Chapter 4

"Beep beep beep!"

The alarm suddenly went off in the night, startling Wang Linlin, who was dozing off on the night shift. She quickly sat up and looked up at the display screen on the wall in front of her.

"It's alright, the new guy just discovered he's grown phantom scales!"

While she was frantically adjusting the data, the senior colleague who was mentoring her stood beside her, holding a thermos cup and calmly explaining.

"This is Huanlin? She's already like this since she just arrived?"

Feeling incredulous, Wang Linlin quickly pressed buttons on the screen to adjust the data and images.

Looking at Chen Nan's absurdly high blood pressure and heart rate on the monitor, and then slightly rewinding the surveillance footage from her room. Wang Linlin, who had just graduated from university and started her internship at the Institute of Supernatural Abilities, finally saw the so-called Phantom Scales in reality after three months of internship in the Information Department.

"She was lucky; she grew scales. Others grew feathers, antennae, or even had changes in their limbs and heads. Some even started to have cockroach-like teeth. This happened once a night, but because it was so unbelievable, they kept thinking about it. And because they kept thinking about it, the more often their bodies changed."

When the frequency exceeds a certain limit, the infected person will suffer a mental breakdown and lose the ability to distinguish between reality and illusion. They will perceive a situation that occurs at most four or five times a day as occurring seven, eight, ten, or even constantly. When they can no longer bear it, they will naturally break down completely, and the cockroach genes within them will take over their dominant role. Then, one day, they will be completely finished, transforming into a mutated cockroach that is entirely beyond their control.

This is the special trial period that every infected person must go through. If they pass the test, nature will reward them with an unexpected small gift or a big surprise. But if they fail, their fate is to be shot in the head, then taken to our laboratory for dissection or directly cremated.

Teacher Xu, who has been in this place for several years, slowly raised her head and moved her body backward while holding her thermos.

As she moved, rows of monitors behind her gradually came into view.

Wang Linlin, who had been following her, looked up and slowly retreated with her master, also slowly looking up at all the small screens on site.

Looking at countless screens, countless people who stay up all night, like Chen Nan, screaming in panic, crying helplessly, shouting angrily, or smashing things and pulling their hair in their small rooms, and other infected people hiding in the bathroom, or behind the blankets or curtains, as if they had completely collapsed.

With a silent sigh, she shifted her gaze back to Chen Nan, the last person she had seen that day. Seeing Chen Nan clutching her arm, constantly examining herself with a disbelieving and dazed expression, Wang Linlin said softly, "Master, the last one who came today was quite well-behaved. She did whatever I told her to do. She's so cooperative and obedient; she should survive, right?"

"Who knows? These things depend on oneself and fate!"

Xu Hua responded softly, then put down the thermos, slowly closed his eyes, and put on his clothes.

Wang Linlin turned to look at the large screen in her office, then glanced at the other offices in front of and behind her, which were separated from her only by a layer of transparent glass.

She saw those offices, all in the exact same situation as hers.

She sighed heavily again, then turned off the large screen in front of her, returning it to its original state, and sat down to continue staring at the screen.

After staring at it for a while, she felt a little sleepy, and slowly nodded and lay down on the table in front of her again.

As she rested her head on her arm and drifted off to sleep, Xu Hua, who had been dozing with her eyes closed, slowly opened them again. She picked up her thermos, now filled with iced Americano, and began to drink slowly, glancing up at everything before her with keen interest.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

Chen Nan, who had just come in tonight, finally noticed the change on her wrist again. She kept shaking her arm and repeatedly reached out to touch that spot.

Once she was sure she hadn't misread it, and realized she'd never known that such a recent infection could cause this, Chen Nan felt a surge of terror and jumped out of bed again, rushing instinctively to the bathroom.

This room is just a standard one-bedroom apartment with a bathroom; there's no real living room, let alone a kitchen or anything like that.

The entrance leads directly to the bathroom, followed by a wardrobe, bed, TV cabinet, and the like.

If there's anything good about this place, it's that the windows are huge—truly floor-to-ceiling windows.

Besides that, there's nothing else here.

Having figured out everything here, Chen Nan rushed to the restroom.

She searched quickly through several cabinets in the bathroom, and after rummaging around for a while, she found something that looked like a toothpick. She then held that thing directly against her right wrist.

Just when Chen Nan couldn't take it anymore, thinking that she had suddenly mutated at an early age, and was about to peel off her wrist to take a real look,

Suddenly, at that moment, soft music filled Chen Nan's room, and then a male voice slowly announced: "Hello everyone, I am Tang Xin. I will be reading this hospital admission notice to you today. I know that by the time I read this, you must be in a very bad situation. Please forgive the government and me for deceiving you all this time. We have always told everyone that the cockroach infestation happened suddenly, that someone was infected with a cockroach virus, and that it suddenly mutated or transformed a month later."

But the reality is what you are seeing and experiencing now. Yes, from the moment you unfortunately contracted this virus, it has already begun to change your body. For some, changes occur within three days of infection, while for others, the first abnormality is noticed around the seventh day. Due to differences in individual constitution, the onset of symptoms varies from person to person. The physical changes you observe also differ. Some feel something on their forehead, some notice changes in their hands and feet, some feel as if wings are growing on their backs, some experience significant changes in their teeth and hearing, and some even feel as if feathers or scales are growing on their bodies.

Don't worry, these are all normal occurrences, experiences shared by every infected person. We don't tell the public these things to avoid unnecessary panic. Now I'll tell you how you should react if you are unfortunately infected, and what you need to do to successfully get through this unexpected event and ordeal. First of all, please don't panic; please try to treat everything as normal as possible.

Only when you take good care of your body can your immune system be stronger enough to fight off any sudden cockroach virus. Don't dwell on any unusual symptoms the next day. If you focus too much on them, your body will perceive the problem as something you want to see. At that point, the cockroach genes in your body will outweigh your body's natural immune system. So my advice is to ignore it and relax.

A ten-minute broadcast was playing on a loop outside.

After listening for a while, Chen Nan, clutching what she was holding, stumbled outside.

Once she got outside, she realized that what was playing wasn't a radio broadcast at all, but rather the television in her room, which faced the bed, had turned on automatically.

Then on the screen, a man who looked like an officer was shown reading a manuscript in front of him, occasionally glancing up at the camera.

The other person had black hair and black eyes, and had the typical handsome appearance of a Chinese soldier.

The other person had a cold demeanor, but when facing this camera, he seemed to be trying hard to show his kindness.

Chen Nan recognized the person in the video; in fact, she recognized everyone in the world. She possessed the original owner's memories and knew that the person was Tang Xin, the current highest leader of this country and a lightning-powered individual.

Despite having an ordinary name, he has an extraordinary family background and personal resume.

He knew that the other party was the great-grandson of Tang Anbin, the first Grand Marshal of the Li Kingdom, and that the Tang family had actually been ousted from power once, up to his father.

Nine years after the incident, he returned to the public eye thanks to a military achievement. He regained public support and was once again appointed Grand Marshal of the State.

Looking at the other person, he thought about the various things about the Tang family in the original owner's memories.

Under the influence of gossip, and with the personal reassurance and explanation from the national leader in front of them, they realized that their current state is something almost every infected person goes through. They knew that if they became too agitated, their body would receive a suggestion that their own immune cells would be weaker than the newly arrived cockroach cells, ultimately leading to true cockroach-like transformation.

Having understood everything in her heart, Chen Nan gradually relaxed and threw the small toothpick in her hand far away.

"Chen Nan, it's okay, it's okay, don't be afraid, you're not afraid at all, you'll get through this."

Chen Nan had actually experienced something like this once in her previous life.

That was when she was just twenty years old in her past life and accidentally contracted chickenpox.

At first, she was extremely scared. Looking at the clear chickenpox blisters that suddenly appeared on her face and body, she felt like the sky was about to fall.

But after seeing a doctor and confirming that she had chickenpox, and after researching a lot of information, she gradually calmed down after learning that chickenpox is a self-limiting disease.

Then she bought medicine, lots of fruit and food, isolated herself, and tried her best to go to bed early, get up early, and eat well every day.

Even under those circumstances, she later developed small bumps all over her body and suffered from so much discomfort that she couldn't sleep at night.

But because I clearly know what's wrong with me, and because I clearly understand all the bodily reactions after getting chickenpox.

So whether it was the terrifying period of having acne or the horrifying moment when the chickenpox blisters burst, she faced it all calmly and without feeling too scared.

Now I'm lying back on the big bed at the Superpower Institute, because after listening to the explanation I know that this is considered a normal situation.

Knowing that if you care too much about your physical condition, it will have the opposite effect, cause hallucinations, and lead to a breakdown.

So after taking a few deep breaths, Chen Nan gradually calmed down.

"Chen Nan is fine. Every extra day you live is a bonus. So don't be afraid, relax as much as possible. If you can make it through, you'll have made a huge profit. If you can't, someone else will just shoot you. They definitely won't let you really become a monster. So there's nothing to be afraid of. Everything is still known and controllable."

Lying in bed, Chen Nan kept repeating the same thing to herself.

She acted so frantically just now because she didn't know that what she felt was a normal reaction to an infection. So, believing she had suddenly mutated, she tried to cut her wrist to see what was wrong with her.

But now that she knows everything, Chen Nan is clearly less scared.

I kept telling myself it was okay, giving myself positive self-affirmations over and over again.

Later, when she was really sleepy, Chen Nan reached out and picked up the remote control next to her, turning off the TV in front of her.

Seeing that she had finally calmed down, and because of her apprentice's words, Xu Hua subconsciously paid more attention to her, and slowly breathed a sigh of relief, starting to stare at the other infected people on the big screen.

After alerting the room, she started playing videos and music for everyone on her own.

In their country, the Tang family is an extraordinary force. Many people instinctively fall silent upon hearing the voice of the national leader.

If even the Grand Marshal's voice becomes ineffective, the Information Department will play other video files they have prepared later.

In more serious cases, Xu Hua and his team would directly call the police, allowing the doctors and nurses from the Institute of Supernatural Abilities to spray sedatives directly into the infected person's room. This could be done remotely without the doctors and nurses having to go there themselves.

If the condition becomes more serious, doctors and nurses will need to go and examine the patient in person.

Anyway, it was another night that looked peaceful from the outside, but was anything but peaceful for those with superpowers.

That night, seven infected individuals couldn't withstand the stimulation and turned into cockroaches. The superpowered police officers responsible for extermination went to the infected individuals' rooms seven times throughout the night, pulling out a total of seven cockroach larvae corpses from above. All the corpses were sent directly to the research institute and autopsy room at the bottom.