At this moment, Jules… could hardly be called human.His torso, arms, legs, and neck had all become springs.One man—transformed entirely into springs?Ray blinked in astonishment.Jules, however, seemed unsurprised. His voice dripped with bitter resentment. "Overusing your ability… makes your power take control of you. You become a slave to it! I've turned into springs—and I can never return!"Overuse of powers could do that?A fire user burns too intensely and… becomes fire? No, a flame person?Ray couldn't help but think, 'This is absurdly fantastical.'Curiosity got the better of him. "How do you know that?" he asked.Jules's response was a strange, cackling laugh. "I've always been dissatisfied with my body. But now… this form is actually not bad. It's fine even if I can't change back. This is better—I don't need to eat, I don't need to drink, and I don't feel cold."Go on! Keep shooting me with bullets. If I yell even once, I surrender!"Now permanently a spring-bein

Ray had always been cautious.He valued life.But the life he valued was his life as a human, not as a monster.If he transformed into space itself, he could become invincible, untouchable—even immortal. But what meaning would such a life hold?Boring enough to drive someone to suicide, probably.So he had zero interest in becoming pure space.Besides… could he even do it? Using his otherworldly storage space didn't consume his powers—only spatial severing or spatial perception did. And overusing those wouldn't suddenly let him become space.Jules had endlessly springified his body until his ability ran dry, leaving him permanently transformed. But Ray? That wasn't his path.He pushed that thought aside.One more ability user from the Hope Camp had been eliminated.But how many were left? How many ability users remained in that camp? And there was that team leader.Ray didn't underestimate him. To command a group of crazed ability users, Lucas's power could not be trivialize

Ray talked with Celine for a long, long time. By the time they finished, it was already deep into the night, yet she showed no sign of sleepiness at all.In the end, Ray said, "It's late. You should get some rest."Celine looked at him with pitiful eyes. "I'm afraid to sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see Grandpa. I keep thinking of how I'll never see him again."Ray sighed inwardly. She had once told him that her parents died in an accident when she was very young, and she had been raised by Albert ever since. Now that her only remaining family member had been killed, her grief was only natural.Worse still, for the past few days she had been hiding in the secret room, too frightened to come out, unable even to bury Albert's body. That could only deepen her sense of guilt."It's okay," Ray said softly. "I'll stay here with you." He led her into the bedroom and let her lie down fully clothed.As expected, Celine slept uneasily. From time to time, she would glance at him again

The size of the spatial portal did not change at all, but its casting range increased to ten meters.Ray could only call it strange.The growth of this ability was the most baffling of all—impossible to predict. Just when he thought he had grasped its pattern, it would arbitrarily change again, leaving him speechless.By contrast, the improvement of spatial perception and spatial severing had become stable, each extending by three meters.So Jules must have absorbed two abilities. Added to his own, that made the equivalent of three in total. More or less.After leaving Gigi's place, Ray left behind some food and water and returned to the Seager house.Celine was still unconscious. Her high fever had not subsided, and she had begun to mutter in her sleep.One moment she called for her parents, the next for her grandfather—but she called "Grandpa" far more often. It couldn't be helped. She had lost both parents at the age of eight, so in her memories, her grandfather left the deep

Meanwhile, at Caesar Sanatorium.A flat-topped man stood before the collapsed administrative building. He was unmistakably the same ability-user who had killed people at Senna University."Captain, we questioned everyone. That ability-user wore a helmet the whole time. We couldn't make out his face at all," said a tall, thin man. On closer look, his pupils were the color of a lizard's, and his eyelids opened and closed sideways instead of blinking up and down like a normal person's.Clearly, he too was an ability-user. Yet, he had only mutated less than two months ago, and his body had already undergone such grotesque changes.Snake type? Lizard type?The flat-topped man was Lucas Grisham, the true authority of Hope Camp. He frowned slightly and glanced again at the ruins."So you're telling me that our enemy flattened our headquarters, and we still don't even know who he is?"Beside him stood a woman with striking features and an expression as cold as an iceberg. She smiled fai