The man pocketed the flame in his palm and looked at the man beside him. "Dispose of the body."
With that, he left without looking back.
He needed rest now, and a lot of drinking water. A burning, stinging sensation relentlessly eroded every cell in his body, a dense, needle-like prickling sensation sweeping through him.
Yet, the man, loyal to the end, remembered that person's warning.
He could only use his abilities nonchalantly in front of everyone. As for all the side effects of using his abilities, he could not reveal them to anyone.
As soon as he returned to his tent, he couldn't support himself and collapsed onto the ground.
He quickly stripped off all his clothes, but the burnt and festering skin had already oozed pus and blood.
Due to the cold weather, the pus and blood immediately stuck to his clothes, forming a thin crust of dried blood.
The man dared not delay further. Enduring the pain, he ripped off his clothes.
The sudden tearing sensation made him wish he were dead.
But he didn't even dare to let out a cry of pain.
He was one of the few who knew the inside story that this competition was actually a live broadcast.
This broadcast was not just a major economic revitalization effort by the Lighthouse.
It was also to promote that person's latest research achievement.
Human modification!
And he himself was the experimental result of this project!
But only they knew that this kind of experiment and modification was not mature.
However, that person could no longer wait.
He needed a large number of experimental subjects for sample analysis, as well as a large amount of funds and materials to support his continued research.
Therefore, the man and the person behind the scenes collaborated to stage this performance.
He knew that on the Lighthouse right now, countless people were amazed by his fire ability and were eager to try.
Once upon a time, he had joined this experiment with full of anticipation.
Little did he know, that was the beginning of his hell.
Struggling, he grabbed a metal bottle made of aluminum alloy, with no label attached, from the table.
Then he pressed the nozzle, and a stream of white mist instantly overflowed. He sprayed it all over his body.
The burning sensation, as if being roasted in a furnace, gradually subsided.
After regaining some strength, the man took out a jar of ointment and, enduring the intense pain, applied the ointment little by little all over his body.
This was the side effect of using abilities.
Unlike the innate abilities awakened by Xu An and Zhou Haimei.
These artificially created abilities were nothing more than throwing oneself into flames to be roasted all over, and then using the excess flames to burn others.
This was simply a tactic of self-destruction that hurt a thousand and damaged enemies eight hundred.
But the man initially did not know that such abilities had to be achieved at such a cost.
However, by the time he learned the truth, it was already too late.
After regaining his strength, the man put on another set of clothes. He looked at the message from that person in his bracelet, and at the transaction coins that had appeared in his account.
Once, wealth was a source of great happiness. But after returning from his ordeal in hell, he could no longer find joy in looking at these virtual numbers.
He knew that every time he used his abilities, he was burning his own life, but he had no other choice.
There was a knock on the door. It was a sweet-looking girl.
"Come in," the man said as soon as the words left his mouth. The girl outside pushed the door open and walked in.
Upon entering, the girl was not polite at all. She directly sat down on the only cot, her legs crossed high.
The smooth calf muscles and her doll-like face were a stark contrast.
"Yo, you're not dead yet?" she said, her opening words laced with sharp sarcasm.
The man didn't even bother to glance at the woman speaking mockingly.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely die after you."
The woman's expression also turned unfriendly. "Then I'll stab you to death before I die."
"Are you here just to spout this nonsense? You know I don't have the energy to argue with you right now. If you have nothing else, get lost."
The woman looked at the man's tired face. As a "manufactured" ability user like him,
she had experienced all the pain he had to endure. She naturally knew what it felt like.
"Liu Chang, Xia Jin has already made his move outside."
The man called Liu Chang showed no expression. "How's the broadcast going?"
"Pretty good. I heard the outside is completely going crazy. We already have 200,000 experimental volunteers."
Liu Chang smirked with disdain.
"200,000 people? Is Xia Jin crazy? Killing so many people, isn't he afraid of retribution?"
The joking tone on the woman's face instantly vanished, replaced by seriousness.
"Liu Chang, I don't want to live like this anymore, like a display mannequin in a shop window. Whenever Xia Jin needs us, we have to calmly showcase that useless ability in front of others, and then return home to lick our wounds, living like a joke every day."
But Liu Chang was not as sentimental as the woman. He walked a few steps towards her.
With almost no strength, he grabbed her neck. Logically, with such a weak grip, and given the woman's modified body, a slight effort would be enough to flip Liu Chang onto the ground.
But the woman didn't. She even raised her neck, as if offering herself.
"You'd better kill me now."
Seeing her like this, Liu Chang lost all interest.
"Hong Ying, you chose this path yourself. You've always been like this. You say you want it, and no matter what I do, you have to drag me down with you. You say you don't want it, and no matter how I persuade you, you have to escape, forcing me to chase after your steps endlessly."
"But this time it's different. Neither of us has the capital for wilfulness anymore. Our lives are in Xia Jin's hands. I don't want to die, Hong Ying. Even if I have to live like a dog now, I don't want to die. If you still want to be as willful as before, I won't cover for you this time."
Liu Chang said, then weakly released his hand.
Their relationship was difficult to define with simple love.
They were childhood sweethearts from families of similar status.
Perhaps because of the affection they had since childhood, or out of habit.
Liu Chang habitually indulged Hong Ying and habitually placed her in the most important position, protecting her.
In peaceful times, they might have been a perfect love story passed down among young masters of noble families.
But unfortunately, they encountered the apocalypse.