"Ah, so you need to know the na to file it in the archives?" Black cat Samuel watched Ethen walk away.
A flicker of light passed through his eyes as he gazed at the receding figure, and suddenly, fleshy buds began to sprout all over his body.
Pushing off with his hind legs, he leaped from the rooftop. His body swelled in mid-air, the entire feline form rapidly morphing and changing, seemingly on the verge of taking human shape.
He landed lightly, but Black cat Samuel's appearance had already undergone a dramatic transformation.
Green long hair, a gentle face, wearing the white robes of a clergy mber, with a crown woven from flowers and vines atop his head.
Exactly identical to the Ethen who had just walked away.
The Ethen that Samuel had transford into stood in place, flexed his arms, and tried to get a feel for this brand new body.
Although he had long possessed the ability to copy and mimic others' appearances, this was the first ti he had transford into soone with special abilities.
As for the clothes on his body and the crown on his head, those were rely simple illusions.
Illusion magic—this was an ability he had obtained in his third life. It also served as the foundation for most of his subsequent abilities.
Whether it was infusing his own emotions into the surrounding environnt, or the later-acquired ability to turn illusions into reality, it all stemd from the foundation laid in that third life.
In his third life, his abilities had already manifested quite noticeably, beginning to affect others.
Back then, he had gained the power to create illusions, capable of confusing others' senses, deceiving their sight, hearing, sll, taste, and touch.
His control over his own body had reached a level unimaginable to ordinary people. He could control his bones, his internal organs, could make slight, temporary adjustnts to his facial features. He could tighten his skin until it felt like the surface of taut wood, or make it loose and flabby, rippling like water with the slightest touch.
However, even that version of him hadn't survived past his 18th birthday.
That day, he didn't throw a birthday party. He stayed ho alone, doors and windows tightly shut, sitting on the sofa like a ditating monk, constantly alert to his surroundings. Anything that could pose a threat was kept far away from him. Including kitchen knives, scissors, even lighters.
That day, he didn't even take a sip of water, afraid he might choke to death.
And then, he died silently from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a gas leak.
The tightly shut doors and windows had even hastened his demise.
"..."
"This feeling... it's different from anyone I've ever imitated before." He curiously explored this special body.
Then, Samuel raised his right hand, palm open. A new bud broke through the skin of his palm and erged.
"Hmm... so this is Law."
"Truly a novel experience."
"Nature..."
Samuel muttered softly, sensing this special ability within him and a particular kind of energy flowing through his body.
He touched his current body, feeling here and there.
"Just t him once and I'm already coveting his body, even groping it behind his back in secret. Feels like a character this sleazy would be a real bottom-feeder even in the 2D world," he mumbled.
No, that phrasing wasn't quite right either. One should still have so ambition in life...
"Alright then, I'll aim for the top spot on the bottom-feeder leaderboard."
Now that's a grand ambition.
Suddenly, his movents abruptly froze stiff.
The crown on his head rapidly took root and sprouted on his scalp, growing grass, leaves, and flowers.
This was clearly a crown Samuel had fabricated with illusion magic, yet it had suddenly beco real.
The next second, Samuel felt his body beco sluggish, his joints as if rusted, requiring considerable effort for even the slightest movent.
No, not rust.
Sothing was growing on the surface of his bones, especially around the joints. Sothing had sprouted there, jamming the joints—it seed like moss.
A series of indistinct whispers and murmurs abruptly appeared in his mind, buzzing incessantly yet remaining unclear.
On the palm of his recently raised right hand, a human face slowly surfaced.
This face was small, but not distorted—just a proportionally scaled-down normal human face. It looked very ordinary, neither handso nor ugly.
This face had its eyes closed and mouth slightly open, expression relaxed. It wasn't moving around, but it was breathing faintly.
Imdiately after, one face after another surfaced on his skin. They too had their eyes closed, mouths slightly open, completely still.
"Huh?" Samuel raised an eyebrow curiously. "No way? I was just joking, and now it's really coming for ?"
Flesh churned as he prepared to reshape himself, to push down the faces surfacing on his skin.
"Well, I want to be on top too."
*Squelch.*
A branch pierced through the eyeball, growing out from the left eye socket of the Ethen that Samuel had beco, as if his left eyeball had turned into a seed.
The branch rapidly grew. Its texture was half wood, half flesh-like, covered in red blood vessels that pulsed with slight expansions and contractions.
"Heh... heh." Samuel tried to say sothing, but only managed faint, breathy sounds.
His windpipe had, at so point, beco filled with grass. Lush grass grew upward from his throat, soon extending out of his mouth. Vines sprouted from both ears, piercing through the eardrums from within.
Tree roots grew from the soles of his feet, piercing through his shoes and anchoring into the floor. The surface of his skin revealed plant-like textures. Inside, in places unseen from the outside, his bones were already covered in moss.
"Heh... ha... heh." The corners of Samuel's mouth lifted. Amidst the breathless heaving sounds, a few chuckles were mixed in.
Just by taking his form, at most copying his physical state a little, and I get hit with such severe backlash?
Samuel's mind whirred.
Was it because I was discovered? Or simply because Ethen's physical state is particularly special?
This is just too interesting.
Soon, the branch extending from his left eye grew leaves. The vines from his ears crawled over his body. His skin gradually transford into a peculiar material mixed with flesh and wood. Unknown fruits sprouted from his head and various parts of his body.
Those fruits were his organs.
His brain, his heart, even others—they grew out from Samuel's body surface, turning into strange fruits that pulsed gently.
His right eye also detached. The eye, connected by a thin vine, fell out from the eye socket and dangled down, like a black lychee.
Flesh churned beneath Samuel's skin. Several new eyes tore through the skin to grow out, but within seconds, they would rapidly turn into fruits.
The flesh and blood beneath his skin writhed rapidly, pushing outward.
*Riiip.*
Samuel's current body, which originally had Ethen's appearance, tore open from the middle. A normal, brand new Samuel shed his skin and erged.
He had already reverted to his "Samuel" appearance, no longer maintaining the imitation of Ethen.
However, it seed this wasn't sothing that could be solved by just changing faces.
The crown on his head was still firmly rooted on his skull.
Soon, Samuel's current body began to change once more.
Mutation, resistance, mutation, shedding.
He resisted and shed his skin several tis in a row, but the rate of mutation grew faster and faster, gradually surpassing Samuel's speed of changing bodies.
His body finally locked up completely, rapidly swelling, slowly transforming into a tree interwoven with flesh and wood. Various colored "fruits" swayed gently, leaving only a face with upturned corners on the surface of the trunk.
Gradually, this body that had transford from Samuel's left eye fell still.
Although he still breathed, his heart still beat outside his body, he had already lost consciousness.
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