NOVEL NEXT Chapter 114: Awakening Talent
As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, Dr. Axel stepped in front of Ethan and shouted: "He's my patient. You can't hurt him, or I won't cooperate with you on anything!"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man didn't hesitate. He suddenly swung his arm.
At once, the steel rebar scattered on the floor began to tremble, rose into the air, and gathered behind him.
Expressionless, he said to Axel: "Remember, you're in no position to bargain with me."
The next second, a rusty rebar whistled toward Ethan's right arm. It precisely missed the artery and pierced straight through his flesh.
"Bang!"
In an instant, Ethan was nailed to the black wall by the rebar, unable to move.
He lowered his head, face blank, mouth slightly open, letting out a pained sound.
No one noticed that his eyes were icy cold—there was no trace of pain in them, only a desire to kill.
But soon that look faded, replaced by a hint of confusion and surprise.
The middle-aged man went on, pride in his voice: "This is just a warning. You've seen my power. Do as you're told later, or your end will be much worse."
Then he slowly turned and said to the man in the black hoodie:
"Bring them here."
Except for Ethan, who was nailed to the wall, Lucas, Emma, and Dr. Axel were taken away.
The man in the black hoodie left just one ordinary-looking underling to watch Ethan.
Ethan lifted his head a little and looked at the guard.
He was bald and muscular, with tattoos on his arms and chest.
Seeing Ethan staring, the bald man walked over, grabbed the rebar and gave it a hard shake, and snarled:
"What are you looking at? I hate guys who look better than me the most."
"Damn it, what's the use of a pretty face? Strength is what matters!"
"You piece of trash, stay right here and don't even think about fighting back, or I'll peel your face off later!"
After that, the bald man headed for the iron door, casually pulled the long knife from his belt, then sat on a metal rack to rest.
He didn't take Ethan, just a normal guy, seriously at all.
Ethan slowly raised his head, expressionless, and glanced at the wound on his arm.
The rusty rebar had only pierced flesh; it didn't hit bone or a major blood vessel.
When it went through, he suddenly felt the pain drop a lot, and his strength rise a little.
Ethan thought of his Blue-quality talent [Pain Resistance] in Dawnfall Online.
[Pain Resistance (Blue-quality)]: Increases the player's pain tolerance, reduces negative effects from pain, keeps the mind calm and clear, and when taking severe pain, has a 50% chance to gain +1 Defense, +1 Strength, and +1 Speed for three seconds.
His in-game talent had triggered in the real world!
That was the only way to explain why the pain had dropped so much, and why he felt stronger.
Ethan took a deep breath. Since the talent [Pain Resistance] had already shown up in the real world, maybe his unknown‑quality [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward] had appeared too?
The thought made him excited.
If he could really use [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward] in real life, he could power up fast in a short time, just like in Dawnfall Online.
To trigger [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward], you had to kill monsters. Ethan instantly thought of the monster he'd seen outside the hospital room window that night.
He slowly exhaled. The most important thing now was to stay alive.
He wasn't in any immediate danger yet, so he didn't plan to act. Even if he managed to kill the bald guy, it would likely bring more enemies.
The best chance would be when Leo's secret unit showed up. They would definitely clash with these kidnappers and cause chaos.
Meanwhile, Dr. Axel, Emma, and Lucas were taken to an underground room beneath the abandoned factory.
All kinds of precision instruments were set up there, and lab staff in white coats were busy at work.
The middle-aged man gave a small wave, and someone brought him an iron chair.
He sat down and said calmly: "I need you to unlock all the potential of the Ice Virus and push that test subject's power to the limit."
Dr. Axel bit his lip, hesitated, then asked:
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
The middle-aged man gave a scornful smile and said slowly: "Do what? Obviously, bad things."
"Just do as I say, and I'll let you keep living."
He turned to Emma and said flatly: "As for you, work closely with Dr. Axel. From what I know, you've given him plenty of ideas."
Emma clenched her fists and said: "Do you have any idea how dangerous this Ice Virus is? You're..."
The middle-aged man raised his arm and gave a small flick. A thick iron pipe flew out and slammed into Emma's stomach.
The hit wasn't that strong, but it hurt badly, and she dropped into a crouch.
But it wasn't over. A dagger slowly lifted from a guard's belt, flew over, and pressed against Lucas's neck. He froze, too scared to move.
Ignoring the pain, Emma jumped up and shouted: "Don't touch my brother!"
The middle-aged man smiled and lightly clapped his hands. The iron chair under him rose into the air. All the researchers and staff looked up at him, fear on their faces.
He enjoyed those fearful, awed looks. A pleased expression crossed his face as he looked down at them and said slowly:
"It's about time. You can start getting ready."
Right away, the researchers got to work, and Axel and Emma were herded into the middle of them.
Soon, a huge truck drove into the factory.
A moment later, a guard came in driving a large forklift, lifting an iron cage, and slowly brought it to a stop in front of Axel and Emma.
The two of them traded a quick look. Inside the cage was test subject Jake.
Emma suddenly remembered what Ethan had said. He had clearly claimed that the man in black who took Jake wasn't working with these kidnappers.
Now it looked like Ethan was wrong. If not, why would Jake be here?
Emma whispered to Axel: "Doctor, we need to find a way to use Jake to get out of here."
Axel's eyes went wide. He glanced at Emma and asked: "What's your plan?
Emma said: "Let a monster deal with a monster. Jake has a device inside him that can release a lot of heat for a short time. No one knows about it except me."
Emma was very smart. She had learned from Dr. Axel that as the temperature in Dolren City dropped, the Ice Virus became more active.
To keep the test subject, Jake, under control, Emma had secretly installed a device inside his body. The people who did the installation had already been sent to other cities.
Now, only Emma knew how to activate the device.
Her plan was simple: She would first follow what the middle-aged man had said and try to make Jake as strong as possible, so he could fight against the super-powered kidnappers.
At the most important moment, she would turn on the device, releasing a lot of heat. This would slow down the Ice Virus and help control Jake.
This was the best idea she could think of.
At first, she had thought Jake was in the hands of another group, but now she realized she shouldn't have trusted that sick man.
Emma took a deep breath and, under the man's urging, started to act.
But what happened next completely made her heart jump into her mouth.
She saw Jake's daughter, Molly, being taken out.
The little girl immediately spotted her father, who was locked in a big iron cage. Even though Jake was now over two meters tall, with big muscles and two faces on his chest, Molly recognized him right away.
She started crying and shouted: "Dad!"
"Dad, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Inside the cage, Jake became very angry and started shaking the bars wildly. But as security officers kept injecting him with some medicine.
He quickly lost his strength and fell to the floor of the cage, with tears running down his face.
He said, voice hoarse and full of sorrow: "Molly, Molly… I'm sorry. I hurt you."
"I'm sorry, I can't save you."
Molly wanted to go to her father, but suddenly a piece of rebar came out and wrapped around her ankle, tripping her and knocking her to the ground.
She kept pushing herself forward with her hands, trying to get as close to her father as she could, but she was just a little girl and couldn't move even a bit closer.