Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 421 - 55: Spider Swarm (Part 2)

"Then why... didn't I feel... pain just now?" Jiang Yu asked in confusion.

"Just now you were in a state of adrenaline rush, so the pain wasn't obvious... but now, after the adrenaline has receded, the accumulated pain has erupted all at once—even if the wound has healed." Lilith said, "You need to learn to adapt to pain... or you could learn to enjoy it, like I do. Then this negative effect wouldn't be negative anymore; it would become a reward instead."

As Lilith spoke, a smile akin to a psychopath appeared on her face, causing Jiang Yu to shudder internally, and even the painful, itchy, numbing feeling in her arms seemed to lessen considerably.

"Actually, there's another way." Lilith put away the psychotic smile and said seriously, "This pain mostly comes from nerve responses—your arm doesn't really hurt, but your pain nerves are continuously sending signals to your brain... Um, it's a bit like 'phantom limb pain.' Do you know what 'phantom limb' is?"

Jiang Yu nodded.

Phantom limb pain often occurs in patients not long after amputation—they often feel that the removed limb is aching faintly, or there's a tingling sensation like an electric shock, but in reality, the limb they "feel" no longer exists.

This is a type of neuropathic pain, with a significant psychological factor as well.

"When I first turned into a woman, I often felt 'phantom limb pain'... I felt that the thing that was cut off was in pain... I can't describe how exhilarating that feeling was." Lilith said, "Try rubbing your arms and mentally suggest that your arms are not hurt... Don't look elsewhere, just stare at your arms, it should help to alleviate it."

After doing as instructed, Jiang Yu found that the unbearable pain and itchiness had indeed eased considerably.

"Tha... thank you." Jiang Yu looked up at Lilith—this "red-haired witch" did seem a bit "mad," and her psychological state seemed quite problematic, but she wasn't essentially bad... At least, among the Hunters Jiang Yu had interacted with, Lilith could be counted among the "good people."

To be fair, after becoming a Hunter, all the Hunters Jiang Yu encountered, except for Sun Hang, Wang Xiyi, Candle Dragon, and Song Yarong, made her uncomfortable to some degree—either staring lecherously at every woman passing by and licking their lips, or behaving like a lunatic in withdrawal... She even encountered a Hunter with a marked violent tendency recently: a soldier just accidentally blocked his way while he was on patrol, and that Hunter unhesitatingly broke the soldier's neck.

Jiang Yu didn't know if that Hunter was punished later... She didn't dare to ask, afraid of provoking the Hunter's retaliation.

"No need to thank me, just sharing a bit of experience." Lilith held Jiang Yu's hand and pulled her up from the ground.

"Another aberration just came out of Factory No. 5." Ling Xiao's voice suddenly rang out not far away.

"Not spiders again?!" Lilith quickly turned her head, only to see a raggedly dressed person limping out of the factory building.

"A person?" Lilith was taken aback, "Is it someone from the factory? I thought they had all been eaten by the aberrations!"

"Not a person, an aberration." Ling Xiao corrected.

This was a tall man wearing the tattered remains of a Factory 105 uniform. His body was caked with blood and bruises, his skin marred with seams—he looked as if cut into dozens of pieces and stitched back together. Each step he took squeezed frothy blood and pus out from his seams, trickling along the stitches.

"An aberration or an aberration remnant..." Lilith murmured, "Still, this is the first missing person I've encountered. I'll hold off on killing him for now, let's see how much humanity he retains..."

"This man... he... he seems..." Jiang Yu suddenly murmured, "He seems to be the deputy director of Factory 105! His name... his name should be..."

"Wan Cheng." Lilith glanced at the pad in her hand, "This guy is indeed the deputy director of Factory 105... Even though his face is cut into six pieces and stitched back together, the big black mole on his left cheek and the birthmark on his forehead are still there, oh, and another thing, this guy is left-handed."

Following Lilith's gaze, Jiang Yu saw that "Wan Cheng" was holding a multifunctional wrench in his left hand, with several pieces of pink flesh wrapped around its head, and even some white, brain-like substance.

"Did this guy just crack someone's skull with the wrench?" Lilith squinted her eyes, "He couldn't have killed his boss, could he?"

"He's... he's already dead, right?" Jiang Yu asked quietly.

"Theoretically, turning into an aberration doesn't count as death." Lilith shook her head, "But becoming an aberration is indeed worse than death; at least death is clean."

At this moment, Ling Xiao suddenly interjected, "I just scanned channel 888.8 again; it's still playing classical music."

"Oh?" Lilith took a deep breath, "It seems that the BOSS of this layer's inner world is still inside Factory No. 5? This guy coming out now is just an elite monster?"

"Didn't you just say you were going to ask him first..." Jiang Yu, gripping her hunting knife tightly, asked nervously—this knife was now her only weapon, having lost her last two arrows.

"I changed my mind." Lilith said, "This guy probably wouldn't have much to say... To ask questions, better to ask that 'BOSS' hiding inside listening to classical music... Since it retained 'pre-death' hobbies, maybe its memory holds quite a lot."

"How can you be sure that director is the BOSS... Isn't it said that the aberration creating the inner world leaves a projection in each layer? Shouldn't the projection be that..."

"A projection also needs to be anchored to a 'substance,'" Lilith interrupted Jiang Yu, "I suspect the director of Factory 105 is the projection of that aberration in this layer's inner world."

"Alright, let's deal with this guy first." Lilith clapped her hands, and three ice spikes formed over her head, shooting towards the staggering "deputy director" like a flash of lightning.

Accompanied by a sound like a knife slicing through rotten cotton, the three ice spikes pierced through the "deputy director's" left eye, heart, and right lung, exiting through his back.

The "deputy director's" body wobbled but did not collapse, instead continuing to stagger towards the three.

"I wanted to preserve the corpse for study. Now it seems, that's not happening." Lilith said, throwing a fireball used earlier to obliterate the spider swarm at the "deputy director."

The fireball hit the "deputy director" but did not explode as before. Instead, it went out with a "whoosh," leaving only an insignificant scorch mark on the shredded rags.

"Oh, this guy... even has high 'Magic Resistance'?" Lilith's eye twitched twice.

"Magic Resistance?"

"My magic is mimetic in origin, similar to the powers granted by aberration mimics... Some aberration mimetic fragments can neutralize my magic, making it weak or ineffective. I call this 'Magic Resistance.'"

"What about the ice spikes just now...?"

"The ice spikes were pure physical attacks. I just froze water molecules in the air and applied a force to shoot them out... Once released, they have nothing to do with my ability." Lilith explained, "But the fireball is different; it requires magic power to sustain it. Once the magic power supply is cut, it extinguishes immediately."