Hell's Handbook

Chapter 240: Going Solo

The female biologist no longer had the demure demeanor she once had. Her entire head was made from blackened muscle and looked so gross, one would puke from just looking at her.

And she didn’t seem to like looking like this either. Maybe it stemmed from a woman’s natural instinct to care about her appearance.

But Su Jin didn’t care about how she felt. Regardless of whether she was a great beauty or a monster, she was nothing more than his opponent now.

The fight continued and the biologist improved her combat skills. She was no longer as caught by surprise by Su Jin’s attacks, but she was still on the losing end. The difference between them was simply too great.

Arkas pushed his glasses up as he marveled at how formidable Su Jin was. He and the biologist were both supposed to have evolved to a higher level. How was an ordinary human thrashing them this badly?

Arkas suddenly opened his mouth and spat a worm the size of a finger out. As it flew out, it shrank itself into a conical shape before hurtling toward Su Jin’s Adam’s apple.

Su Jin was busy fighting the biologist and did not notice that Arkas had launched a sneak attack. The biologist wasn’t great at fighting, but she was very good at defending herself, so it was taking him quite a long time to defeat her.

But just when that conical worm was about to stab into his throat, a laser suddenly shot out from the side and shattered the conical worm.

“Who’s there?!” roared Arkas furiously.

“Mr. Su! Are you alright?” A man walked out from a dark corner. It turned out to be Jefferson.

Su Jin was surprised for a second before retreating quickly to where Jefferson was. He exclaimed with a smile, “Captain Jefferson, I was just wondering how I could locate you! I didn’t expect you… to come knocking on my door instead!”

“What?” Jefferson looked confused before his eyes suddenly bulged.

Su Jin brandished his knives so quickly it was impossible to see how he even did it. He hacked Jefferson to pieces and a large number of worms emerged from every piece.

“You wanted to pretend you were helping me as a fellow human, then give me a final fatal blow when my guard was down? Well, too bad! Everyone on the spaceship has mutated, so there’s no way you’re still human too.” Su Jin had no emotion in his gaze at all. He knew there was a problem from the moment Jefferson appeared.

As Jefferson’s head lay on the floor, it suddenly smiled icily at Su Jin.

“How arrogant! Since you already noticed something amiss about me, why didn’t you make sure I was completely dead so that I wouldn’t be able to attack you? Leaving my head in one piece is going to be the biggest mistake of your life.”

A silver gleam suddenly shot out from Jefferson’s eyes. Su Jin’s body shook violently as his eyes widened. He could no longer move.

“HAHAHA! Arrogance is one of humanity’s worst traits!” Jefferson laughed maniacally.

Arkas and the biologist both looked terribly relieved. Su Jin had been a threat to them since he appeared and dealing with him had been very stressful.

“Just kill him. I wouldn’t dare to use someone like him in an experiment. It will just take one wrong move for a disaster to happen, like playing with fire,” said Arkas.

The biologist walked toward Su Jin and a creepy smile spread across her blackened head full of muscles. “Captain Jefferson is still able to survive after his head got chopped off. What about you? Will you still be able to live once I chop your head off? HAHA!”

She snatched a knife from Su Jin’s hand and had a fierce glint in her eye as she swung the blade toward Su Jin’s neck.

Just then, Su Jin’s lips curled into a faint smile. The supposedly immobile Su Jin suddenly moved as swiftly as lightning.

Su Jin pierced the biologist’s chest with one palm. He vibrated his palm extremely quickly as it went through her, which shattered all the worms that had replaced her internal organs.

“Eghhhh!” The biologist could hardly believe what was happening to her. Su Jin’s movement was supposed to be within Jefferson’s control.

“If I lost my head, I wouldn’t be able to live anymore, but… you know, I normally wouldn’t give anybody the chance to lop it off.” Su Jin pulled his hand out, took his knife back and hacked her to pieces.

The core of the biologist were the worms inside her that had replaced her internal organs, so she died once Su Jin had shattered all the worms inside her body. But to play safe, he decided to slice her thoroughly.

Only a few seconds had passed between the time the biologist tried to decapitate Su Jin until Su Jin killed her. Everything happened so quickly, the other two could barely wrap their heads around what happened.

Jefferson exclaimed in disbelief, “That’s impossible! That’s impossible! How were you able to escape my grip?”

Su Jin snorted. “You’ve got psychokinesis, huh. I’m way better at this game than you are!”

Even though Su Jin wasn’t allowed to use his Spirit Power in this Challenge, it hadn’t really disappeared. Jefferson was someone who had acquired these skills very recently, so he was no match for someone with such a deep understanding of how it worked like Su Jin was. Even if someone with psychokinetic powers as formidable Xu Ran tried, it would be hard to control Su Jin with such powers now.

Su Jin raised a foot above Jefferson’s severed head. Jefferson had a horrified look on his face and the silver gleam in his eyes kept flashing in an attempt to stop Su Jin but to no avail.

PFFT! Su Jin brought his foot down and Jefferson’s head exploded. Several earthworm looking creatures were coiled up inside, but they had all been trampled to death by Su Jin’s foot.

In just ten seconds, Su Jin had completely annihilated Jefferson and the female biologist. Arkas was the last one left.

Su Jin looked up at Arkas and found it strange that this fellow didn’t seem panicky at all. It wasn’t like Arkas didn’t have the chance to save Jefferson. Su Jin had been watching out for him, but he didn’t do anything at all and just watched on. This fellow possibly had some trump card that Su Jin still didn’t know about.

“That’s really impressive. I underestimated humans before this. I didn’t think a human body would be capable of unleashing such a terrifying level of strength. That was truly incredible,” said Arkas in amazement.

“Are you regretting the fact that you look like a monster now?” Su Jin raised an eyebrow.

Arkas shook his head without hesitation. “No, no, you’re mistaken. To me, improvement in strength is not the most important. The most important is the mind. Compared to humans, I am already able to view the world from a different angle. I’m able to abandon these useless emotions, while you… aren’t there yet.”

“Do you mean you’ve gone from being human to becoming an animal? We normally call this regression, not an improvement,” said Su Jin with a laugh.

Arkas didn’t get angry. He said slowly, “Do you know the aim of evolution?”

“To survive,” said Su Jin without thinking.

Arkas gave him a nod of approval. “That’s right. For living creatures, the aim of evolution is for the sake of survival. And these meaningless emotions are only going to become an obstacle to survival.”

“Emotions are the defining characteristic of higher beings. A civilization without any emotions is a twisted one,” snapped Su Jin in contempt.

Arkas put the things in his hands down and suddenly broke into a smile. “Very well, let’s see if emotions will help you to live, or become the death of you.”

He clapped his hands and some worms in human form walked over. They had evolved quite quickly and looked like the worms that had eaten Su Jin’s palm. They had four limbs and a giant sting growing from their butt.

They were holding two people: Kano Mai and Situ Jin. The two of them were conscious and were struggling nonstop, but they were no match for these human-shaped worms at all.

Su Jin’s heart palpitated in shock. He did not expect Arkas to pull such a stunt on him.

“My worms have excellent senses, including their sense of hearing and smell. Trying to play hide and seek around them is not a very smart thing to do,” said Arkas with a chuckle before his expression turned solemn.

He raised his voice, “Su Jin, you think emotions are very important, don’t you? Now, I want you to exchange your life for theirs, otherwise…I’ll kill them both.”

“Jin, don’t listen to him! If you die, we’re definitely doomed!” yelled Kano Mai.

“Su Jin… you little asshole! If you want me to forgive you for punching me just now, then you’ve got to kill these fellows!” yelled Situ Jin.

Arkas did not stop them from having a conversation. He seemed to be enjoying all of this, like a cat playing with a mouse.

Su Jin looked like he was conflicted, but he had actually already made his choice. Regardless of whether it was for the sake of Kano Mai or Situ Jin, he could not let himself die. If he died, they would lose any chance to turn the tables.

There was only a chance if he, and he alone survived. Even if the other two died, he could still find a way to revive them.

“I’m going to kill you!” Su Jin charged forward without warning. He ran as quickly as he could, hoping to save the two of them.

But Arkas had been on guard all this time, even though he was a little surprised at how decisive Su Jin was. He tapped his fingers quietly and one of the human shaped worms took the two hostages away, while the other one blocked Su Jin’s way.

“Haha! So much for all that talk about emotions! When your life is at stake, you chose your own survival without hesitation and disregarded their safety. What happened to all those emotions?” Arkas laughed maniacally.

“I am respecting the wishes of my companions, that’s the camaraderie we have! I… I will bring them back! I will bring them home!” yelled Su Jin as he smashed the worm blocking his way to pieces. But more worms swarmed over immediately after that.

“Is that so? What touching words! In that case, kill them,” said Arkas.

The worm who was holding onto the two hostages became excited. It swung its tail and stabbed its sting straight into Situ Jin’s chest.

Situ Jin looked up at the worm, then hung his head lifelessly.

“NO!” yelled Su Jin angrily. He kicked a pile of worms dead and tried to get to Kano Mai, but more worms quickly filled the empty space.

Kano Mai had a weak smile on her face as she opened her mouth slightly and said something to Su Jin. Unfortunately, the fight between Su Jin and the worms was too noisy and Su Jin did not hear what she said.

“I… love you, stupid.” Kano Mai smiled before the human shaped worm’s sting pierced her chest as well.