Chapter 41 First Operation Part 3 (1/2)
”Just give it a try.”
Lambert cut Li Ya Lin off as he bent down to unmask the agent. To their alarm, the man did not have a face, or rather, he did not have any facial features.
”What— what is this‽”
Li Yao was horror-struck. They proceeded to unmask the remaining 9 men, and they were all faceless!
Suddenly, a change occurred in the first man that Han Xiao had asked them to unmask. As the mark of a black spider slowly appeared on his face, facial features also began to form, and it soon became clear that it looked exactly like Black Spider's face. Next, the wounds on this person actually began to heal up, and after a while, this 'corpse's' eyelids began to move!
”Blow his brains up!” Han Xiao instructed firmly.
Lambert fired without hesitation.
They proceeded to listen to Han Xiao and repeat the same procedure one by one on whichever faceless man the same signs next appeared on. Li Ya Lin and Li Yao were thoroughly shocked by what was happening, but they suppressed their doubts and carried out Han Xiao's instructions.
Although they had no idea how Han Xiao knew of Black Spider's secret; he, without a doubt, knew his stuff.
When there was only one faceless man left, Han Xiao stopped them.
”Don't kill him. Just cripple him.”
When the mark of the black spider and Black Spider's face formed completely on the faceless man, he opened his eyes in horror and shouted, ”How do you all know my superpowers‽”
The name of his ability was [Parasitic Copy].
It allowed him to create a faceless copy out of himself after a certain period of time. The copy did not possess intelligence and could only operate and follow simple instructions within a fixed radius of himself.
Each copy that Black Spider had was like an extra life, and he could reincarnate indefinitely as long as a copy still existed. In this manner, he was virtually immortal.
While this ability did not have any direct offensive use, what it did was alter Black Spider's very life-form and free him from the restraints of flesh and blood, turning him into a force of consciousness that could reside in any of his copies.
As long as a copy existed, he was invincible!
It was his greatest secret, and one that he would never divulge to anyone.
How could anyone have figured it out‽
Han Xiao laughed at the sight of Black Spider's dumbfounded and horrified face on the feed. If it had been some other mini-boss, he might not have been able to recall their abilities, but Black Spider had been a headache for countless players in the game, so he left a lasting impression.
At present, Black Spider had actually not even mastered his power, making it the perfect time to deal with him. Nonetheless, it was a superpower with extremely high potential. Who knows what someone who had mastered it would be capable of. Not even Han Xiao knew, as Black Spider had died early in the game as well—not this early though, of course.
How did he die?
Black Spider's power might have been tricky to deal with, but there were still ways to deal with it. Since he had transcended flesh to become purely 'soul', one could simply damage his soul directly to cripple his wings. Still, superhumans with soul-damaging abilities were far and few in Galaxy, so most players remained incapable of killing him easily. This was why he was considered one of the 'Hardest Bosses to Kill” in Version 1.0.
And of course, Black Spider considered himself so as well... until he met Hila.
Out of all the classes, Espers were the ones who possessed all sorts of extraordinary abilities. Unlike the other four superhuman classes, Espers only needed to consume gene awakening drugs instead of learning knowledge in order to unlock their abilities. Each character in Galaxy was given one chance to take the gene awakening drug, and if it failed, that character would never be able to switch classes to become an Esper again.
The success rate would depend on the type of gene awakening drug used, and as you might have guessed, this was indeed a pay-to-win feature.
Even the lowest grade gene awakening drugs went for as high as 398 dollars, and the [Ultra-Perfect-Deluxe Gene Awakening Elixir], the awakening drug with the highest success rate, was worth well over 5,000 dollars despite it only having an 18% success rate without guarantees.
It was truly a money spinner for the game's company.
Previously, Han Xiao had also tried his hand at switching to an Esper. Unfortunately, the only result that he arrived at was that Esper players were all filthy rich.
Black Spider quickly calmed down and threatened, ”I have unlimited copies. Even if you destroy this body, you won't be able to kill me! Mark my words! I will definitely hunt you down for the rest of your lives!”
Lambert was about to raise his gun when Han Xiao hurriedly stopped him.
”Follow my instructions...”
As Li Ya Lin listened to Han Xiao, she suddenly began to act high and all-knowing as she replied to Black Spider, ”Unlimited copies? Stop trying to scare people. You can have at most have 50 bodies! Apart from the 10 here, the rest are scattered across the globe!”
Black Spider's eyes grew wide with disbelief. Figuring out the nature of his powers was one thing, but to actually know such secret information? How was that possible‽ Black Spider's mind was racing.
Someone knows everything about my powers!
Who? Who could it be?
Could it be... an Esper who can read minds?
Li Ya Lin continued, ”As long as we don't kill this copy of you, we can lock you up for as long as we want!”
Black Spider's face changed, and he immediately attempted to bite his own tongue off to avoid his impending fate. Unfortunately, Lambert was a step faster, and he managed to restrain him.
Unable to even end his own life, Black Spider could only glare hatefully at Li Ya Lin.
At this point in time, the trio had the same questions in their mind.
Who exactly is Han Xiao?
Why does Division 13 treat his identity with such secrecy?
How does he possess such secretive information?
...
A cleanup crew soon arrived to put a straitjacket over Black Spider and take him back.
At the same time, Han Xiao, who was relaxing in the faraway base, received a mission completion notification.
_____________________
You have completed the E-Class mission, 'Black Spider', earning 5,000 experience.
You have fulfilled the secret condition: ”Take Black Spider in Alive”, earning 40,000 experience or a Soul Stabilizer.