To withstand the pressure, one had to indulge their bestial nature.
But once that bestial nature was unleashed, regaining a clear mind would be no easy task.
What Sean hadn't anticipated was that in just a moment of hesitation, the beast within roared to life.
Searing heat and agony rapidly shattered all his defenses. The feral side was gaining the upper hand, and a tide of violent, chaotic thoughts began to surface from the depths of his mind.
No... even if I can't resist the pressure, I have to suppress the beast.
Sean knew very well that even though he had resolved to play the part of a ruthless villain in this wasteland, he couldn't afford to lose his human rationality.
From Luo Xi's perspective, Sean had already collapsed to his knees.
His body hunched over in excruciating pain. His fingers clawed wildly at the ground, the tips already torn and bleeding.
Her heart skipped a beat. Is this guy a natural-born rejector?
A rejector's genetic evolution could stem from various triggers. Most underwent this evolution after reaching a certain age, a legacy left behind in their bloodline.
Others evolved when pushed to the brink of death or during extreme emotional instability—an explosive awakening of latent potential.
Regardless of the cause, every rejector had to experience a genetic evolution at least once.
Yet, looking at Sean's reaction, he seemed to have absolutely no prior experience with the process.
In other words, he had been a rejector since the moment he was born.
Luo Xi's expression grew serious. If that were the case, the difficulty of undergoing a secondary evolution through a Blood Source would increase exponentially.
To make matters worse, his Ability wasn't combat-oriented, making his actual strength pitifully weak.
Luo Xi's energy field unfurled. She readied herself to forcibly interrupt the assimilation process at any moment.
Consider yourself lucky. Very few Abilities can halt an assimilation, and mine just happens to be one of them...
Seeing Sean's eyes turn bloodshot, Luo Xi shook her head silently. Her energy field began to vibrate.
"Don't... don't..."
At the sound of the trembling voice, Luo Xi's head snapped up.
Sean, who had nearly lost consciousness, was actually raising his head with agonizing slowness. His face was twisted in pain, yet the words spilling from his lips were a refusal.
"You won't survive this. This is no longer something sheer willpower can overcome." Luo Xi wasn't having it. She flared her energy field again.
"Don't... ah!"
Blood seeped from the corner of Sean's mouth, and a brief flash of clarity returned to his crimson eyes. Then, without warning, he forcibly snapped one of his own pinky fingers!
A beast-like grunt rumbled in his throat, but the painful contortion on his face visibly eased.
Luo Xi clenched her fists slightly. She never expected him to go to such extremes.
Meanwhile, relying on an entirely different source of physical agony, Sean finally managed to drag some consciousness back to his muddled brain.
He desperately recalled all his memories from before his transmigration, trying to use scenes from a different world to anchor his sanity.
"Son of a bitch..."
A flood of even more memories and scenes surged forward—every memory belonging to the Sean of this world.
Poverty, starvation, humiliation...
Nearing death, being saved...
Growing up, climbing to high status...
Women, wealth, power...
"Perfect. Let me borrow these..."
Under Luo Xi's shocked gaze, Sean broke into a deranged, bloodstained grin.
"Whether it's me, or the one who came before... our goal is very simple..."
He suddenly threw his head back, staring up at the terrifying monster that blotted out the sky.
"I will survive... I will plunge this world into even greater chaos... I will overturn this wasteland..."
...
Luo Xi froze in place. She watched as Sean straightened his body and let out a tragic, feral roar.
Immediately after, he fell completely still. The light and the bloodlust in his eyes gradually faded away.
She didn't know whether she should interrupt his assimilation process. Everything indicated that he had failed. If this continued, it would only produce a bloodthirsty Humanoid Deranged Beast.
However, the perception granted to her by the Iris Hive Tribe was faintly warning her otherwise.
Sean was completing an unimaginable metamorphosis.
Minutes and seconds ticked by. Just as Luo Xi could no longer hold back from intervening, Sean opened his eyes.
The crimson in his irises faded rapidly, and that obnoxious attitude of his came right back.
"Did you miss me?" Sean burst into laughter.
Luo Xi choked on her words, then shot him a cold glare. "You didn't die from that. Count yourself lucky."
Sean touched his broken pinky, wincing and baring his teeth. "Ow, that really hurts... Heh, the good die young, but a scourge lives for a thousand years."
"You have a very clear understanding of your own place in the world."
Sean's expression turned ruthless as he yanked on his pinky. A sharp spike of pain followed, and the twisted finger snapped right back to normal.
He had finally gotten what he wanted and acquired a new Ability.
[Heart of Deceit]
Conceal the truth, and deceive everything you can possibly imagine.
A rule-type Ability: take what you want first, and pay the price later.
The duration of the deception was determined by Sean's own mastery over the Ability. Right now, for instance, his very first target of deception was his own body.
If he wanted to deceive his body into having no injuries at all, the price would be astronomically high, because it defied logic.
Once the deception ended, his bodily injuries would return magnified several times over.
However, Sean had deceived his body with a different narrative: I am an enhancement-type rejector who just underwent genetic evolution, and I possess decent regenerative abilities.
This deception granted him temporary regenerative powers, and the price he would pay afterward was merely a brief bout of weakness.
This was because, during the deception, his strengthened body would accumulate a certain amount of vitality, which could then be used to pay off the debt once the duration ended.
This was only the most basic application. As for what the costs would be and how to rationally allocate different deception durations, Sean would have to slowly experiment on his own.
Deceiving himself, deceiving others, or even deceiving inanimate objects—each required a different price.
In theory, if Sean grew powerful enough, he could even deceive the entire world.
Right now, however, he could only use the deception three times a day. The duration of each use depended on the nature of the lie, capping out at no more than ten minutes.
For example, he could choose to deceive Luo Xi right now, making her believe that he was stronger than her.
But that would only last for a few seconds before Sean reverted to being a weakling—and he would inevitably be beaten to a pulp by Luo Xi once she realized the trick.
It wasn't an overwhelmingly powerful Ability, but it opened the door for a lot of fancy tricks.
Sean let out a breath in deep satisfaction. He looked at the oddly expressive Luo Xi, finally smiling as he held out his hand.
"Let's get reacquainted. I'm Sean."
Luo Xi looked at him. She finally reached out, smacked his palm, and turned her head away, muttering, "Luo Xi."