The images relayed by the six eyes appeared in Illumi's mind as if innate, lingering and impossible to control.
The only thing he could control was opening and closing his eyes, stopping the feedback to his brain.
"Reached the limit."
After a long while, Illumi's expression subtly changed. As he controlled his shadow to extend in all directions, he also calculated the distance in his mind.
The farthest distance his shadow could reach was 500 meters, far exceeding the range of En. However, this kind of reconnaissance relied entirely on vision and could not provide precise sensing like En.
"It's still a kind of gain, I suppose."
Illumi wasn't disheartened. He believed that if he continued to grow normally, he would eventually reach this range, and the speed at which his shadow could extend would also increase.
"Let's try an attack again."
Illumi controlled his shadowy arm, 500 meters away, to turn its gaze. Five meters away on the ground, a viper disguised as a leaf lay in wait.
Ten or so monkeys hung on a tree, swinging back and forth, their mouths opening and closing.
Since Illumi hadn't made the arm grow ears, he couldn't hear their chattering.
They clearly hadn't noticed Illumi's shadow.
Illumi controlled the arm to approach the highly venomous viper disguised as a leaf. When it was about thirty centimeters away, the viper didn't move.
Twenty centimeters, still no movement. Ten centimeters, still no movement.
"Hiss… hiss…"
The viper flicked its tongue, using the pit organ between its eyes and nose for "heat localization."
Illumi's lips curled slightly. A snake's eyesight was close to zero. Even if Illumi controlled the shadowy arm to sway left and right in front of it, the snake showed no reaction, because the shadow had no temperature.
However, the moment Illumi controlled the arm to grab it, and it touched its scales.
"Hiss!"
The viper immediately bit the shadowy palm with lightning speed. Venom even splattered onto the eye in the palm, but it was useless.
"Chichichi…"
Multiple sharp thorns suddenly burst from where the viper bit, densely piercing the viper's head, riddling it like a honeycomb.
"Next, it's your turn."
Illumi controlled the palm to look at the monkeys on the tree, who were gesticulating at his arm.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh…"
Black lines shot out towards the monkeys, making a continuous "thump thump thump" sound over a dozen times. All the monkeys were pierced by the black lines, which then wrapped around their bodies.
Immediately after, Illumi, disregarding the monkeys' protests, forcefully dragged them towards his location.
In an instant, Illumi's left shadow dragged a group of monkeys back to his side, but…
"Squeak~"
A monkey let out a weak cry, then lay on the ground, no longer moving.
Illumi opened his eyes, only to see that the monkeys had extremely severe injuries, and all their limbs were broken, with white bones exposed.
Not only that, their skin was as if scraped off a layer, dripping with blood. It seemed they wouldn't live.
"The shadow's retrieval speed was too fast, causing them to suffer various degrees of severe injuries while being dragged by the shadow."
Illumi looked at the dying monkeys, released the shadow's restraints, and retracted it into his body.
"This kind of pain is truly not something ordinary people can endure."
Illumi let out a light breath. The longer he shared vision through the six eyes, the more tired his brain became. He would need consistent training to adapt.
***
Time flowed like water, rivers turning.
Time: June 1, 1984, 11:11 AM.
Location: Felton City, Aidi Mei United States, Bokelong Airport.
A passenger plane from overseas slowly descended, and a large number of passengers disembarked from the airship, arriving in this vast city on the northern coast of the Aidi Mei United States.
Many passengers were visiting such an international city for the first time, curiously looking around and observing this unfamiliar city.
Among them were five passengers from the Mitternie Federation, who were traveling but looked dispirited after disembarking, seemingly ill.
In the airport's waiting hall, many tour guides held up signs. Many tourists coming out of the airport approached and chatted with them, joining the groups behind the guides.
"Cough cough…"
The five individuals were also among these groups, coughing frequently and appearing unwell.
Their appearance caused other tourists to look at them more, subconsciously keeping their distance.
These five followed other tourists onto a tour bus to visit various sights in Felton City. They returned to their hotel in the evening, couldn't eat, and went straight to bed.
The next day, the five joined the tour group again for sightseeing.
Along the way, the five did not interact or socialize with others. They didn't even smile and didn't take any photos.
"They're so strange…"
Their unusual behavior finally caught the attention of others in the tour group. If they were on vacation, they should be happy.
Yet these five had sullen faces the entire time, didn't speak, and looked as if a family member had died.
The scene shifted, and the time came to 3:00 AM.
"Beep-boop beep-boop…"
A piercing ambulance siren wailed, breaking the quiet city night.
This scene was merely a microcosm of the world.
Tonight, whether in the Aidi Mei United States, the Ozma Federation, or even some peaceful small countries, citizens continuously collapsed, and piercing ambulance sirens echoed through the city's streets and alleys, tearing through the night sky.
Beneath the calm surface, the gradually accumulating undercurrents finally ceased their dormancy. They surged to the surface, continuously stirring up ripples.
In a large hospital, many doctors gathered in an office, holding an emergency video conference.
"What's going on!?"
"Why are there suddenly so many patients with the same symptoms? Didn't you say this virus was under control before!?"
On the video, an elderly man in a white T-shirt looked extremely grim.
He had been awakened from sleep by a sudden call, telling him to go to the hospital, or at least join a video conference if he couldn't.
He was a seventy-year-old man, who normally had trouble sleeping at night, usually only falling asleep after midnight. Being woken up after less than three hours of sleep naturally made him irritable.
Of course, he wasn't the only one with a grim face. Many doctors present had also been woken from their sleep, some even rushing to the hospital.
"It evolved!"
Suddenly, one of the doctors revealed the truth, causing the hearts of all the doctors and experts present to sink to rock bottom.
The doctor reported their test results to the experts and colleagues, comparing bacteria from previous blood samples with those extracted from patients who appeared tonight.
After an initial control, this bacterium underwent a genetic mutation. It was no longer a common bacterium known to people; the original bacterium had combined with a highly contagious mutated bacterium.
This meant that those infected with it would be incurable.
The seriousness of the matter was beyond their capacity to handle, and they immediately decided to report it to higher authorities for processing.
At 7:00 AM, the Aidi Mei United States Centers for Disease Control released a related announcement, drawing attention.
At the same time, governments worldwide quickly took action.
First, they increased inspection efforts for international flights. Preliminary inspection systems were also established in major international airports.
***
In Pegurose, at the Umbrella Corporation headquarters.
While the world was changing, Illumi, at the Umbrella Corporation headquarters, remained quite calm.
For the past three months, he had been training in the Klensha Rainforest, a hundred kilometers south of the company headquarters, while also overseeing the construction of the training camp.
Meanwhile, according to King Bradley's report, the company headquarters had been exceptionally lively over the past three months, with three to five guests arriving daily from afar to tour the company's interior.
Fortunately, Pride was stationed at the company headquarters.
Pride was a Nen beast and didn't need to sleep or rest. His abilities, combined with Iksanpe and Riley, extended their surveillance throughout the entire industrial park.
Therefore, the Umbrella Corporation headquarters' defense had no blind spots.
Of course, so far, only minor characters had come, and Pride could easily kill them with a single thought.
"Not bad."
Illumi still stood atop the low mountain next to the training camp, looking at the newly completed building and nodding.
Three months had passed, and the new training camp was finally completed thanks to the soldiers' hurried work.
However, it still needed a series of renovations, transportation of various equipment, and the construction of various living facilities before it would be truly finished.
"Beep…"
Illumi's phone rang in his pocket. He took it out and saw it was a call from King Bradley.
"The first batch of new antibiotics has been produced. They are currently being prepared for market release with the cooperation of the Pegurose government."
"Good, next, we still need to engage with government review agencies in various countries."
"We don't need to rush. We'll just wait patiently, and things will naturally fall into place," Illumi replied. He wasn't in a hurry at all now. The new antibiotics had been developed, and now it was a matter of continuous funds flowing in. Once enough had accumulated, all other plans could begin.
"By the way, arrange for Julius to guard the new training camp."
Illumi instructed King Bradley. This ascetic had not visited the company headquarters once since he was given the Nen training method.
He had been staying in the villa he rented, practicing every day.
Illumi was quite dissatisfied with such an employee who slacked off and decided to make him suffer a bit in the tropical rainforest. After all, he was an ascetic, so he could perfectly serve a defensive role.
And Andres was the same.
However, now that the new antibiotics issue was resolved, preparations for various other plans were about to begin, and their leisure time was running out.
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