[Zhongyingmei] It's not a slime!

Peter felt his thoughts freeze for a moment when the gun went off.

Perhaps it was because the sound of the gunshot was too harsh and hurt his eardrums, or because of some other reason, at that moment his mind went blank.

He saw Uncle Ben fall in front of his eyes, and watched the murderer with the gun get scratched in the face by the sparrow that fell from the sky, screaming and knocking the sparrow aside.

He heard piercing screams from all directions, and passers-by who were frightened by the gunshots ran in panic.

He heard the sound of brakes coming together, and the ominous noise permeated the dark gray land of the city that was not illuminated by the sun.

"Uncle Ben?"

He subconsciously shouted.

It seemed to him that his voice was coming from far away,

The murderer glanced up at him, and Peter saw his face clearly, and it was once again in his memory.

After the murderer took a look at him, he rushed into the car covering the wound on his face that the sparrow had scratched, stepped on the accelerator, and ran away in a panic.

Only then did Peter come to his senses. He had no time to deal with the fleeing murderer, and rushed to help Uncle Ben who fell on the ground.

He saw blood spreading on the ground, and his nostrils were filled with a strong smell of rust.

"Peter?" Uncle Ben mumbled in his arms, his eyes couldn't focus, and blood was spilling from the corner of his mouth.

"No... Uncle Ben, don't talk," Peter said, hearing his own voice tremble.

He raised his head and shouted at the crowd: "Quick! Call an ambulance! Hurry up! Please!"

Only then did the onlookers remember what to do, and hurriedly pulled out their mobile phones to call the police and call an ambulance.

Trembling, Peter tried to cover the wound on Uncle Ben's stomach.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He kept talking, hot tears falling on the cold ground one drop after another.

At this moment, he suddenly understood what Ruby meant by "you're too young" just now.

Yeah, he's too young, he's too childish.He deliberately ignored the gangster for those ridiculous reasons, which led to this tragedy.

He saw it, he was able to stop it, and he didn't stop it.This should have been his responsibility, but he chose to escape, so... all the consequences caused by this can only be borne by himself.

After the sparrow possessed by Ruby was slapped away by the gangster, she quickly escaped from the sparrow's body, and got into Uncle Ben's body as fast as she could.

"System, hurry up, exchange for the healing ability for me!"

[Healing (unlocked)]: Life depends on negative entropy to survive—consume energy and heal the physical damage suffered by the host.The price is 5000 energy.

System: "Five thousand energy, are you sure?"

Ruby glanced at her remaining energy. It was more than 800, which was just enough. She said, "I'm sure, hurry up."

System: "You reacted very quickly just now. You scratched the gangster's face and helped him avoid the vital points. The probability of his death on the spot has been reduced."

Ruby: "I don't want to bet on this!"

System: "...Okay, it has been exchanged."

Ruby glanced at her skill panel, and the ability to heal has been canceled from the unlocked state and has become usable.

System: "Although this skill has been exchanged, it only gives you the authority to use it. It still requires energy to be used. It is calculated according to the severity of the wound that needs to be healed."

"Why didn't you say it earlier!" Ruby cracked open, "How much energy is needed to heal Uncle Ben's injury?" Ruby asked nervously as she glanced at her remaining 800 energy.

The system said: "This is a fatal injury. Although there is no way to completely heal it, your remaining energy can at least help him survive the most dangerous stage."

Ruby let out a long sigh of relief: "Then let's begin."

The healing skill began to glow with warm light. Ruby watched the energy on her system panel decrease little by little, held back her heartache, turned her face away, and looked at Peter.

This child suddenly encountered major changes in his life one after another, no matter how strong his heart is, he might not be able to bear it.

She looked at the child's immature face covered with tears, and seeing his almost desperate expression, she couldn't help feeling depressed, as if she had been hit by something with a stick, causing bouts of dull pain.

So she connected Peter and said to him: "It's okay Peter, I will save your uncle."

……

Peter felt as if he had been thrown into the deep sea where no light could penetrate.

He raised his head and looked at the sea level that was getting farther and farther away, but he could only slowly sink under the increasingly dead suffocation and oppressive feeling.

The sense of loneliness and powerlessness made him colder and colder, as if he was standing on a distant lonely planet, looking at the dark and dead universe from afar, unreachable and bottomless.

But at this moment, it seemed that someone suddenly stretched out a hand, a warm and soft hand, gently grabbed him, and dragged him out of the abyss.

"It's all right, Peter," she said to him in a sweet, soft voice.

"...Ruby?" A gleam of light appeared in Peter's eyes.

"I'm in Uncle Ben's body, and I'll help him heal his wounds, but I can only deal with it briefly, and it can't be completely cured. I have to send him to the hospital as soon as possible." Ruby said.

Peter quickly lowered his head to look at Uncle Ben's wound. He saw that the bloody wound hit by the bullet was recovering at a slow but visible speed.

Peter was shocked by the scene in front of him, unable to speak for a moment, and after a while he asked eagerly: "Then I... can I help?"

Ruby: "You don't have to do anything."

Peter opened his eyes slightly.

No need to do anything.

Yes, he is so useless, every time like this, he can only stand by and watch, no one can protect him, neither Ruby nor Uncle Ben.

He is too weak, he can only be a person watching on the side of the road, he can't protect anyone.He once clearly possessed the power to protect others, but he didn't cherish——

God, look what he did with that power, he used it to destroy, he used it to hurt, he used it to make money!

Ruby was right, he was too young and childish.His attitude towards power is like getting a new toy, he doesn't understand anything, he doesn't understand anything, and he uses such powerful power in the wrong place for nothing.

But at least, in this darkest and most desperate moment, Ruby was with him.

It's time for him to grow up.

He said in a trembling voice, "Thank you, Ruby, thank you."

At this moment, the ambulance finally arrived.

"Make way! Please make way!" The medical staff rushed out of the car pushing the stretcher, quickly lifted Uncle Ben up, and soon the first aid measures and equipment were in place.

Peter stood not far away and took a deep breath.

He didn't follow, but looked in the direction where the murderer left just now. There seemed to be a small flame burning and dancing in his eyes.

"I'm going to catch that man," Peter said.

Not just for revenge.

He's going to make up for his mistakes with his own hands.

Ruby looked into his eyes, and she saw that there seemed to be a shimmer of light flickering in those clear and beautiful eyes like glass, hot, bright, and warm light.

There was no anger, no hatred, no desire for violence in those eyes, only clear and unshakable firmness.

Ruby said, "Okay, I'm with you. But you have to promise me one thing."

Peter said, "I know, I'll get it under control..."

Ruby snorted and interrupted him: "After this is done, you have to buy me ten small cakes! I'll choose the variety!"

Peter's eyes widened in surprise. After a while, his brows and eyes softened, and he nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you."

"Let's go to a hidden place," Ruby said, "so your face won't be seen."

Peter nodded, and ran into the deserted dark alley.

In the next second, he once again felt the familiar power filling his whole body, and the white stream flowed out from his skin, weaving into fine and dense nets layer by layer, covering his body layer by layer.

After being completely possessed, Peter ignored the astonished and terrified gazes of the people around him because of the sudden appearance of monsters on the street, jumped up and moved quickly on the streets of New York.

"He didn't run far." Peter said, he quickly climbed to a high tower, overlooking the city that never sleeps, and with his vision enhanced, he saw Uncle Ben's familiar car at a glance.

The car was rushing on a rampage in the middle of nowhere.

"Found it," he said.

In the next second, he swooped straight down, rushed towards the position of the car, and soon landed on the car with a flip.

Afterwards, Ruby stretched out countless tentacles from his body, grabbed the ground and the surrounding buildings tightly, and forcibly stopped the car.

The murderer with the gun ran out in a panic. He was terrified when he saw Peter. He raised his gun and shot indiscriminately, but none of them hit Peter.

Peter stared intently at the disheveled, flustered murderer in front of him, the man, the man who had been so frightened that he scuttled around like a rat at sight and nearly killed his Uncle Ben.

Peter watched him stagger and hide in a nearby abandoned building. He raised his head and glanced at the abandoned factory located by the river in the outskirts, and faintly saw the logo of Osborne Industries under the moonlight.

He rushed straight in, smashed the dusty glass, overtook the gangster in a few jumps, grabbed his throat, smashed through several walls in succession under the action of inertia, and finally Shengsheng stopped at the edge of the building.

The murderer struggled frantically in his hand, the gun fell to the ground in the impact, and Peter crushed the gun with one foot.

Peter was strangling the murderer by the throat, standing on the edge of the building, the murderer was lifted up in the air by him, the turbulent underground river was under his feet, like a giant snake with its mouth wide open under the moonlight, waiting to devour everything.

System: Ruby!

Ruby: I don't care about that.

The system froze for a moment: ...You don't care?I didn't expect you to be in the chaotic neutral camp.

Ruby laughed and said half-jokingly: After all, I am a brutal symbiont that survives by aggression and plunder. Do you really expect me to have any sympathy for a criminal?

System: Is this self-hacking?

Ruby: Hey.

After a pause, she said: This is Peter's own business. After all, it is not my uncle who is lying in the operating room. I have no position to stop him.

The system froze for a moment and remained silent for a long time.

……

Peter panted heavily, and the symbiote-covered hand that was pinching the murderer's throat tightened a little bit. There was killing intent in his eyes, but more of it was anger, struggle, and even pain.

He's not a kid anymore, or rather, he shouldn't be a kid anymore.From now on, he should be responsible for every choice and every action he makes.

——What is your strength used for?What kind of future do you want?What do you want the world to be like?Is it an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a killing to stop killing?

A layer of mist slowly covered Peter's eyes full of murderous intent, anger, and pain. He blinked, and hot tears dripped from those eyes that were dyed red.

He took two steps back dejectedly, and threw the murderer in his hand who had fainted from shock and suffocation to the ground. At this moment, he only felt an unprecedented sense of exhaustion attacking him.

He leaned against the wall and sat down slowly.

The bright moonlight shone in from the hole in the broken wall, coating everything in the abandoned factory with a layer of cold white, like the wasteland after the disaster, desolate, quiet, and uninhabited.

At this moment, the system was extremely surprised to find that the tyrannical symbol on Peter's character panel gradually became transparent, and finally disappeared completely, as if it had never existed.

The system suddenly remembered that when Ruby and Steve were together, there didn't seem to be signs of violence on the latter's character panel.

The system said in surprise: "This kid actually resisted your passive skills..."

Under the double oppression of the hatred of hurting those close to him and the tyrannical negative effects of the symbiont, he surpassed himself and broke out of the cocoon to become a butterfly.

He's just a kid.

amazing.

...really amazing.

Ruby was also silent for a while, and she said, "I finally know."

System: "Know what?"

Ruby smiled and said: "I know why he is an S-level host, you are right, system, you have never cheated on levels."