Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 902: Phoenix
Hive City, Upper City, Jungle Hunting Ground.
"Zeluo... Can you tell where the weakness of this guy in front of you is? ...Zeluo? Zeluo?"
Ke Lan called out to the three-no monster girl in her heart, but she did not give any response, as if she was asleep.
The black armor that Ze Luo transformed into was still attached to Ke Lan's body, but when Ke Lan was fighting with Wilson just now, the black armor did not help him resist any attacks. Ke Lan originally thought that it was because Ze Luo's ability was imprisoned, but now it seems that Ze Luo might have encountered more troubles than these...
"You don't have to call it," Neto obviously sensed Ke Lan's thoughts, "A creature made of His blood like this wouldn't dare to act recklessly in His kingdom. This is suppression from the source."
"Oh, I understand." Ke Lan said expressionlessly, then quickly pulled the trigger and shot Wilson in the head.
Wilson's headless body suddenly stiffened, then fell straight back, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
But the next second, the originally stiff corpse twitched violently, and every muscle under the skin was spasming and wriggling, as if something was gathering towards the neck along the blood vessels throughout the body... Soon, a large amount of blood foam began to gush out of the broken neck, and the blood foam began to solidify as soon as it came into contact with the air, turning into tissue similar to muscle and fascia.
"You can't kill him. His ability is to regenerate infinitely. Even if you blast him to pieces, as long as there is one cell left that is not completely destroyed, this cell will continue to divide and differentiate... just like a fertilized egg. However, unlike a fertilized egg, it takes several months and a large amount of nutrients to develop into an embryo, but he only needs a few hours to return to his previous appearance."
"It can multiply indefinitely without the need for nutrients... So, this thing is more powerful than cancer cells? If those crazy people in the research institute knew about this, they would probably treat it as a treasure, right?" Ke Lan couldn't help but complain in his heart.
"Of course, mortals cannot understand His abilities." Neto's voice rang out all around - this thing had been monitoring Ke Lan's thoughts, and a lot of information related to the Ark was also read from Ke Lan's memory.
If there was a certain ability that Ke Lan hated , it would probably be this kind of mind-reading ability.
The previous "Pope" Chiron also had similar abilities, but Chiron gained the ability to read minds at the cost of becoming a corpse - Ke Lan once thought that Chiron ended up in such a "miserable state" because of the failure to merge with the living armor, but in fact, when Ke Lan first saw Chiron, Chiron was already in an irreversible state of decay.
Neito's abilities are very similar to Chiron's... No, it should be that Chiron's abilities are very similar to Neito's. After all, Neito existed much earlier than Chiron.
"Since you can hear the voice in my heart, you should know what I am going to do, right?" Ke Lan took out a incendiary bomb from his backpack, quickly defused it, and then completely dismantled the top part.
This is a special incendiary bomb jointly developed by the weapons and equipment research and development department of the institute and the military-industrial enterprises under the Soma Consortium. It is not filled with conventional napalm, but a concentrated substance extracted from an Alpha plant called "Eternal Burning Mantle". The burning ability of this thing is even more terrifying than the secretions of the lava leech. Only a piece the size of a fingernail is needed to burn a person to ashes, and a whole incendiary bomb thrown out can even burn a thunder beast to death.
"You said that as long as one cell survives, this guy can be resurrected infinitely. If I smear this stuff all over his body and then light it on fire, can he still stand up from a pile of carbonized protein?"
"Yes." Neto said confidently, "You should know that in the old era, in myths all over the earth, there are creatures called 'immortal birds'. In the East, they are called phoenixes, and in the West, they are called phoenixes... They can be reborn from ashes and never die."
"Are you trying to tell me that this guy's real name is not Wilson, but Phoenix?" Ke Lan said, staring at the head that had already grown incompletely - the white skull had been completely formed, tendons and blood vessels had been attached to the bones, and two somewhat cloudy eyeballs were wriggling slightly in the eye sockets. When the external muscles and skin were fully grown, Wilson's head would be able to return to its appearance before being shot by Ke Lan.
"'Phoenix' is a kind of ability. It was named by the people who once lived in this hive city." Neto answered, and it seemed happy to share this information with Ke Lan. "You already know that after the super eclipse, the eroded individuals will change into various forms that are extremely strange in the eyes of humans. At the same time, according to their different mutated forms, they will also gain different abilities... Although there are many samples, people have tried their best to summarize more than a hundred representative mutated forms and abilities. The one you are seeing now is 'Phoenix' - the immortal who is infinitely reborn."
"Is he the Eclipse?" Although Ke Lan had such a guess, he had never been able to be sure until now when Neto told him: Wilson is "Phoenix".
"His degree of erosion has exceeded the critical point, but he has retained his sanity through some means." Neto said, "As the owner of the 'Phoenix' ability, he cannot be killed by conventional means. Any part of his body has the ability to recover infinitely. Therefore, from the outside, he, as a corpse, is no different from a human without mutation."
"Interesting..." Ke Lan did not pour the explosives in the incendiary bomb on Wilson. Instead, he held up his chin and looked at Wilson, lost in thought. "If he is a eroded corpse, but maintains a human appearance and human mind... then isn't he the 'perfect evolution' that the Undead Crew has always dreamed of? Both the Undead Crew and the Alpha Civilization should be eager to obtain the power of God through erosion. However, the biggest disadvantage of erosion is that the over-eroded individual will lose his mind, and his life and soul will be gradually sucked dry by him... But the existence of 'Phoenix' perfectly solves this problem."
Ke Lan continued, "I don't understand why the undead crew would send such a 'perfect evolver' to carry out such a dangerous mission. If I were them, I would definitely do my best to study Wilson's body structure and changes... If it can be replicated, isn't that what they want, the 'perfect evolution of all mankind'?"
"Do you think no one has thought of this?" Neto sneered. "The number of humans who once lived on this planet was far greater than the population on your Ark. There are also many Phoenixes among the eroded individuals... but Phoenixes are not perfect... This is a gift from Him. You don't think a despicable thief can rely on that insignificant gift to Him to defy His will, do you? Phoenix's immortality is only relative. As long as He wants, He can turn the Phoenix into ashes at any time, and it will never be reborn again."
"In other words, this guy has a time bomb hidden in his body that may explode at any time, and no one knows the countdown of this time bomb... Oh, let me put it another way. This is not a time bomb, but a remote-controlled bomb, and the remote control is in the hands of that god. Can you understand it this way?" Ke Lan raised the gun again, aimed at Wilson's head, and blew up his newly formed head again.
Ke Lan still has four bullets left, so he can "kill" Wilson four times. Even if he runs out of bullets, the remaining engineer shovel can smash Wilson's head... Ke Lan can keep Wilson in a state of rebirth, but he can't kill him completely.
"What the remote control said is not entirely correct. He simply doesn't care about such a tiny existence..."
"Then how do we detonate the bomb in this guy's body?" Ke Lan weighed the engineer shovel in his hand, raised it high, and then chopped it down hard, cutting off one of Wilson's arms.
Compared with the corpses that Ke Lan had encountered before, Wilson's physical strength was not that high, about the same as that of an ordinary person. It was probably because he had put all his skill points into rebirth and recovery, and had no extra points for other attributes... No wonder Wilson used modern technology when he ambushed Ke Lan. With his own combat effectiveness, it was difficult for him to pose any threat to Ke Lan.
But an enemy that cannot be killed is still annoying enough.
What's more, Neto and Wilson have become temporary "allies". What Neto needs is not an ally with strong combat power, but a chess piece that can complete some operations that it cannot complete, which can bring endless troubles to Ke Lan.
If you want to deal with Nieto, you have to get rid of Wilson.
But even if Wilson was chopped into pieces, burned into ashes, and buried in a deep pit, he would still be able to crawl out intact in a short time... Unless that damn god suddenly had a whim and took back the ability named "Phoenix"...
"I don't know." Nieto said, "That is the power of the great gods. I can't guess it."
"Even if you knew, you wouldn't tell me." Ke Lan curled her lips and spit on Wilson. "After all, I am your enemy, and he is your ally, even if it is only a temporary ally."
"No, you are not my enemy. We can be friends as long as you are willing to embrace the grace of the great god... We will not only become friends, but we will also become one in the end, indistinguishable from each other... Becoming a part of the great god is the most perfect ending for a biological individual." Neto said.
Its tone was like that of the devout followers of those heretical sects, which made Ke Lan feel disgusted.
"Is it such an honor to be eaten as food? Then what is the difference between you and the livestock in the farm..."
Ke Lan suddenly stopped talking halfway. He seemed to have thought of something and repeated a few words from his previous sentence: "Take it as...nutrients...and eat it?"
"You...what are you going to do?" There was a slight change in Neto's tone. It was obvious that he was spying on Ke Lan's inner thoughts at this moment.
"I can't kill Phoenix, but I can eat Phoenix. If he's capable, he can try to be reborn in my body."
As soon as Ke Lan finished speaking, countless spikes shot out from the living armor on his body, wrapping him up like a sea urchin. These spikes pierced Wilson's body and lifted him into the air.
Wilson's originally plump and strong body quickly shriveled up, and the blood-red living armor became very bright, looking like the painted surface of a luxury sports car.
"This thing... seems to be a great tonic for living armor." Ke Lan said with emotion.
But in just a dozen seconds, the existence of "Wilson" was completely gone from this world, along with his ability to regenerate infinitely... and the power of the living armor increased by hundreds of times... It is no exaggeration to say that now Ke Lan can directly use the living armor to condense a giant like the Blasphemer mecha...
There's even some energy left.
The sporadic "nutrients" that the living armor fed back to Ke Lan allowed Ke Lan to directly break through the limit that no one on the Ark had ever broken through (at least that was the official data), and in one fell swoop climbed to the level of a level thirteen enhanced human.
"Tsk tsk, I didn't expect this to be a tonic pill..." Ke Lan retracted the living armor and looked around.
Not only was Wilson's body completely absorbed, but even the blood and flesh that had just splashed out were not left behind. All the ground within a radius of 100 meters was turned over by the tentacles condensed by the living armor. Even the blood-stained tree bark was stripped off and eaten alive by the living armor.
“No… Impossible!” For the first time, there was a hint of panic in Neto’s voice. “‘Phoenix’ cannot be devoured! For other individuals, even those that have been corroded, it cannot be devoured… It is not a ‘Ten-fold Tonic Pill’ at all, it should be highly poisonous! If you devour the ‘Phoenix’, your erosion level should go through the roof… Why, why haven’t you over-corroded yet?!”
"I don't know either." Ke Lan repeated what Neto had just said to him, "Maybe I'm special? Maybe it's for this reason that the Undead Crew thinks so highly of me? It's a pity that I have my own will. I don't want to be a puppet at their mercy like Wilson."
"No...that's not right...you are not a human at all...you are a corpse! You have been a corpse for a long time!" Neto shouted at the top of his lungs.
