9 Humans
[Third POV]
The mood at the topmost executive room of the Energyne Headquarters was a sombre one.
The huge crystalline glass windows surrounding the uppermost building provided a magnificent view of the bustling city of Chicago but that seemed inconsequential to the calm, calculative face of Claire Wyden.
The demeanour of a strong businesswoman fitted her profile so well since she was dressed in an expensive tight-fitting sleeveless dress.
She had her concentration set on something else - it was the live broadcast of an unusual situation that was immensely related to her.
Claire Wyden was the CEO of Energyne, a company involved in genetic engineering and providing improvement in the healthcare system. They had a lot of shares in both the medical and pharmaceutical industries estimated to reach, at least, hundreds of billions. But what the public didn't know is that behind that veil of philanthropy and having humanity's best interest at heart, was a company involved in unethical gene editing.
In the huge screen display, while the hot news continued, Claire shifted her gaze to the open tab at the left bottom corner.
The tab showed line charts of the stock market changing with each passage of a second.
Claire Wyden remained unfazed seeing Energyne's stocks dwindling at a rapid rate.
'Losing billions, huh? Okay.' She thought with an unworried expression on her fair face.
Her current reaction had something to do with her mindset.
Why worry about losing billions when you can earn more than that?
The risks she had ventured into were ultimately going to sell for trillions if her plans came to fruition and nothing went wrong.
"Damn it, fuck it. This wasn't part of the plan. This wasn't supposed to happen!" A shout full of anxiety, childish annoyance, anger and fear caused a slight frown to emerge on Claire's face.
Well, If it wasn't her dimwitted little brother.
"Brett, can you cease your childish tantrums for a moment? I am trying to think here." Claire warned with a sharp, authoritarian tone.
The one who was being addressed was a man wearing a well-tailored navy suit and he had a disheveled appearance.
He was Claire Wyden's brother, Brett Wyden. He always hid behind his sister's shadow and did whatever he was told.
Brett was weak-minded and always depended on her calm and brilliant sister.
"S-Sorry," Brett murmured a meek apology and ceased pacing around the office like a dog.
"But Claire, what are we gonna do now since the situation has escalated to this point? I don't like the idea of feds snooping around this issue. I have not yet enjoyed life to the fullest, I don't want to go to jail and-" Brett blubbered on without taking a breather.
"Hey, Hey, if you continue whining like that how am I supposed to react?" Claire raised her eyebrows.
Brett kept quiet with an embarrassed expression on his face.
"The situation isn't exactly salvageable. What we created - Project Rampage- wasn't affected by the explosion of the escape pod. Dr. Atkins served her purpose well enough." Claire explained in a cold voice.
"What we are left with is to collect the fruits of our labour before the secret investigation agencies and the government start a serious inspection of our company."
"How can we do that, Claire?" Brett hurriedly asked with a hopeful yet impatient gaze.
"We use the hands of others, of course." Claire showed a faint smile as she elegantly walked toward Brett and stood in front of him.
"Are you ready to live the life that you have always wanted, brother?"
"Y-Yessss." Brett replied, prolonging the 'S' unintendedly.
"You will have it. There is nothing that I can't do to make my goals come true." Claire lightly brushed away the non-existent dust on Brett's shoulder before looking back at the OLED screens.
"I will immediately send highly-trained mercs to take ownership of our 'commodities' in Wyoming!"
Brett foolishly smiled, feeling that her sister was always reliable.
'Sigh, just what can I do without her?'
***
+++[MC's POV]+++
[You have absorbed the Dragonfly.]
[Dragonfly's genes successfully extracted and copied into the genetic bank]
[Predation effect has been triggered.]
[The unique skill 'near 360 degrees vision' has been acquired successfully!]
[Do you want to merge with the unique skill 'near 360 degrees vision'?]
[Yes/No]
***
'Near 360 degrees vision? Hmm, not bad.' I instantly clicked on [Yes].
I couldn't pass up the chance of being like a Hyuga.
Well, dragonflies were known for their super fast reaction speed and I had once tried to capture one when I was young.
It was a super hard task but not impossible. They were just annoyingly fast to react, evading your attempts to catch it almost instantaneously.
Processing around 200 images per second wasn't for show, right?
And those guys saw the world in slow motion like a speedster, take for example, Quicksilver who could play around with bullets and fries suspended in the air as if time had completely stopped.
Little by little, I began feeling my eyes mutating and being restructured to see in 360 degrees.
My vision was already good like an eagle's but having the ability to see my back and blindspots omni-directionally made me feel a little bit… safe.
Even though it wasn't exaggerated, it gave me the power to efficiently protect my vitals against sneaky foes.
[Detected another gene ability.]
[Do you want to merge?]
[Yes/No]
'Oh, another one?' I was honestly surprised, not expecting to get anything beyond one skill.
I remembered the 50/50 probability restriction and wondered if it was a hoax or was my luck just that good.
'Maybe I am getting my 'pities' in advance. Hoyoverse's banners made me frustrated on multiple occasions, I can't say much.' I accepted the merge.
[The unique skill 'Bullet-time Perception' has been successfully merged with the user!]
'Hell yeah! Now that's what I am talking about.' I jovially celebrated.
[Bullet-time Perception: perceive everything around you in slow motion by overclocking your reaction speed. Just so you know TIME won't slow down or stop. Creatures immensely faster than what you can perceive are obviously immune to this ability.Thought, you could see a light-speed attack in slow motion… keep on dreaming.]
The enthusiasm immediately started decreasing due to that description full of mockery.
'But still, it is not enough to deal with Lizzie.' I analyzed the bigger picture.
'I need more… power!' The chuuni effect took the better part of me momentarily.
Then all of a sudden, I heard the distinctive sound of a helicopter's rotor, furiously cutting through the air.
The familiar sounds emanated two hundred miles away from where I was standing. I could easily detect any sort of sound frequencies within a 300-mile radius and that wasn't my limit.
'Humans.'
'I wonder how they taste. They would surely taste like shit if I am not wrong.'
'Why am I even thinking about eating them when they are basically… useless?'
I already had a human's intellectual thinking capability and beyond that, there wasn't anything special about them except their tendency for creation and destruction.
They were the filth of the world and I wasn't any different in soul, that is.
Anyway, this was going to mark my first time meeting humans but since I didn't know their intentions, It was better to prepare for war if needed.
I didn't expect them to act friendly with an over 15-foot gigantic mutated wolf.
***
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