Chapter 1087 - Made Friends (1/2)

On the interface, a ton of abilities were now gray and frozen. Even the passive attributes given by the Esper Ability were gone. Paradise Disco immediately panicked and tried to leave the cabin.

This time, a cold metal hand pressed onto his chest and held him tightly in place. It was a mechanical soldier stopping him from moving. Paradise Disco was wearing a mask that sealed off all his senses, so all he could see was darkness and nothing else. He had no choice but to give up struggling and anxiously wait for the experiment to end.

Not knowing how long had passed, Paradise Disco suddenly felt that the devices that locked him in place opened up. He instantly stood up and took off his mask. He then looked around nervously, only to realize he was at the same place he was before, and the mechanical soldiers looked like they had never moved at all.

“My Esper Ability is gone. Is yours too?” Another player taking part in the experiment was released too and spoke with shock.

“That’s right. Mine is gone too.”

The two of them quickly exchanged information and realized that they were both in the infinite duration [Ability Frozen] state. They were both in a state of panic.

Paradise Disco hastily asked the mechanical soldier on the side, “What have you done to us?”

Following the answer Han Xiao had set for them to give, the mechanical soldier said monotonously, “It was just an experiment. The army is developing a special device to suppress Esper Genes. It might be widely available in the future.”

I knew it’s an experiment involving secret weapons!

The two of them exchanged and saw the same emotion in each other’s eyes. Paradise Disco quickly asked the question they both cared most about.

“Will our abilities recover?”

“Of course. In the research plan, Immortals are the best experiment targets. According to the logistics department, the Immortals only have to die and revive to refresh their body state and recover their ability. In the future, the Immortals in the army might be equipped with this kind of weapon,” the mechanical soldier replied emotionlessly.

Hearing that their abilities could recover, the two of them immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The two of them had absolutely no doubt about this explanation. After all, the ‘Black Star Army Badge: Evolution’ had already happened, so developing secret weapons sounded just like what the army would do.

In the players’ eyes, this somewhat evil style completely aligned with the Black Star Army!

“This is the army’s secret plan. You have both signed the confidentiality agreement. Remember, do not tell anyone about what happened here,” the mechanical soldier said with a serious expression while returning their communication devices to them.

Paradise Disco took the communication device, looked at the player beside him, and saw suppressed joy in his eyes.

Confidentiality agreement? Hehe, that won’t stop us. You think taking our communication devices away will prevent this from leaking this? Impossible, the army has no power over the forums.

As if the army will find out if we make a post about it.

The two of them were secretly excited and were already thinking about how they were going to share this secret on the forums. This was not because they wanted to get in the way of the army’s interests but because their impulse to leak spoilers just could not be stopped.

Didn’t you hear the mechanical soldier? He said that this kind of weapon might be widely available to the army in the future. Won’t it be another type of suicidal attack like the explosion backpack and the army badge? We’ve come to know about it much earlier than the others. What reason do we have to not show it off?

Of course, the two of them had no idea that this was just an excuse Han Xiao had made up. He did not want to expose Evans’ existence, so he made up a reason not to let the outside world have any suspicion.

He purposely let the mechanical soldiers tell the two of them because he wanted to use them to spread misleading information, making the players think that this was a research and development project of some kind of secret weapon. This way, when the players took part in it in the future, he would not have to find another excuse again.

After the mission completion notification popped up on their interfaces, the two of them took their things and were too lazy to go back the way they came from, so they asked the mechanical soldier to help to send them to the afterlife.

With a flash of white light, the two of them revived in the populated base hall and checked their status immediately.

“My ability really came back.”

Paradise Disco was now finally relieved. He instantly opened up the forums and wrote down what he had just experienced. He added the title ‘Shocking! The army’s secret weapon turns out to be…’ and posted it.

As proven by facts, there was a reason this type of intriguing title had always been popular. This post attracted the attention of some players very quickly, and people started to comment on it.

“Is this true? Why have I never seen this mission before?”

“Suppress Esper Genes? I seem to recall that Black Star once had a house of happiness that was used specifically to produce Genetic Medicines out of galactic pirates. Is it now improved?”

“If we have this kind of weapon, won’t beating the other factions’ Esper players be a piece of cake?”

“Come on, have some ambition and imagination. This kind of treasure might be able to allow us to even defeat NPCs, making those strong NPCs powerless and unable to resist whatever’s done to them.”

“Stop it. I’m already starting to imagine the adult parodies in my head…”

“Come to think of it, the secret weapons the army has been inventing seem to be becoming more and more evil. The aberration one was already bad enough, but now they’re even inventing this… Are we the baddies?”

“The Deputy Army Commander is an Esper. Could it be that the Army Commander could not conquer her, so he’s planning to invent this kind of equipment and use force?”

“Black Star-Hila shippers are furious!”

“We live and die with Hila!”

…

While the players were pondering and making wild guesses, a secret door of a secret training room deep in the base opened. A man wearing a black hood walked out. He took off the hood, revealing his face. It was indeed Evans.

This training room had a secret path that led directly to the earlier lab. He followed what Han Xiao told him, sneakily went over, and absorbed the Esper Abilities of the two immobilized players. Before that, he had confirmed with Han Xiao again and again that the Immortals would only lose their abilities temporarily.

“So, this is the feeling of superhuman power…”

Evans raised his right arm and clenched his fist. A small stream of energy flowed out from his cells into the muscle and bones of his arm.

Boom!

The next moment, his arm bloated visibly like air was pumped in. His bones became tougher too, and his raw strength increased a large amount.

In his hands, this Esper Ability only had Grade E power. With his pitiful amount of energy, he could not even afford to pump up his entire body. He swung his arm a few times and made sounds of the sound barrier breaking. Just this one arm’s strength was close to double his original strength.

Esper Abilities all had potential grades, and usually, this grade signified the highest Grade the Esper could achieve. Although the players were not restricted by this rule, the potential grade still represented the growth speed and rarity of their Esper Abilities. The rarer, the stronger. Some players even continuously opened up new accounts and topped up real money just to get a rare Esper Ability.

Physique enhancement was a large branch in the Esper Abilities. Even Esper Abilities with the same prefix had many variations. Some ordinary physique enhancing abilities might only have Grade D or Grade C potential, but [Physique Enhancement—Bone and Muscle Inflation] had Grade B+ potential, meaning this was a rather high-quality ability among its branch.

This Esper Ability was also a semi-shapeshifting kind. Once activated, even skinny bamboos would instantly turn into muscular men.

The phycological Esper Ability that was absorbed also had grade B potential, which was still quite high.

Among the players, grade A potential was already extremely rare, so although grade B potential was one grade lower, it was plenty good enough.

According to the plan Han Xiao made, giving Evans these two high-quality abilities would not waste his slots. This combination of abilities was beneficial to increasing his basic attributes. As long as his own Grade increased, these two Esper Abilities would keep giving him bonus Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Psychological Resistance.

Evans loved these two abilities and could not stop using them till his energy ran out, but his eyes were still glowing.

He had been ordinary for decades. This was the first time he had enjoyed this feeling of fulfillment brought by this power. The shortcut of robbing abilities from others was extremely tempting, as if every single potential desire in his body was pushing him to take that path. Evans felt a sense of hunger coming from every cell in his body, instinctively thirsting for new abilities, like a hungry man’s insatiable craving for food.

“Hmm, His Excellency Black Star said that the changes in my body will bring changes to my mindset too. This should be the change my Esper Ability has caused in me…”

Evans thought about it. His strong heart developed through hardship made him suppress this sense of hunger brought by his Esper Ability.

He was not someone who had boundless greed. Black Star had changed his life and given him a righteous path to becoming strong. All he was thinking about was studying and training hard so that he could return this favor in the future. All he wanted was not to disappoint the hope Black Star had for him.