As the breath of the infected person gradually disappeared, a stream of heat flowed back into Sun Hang's body along those hyphae, quickly restoring Sun Hang's condition—although Sun Hang didn't feel any new abilities, the upper limit of the "blue bar" seemed to grow slightly.

This feeling is very mysterious. It is hard to describe clearly in words, as if Sun Hang's consciousness expanded slightly, unlocking a part of the area that was previously unreachable.

In the grand scheme of consciousness, this bit of expansion can only be considered a "mosquito's leg," but nonetheless, it is a genuine enhancement.

This gave Sun Hang the feeling of playing an RPG game—devoured weird things would turn into his experience points, and when they accumulate to a certain extent, quantitative changes naturally produce qualitative changes.

In gaming terms, that's called a "level up."

As for obtaining Taotie's ability after devouring Taotie, that's equivalent to a boss dropping a rare item "Skill Book."

...

The dramatic change outside the supermarket caught the notice of two other hooligans. Just as they turned around, Sun Hang sprang out from behind the shelves and fired one shot from his large-caliber hunting pistol at each of them.

The burly man's vest was blasted open with a blood hole the size of a bowl, while the wiry man's half ribcage was ripped apart, his severed arm flung out and dangling on the shelves several steps away.

Both died instantly—they didn't even see what their killer looked like.

Sun Hang holstered the pistol, rubbed his hands which were slightly numb from the recoil, and sighed deeply.

For dealing with ordinary people, this thing sure works wonders.

He quickly walked out of the supermarket and ran to the edge of the large pit—all the hyphae had been extracted, leaving behind a shattered humanoid skeleton lying at the bottom of the pit. Surveying the surroundings, traces of corrosion from the infected person's blood were everywhere.

Sun Hang noticed that although the skeleton generally retained a human shape, many places had mutated, with many bones being deformed. Especially at the ribcage, the twelve pairs of ribs typical of humans were completely missing, replaced by a pair of arcuate bone plates that acted like armor, firmly protecting the internal organs.

And on these bone plates, there were many uneven circular holes, which, combined with the image of the infected person earlier, should have been used to accommodate those tube-like appendages.

"This guy's body should be very different from normal humans..." Sun Hang muttered, "This blood is more potent than aqua regia. A container that can hold this substance should have excellent resistance to corrosion... Too bad. If only I could absorb this ability."

Just as Sun Hang thought of this, he noticed his arms itching a bit. Upon looking down, he discovered a thin layer of keratinized skin had somehow formed on his skin surface, feeling like tough cowhide.

"Huh?"

Sun Hang was momentarily taken aback; the keratin layer on his arms quickly disappeared, replaced by the appearance of a white fungal hypha of finger thickness.

The hypha of Taotie itself possesses certain anti-corrosion abilities, yet these are not completely resistant. Just moments ago, the giant cocoon spewed blood because the surface had been corroded by the blood, creating numerous gaps and holes—yet the hypha still relied on its incredibly powerful reproduction ability, forcibly filling these gaps and holes, preventing the infected person from breaking out and being "digested" into mere bones.

Sun Hang tried using the hypha to collect some of the infected person's blood in the pit—sure enough, the hypha covered in a "keratin layer" was entirely immune to the corrosion by the infected person's blood. And when Sun Hang flicked that drop of blood onto the ground, accompanied by a faint sizzle, the originally intact floor was instantly etched into a shallow pit.

"Indeed, I don't actually need to absorb this guy's abilities..." Sun Hang nodded silently to himself, "As long as my 'blue bar' is long enough, I can 'simulate' all of these..."

Upon thinking this, Sun Hang paused suddenly.

He realized something subtly terrifying.

There might be a possibility that his true ability isn't Taotie's "devour," but rather this "wish fulfillment" ability?

This ability likely originates from a "rule-type anomaly," and the dimension of rule-type anomalies is obviously higher than the tangible 'anomalies' like Taotie...

Before Sun Hang became a Hunter, he didn't exhibit any abilities related to "devouring."

Perhaps it was simply because he believed that devouring anomalies would make him stronger, thus he acquired a devour ability akin to Taotie's.

Instead, it's not that Taotie once devoured an anomaly with "wish fulfillment" capabilities, granting Sun Hang this ability.

The sequence of events can completely be seen the other way around.

Sun Hang took a deep breath and looked towards the jet-black sky.

"The anomaly that infected me... what the hell is it?"

...

After Sun Hang dealt with all the hooligans, the City Defense Guard finally arrived late—a few hundred soldiers carrying shields nearly barricaded the street on both sides, with snipers occupying the tactical points on the buildings, and dozens of military drones whizzing overhead, their high-lumen floodlights illuminating the entire block as if it were daylight.

"You are..." a man who appeared to be an officer looked at his tablet, then at Sun Hang, "You're Sun Hang, registered Hunter of Tianfu City, number 0420, right?"

"Yes, that's me." Sun Hang nodded.

"We just received a distress message stating that this supply transfer point was under attack by hooligans, with infected individuals among them." The officer asked again, "May I ask... how is the situation now?"

"The matter has been resolved, three normal human hooligans armed, one infected hooligan, all confirmed dead." Sun Hang said, "Additionally, one City Defense Guard soldier died in the line of duty, and one Block Management Department employee was unfortunately killed."

"Is that infected individual also dead?" The officer repeated to Sun Hang, "Was it you who took action?"

Unconsciously, his tone towards Sun Hang shifted from "you" to the more respectful "you sir."

"Yes, the remaining skeletons are in this pit." Sun Hang said, "But be careful when dealing with the site, the places emanating smoke everywhere are blood splatters from this guy, which is more corrosive than aqua regia. One hooligan accidentally touched a bit, and half his body just vanished."

"Hiss... okay, thank you for the warning. The Investigation Bureau and the Institute's people will arrive soon, and these matters will be handed over to professionals."

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