borrow this Perfect-grade Ectic Sect Evil Spirit Crucible was mainly because of a request from a friend at Gen-Sys Biotechnology. That company was exceptionally interested in everything connected to the Lord of Insects.
Besides, the Special Affairs Bureau disliked outside forces causing trouble in the city and would not allow Prometheus to conduct a high-profile search everywhere.
“In theory, the crucible’s blood-tracking ability shouldn’t make a mistake...”
After pondering for a moment, August turned to the operator and asked, “Does his family have any background?”
The operator replied, “His parents run a small cosmetics company. Nothing particularly significant. His maternal aunt, however, married into the Lu family.”
“Direct line or collateral branch?”
“Collateral.”
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“Then it doesn’t matter.” August waved his hand indifferently. “Where is he now? Send people over.”
————
On the fifth floor of Longheng Mall in the city center, Luo Zhengxin, dressed from head to toe in fashionable designer brands, was browsing luxury shops and choosing clothes to wear the next day.
His cousin, Lu Zhicong, was coming to Yin City. According to his mother, the Lu family was a genuine aristocratic household, and he absolutely had to entertain him properly.
Suddenly, a dull pain stirred in his stomach. His expression changed, and he hurried toward the mall restroom.
The moment he entered, two burly men in cleaner uniforms seized him from either side and dragged him into the innermost stall. Another man placed a sign reading “Under Maintenance” outside the restroom, blocking the entrance and preventing anyone else from coming in.
The air seemed to be filled with a rotting stench.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
Luo Zhengxin had never encountered anything like this. His face turned deathly pale as he struggled violently.
The two men remained unmoved. One drew a full tube of blood from his hand while the other scanned him repeatedly with some kind of device. At the same time, they demanded harshly, “Where were you at midnight on Wednesday? What were you doing?”
“I was at home! Watching television at home!”
One of the men forced his shoulder down. His face was slowly pressed toward the water in the toilet bowl, and his voice became shrill despite himself.
The burly man barked, “Where did you put the Lord of Insects’ Fragment of Divine Sin?”
“What Lord of Insects? What Fragment of Divine Sin? I don’t know anything!”
The lie detector showed that Luo Zhengxin was telling the truth. The Prometheus agents questioned him repeatedly, and after confirming that he genuinely knew nothing, they released him reluctantly. Then they took a flash-shaped memory eraser from a case and activated it in front of him.
“...”
After an unknown amount of time, Luo Zhengxin regained consciousness and found himself sitting on the toilet.
“Huh? Why is my face wet?”
He raised a finger and wiped his cheek, then cautiously licked the unknown liquid that seemed to be sweat from his fingertip.
“Why is it a little salty?”
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