Doomsday Reboot: My Superpowers Absorb Everything

As dusk fell, the survivors of the Black Crow Hall were imprisoned in the wooden cells. They huddled in a corner, their mutated features appearing and disappearing—some had scales on the backs of their hands fading to pale pink, others had feathers falling from their backs, revealing festering skin. Lin Ye stood outside the cell door, looking into their murky eyes, which held both a yearning for mutated power and a fear of their own alienation.

"Are we really going to keep them alive?" Li Hu walked over, carrying an axe with bloodstains still on the blade. "Those scaly monsters said they've swallowed mutated crystal cores; who knows, they might go completely insane one day and bite us?"

Lin Ye didn't speak, but pointed to the young man with animal ears in the cell. At that moment, he was frantically wiping his cheeks with his sleeve, trying to remove the remaining totem. There was a blurry scar on his exposed neck, as if he had been bitten by something.

"His name is Shi Tou." Lin Jianjun walked over, holding a roster he had found in the Black Crow Hall. "He was originally a hunter from a settlement in the south. His younger brother was killed by a horde of corpses, which is why he was kidnapped by the Black Crow Hall."

The handwriting on the roster was crooked and messy, with most names marked with an X, and only a few left blank. Lin Ye turned to the last page and saw the name "Black Raven Leader - Mo Lin", next to which was written in red pen "Devouring Level 3 Crystal Cores x7, Mutation Rate 89%".

"89%..." Zhou Ming murmured to himself. "The data from the purification station says that if the mutation rate exceeds 70%, there's no way to come back. This Mo Lin is quite an anomaly for surviving this long."

Su Ya came over carrying a medicine box filled with freshly brewed sedative herbs. She squatted outside the cell door, handed the ceramic bowl inside, and said softly, "Drink this, it will make you feel better."

Stone hesitated for a moment, then took the earthenware bowl and drank it all in one gulp. The bitterness of the herbs made him frown, but his eyes cleared slightly: "Thank you...can you really save us?"

"I don't know," Lin Ye said honestly, "but we can't just watch you all turn into monsters."

He turned and walked towards the paddy field, with Su Ya silently following behind. The rice seedlings glowed with a faint green light in the night, a result of Su Ya's supernatural abilities accelerating their growth. What would normally take a month to grow to that height had now reached it in just half a month. A new scarecrow had been erected by the edge of the field, made by Xiao Ya. Though crooked and uneven, it swayed gently in the evening breeze, as if guarding something.

"She's been here all day," Suya said, pointing to the scarecrow. "She said she wanted to watch over her brother's crops so the mutated beasts wouldn't ruin them."

Lin Ye felt a lump in his throat as he recalled the mutilated corpse in the cage. He crouched down, the dark purple energy at his fingertips seeping into the soil, clearing away the radioactive particles that were active at night from the rice seedlings. Wherever the energy flowed, the downy hairs on the rice leaves trembled gently, as if in response.

"Do you believe in the 'power of immortality' that Mo Lin mentioned?" Su Ya suddenly asked, her voice soft. "If consuming crystal cores could really make you stronger, or even... immortal, would anyone be willing to try it?"

Lin Ye looked up at her. Moonlight fell on the girl's face, casting faint shadows on her eyelashes. He thought of the twisted bodies of the Black Crow Hall members, the arm Iron Hand suffered from the backlash of the hardening ability, and the stinging pain in his meridians every time he used the "Devouring" seal.

"Forced love is never sweet." Lin Ye pinched her cheek, just like he pinched Lin Xi's cheek when they were little. "Evolution is not about devouring, it's about symbiosis. Look at this rice seedling, it absorbs nutrients from the soil, and it also leaves roots for the soil. That's the way to longevity."

Suya's cheeks flushed slightly as she looked down and fiddled with the rice leaves. "Then... can we help Stone and the others coexist?"

"Give it a try." Lin Ye stood up. "Tomorrow, have Zhou Ming use the ice mirror to check the energy flow in their bodies. You can also prepare some herbs to neutralize the radiation. Perhaps... we can find a way to balance it."

The next morning, the area outside the wooden cell at the stronghold became lively. Zhou Ming used an ice mirror to examine the internal condition of each survivor, Su Ya recorded the data, and Lin Jianjun stood guard nearby with a rifle in hand, just in case.

"The mutation rate of stones is the lowest, at 63%." Zhou Ming pointed to the pale red energy flow in the ice mirror, "Most of it is concentrated in the heart, so it should have just swallowed the crystal core and hasn't fully fused yet."

"This woman is no good." He pointed to another woman with festering skin, the energy flow in the ice mirror was blackish-purple. "The radiation has already eroded her brain. Even if we forcibly purify it, she will become an idiot."

Lin Ye nodded silently and gave Lin Jianjun a wink. The father understood and took the woman to the wooden cell on the other side—a cell prepared for those who could not be saved, so that at least they could pass away peacefully.

By the time all the survivors were dealt with, it was already noon. Lin Ye was about to go check on Xiao Ya when Li Hu hurriedly pulled him to the gate.

"Something's happened! Iron Hand's gone!" Li Hu pointed to the empty wooden cell, the chains snapped in two, dark red blood still stained the broken ends. "That son of a bitch, he must have run off last night while we were busy with Black Crow Hall business!"

Lin Ye's face darkened. He examined the broken chain; the cut was clean, not like it had been torn apart by brute force, but rather... cut by some kind of sharp weapon. His senses quickly expanded, detecting a faint energy reaction fleeing northward at an extremely fast speed.

"They're remnants of the Iron Hand Gang!" Lin Jianjun ran over, carrying a rifle and holding half a cloak in his hand. "I found this outside the wooden cell; it has the Black Crow Gang's totem on it!"

Everyone was stunned. The Iron Hand Gang and the Black Crow Gang were mortal enemies, so how could they have joined forces?

"Something's not right." Lin Ye suddenly remembered something, "Mo Lin's body is gone!"

After blowing up the main building yesterday, they didn't find Mo Lin's body, assuming he was just blown to pieces. Now that they think about it, that guy might not be dead, and he probably even made some kind of deal with Iron Hand, managing to rescue him in the chaos!

"Chase them!" Lin Ye gripped his military dagger tightly. "We can't let them get away!"

He led Li Hu and A Ying, following the direction of the energy reaction. The ruins to the north grew denser and denser. Near the chemical industrial zone, even the mutated plants grew abnormally twisted, with bones entwined on their vines and poison flowing from their flowers.

When they reached an abandoned chemical plant, the energy reaction suddenly disappeared. Lin Ye signaled the two to stop and carefully sensed and searched every corner—there were more than a dozen corpses of Iron Hand Gang members in the workshop, their deaths gruesome, as if they had been torn apart by some kind of claws, while the auras of Mo Lin and Iron Hand were strangely fused together, emanating from underground.

"Down there." Lin Ye pointed to the hole in the center of the workshop. The hole was covered with an iron plate, which was still stained with fresh blood.

Ah Ying jumped down first, and a few seconds later her voice rang out: "Brother Ye! Come down quickly! They're playing tricks!"

Lin Ye and Li Hu jumped down into the cave, and the sight before them made their pupils shrink—the cave contained a huge altar, even more bizarre than the one in the slaughterhouse. In the center stood a dozen iron stakes, each strung with the crystal cores of mutated creatures, emitting a dark purple light. Mo Lin and Tie Shou stood in the center of the altar, their arms fused together. Tie Shou's steel-like skin and Mo Lin's scales intertwined, forming a deformed lump of metal.

"You've come at the perfect time." Mo Lin's voice had a metallic quality to it, and his and Tie Shou's eyes lit up simultaneously, one yellow and one gray. "Witness our ultimate evolution!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the crystal core on the altar suddenly exploded, and dark purple energy surged into the two of them. Mo Lin and Tie Shou let out a painful yet excited roar, and their bodies began to frantically merge, quickly transforming into a monster nearly four meters tall—the upper body was Tie Shou's steel torso, the lower body was Mo Lin's scaly legs, and a pair of bat-like wings grew from its back. In its hand, it held a giant blade formed by the fusion of bone knife and iron chain.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Li Hu was so frightened that he took a step back, almost dropping his axe.

"They're fusion mutants." Lin Ye's dark purple energy swirled wildly in his palm. "They forcibly injected the energy of the crystal core into their bodies, using the guise of symbiosis to devour them!"

The monster roared and charged at them, its giant blade whistling through the air. Lin Ye dodged to the side, his energy forming a shield to block the aftershock. Li Hu seized the opportunity to slash from the side, his axe striking the steel-like skin, leaving only a white mark.

"Aying! Attack its eyes!" Lin Ye shouted.

The girl's figure flickered in the shadows, her dagger aimed precisely at the monster's eye socket. But the black scales covered the monster with incredible speed, and the dagger only grazed the surface. Instead, it was struck by the monster's wing and slammed heavily against the wall.

"Suya's herbs!" Lin Ye suddenly remembered something and shouted to Li Hu, "Throw that green medicine bottle over here!"

Li Hu quickly pulled out a medicine bottle and tossed it to Lin Ye. Lin Ye caught the bottle and splashed the liquid inside onto the monster's wound. The green herbs, upon encountering the dark purple energy, instantly burst into white smoke. The monster let out a shrill scream, and its fused body began to separate. Iron Hand's arm detached from Mo Lin's body, revealing stark white bones.

"Impossible!" Mo Lin roared, trying to re-integrate, but the power of the herbs was disintegrating his mutated energy.

Lin Ye seized the opportunity, condensing dark purple energy into a spear that pierced Mo Lin's heart. Mo Lin's body rapidly withered, scales falling off like leaves, revealing his already rotting internal organs. Tie Shou was not spared either; without Mo Lin's support, his steel skin began to crack, finally disintegrating into fragments with a mournful howl.

The dark purple energy in the cave gradually dissipated, leaving only fragments of the crystal core shimmering. Lin Ye walked to the altar, looked at the twisted runes, and suddenly felt nauseous—this was not evolution at all, but a desecration of life.

"Let's go back." Lin Ye helped the injured A Ying to her feet. "It's time to settle things here."

On the way back, no one spoke. Li Hu's axe was heavy, stained with the monster's black blood like an indelible stain. A Ying leaned against Lin Ye, her shoulder still throbbing, but her eyes held a newfound determination.

Back at the base, the setting sun was casting its glow on the fields. Stone and a few other survivors were helping Suya water the plants. Their mutated features had faded considerably; though they still bore scars, they could now move around like normal people. Xiaoya sat beside the scarecrow, teaching them which weeds needed to be pulled, a long-lost smile returning to her face.

Lin Ye stood on the edge of the field, watching this scene, and the heaviness in his heart gradually dissipated. The fusion of Mo Lin and Tie Shou had failed, but the transformation of Shi Tou and the others was quietly proving that evolution was not just about devouring.

Like rice seedlings in a field, after experiencing wind, rain, and insect infestations, they still strive to grow and sprout new shoots.

He walked over to Xiaoya, who handed him a poisonous weed she had just pulled out: "Sister Suya said that no matter how much this weed looks like a rice seedling, it's still poisonous and can't be kept."

Lin Ye took the poisonous herb and threw it into the nearby fire. The flames devoured the herb, crackling and popping, as if bidding farewell to those twisted lives.

As night deepened, the campfire at the outpost was lit again. The survivors in the wooden cell were able to speak normally again, and Zhou Ming was teaching them how to control the energy within their bodies, while Su Ya was busy preparing new herbs.

Lin Ye leaned against the fence, looking at the moon in the sky, and suddenly felt that no matter how many monsters or madmen they would encounter in the future, as long as the new shoots in the fields were still growing, they would have a reason to continue fighting.

Because true evolution is not about becoming a monster, but about preserving humanity and living like a human being even in dire straits.