256: Chapter 257 "Order Wars" [Clone City]: [Hive Gene]

The single eye on the face of the Humanoid Flesh felt the hundreds of thousands of Clones in this city serving as sacrifices, and its single eye couldn't help but narrow slightly.

As a top biological scientist of the Ultra-Era Tech Empire and the genetic blueprint for all Clones in Clone City, it seemed as if he controlled the life and death of the Clones through monitoring chips, but in reality, that was just a toy used to deceive others.

The method that truly gave the former middle-aged man—the current Humanoid Flesh—confidence in his ability to control the life and death of the Clones was the [Hive Gene - Worker Bee] fragment edited into the Clones' genetic sequences, which was kept in a dormant state. As the genetic blueprint for the Clones, he was the natural [Queen Bee]. After editing the [Hive Gene - Queen Bee] into his own genetic sequences, he could, with a single thought, awaken the [Hive Gene - Worker Bee] dormant in all the Clones' genetic fragments, thereby controlling all the Clones through pheromones.

After mutating into the Humanoid Flesh, the [Hive Gene - Queen Bee] also underwent unknown changes under the influence of the Power of Corruption. The control that originally required pheromones could now be achieved simply through the Power of Corruption emitted by the flesh.

At this moment, all the Clones—whether they were Clones who had awakened self-awareness or Clones returning to the surface from the Underground Garbage Dump pipes—became Puppets absolutely obedient to the Humanoid Flesh under the influence of the Power of Corruption it emitted. Under the effect of the Power of Corruption, all Clones who had ceased movement became the eyes of the Humanoid Flesh. Because of this, he noticed the various special energies possessed by the Hosts. That was definitely not the genetic technology of the Ultra-Era Tech Empire; it was a special energy of the same type as the Power of Corruption possessed by the Living Book "corruption aberration," only vastly different in energy Rank.

Sensing the special energy emitted by several Hosts throughout Clone City, the Humanoid Flesh felt as if it had caught the scent of the finest delicacy. On the part of its face corresponding to a human mouth, the originally smooth flesh suddenly began to tear violently. As if prematurely breaking the progress of the aberration, the dark red flesh ripped open from the center, upwards and downwards, like a wound forced apart. It split open all the way to the middle of the skull, with strands of thin flesh stretched to their limit holding firm without snapping, connecting the wound and making it look even more horrific.

A mouth that had nothing to do with humanity, large enough to occupy half the skull, revealed a twisted and exaggeratedly evil smile.

Inside the gaping maw, there were no neat human teeth, only layer upon layer of dense, fine fangs extending inward. Each fang glinted with a cold luster, like the rows of a shark's teeth, seemingly capable of easily shredding the hardest alloys. The inner walls of the mouth were covered with tiny, wriggling tentacles, twitching slightly with the pulsing of the flesh.

Then, this terrifying giant mouth slowly curled upward, letting out a laugh so morbidly frenzied it made one's scalp tingle.

"Hahaha! Unexpected sacrifices! It seems the Flesh Ascension Sacrifice Ritual is about to undergo a further aberration!"

Due to an uncontrollable appetite for the Hosts, transparent slime dripped continuously from the corners of its mouth onto the wriggling flesh on the floor, causing the flesh throughout the room to pulse excitedly and rapidly.