Atavism

Chapter 9

Six Ears laughed even harder: "If your camera could record for a longer time, you'd find that no one went out again until you came back!"

"What?" I was extremely surprised and blurted out, "She was at my house all night yesterday?"

I looked around. Where could she be hiding? In the closet?

"She's always been there."

I stood up abruptly, gripping the table with both hands, and glared at Liu Er, who was sitting upright. He was still smiling.

I am the master here. Thinking this, I sat back down in my chair.

Six Ears' fur began to fluff up all over its body again.

Damn it, that's not fluffy!

It was as if a wind I couldn't feel was blowing on Six Ears, and its black fur started to dance!

He slowly stood up, every single black hair on his body writhing, probably numbering in the millions, spreading outwards in a menacing manner.

I then realized that these hairs were not the length I remembered. Normally, each hair would be curved, coiled, and folded. Now, these thin creatures seemed to have received a command, and they stretched themselves out eagerly, quickly crossing the more than one meter distance between me and Six Ears, and reaching in front of my nose.

At this moment, the creature opposite me had completely lost its human-like qualities. I don't know how to describe it. It was an octopus with a million tentacles.

This was an absolutely thrilling and terrifying experience. My body jerked backward, and the huge clump of black fur was about to engulf me.

What the hell is this? I couldn't help but reach out and brush the black fur off. By the time I realized what I was doing, it was too late to stop. I thought to myself, "Oh no!"

Fortunately, the overwhelming amount of hair stopped right in front of my nose, as if it was just trying to scare me, and then retreated a foot, leaving my hand empty-handed.

"Is that her you see?" a voice asked me from the center of the countless tiny tentacles.

A clump of hair began to take shape, and soon a black woman's face appeared in mid-air. This face was composed of countless hairs arranged and even intertwined.

In the blink of an eye, the black face changed color, and the hair, like a chameleon, transformed the face into a normal human skin color.

The face slowly recoiled, pressing against Six Ears' face. It was a woman's face with distinct features and sharp angles. A woman with such a face should have possessed a heroic air, but now, this face, embedded in black fur, reminded me of a spider with a human face, sending chills down my spine.

That face is still smiling.

I was so shocked I couldn't speak, but it wasn't over yet.

The hair stopped flailing and formed a cocoon in the shape of a person. A cocoon with a beautiful woman's face. The cocoon undulated and adjusted its shape, and then, starting from the neck, it began to change color. In a few seconds, a complete woman appeared.

A woman with the beautiful curves of a model, a completely naked woman.

“I’ve always been here,” he said, walking to the center of the living room, his nipples trembling slightly, as if wanting me to see this miracle clearly.

Vibrant and fragrant.

If I hadn't seen what I just witnessed, I probably would already be drooling.

I took a deep breath, and my sluggish brain began to function again, albeit with difficulty. Was this the result of a 2.4% difference?

Deep breathing helps calm me down. Although this felt like a nightmare, it seemed that Liu Er hadn't lost his mind and didn't seem to have any intention of harming me.

"That's a perfect transformation technique. I think you can conjure up another set of clothes, right?"

The woman opposite her paused for a moment, then sighed softly and said, "No wonder you're a reporter with so many bizarre experiences."

As he spoke, his face and body changed once again. Even the multi-million dollar computer effects Hollywood produced couldn't compare to the magic I was seeing with my own eyes. Wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, Liu Er from our trip to Fujian was back—the only difference being that he was a little heavier.

“This looks much better.” I said, standing up and looking him over. “How did you do that?”

I reached out and touched Liu Er's clothes and pants, then touched his arm. The texture was a bit strange. The clothes were alright, but his skin lacked the smoothness and elasticity of a normal person's; it felt like some kind of fabric.

"It doesn't feel like it," I said.

Liu Er smiled wryly: "It only looks like it. If it felt like me too, I would really be a monster."

I looked at him strangely: "Don't you think you are?"

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward after those words were spoken. I was slightly startled; I had spoken without thinking because I saw that Liu Er seemed to have returned to normal. Before figuring out his current mental state, it was best not to provoke him further.

“If Sir D were here, he would definitely extend his hand and say to you, ‘Welcome to the inhuman world.’” I said with a smile, “When did you acquire this ability?”

"It all started when you went to Shunchang for an interview." Liu Er sat down on the sofa and began to tell the story of this mutation.

All morning, Liu Er sat in his bedroom. It was a sunny day outside, but it meant nothing to him, because the room was always gloomy.

I don't know if the razor has become dull or if my grip strength has weakened. These past two days, Liu Er has found it increasingly difficult to shave the hair on his body; each hair is so resilient.

The hair on his left palm had been shaved twice, but it wasn't completely clean yet, unlike before when a light shave along the skin was enough. Suddenly, Liu Er flew into a rage, jumped up, and slashed fiercely at his hand.

Blood slowly seeped out.

The wound wasn't deep; even with that much force, it was just a shallow mark. Liu Er frowned, staring at the scraper lying on the ground. Was the scraper really dull?

Liu Er bent down and picked up the scraper; he wanted to see what the blade was like.

He was stunned.

Light filtering through the slightest gap in the curtains shone on the blade of the scraper, reflecting a dazzling brilliance.

The blade remains sharp.

Liu Er wasn't stunned because of that. He recalled his earlier actions, threw the scraper back on the ground, bent down, and stretched out his right hand.

That's right, you can't pick up a knife if your legs aren't bent, but I remember I didn't bend my legs, I just picked it up casually and got the knife.

The scraper was less than half a foot away from his fingers when Liu Er grabbed at it in vain.

Suddenly realizing it, he had grabbed the knife in his hand once again!

The first thing Liu Er thought of was the concept of telekinesis, a skill found in martial arts novels. How had he managed to do that?

He opened his palm, the knife lying there, its hilt nestled in the thick hair of his hand. He lifted the scraper by the spine of the blade with his left hand, a few strands of soft hair that had been wrapped around the hilt sliding smoothly off and retracting into his palm.

In an instant, a door deep within his body vibrated and creaked open.

It was an indescribable feeling, a realization that slowly seeped into my heart, as if I had suddenly discovered that I had a hand that I had never used before.

For the next two days, Liu Er devoted himself to studying "them" with great enthusiasm, while the scraper was naturally left far behind.

This was a difficult yet exciting effort. When Liu Er opened his palm and looked at the hair on it, it was like a tall building rising from the ground, slowly rising and finally standing straight. It was as exhilarating as being reborn.

If we were to describe "them" as hands, this newborn hand would be a thousand times more dexterous than the original two hands, which humans have imbued with such profound significance in evolutionary history. Therefore, even though it is part of the body, mastering it completely is by no means a matter of a day or two.

When I returned from Fuzhou and asked Liu Er to cooperate with the X organization for treatment again, he was like a newborn baby, engrossed in a new toy that could be used in endless ways, and completely ignored what I said.

"Before you told me about that 2.4% genetic difference, I already knew I was different." Liu Er's lips curled into a slightly mocking smile: "I often read fantasy novels online, and many protagonists are struck by lightning and gain superhuman abilities. No matter what struck me, I've changed. This change isn't as bad as I imagined. I'm already aware that I'm not human."

His pale pinky finger pried open the silver foil of the cigarette pack, his sharp nail gently flicking it, and a 35 cigarette popped out. He tapped the cigarette on the coffee table, then put it in his mouth. The lighter in front of me flipped over and suddenly flew into his outstretched palm.

The webs that this Spider-Man spun were so fine that I couldn't see them at all.

Blue smoke slowly wafted from Liu'er's nostrils. I couldn't help but admire how exquisite the shell was.

"If they had a choice, countless people would want to be like you." This is not a compliment. Every child dreams of becoming a superhero, but what awaits them is the ordinariness and helplessness of life.

"And what about you?" Liu Er looked at me with great interest.

“It’s because of ordinary people like us that you stand out from the crowd.” I laughed. “Besides, I didn’t have a choice.”

"I don't have any either."

Liu Er seemed unconcerned when he said this. Actually, I couldn't tell what expression on that mask was genuine.

Have you fully adapted yet?

“I’m still adapting. There are probably more surprises I haven’t discovered yet. When I made a single hair as hard as a steel needle, I never imagined I could walk down the street like a normal person.”

"So how did you discover that you could do this?" If we're talking about level of surprise, Liu Er's shapeshifting ability, which surpasses even that of the underwater people, is even more astonishing.

"When I feel like a demon."

"A demon?" I frowned.

Suddenly, a bulge appeared in the center of Liu Er's forehead, with a sharp horn protruding. It was dark black, then slowly turned dark red, the color of congealed blood.

"When I looked in the mirror, watching all the hair on my body writhing under my control, I suddenly felt disgusted and horrified. I made them all stop, sticking to my body, not a single hair sticking up. But I still didn't feel like a human, but rather like a demon from the underworld. If I had a horn on my head, I would look even more like one."

He stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, then crushed it again and again. A small section of his body twisted and fell beside the glass ashtray, black debris scattered everywhere.

"I'll make myself look more like a demon, so I have to have horns. I'm going to get a horn." Liu Er clenched his fist, his thumb pressing hard against his index finger.

“It needs horns. Those little things worked very hard, and I put in a lot of effort, but the horns are finally coming out.” His hand relaxed, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

I inhaled the cool air bit by bit.

Liu Er tapped the tip of the horn with his right index finger and gently rubbed it: "I didn't expect it to be so beautiful. I looked in the mirror and those little things were so fine that I could hardly tell that the horn was made of them. I thought that if the horn was blue, it would look even more like it. Then I noticed that its color was fading little by little. Of course, in the end I thought the best color was red, just like it is now."

"And then you thought you could use that to make yourself look like a normal person?" I didn't want to continue this "demon" topic.

"Yes. Although that's a hundred times harder than conjuring up a horn."

“But I still don’t understand how you could do this.” I looked at the white T-shirt and jeans, and even “lifelike” wouldn’t be enough to describe it: “The initial hospital report said that the number of your pores had increased by 200%, but now it looks like it’s much more than that. There are millions of hairs all over your body. Look at how you look now,” I said, becoming more and more incredulous: “Your skin, clothes, pants, shapes, and colors are all different. Every hair has its own function to make you look like this. How could you possibly control them all at the same time? You know, it’s difficult for a normal person to draw a circle with their left hand and a square with their right. I don’t know what kind of creature can do this.”

A troubled look slowly crept onto Liu Er's face: "Now that you mention it, I realize it's strange myself. But I don't control every single hair like you think. How should I put it..."

Liu Er was clearly just beginning to think about this problem. He frowned, seemingly trying to process the information while organizing his thoughts.

"It's like I have a row of switches in my body. I just need to find the switch and turn it on. For example, there's a switch that controls the color. Once I find it, I slowly learn which angle to turn it to and what color will come out. I just need to remember it. It's like my body's memory. Once I remember it, I'll never forget it."

"Body memory?"

"Yes, whether it's changing colors or directing them to do this or that, there's a familiarization process at the beginning, which is wonderful. It's more like taking back something that originally belonged to you little by little."

Liu Er squinted, looking rather intoxicated.

I've noticed that Liu Er is now very prone to getting lost in his own world.

I didn't quite understand his emotional description of his situation. Actually, I didn't expect to fully understand what had happened to him. But there was one thing I needed to know.

"What have you been doing these past few days?"

I have a feeling he's not telling me something. If it's just because he hasn't been in the sunlight for too long, then why is he going out in a different guise? Does he have a cross-dressing fetish?

"Shopping. I just discovered how enjoyable shopping is. So many people are walking around, but you would never guess that there is an oddball like me among them. I always think about how interesting their expressions would be if I suddenly turned back to my original form."

"Well……"

"And there are some side pleasures as well." Liu Er said with a hint of pride and a touch of mystery.

"What is it?" I didn't even try to guess; his mental state was already somewhat abnormal.

He suddenly regressed to his primal nature, his mind teetering on the brink of collapse, before gaining superhuman abilities. This dramatic shift inevitably led to a distorted and warped psyche. Even if he eventually adapts to his new identity and regains a normal mindset, he will be vastly different from his pre-regression self.

Don't you think the public security in Shanghai has improved a lot recently?