Chapter 62: Psycho-modified Human

Soon, two Support Team members clad in thick Protective Suits, faces connected by three or four specialized plastic tubes, carried over a transparent glass box. Inside it lay the shape of a human head.

Lu Xin glanced over it. It was the man he’d seen earlier. The face, covered in thick stubble, appeared ordinary, even frozen in an expression of shock. The neck’s severed end showed jagged meat stubs, looking as if it had been forcibly torn off.

To some extent, it resembled a broken tree stump.

……

Staring at this head, Lu Xin suddenly felt a chill. Whether his reaction was slow or what, witnessing the headless corpse abruptly come alive earlier—scaling walls, mounting a motorcycle, and speeding off—hadn’t struck him as particularly strange. After Chen Jing arrived, they’d mostly discussed the bizarre man, leaving no room for shock. Only now, seeing the detached head in the glass box, did it truly sink in.

“Running without a head… that’s terrifying.”

Chen Jing glanced at him. “Judging by timing, your reaction is incredibly delayed.”

“Uh…”

Lu Xin could only continue staring at the head. “This makes no sense logically. Though I’m not highly educated, I did go to school—in fact, my grades were quite decent. Consciousness, thought, all bodily actions and reactions stem from the brain, relying on neural links and feedback. With the head entirely gone… how could it possibly continue fleeing?”

Chen Jing studied his wooden expression, seeming to search for matching alarm or panic. There was some, but too little. She then turned back to the glass box, abruptly stating, “Conduct the basic triad of tests.”

The two Support Team members nodded. One held the box while the other retrieved a finger-length laser pen. Aiming toward the head’s eyes, they flashed it twice. The laser struck dull eyeballs, provoking no reaction.

Next, they pocketed the laser pen and drew out a small metal strike hammer, tapping once against the box. The metallic resonance faded through the box into the head’s ears. Still no reaction.

The Support Team members exchanged looks, then opened the glass lid. Turning to face Chen Jing’s direction…

Chen Jing fixed her gaze upon the head, murmuring in an abnormally deep, resonant tone: “You should blink.”

Her voice sounded different; thicker and penetrating. As if persuading a person, she urged the head to blink.

What followed horrified Lu Xin.

The lifeless head quivered. Its eyelids squirmed, struggling to open. Yet lacking strength, they merely lifted a sliver before falling still.

“She can actually communicate with a head?”

Lu Xin abruptly shifted a peculiar stare toward Chen Jing.

……

“You should tell me who you are.”

Chen Jing ignored Lu Xin’s gaze, sustaining that same tonal quality in her inquiry.

Lu Xin glanced at her instinctively and froze. Unnoticed until now, her pupils had turned crimson red.

Even he felt a faint urge under her words—to blurt everything: who he was, who Little Sister was, who Mother was, who Father was, their home address… But this impulse barely surfaced before vanishing like smoke.

Naturally, Chen Jing cared nothing for bystanders. As she spoke, she scrutinized the box intensely. Merely a head, it couldn’t vocalize. She hoped to decipher something from lip twitches.

Regrettably, the head barely trembled before ceasing all motion.

“Failed.”

Chen Jing seemed unfazed, unsurprised by the outcome.

Pressing her sunglasses back onto her nose bridge, she instructed the Support Team staff: “Dissect it.”

The two members acted routinely. One crouched, setting the glass box on the ground while deploying a quad-lamp tube apparatus. It cast detailed, shadowless 3D illumination across a precise area.

The other unpacked a comprehensive surgical kit from their case—saws, knives, Scalpels, pliers, hooks, spoons… and even a pregnancy test strip.

……

Lu Xin suddenly sensed the eerie. “Why does this Support Team feel like they’ve got everything?”

Amidst his bewilderment, a chorus of sawing blades, knives, pliers, and hooks commenced. A section of the head soon lay pried open.

Beneath the light source, Lu Xin glimpsed the contents below the skull cap:

Grayish, partially withered matter… exuding decay like rancid jelly.

One of the Support Team members gently poked it with a finger clad in an iron-fiberglass glove.

Had no elasticity at all.

….

Lu Xin immediately felt a flicker of apprehension. “Is this… the Source of Contamination?”

He hadn’t attended university in the Main City, but even he knew a normal human brain could never transform like this.

“It’s a Psycho-modified Human!”

Chen Jing replied to Lu Xin calmly. “I mentioned before that there are many systems for Ability Users. The Spider-Type ability is probably the easiest to understand because it primarily affects the user themselves. But there are many other ability systems capable of influencing others. Yes, once a person loses their head, they shouldn’t be able to move. But under certain specific circumstances, it isn’t entirely impossible.”

She looked directly at Lu Xin. “Have you seen a string puppet?”

Faced with the question, Lu Xin could only nod.

Chen Jing continued, “If a person loses their head, they can’t act. But if a puppet loses its head, what effect would that have?”

Lu Xin listened, his expression shifting to shock. “Such an ability exists?”

Although he was undergoing training now, he had only been exposed to knowledge related to Sources of Contamination so far. He hadn’t yet begun comprehensive training about the various types of Ability Users. So, his current expression of surprise was genuinely surprised.

“Of course it exists!”

In response to Lu Xin’s question, Chen Jing stated plainly, “My own ability shares certain similarities with that.”

“However, this one is more extreme. It transforms a person into a tool that can be manipulated through mental power. If I’m not mistaken, this should be the work of a Puppet-Type Ability User, and judging by the outcome, this user is likely quite formidable!”

Puppet-Type…

A strange sensation welled up inside Lu Xin.

A living person, who seemed capable of smiling and speaking, was actually just a puppet…

…He suddenly thought the world became so insane.

….

“Depending on the direction of their mutation, there are numerous systems for abilities.”

Sensing Lu Xin’s internal turmoil, Chen Jing frowned slightly. “As time passes, new abilities are constantly being discovered. According to the latest report published by the Alliance Research Institute, there are currently nine recognized ability systems in total, with Puppet-Type being one of them. Even regarding you, a professor over at the Main City—you know, the bald one—expressed doubts.”

“He suspects you don’t belong to the Spider-Type ability category at all, but rather represent a newly discovered type of ability.”

“He even proposed revising the documented ability category in your file to ‘Family Jubilee’…”

“……”

Lu Xin didn’t know how to respond. Plus, all the professors seemed bald; he wasn’t sure which one Chen Jing meant.

Seeing his expression, Chen Jing stated impassively, “Rest assured, the proposal was rejected.”

Lu Xin breathed a sigh of relief.

“Alright, send the evidence to the Research Institute for deeper analysis. See if we can uncover any more valuable clues.”

“Come with me!”

Chen Jing addressed the two Support Team members, then led Lu Xin towards a nearby Jeep. It was unclear who had driven it here. She climbed directly into the driver’s seat. The keys were still in the ignition, and she turned them, starting the engine.

“Regardless, we must take this incident seriously.”

“The kind of disaster the Church of Technology brought upon Satellite City No. four years ago cannot be allowed to repeat itself…”