I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 239

“What are you doing?” She pulled back slightly as I reached for her.

“What?” I blinked. “I need to touch you to perform the technique.”

“That is…” She seemed a bit flustered. “You’re ready?”

I coughed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You only just obtained the technique. Don’t you need time to master it? I presumed it would take at least a few weeks for you to properly learn the techniques, and that’s an easy technique. A technique of that level might take months!” Her voice sounded a bit unsteady.

It turned out that the Transcription and Parallel Processing created more of a cheat-like ability than I originally anticipated. Normal humans had to spend a great deal of time carefully memorizing and practicing the steps necessary to perform a technique. As for me, I could transcribe the information into my memory and then perfectly recall it. As for performing it, there was certainly an advantage to practicing, but Parallel Processing gave me enough edge that I didn’t need to depend on that.

However, seeing Tiffany’s reaction, I realized why she had initially been so willing to agree as well. She likely had seen it as merely a distant hope. Her life was already declining, so it was a race between me learning the technique and her death. On top of that, we had the potential dangers living in this underground paradise that might disrupt me.

She expected to die before I ever learned the technique, or even if I did learn the technique, she never anticipated that we’d be able to escape this place. The promise was more about providing her with just a bit of hope. That didn’t mean she was mentally prepared to do it now. Normally, in this situation, I would crank up the manipulation and trick her into sleeping with me. However, the entire reason she was in this situation was that she had taken a strike for me.

“We do not have to…” I responded, moving away from her.

“No!” She reached out and grabbed my hand, but when I looked at it, she blushed and let go. “The longer we wait, the more likely I will be to die, right?”

I gave a silent nod. “Then, shall I continue?”

She bit her lip, but nodded. “Do what you need to do.”

I took a breath and then placed my hand carefully on her back.

“The way this skill works is that I’ll be inserting my life energy into you. You have to allow it inside and not resist at all.”

“That…” She tensed. “My life will be in your hands…”

I nodded, not disputing her claim at all. “If I wanted you dead, I could do it through much easier means. Now, I’m going to have to focus, as this is my first time.”

“J-just, be gentle.”

“You need to relax. Let it inside you,” I told her as I began to send some of my life force into her body.

“Haghaa…” She let out a cry. “I-it hurts.”

“You’re resisting. You have to relax. Let it happen.”

“O-okay…” She panted.

I began pushing more of my energy into her, letting it flow through her broken circuits. I was slowly trying to map them out. One thing that I didn’t tell her was that this technique only worked if the person healing had a much higher evolutionary level than the person they were healing.

I had to push life force into her, which meant I had to have a lot of life force to spare. Although Huntington was at a higher evolutionary level than Erika Blanche, if he had used the technique on her, it is questionable whether he could have done much. She might not have even felt it.

Certainly, when it came to the level of damage Tiffany had, few people would have the reserves of lifeforce necessary to completely map out her circuits first. They might be able to save her life, but she would definitely be a cripple. However, I didn’t have such a limitation. My life energy, represented as HP in my status menu, was nearly infinite.

“A-are you okay?” I asked as her body shuddered violently.

“Haaah… It’s inside me. It’s so much.” Her face was red, and she was panting for breath.

Once I finished mapping her circuits, I slowly began to heal them. My life energy had become a stent from which the circuits could repair themselves without leaving behind scar tissue. However, as I repaired it, a thought came to me.

“Would you like me to expand your circuits?”

“Hahh… huh?” She groaned, her eyes closed tightly.

“I can stretch them out a bit, which means you can cause more mana to flow through. By stretching your life nodes, you can even absorb energy faster.”

Her eyes opened. They were dewey and wide, but when she focused on me, I couldn’t help but recall she was normally quite a beautiful woman. In that moment, she was completely within my grasp and as helpless as a lamb.

“You… can really increase aptitude?”

“Aptitude?”

“Our genetics… dictate our aptitude. It’s how far down the evolutionary path we can travel. Of course, there are lucky encounters, but aptitude is the primary decider. I’ve heard… heard rumors that people found ways, but does this skill really do that? Is it really only an A -rank?”

Actually, the skill was never mentioned in particular. The skill was probably never intended for someone who had as much life force as I. Yet, I was confident in my life force, and based on what I knew, I believed it would work.

“Do you want to try it?” I asked. “This is your best chance.”

Her eyes stared at me for a moment longer, and then she gave a nod. “Please…”

I nodded and then began to insert more life force into her. It entered her slowly, but then expanded, growing thicker and thicker, pushing against her tight nodes.

“Haaaghnnn…” she groaned. “It’s stretching me. I feel like I’m going to break into two!”

“Just bear with it,” I told her, focused completely on the rhythm of expanding her circuits a little bit at a time.

“Haaahn… ahhhn… if, you… If you keep doing this.”

“I’m sorry it’s painful.”

“I-it’s not painful, it’s… it’s…” Her face turned red.

I didn’t know what she was trying to say, but I was starting to get a better feel for her circuits. They were reacting to my energy in a way I didn’t necessarily predict. Mana started wildly entering her body.

“This is… evolution?” I blinked.

Tiffany was not necessarily as gifted as her brother Jordan or someone like Fate Lou. She was still only in the second realm despite being in her twenties. Among most of the family talents, she was probably the lowest. This was likely why her family had never given her much freedom, and perhaps, this was why she depended on subterfuge and others to do her dirty work.

However, she still managed to reach the 9th tier before she was injured, and the act of repairing her circuits and expanding them in combination with this strange environment caused her to begin to evolve unexpectedly.

“What’s going on?” Tiffany noticed I had stopped moving life energy.

“You’re… you’re breaking through,” I explained, “I’m not going to be able to continue to be gentle. If I can’t heal you before you evolve, then it may have lasting damage.”

With that, I began to move the life force in her aggressively, finishing up the repairs I had promised her.

“Ah… ahhh… ahhh…!” She moaned in reply, her head falling back as she could only accept what I delivered.

I had already settled on the steps involved, so I just needed to follow through. However, where I originally planned to take my time healing her over a few hours, I needed to finish in minutes. Her body shook more violently as I used more and more energy.

No!” she cried out. “If you keep doing that… ahhh… I’m… I’m… ahhh… I’m going to…”

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “Don’t fight it.”

My energy continued to pour into her, healing and expanding every aspect of her being.

“Ahhhhn!” Her voice turned shockingly sweet as she arched her back.

The energy within her burst, a flash of white light that illuminated the dimly lit cottage. She collapsed onto the ground, her body limp and spent. I quickly pulled back, severing off my own life energy.

[You have lost -1000 HP]

Despite the number I had sacrificed being so small, I had poured so much of my life force into her that I felt a strange emptiness inside me, a void where my energy used to be. But looking at her, I knew we succeeded. The wounds on her body were quickly healing, and her pale, clammy skin was regaining a rosy liveliness. She was taking deep breaths as her body recovered from what happened.

“It appears like tribulation lightning won’t reach inside this space,” I spoke quietly after a moment, glancing up at the roof as if I could see through it to the cavern ceiling overhead.

At least, I could feel that there was no building up of tribulation energy.

“That’s probably for the best,” she responded, opening her eyes. “I’m not sure my body could handle that.”

This was a good thing and a bad thing. Tribulation energy could quickly help a person temper their body and fill themselves up with the energy absent from their recently expanded self. However, it was violent and could also lead to death if unchecked. For Tiffany, who had just had a narrow brush with death, it was probably safest.

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