Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'

Li Aozi raised his arm, bent his elbow, and saw along the lower radius, a streamlined dark flesh tissue had proliferated, bulging out like a pea pod and pulsating rhythmically with his heartbeat, expelling invisible free Arcane Energy.

"It's this thing that has tormented my lifespan down to less than five years."

Li Aozi had a good mindset.

In fact, Arcane Energy belongs to that which is precious and not beneficial in excess, because everyone's energy is limited, and one cannot invest in various aspects for a long time.

But the biggest problem with mutation is that you can't skip it; once a mutation occurs, you must choose to accept it.

It's as if this is the punishment handed down by deities to those who attempt to dominate their own fate.

"A shorter lifespan is acceptable, as long as I break through the Alpha Stage, I can extend it by a lot. Coupled with potions and supplements, it should be enough to sustain me till I'm 80."

It's not that he was impressed by the effects of the Power Pod but the other two side effects that made Li Aozi dare not gamble.

"Let's do this— I'll turn directly to the Mall later to have a look. I remember there being a 'Gene Reparation Device' with the effect of repairing mutations."

NPCs are helpless in these matters and can only pinch their noses and accept it, the time interval was too long, Li Aozi forgot whether the 'Gene Reparation Device' existed or not, but in his recollection, this thing was priced at about 1988 in the player's Mall.

Though still expensive, it was acceptable.

"I should be able to break through to the Alpha Stage in the short term, lifespan isn't a big issue—no, maybe it's an opportunity."

He remembered a special NPC, an old man who sought out those with not long to live, issuing them tasks, training them to become Magical Girls... apprentices.

That old man seemed to be around in a few of the Outer World gathering places.

"That old man sells rare accessories and equipment, my Attributes are low, and accessory-type equipment has no wearing requirements, just suitable for me."

Li Aozi made up his mind, and as an experienced Meteor Fall Master Ace Bro, there was always a way out.

"Peril is also an opportunity. Lifespan, this stuff, later on I could easily farm a few thousand years, but the Power Pod..."

This mutation direction seemed to belong to a school, and if cultivated well, Li Aozi remembered a player creating the miracle of one Mutant fighting three of the same level.

"It's called Blood Demon Style... I need to think this over."

Li Aozi steadied his breathing, turned his head, and looked towards a chaotic corridor.

"Yo, little beauty, have you taken a break over here?"

Nomi, carrying a wrench, sat atop a small mountain of four or five stacked corpses, her face, bound in blood-soaked bandages, looked revolting with dried brownish bloodstains, and on her entire face, all one could see was her red and black swelled eye.

"Here, Nomi has already knocked all these guys down, it's just a pity that some despicable curs ran too fast, I really couldn't catch up, eh he he he he..."

Her condition seemed a bit off, her pupils dilating rapidly, she stared fixedly at Li Aozi.

"Little beauty, what are you still doing standing there foolishly?"

She swung her legs, her petite body emanating a terrifyingly eerie aura.

"Li Aozi."

Nomi opened her mouth and revealed even sharper, more elongated shark-like teeth; her skin also started to have a horny sheen, with red pupils on a black background gazing at Li Aozi as she slowly got up, murmuring:

"How come I feel that you're becoming more and more of an eyesore."

"This is also an allergic reaction… troublesome."

Li Aozi sighed and said,

"My luck today is really not that great; why do low-probability events keep occurring one after another."

He stepped forward, ready to deal with her, when Nomi suddenly stiffened, blinked, and her light purple eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Huh? What's this taste in my mouth... Damn it!"

She looked down at her bloodied hands and immediately retched:

"Herc—Ptoo, ptoo! Damn it, Li Aozi, why the hell did you feed me this stuff?!"

Li Aozi didn't refute her with "you ate it yourself"; he watched Nomi until she felt a chill on her scalp, and was about to yell at him before he slowly said:

"Not bad, there's some potential, but not much."

"If you don't know how to talk, don't talk! What do you mean there's potential but not much? Tyles, the instructor, has said that this beautiful girl is the genius of the entire new generation Guerrilla Team."

Nomi indulged herself, patting her flat chest, stretching the ending sound longer than the Nile River.

Li Aozi unceremoniously went up and kicked her over.

"Ouch! Are you nuts? Don't hit me—what are you doing?!"

"Stop hitting me, I haven't even eaten, and you're beating me up!"

"Hey, you can't just hit my face because it's wrapped in bandages—whimper! Help, she's hitting a Magical Girl! Is there no justice—"

Nomi's cries were loud, but actually, Li Aozi didn't really hit her much; most of the blood on her was from others, it just looked quite miserable.

After binding her up securely, Li Aozi directly dragged the pitiable-looking Nomi into the office.

Although for Li Aozi, quite a bit had happened just now, in reality, it had only been two minutes. As he entered the professor's office, the first thing he saw was Assistant Doctor Anna with her back to him.

"Assistant Doctor Anna, are you alright?"

Li Aozi approached, his peripheral vision catching sight of her hanging right hand, which normally would be holding a scalpel or syringe, now holding a PG15 pistol.

This was also a product of the Four Nations... Li Aozi narrowed his eyes.

The Mingji Humanity relationship with the Four Nations, particularly with the Frost Plated Republic, was murky and suspicious.

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In Li Aozi's experience, organizations that had ties to the Four Nations often ended up becoming subsidiary institutions of the Four Nations.

He slowly approached, vigilant at heart yet wearing a faint smile as he explained,

"That's great, you seem to be alright. I just subdued these bandits and scoundrels, along with this infected that ran out from the ZX—101 ward—it sure took a lot of effort."

The power of the state machine and the monopoly on energy sources, those two were enough to make any group lay down their arms and switch allegiance.

His gaze drifted around the office, which, devoid of the chaos of brawling, still emitted an unsettling aura, and Li Aozi suddenly sensed something was not right.

"Assistant Doctor Anna?"

Li Aozi stood two meters behind her, his gaze as sharp and cold as a blade, though his tone was filled with warmth and confusion,

"Assistant Doctor Anna, the professor should be with you, right? Why isn't he visible..."

"The professor?"

Assistant Doctor Anna's shoulders trembled, and Li Aozi heard the sound of droplets falling; he looked down to see crimson beads of blood slowly dripping from Doctor Anna's wrist.

"Blood." Nomi suddenly whispered to Li Aozi, "The smell of a dead person."

Li Aozi's expression didn't change, but his tone was filled with astonishment and surprise,

"What's this... Where's the professor?"

"The professor..."

Assistant Doctor Anna spoke in a daze, with overwhelming shock and confusion, she slowly said,

"The professor is here."

She turned around, her face splattered with fresh red blood.

Her black hair was unusually disheveled, her eyes full of shock and fear, she raised her hand, looked at the firearm and the blood in it, and then raised her head, staring at Li Aozi with a gaze of despair and horror.

"You..."

Her consciousness was beginning to collapse, likely related to the sight of the professor slumped in a chair behind the desk.

Li Aozi and Nomi looked past Assistant Doctor Anna, their eyes settling on the professor's form.

She appeared peaceful, eyes closed, lying quietly in the chair with one hand on her chest and the other in an embracing posture, a blossoming bloodstain on her forehead.

Dead.

"Why?"

Assistant Doctor Anna was distraught, holding her head with pupils constricted to the extreme, her face distorted as she kept repeating,

"Why? Why? Why why why why why?"

She suddenly went berserk, clearing off the desk with a sweep, then held her head, too sorrowful to even cry, and after a brief silence, she suddenly glanced sideways at Li Aozi.

Then, without any apparent reason, Assistant Doctor Anna suddenly drew her gun and aimed it at Li Aozi's head,

"It's all... your fault!"

"Why did you have to come and rescue us? Why did you have to be... one second late? Or one second early?"

"If it weren't for you, the professor might have lived, or I could have died... It's all your fault! It's all your fault!"

Her will completely collapsed, and Li Aozi watched her, unmoved.

"Oh." Li Aozi glanced at the gun's mechanism and said, "Then go ahead, shoot."

Nomi's eyelids twitched, "Damn it? Li Aozi, what's gotten into you again—"

Anna's emotions were utterly out of control; she gazed at Li Aozi, her hands trembling as she faced a patient, deep in internal struggle.

If she fired the gun, she would take another life.

But... the professor.

Without much hesitation, her rational thread snapped.

She abandoned all thought, faced Li Aozi, opened her mouth, and pulled the trigger while nearly screaming,

"Aaaaah!"

Click.

The trigger did not move, and Assistant Doctor Anna was taken aback, promptly noticing a shadow in her field of vision.

Bang!

The next moment, Li Aozi's fist struck her face hard.

Clang—

Anna was flung onto the desk with a punch, curling up in pain, losing her balance and falling to the ground.

"If I were you, I'd check to see if the gun's safety was on, you fool, you idiot!"

Li Aozi said, grabbing her hair in a grip devoid of any emotion, his gray eyes cold as he forced her head up to look at the professor's body,

"Look carefully, this is the gun you fired."

"The person you killed, so don't think about denying it or acting dumb with me!"

"No matter what the reason, this is your sin, you personally killed the professor you adored."

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