[So that's how it is. But will Cifera really fall for it?]
[Didn't they say it doesn't matter even if she doesn't? They won't lose much anyway.]
[To be honest, are they really here to capture Cifera? Or are they here to pitch products? First it was Arasaka Heavy Industries' tech, and this time it's Genesis Tech's stuff.]
[Let them pitch then. It doesn't stop us from watching this battle of the gods. This is way more exciting than a movie!]
While the bullet comments were in an uproar, the image on the massive main screen in the laboratory suddenly zoomed in. It was like the pupils of a dying person dilating, reflecting Cifera's exquisite face which bore a playful smile.
She looked down at Li Zheng, her cat ears twitching slightly in the dim light of the vault.
"Then... your superpower... what is it exactly?" The weak yet indignant voice of the clone Li Zheng came through the screen. "At least... let me die understanding..."
The entire livestream audience held their breath. Countless eyes focused on the main screen, and even the bullet comments thinned out for a moment, leaving only sparse messages like [It's starting!] and [Will she say it?].
In the footage, Cifera tilted her head. A playful glint flashed in her pale blue vertical pupils, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled into an extremely wicked smirk.
"Want to know?" Her voice carried a sense of condescending charity. "Fine, my mood today is... well, barely considered okay?" She deliberately drawled, as if weighing something insignificant. "Then I'll show some mercy and tell you."
In the next second, her smile abruptly turned cold with a hint of icy warning. Her gaze seemed to pierce through the screen, staring directly at every non-existent prying eye.
"But—this is for you alone. Everyone in the audience, it's time to exit the stage~"
Snap!
The crisp sound of the finger snap exploded like thunder in the vault and the laboratory simultaneously!
"Signal interrupted!" Lin Ran barked. However, there was no surprise on his face. Instead, he revealed a smile of 'as I thought.' "All known models of monitoring probes, eavesdropping devices, including the vital signs monitor and miniature camera devices on Mr. Li Zheng are all offline!"
Su Xiaowei crossed her arms. Her sharp gaze was locked tightly on the main screen. The screen had not gone dark due to Cifera's snap; it still clearly reflected the figures and voices of Cifera and Li Zheng!
"Impressive shielding methods," Su Xiaowei's voice carried a hint of delight. "She knows the conventional monitoring network we laid out like the back of her hand. Pity..."
She slightly raised her chin, pointing toward the ghostly blue helmet and the life support pod. "She shielded the eyes and ears, but she cannot shield the sensations. Our Information Harvest Plan targeted this Mr. Li Zheng's senses themselves from the very beginning!"
[Holy sh*t! Genius!]
[So the audience meant the cameras! The real audience is still watching the live broadcast!]
[Cifera thinks she cleared the room? Turns out the opponent is livestreaming directly inside your brain!]
[Genesis Tech won big this time! The advertising effect is maxed out!]
Inside the main screen, Cifera was clearly satisfied with the effect of clearing the room.
She no longer paid attention to the failed monitoring points. With the composure of a winner, she leaned down slightly, approaching the Li Zheng on the ground who was breathing like a thread.
In a gesture of almost pity, her fingertip lightly tapped the clone's forehead, which was covered in cold sweat.
"My ability," her red lips parted, and her voice said softly, "is actually very simple. Just two words—"
In the entire laboratory and among all the viewers watching the livestream, hearts seemed to be gripped by these two words.
"Copy."
[Copy?!]
[??????]
[Literally? Copying other people's superpowers?! What kind of cosmic joke is this?!]
[Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Energy conflict, genetic collapse, mental pollution... any one of those would turn a person into a monster!]
[Even novels don't dare to write it like this! This is too bugged!]
On the screen, Li Zheng's pupils constricted violently from extreme horror. A wheezing sound came from his throat; that was the intense mental shock transmitted from the real Li Zheng's consciousness at the other end of the clone's neural link!
Cifera seemed to enjoy the other party's reaction. She straightened up and stretched her body languidly, as if speaking of a trivial matter.
"As long as it's someone I've come into contact with..." She snapped her fingers casually. A small cluster of ghostly blue flames jumped out of thin air, then transformed into a miniature silver electric arc that wrapped around her finger before vanishing with a pop.
"The superpowers he or she possesses will become like this, a part of my power library. I can use whichever one I want, whenever I want. Understand?"
"No... impossible!!" The clone's roar carried intense despair and confusion. "A heaven-defying ability like that... how could your body possibly withstand it?! Rejection at the genetic level... the load on your mental strength... the conflict between these superpowers would be enough to tear you to pieces!!"
"Sigh," Pardofelis looked at the hysterical clone on the ground and let out a helpless sigh. A trace of nearly mocking pity flashed in her pale blue cat eyes. "That's why I said you're stupid. The body can't withstand it?" She spread her hands with a 'do you even need to ask' expression. "Then wouldn't it be fine to just copy a superpower like body strengthening, cell regeneration, or energy coordination? Here, like this for example."
Before her voice had even faded, a layer of pale gold luster instantly covered her skin and then vanished. Immediately following, a surge of exuberant and thick vitality and toughness flashed around her!
[Did she just... display more than one superpower?!]
[Body strengthening? Energy coordination? She... she's really using other people's abilities to solve her own limitations!]
[This logic... is invincible! Copying → solving side effects → continuing to copy → infinite nesting?!]
[Genesis Tech! You guys look at this! Is this scientific?!]
The clone fell into a complete daze. The logic that transcended common sense utterly crushed his understanding of the superpower system.
The screen footage shook violently, showing the synesthete's current intensely turbulent emotions.
"It seems you still don't believe me." The bit of hypocritical pity on Cifera's face vanished, leaving only cold mockery. "Then... use your own power to experience it for yourself."
She slowly raised her right hand, her five slender fingers spreading elegantly. She then clenched them tightly toward the clone on the ground!
Buzz—!!!
The footage on the laboratory's main screen suddenly distorted violently! The field of vision was compressed and deformed, as if the camera were gripped by an invisible giant hand! The screen even simulated irregular black lines torn by the frantic squeezing of space!
"This... this is my spatial collapse?! No—!!!"
The clone let out one last scream mixed with extreme fear and absurdity.
Boom—!!!!
A dull, heart-palpitating roar was transmitted through the synesthete's senses, as if something were compressed to the limit and then instantly released!
The main screen went dark abruptly!
But in the final frame before complete darkness, all the viewers clearly saw:
In the center of the vault, the spot where the clone Li Zheng had been was instantly compressed into a bloody, mangled, flat cube less than half a meter high, with viscous dark red liquid flowing from the edges. Twisted bones and fragments of clothing were forcibly squeezed together, forming a hellish abstract painting.