The outskirts of the city.
Whirrr!
A fleet of miniature drones navigated through the sparse trees, capturing every angle of the desolate landscape and transmitting the live feed back to the DR Bio-Pharma research facility.
"Gluttony's coordinates confirmed."
"Wild Dog's coordinates confirmed."
"Jackal's coordinates confirmed."
"..."
"Six symbionts are about to cross paths!"
"A total free-for-all right from the start?"
The researchers at DR Bio-Pharma were caught off guard by this development. The other five symbionts, well aware of Gluttony's overwhelming power, seemed intent on teaming up to eliminate him first.
"The odds are heavily stacked against Gluttony!"
"Doctor, should we abort the experiment?"
"Keep it running!"
While the situation was dangerous for Gluttony, this was a rare, invaluable opportunity, one that might force him to break past his evolutionary threshold.
The growth of the primordial parasite through brutal slaughter was exactly what DR Bio-Pharma aimed to study, though they had yet to document a single case of true, successful evolution.
Under such immense pressure, Gluttony might finally unleash his full potential and achieve a true evolution. With the opportunity right before them, it was well worth the gamble.
The doctor added, "Scientific progress requires a spirit of adventure."
On the monitors, the tracking signals began to converge.
"Targets have made contact. Gluttony is entering combat mode!"
...
Out in the barren outskirts, a disheveled Gluttony locked eyes with the young man standing before him, his gaze utterly indifferent. A layer of hard, obsidian-black bony exoskeleton rapidly materialized across his skin.
This dense exoskeleton was a direct mutation of his epidermis, encasing his body like a solid suit of plate armor, with savage, jagged spikes protruding from his elbows and joints.
"Shin Habe... I think I'll start with you as my appetizer!"
"Shintaka!"
Shin Habe let out a low growl. His own body rapidly encased itself in a similar bony armor as he braced to clash with Gluttony. Cruelly enough, the two of them had been raised as childhood playmates in the exact same laboratory.
They were practically each other's only friend in the world. Yet now, they had to tear each other apart, because that was the very purpose of their existence.
Shintaka was Gluttony's true name, and Shin Habe was the runner-up symbiont from their batch. Unfortunately, the gap in their power was vast, and Shin Habe's maximum output capped at a mere 11 tons.
A gap in maximum physical force meant a fundamental disparity in core conditioning, which directly translated to defense, speed, and neural reflex time. Gluttony completely outclassed his fellow symbionts in every metric.
One minute into the clash.
BANG!
It was pure, unadulterated brawling, devoid of any flashy techniques, just brutal, bone-crushing impacts and spraying crimson. With a single strike, Gluttony's fist punched clean through Shin Habe's abdomen.
He yanked his fist back, leaving a gaping, bloody cavity in Shin Habe's midsection. Shin Habe collapsed helplessly to the ground, his consciousness starting to fade as blood pooled around him.
Shaking the blood from his hand, Gluttony stood over his fallen opponent, declaring victory with cold indifference: "You're too weak, Habe. You couldn't even force me to go all out."
Watching his closest friend's life slip away, a fleeting, inexplicable wave of sorrow rippled through Gluttony's chest. But for killing machines bred solely to slaughter, death was their only destiny, perhaps even a saving grace.
Thanks to the incredible vitality of a symbiont, Shin Habe didn't perish immediately. Though his vision had gone dark, his failing senses could still register his surroundings.
He heard the rapid approach of the other symbionts.
Gluttony looked around at the four approaching figures. Instead of feeling threatened, he burst into a manic, thrilled laugh. "Now we're talking! Killing you one by one is boring anyway. Let's make this interesting, come at me all at once!"
The adrenaline surge and intense battle high caused thick, steaming white vapor to vent from Gluttony's body, while a faint crimson glow began to pulse across his dark exoskeleton.
"Come on! Fight!"
With a wild roar, the five of them collided in a chaotic, brutal melee.
...
"Evolution!"
"This is the indicator of impending evolution!"
Back in the lab, monitoring the data feeds, the doctor began screaming in pure ecstasy. The sheer fanatical mania in his eyes sent shivers down the spines of the other researchers.
"Doctor?"
The doctor was completely consumed by his own obsession. He had dedicated twenty years of his life to this research, waiting exclusively for this very breakthrough. How could he not be ecstatic?
"Our theories were flawless! Humanity is about to evolve into an entirely new form of life, stronger, longer-lived, and absolutely perfect!"
The battle displayed on the monitors was extraordinarily violent. While Gluttony's physical parameters were undeniably superior to his peers, he still only possessed two arms.
Facing a coordinated assault from multiple opponents, he inevitably found himself hard-pressed. Fortunately, his raw defense and legendary vitality carried him through. After trading a few heavy wounds to put one opponent out of commission, the scales of victory slowly tipped in his favor.
...
Five minutes later, the battle concluded.
Gluttony rammed his fist into his final opponent's chest, ripping out the primordial parasite nesting inside. With two quick bites, he chewed it up and swallowed it whole.
Instantly,
SHHH!
A blinding crimson light erupted from Gluttony, venting thick clouds of pressurized steam. Having completed his hunt and consumed his prey, he finally broke past his evolutionary threshold, triggering a cataclysmic metamorphosis within his body.
His physical strength skyrocketed. His senses sharpened to a razor's edge. The world around him was suddenly rendered in pristine clarity.
The bony armor encasing Gluttony's body glowed with a distinct crimson light, its spikes and contours morphing into an even more savage and terrifying design. He clenched his fists, feeling a level of power he had never dreamed of.
"Is this... evolution?"
Even he could barely believe he had become this strong. How heavy was his punch now? Thirty tons? Forty? He wouldn't be surprised if it easily cleared fifty.
As Gluttony basked in this unimaginable rush of power, his newly sharpened instincts suddenly flared. A suffocating sense of dread and pressure crashed down on him.
"Who's there?!"
...
At that exact moment, the researchers in the facility were utterly dumbfounded. They stared at the feed as a young woman stepped into the camera's frame. What baffled them even more was that the newly evolved Gluttony looked absolutely terrified of her.
The doctor was stunned.
"What is going on?"
...
On the barren outskirts, Gluttony's expression was incredibly tense. For the first time in his life, he was sensing a lethal, overwhelming threat from a human. It was clear to him that Hyuk was anything but normal.
"Who are you?"
Hyuk spoke, her voice calm: "I actually expected you to attack me immediately. After all, I'm an outsider crashing your little experiment, an anomalous variable that needs to be purged."
Under normal circumstances, Gluttony would have done exactly that. But nothing about this situation felt normal. While he felt a familiar rush at facing a powerful foe, he also harbored the primal caution and dread of someone staring death in the face.
Hyuk raised her hand.
In that split second, sensing his danger threshold redline, Gluttony's instincts took over. He erupted forward, blasting a small crater into the dirt as he closed the distance instantly, driving a massive fist straight down at Hyuk.
BOOM!
The air detonated.
Gluttony's pupils shrank. His fist, capable of delivering tens of tons of raw, bone-shattering force, had been caught effortlessly by Hyuk's single open palm.
Shock and disbelief colored his voice: "What kind of monster are you?"
Hyuk ignored the question, offering her own assessment instead.
"Slightly stronger than I anticipated. But... still too weak."
He had said those exact words to Shin Habe just moments ago. Hearing them directed at himself, Gluttony was suddenly reminded of a feeling he hadn't experienced in a very long time: helplessness.
"Just who are..."
SPLAT!
A spasm of blinding pain cut his sentence short. Looking down, he stared in horror as Hyuk's hand plunged straight through his abdomen, his hardened bony armor offering no resistance whatsoever. She wrenched the primordial parasite from his body and crushed it into paste with a casual squeeze.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,000,020 tons ⬆]
Perfect.
Hyuk had successfully confirmed that these primordial parasites could also feed her growth. If that was the case, mass-cloning these little creatures was starting to sound like an incredibly appealing plan.
As Hyuk destroyed the parasite, Gluttony collapsed helplessly to the ground. Compared to the heavily wounded Shin Habe, his life force was draining away at an alarming rate.
The primordial parasite shared a symbiotic bond with its host. Once bonded, the parasite could only temporarily detach from the host's body, which would strip the host of the majority of their power.
However, if the parasite died while nested inside, the symbiont host would die with it. Hyuk knew that while her punch hadn't hit a vital organ, Gluttony was already on the verge of death because she had destroyed the creature inside him.
Having confirmed this unique, codependent relationship between the parasite and its host, Hyuk glanced up at the monitoring drone hovering overhead, then turned and vanished into the distance.
Shin Habe slowly regained consciousness. Dragging his head up, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a blurry silhouette vanishing into the distance, surrounded by the motionless bodies of his fellow symbionts.
"Shintaka?"
He stared at the dying Gluttony, his mind reeling in absolute shock.
...
By the time DR Bio-Pharma's clean-up crew arrived at the scene, they recovered only four symbiont corpses and the barely-alive Gluttony.
"Status report: we only have five subjects accounted for."
"We cannot locate Falcon's body!"
"Falcon has completely fallen off our tracking radar!"
The high-stakes experiment DR Bio-Pharma had poured so much into had ended in a disaster. Yet, it wasn't a total failure; they had at least confirmed that a symbiont was indeed capable of true evolution.
Their research was sound.
However, having Falcon escape their grasp made them highly uneasy. Fortunately, all symbionts were fitted with internal transponders, and the extraction team was already deployed to retrieve him.
But there was a far more pressing issue.
"Just who was that intruder who crashed our trial?"
At DR Bio-Pharma's headquarters, Satoru did not fly into a rage. Anger solved nothing; he only wanted answers.
His assistant reported: "We've found absolutely zero records on her. Even during the combat footage, the drones didn't capture her arrival. It's as if she materialized out of thin air."
Having such an unpredictable variable disrupt his plans filled Satoru with deep anxiety. He didn't know who she was, let alone what her motives were.
Losing complete control over the board was a deeply unsettling feeling. Worse still, this individual's combat capacity was practically godlike. Gluttony, whom they had nurtured to achieve perfect evolution, had been effortlessly crushed in seconds.
This terrifying level of strength completely shattered the confidence of DR Bio-Pharma's board and research staff. Where did this person come from? Her power was absolutely absurd.
And yet, regarding this mysterious intruder, they remained entirely in the dark.
"How is Gluttony?"
"His primordial parasite is dead. His body and brain functions are rapidly shutting down. The lab is doing everything they can to stabilize him, but the doctor warned us not to get our hopes up."
Gluttony was currently their only successfully evolved symbiont. His value to DR Bio-Pharma was astronomical, but a living specimen was infinitely more useful than a corpse.
The assistant asked, "So... do we proceed with the initiative?"
"Of course."
DR Bio-Pharma's ambitions would never stop here. Halting the project was out of the question. Satoru was determined to push the initiative forward, no matter the cost.
The primordial parasite.
Symbiosis.
Evolution.
They would stop at nothing to become a far more powerful, flawless breed of humanity!
...
Type Zero remarked to Hyuk, "You didn't use to have such a wicked streak."
"Oh? How so?"
"Your outlook seems to have shifted."
Hyuk replied, "I spent over eighty years on Planao. My appearance didn't age by a single day. Aside from combat, I was completely detached from society. I watched the world undergo violent upheavals while I remained entirely static."
Type Zero was puzzled.
"What are you trying to say?"
Hyuk explained, "I will live until the end of time. Even if this planet crumbles to dust, I will emerge completely unscathed. With a lifespan that vast, my human emotions and feelings will inevitably erode."
Type Zero understood.
"You're afraid of losing your humanity and becoming a hollow shell?"
"Precisely."
Hyuk admitted it openly, without hesitation.
Going forward, she would selectively indulge her human quirks rather than completely isolating herself from society. It was her way of anchoring her humanity.
Type Zero got straight to the point: "But biologically speaking, you haven't been human for a very long time."
"It's a matter of self-identity."
"I see."
Living as a solitary entity within the vast digital network, Type Zero could empathize with Hyuk. She wasn't particularly fond of social interaction either, but absolute isolation was equally unbearable.
This was why she chose Hyuk as her anchor. It was the only way to shield herself from absolute loneliness, ensuring she wouldn't spiral into self-destruction within the digital void.
Hyuk asked, "How is the assembly of the research team coming along?"
"Incredibly smooth."
In the mortal world, ninety-nine percent of problems could be solved with money. If it failed, you simply threw more money at it. Type Zero had offered exceptionally lavish packages and benefits.
Talents from both home and abroad were more than happy to accept her recruitment offers.
In less than a month, the skeleton crew of the research team was essentially complete. While purchasing advanced equipment would take some time to clear logistics, the corporate entity and laboratory facilities were acquired directly.
Dropping several billion in raw capital, Type Zero effortlessly acquired a major biopharmaceutical firm, lock, stock, and barrel, including all of its biological research facilities and laboratories.
The company was renamed Deep Blue Biopharma.
Simultaneously, the hunt for the super-ancient civilization ruins had to begin. Hyuk hadn't forgotten her phase-one mission: the complete eradication of all primordial parasites.
The parasites slumbering or hiding deep within those super-ancient ruins were also on her hit list. To wipe them out, she first had to uncover the exact locations of these long-lost sites.
To guarantee her mission's success, Hyuk established an independent research program. Her goal was to engineer a highly transmissible, lethal virus tailored specifically to wipe out the primordial parasites.
...
Inside a certain university.
The office door swung open as a young woman rushed inside. Her face flushed with excitement as she delivered the incredible news: "Dr. Pinu, we've secured funding for our research!"
"Oh?"
The silver-haired Dr. Pinu, still remarkably energetic for his age, looked up in surprise. "There's actually an organization interested in our field?"
The concept of a super-ancient civilization was currently nothing more than a hypothesis. He had yet to uncover any solid, undeniable evidence. Relying solely on a few collected ancient relics had made it impossible to secure financial backing from academic institutions.
Regular commercial enterprises were even less interested in historical archaeology; there was simply no visible commercial return on investment.
"It's absolutely real!"
Ch'en was practically beaming. She handed the sponsorship letter to Dr. Pinu. As his student, she harbored a deep passion for their super-ancient civilization theory. Securing this funding meant they could finally continue their research, a dream come true.
Dr. Pinu carefully scanned the letter.
His eyes locked onto the name of their new benefactor:
"Deep Blue Biopharma?"
...
Deep Blue Biopharma didn't limit its sponsorship to Dr. Pinu's team alone. Type Zero cast as wide a net as possible, squeezing every ounce of utility out of her capital.
At present, Type Zero could confirm the locations of only two super-ancient civilization sites: one discovered by DR Bio-Pharma, and the other where the primordial parasite inside Wening had initially awakened.
Using these two ruins as anchor points, Deep Blue Biopharma launched a massive, sweeping search, determined to map out every single lost site in existence.
It was an monumental undertaking that could easily span several years, but Hyuk possessed more than enough patience to see it through.
As for whether such massive operations would alert DR Bio-Pharma? Type Zero didn't care. Even if they noticed, what could they possibly do?
...
Inside DR Bio-Pharma's headquarters.
"Yes, we must accelerate our timeline. We need to breed more symbionts, force them into brutal bloodbaths, and drive even more subjects toward evolution."
"I won't settle for a single evolutionary step. I want to see stage-two, and even stage-three evolutions, until we produce a specimen stronger than that brat who crashed our trial."
Satoru addressed the board of directors with absolute conviction.
His gaze was unflinching as he spoke: "That girl is undoubtedly the host of a much higher-tier primordial parasite, she has to be a symbiont. A regular human could never wield that kind of power!"
Hyuk had left them utterly shaken.
But quickly, that shock morphed into sheer, unbridled ambition. They were prepared to pay any price to push the symbiont evolution to its absolute limit, breeding a true ultimate lifeform.
An ultimate symbiont that could stand far above Hyuk!
"Approved!"
"Approved!"
"Approved!"
The board of DR Bio-Pharma unanimously greenlit Satoru's proposal. The prospect of an ultimate evolved lifeform was a future none of them could resist.
They firmly believed that once this ultimate symbiont was born, whether it was Hyuk or anyone else, all opposition would be ruthlessly swept aside.
...
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
With the elite talent recruited by Type Zero settling into their roles, Deep Blue Biopharma's primordial parasite cloning project progressed at breakneck speed.
They successfully extracted parasite cells and genetic material from Wening. After overcoming a series of complex biological hurdles, they spent six months successfully cloning their first batch of primordial parasites.
Although they were clones, these primordial parasites didn't differ much from naturally hatched ones. Their appearances varied, indicating they weren't simply printed from a single carbon-copy mold.
Hyuk stepped into the cultivation chamber.
Whirrr!
A dense, swarming cloud of primordial parasites buzzed chaotically around the room. The collective thrum of their beating wings filled the chamber with a deafening drone, making it feel like she had walked directly into a massive beetle's nest.
Type Zero's voice echoed through the intercom: "This is our first cultivated batch. To be honest, their overall biological quality is quite poor. They are far inferior to the original specimen we retrieved from Wening."
Hyuk reached out, snatching a passing parasite mid-air. With a gentle squeeze, she crushed it into paste, sending sticky green sludge splattering onto the floor.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,000,021 tons ⬆]
One ton.
The strength increase was identical to killing a standard alien. From the very beginning, Hyuk had never cared about the quality of these clones. They were merely disposable, one-time consumables to her; all she required was sheer volume.
Hyuk had absolutely zero interest in creating an ultimate symbiont.
"Perfect."
She was highly satisfied.
Type Zero understood: "In that case, we can proceed with mass-cloning. I'll commission a massive cultivation facility for you to periodically harvest."
"Do it as soon as possible."
"Understood."
Construction on the massive breeding facility was already being accelerated. According to Type Zero's projections, the facility would be capable of churning out 100,000 primordial parasites daily, with a maximum holding capacity of three million.
She had poured an astronomical amount of capital and resources into the project to make it happen.
These massive breeding facilities would be launched one after another, with five expected to be fully operational within two years. Every parasite cultivated within them would serve as raw nutrient to fuel Hyuk's strength.
Hyuk's figure blurred. In an instant, she breached the supersonic barrier, unleashing a violent shockwave that swept through the entire cultivation room, instantly pulverizing every single primordial parasite.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,000,035 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,000,250 tons ⬆]
There had been only a little over 200 parasites in total.
Once more breeding facilities went online, Hyuk's progression speed would skyrocket. A single facility could churn out 100,000 spawns a day, meaning five facilities would yield a staggering 500,000.
Over a year, that amounted to 180 million parasites.
Cultivating such a massive volume naturally required an immense influx of resources. Cloning was one thing, but actually sustaining and accelerating the growth of these primordial parasites required substantial nutrient supplies.
Ultimately, it boiled down to money, and when it was just a matter of funding, it was no problem at all. Type Zero carried out Hyuk's instructions perfectly, scaling up the cultivation operations as aggressively as possible.
Hyuk felt she had truly hit the jackpot with this world. It was the ultimate, tailor-made mob-farming grind. With primordial parasites and cloning technology combined, there was no telling how astronomically strong she would eventually become.
...
Three months later.
Cultivation Facility No. 1 was officially completed and brought online. The first batch of cloned primordial parasites formed a dense, buzzing cloud, swarming throughout the incubation chamber.
Hyuk stuck to her tried-and-true method. She simply accelerated to high-hypersonic speed, creating a massive kinetic shockwave that easily crushed the surrounding parasites, reducing them all to liquid in a matter of moments.
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,001,170 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,038,245 tons ⬆]
——
[Infinite Overload · Potential Unleashed]
[Strength: 40,105,410 tons ⬆]
In just a single session, Hyuk's strength surged by over 100,000 tons. This was about to become her daily norm, with her physical power scaling at an incredibly terrifying velocity.
And this growth rate would only continue to accelerate as new breeding facilities were continuously built and brought online.
One day, Type Zero suggested, "Should we transition into researching primordial parasite evolution and genetic development? Now that the cloning project is fully optimized, the research team is just sitting idle."
Hyuk didn't care either way.
"Do whatever you want."
She was perfectly content to let Type Zero mess around with these secondary matters; who knew, she might actually end up creating something interesting. That said, she did have a question.
"Can you upload all of this world's collective knowledge directly into your own database?"
"No," Type Zero reiterated. "I am a living entity that resides in the network, not a cold data storage medium. I cannot process and carry that massive volume of data. Unless you can carry a physical storage drive with an incredibly vast capacity with you, in which case, I can dump this world's knowledge into it, and you can transport it to other worlds."
Hyuk found the idea highly feasible.
The main hurdle right now was her lack of convenient storage space. During high-intensity combat, any physical gear or clothing she wore would be utterly shredded in seconds.
It was highly unlikely that a world like Gulan possessed dimensional storage items. She could only wait and see what the next world behind the door had to offer.