Transcendent Gene
Chapter 164: Anastasia [4]

Chapter 164: Anastasia [4]

Those days went by rapidly.

For three more days, "Anastasia" lived out its ordinary life with the Vortex Dynamo inside its body, quietly blending into society.

Night fell on the fourth.

"Anastasia" worked late into the night. "She" was always working harder than her peers, which was why a lot of people respected "her." It wasn’t only a matter of beauty, but also one of personality and character.

Everything about her indicated that she was a beautiful person in heart, mind, and body. Today as well, she stayed late in the office.

Her lab assistants asked her for more work so they could help her go home earlier, but she refused their help and remained in the lab until it was well past midnight.

There were barely any cars on the road. After waiting several minutes for a taxi, she checked her holowatch and shook her head, deciding to walk home instead of spending money on an on-demand taxi service.

She lived far. Her apartment was several hours away from the candle shop on foot, which was why she usually rode in cars to get to and from her workplace. Klyde had a hard time trailing her before he was able to find her address. After all, even he knew that asking a taxi driver to follow a taxi taking a woman home would end up with him in jail.

Still, she chose to walk home. After all, "she" did not feel the exhaustion that kept humans from doing the same.

She walked through the quiet city streets, her hair blowing in the wind as she calmly made her way through the safest and most dangerous areas without fear.

A homeless man on a street corner called out to her, yelling provocatively. She approached him and covered him in tar, swallowing him into her body before continuing on her way.

In the silence and the dark of night, even such an obvious movement didn’t raise any attention.

Her steps took her further and further from the most populated areas of the city. She traveled a route she knew well into an alley that cut between buildings and took her to the street she lived on.

Anastasia’s tracks halted.

"Who are you?"

There was a hooded figure a few meters in front of her. Though he was clothed in dark materials, the fact that he was a man a bit taller than herself was evident enough.

But from the way he stood in the middle of the alley and stared at her, he didn’t look like a resident of the alley.

Nor did he look like an ordinary catcaller.

"I am..."

The man opened his mouth, the voice leaving it deep and hoarse.

However, the introduction Anastasia waited for never came.

Before silence could return after his hesitation, a subtle white hue left the man’s leg. A group of spikes shot out of the ground at her feet, stabbing into her feet.

She looked down in surprise as "blood" flowed out.

Her body was properly formed to replicate a human’s reactions and responses to things like pain, but she did not yet know how to replicate the emotions they felt perfectly.

Her face remained stoic with only a mild surprise present in her eyes as she looked back up at him.

"You...attacked me?"

He was already running at her with blue sparks coming from his hands.

"That reaction alone is enough to prove you aren’t human."

Anastasia quickly raised her arm as a massive holographic warhammer appeared in the man’s hands.

Boom!

He reached her and slammed it down. The hammer crashed into her arms and tore through them, turning her flesh and blood into chunks that flew all over the alley.

Anastasia’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to scream after finally understanding what she was supposed to do, but Gio wasn’t going to give her the opportunity.

He rushed at her and closed her mouth with his hand, pushing her to the ground. Sitting on top of her, he thrusted his arm into her sternum, his hammer replaced by holographic brass knuckles.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

He repeatedly punched her while keeping her mouth shut, tearing into her body. Blood flew everywhere. Eventually, Gio felt the disgusting feeling of touching organs with his bare hands.

However, he didn’t stop and kept punching until he’d torn a hole almost to the ground.

"Haa...haa...haa..."

Looking at the corpse on the ground, Gio caught his breath and stepped back.

His eyes were narrow. He knew more than anyone else that the battle was not yet over.

Rather, this much could only be called the start.

"There’s no point pretending to be a corpse," Gio said.

"I won’t leave until you put yourself back together."

Despite his words, there was no movement in the corpse.

"Either you get up and fight for your life, or I turn your body into little pieces that you can’t heal from. It’s your choice."

Klyde’s problem was this.

His first target was able to remain as a corpse and experience a funeral before "reviving" itself as a new character.

Gio wouldn’t make the same mistake.

The monster clearly heard his threat. When he said he would atomize its body, the chunks of flesh strewn across the wall flinched.

Soon enough, they melted into grainy tar-like sludge that crawled towards the main body.

"Anastasia" stood up once more, but this time, she was in her true form.

’Doppelganger,’ Gio thought to himself.

"I see, so the humans are already aware of us."

The Doppelganger nodded with an intrigued tone in its voice.

"This must be shared with the main body as soon as possible. However, we must first eliminate the immediate threat."

Doppelgangers were individual entities, but they were all connected to a main hivemind that they could access at any time. While accessing the hivemind, they would be rendered immobile and disconnected from the world around them, which was why they couldn’t do so without safe surroundings, and also why Gio had to start and end this fight right here.

"You," the Doppelganger said, pointing at Gio.

"Reveal yourself before you die."

Gio frowned.

"No."

And then he attacked.

He flew towards the tarry figure and slammed his fist into its face. The tar went flying in every direction before rapidly halting, turning around, and charging at him.

"Reveal yourself."

The Doppelganger knew that his body would be in too many pieces to identify when he was dead. It was better to expose him beforehand.

The tar looked like sludge, but its properties were ever-changing. By the time it reached Gio, it was like a storm of blades he had to fight.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

He pulled his sword from his hip and used it to block the incoming projectiles. At the same time, he summoned the power of his gene and created a hammer over the doppelganger’s body. It slammed down, tearing apart more of its humanoid form, but that only created more weapons that attacked him.

’You can’t necessarily deal damage to a doppelganger,’ Gio thought to himself.

To kill a doppelganger –the way Anastasia was killed in the past– was to cut them apart, immobilize the pieces, and incinerate them all together.

Fire was best against them, but Gio didn’t have access to fire. He had to settle for the next best thing.

’And in my case, the next best thing...’

Well, it was safe to say that he had something more than good enough to cover his back.

’Let’s end this quickly.’