Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 483 Assimilation Effect
"It looks... and the texture is a bit like asphalt," Wang Xiyi commented.

Sun Hang looked at Yan Yu'an, who was following behind him, and said in a joking tone, "Lieutenant Colonel Yan, would you like a drink?"

Yan Yu'an glanced at Sun Hang silently, without saying a word.

Although the armor's faceplate completely covered her face, Sun Hang could still roughly guess her expression.

Sun Hang didn't press the button, and the coffee machine didn't stop. The black, viscous liquid seemed endless, and soon it overflowed the cup and flowed onto the table.

However, the table is also black, and if the image is frozen, it looks as if there is just an uneven layer of paint on the surface of the table.

Sun Hang reached for the coffee cup, only to find that it had stuck to the base of the coffee machine, becoming one piece.

"Is this coffee or super glue?" Sun Hang muttered.

But before Sun Hang could do anything more, Yan Yu'an, who had been silent since entering the coffee shop, spoke up: "We must leave this coffee shop before the overflowing 'coffee' reaches where we are standing."

"You mean, this 'coffee' will produce the same effect when it comes into contact with other things?" Sun Hang asked. "It really is glue?"

“It’s not just a simple matter of sticking together.” Yan Yu’an hooked the bolt with her little finger, and a bullet fell out of the ejection port, landing right in her palm.

She stepped forward and placed the bullet vertically into a coffee cup that was continuously gushing out a thick, black liquid.

The black, viscous liquid not only looked like asphalt, but its density also seemed to be very close to that of asphalt. The bullet was placed headfirst into the coffee cup. Normally, a bullet should fall to one side, with its tail resting against the rim of the cup to maintain balance. However, at this moment, the bullet stood steadily in the cup with its head down.

The thick, black liquid flowing from the coffee machine's spout quickly enveloped the entire bullet, making it look like a chocolate bar stuck in a cup of black coffee.

"Watch out for the bullet's cut." As soon as Yan Yu'an finished speaking, a sharp dart sprang out from the firing device hidden inside her arm armor. With a crisp "ding," the triangular dart was deeply embedded in the metal plate used to decorate the wall behind the bar.

The bullet that had been stuck in the coffee was cut in two, but at the cross-section, there was neither a copper casing nor a steel armor-piercing core, nor even the propellant inside—the entire cross-section of the bullet had a strange, black, asphalt-like texture. The bullet's material had become exactly the same as the coffee in the cup; the only difference was that it had barely retained its solid state.

“It’s not adhesive, it’s assimilation,” Yan Yu’an said. “When you touched the coffee cup just now, luckily the handle didn’t get any of this liquid on it… otherwise, you might have had to cut off a few fingers.”

Sun Hang didn't care much about cutting off his finger. Even if he had to cut off his entire arm or even half of his body, he could recover in no time. Yan Yu'an's words only made things worse, as they gave Sun Hang an urge to stick his finger directly into a coffee cup.

“There was a reconnaissance team, half of whom were killed by this thing,” Yan Yu’an said. “They were exploring the eastern part of the city, where there were several eerie buildings that looked like cafes. The reconnaissance team decided to leave half of them on the streets to keep watch, while the other half went into the cafes to investigate.”

Yan Yu'an continued, "They strictly followed all the regulations for investigating the strange building, and did not rashly touch the furnishings inside the building, nor did anyone press the switch on the coffee machine... But when the machine gunner in the team turned around, the spare gun barrel hanging on the back of his backpack accidentally brushed against the switch on the coffee machine on the table... Without anyone noticing, this 'coffee' that looked like tar kept gushing out of the coffee machine, flowing down the table and spreading along the floor."

Sun Hang glanced at the coffee machine. Besides the "coffee" that could assimilate anything it touched, he realized another very strange detail that was easy to overlook if he didn't pay close attention.

Apart from the "gurgling" sound when the coffee machine is first turned on, the machine makes no sound at all during operation. Moreover, the coffee spout is about ten centimeters above the cup, and there is no knocking sound when the liquid is poured out... The whole process is completely silent.

Sun Hang even suspected that the coffee machine was making that "gurgling" sound because he had used his abilities to activate all the electrical equipment in the coffee shop.

The reconnaissance team didn't have the ability to turn on all the lights in the café, and coupled with the café's strange architectural structure, the interior lighting was terrible even during the day. In situations where only tactical flashlights could illuminate the scene, the silently flowing black liquid was indeed very difficult to spot.

"By the time they realized the problem, everyone's boots inside the café had become one with the floor—they thought, like you, that it was some kind of strong adhesive at first… but soon they realized that the black liquid was seeping into the soles of their boots, which were made of special polymers and puncture-resistant ceramic plates… Some people tried to untie their shoelaces and pull their feet out of their boots, but by then it was too late."

Yan Yu'an stared intently at the black, viscous liquid dripping from the edge of the bar, and continued, "They could only tell their teammates on guard outside to leave quickly, and in their last moments, they passed on information related to this liquid. But what puzzled the other half of the survivors was that no matter how much this black, viscous liquid spread inside the shop, it never flowed out onto the street. Although there was no barrier or difference in elevation between the floor in front of the cafe and the floor outside, there was an invisible barrier that kept the liquid at the door."

"What about the soldiers who stayed in the store?" Wang Xiyi couldn't help but ask. "How did they die in the end?"

"They were eventually completely assimilated by this thing, turning into things that resembled black wax figures," Yan Yu'an replied. "Judging from their final postures, they must have endured immense suffering in the period before their deaths."

(End of this chapter)