Chapter 69: "Am I Not Human?"—Restrictions Lifted, Seeking Your Support!

(Promotion! Please shower this story with your votes and support. I’ll be here with my little basket, catching every ticket you throw my way~)

Chapter 69: [Am I Not Human?]

“Testing, Strength, Level One Initiated, Begin!”

Old Tian held a device resembling a controller in his hand, standing two meters away from Chen Xiao.

Chen Xiao took a deep breath. His upper body was bare, revealing a sturdy physique with no visible scars—truly, the cell repair serum was miraculous. He nodded to Old Tian, and as the latter pressed a button on the controller...

Bang!

Suddenly, a skylight opened in the ceiling. A wooden table from the café above dropped straight down. Chen Xiao raised his arms and caught it in one swift motion.

“Whew...” He set the table down gently, a wry smile crossing his lips. “Why drop something like this?”

“Budget cuts,” Old Tian sighed. “A professional power measurement device for ability users is far too expensive. Us old bones have to save for retirement, you know.” He glanced at a chart beside him. “This table weighs about thirty kilograms. Let’s move on to the next step.”

Chen Xiao rotated his shoulder joints, stretching, his spirits lifting. “Again!”

“Ready! Power Test, Level Two Initiated… Begin!”

Boom!

This time, a white object plummeted from the ceiling—it was a freezer from the café above!

Clang! Chen Xiao was almost flattened, barely managing to raise his arms and catch it with great effort. His legs wobbled, and if he hadn’t twisted his waist to steady himself, he might have been crushed beneath it.

He set the freezer down gently, wiped the sweat from his brow, and exhaled, slightly out of breath. “Old Tian… this… freezer…”

Old Tian’s smile never faded. “Ha, budget issues again.”

He paused, frowning as he checked the chart. “With the contents inside, that freezer weighs about ninety kilograms.”

His eyes grew worried. “Chen Xiao, can you keep going?”

Chen Xiao frowned, glancing at his arms. “It feels… like my strength is weaker than before.”

“Let’s try again.” With renewed energy, Old Tian pressed the final button. “Power Test, Level Three!”

This time, nearly half the ceiling opened up!

With a thunderous crash, a massive object dropped—it was the nearly one-meter-long marble counter from the café’s main hall upstairs!

Chen Xiao spread his arms wide to catch it, but as the counter fell, he was instantly forced to his knees. Fortunately, Old Tian reacted swiftly, launching himself forward.

A shadow flashed by—Old Tian’s toe lightly tapped the counter, and with a swoosh, the massive slab was sent flying across the room, smashing against the wall!

Boom...

Dust billowed, and the counter broke into pieces.

Chen Xiao stood rooted to the spot, shaken, his arms nearly dislocated.

“It seems… something is wrong.” Old Tian lowered his leg, rubbing his temples. “Chen Xiao, our previous tests rated your strength at B-level—beyond ordinary human limits. You could withstand about ten tons at most. But now… your strength has regressed too much.”

Chen Xiao’s brow was furrowed tight. “What’s going on?”

Old Tian shook his head. “I don’t know. I already tested you with the detector before. According to the device, your strength level has dropped to C. I suspected the device was malfunctioning—but now it’s clear: the problem is with your body.”

“Have there ever been cases of power regression among ability users?” Chen Xiao asked.

“Rare—almost unheard of,” Old Tian’s expression was grim. “Let’s set this aside for now and test the others.”

He drew a small sample of Chen Xiao’s blood, placed it in a test tube, and slid it into the lab analyzer in the room. Soon, data appeared on the screen.

Old Tian glanced at the results, forcing a smile. “Your blood is indeed toxic now. You’ve become an ability user similar to Alice. However… judging from the current data, your toxin ability is much weaker than hers.”

He then offered a brief explanation:

Chen Xiao’s blood now contained an additional substance similar to ‘biochemical phosphate’—a compound absent in normal human blood. This substance, once present, would react with ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in the mitochondria of his cells, resulting in the formation of a new compound called AQP (adenosine tetraphosphate). This AQP acts as a special venom: it can cause unconsciousness, paralysis, muscle rigidity, and in severe cases, death.

Old Tian’s knowledge was based on intelligence gathered about Alice herself. In Chen Xiao’s case, the AQP concentration in his bodily fluids was much lower than Alice’s—about one-fifth, meaning his toxin was far less potent.

“With your current toxin levels, you can at most render someone unconscious or paralyzed, but not kill them,” Old Tian mused, frowning. “We’ve had many encounters with Alice in the past, and my agency once analyzed her abilities. The conclusion was that her blood toxin, AQP, was cumulative. So even though your concentration is lower, if you lose enough blood, quantity can make up for the lack of potency.”

“In other words, if Alice can kill a person with one milliliter of blood, I’d need five…” Chen Xiao said, half laughing, half crying.

“Count yourself lucky, kid,” Old Tian snorted. “With your blood toxin so diluted, your saliva is even weaker—almost harmless to humans. You’re young, if you become a venomous man… Heh, you look like a pretty boy, but if your whole body is toxic, how will you ever get close to a girl? One kiss and you’d put her straight to sleep. And don’t forget, ahem, * is a bodily fluid too…”

Chen Xiao’s face turned crimson, staring at the seemingly amiable Old Uncle Tian, who could be so shameless.

Next, Old Tian had Chen Xiao demonstrate Alice’s mimicry ability.

Officially known as “Master of Imitation” in the world of ability users.

Low-level mimicry can only alter part of one’s form, with strong limitations—in fact, things like popular Indian yoga or bone-shrinking techniques might, in a sense, be considered a form of mimicry. The hallmark is altering one’s shape, appearance, and so on.

High-level “Master of Imitation” skills are said to be truly wondrous: the body itself develops an innate ability to learn and imitate. For example, if you see an acrobat or gymnast perform a difficult move on TV, after watching once, your body can replicate it perfectly and effortlessly!

“The essence of the Master of Imitation is that your body isn’t limited by the brain—it has a powerful self-learning function. The trouble with such ability users is, first, their appearance can change at will, even a man can convincingly masquerade as a woman… Even completely naked, you wouldn’t know the difference! Second, their physical prowess is formidable, since their imitation skills let them learn new combat techniques at lightning speed—watch once and they can reproduce it perfectly!”

Chen Xiao did as Old Tian instructed, demonstrating his mimicry.

The results showed he could change his face to resemble someone else—but only his face, or rather, only an area about that size. He could not alter his whole body—when he impersonated Xu Ershao to deal with Qiu Yun, it was because their builds were similar to begin with; he only changed his facial features.

“According to our data, Alice’s own mimicry was barely at B-level—she could change her whole body’s form to pass as someone else, but not reach the level of mimicking every physical skill. Your mimicry is weaker still. You can alter your facial features for about ten minutes at most—that’s your limit. So, I’d classify your mimicry as just barely C-level.”

Old Tian scratched his head, glancing at the records.

“Strength, mimicry, toxin…” He smiled wryly. “Kid, you’re a real oddity. In the international community of ability users, ninety percent of people only have one power. Having two makes you a notable expert. More than two, and you’re first-class. Yet you have so many… but every single one is really weak.”

He pondered. “My guess is… your body has a fixed total of ability energy. Originally, you only had one power, pure strength. Now you’ve acquired more, but the total energy hasn’t increased—it’s just split among the new powers, so each one is diluted. That’s probably it.”

He sighed. “Lastly, let’s test the power you got from Qiu Yun—Metal Molecule Detonation! This one is rare. Qiu Yun relied on it to dominate for years.”

With that, he pulled out a handful of metal objects from his pocket…

Chen Xiao glanced over: “…”

They were all items from the café.

The largest were metal cups, saucers, and a coffee pot. The smallest were thin teaspoons… and even two tiny screws!

“One by one,” Old Tian said, suddenly producing a riot shield like those used by police, stepping back two paces. “Start with the coffee pot.”

Chen Xiao obliged, grasping it and focusing his mind…

Ten seconds passed—nothing happened.

“…Try a smaller one, the cup,” Old Tian sighed.

Another ten seconds—still nothing.

“Smaller! The spoon!”

Still nothing…

“The screw…” Old Tian was getting discouraged.

Chen Xiao pinched a screw between his fingers, staring intently…

At last! A strange sensation arose—as if the screw wasn’t metal, but an extension of his own flesh, a limb connected to his body! He felt he could control this tiny screw as if it were part of himself.

“Detonate!”

He shouted in his heart.

Pop!

Rather anticlimactically, the screw did “detonate,” but the effect was no more impressive than a small firecracker—just a few sparks, and flecks of iron sprayed onto Chen Xiao’s face…

Uncle Tian gave a dry laugh. “Well…”

He quickly set down the riot shield, scribbled on the chart: “Metal Detonation—Beginner Level.”

...

Four powers, but each only a notch above entry level.

If one had to define Chen Xiao’s current state, “wide but shallow” would be the most accurate description.

“That’s why I said you’re in trouble.” Old Tian’s tone grew serious.

Chen Xiao simply smiled. “It doesn’t matter to me. Abilities or not, it makes little difference.”

“It’s not about power,” Old Tian sighed. He hesitated, then spoke slowly. “Kid, according to current research, the international community of ability users agrees: all our powers come from genes—specifically, variations in DNA beyond the human norm. But DNA research is cutting-edge, and even in our community, we know little. Still, I can tell you one thing—an idea very popular among ability users worldwide.”

“What is it?”

“The more powers you have, the more monstrous you are,” Old Tian said with a wry smile.

Chen Xiao shook his head. “I don’t understand… isn’t having more powers a good thing?”

“The more you have, the greater the difference between your genes and normal humans. The problem is, our knowledge of genetics is still very limited… You know the basics: the difference between men and women is just one chromosome, yet that makes all the difference! And between chimpanzees and humans, the genetic difference is less than three-tenths of a percent!”

Old Tian’s expression grew even stranger. “So, as an ability user, the more powers you have, the more your genes diverge from humanity… Think about it, a chimpanzee is only three-tenths of a percent different from us. How much have you changed? If the difference gets too great… who’s to say you’re still human? From a genetic perspective, you might be even less human than a chimpanzee!”

“So… I’m not human?” Chen Xiao pointed at his own nose.

“That’s not the main issue,” Old Tian sighed. “The real concern is… we don’t know what will happen if you mutate too much. When your genes change so drastically, who knows what abnormalities might arise? You could wake up tomorrow with horns on your head, or gills on your face… nothing would surprise me.”

...

...

In the café’s main hall, Fatty wore a waiter’s apron, broom in one hand, rag in the other, his plump face twisted in misery.

“I quit! I quit! I’m not doing this anymore!” he wailed, utterly aggrieved. “How is anyone supposed to live like this? I clean tables, sweep floors, pour tea, serve water—fine! But is this even a place for humans? I clean a table, a hole opens in the floor, and the table drops right through! I wipe the freezer, another hole opens, and down it goes! Now even the counter’s gone—if I weren’t so quick on my feet, I’d have fallen in myself… Boohoohoo! This is too much! Too much bullying!”

(A solemn reminder: please vote! Don’t bully this poor soul~)