Apocalyptic Island - Chapter 63

Chapter 63

The bullet comments were flooding the screen frantically, filled with people egging him on to eat the crystal.

Wen Yishu furrowed her brows tightly; this man was truly insane, disregarding all consequences for the sake of traffic, actually swallowing the crystal.

The moment the crystal entered his mouth, it melted away like a piece of smooth ice, yet there was no liquid; it slid down his throat silkily. “Back-Scratcher” didn’t even have a chance to regret it; his eyes widened, and he subconsciously swallowed.

Time passed minute by minute, yet no change occurred. A mirror stood before him; his reflection looked exactly as it had moments ago, yet he felt something was different. It felt as if a fire was burning inside his body, and the warm air from the central air conditioning made him feel increasingly feverish and restless.

“Back-Scratcher” collapsed weakly onto the bed. He felt his forehead with his hand and confirmed he was already running a fever. At this moment, the fear of death overcame his thirst for traffic. Everyone knew what a fever signified. Especially for someone like him who was courting death, a high fever was the precursor to mutation; mutation was now a certainty for him.

“Back-Scratcher” felt immense pain throughout his body, as if he were being incinerated. He curled into a ball in agony. The neat bedsheets became wrinkled and messy due to his squirming. The discussion in the livestream reached an unprecedented heat. This was the most high-profile day since he started as a content creator, but unfortunately, he no longer had the capacity to care about the content of the bullet comments.

Even more meddlesome viewers kept sending him tips, telling the super-moderators not to shut down the livestream. But at this point, no one would shut it down anyway; everyone wanted to see his subsequent transformation. People on the other side of the screen typed excitedly, appearing as though they had already foreseen his future.

Would hair like a rat’s grow out of his body? Everyone watched him with excitement, waiting for his mutation.

Wen Yishu was no exception. Her hand gripped her cup tightly as she carefully observed “Back-Scratcher’s” appearance. Cold sweat covered his forehead; he seemed to be undergoing immense suffering. It was unknown if the hotel staff had seen the stream, but no one entered the room. The room was terrifyingly quiet, save for the heavy breathing transmitted by the microphone pinned to his chest.

“Back-Scratcher” only felt many words flashing before his eyes. Dizzy and lightheaded, he tried to grab the text in the air, only to realize he could see them without even opening his eyes. Once the burning discomfort gradually receded, he felt the exhaustion in his body vanish, and lying on the bed felt incredibly comfortable.

He opened his eyes and saw the bullet comments scrolling incessantly on the light-screen, everyone asking how he was. The entire process took only about 20 minutes—much faster than when Wen Yishu had mutated. He hadn’t turned into a terrifying monster; instead, he sat up dazed.

When he started the broadcast bare-faced, he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Now, his glasses lay on the bed, yet he felt his vision was incredibly clear. Wen Yishu clenched her fists; if this vlogger was okay, he might possess an ability just like her!

“Friends…”

“Back-Scratcher’s” voice had become somewhat hoarse. He sat up from the bed with some effort. A pair of bloodshot eyes stared into the lens, addressing the people in front of the screen: “My vision seems to have returned to normal, even though I’m not wearing contact lenses.”

For nearsighted people, laser surgery and lens implantation are two different procedures. Even in today’s technologically advanced era, the former still carries risks of soreness, dry eye syndrome, and floaters. The latter doesn’t have these side effects and the surgery is relatively safe as it doesn’t shave the cornea too thin. However, it has one drawback: if the patient’s degree of nearsightedness increases later, the lens must be removed and replaced, which is very troublesome.

“Back-Scratcher” was someone who disliked having knives near his eyes, so for the sake of looking good on camera, he usually wore cosmetic contacts. His fans generally knew this. But now he claimed his eyes were healed; without relying on any external force, his vision had returned to normal—he could even see further.

This was simply incredible. Wen Yishu set down her cup, enlarged the light-screen, and leaned in to examine it closely, refusing to miss a single detail. Her heart hammered like a drum as she observed every change in “Back-Scratcher,” attempting to figure out the cause.

He sat there quietly, gazing calmly at the light-screen, having turned off the central AC to cool himself down. The high fever just now felt like a dream; the moment he opened his eyes, he found the whole world clear. His previously somewhat dull thinking was also much faster than usual.

He felt that something had changed in his body. To verify the conjecture in his heart, he stood by the window, pulled back the closed curtains, and looked outside. A billboard that he couldn’t see clearly even with glasses was now exceptionally vivid in his eyes. Even the tiny, mosquito-sized text on a billboard dozens of meters away was clearly visible to him.

“Back-Scratcher” let out a cry of surprise. Every image seemed capable of becoming infinitely clear before his eyes; his eyes were like a telescope with adjustable focal length, seeing everything in ultra-high definition. He ran excitedly to the camera, telling everyone in the stream that he could see everything perfectly, even better than a standard chip implant.

He possessed a superpower: clairvoyance.

This was the last sentence of his broadcast. Immediately after he finished, the stream was cut off. The light-screen flickered a few times before jumping to his recorded stream interface, replaying the highlights from the start of the broadcast.

Wen Yishu watched it repeatedly. Comparing it to her own mutation, she felt this vlogger’s transformation was incredibly fast. She had almost thought the vlogger would turn into a xenogenic or die instantly. Unexpectedly, he was alive and well, and even possessed an ability—though his ability was very strange, completely different from hers.

Now, without more people to reference, one could only guess that swallowing a crystal carried the possibility of generating an ability. “Back-Scratcher’s” stream was forcibly shut down. Wen Yishu felt his life ahead wouldn’t be easy, as he had already exposed himself to the public eye. He would certainly become a target for the Federation and many tech companies to fight over. A public figure is a double-edged sword: it can protect you, but it can also hurt you.

Sure enough, “Back-Scratcher” quickly started a second livestream; making the public aware that he was exposed was indeed the best choice.

Beyond his livestream room, posts on the Real-Time Feed quickly piled up. Everyone was frantically and urgently asking if anyone could verify the effect of the crystals. Had the Federation and tech companies still not researched a result after all this time? Was the ability “Back-Scratcher” manifested an individual anomaly, or an ability everyone could possess? These inquiries and replies were quickly pushed to the top as trending posts.

People seemed to see hope in facing the apocalypse. If different abilities could be produced, did it mean humans could also evolve and no longer need to fear the plants? At the same time, other vloggers saw this immense traffic and began to mimic “Back-Scratcher” by starting livestreams. These frenzied discussions prompted the birth of one livestream room after another.

But not everyone had a crystal. Some people started streams only to sit there doing nothing, with nothing in front of them; the popularity of such rooms quickly plummeted to the bottom. Meanwhile, those who actually possessed crystals also began to broadcast. Such rooms could attract massive audiences in a short time, but not everyone was as brave as “Back-Scratcher,” capable of eating it just like that.

The emergency policy issued by the Federation on the Real-Time Feed urged everyone not to consume crystals, but everyone was shocked by “Back-Scratcher.” There were still those who dared to mimic him and swallow the crystals.

This particular livestream featured a commoner. She didn’t have much traffic. She seemed to have pulled all the curtains shut, huddling in a corner of her bedroom, sitting on the floor. In her hand was a crystal obtained from a rat; under the light of a flash, it emitted a faint glow. Her hair was messy, and a long scar on her pretty face was still seeping blood.

The girl didn’t look old, only about seventeen or eighteen. Her expression was very calm as she looked quietly at the light-screen: “Mom, if you see this, please come back quickly. You didn’t care at all about what I said. It’s so dangerous outside, yet you still had to go out. I don’t know if you found food. I called you but couldn’t get through. It’s been a day already. Actually, I know… you went to someone else’s house and didn’t want me anymore.”

Speaking to this point, the girl took a deep breath and brought the crystal closer. She seemed to be repulsed by the bloody scent on it, wrinkling her small face as she continued: “Mom, I can protect you, and I can protect myself. Look, such a big rat, and I defeated it.”

The camera shifted to show a half-person-tall rat lying on the floor. A scar on the girl’s arm flashed by, but Wen Yishu, watching the screen, still saw it. The camera shook violently; she knew what the girl was about to do and hurriedly entered the chat, wanting to type and persuade her not to eat it.

The bullet comments were moving rapidly, with polarized opinions growing explosively in the room. One side urged her not to eat, while the other maliciously egged her on. The girl set the camera back up, aiming it at herself, soaked the crystal in a water cup, shook it, and took it out.

The next second, she placed it in her mouth without hesitation.

Wen Yishu’s breathing hitched for a moment. The girl watched the camera quietly. After a few seconds, a pained expression appeared on her face. She leaned against the bedside, gasping for fresh air.

When “Back-Scratcher” was streaming, he hadn’t egged on or discouraged the audience from using crystals, but the visual impact of that moment was extremely strong, helping undecided people finalize the thought in their hearts to some extent. It was this girl—to make her mother see her, she ate the crystal. Her young life hadn’t considered the consequences of doing so at all.

Finally, a few seconds after she completely collapsed, a blood-curdling scream echoed in the livestream. She was wearing pajamas, and the indoor heating made her feel feverish. She didn’t manage to wake up again after enduring physical pain and high fever like “Back-Scratcher” did.

Her body shriveled rapidly, and dense black hair grew out. Her face became pointed and narrow like a monkey’s, and her front teeth grew quickly. Her entire being was like a giant rat, and that sharp scream turned into a piercing squeaking sound.

The bullet comments went deathly silent. Every viewer fell into a simultaneous silence; only a few scattered, incoherent exclamations still drifted across the screen. Everyone had witnessed the process of a girl turning into a xenogenic.

The “girl” lying on the floor seemed to have completely passed away. She twitched twice and then opened a pair of bloodshot eyes.

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