Demon Hunter (Web Novel)

- Previous Generations

Dragon City was also trembling in the flames of war. Even though the city had complete fortifications, many ability users, and an almost never-ending supply of weapons and ammunition, to the extent where there were even large amounts of energy and food reserves, it was still a city in the end, moreover a giant city modeled after the olden era. As the thousands to tens of thousands of ability users scattered throughout this land, they were like sand scattered into the water, only able to produce some ripples, the areas that couldn’t be protected still making up the majority. That was why after only a few minutes had passed since the start of the war, all of Dragon City was already immersed in a sea of flames. Stray miniature guided missiles made it through the defensive ring, exploding in the city, every single missile able to easily wipe out several ancient buildings rich with history.

The ground continuously shook, apart from the few strictly guarded areas, there were already no perfectly intact buildings. Persephone’s private hospital belonged to the few lucky winners, even though the surrounding block was already completely in ruins, the hospital only had a corner missing from its roof. There was already a thick layer of mechanical bug remains in the private hospital’s surroundings, burning mechanical bugs still dropping down from the sky from time to time. Many of them brushed its surface as they fell, while there were practically none that directly smashed into it.

The central laboratory was already completely dark. Even though it was located underground, the ground was still shaking intensely, the glassware on the shelves all falling, shattering to pieces on the ground, some of them empty, some of them filled with fluids.

Snow squatted by the table’s corner, looking like a leopard cat. It turned around to look at the shaking shelves. When a glass container shattered on the ground, it immediately straightened its body, looking extremely nervous.

“Ma… ma, the bottle holding that thing broke!” Snow actually used human speech. This was a somewhat tender young girl’s voice, a voice produced through the shaking of the scales on her body’s surface. However, from her tone, it was clearly a bit scared of that bottle.

At the center of the table, Helen was currently completely focused on the snowflake-like data flickering on the light screen. When she heard Snow’s nervous voice, she only slightly raised her head to look towards the shelf, and then she absentmindedly said, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

Snow still stared at the pool of liquid on the ground nervously. It was as if it had its own life, currently wriggling about quickly, devouring everything it touched, regardless of whether it was culture fluid or inorganic things like the glass fragments, to the extent where even metal and synthetic resin ground were within its range of ingestion. Regardless of what it was, it was broken down and digested all the same, and then converted into a portion of the liquid itself. This type of devouring ability was something Snow was extremely familiar with, because she felt as if she was looking at her own newborn self. Her devouring ability wasn’t any bit inferior to this liquid, but she wouldn’t swallow up anything she encountered like this, as if she didn’t have a choice.

Snow was actually quite the picky eater.

Remaining at Helen’s side gave her a strange dependence, as if nothing was too difficult for Helen, Snow just had to do what she was told, and this was why the close to a hundred second class thought centers and single third class thought center hadn’t really been used at all. At this time, Snow was already so familiar with Lafite and Curtis to the point where they would randomly tussle with each other, which was why Lafite and Curtis had already forgotten the feeling of looking at a natural enemy they got when they first saw her. It was just like right now, when she stared at the puddle of liquid on the ground.

This wasn’t a puddle of ordinary liquid, as long as it was given enough nourishment, it would quickly grow, at the same time select the form that would best adapt to its environment, and then evolve intelligence after that. Once it developed intelligence, it wouldn’t be inferior to human sages. In fact, the first time Snow broke free from her instincts, she was still inside of the cultivation container, at that time, she already had an IQ of over 160, and that was with the new era’s standard. Then, Snow’s intelligence grew at flying speed, while the thought centers that were constructed one after another successfully magnified her intelligence. The moment the container shattered, the liquid inside suddenly obtained activity, unknown just what method Helen used previously to restrict such a vicious and terrifying life form with just an ordinary glass container. However, in that instant, the most realistic feeling Snow felt, was that she was looking at her own younger brother.

Only, unlike the pool of liquid on the ground, every step of evolution and growth Snow went through was done under Helen’s plans. At the very least, up until now, Snow’s increase in strength was far greater than that of an ordinary growth and evolution process. Adaptation to the environment wasn’t something that could be done in one step, it was something that required endless trial and error, meanwhile, during this process, even ultra life forms had a large chance of dying. Meanwhile, this puddle on the ground, even though it was lucky enough to develop activity, it lacked Helen’s interest, and thus there wasn’t much consideration to talk about. For some reason, the word illegitimate child suddenly appeared in Snow’s consciousness. Correct, the treatment given to this puddle on the ground, was precisely that belonging to an illegitimate child. However, even if it was an illegitimate child, those who successfully climbed to important positions weren’t all that rare in human history, which was why Snow’s sense of danger didn’t decrease that much, instead surging with a strong battle awareness.

Snow didn’t feel any love or protection towards her younger brothers or sisters, instead quite the contrary, only carrying a type of hostility that wasn’t any inferior to that towards a natural enemy. When she was only a small clump of cells, she already understood well that she had several dozen siblings, and the one who grew the fastest, the best, would be the one who had a chance to survive. Even though the result of the competition left Snow satisfied, the process was definitely not joyous. There was a time when she was locked in the same container as a dozen other siblings. At that time, Snow’s instincts urged her to continuously attack her siblings, moreover devour them to turn them into her own nutrients, as these siblings who also had ultra life form genes were the best nourishing food.

However, the illegitimate child instead entered a predicament, the items it devoured weren’t all that beneficial for itself, the nutrients it absorbed far from enough to replenish its own body’s exhaustion. It sensed this point, and thus entered a berserk state, frantically spreading its body, trying to devour anything it could get its claws on. However, there weren’t many things that could make up for its ferocious growth. Even Snow knew that it urgently wished to grow, but this puddle who only had instincts didn’t know this. In the blink of an eye, the liquid began to turn a white color, starting to quickly dry up, and then turn into fine powder, thus starting to fly upwards along the laboratory’s airflow.

“But… mama, does this not matter either?” Snow continued to stare at her own younger brother, she obviously knew what it was trying to do. When it realized that its survival was endangered, the illegitimate child chose to divide into countless particles, scattering about, reviving once it found a suitable medium. It could spread through air, water, and contact, while its deadliness surpassed any virus or bacterium since the beginning of history. On a microscopic level, it could completely produced a super plague itself.

“It’s fine, not gonna kill that many anyway. Moreover, there aren’t many that can die at this point.” Helen said without even raising her head.

“But…” Snow was still worried. She really liked the human race now as well, moreover often considering herself a human, so she naturally didn’t wish to see this disaster play out.

Helen knew what Snow was thinking, and thus said indifferently, “It won’t grow limitlessly.”

Helen’s tone was indifferent, but Snow suddenly shrunk into a sphere. She knew the intention of Helens’ words. For ultra life forms like her, the most terrifying point was high speed evolution and seemingly limitless lifespan, of course, a large half of their life force would be spent on continuous evolution and mutation. However, when she heard Helen’s words, Snow suddenly felt her body shiver with coldness. In a certain corner within her body she couldn’t see, was there this type of switch as well? If it was turned off, would her own evolution also reach its end?