Chapter 1258

NO. 162: First-stage Separation Success

A few minutes later.

On the mountain path leading to the rear hill, Xiao Lu and Mi Yu both watched Aomo running on the ground, wanting to speak but hesitating.

"Um, Lindun-san?"

At the end of that hesitation, Xiao Lu was the first to summon the courage to speak, making the delicate coordinated steps stall.

"If you want to ask why I'm prolonging the state... the Aomo running ahead shifted its round, plump body that had once been doubted to be able to run."

"I can give you a simple answer; this makes it harder to be discovered."

"Huh?"

To be honest, Xiao Lu had more than one doubt in his mind, and speaking up wasn't his most urgent matter.

But whether to speak or not, seeing the guinea pig's serious explanation had a magical charm, like certain meme images that made him reluctant to break it, so he chose to honestly listen at the moment.

Meanwhile, the person/rat whose brain had been operating at high intensity lacked this self-awareness, and continued explaining as usual:

"Do you still remember the 'biological information' I told Suzi about earlier?"

"This appearance is not only hard to spot visually, but also an excellent disguise in biological identification."

"In this state, I only need to consider flaws in spirit and soul."

"But Suzi also said, if your medicine is overdosed it will become dazed like before..." Mi Yu whispered, "... Do you also regard that as a method?"

"Very perceptive, Miss Mi Yu," the guinea pig raised its paw, using its toe as a finger, pointing at her and shaking it.

Immediately afterward he turned back, lifted his paws, leaving the two a large fluffy-ball-like back.

"Normally there's no need to go that far."

"But if needed, I will seek your help in advance."

"Is it my imagination... Aomo-san... Xiao Lu silently greeted Mi Yu as she caught up, lowering his head to look at the guinea pig trotting ahead."

"It seems we're already assuming there's an enemy over at Sai Luo's."

"Not necessarily a friend, but there will definitely be vigilance, and moreover it will be more professional... The demon guinea pig answered while running, merely glancing back habitually, "Xiao Lu, this topic itself should be considered serious, right?"

"Um... sorry." Xiao Lu embarrassed, shifted his gaze away from Aomo.

He really wanted to be a bit more serious, as seriousness would better suit the topic, but seeing the other's gleeful crawling‑like run, no serious tone could stop the subtle gaze from arising.

"Actually, I originally wanted to ask..."

"It's not difficult, nor tiring."

The mouse‑headed fellow answered without even turning his head, as if he had already anticipated this question; in fact, Xiao Lu wasn't the first to ask him that.

"I have had a similar operational experience in a deeply immersive monster game."

The mutant monster King Molate from the Ultraman Diga set, as an enlarged mutant mole rat, is also a burrowing rodent that needs to crawl; the only difference from the current one is that King Molate has well‑developed muscles and its physical performance is not bad.

In contrast, this guinea pig's body...

All we can say is that it has been improving.

The soul that has re‑synchronized with the body will serve as a flag and beacon in each confrontation between the body and the drug's power.

It both drives the body toward its original form and swiftly lets the self return step by step.

At present, the demon guinea pig's physique is clearly expanding with time; according to Suzi's estimate, he will probably return to his original form within an hour, and the final recovery will be like a reverse magical girl transformation—he will be enveloped by a mass of Hei'an, then covered by light, at which point he will have even his clothes 'grown' back, appearing as he did before taking the medicine.

To be honest, it's just been restored.

So‑called magic potions are usually simulations of source energy.

Especially potions for shapeshifting are closer to a distortion and overwrite at the information level than to rewriting the body or genes.

So‑called transformation, including Aomo's own demon‑ization talent, follows the same path.

However, inferior low‑grade products usually only achieve a change in cognition, and they still can't fool machines—just one layer of screen is enough to see through the illusion, far from being comparable to the transformation effects we have now.

From this perspective, you can clearly feel Ailisuzhi's extraordinary achievement.

Even if she hasn't truly crossed the experiential barrier, her record can already fill a cross‑faction achievement, and undoubtedly the most valuable part of that achievement is that she can always keep these effects at the level of side effects.

This means that the main effect she calls 'reorganizing metabolism to achieve curve‑state recovery' is far more stable, obvious, and direct than simply 'turning into a guinea pig'.

She constantly strives to have two vastly different drug effects coexist; each failure instead lets the test subjects sigh with relief from the heart, 'This time there are no side effects!'

It also leads the drug maker to pretend nothing is wrong, just going through the motions of recording, making perfunctory notes, while seeking improvements and opportunities.

Thus, sometime ago, Aomo's view of those side effects changed; he no longer sees them as mere baggage, but as a usable possibility.

Perhaps it's because the drugs Suzi demonstrates before him always come with some kind of side effect.

Also perhaps it's because, back when he wore a helmet and lifted his eye cover, using a photon force ray to tease Qianming left a strong impression on him.

Although Ailisuzhi's result this time ultimately pointed to a guinea pig, exceeding his expectations, the direction of 'shapeshifting animal' is nonetheless a causality he cannot deny.

Even before last week, he had specifically asked Ailisuzhi about her current research results, and then brought up the possibility of animal transformation.

Although he merely opened the conversation to give her ideas, it is clear that Ailisuzhi is not slow.

She is not only interested in this, but a certain Feathered Serpent lady also gave her the final piece of the puzzle.

As a result, the current situation is clearly not the reptile favored by the proposer, but the rodent commonly mentioned by practitioners.

Rodents are rodents, after all...

He is always good at quick thinking; in other words, he's always cleaning up after things, which also means his psychological expectations are always low.

Aomo Lindun always evaluates pros and cons comprehensively; he is clearly not a total pessimist, for a total pessimist would be passive toward everything, eventually losing faith and courage in life, whereas someone who is always cleaning up after things must at least have the optimistic mindset of finding joy in hardship even at rock bottom.

"At least a pet guinea pig is more natural and reasonable than a pet snake..."

"Besides, King Molate has indeed been truly operated on; a completely serpentine form might be as awkward as the newly transformed Feathered Serpent Huo'erhaiya..."

Such statements, while factual, are more like self‑comforting murmurs—they are the trainer's helpless optimism.

"Crises are also opportunities"—many have said similar things, and Aomo has used it to comfort others, but he himself does not really think that way.

He only feels that this saying numbs many people, making them put the cart before the horse.

Opportunities exist at all times, but you never noticed, never grasped them; yet the opportunity within a crisis is so conspicuous, for it is especially precious—if you don't seize it, you will meet a tragic end.

This should have been used to warn oneself not to fall into such a state, not to deliberately place oneself in danger for an opportunity, to take on a huge gamble.

These words are meant for Ailisuzhi to hear, but it's unclear how much she'll actually comprehend.

These words are meant for Sai Luo to hear, but it's equally unclear how much he'll comprehend.

It's not about liking gambling; there are also those who are habitually reckless, and such people hoping to hide things would be better off expecting them to have a considerate assistant.

Of course, it doesn't have to be an assistant; it could also be a perpetrator.

But considering Sai Luo's strength when he's not performing, Aomo leans more toward the former.

So he then crawled among those grass blades, following Sai Luo's light to trace the path, and then in the sudden alarm.

He pulled up the reagent vial hanging from the small claw, took a few drops, and froze on the spot.

"Turns out it's Jie De and Mi Yu, and… a pet mouse?"

"First send those two off, how should we count this mouse?"

"Oh, then bring the ace over."