Chapter 532: Key Ingredient? (3)

Chapter 530

".... So how do you use this in a fight against the Aberrants?"

"..."

Ray cleared his throat and continued:

"Whenever I activate the skill, I bypass their physical bodies to peer into their lifeforce. Usually, everybody’s lifeforce, both humans and werewolves, is gathered around here."

He said while pointing towards his abdomen.

Van stared at it for a second before looking back at Ray, who was about to continue.

".... And for all of us, we all know where our hearts are located. But with the Aberrants, whose hearts are in different locations for each of them, we won’t know."

"Okay?" Van yawned aloud as he watched Ray drop the mask back onto the table.

"Hence, I did a test to check on something. Because whenever I activated the skill towards the Aberrants, the ball of flames I usually see was in a different location from the previous Aberrant I had seen.

"Which led me to conclude that the balls of flames are where their hearts are located. And after striking the location where I saw the ball of flames, I realised that the Aberrants lose their lives.

"Hence, I was able to help during the Invasion."

The moment Ray finished speaking, Van’s finger left his keyboard as he looked deeply into his best friend’s eyes for a few moments.

"Good. I have all the written information I need. Now, time for a practical test." Van nodded before whirling around to face his screens.

Ray lingered for a moment.

"Uh... can I leave n—"

"—Didn’t you hear when I said ’practical test’? Who did you think I was going to use?" Van clicked his tongue while remaining completely focused on his screens.

Ray sighed.

"I’m going to become a lab rat?"

"Precisely and yet not precisely... whatever. Do you have a few beast cores I can use here?"

Ray snapped his fingers before placing his hands over the table, and soon, he activated his inventory skill.

Beast cores began dropping onto the table like diamonds.

Core after core, until about a hundred beast cores—a sizeable lump—covered Van’s desk.

"Fuck. That’s too much, idiot. Why did you have to drop so many?"

Ray shrugged and took a step back.

"Apart from selling them for money, they’re basically useless to me. I can’t increase my Meta-Force anymore. Besides, I still have over a hundred in my System and more to collect from the Captain.

"So it’s nothing."

Van stared at the cores, then back at Ray, then back at the cores.

"Are these from the beasts you slew today?"

The Tribrid nodded.

Van shook his head and pointed towards the pod.

"Whatever. Just get inside the pod. Let’s begin."

Ray looked at the oval-shaped structure for a moment, then back at his friend.

"In that?"

Van glared at him.

"No, in my nose, idiot. Just get in already. We don’t have all day."

Ray frowned and began mumbling a curse as he walked towards the pod.

Before he got there, Van tapped a button, and the glass entrance slid open.

With that, Van began connecting some cables to the gas mask.

His eyes flashed blue a few times as he grabbed one of the King-rank beast cores.

"When you get in and the door closes, I want you to activate that skill immediately."

Ray stood in front of the slightly opened pod before looking back at his friend.

"I can only keep it active for four minutes."

Van nodded as his eyes began glowing a bright blue.

"Good. Deactivate and activate it every minute till you hit your limit."

Ray nodded before vanishing into the pod, which closed with a low click.

Almost immediately, the entire pod lit up with a bright blue light.

Numbers flashed across Van’s eyes, not as a reflection from the screens, but directly within them.

His mind flooded with information as the mask began glowing with a pale blue light, the energy being passed through it by the cables connected to the pod.

Crushing the core in his grasp, Van felt energy rushing into him.

Every minute, the glow from the pod would brighten and fade, almost like the beating of a heartbeat.

The computer before him began displaying incoherent information that only he could read.

Yet, he didn’t mind.

The mask was breaking apart and reforming at astonishing speed, as though the form it had possessed before was nowhere near complete.

It was becoming more refined with every passing moment.

Blood began to dribble from Van’s nose as he continued using his ability, but he paid it no mind.

He was practically overloading himself with it.

Minutes trickled by as more and more information flooded into his mind.

One of his mechanical limbs stretched out, grabbed a piece of clothing, and dabbed at his nose. Another moved immediately afterward, collecting tools and assisting with the work on the mask.

Everything was coming together.

The information Ray had given him, the data recorded on his computer, and the information he was receiving directly from the pod were all beginning to coalesce into a single picture.

And with each new piece that fell into place, Van’s fingers moved faster.

He tinkered with the mask at a level nobody else would have been capable of reaching.

’I-I see it now. The last link is there... no-nobody would have been able to do what I’m doing without my ability. They wouldn’t have been able to see things as clearly as I am.

No wonder the Blue family couldn’t think of this—they simply didn’t have anything to work with.

But I-I-I—’

As the fourth minute elapsed, Van transferred the last piece of information into the mask, his mechanical limbs finally tuning the final component into place.

’—I have Ray.’

The pod slid open with a loud hiss, and a slightly lightheaded Ray stepped out.

He immediately found himself staring at a room that was practically vibrating.

The things he called ’Junks’ were moving all around him, being pulled towards his best friend as Van’s mechanical limbs brought materials in from every corner of the room.

Ray hovered above him, watching as the frantic movement continued.

Then, after a few more minutes, everything finally settled.

The room gradually calmed down.

Van’s eyes slowly began reverting back to their previous green colour.

During the process of his work, he hadn’t even realised that he had already crushed over ten beast cores, absorbing their essence and boosting his Meta-Force in the process.

It was as if he had been trapped in a trance.

And now, he was finally back to reality.

’Huh? Why do I feel stronger than before? I thought I had hit my limit on the amount of cores I can absorb? So why was I ab—?’

"Oi! Is it done? Are you okay?!" Ray called out worriedly as he hovered above his friend.

Hearing his best friend’s voice, Van slowly came to his senses.

His gaze shifted towards the mask lying beneath his grasp.

He lifted it for a moment and closed his eyes.

Beneath his eyelids, his green eyes turned blue.

"...."

For a moment, his heart thumped with worry.

Then, slowly, a triumphant smile curved across his lips as he opened his eyes.

"Wonderful. It’s done. Now, I just have to make seven more."

Van was practically cackling with pure glee as he gently laid the mask down as though it were a fragile egg.

His laughter rose higher and higher, sounding almost like that of a mad scientist while Ray simply stared at him.

’Van... the ability to communicate with any technology, computer and speak life into dead techs, huh? What a dangerous ability to have for someone obsessed with tech.

I have always wondered what it would be like if the Blue family had an ability, and now I’m seeing something like that play out right in front of me.’

Suddenly, a thought crossed the Tribrid’s mind as he looked towards the pod and then back at the mask.

’...How much more powerful will a great scientist or tech-obsessed figure like Van be with such an ability?

How much more powerful will a leader of the Blue family be with this?’