The loot warehouse on the Airship was massive. According to Qiong Ying's confession, the Academy's exploration teams outside the city submitted their hauls every three days, and it still took a full month to fill this space.
Contrary to expectations, the warehouse lacked any foul odors or gory scenes.
Numerous crates, made of a transparent material resembling acrylic, were packed with the corpses of various frenzy beasts, along with a small assortment of minerals and metals.
The value of a frenzy beast corpse lay almost entirely in its hide, bones, and the bizarre organs harvested from within. The meat itself was the most worthless part.
Even so, detoxified beast meat still fetched a high price back in Paradise City.
Sean paced through the warehouse, scanning the inventory until he finally found what he was looking for in an inconspicuous corner.
It was the pale corpse of a tiger-type frenzy beast, the fur atop its head tinged with red.
"Good thing I designed the model for this, or I'd never have found it..."
However, once he opened the crate, Sean found himself in a tough spot.
In the game, players had to complete a sequence of QTEs to harvest the corpse. Only a perfect string of inputs would yield a perfectly preserved Blood Source.
But this was reality. There were no QTE prompts here...
A long delay would only invite trouble, and hauling it back to the city to hire a professional would take too much time.
Unwilling to drag things out, Sean thought for a moment and called Moza over. "Bring Luo Xi here."
"Got it."
Naturally, Luo Xi and Lu Xin hadn't actually been thrown off the Airship. Sean could afford to openly break ties with the Academy, but the others didn't need to.
Whether Luo Xi and Lu Xin faked their deaths or "miraculously" survived, they would still be able to contact the Academy later. That made them perfect natural spies.
Luo Xi, who had been tucked away in a hidden room, arrived at the warehouse looking confused. "Didn't you say I couldn't show my face to anyone else once the act was over?"
Sean smiled. "The Academy personnel on the Airship have already been subdued. It's enough that they saw you get tossed overboard. Though, of course, you won't be able to stay by my side once we return to the city."
"Oh—you're incredibly devious."
Sean curled his lip. "Thanks for the compliment. By the way, you know how to harvest a corpse, right?"
"Of course. It's a mandatory skill for everyone in the Iris Hive Tribe. Before I left the mountain, I even took first place in our clan's corpse dismantling competition."
"Well then, Miss Champion, do me a favor and harvest this corpse."
Luo Xi stepped up to inspect the beast. After a moment, she frowned. "This isn't an Ordinary frenzy beast."
Sean raised an eyebrow. "You noticed?"
"The cuts are wrong." Luo Xi gestured to the other carcasses. "This entire batch was likely killed by the same person. They're strong—every single beast was put down in a single strike."
"But the wound on this corpse is incredibly jagged, and it only severed half the skull. There was nothing wrong with the killer's strength, which means this beast was astonishingly tough. Yet it's clearly still in its infancy."
Sean clapped his hands in mock applause. "Brilliant as always. By the way, how does that person compare to you?"
"A bit worse."
"Who's worse?"
Luo Xi shot him a displeased glare. "They're a bit worse than me, obviously. You can tell from the cuts that they were using an energy weapon too."
"Is there some kind of telepathy between experts?"
Luo Xi smirked. "Amateurs certainly wouldn't have it."
Sean was speechless.
This woman was really terrible at making conversation.
"Right, right. Just help me harvest it. Be careful with the dissection—the thing I want is inside the heart."
"My rates are very high—" Despite her words, Luo Xi pulled out a small metal sphere.
This time, the sphere didn't transform into a massive double-bladed Battle Blade. Instead, it shifted into a compact dagger.
Luo Xi's movements were remarkably deft. Aided by the razor-sharp energy dagger, it took only a few minutes to lay out the fully dismantled components on the floor.
Right in the center of the pile, a delicate incision had been made in the heart, revealing a red, gem-like crystal nestled within.
"A Blood Source..." To Sean's surprise, Luo Xi actually recognized it.
Sean raised an eyebrow. "You know what this is?"
She pursed her lips. "My older sister used one..."
Sean drew a sharp breath. Luo Xi's sister had used a Blood Source... Furthermore, both sisters should have possessed the same type of Ability...
If she had two different Abilities, how did her sister end up in an accident?
However, this was not the time to pry. Sean pulled on a pair of gloves and carefully extracted the Blood Source.
Seeing his nonchalant reaction, Luo Xi spoke up, her voice slightly muffled. "This thing is incredibly precious... You can't beat me in a fight, yet you dare to flash it in front of me?"
Sean nonchalantly held it out to her. "What, you want it? It's yours."
Luo Xi froze, then puffed out her cheeks and turned her head away. "I don't want your filthy handouts..."
Sean chuckled and let the matter drop.
He understood Luo Xi's personality far too well.
Had she actually taken it, it would have stung.
After all, he still needed this thing to awaken his second Ability.
Luo Xi turned back to eye the crystal. "If you're going to use it, do it now. The Blood Source's efficacy steadily degrades the longer it stays outside the heart."
Sean nodded, then hesitated. "Uh, how exactly do I use it? Just swallow it raw?"
"You don't even know how to use it, yet you still managed to find it..." Luo Xi stared at him, her expression practically screaming, What kind of dumb luck is that?
A nearly imperceptible blur flashed past, and Luo Xi sliced a clean gash into Sean's arm.
"Place it on the wound and let it merge," Luo Xi instructed, quickly adding a warning. "The genetic metamorphosis triggered by a Blood Source is completely different from your first genetic evolution. The new Ability is directly tied to the innate traits of the frenzy beast."
"Once the metamorphosis ends, the Ability will be fully under your control. But during the merging process, you'll be infected by the beast's feral nature. If you can't endure the strain, just scream. I... I'll be right here watching over you."
Sean didn't hesitate any longer. He pressed the Blood Source firmly against the open wound.
In that very instant, his blood began to boil.
An unimaginable, searing heat and excruciating agony crashed over him like a tidal wave, feeling as though it would melt his entire body down to the marrow.
His consciousness rapidly blurred. A bloodthirsty frenzy clawed its way up from the depths of his mind, threatening to consume every corner of his sanity.
Sean let out a muffled groan and collapsed to his knees. His eyes flooded with bloodshot streaks, and the veins on his forehead writhed beneath his skin like little snakes.
You've gotta be fucking kidding me... The game didn't even have a cutscene for this...
Doing it for real... is this fucking intense?
The world around him twisted and warped. In a hallucinatory daze, Sean saw the terrifying projection of a tiger-type frenzy beast slowly descending from the clouds.
The beast was so massive it blotted out the sun, its crimson eyes brimming with horrifying cruelty and killing intent.
"Roar—" The earth-shattering bellow nearly ruptured his eardrums.
In that split second, Sean felt absolutely certain that he was going to die.
The beast's suffocating aura was impossible to physically resist. The only thing capable of fighting back was the very madness and bloodlust welling up from within his own mind.
Sean was caught in a lethal dilemma.
This feral instinct that could counter the illusion's overwhelming aura... should he suppress it, or let it run wild?