Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 746 - 39: Assimilation Effect

"It looks... a bit like asphalt in texture," Wang Xiyi commented.

Sun Hang glanced at Yan Yu'an, who was following behind, and jokingly said, "Mr. Yan, would you like a cup?"

Yan Yu'an silently looked at Sun Hang without speaking.

Even though the visor of her armor covered her entire face, Sun Hang could still more or less guess her expression at that moment.

Sun Hang didn't press the button, and the coffee machine didn't stop. The black viscous liquid seemed endless, quickly overflowing the rim of the cup and spilling onto the table.

But the table was also black, so if the scene was paused, it looked as if there was just an uneven layer of paint on the tabletop.

Sun Hang reached for the coffee cup, only to find that the cup had already fused with the base of the coffee machine, becoming one with it.

"Is this coffee or superglue?" Sun Hang muttered.

Before Sun Hang could do anything else, Yan Yu'an, who had remained silent after entering the café, spoke up, "We must leave this café before the spilled 'coffee' reaches where we're standing."

"Do you mean that this 'coffee', when it comes into contact with other things, also has the same effect?" Sun Hang asked. "Is it really glue?"

"It's more than just adhesion," Yan Yu'an said, as she gently pulled the trigger with her pinky finger, causing a bullet to drop from the ejection port right into her palm.

She stepped forward and placed the bullet vertically into the coffee cup that was continuously gushing out black viscous liquid.

The black viscous liquid not only looked like asphalt, but its density also seemed quite similar. The bullet was placed in the cup head down, and normally it should have tipped to one side, leaning on the rim for balance, but instead, it stood firmly upright in the cup.

The black viscous liquid flowing from the coffee machine's spout quickly enveloped the entire bullet, making it look like a chocolate stick inserted into a cup of black coffee.

"Watch the cross-section of the bullet," Yan Yu'an said, and as soon as she finished speaking, a sharp dart shot out from a hidden device inside her arm guard, and with a crisp "ding," the three-sided dart embedded deeply into the metal panel used to decorate the wall behind the bar.

The bullet, lodged in the coffee, had been sliced in two, yet at the cross-section, there was no trace of the brass casing, the steel core of the armor-piercing round, or even the gunpowder within—only the eerie black asphalt-like texture was seen.

The material of the bullet had transformed to be identical to the coffee in the cup, the only difference being that it remained in a solid state.

"It's not adhesion, it's assimilation," Yan Yu'an said. "It's a good thing the handle of the cup wasn't coated with this liquid when you touched it... or you'd have had to slice off a few fingers."

Losing a finger was not a concern for Sun Hang. Even if he had to slice off an entire arm, or even half his body, he would recover soon enough—Yan Yu'an's warning only made Sun Hang want to put his fingers directly into the coffee cup.

"There was a reconnaissance team; half of them were killed by this thing," Yan Yu'an explained. "They were exploring the eastern part of the city, where there were also buildings similar to cafés. The reconnaissance team decided to leave half of the members to guard the street, while the other half entered the café to investigate."

Yan Yu'an continued, "They strictly followed the guidelines for investigating mysterious buildings, not daring to touch the furnishings inside, and none of them touched the coffee machine switch... Yet, when the machine gunner in the team turned, the spare barrel on his backpack accidentally brushed against the switch on the coffee machine placed on the table... Without anyone noticing, the asphalt-like 'coffee' began to gush out continuously, flowing down the table, and spreading across the floor."

Sun Hang glanced at the coffee machine, realizing that aside from the 'coffee' that could assimilate everything it touches, there was another eerie detail he had overlooked.

That was, besides the initial 'gurgling' sound when the machine was turned on, the entire device operated without producing any sound. Not only that, but the spout of the coffee machine was about ten centimeters above the cup, yet there was no sound of liquid pouring in... The whole process was incredibly silent.

Sun Hang even suspected that the 'gurgling' sound was a result of his own abilities triggering all electrical equipment in the café.

The reconnaissance team didn't have the ability to turn on all the lights in the café. Combined with the odd architecture of the building, the lighting inside was poor even during the day. Under conditions where tactical flashlights provided the only illumination, the silent flow of black liquid in the darkness was indeed hard to detect.

"By the time they noticed something was wrong, everyone's boots inside the café had already merged with the floor—they, like you, initially thought it was some powerful adhesive... But soon they realized that the black liquid was seeping through the soles of their boots, which were made of specialized polymers and anti-piercing ceramic plates... Some tried to untie their laces and pull their feet out of the boots, but by then it was too late."

Yan Yu'an fixed her gaze on the black viscous liquid dripping from the edge of the bar, and continued, "They could only signal their teammates on the street outside to leave quickly and deliver information about the liquid at the last minute. What puzzled the surviving members was that these black viscous liquids, no matter how they spread inside the store, never flowed onto the streets. Despite there being no barriers or drops between the café's entrancefloor and the outside, an invisible barrier kept the liquid at the threshold."

"What about the soldiers left inside?" Wang Xiyi couldn't help but ask, "How did they die in the end?"

"They were completely assimilated by this stuff, turning them into something like black statues," Yan Yu'an replied. "Judging by their final postures, they must have experienced immense pain before they died."