A rustling sound filled the hallway as the spider monster crawled out upside down from the room, finally letting both of them see its full, fucked-up form.
It had a human face on a spider's body. Six long, thin legs grew from its back, digging into the ceiling. Its bloated abdomen sprouted dozens of messy tentacles of different lengths, looking like a tangled mess of greasy hair. Disgusting as hell.
The monster roared at them, clearly pissed off about its silk getting cut.
"Doctor Ivan, I've got a weapon. I can cover you while you run," Cha Hyun-soo said, gripping the electric pipe with both hands, eyes locked on the monster.
"Too late," Ivan replied, shaking his head.
From the way the thing was positioned, it had zero intention of letting them leave.
"Raaah!" The spider monster shrieked, its mouth splitting wide. A thick strand of white silk shot toward Ivan like a bullet.
Ivan calmly pulled out two scalpels from behind his back and slashed forward. The blades flashed, slicing the silk clean in half. Unfortunately, the stuff was insanely sticky. Even after being cut, chunks of it still clung to his knives.
Cha Hyun-soo wasn't about to stand there doing nothing. He summoned his courage, flipped the switch on the electric pipe, and charged. The weapon crackled with electricity as he thrust it at the monster.
But he was too slow compared to a fully turned monster.
The spider creature whipped out one of its abdominal tentacles and wrapped it around the pipe. The electric shock made it flinch and let go immediately.
Cha Hyun-soo seized the opening and jammed the pipe straight into the monster's soft abdomen.
Sizzle!!
The crackling electricity poured into its body. The spider monster screamed in agony. All six legs suddenly released from the ceiling as it crashed heavily onto the floor, twitching violently before going still.
"Is it dead?" Cha Hyun-soo asked, still breathing hard.
"Not dead. Just knocked out. If you want to kill these things for good, you have to burn them to ashes."
Ivan walked up to the unconscious monster and quietly activated his analysis ability.
"I know where to find some gasoline. Wait here," Cha Hyun-soo said.
What surprised Ivan was that Cha Hyun-soo's first thought after electrocuting the monster wasn't to run away. It was to finish the job.
When Cha Hyun-soo handed him the electric pipe, Ivan asked curiously, "Why didn't you run?"
Cha Hyun-soo looked at him seriously. "I've run away from too many things already. This time I don't want to. Leaving it alive will only get more people killed, and I won't let that happen."
With that, Cha Hyun-soo turned and left. Ivan watched his back disappear down the dim hallway and muttered softly, "His willpower isn't the strongest, but he's got real grit. No wonder he lasts fifteen days and eventually overcomes his desire to become a special infected."
If Ivan remembered correctly, Cha Hyun-soo's desire was to protect others. That's why he wanted to grow wings like an angel and shield the people he cared about.
"Alright, settle down," Ivan said.
The spider monster on the ground had already shaken off the electric shock and tried to rise. Ivan stomped down hard, crushing its head like a ripe watermelon.
Bang!
The skull exploded. The spider monster collapsed again, looking properly dead this time.
A few minutes later, the panel popped up.
[Analysis Complete]
[Innate Skill: Adaptive Regeneration]
[Fusion Condition: Kill a complete Spider Monster]
[After fusion, the player will develop a powerful desire not to die. This desire grows stronger with time. When the player can no longer suppress it, their body will mutate, granting extremely fast regeneration. Additionally, whenever the player takes damage, they will adapt to that damage while healing and develop countermeasures against it.]
[This skill has strong growth potential and is difficult to suppress… However, once the player shatters the Desire Mirror, the desire from this fusion will disappear with no side effects.]
After reading the full description, a rare look of seriousness crossed Ivan's face. Compared to this, the Muscle Monster's desire felt like nothing.
One of his own deepest desires was the fear of death. He had every reason to believe that fusing this ability would cause the spider's desire to merge with his own. If that happened, the Desire Mirror would become terrifyingly powerful.
"Fuck it," Ivan growled. "When the hell did I start hesitating like this? If I don't even have the guts to shatter my own desires, then turning into a monster is exactly what I deserve!"
The seriousness in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by fierce confidence.
If he kept fearing every risk and second-guessing himself, then no matter how strong he became, he'd still be the same ordinary guy who had just crossed over.
"Come on then," Ivan said with a cold smile. "Show me what real, deeper desire looks like."
The fear and worry in his heart shattered completely.
At that moment, the spider monster on the ground grew a brand new head. This one was covered in thick armor and sharp spikes, looking even more vicious than before.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" it roared, opening its massive, fang-filled mouth toward Ivan.
"Five whole minutes and this is all you managed? I'm actually disappointed."
Just as Ivan lifted his foot to crush its head again, he caught sight of Cha Hyun-soo running over with a gasoline can, and Pyeon Sang-wook right behind him gripping a steel pipe.
...
Ivan changed tactics. He raised his arm and brutally shoved the electric pipe straight into the spider monster's throat.
Crackling electricity surged as thick black smoke poured out of its mouth. The disgusting stench of burning flesh quickly filled the hallway.
But the spider monster didn't pass out this time. Instead it let out a piercing shriek, completely enraged by Ivan. Several tentacles shot out in fury, wrapping around Ivan's arms and slamming him hard into the floor.
Clang!
The electric pipe flew out of his hand and landed near Cha Hyun-soo's feet.
"Save him first!" Pyeon Sang-wook shouted, charging forward with his steel pipe. Cha Hyun-soo dropped the gasoline can, picked up the pipe, and followed without hesitation.
The spider monster's hatred was focused almost entirely on Ivan. It wrapped every available tentacle around him and lifted him into the air, trying to rip his limbs off. No matter how hard it pulled, Ivan didn't even flinch.
Pyeon Sang-wook took the opening and smashed his pipe down on one of the monster's legs. Crack! The pipe bent while the spider's leg joint snapped. Dark red blood sprayed out.
The pain drove the monster into a frenzy. It couldn't understand how this prey was so impossibly tough.
Cha Hyun-soo arrived right after and saw Ivan trapped in the tentacles. Without thinking, he jammed the electric pipe into the monster's abdomen. At the same time, a razor-sharp spider leg stabbed straight through his thigh. Blood instantly soaked his pants.
Cha Hyun-soo gritted his teeth through the pain and flipped the switch. But the monster had already adapted to electricity. When another leg shot toward his neck, he had no time to react.
Luckily, Pyeon Sang-wook grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him out of the way just in time.
The combined attacks finally made the spider monster feel threatened. It spat a thick glob of silk at Ivan, trying to tie him down temporarily so it could deal with the other two pests.
Too bad for it.
Rip!
Ivan tore the tentacles apart with his bare hands. Then he dropped like a human wrecking ball, smashing down onto the monster's back and caving it in completely.
Standing in the middle of the mangled flesh, Ivan kicked out without expression. The monster's head, along with its neck bones and blood vessels, flew off and slammed into the wall.
In an instant, the fight flipped.
Cha Hyun-soo, still on the ground after being thrown, tried to get up when the spider monster's severed head smashed into the wall right next to him. Blood ran down the concrete and pooled near his hand.
He stared in complete shock, unable to process what he'd just witnessed.
"Don't get too excited yet. It's not dead."
Ivan walked over to Cha Hyun-soo, reached down, and yanked the spider monster's severed head out of the wall. He tossed it casually onto the pile of mangled flesh.
"Even after all that, it's still alive?" Cha Hyun-soo asked in disbelief.
"These bastards have insane recovery. Best to burn them until there's nothing left," Pyeon Sang-wook said. He picked up the gasoline can, unscrewed the lid, and handed it to Ivan.
"Insane recovery?" Cha Hyun-soo muttered, looking down at his own thigh. The deep hole from the spider leg was already closing up on its own.
"Like this?" he whispered.
Ivan was busy dousing the spider monster's corpse with gasoline. Even as he poured, the chunks of meat on the floor kept twitching and trying to crawl back together. The damn things really were hard to kill.
"Lighter."
Pyeon Sang-wook fished a cheap plastic lighter out of his pocket and passed it over.
Ivan flicked it. A small flame sparked to life. The firelight cast his shadow long and monstrous across the ceiling, like some enormous beast silently staring down at the broken spider remains.
Once the plastic lighter was burning properly, Ivan threw it onto the gasoline-soaked body.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted violently into the air. A scorching wave of heat slammed into them. Ivan didn't move an inch, his eyes calm and steady. The sudden blaze made his shadow stretch massively behind him.
[Adaptive Talent Fusion in progress. Current progress: 2%]
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69