Chapter 12: Li Shuang

The sunlight grew ever brighter, its golden rays spilling into the forest, bathing the Rust Tide King before her in a pale, gilded hue, so that it resembled a magnificent sculpture clad in resplendent armor. Yet to Li Shuang, the outstretched hand of the creature seemed nothing less than the harbinger of her own demise.

She closed her eyes, allowing a faint smile of liberation to emerge. At last, death had come for her. No more would she be subjected to living sacrifice or torment. To have endured this long without breaking—she thought herself remarkable for it.

So much had happened in such a short span, every event more unexpected than the last. Now, confronted by these two infamous monsters, Li Shuang had surrendered all attempts at reason. Only one thought remained: the sooner she died, the sooner she would be free, spared further fear.

Yet, to her surprise, the anticipated agony did not come. The filaments that brushed her skin seemed almost alive, gliding gently, bringing with them an uncanny, cooling sensation. The pain of her broken wrist was even dulled by this strange feeling.

Was this what it meant, as the legends told, to ascend to heaven? Could such a thing be possible?

Li Shuang’s eyes flew open. The Rust Tide King showed not the slightest intention of attacking her. What were these monsters planning? Would they kill her or not?

She could no longer predict their motives, nor any possible actions. Her mind was thoroughly overwhelmed. At last, her composure shattered, and she shouted in fury: “For heaven’s sake, what do you want from me?”

She no longer cared if her outburst provoked them. Her thoughts were simple—since things had come to this, venting her anger was better than suffering in silence.

Ye Mi’s hand trembled slightly at Li Shuang’s sudden scream, and in the next moment, Li Shuang lost consciousness as the silver entity invaded her.

She had no way of understanding why Li Shuang seemed to lose control, acting frenzied one moment and shouting wildly the next, when she had been so calm in battle. Ye Mi could only wonder.

After all, she had merely broken Li Shuang’s arm, not struck her head—how could this have caused such a mental breakdown?

What Ye Mi did not know was that under extreme terror, human beings could lose control of their actions entirely.

For Li Shuang, Ye Mi was now the very source of fear.

All that the Antlered Butcher and the Rust Tide King did appeared bizarre to Li Shuang, and given their notorious reputations, her mind conjured the worst possibilities after being captured.

But to Ye Mi, everything was perfectly logical. She had spared Li Shuang because she valued her supernatural ability; she had not hurried to parasitize Li Shuang but hung her from the tree, because the silver entity within the Antlered Butcher’s body had not yet matured.

Ye Mi had been orchestrating the Rust Tide King’s arrival with its horde, transporting the Healing Fruit Tree back to the First District, and meanwhile, planning to use the silver entity inside the Rust Tide King to parasitize Li Shuang.

This was a necessity due to the silver entity’s peculiar nature.

Although it appeared unrelated to the Radiant Ruins’ energy, it could only grow within a host where such energy existed.

Previously, after Ye Mi split off the silver entity to parasitize a Ruins monster, her main body was nearly depleted. Only after the Abnormality Bureau injected her with an energy mist did she have another opportunity, producing enough silver entities to parasitize Ian—though not many.

That incident had revealed to Ye Mi how to strengthen the silver entity.

Meanwhile, the silver entity inside the Rust Tide King, who had long dwelled in the Radiant Ruins, had grown immense, suffusing the creature’s entire body, intertwining seamlessly with its original metal.

The Antlered Butcher had only recently been parasitized, so its silver entities were still few. Since it would need to venture further into the Ruins, Ye Mi was reluctant to use them lightly.

Thus, the task of parasitizing Li Shuang fell to the Rust Tide King.

Ye Mi had even considered how best to exploit the silver entity’s properties. In theory, as long as she remained in the Ruins, she could parasitize every creature given enough time.

But that was only in theory. Ye Mi knew all too well that the Radiant Ruins could easily generate enemies specifically to counter her abilities, especially those with psychic powers.

Moreover, controlling the silver entity demanded her own mental energy, so she had abandoned the idea of spreading her influence too thinly.

After all, parasitizing a multitude of creatures was pointless if she lacked the strength to control them. It was like gaming—quality of characters trumped quantity; mass production was for the sweatshops.

She needed to ensure that those she controlled were either powerful or held promise for growth.

Lost in thought, she succeeded in taking over Li Shuang’s body.

Fragments of memory surged into her mind, and Ye Mi quickly grasped the outline of Li Shuang’s life.

Li Shuang was twenty-one, a mere year older than herself, but their paths had been utterly different. Her parents hailed from what was once East Asia, much like Ye Mi’s own. In a sense, they were both natives of the same homeland.

But both her parents perished in gang conflicts. Li Shuang was raised by her mother’s old friend, who happened to be a veteran employee at the OC Power subsidiary. Thanks to this, Li Shuang soon found herself working at OC as well.

However, she could not become a formal employee. Instead, she did odd jobs, the kind no one respectable would touch, or those that regular employees couldn’t handle. This meant she enjoyed a certain freedom, but her life was nonetheless harsh.

She had long since grown accustomed to such a life. Sometimes she went hungry, missing meals, but she felt this was far better than being one of those official employees, who, after having OC’s chip implanted, were little better than the living dead.

The pay was meager, but at least her life wasn’t wholly consumed by the company.

Ye Mi suspected she’d just been insulted, though she had no proof.

She had not been as lucky as Li Shuang. Ye Mi’s parents too had died in an accident, leaving no one to care for her. To survive, she’d even been willing to sell herself outright to OC.

What, after all, was more important than survival?

After disaster struck, Li Shuang awakened her supernatural power and was naturally recommended to the Defense Bureau, where she became a member of Team Eighteen.

Her power was rather unique, something she called Mimetic Replication, currently rated as a D-class ability.

Ability Description: It required biological material from a target—hair, flesh, nails, anything from the body. The copied ability could be used for twenty minutes, at seventy percent of the original’s power, but also carried the same weaknesses as the target.

No wonder she had taken on the form of the Antlered Butcher before—she must have managed to injure it, thereby gaining access to its abilities.

At this thought, Ye Mi’s mind conjured the scene of Li Shuang, even after being kicked aside, still clutching that dagger—its cold blade stained with vivid blood.

It was that very thing that had allowed Li Shuang to stand against Ye Mi once more.

But then, what if she were to copy the ability of a B-class superhuman or monster?