Acquired gene expression

The tremors‍​​⁠​​⁠‍‍⁠‍⁠​⁠‍⁠⁠⁠⁠‌‌‍‍‍ in the ground grew stronger.

An Yu leaned against the cracked wall; blood coagulated on his eyelashes, and the world was trembling in a scarlet hue.

“Someone’s trying to steal my prey?” the octopus-man raged, “No way!”

The four thickest tentacles rose into the air, aimed at An Yu, and chopped down at the same time!

If they hit, he would be immediately crushed to pieces!

An Yu’s red eyes burned, as if a force was roaring within his frail body.

Just as he decided to let that something break free, a black shadow passed through the four tentacles, wrapped around his waist, and effortlessly pulled him out!

The cold, tough and thick black tentacles exuded a reassuring leather smell.

They wrapped around An Yu’s waist, squeezing his abdomen and gently rubbing it.

An Yu looked up at his Commander.

For a moment, he thought it was a hallucination before he lost consciousness.

But he couldn’t help being curious and he glanced down at his Commander’s lower body.

There were countless tentacles beneath his well-defined waist and abdomen, and some even couldn’t fit entirely in the room, getting stuck outside the door frame.

They were pure black, devoid of filth or sin, with a hint of some bizarre beauty.

If Jiang Xiao were here, he would definitely kneel down and worship these tentacles.

Qin Zhilu’s gaze swept over An Yu’s red eyes, and a sudden murderous intent enveloped the entire environment. Several black shadows swiftly shot out, immediately cutting off the four tentacles at their roots!

The piercing shriek almost split the small space apart, and those broken limbs smashed against the ceiling, making broken iron pieces fall one after another.

A few black tentacles quickly retracted in time, forming an umbrella over An Yu’s head.

Another tentacle moved him to stay behind him, nudging him into a corner, and then it dropped down and squeezed into his arms.

Like a comforting toy.

The ground was covered with bubbling octopus blood foam. An Yu didn’t dare to look directly at it, repeatedly telling himself in his heart: Never make the Commander angry.

He suddenly thought of his red eyes, which showed his loss of control. So he quickly lowered his head and subconsciously touched his left ear with the cold and tough tentacle in his arms.

As the tentacle brushed the old scar behind his ear, the roaring entity within him suddenly quieted — and although An Yu felt that that presence hadn’t left, it seemed to have been temporarily soothed.

He hugged the tentacles tighter, like a life-saving straw, and buried his head deeply in it.

The recently somewhat sociable Supervisee seemed to have retreated into himself.

Qin Zhilu’s eyes darkened further as he looked at the collapsed octopus-man, “Which other one?”

Which other tentacle hit him?

The octopus-man convulsed in pain. Its strongest tentacles had been severed, and the remaining ones laid limp on the ground, their human faces trembling in fear.

It muttered, “How many have you eaten? Why are your tentacles so empty, yet you’re so much stronger than me… we clearly have the same genes…”

Its voice abruptly stopped. It looked up in despair at Qin Zhilu, “Did Mother give me incomplete genes?”

Qin Zhilu said, “Ask her yourself.”

The pitch-black tentacles surged up, severing the remaining limbs one by one!

The screams that came one after another terrified An Yu so much that he hugged the tentacles tighter.

It seemed that, whether by illusion or not, the tighter he held on, the more ferociously Qin Zhilu killed.

After a while, only half a human body remained lying in a pool of blood, surrounded by shrinking octopus legs rolling on the ground.

“Mother…” It was still confused in its dying moments, “Am I not the best child? Why must we always kill each other in competition? Why do you always keep something from me…”

An Yu listened to these ramblings and suddenly thought of 0313.

Ling Qiu once lamented that 0313’s parents chose their children based on their genes like selecting goods, and the unchosen 0313 must have felt very wronged.

But An Yu really couldn’t understand why anyone would pin their life on someone else’s choice, even if that someone was their parents.

He looked up at Qin Zhilu, who was standing high above the tentacles, and finally couldn’t help but ask, “Sir, what exactly are you?”

The killing intent dissipated.

Qin Zhilu turned around, “Acquired gene expression. I can acquire the genes of any organism and selectively express their characteristics.”

An Yu thought to himself: You really are a monster.

“The law that the genetic entropy of purebred organisms doesn’t exceed 10 doesn’t apply to me.” Qin Zhilu continued, “I am human, but due to my high genetic entropy, it tends to infinity. I can not only freely express genes but also never get infected.”

He and An Yu were on the two extremes of entropy, yet coincidentally, they both became paradoxes.

Qin Zhilu started to retract the cumbersome octopus genes. As the tentacles continued to shrink, his body descended from the height, and when he was about the same height as before, the tentacle that An Yu was holding on slipped from his arms.

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This small movement tugged Qin Zhilu and caused him osme, but after a brief pause, he halted the gene retraction process.

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An Yu muttered, “That giant jellyfish was really you.”

Qin Zhilu said matter-of-factly, “That night, the over-repair of the super-aberrant body left the rainwater full of jellyfish toxins. By the time I regained consciousness, it was too late to save the military personnel. So I tasted some jellyfish genes and became them so that I could fully understand it.”

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“Sir, where are your pants?”

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He received no answer, but from Qin Zhilu’s indifferent expression, he had a vague feeling that it was a negative response.

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“Figure it out yourself.”

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“No,” An Yu instinctively concealed the strange space fluctuations from him. “It didn’t actively infect me. The infection from its surface mucus is limited and I struggled to even teleport.”

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An Yu suddenly understood Billy’s profound respect for nannies.

Qin Zhilu also looked at the numbers jumping on the terminal and pondered, “You’ve never been exposed to octopus genes. You still don’t know what happens when you’re fully infected.”

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Qin Zhilu: “Hmm?”

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“Then forget it,” An Yu turned away, muttering, “Though that guy is a bit disgusting, I’ve never been picky since I was a child…”

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A small piece, with almost no bleeding under his precise control.

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An Yu took it and bit a small piece. It had a cool, slippery, and chewy texture, with a hint of sweetness.

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“Slippery, quite good,” An Yu answered honestly, “but it seems to have no effect.”

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“I’ll find them.” An Yu put away the remaining piece of octopus tentacle, took back his short knife from Qin Zhilu, and said, “Please wait here for a moment, I have a discovery to report.”

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Under the willow trees lay human corpses, all of whom died with their throats slit, and their blood soaked the surrounding soil.

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“Hello.” He raised a hand to greet Lieutenant Rui Jin, who was standing on the tree’s branch.

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An Yu took back the terminal and looked at the number on it.

The genetic entropy indicated that he was human.

“Humans completely turn into mantises after going through the third stage of distortion. After the body dies and dries up, what emerges from its shell returns to human genes.” An Yu muttered to himself, “The flesh returns, but the mantis consciousness has already fully descended into the human body. I see.”

No wonder among all the children of the [Frog Tongue], only the praying mantis had no initial physical form. What they need to complete is not a gene fusion, but a consciousness invasion. Once a mantis person completes the third level of distortion, humankind’s existing methods can no longer distinguish them.

An Yu felt his viewpoint was opened. “Ling Qiu never mentioned that there was such a way of distortion in this world.”

Rui Jin’s face was grim. “How did you suspect me? The identity I disguised as died the first night he entered District 53 and didn’t have time to leave any records.”

He was very cautious. When he first saw the Protectors checking identities, he deliberately reported Rui Jin’s name—based on the host’s memory, Rui Jin had died and was not recorded in the cabin notes, and he was the only person on this mission whose photo could not be found in the offline database.

An Yu honestly said, “Your octopus brother accidentally gave away your secret.”

The octopus people were loose-tongued. The phrase “you are actually a true human” had already made him feel it was quite odd, but when that guy gave a speech, he enthusiastically dropped a second bomb— “Ambitious people freely merge with human bodies, while the cowardly live forever under others’ skins.”

Jellyfish fuse with human bodies, while mantises live under human skin forever.

“You actually survived; were you saved by those Protectors?” A trace of disgust flashed across Rui Jin’s face. “Not bad. As an ordinary human now, it’s indeed difficult for me to kill an octopus.”

What a display of brotherly affection.

An Yu lowered his gaze, looking at the two shadows merged on the ground. He stepped aside to draw a clear line and softly said: “Don’t flatter yourself.”

Although they retained human genes and even inherited a considerable part of human memory, as long as there was a distorted consciousness, human dignity would never be restored.

An Yu despised Rui Jin because he realized Rui Jin had targeted him from the beginning—mantises liked to eat their own kind, and now that he had become “human,” he naturally desired to hunt pure humans. He had always been looking for an opportunity to kill him.

He touched his waist. “You said you disguised your identity? Then tell me, who is the true owner of this body?”

Rui Jin raised his hand and tore off the lieutenant’s epaulet from his protective suit, revealing a colonel’s insignia underneath.

“Chris.”

Colonel Chris, who experimented with himself to complete the third stage of distortion.

An Yu gently closed his eyes.

“Colonel.” He softly whispered to the dark earth. “Thank you for your service.”

When Ryan came out of the building, he heard noises behind a large tree. He circled around the thick trunk and saw bodies everywhere. An Yu knelt on Rui Jin, and the blade sliced through the lieutenant’s throat, blood seeping into the soil.

An Yu’s drooping white hair was splattered with blood, and he panted heavily, muttering, “I’m so stupid, I even talked with you so much about Ling Qiu.”

Ryan was shocked, “What are you doing? Are you crazy!?”

“Almost,” An Yu seemed exhausted, taking a deep breath before slowly getting up from Rui Jin. “I just have something to say to you.”

He stood in front of Ryan, lifting his somewhat groggy head to stare at him. “The thing in the depths is hard to control; it refuses to leave. I can’t suppress it anymore.” His voice was still weak as if pleading, but his eyes no longer showed any hint of weakness.

Instead, they carried a cold, superior arrogance.

Ryan was paralyzed by that gaze, and cold sweat creeped up his stiff spine.

It seemed like an instictive fear.

“I forgive you this time. But—”

The golden pupils slightly contracted. “There won’t be a next time.”

Friendly reminder from Author:

Regarding the problem of Qin Zhilu’s pants every time he transformed-since An Yu was asked to mind his own business, for safety reasons, we’d better leave it alone.

Jjwxc comments

N1: I’ve forgotten the setting. The value of pure genes is no more than 10. Does it mean the initial value of innate superpowers? But don’t those who go on the mission have several thousand GE? Are they infected people who retain human consciousness?

Answer 1: The value not exceeding 10 is the resistance to genetic pollution determined by the genes at birth. The closer to 10, the less likely it is to be polluted. Once the value changes, it means that pollution has begun. If the value exceeds 10, it is no longer human. The thousands and tens of thousands are entropy, which seems to be only possessed by the Protectors. I simply understand it as combat power value?

Answer 2: Yes, it can be understood that a Protector will have two entropy values. One is the entropy value that everyone is born with. The entropy value of pure genes does not exceed 10 and remains constant. On this basis, the higher the entropy value, the higher the ability to resist pollution. Once the entropy value rises, it means that it has been infected and started to distort. The second initial entropy value after the first distortion determines the upper limit of the person’s ability. The higher the entropy value, the greater the potential of the person. Those who stand on the opposite side of humans are Aberrants, and those who retain human consciousness and fight for humans are Protectors.