A helicopter roared past in the sky, flying toward the location where the survivors had gathered.
Qi Suian watched the scene with no particular thoughts.
Normally, a protagonist like him would be expected to strike back at any enemy he encountered.
For instance, by pulling out a rocket launcher and teaching them a lesson.
The problem was, a rocket launcher might not even hurt them. After all, this was someone who could dodge Floating Cannons.
Their physical prowess was incredible. If he failed to kill them and exposed himself instead, it would be a disastrous loss.
It was better to just let them pass and avoid a bloody fight.
Qi Suian actually disliked all the killing. Before the apocalypse, he was just an ordinary person, after all.
Frustrated? What was there to be frustrated about? Charging to his death just to vent his anger against an enemy he couldn't beat? *That* would be a truly frustrating way to die.
'Soon. Once I finish the deactivation weapon for the Abyssal Virus, I'll show you a fate worse than death.'
Of course, Qi Suian was petty. True, the grudge started because he ran his mouth while his intelligence was nerfed, but they had sent people to kill him, too.
And as for being a hypocrite for starting it? Yes, he had double standards. They were trying to take his life; why would he care about right and wrong?
It had simply become a battle to the death.
Back in his air-raid shelter safe house, he didn't resume his work on the deactivation weapon for the Abyssal Virus. That project could wait, but Jin Linyun could not.
If he didn't start the analysis and experiments soon, the man probably wouldn't last much longer.
Once Jin Linyun died, Qi Suian would be left with nothing to show for his efforts.
To clear the Abyssal Virus from the man's system, Qi Suian had even injected him with a diluted antiviral agent.
While the agent was highly effective against the Abyssal Virus, it was also incredibly destructive to the body.
More importantly, Qi Suian lacked sufficient food and water. He himself didn't need to eat, surviving on his Tai Sui God's expedition-grade ecological circulation device and Death Reforging. Ever since becoming a Violator, he hadn't had a single drop of water or a grain of rice.
Jin Linyun certainly couldn't survive in such a bizarre way. In his current state, he'd be lucky to last three to five days without food or water.
As for finding food to keep him alive temporarily?
That was even more out of the question. To Qi Suian, Jin Linyun was just a test subject; he wasn't about to start waiting on him hand and foot.
Might as well get what he could from him now and toss the body into a pile of zombies.
'Nothing?' Qi Suian's dissection went smoothly, yet he couldn't find the operating principle behind the S-class Puppet Master talent.
'Spirit-based Talents really are a pain.'
The SS-class Talent for Blood-red Willpower was indeed a higher rank than the S-class Puppet Master, but the two functioned in completely different ways.
'It must be in the brain, then.' Qi Suian immediately began the craniotomy.
His knowledge of the physical body was grounded in disciplines like biology and medicine, but he was sorely lacking when it came to the Spirit.
To put it simply, before the zombie apocalypse, any exploration of the Spirit was relegated to the mystical mumbo-jumbo of philosophy and theology.
It was more speculation than actual science.
As a result, Qi Suian's knowledge in the field of Spirit was basically a blank slate.
Watchman Dawn's headquarters might have relevant data, but that was something Qi Suian couldn't get his hands on.
As the dissection progressed, Qi Suian finally found some abnormalities in Jin Linyun's cerebral cortex.
'So, it's just as I thought. Talents enhance and optimize a person's inherent strengths. That means a Talent's rank and power are fundamentally dependent on the individual.'
'X-class Talents are the exception. That rank probably involves something much broader.'
Qi Suian proceeded to study and analyze Jin Linyun's cerebral cortex in more detail.
'Looks like he won't last much longer.' Qi Suian glanced at the device monitoring Jin Linyun's vital signs.
The facilities were crude, after all, and couldn't provide adequate life support. Coupled with the invasive nature of the procedure, the fact that Jin Linyun had lasted this long was a testament to how careful Qi Suian had been.
'But it doesn't matter. I've already found what I was looking for.' A smile spread across Qi Suian's face.
He had already recorded a portion of the data on the S-class Puppet Master talent.
'The principle is to use one's Spirit to generate a unique external frequency that causes interference. It's something like telekinesis.'
'It's just a limited version, though. Like the variant adrenaline produced by the SS-class Talent for Blood-red Willpower, it has a specific application.'
'This interference can only be used on life forms that also possess a Spirit frequency. It achieves control by neutralizing their frequency.'
'The control aspect is useless to me, but its ability to stimulate the Spirit attribute is definitely useful.'
Qi Suian sighed as he watched Jin Linyun's vital signs flatline. He had finished studying the basic principles, but the more in-depth research was incomplete.
His own abilities were limited, so he naturally couldn't analyze it completely. Besides, this was an S-class Talent; it was never going to be that simple.
'Wait a minute. He could only control that Tier-3 Mutated Zombie after weakening it with a small Abyssal Virus resistor.'
'But it wasn't total control, which is why that Tier-3 Mutated Zombie was trying to break free and resisted becoming Jin Linyun's puppet.'
'This means that this unique Spirit frequency can, to some extent, influence the Abyssal Virus.'
Qi Suian's eyes narrowed.
'Variant adrenaline, destructive dopamine, and now a high-control Spirit frequency.'
'If I combine them, does that mean I could use the Abyssal Virus to trigger a burst, temporarily boosting some of my physical attributes for a short period?'
'But it's still not enough. I need the Talents of more survivors for my research.'
And what happens after this "burst"? You die, of course. What else?
And the degree of this physical boost would depend on my Spirit attribute.
The higher the Spirit attribute, the more control I'd have, and thus the greater the physical boost.
So, I could combine it with the temporary Spirit-boosting effect of the Death Serum. The first two minutes might be unremarkable, but for the final ten minutes, my Spirit attribute would be off the charts.
After all, as the Death Serum is absorbed, it continuously raises the Spirit attribute until the user dies from a "Spirit rupture" caused by a complete attribute imbalance.
'Right. Back to researching the deactivation weapon. There's still a major crisis I haven't solved yet.'
After completely extracting all value from Jin Linyun's corpse, Qi Suian tossed it outside. The scent drew in the zombies, who quickly cleaned up the mess for him.
When it came to disposing of a body and erasing all traces, zombies were far more effective than Corpse-Dissolving Water. Mainly because they were free.
He had considered preserving the body, but conditions simply didn't permit it.