After the darkness!

"I heard the death was horribly gruesome, like it was torn apart by a wild beast. It's probably another alien monster."

"And it wasn't just one person who died; I heard that quite a few people went missing last night as well."

"Don't talk nonsense. The official report says it was a knife attack... With strict entry and exit checks at the high walls, how could there be a monster in the city?"

Lin Yijue approached, looked up at the screen, and just as he had thought, it was indeed Wang Mingde's karaoke bar.

However, some details were deliberately obscured.

The most obvious thing is that the other party clearly placed the corpse of a Black Soul Dog there, but it was not shown in the picture.

The video then continued playing.

There were three or four more murders.

At the end, the host issued a reminder: "Recently, there have been several serious assault cases, concentrated in the urban areas near the high walls... We urge the public to stay away from man-made forests and be wary of strangers behaving suspiciously... If you encounter any unusual situations, please report them to the police immediately..."

Two emergency hotlines were then provided.

Lin Yijue stood watching until the news broadcast ended and the product called "Nutritional Strengthening Algae Liquid" was launched. Only then did he start walking, preparing to go home.

But just then...

"Sir, have you seen her before? This is my girlfriend."

A male voice suddenly sounded behind me.

Lin Yijue turned around and saw a boy in a white T-shirt holding up a missing person notice, his eyes red-rimmed.

The missing person notice was a large, printed A3 sheet of paper. The girl in the photo had a high ponytail, her eyes were curved into crescents, and she was wearing a light green sweater.

The boy was standing next to her.

In the photo, the boy's smile is full of worry, and the girl's smile looks forced.

Lin Yijue was stunned for a moment, as if he had been electrocuted, and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

He recognized the girl in the photo and the boy in front of her.

It was the young couple he had seen at the bubble tea shop before.

The girl named Aruan suffered from a similar strange disease to him, and it seemed that she was also infected by the phagocytic.

"No, I've never seen it." The old man next to me shook his head. "I closed the shop early last night, so I didn't see anything."

"Sir, could you please reconsider?" The boy's voice trembled. "She said she was going to buy breakfast yesterday morning, and then she left and never came back..."

Lin Yijue's neck was covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

"Young man, don't bother looking anymore." The old woman selling vegetables sighed, carrying her basket. "The ambulance and the police came late last night. At that alley entrance..." She glanced at the boy but didn't finish her sentence.

The boy's lips were pressed into a thin line.

He walked away dejectedly with the missing person poster, stopping people every now and then to ask, but the answer he got was always a shake of the head, that he had never seen her.

Lin Yijue stared blankly at this scene, so the girl who had contracted the same strange disease as him disappeared?

A terrifying thought inexplicably arose in his mind.

He remembered that Wang Mingde had said something before.

In theory, after being infected by the phallus, one's physical attributes will be enhanced. However, at the same time, one's sanity will be corrupted by the phallus. To live a long time, one's physical attributes must be adequate. The longer one lives, the better the enhancement effect of the phallus itself will become.

This means that the longer an infected person survives, the stronger they become after transformation.

The reason why the infected convert last night was not strong is that before the conversion, she was just a little girl who had never been trained and did not have much time to resist the phagocytosis.

Therefore, its strength is naturally very weak after the transformation.

"So is it possible that the monster I encountered last night was that little girl?"

Lin Yijue couldn't help but recall the scene in the milk tea shop where the girl was crying helplessly, and her lover was whispering words of comfort to her.

Then the scene suddenly shifts, showing the monster with its limbs touching the ground, its blood-red mouth wide open, suddenly lunging at him, black blood dripping from its teeth onto the cement floor.

His breathing quickened, and his eyes held a complex expression.

Whether his guess was right or wrong is actually meaningless now.

"The only thing that matters is that I need to live; I don't want to die..."

The question of how to live a good life rests on Wang Mingde's shoulders.

Of course, this is not the only method.

"Being constantly controlled by others is actually very dangerous, so it's best to rely on yourself."

Lin Yijue's gaze fell on the ink spots on the back of his hand.

The [Exceptional Endurance] granted by the first awakening of the Talent Tree directly distinguished him from other infected individuals, giving him considerable resistance to the Devourer.

In other words, once the talent tree advances from its sapling stage, whether by upgrading existing talents or by introducing newer and stronger ones, there is still a chance to resolve the current predicament.

"Oh, and there's also skill mastery."

Just like the [Small Strength] given when Yun Sheng's boxing technique reached minor mastery, perhaps when it reaches major mastery, he will be given [Small Constitution], and his situation will be improved in the same way.

Therefore, there are actually many ways to solve this problem.

Lin Yijue quickly came up with an idea and hurried on his way home.

For several days in a row, Lin Yijue did not rush to contact Wang Mingde. Instead, he asked for leave whenever he needed to and spent his time going to the club to practice boxing and the Eighteen Forms.

The attack on that rainy night and the disappearance of the girl at the milk tea shop gave him a sense of urgency for no apparent reason.

Fueled by this positive attitude, he made rapid progress.

First of all, the 18th move directly challenged the 15th move, "Golden Toad Embracing the Moon"... This result is definitely above average among all graduating classes in No. 7 Middle School. In terms of physical fitness, getting 85 points is basically no problem.

As for attributes, it seems that because the effect of [Strength (Small)] has ended, the growth of the Strength attribute is not as fast as before. However, thanks to the progress of the 'Eighteen Styles' and the existence of 'Body Devouring', the growth of various attributes is still quite pleasing.

Strength surged to 7.92, and physique reached 5.64.

Don't be fooled by the small increase in data; the feeling is that, for example, in terms of strength, Lin Yijue's bench press increased dramatically from the original owner's 110KG to 180KG.

This is already quite outrageous.

If you don't hold back when dealing with an ordinary person, one punch could really kill them.

As for Yun Sheng's boxing skills, his proficiency has reached 97%, almost reaching mastery.

Such a rapid pace of progress moved Li Yan and others.

Because of this level of proficiency, it's actually not much different from theirs.

Even Wei Hong noticed him and gave him more attention during class.

He finally got to enjoy the preferential treatment that only the good students in the original owner's class had.

……

"Alright, today's session is still one-on-one practice. I'll call out names. Whoever's name is called will be paired up. As usual, the loser is responsible for cleaning the room and carrying the medicinal spring water."

In the club room, Li Yan, who was not tall, looked serious and spoke loudly.

As she spoke, she took out a draft paper she had prepared beforehand and began to read out the names one by one:

"The first group, Lin Chen vs. Wang Yuan,"

"The second group consists of Wang Min and Ding Han."

……

"Group 8: Lin Yijue vs. Xiao Ran."