Chapter 60 Painting a Woman

[Medal of the Bright Gentleman: Congratulations to the player. The medal represents your illustrious resume. Players who possess this medal enjoy a higher degree of game recognition because you stand on the side of light.]

[Distorted Mask: Do not let its paper-like appearance fool you. Once worn, anyone who lays eyes upon it—including advanced players—will suffer a dizzying effect. For three minutes, no one will be able to clearly discern the face beneath the mask. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

Xu Huo tossed the medal aside, donned the mask, and stepped in front of the mirror. The previously inconspicuous mask now looked like a slowly revolving black vortex, revealing only a pair of exposed eyes.

"So this is a special prop."

The effectiveness of ordinary props depended on the user's abilities, but this kind of special prop seemed indifferent to its target; its shielding effect applied to everyone equally.

However, the duration of use was short.

Pitting the mask away into his inventory, Xu Huo cut his long hair, washed it, and walked out of the bathroom. Unexpectedly, he saw a woman silently lingering in the living room. Her completely naked body lay diagonally across the sofa, cradling the "Bright Gentleman" medal he had discarded against her chest. A flush rested upon her familiar face, and a satisfied smile graced her lips.

"Yu Qingqing?" Xu Huo frowned. Suddenly seeing her running toward him bare, he lifted his leg and kicked her right back onto the sofa.

The woman fluttered away like a piece of paper, an unnatural tear appearing across her abdomen, but it restored itself in the blink of an eye. She knelt on the sofa, looking at him with aggrieved tears welling up. Where her tears streamed down, strange wrinkles formed on her skin.

"That painting by the Skinner... You're the person inside the painting. How did you get out?"

The woman in the painting above the fireplace in the Skinner's secret room could transform into anyone's appearance. Although she looked human on the outside, she was essentially just a piece of paper. She should have been one of the Skinner's props, and even if the instance collapsed, she shouldn't have appeared outside the game.

The woman pitifully pointed at his pants pocket, indicating that she had hidden inside it and followed him out.

Xu Huo didn't see any numerical values hovering above her head, so he asked, "You're a prop. Can you be stored in the inventory?"

The woman showed a hesitant expression.

Keeping a straight face, Xu Huo tossed a piece of clothing at her. "Then leave."

The woman started crying again. Xu Huo simply stared at her, remaining entirely unmoved even after her face became waterlogged and bloated.

The woman wiped away her tears, and after her facial features smoothed back into place, she coquettishly fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Xu Huo expressionlessly lit a cigarette, pulled over a stool, and sat down.

After awkwardly performing for a while, the woman pitifully picked up a broom and a dust rag to clean the place.

Xu Huo let out a cold snort. The woman then half-knelt on the ground clutching the rag, looking up at him submissively while gesturing with both hands that she was adept at cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes—a master of all household chores.

Only then did the iron-hearted man relent. "Can you move things?"

The woman leaped up and, with a clap of her hands, hoisted the three-seater sofa right into the air.

Xu Huo smiled with satisfaction. He pulled up a random photo of a passerby on his tablet. "Turn into this appearance. Stop wearing this face... Where did you even see this face?"

The woman immediately fished out photos of Yu Qingqing from beneath the coffee table, the cracks of the sofa, the television cabinet, and several other unexpected places.

Xu Huo instructed the woman, "Find every single photo of her in this house and burn them all."

He then held out his hand. "The medal."

The woman twisted her hands together, reluctantly handing the medal back to him while her watery eyes brimmed with yearning.

Unfortunately, Xu Huo couldn't muster any shred of pity for that face. He changed into his running shoes and left the rented apartment.

A prop that resembled a human and possessed a certain degree of cognitive ability—though he didn't know why it was following him, in his view, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He welcomed anything that could help him understand the game.

The apartment he rented was in a relatively remote area, but a large natural park lay just a few miles away. Xu Huo set his timer, planning to jog straight there.

Running those few miles at a steady pace, his breathing hadn't changed much by the time he reached the park. Although he had worked up a sweat, he felt no fatigue whatsoever. His legs, in particular, felt like precision machinery, lacking any of the usual exhaustion and soreness that followed prolonged high-speed running.

Stopping to check his condition, he jogged a few more laps around the park. After several laps, he began to feel a degree of fatigue, but setting aside cardiovascular endurance, he felt he could keep running at that pace.

"Legs that won't tire" didn't mean they literally never fatigued; rather, his endurance had multiplied exponentially. It was much like a piece of equipment where certain components had been upgraded to the newest and best versions; correspondingly, the other parts needed upgrades as well to keep the machinery running better and faster.

To push his legs to their absolute limit now, his body would need to continue evolving.

Consequently, evolutionary agents had once again become an indispensable necessity.

Pulling up his shirt to wipe away the sweat, Xu Huo stripped off his soaked top, walked out of the park, and hailed a taxi.

Returning to his residential complex, he spotted Nie Xuan's car parked downstairs once more.

Heading upstairs, he found his small rented apartment packed with people. Aside from Nie Xuan and several Special Affairs personnel, there was also a middle-aged man with a kindly demeanor.

The middle-aged man stepped forward to shake his hand the moment he saw him. "You must be Xu Huo. I am the leader of the Investigation Team from the First Research Institute of Tingcheng. I've come here specially to thank you for saving nearly forty innocent victims. On behalf of the nation and these dozens of families, I thank you. I've also brought along some of the Institute's latest research achievements, hoping they will be of some help to you."

Xu Huo glanced at the dejected red-haired man nearby and replied indifferently, "It was just luck. I was only trying to save myself; I had already prepared to give up on those dozens of people at the time."

Sima Xiaoer instantly raised his head to look at him.

After tallying the number of survivors, he had realized that the two children he had first sent into the warehouse passage, along with several Jinshi Plaza employees who had forcibly squeezed in, were missing—neither their bodies nor their living traces could be found. It was obvious that his initial judgment had been wrong; that passage could not lead them out. He was the one who had practically killed those two children with his own hands. Had he waited a moment longer, perhaps everyone could have been saved. Xu Huo's words undoubtedly offered him immense psychological comfort.

"Regardless of how it happened, you are indeed the one who saved them, and among the survivors were also staff members from our Institute. We owe you a favor. Due to a misunderstanding earlier over some trivial matters, I've asked Sima Xiaoer to apologize to you." Section Chief Wu chuckled as he pushed the red-haired man forward.

Sima Xiaoer's face turned beet red before he managed to squeeze out an apology. Section Chief Wu offered an explanation on his behalf, claiming that someone had provided false information, which led to the arrest attempt. Now that the matter had passed and the person responsible was dead, they should let bygones be bygones.

"Here are five P1 evolutionary agents, three muscle enhancers, and one antidote." Section Chief Wu produced three aluminum cases.

"An antidote?" Xu Huo's gaze paused.

Section Chief Wu nodded. "Research has discovered that all evolvers harbor a certain toxin within their bodies. If they go without evolutionary agents for too long, the toxin will destroy the evolver from within. While the antidote cannot completely eradicate this toxin, it can delay the onset of its effects."

"Is it useful? Are there any side effects?" Xu Huo asked directly and concisely.

"We've tested it on twenty evolvers. From the onset of symptoms to death, it can prolong life by at least double the time."

Xu Huo thought of Professor Han. "Is it effective against the toxins carried by xenogeneic entities on the preliminary trial train?"