Chapter 46: Angel Project

The "Infinity" quietly pulled out of the Beiwan Station in the night, continuing its advance toward the east. On the road, Kiki asked Lin Xian, "Why are we in such a rush? There are still so many places we haven't searched yet."

"Supplies are never-ending; being too greedy might lead to a huge loss," Lin Xian said calmly.

"That Tang Hai doesn't seem to be dead yet. I'm worried there might be other troubles."

"He's not dead!?" Kiki's brows furrowed. "I thought he was already dead."

"He isn't..."

Lin Xian took a deep breath and recounted what he had seen at the beginning.

"I feel that Tang Hai might possess some kind of ability, and the situation just now might have been a change in that ability."

At this moment, he asked Lou Shasha and Lou Ye, "How much do you two siblings know about abilities?"

Upon hearing this, Lou Ye looked stunned and shook his head quite earnestly.

"I'm not too sure..."

Lou Ye didn't seem to know much about his own ability; he only knew that one day he suddenly became much stronger.

"By the way, Brother, have you forgotten?"

At this moment, Shasha revealed a key piece of information: "Just now, when that Feng Yu Ming turned into a bug to attack you, he said you were still low-level trash, and he also said you didn't even know that abilities could evolve after killing strange entities and ability users..."

Lou Ye scratched his head. "It seems so."

"Really?" Chen Laoshi exclaimed from the side. "Abilities can level up?"

"They should be able to."

Lin Xian took a deep breath. "If there are levels, that Feng Yu Ming shouldn't be at the lowest level. His strength is very high, and he wasn't afraid at all despite knowing there were three ability users among us, which shows he has great confidence."

After he finished speaking, he noticed that Kiki, who was usually the most talkative, was silent. He raised his gaze and saw Kiki squinting and smiling at him, her eyes looking a bit strange.

"If you have something to say, say it!" He knew this little girl knew a lot of things, and just seeing her smile made his teeth ache, so he said immediately.

"If I tell you that I know how abilities level up, and I also know that abilities are divided into many categories, do you want to know?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at Kiki with surprise.

Lin Xian frowned. "Why, listening to you, it seems there are conditions?"

Kiki raised her eyebrows, suddenly leaned close to Lin Xian's ear and whispered something. Lin Xian couldn't help but pinch his trigeminal nerve in a headache, saying helplessly,

"Fine, I promise you."

"Hee hee, keep your word~"

Kiki said, looking very satisfied.

"First of all," she raised a finger, "after the first Polar Night, tens of thousands of cases of humans undergoing mutations were discovered worldwide. This is just a tiny fraction of the post-disaster statistics. After the Apocalypse Day, in order to cope with extreme disasters, the Lianbangzheng Prefecture urgently established a special research bureau for superhumans called the 'Angel Project.' As for the purpose, besides research, I estimate they want to use this power to explore the secrets of the Star Abyss and find a way to save the world..."

"How do you know all this?" Chen Sixuan asked, looking at Kiki in surprise.

Kiki curled her lips and said proudly, "Hacking into the Lianbangzheng Prefecture's internal network isn't difficult. Besides, it's the end of the world; who can control this young lady?"

"Continue."

Lin Xian looked at Kiki with a scrutinizing gaze. This girl was able to board a rescue helicopter after the Polar Night; regardless of whether she was the daughter of the Linglong Group, her identity was definitely extraordinary. However, since she knew useful information, Lin Xian didn't pursue the minor details.

*Cough cough~*

Kiki cleared her throat.

"This 'Angel Project' gathered some of the few remaining top scientists on Apocalypse Day. Through research, they discovered that all survivors who didn't mutate into zombies after the Polar Night had a very similar energy that exerted a repulsive effect externally. They called this energy the 'Soul-Oscillation Value.' Survivors who lived through the Polar Night, even the weakest women and children, had a value of at least 1. For comparison, when observing zombies or some dark strange entities, this value was below 0—a negative number."

"This discovery was initially thought to be some kind of screening mechanism, but because no pattern could be found, it was regarded as the 'vitality energy' of survivors." "Then, the interesting part comes: all ability users, or physically strong adults, had significantly high values in this metric. Especially for ability users, this 'Angel Project' had already organized and summarized a catalog of 34 similar ability classifications after the first Polar Night. They conducted data assessments on these ability users based on functionality and destructiveness, and performed a positive comparison between this value and the Soul-Oscillation Value, finding that it was indeed correct."

"The Soul-Oscillation Value represents vitality or the survival value capable of resisting the invasion of the dark night. The more powerful a person is, the higher this value."

"That's the first point."

Kiki continued, "And the second key point is that abilities are evolutionary. Data even shows that a small number of people already had values exceeding the third or even fourth level when they were first discovered..."

"Third level, fourth level?" Lin Xian asked, frowning. "Did you forget to say something?"

Kiki shrugged. "Oh, I just took a rough look. It's basically a bunch of guys in a lab who took the Soul-Oscillation Value, along with physical strength, external energy output, destructive power, lethality to organisms, etc., and did a bunch of weighted assessments to come up with the grading. I took a simple look: all ordinary people, or ability users, belong to the Soul-Oscillation Value range of 1-100, known as 【Source Seed Level】. For example, the third-level Jin Gang Level basically completely transcends human limits; unless heavy thermal weapons are used, it's very difficult to kill them. The Soul-Oscillation Value is defined between 500-1000."

"The fourth-level Berserk Level is viewed as having a huge threat to an area, requiring a large amount of troops, heavy combat vehicles, and various armored weapons to suppress. The Soul-Oscillation Value is defined within 1000-3000 combat units."

"As for above the Destruction Level, there is no detailed data because they don't have data in this regard for the time being, so it's just an estimate based on exponential growth according to the previous levels..."

Lou Shasha listened with wide eyes and couldn't help asking, "Then, Sister Kiki, how exactly does this ability evolve?"

"As for this... it might be different from what everyone imagines."

Kiki said with a complex expression, "I did see some things in those top-secret documents. It does indicate that ability users who reach the Evolution Level (2) can gain a certain degree of growth in their Soul-Oscillation Value through combat, defeating dark night strange entities, or even other ability users. However, because these were early initial reports, the content isn't much."

!

"After the second level?" Lin Xian's gaze sharpened. "Then what about the first level?"

"Hey!" Kiki looked at Lin Xian with great interest. "You've asked the key point."

She paced with a serious expression. "The strangest thing is that this Superhuman Research Bureau discovered through early partial data that different types of ability mutations are actually very unstable when in the Source Seed Level state. This portion of ability users seems to need to undergo some kind of ritual, event, or change in mindset and emotions in order to evolve. The 'Angel Project' even believes that only from the second level can one truly transform or complete a comprehensive evolution, so they call this the Evolution Level or Breakthrough Level."

"Ritual?" As soon as these words were spoken, everyone reacted in unison. This sounded like it even carried a bit of religious mythology.

"That's right," Kiki continued. "For example, that Feng Yu Ming type, I think it should belong to the No. 16 Limb Mimicry type or No. 21 Monster Proliferation type in the 'Angel Project.' Regardless of which type it is, it's been discovered that as long as it can kill dark night strange entities or ability users, and then perform flesh and blood absorption through its own monster limbs or mutated torso, there is a chance to complete evolution."

"But..." Kiki suddenly turned and looked at Lou Ye. "Like Big Lou here, judging from your description, you should be a No. 3 Body Strengthening type ability, which is a relatively common type among all ability users. But the strange thing is that for this kind of ability to evolve to the second level, multiple uncertain assessment reports appeared in the 'Angel Project.' Using Feng Yu Ming's method is completely ineffective; they are called different evolutionary paths!"

"Really?!" Lou Shasha exclaimed. "That sounds so scary??"

"Who knows." Kiki shrugged. "This kind of statement, whether from biology or physics... well, fine, anyway, these two disciplines no longer exist in this world; everyone should just treat it as theology."

"There's one more point. This research bureau believes that the evolution of abilities has two sides. That is to say, ability users also have the same weaknesses as zombie-infected people. If they don't possess specific conditions, they will be eroded by this power, gradually heading toward an evolutionary error or the outcome of becoming a zombie. In other words, when a person's Soul-Oscillation Value falls below 1, they call this situation... Fall-off!"

"Fall-off?"

"Then what about Tang Hai?" Lin Xian looked at her. "The situation I saw just now, have you seen it in the documents?"

Kiki nodded, her expression serious. "Not only have I seen it, but I can be certain he belongs to No. 32. This model of ability is called the Uncertain Infection type, which is very interesting." Kiki frowned and said, "The documents show that this ability is very difficult to detect in the Source Seed stage because they don't have any physical or mental changes. The only characteristic is..."

"Not easily detected by zombies?" Lin Xian thought of that scene, his face sinking.

"That's right!!"

Kiki nodded. "But this type of ability is precisely the easiest to complete evolution."

Lin Xian frowned. "Is it that as long as one is bitten by a zombie, there's a possibility of leveling up..."

"Yes, and no."

Kiki tilted her head, her gaze slightly heavy as she said,

"According to statistics from partial cases collected inside, evolution is not inevitable or possess some specific result; there is also a possibility... of an evolutionary error!"

Newcomer seeking follow-up reading, recommendations!

(End of chapter)