CHAPTER 490: CHAPTER 292 EVOLUTION·_1

"Speed, increase!"

Dean stood in front of the large mirror in the bathroom, wearing only his underwear, silently chanting in his mind.

Attribute Points: 1→0.

Speed: 15→16.

As the recently acquired Attribute Point disappeared, a tingling sensation surged throughout his body.

Dean looked into the mirror, his pupils constricted.

He could see the meridians hidden within his flesh and under his skin, twisting, stretching, and spreading as if they had a mind of their own...

Eerie, grotesque.

Even with Dean’s strong mental fortitude, witnessing such transformations in his own flesh still made his scalp tingle; he worried he might mutate into some prehistoric monster.

This bizarre condition lasted for over a minute before it finally settled down.

Just when Dean thought the changes were over, a piece of information surfaced in his mind: Precursor tissue proliferation complete (120%), genetic excavation in progress, evolution expected to complete in 20 hours.

More to come?

Dean hadn’t expected such a significant change in his physique after breaking his limits this time!

Before he could react, a wave of warmth accompanied by dizziness struck him in quick succession.

Dean shook his head and forced himself to stay alert. He threw on the nearby pajamas but didn’t bother returning to bed. Instead, he stumbled and collapsed onto the closest sofa, curling up and falling into a coma.

Beneath the wash of warmth, his body temperature rose at an unscientific rate. In areas invisible to the naked eye, certain genes that had been dormant for countless years were awakened by an unknown force. They shattered, reassembled, and merged into his existing bodily structure, then reproduced at an incomprehensible speed within his body.

「...」

In his comatose state, Dean had a dream.

A strange yet realistic dream.

He dreamt he was in a vast forest, moving with exaggerated speed, leaping and bounding with incredible agility, evading the pursuit of terrifying beasts, or hunting even weaker beasts.

The two scenarios kept alternating.

The images gradually blurred.

Eventually, all the dreams dissolved into a strange sensation of falling, causing Dean to instinctively kick out in his sleep.

"AWOOO!"

A miserable howl woke Dean from his slumber.

He bolted upright, instinctively wanting to trigger the bullets stored in Subspace in the direction of the sound. But everything in his vision, as if in slow motion, flashed through his mind: he saw Cheston En, the unlucky fellow, clutching his stomach, his mouth wide open, his face twisted in pain, soaring mid-air in a shrimp-like posture, and slamming hard against the sturdy TV cabinet.

Thanks to this miraculous reaction speed, Dean managed to stop the bullets that were about to be triggered, sparing the airborne Cheston En’s life.

「...」

"I’m sorry, Cheston En..."

Dean’s face showed regret as he watched Cheston En, blood at the corner of his mouth, being taken away by an ambulance.

It turned out that when Cheston En had come to deliver food, he found Dean lying peacefully on the sofa, sound asleep.

Thinking Dean was just tired from before, he hadn’t disturbed him but stayed by his side. Just as he was about to help Dean tuck in his blanket, he was met by Dean’s kick.

If the kick hadn’t only grazed Cheston En’s stomach, thus failing to unleash its full force, Dean supposed he might have actually kicked Cheston En to death in his sleep, thereby completing the achievement of killing someone in a dream.

"Speaking of which, I’ve had that kind of falling dream before when I was growing up..."

Dean looked down at his pajama pants, which were now clearly an inch shorter, shook his head, and went back to his room.

He noticed that as he approached, the two FBI operational members who had been standing at his door as Keepers tensed up. Their hands unconsciously moved towards their waists, treating him as if he were some dangerous, mentally unstable individual.

Upon entering the room, Dean finally had time to carefully assess the changes in his body.

This transformation was far beyond his imagination.

If the attribute increases before the breakthrough were still within human limits, then he was certainly now entering a kind of superhuman evolution.

Leaving aside the slight overall physical enhancement, Dean discovered that his coordination and explosive power had at least doubled compared to his already exceptional prior state. When focusing intently on an object, he would even experience an illusion of time slowing down.

For example:

Dean casually picked up a pen from the table and tossed it into the air. Then, with a barely visible afterimage, his palm struck the tip of the pen accurately again and again. This maintained the magical spectacle of the pen spinning in mid-air without falling.

It seemed to be just a minor trick, but only near-perfect control over his strength and bodily reflexes could achieve such an effect.

I’m becoming less and less human... I wonder, if I continue to enhance myself like this and my Speed attribute reaches the limit of twenty points, whether I’ll be able to achieve a neural reaction speed akin to bullet time...

Dean allowed his thoughts to wander for a moment, then refocused and looked back at his panel.

**Violent Detective Panel**

Character: Dean

Level: 21 (0/4,000)

Spirit: 15 (Locked)

Strength: 15

Speed: 16

Endurance: 15

Skills: Pistol Proficiency, Ancient Muay Thai Expertise, Kaz School - Mind Reading Technique L3, Trace Tracking L3, Beast Taming L1, Others (expand).

Trait: Beast Body!

Subspace: 2 cubic meters

Attribute Points: 0

Skill Points: 4

Cases Solved: Details omitted.

"The remaining four Skill Points are enough to raise one skill to at least the professional L3. However, it seems there’s no suitable choice right now. Besides, my learning ability is also very strong at the moment, so it’s better to keep these Skill Points for emergencies."