Eventually, Cha Hyun-soo passed out again. When he woke up, he was already locked inside the isolation room.
However, the electric pipe in his hands had caught Lee Eun-hyuk's attention.
"Who made this?" Lee Eun-hyuk asked Ivan.
"Some uncle upstairs."
"We're going to need his help," Lee Eun-hyuk said, standing in front of the main iron gate. "These wooden boards and chains won't hold if monsters really push. To keep everyone on the first floor safe, we need to reinforce this gate properly."
"But it's getting dark soon."
From his observations, Lee Eun-hyuk knew monsters became far more active after sunset. Sending people out now was a bad call.
"You want me to go?" Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lee Eun-hyuk glanced toward the isolation room and shook his head. "Sending normal people would be too dangerous."
His intention was obvious. He wanted Cha Hyun-soo to handle it. In his eyes, Cha Hyun-soo was the most stable infected person they had. Compared to the others, he was clearly the best choice.
...
Late that night, in a remote corner of the underground parking garage, a fierce fire roared. Through the flames, faint human silhouettes could be seen moving.
The next day, Ivan returned to his room from the underground parking lot. After experimenting with gasoline all night, he now had a much deeper understanding of the Adaptive Regeneration talent.
First, adapting to damage and developing countermeasures took time. Even though he hadn't fully fused it yet, the spider monster's performance showed that even after complete fusion, this weakness couldn't be removed.
Second, ordinary injuries weren't enough to trigger meaningful adaptation. Thanks to Kimiko's regeneration, his wounds usually healed before any counter could form, unless it was something extreme like losing limbs.
Even then, newly grown limbs only received a limited boost, and the process was slow. Ivan roughly calculated that he'd need to lose an arm hundreds or even thousands of times before the effect became truly significant.
Of course, the talent wasn't useless. If one day his regeneration reached a monstrous level — regrowing limbs in seconds or even from a drop of blood — then he might finally achieve his ultimate goal of true immortality and endless evolution.
For now, this talent's greatest value was as a foundation.
A foundation for becoming the ultimate lifeform.
"Good thing last night wasn't a total waste," Ivan muttered, changing into fresh clothes and standing in front of the mirror. Being burned by gasoline for an entire night hadn't granted him full fire immunity, but it had significantly boosted his cells' heat resistance.
Ivan pulled up his panel once again and reviewed all his current talents.
[Adaptive Regeneration Talent Fusion in progress. Current progress: 43%]
[Swordsmanship Talent, Shapeshifting, Transfer, Wave Sensing, Ultimate Control, Carbon Hyper-Enhancement, Enhanced Regeneration (can fuse with Adaptive Regeneration), Laser Eyes (Blue), Gluttony Reinforcement.]
He had a decent number of talents, but to Ivan they still felt far from enough. Compared to Homelander, his shortcomings were painfully obvious — raw physique, strength, flight capability, speed. All of them were glaring weaknesses.
The only areas where he could really stand toe-to-toe were regeneration and defense.
His current defense mostly came from Carbon Hyper-Enhancement, but he seriously doubted it could withstand Homelander's heat vision.
After fixing his clothes, Ivan headed back down to the first-floor lobby. He quickly ate something to fill his stomach.
Then he saw Lee Eun-hyuk walk into the isolation room.
A short while later, he brought Cha Hyun-soo out. From the look on the kid's face, he had agreed to whatever deal Lee Eun-hyuk offered.
Ivan watched Cha Hyun-soo head upstairs with Pyeon Sang-wook but didn't follow. Instead, he turned and stepped into an empty room. His fusion wasn't complete yet, so hunting more monsters right now wouldn't let him use analysis anyway.
Besides, he had a much bigger problem to deal with. He couldn't be bothered with Cha Hyun-soo's fate.
The second the door shut behind him…
The black-eyed Desire Mirror appeared at his back. It reached forward and covered Ivan's eyes with both hands, pulling him straight into the mirror space.
The mirror space looked almost exactly like the real world. The only difference was a subtle distortion. Unless you paid close attention, it was nearly impossible to notice.
"Are you fucking done yet?" Ivan asked coldly, turning to face his Desire Mirror. This version was growing far faster than he had anticipated. It could now drag him in at will — something the previous mirror couldn't do even before Gluttony was fully fused.
This one was clearly smarter and much stronger.
"Kill me," the Desire Mirror said with a grin.
"Gladly." Ivan didn't hesitate. His arm transformed into a razor-sharp blade and sliced the mirror clean in half.
But instead of blood, thick black liquid like crude oil poured from the wound. The two halves twisted and fused back together instantly.
At the same time, a deep gash tore open across Ivan's right shoulder all the way down to his abdomen. Sharp pain flared as fresh blood poured out.
The injury he had inflicted on the mirror had transferred directly onto his own body. How the hell was it doing that?
Fortunately, his regeneration kicked in fast. Just as the wound started closing…
"What about this?" The Desire Mirror raised a fruit knife and drove it straight into its own heart. Squelch! Thick black liquid poured out along the blade, soaking its chest. The mirror smiled, clearly savoring Ivan's reaction.
Ivan instinctively looked down. An identical knife wound had appeared over his own heart.
"Fuck!" As his heart was pierced, all the strength in his body drained away like air rushing out of a punctured tire.
So far, his heart was second only to his brain in importance.
"Not impressed," Ivan growled. He forcefully commanded his cells to patch the hole. The repair would take roughly ten seconds.
"Don't panic. Your desire is 'I don't want to die.' How could you possibly die so easily?" The mirror grinned and twisted the knife deeper into its chest.
A crushing, heart-ripping pain instantly flooded Ivan's entire body. He clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white, eyes bloodshot.
How the hell was this possible? It was just a mirror. Why could it affect him like this?
___
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69