An energy suddenly appeared out of nowhere, erupting inside the lamp base. The bronze figurine began to melt gradually, and the scalding, bright molten bronze dripped from the fingers of the infected, instantly scorching her hands, leaving them raw and flesh exposed.

Yet she seemed to feel no pain at all, even when the bones of her fingers had separated from the carbonized flesh, she still did not discard the melting lamp base in her hands.

Finally, after the figurine had nearly completely melted, an irregular-shaped cloudy crystal appeared before everyone's eyes. This crystal looked like a shrunken, dried heart, even with details on its surface resembling coronary artery-like patterns.

The crystal emitted a dim phosphorescence, flickering in a breathing light effect, switching back and forth as if in the rhythm of a heartbeat.

"A heart?" Sun Hang muttered to himself.

He could sense that a wave of memetic fluctuations more intense than the perpetually lit lamp emanated from this crystal... it was clear the extinguished flame was not gone, but had hidden itself in a sort of "suspended animation" state.

The entire body of the infected was trembling, and her throat uttered incomprehensible sounds—her vocal system had completely mutated, unable to produce normal human sounds, but Sun Hang could still discern evident joy from these bizarre noises.

Cradling the faintly glowing crystal, she slowly brought it closer to her chest.

From this angle, Sun Hang could see a very noticeable surgical scar on the left side of the infected's chest—although the incision had long healed, the stitching marks clung to her body like a fleshy centipede.

"It seems like she wants to put this crystal... into her chest." Wang Xiyi said.

Not just Mr. Wang, everyone present could see the intent of the infected—she held the crystal with one hand and used the other to pry open the scar on her chest, attempting to tear open the long-healed flesh once again...

However, her hands had long been stripped of flesh by the hundreds of degrees of molten bronze, and with the tendons gone, her finger bones couldn't even perform the simplest of movements, let alone rip open her skin.

After several unsuccessful attempts, she fell into utter despair.

Kneeling on the ground, she pounded the floor with her elbows, uttering heart-wrenching screams.

"I wonder... should we give her a hand?" Wang Xiyi glanced at Sun Hang, "Help her shove this thing into her chest? See what changes it might bring?"

"Hmm." Sun Hang nodded, as the Liquid Metal Flying Blades instantly sliced open the infected's chest.

When cutting through the muscle tissue, the sensation transmitted back from the flying blades made Sun Hang feel as if he was not cutting flesh, but rather like cutting into decayed, moldy rotted cotton.

No blood flowed from the incision—the muscle tissue here had long fibrotized, and the spongy perforation alone would be enough to make anyone with trypophobia shiver.

As everyone expected, the left chest cavity of the infected, where the heart was supposed to be, was empty.

"No heart... can she still live?" Ye Xuan frowned, saying in disbelief.

"The human body is truly fascinating, isn't it?" Sun Hang glanced at her and said.

"You ought to preface with an adjective," Yang Qi corrected, "the body infected by memetic anomalies."

The aberrated infected used what could scarcely still be called "hands" to pry open the gap Sun Hang helped cut, arduously stuffing the crystal into her chest cavity.

Upon contact with the crystal, it seemed like it was stimulated by something, instantly beginning to proliferate wildly, with numerous granulations immediately swarming and engulfing the crystal, and in just two seconds, a thick membrane had formed on the crystal's surface.

The previously dim glow of the crystal seemed to have brightened significantly, even through a layer of approximately one centimeter thick flesh membrane, the light could penetrate through, and as the frequency of its flickering sped up, various injuries on the infected's body began to gradually heal.

"Her body... seems to be regenerating?" Ye Xuan stepped forward, asking in a tone laced with confusion, "This crystal actually has such an effect?"

"I suspect this thing was originally extracted from her body, and now it's merely been returned to its rightful owner," Sun Hang said.

"She should not attack us once she returns to normal, right?" Ye Xuan aimed her PDW, laden with various tactical gear, pointing its dark muzzle at the crystal wrapped in the flesh membrane within the infected's chest cavity.

"Who knows? Maybe." Sun Hang replied nonchalantly.

He actually hoped she would attack him, as it would give him ample reason to devour her.

This self-recovery ability somewhat overlaps with the capability of the Tai Sui, which is not particularly useful for Sun Hang. What intrigues him more are the "memory fragments" carried by the memetic structure within this infected's body.

Although the ability to absorb memory does not have any combat attribute, from any perspective, it is an ability on a cheat-level scale... of course, that is, as long as the Three Wise Monkeys don't intervene at a critical time.

The mutated portions of the infected's body began to gradually return to normal, but her abdomen started swelling increasingly, like a balloon, inflating bit by bit.

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