My Talent Skill Mutated

The air seemed to freeze in that instant.

The striking red beam of light gradually faded, then vanished completely.

In her spot, Meng Li’s face was pale, and beads of sweat dripped continuously from her forehead.

Death had come in a flash.

In that moment, despair had exploded in her heart, but in the next, hope arose.

All around her, she felt an invisible layer of energy protecting her. Without it, she would probably be dead on the ground.

Not far away, Chen Yu slowly lowered one hand. His face was a little pale, but it quickly returned to normal.

A protective Force Field!

He had acted at the critical moment after all.

It was an instinctive reaction.

Although he wasn’t exactly fond of Meng Li, he didn’t hate her either.

And now that they were teammates on the same squad, he naturally wouldn’t stand by and watch her die.

If he couldn’t have saved her, then that would’ve been that.

Fortunately, his Biological Force Field was powerful, and its protective field had blocked the attack.

Otherwise, he would have been helpless.

...

"What kind of ability is that?!"

An Ran and Cai Kun stared at Chen Yu, their minds reeling.

For a moment, they both thought Meng Li was done for, but Chen Yu had acted at the critical moment.

An unknown energy shield had blocked the mechanical tentacle’s sneak attack.

It wasn’t Qi; they were absolutely certain of that.

This unknown energy shield had to be some kind of special ability.

’Could it be? Does Chen Yu have another ability besides his Ice Ability?!’

The thought surfaced in their minds, and they were both shaken.

A dual Ability User!

At the Superpower Academy, dual Ability Users weren’t all that rare.

An Ran herself was a dual Ability User!

When an Awakened awakens their ability, it’s usually just one. Of course, there are also multiple Ability Users.

It’s just that multiple Ability Users are much rarer.

Dual Ability Users have greater potential than single Ability Users.

Of course, it also depends on the specific abilities being compared.

Judging from what just happened, Chen Yu’s new ability was likely no simple matter.

"Th... Thank you, Chen Yu." Meng Li gasped for a few breaths, forcing herself to calm down. Looking at Chen Yu, she thanked him sincerely.

Chen Yu had saved her!

Even if she’d had her issues with him before, they all vanished at this moment.

’A life-saving favor is the greatest debt of all!’

Looking at Chen Yu, Meng Li’s cheeks grew hot.

’Actually... he’s pretty nice. A good person, and quite handsome...’

"You’re welcome. If you want to repay me, just give me some money when we get out. Ten or twenty thousand isn’t too little, seventy or eighty thousand will do, and a hundred thousand or more would be even better," Chen Yu said lightly.

Meng Li: "..."

An Ran: "..."

Cai Kun: "..."

---

After this little interlude, the group looked at the mechanical tentacles of the squid monster on the ground and became even more cautious.

Drawing his combat knife, Chen Yu hacked off one of the mechanical tentacles and examined it closely.

The mechanical tentacle was made of an unknown metal. It looked simple, but its internal mechanisms were extremely precise and complex.

The metal was very heavy. Chen Yu couldn’t determine what kind it was. It looked like it was cast from ordinary steel, but in reality, it wasn’t.

"This thing should be worth some money, right?" Chen Yu asked, blinking.

"..."

The other three shot him a look, but Chen Yu didn’t seem to care at all.

Cai Kun: "This metal should be a tungsten steel alloy. It’s valuable and worth some money, but it would probably be inconvenient for us to carry."

"A tungsten steel alloy..."

Chen Yu nodded. Then, he drew his combat knife and, with a few quick strikes, chopped off the tips of the other tentacles. He gathered a pile of them and stuffed them directly into his backpack.

"Are you that desperate for money? You’re even taking these?" Meng Li couldn’t help but ask, looking at Chen Yu.

Chen Yu: "Isn’t that obvious? I’m not some trust-fund baby, how can I compare to you? Spoken like someone who’s never gone hungry!"

"...You!"

Meng Li’s chest heaved, rising and falling like tumultuous waves. She stared at Chen Yu, at a loss for words.

An Ran looked at Chen Yu and blinked. "Those won’t be worth much. It would be better to capture a squid monster alive. That should have a higher value."

"Forget it. That thing would be too much trouble," Chen Yu said, shaking his head.

"Could this thing be related to the civilization of this world?"

Meng Li stepped forward, looking at the squid monster’s corpse on the ground, then back at Chen Yu and the others.

Cai Kun: "It must be related. This is definitely not a product of Evolution."

’I wonder if there are more...’

Chen Yu looked at the ruined street.

One of them was worth eight hundred points of Source of Life. If he could take down a few more, then fifty thousand points of Source of Life wouldn’t be an impossible dream.

"Be careful. Don’t spread out too much," Cai Kun said.

The group nodded. They could handle it by acting together, but if they split up and another squid monster appeared, they would be in extreme danger.

Snapping back to their senses, the group surveyed the surrounding streets, chose a direction, and began to explore toward the city center.

...

On the dilapidated street, Cai Kun took the lead while Chen Yu brought up the rear.

As he walked, Chen Yu called up his interface and chose to upgrade his Spirit Devouring Skill.

One thousand points of Source of Life were consumed, and the Spirit Devouring Skill was successfully upgraded to an advanced Skill.

He tested the recovery, and the Qi consumed in his body was replenished almost instantly.

Combined with his Freezing Breath, he could practically use it endlessly.

His margin of safety increased significantly. With the extremely fast recovery of the advanced Spirit Devouring Skill, he barely had to worry about Qi consumption.

The Spirit Devouring Skill had been upgraded to advanced, but it hadn’t reached its limit yet. It could still be upgraded to the perfected level.

However, upgrading it to the perfected level required a full twenty thousand points of Source of Life.

A twenty-fold increase.

Chen Yu wasn’t too surprised.

Compared to the fifty-fold increase for the Evolution of his physical body, a twenty-fold increase was something he could accept.

It was just that it would probably be difficult to upgrade it to the perfected level for some time.

Both Freezing Breath and the Biological Force Field required Source of Life.

The total cost was not small.

---

About an hour later, Chen Yu’s group arrived in front of an industrial park in the ruined city.

The industrial park had long been abandoned, its main gate decayed and crumbling.

In the past hour, aside from encountering a few Twin Dog Beasts, they hadn’t run into any other unusual situations.

Entering the industrial park, everyone raised their guard. Chen Yu checked the Life Fluctuation Detector; it wasn’t showing any signs of mutated beasts.

But even so, they couldn’t let their guard down.

Ordinary mutated beasts couldn’t escape the detector’s scan, but if there were special ones, it was a different story.

Like the squid monster from before.

The Life Fluctuation Detector couldn’t pick up on strange, semi-mechanical life forms like that.

The four of them went deeper into the park. It was overgrown with weeds, some more than half a meter tall, and it was frighteningly quiet.

Passing through the weedy area, the group came to a massive, dilapidated factory building deep inside the park. They stopped, and their gazes were all drawn to the factory’s interior.

"Holy shit!"

"What the hell is this stuff?!"

Everyone’s eyes went wide when they saw the situation inside the factory.

Inside the factory, giant eggs came into view.

The giant eggs were about the height of a full-grown adult.

They were covered in red patterns that emitted a red glow.

The giant eggs looked as if they were made of metal, gleaming with a metallic luster.

In the thousand-square-meter factory, there were several dozen of these metallic giant eggs.

Each metallic giant egg stood quietly in its place.

The sight was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

And what was even stranger, there was a collapsed area about a hundred meters wide deep inside the factory.

The collapsed area was also emitting a red glow.

No one knew what was in the collapsed area, but their instincts told them that this place seemed very dangerous.

’Could this be some kind of mutated beast’s nest?’

The same thought appeared in everyone’s mind.

At this moment, the air seemed to fall silent.

"CRACK—!"

Just then, a cracking sound rang out. Chen Yu and the others instantly tensed, their heads snapping toward the source of the noise.