Chapter 18: 18. Mutation
“Boom!”
At this moment, countless strands of cryptic information incessantly flooded into Lin Qing’s mind.
According to the Entropy’s deduction—
With his talent and his compatibility with the Free Body Series Battle Technique, to incorporate the Combat Skill variations into his instinct, he had to let the biological electricity formed by Mysterious Energy completely permeate every nerve throughout his body, ensuring that the electrical signals stayed at their peak value continuously for 82 times in order to perfectly integrate the Combat Skill variations.
Then, a vast expanse of memories suddenly emerged in Lin Qing’s mind.
These were memories of him repeatedly stimulating his nerves and muscles with the Combat Skill, merely progressing from unskilled attempts to proficient mastery, an experience he couldn’t count how many times he’d been through.
...
To fully penetrate every last nerve and muscle group time and time again had taken who knows how many years, barely achieving perfect success just once.
By the time he had formed his Combat Skill variations into instinct, he didn’t know how many years had passed—the years slipped by, and he finally welcomed success.
At the same time, faint sparks of electricity began to course over Lin Qing’s skin, with even more flashes of light flickering in his pupils, as a surge of electric current began to pass through his entire nervous system repeatedly, strengthening and stimulating his muscle tissue.
Under such astonishing electric energy flow, his body trembled uncontrollably.
After everything had settled down, Lin Qing slowly opened his eyes.
“Instinct?”
Lin Qing murmured softly, then suddenly moved his hands and they instantly became a blur sweeping over his body.
In the blink of an eye, his jacket had appeared in his hands, and in another blink, he had put it back on.
“So fast!!”
Lin Qing couldn’t help being a bit surprised by the change in the speed of his hands.
Without trying it himself, he wasn’t sure how strong this Combat Skill was.
After all, ‘instinct’ means that it could be activated to the fullest extent with a single thought, as natural as breathing, but normally people don’t know exactly how much air they breathe in, at most they’re aware of the proportion.
In his previous life, well before the apocalypse, he had already mastered ‘Magic Master’ to impress girls, and after the apocalypse started, he had also advanced ‘Stealing Expert’ to look for supplies.
These two skills had already trained and improved his hand speed and agility.
And now, he felt that his hand speed and agility were at least three or four times stronger than in his previous life!
The speed of his arm’s swings was originally very quick, easily creating a visual afterimage.
So, even if he increased speed by just a small percentage, it would be remarkable, let alone an absurd three or four times.
In his current state, if he wanted to steal something from an ordinary person, even if he did it right in front of them, they wouldn’t notice a thing!
“The Combat Skill at its fullest extent is indeed a greater improvement than the Level 7 Practice Method,” Lin Qing nodded to himself.
If he brought the Level 7 Combat Skill to its limit, it would just double his current physical strength.
That is, double the strength and a forty or fifty percent increase in speed.
But the Combat Skill “Speed” when brought to the utmost limit, even the strength he wasn’t adept at would nearly double, the speed of his bodily movements significantly increased by more than a hundred percent, and the enhancement of his nerve reaction time was even more exaggerated.
What’s the concept of being twice as fast in a strike?
It’s not about being able to land two blows when your opponent slashes at you once.
It’s about beheading your opponent with a slash while they’ve only just lifted their hand!
This kind of speed was already outrageous.
With such fast neural responses, he could also easily fend off other people’s attacks.
Now, he could easily defeat criminals like Jiang Chengwu ten times over or even more without getting injured!
“Xiao Peidong definitely hasn’t trained his Combat Skill to the Instinct Level, otherwise he wouldn’t just be a deputy team leader…”
“He possesses two Combat Skills, plus the Level 7 Practice Method. He’s stronger than me now, but once I master the Level 7 Practice Method somewhat, even without using a gun, I should be stronger than him…”
Lin Qing revealed a hint of a smile, feeling much more at ease.
Although he wasn’t yet a match for those escapees from Qinghu Island Prison, once he advanced the Level 7 Combat Skill and had enough merits to learn a few more Combat Skills and raised them to Instinct Level…
He wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
“Next, it’s time to repay the debt of Combat Skill ‘Speed,’ learn the Level 7 Combat Skill, try to achieve more, and learn as many Combat Skills as possible!”
Now that he had trained one of the Free Body Series Battle Techniques to the ‘Instinct’ Level, learning the other Combat Skills from the series would also get a boost.
The next time, entry-level would certainly be much easier.
…
Before the new team was established, Lin Qing still joined Group Two for the nightly patrols.
During the recent patrol missions, there was hardly any opportunity for him to take action and even in the rare instances that called for action, there was no need to use Combat Skill.
Every day, apart from the patrol duties, was about repaying the debt of the Combat Skill ‘Speed,’ which required him to complete a perfect penetration of the Combat Skill through the body 82 times to settle it.
If it were merely mastering the Combat Skill, achieving perfect penetration was something one could only succeed once in every few years, when in extremely good form and with a bit of luck.
But at his instinctual level, he naturally managed to perfectly penetrate the Combat Skill through the body every time.
To his delight, he managed to do so five times a day.
That meant—
In total, it would only take seventeen days for him to completely repay the Combat Skill!
This also made Lin Qing somewhat glad he chose the Free Body Series Combat Skill, as it proved to be quite quick to repay.
…
January 10th.
Dusk.
Iron Stone Street, inside a beef hotpot restaurant with a street-front location.
After Lin Qing scanned the QR code to order, he prepared two portions of dipping sauce, and then returned to his seat to wait.
The beef in this restaurant was famous in the surrounding neighborhood, and a bit pricey too; his appetite was much larger than before, so he couldn’t afford to eat here often.
Only recently, after being promoted to the Patrol Department and drawing a salary of seven thousand, did he indulge himself after payday.
Of course, it was best to come alone; otherwise, it would be too expensive.
“Not a small crowd…”
Lin Qing glanced over the customers coming and going in the hotpot restaurant and couldn’t help feeling as if he had returned to his previous life, lifting his spirits.
It had been a long time since he had seen such a peaceful and harmonious scene.
Peaceful times were indeed very lovely.
This month, with the dissolution of the Blue Scarf Gang, Iron Stone Street had also become much more stable; at least the shop owners didn’t have to worry about being forced to pay hefty protection fees anymore.
“Brother Lin, your meat is here.”
Soon after, a young woman in her twenties with meticulous makeup, pushing a cart loaded with beef, came over smilingly.
“Okay, put it here,” Lin Qing nodded.
“Do you need me to slice the meat for you?” The young woman leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice, “I don’t know if I have the honor to serve the officer?”
“No need.”
Lin Qing glanced at her, “There are so many customers in the store, go busy yourself.”
“It’s fine. My brother is here,” the young woman said dismissively.
Lin Qing felt a bit helpless. In this life, he had a good appearance and was a young member of the Patrol Department, which indeed brought some trouble.
“I can do it myself. I can’t eat with someone watching me.”
“Oh… alright then.”
The young woman muttered and then left.
Lin Qing breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then—
[Current Order Level decreased by 0.3 Levels]
At that moment, a line of deep black text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
“It decreased by 0.3 Levels?” Lin Qing’s gaze shifted slightly.
The text was black, indicating that the decrease in Order Level wasn’t directed at him but because his life circle had become more chaotic and dangerous.
If the danger were targeting him personally, the text would have been blood red.
“What’s going on…”
Lin Qing couldn’t help but furrow his brow, “It was hard enough getting to 0.6 Level, and now it’s dropped back to 0.3 Level?”
The initial Order Level was 0.3 Level, but after solving the hidden fugitive Jiang Chengwu and disbanding the Blue Scarf Gang, it had increased to 0.6 Level.
He had been hoping that one day he would raise the Order Level to 1 Level, and perhaps he would be able to advance an additional skill.
For the past thirty days, the Order Level had been steadily at 0.6 Level. Why would it suddenly drop by 0.3 Level today?
“Could it be that Luo Tuo has been released? And has he rebuilt the Blue Scarf Gang? But it shouldn’t drop by 0.3 Level…”
Lin Qing frowned and, without caring for the hot pot, immediately picked up his phone, scrolled through his contacts to ‘Criminal Police Captain Chu Yunfeng,’ and called him.
“Captain Lin?”
Soon, a somewhat deep male voice came from the other side.
“Captain Chu, it’s me.”
Lin Qing didn’t beat around the bush and asked straightforwardly, “Has Luo Tuo been released?”
The other party was the Criminal Police Captain of Lin’an City Police, in charge of the fugitive Jiang Chengwu and Luo Tuo’s case, so he had been in contact with him.
The Patrol is only responsible for patrolling and searching while the police are the ones handling the cases and detentions.
“Luo Tuo…”
Chu Yunfeng paused, then spoke solemnly, “We are very grateful for Captain Lin’s efforts and have always wanted to find definitive evidence of Luo Tuo’s crimes, but… I’m sorry to say, we’ve detained Luo Tuo for thirty days and still haven’t found any concrete evidence.”
His tone carried profound helplessness, “This morning, we had to release Luo Tuo.”
“Indeed…”
Lin Qing narrowed his eyes slightly.
He had heard from Qin Qin.
All the evidence that could have potentially put Luo Tuo in jail was mysteriously wiped clean—clearly, there was an unknown force intent on protecting Luo Tuo.
Criminal detention can last for a maximum of thirty days; if no real evidence is found after that period, the suspect must be released.
“What about Jiang Chengwu?”
Lin Qing asked again, “Has he woken up?”
“No,” Chu Yunfeng said, “The doctors have said that Jiang Chengwu suffered severe brain damage and it’s highly unlikely he’ll ever wake up again.”
Not Jiang Chengwu?
Lin Qing couldn’t help but frown slightly.
He had thought that perhaps Jiang Chengwu had awakened from his vegetative state and fled, which was why the Order Level had dropped so significantly.
But now it seemed that Jiang Chengwu wasn’t the cause?
“Okay… I understand,” Lin Qing said, “Sorry to bother you, Captain Chu.”
“Wait a minute.”
Chu Yunfeng’s voice was stern, “I still want to remind Captain Lin, Luo Tuo has a complex background. He didn’t form the Blue Scarf Gang just for something trivial like protection rackets; it’s also tied to several missing persons cases… Captain Lin, you should still be cautious.”
“Missing persons cases?” Lin Qing said, “I understand, thank you.”
“Also, I know that at the Patrol Department level, you have the authority to search the surrounding areas of your residence at any time.”
Chu Yunfeng’s tone became more earnest, “Perhaps one day we will need Captain Lin’s cooperation for our work, and I hope you can assist us then.”
“If it’s work-related, of course, it’s no problem,” Lin Qing didn’t completely commit.
“Thanks.”
After ending the call, Lin Qing continued to eat at the restaurant, thinking about how to investigate the matter.
Suddenly—
“Bang!”
A loud sound of shattering glass suddenly erupted, and the glass door of the restaurant was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, some parts deeply indented.
From the shape of the indentation, it was clear that someone had kicked it fiercely from the outside!
Fortunately, the glass door was made of laminated safety glass with a PVB interlayer, so even though the glass was shattered, the pieces were stuck to the PVB film.
Otherwise, many customers might have been injured by the splintering glass shards.
But Lin Qing’s brow furrowed.
Even this reinforced laminated glass had been kicked into this state?
During his Patrol Major exams, he had also tried hitting this type of safety glass.
Ordinary people, if untrained, couldn’t damage such a glass door even with all their might.
Lin Qing questioned himself, even if he didn’t use any Combat Skill, a full force kick could at best only damage the reinforced glass door to this extent.
“Bang!”
The already deformed glass door was suddenly kicked open, and a swarm of people walked in from outside, at least twenty in total.
The group of customers in the restaurant panicked at the sight.
Because almost all the people entering the restaurant were wearing a blue scarf tied around their necks!