Abyssal Wanderer.

From Jim's perspective, the process seemed to last for five hours.

But the actual duration of the incident, until Hanell forcefully pushed Jim away, was less than five seconds.

"You bastard!"

After shoving Jim away, Hanel frantically touched his lips.

Her breathing was heaving. Although her loud, questioning tone sounded quite annoyed, her eyes kept avoiding Jim's gaze, unable to meet his eyes.

Seeing this, Jim took another step closer to the other person.

"What?! What else do you want to do?"

Hanel looked at him warily, but seemed somewhat at a loss for what to do.

She raised her arm and lowered it, then lowered it and raised it again, as if she couldn't make up her mind.

Jim reached out to her again when he was close enough that they could hear each other breathing.

Hanel instinctively closed his eyes.

But this time, Jim simply patted her head like he would comfort a small animal.

"Ok?"

Hanel, seemingly expecting something, opened his eyes in confusion.

"Regarding the 'embalmer,' please trust me for now. There are some things... I will explain everything to you once everything has settled down."

As always, Jim explained softly, tracing the length of her silver hair.

Enraged, Hanel responded by slapping the other man's hoof across the face.

"Stop it—ow!"

With the help of Night Marrow, Jim withdrew his hand before the other person's slap came—as if he had suddenly been electrocuted.

So, Hanel slapped herself hard on the head, instantly shattering the calm and composed expression she had managed to maintain.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch—you actually deliberately dodged it?!"

Perhaps because she really used so much force, her expression, which had been feigning anger, suddenly turned into one of pitiful distress.

"Instinctive reaction, instinctive reaction... This is not my fault, it's the fault of the Night Marrow's modification."

Seeing this, Jim hurriedly ran over to explain, while Hanel seized the opportunity to launch another sneak attack, but unsurprisingly, he was thwarted once again...

The interaction between the two looked like something out of a comedy comic, leaving Ji Mu, who witnessed the whole thing from behind, utterly shocked.

"My first impression was that he was a cool guy, but turns out he's even more naive than me?"

She couldn't help but shake her head and sigh.

"What... So being 'natural' was just a persona all along?"

A deep female voice asked from the side.

"Wrong! I simply found the natural part of myself and developed it! It's like adding stat points in a game. You can't say that agility is part of a character's personality, can you?"

Although he didn't know exactly what was so great about it, Ji Mu explained it with great pride.

She immediately realized something was wrong.

"Not honored!"

She immediately turned her head and looked at the person who was tied to the bed.

"Youxue-chan!" Duanmu Youxue had woken up at some point. She was now struggling to turn her head to look at Ji Mu, and said expressionlessly:
"I take back what I said earlier. With your slow reaction time, it's more accurate to say you're just slow than natural."

She complained like this.

Ji Mu, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, said:

"Don't worry about Xuejiang, I'll knock you out again right now."

She hurriedly started rummaging through her pockets, quickly pulling out a tranquilizer dart from a pile of data cables, memory chips, and other junk.

"There's no need, Ji Mu."

Duanmu Youxue said calmly.

"You're not the one who's going to be eaten, so you'd probably say it's unnecessary!"

Perhaps because the memory of being trapped in the other party's private domain was too terrifying, Ji Mu was now quickly disinfecting the needle.

"Wait a minute, Ji Mu."

At that moment, Jim and Hanel walked over.

Jim stopped Ji Mu, who was about to give Duanmu Youxue another injection, and looked at the girl who was swollen beyond recognition, saying:
"So, you've also been infected with the Apollo virus, is that right?"

The fact that Duanmu Youxue was able to speak properly at this moment did not seem like the behavior of a simple Dionysus virus infected person who could not control their desires.

Youxue nodded and said:
"It's like waking up from a nightmare."

Can you control your behavior?

Jim frowned and asked.

"Although I think it's possible, I still suggest that it's best not to try to release me... This is also for the sake of Kiri-chan's personal safety. Although that impulse is not uncontrollable, I still really want to."

Jim stopped Ji Mu from sticking the needle in, and continued to ask:
"So how do you feel right now?"

"You're asking how it feels..."

Duanmu Youxue looked somewhat dazed.

"If I had to say it, there's only one feeling: that I was a lowly animal in the past... Countless problems that I couldn't figure out in the past now seem as clear as an apple on the table. Predicting other people's behavior and making detailed plans for it is effortless; any collision between any two sets of knowledge can spark countless inspirations like a supernova explosion."

As she spoke, she refocused her gaze on Jim and said:
"The thing that really makes things a little difficult for me now is probably describing my current understanding in a language you can understand... It's like explaining linear algebra to a chimpanzee; there's an evolutionary gap between us."

Jim wasn't bothered by these seemingly provocative words. He looked at the restraints on the other person's body and said:

“But right now, you're the one we've trapped here. I can kill you anytime I want.”

His tone was calm, and the other person's response was even calmer.

"There are times like this, where an unarmed anthropologist is surrounded and captured by a group of chimpanzees in the forest... But that doesn't mean chimpanzees are stronger than humans, does it?"

Jim didn't rush to refute, knowing that the other party still had something to say.

"And there is another possibility: this 'anthropologist' deliberately entered the encirclement to study something or obtain something. After all, chimpanzees are very difficult to see through human traps—their lives consist only of foraging and reproduction, and they cannot even understand advanced concepts such as 'research'."

Duanmu Youxue said this.

Are you implying that you were actually brought here voluntarily?

Jim said in a deep voice.

If that's the case, then they may have already stepped into a trap.

Duanmu Youxue chuckled in response:
What do you think? (End of Chapter)