Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 544 Memories of Roses

Flowers are not born for fragrance; flowers are nourished by blood.

Humans are not born to be evil, but evil is sustained by life.

If the world is filled only with hunger, then beauty is cruelty.

—From *Zi Bu Yu: The Blood Flower Scroll*

Night fell over the Umbrella Corporation's temporary headquarters.

The experimental area was deathly silent. The smell of disinfectant mingled with the stench of blood.
It's like a calming fragrance unique to her.

Haruno Miyoko sat by the operating table, her fingertips still stained with bright red blood.

The scalpel rested quietly on the tray.
The sample at the cut had been completely devoured by the carnivorous plant.

Her stomach was rumbling softly.

"Strange... I just finished eating."

She stroked her flat stomach, feeling a subtle emptiness.

Hunger rose from the bottom of my stomach and climbed up my spine.

A sweet, cloying pain blooms in my mind.

She closed her eyes.

That feeling was all too familiar.

The last time I was this hungry was in that winter.

The country was abolished after the war.

snow.

A charred city. The clanging of armor. The cries of children.

Flames licked the sky, and the shadows of the ruins stretched long.

A little girl wrapped in rags,

She held two even smaller children tightly in her arms.

My younger brother and sister.

They were so cold they were almost silent.

The sound of samurai footsteps came from the street corner.

The cold scabbard struck the stone ground.

"Take them away and bring them to the ship. There are plenty of children; nobody wants them anyway."

They were pushed and tied up.

They were crammed into a ship bound for the sea.

Deserted island.

There were no villages, only fences and tents.

The sea breeze carried the smell of rotting flesh.

The children were locked together.
Their eyes were numb and empty.

Miyoko remembers being very hungry at that time.

There was nothing in my stomach, only gurgling sounds.

Her younger brother tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Sister, when are we eating?"

She was unable to answer.

The sun sets, and torches are lit.

The sound of a knife being slashed came from outside the tent.

The crisp sound of metal clashing.
Mixed with bursts of eerie laughter.

The water in the pot began to boil.
Thick smoke rose into the night sky.

Children were taken away.

The sound of crying faded into the distance.

"Listen to me, don't move around, it'll be over soon."

That was a gentle adult tone.
It was also the devil's tone.

Memories blurred into fragments at this moment.

All she remembered was her brother's eyes.
It gleamed under the lights.

that moment.

His eyes were still fixed on her.

She tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Laughter, shouts, and wails filled my ears.

The firelight flickered, and a sweet aroma filled the air.

What was she holding in her hand?
It was warm and slippery.

Fresh blood trickled down between her fingers.

It flowed into her mouth.

The blood tasted salty.
It's sweet too.

Some people fell down, some people screamed.

The flames were rolling.
The shadowy figures tangled and tore at each other.

Then, everything stopped.

When she woke up, it was already daylight.

The tent collapsed, and the fire went out.
The sea breeze lifted the tattered cloth and dispersed the smell of smoke.

There was not a single living person on the island.

Samurai, nobles, cooks...

Their bodies were piled up in the center of the camp.

Each body was gnawed and mangled beyond recognition.

She watched that scene.
I don't feel fear.

She only felt that she wasn't hungry anymore.

She dragged her small body toward the sea.

The waves lapped against her ankles.

The sunlight shone on her dress.
That was the color of blood that had dried after being soaked in it.

The wind blew from behind, lifting her hair.

A smile appeared on her lips.

That smile was as pure and beautiful as a flower.

In reality, the lab lights flickered.

Miyoko snapped out of her daze, her eyes flashing red.

She licked her lips and smiled:

"So... I've been hungry all along."

She stood up,

We walked toward the still-wriggling carnivorous flower.

Reach out and gently stroke that serrated petal.

The petals gently closed and rested on her palm.

It seemed to be comforting its owner, but also like it was demanding blood.

Miyoko murmured softly:
"It's okay, we'll all have enough to eat."

Blood dripped down her fingertips again.

The floral fragrance was intense, almost cloyingly sweet.

In this place filled with the smells of disinfectant and blood,

Her smile was incredibly gentle.

The lab lights flickered twice, like a heartbeat.

On the white porcelain tabletop, an experimental specimen was dissected.

Green liquid mixed with blood slid down the glass.

Harano Miyoko, wearing gloves, picked up a scalpel.

Gently slice open the stem of the man-eating flower.

The flower stem is filled with flowing red.

She watched as the liquid meandered out.

self-mumbling:

"Flowers need to be eaten, and people need to live. There's no difference."

Her voice was gentle yet hollow.
-
She was once a brilliant researcher.

After the war, people re-established order.
Underground research institutes sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

Miyoko was recruited into one of them.

They study plant mutations, blood circulation, and interspecific fusion there.

She put forward a bold idea:

"What if plants could evolve?"

She submitted the report.
No one approved it.

So she did it herself.

For her first experiment, she brought back a wild carnivorous plant.

They fused its roots with the corpse of a different species.

failure.

The second step was for her to extract ghoul cells.
Inject into the base of the rose.

Still failed.

Thirdly, she added her own blood to the mixture.

At that moment, the flowers bloomed.

The red petals slowly unfolded.
Shaking under cold light

A lump of flesh was wriggling inside the flower.

It appears to be a smile.

Miyoko looked at it and chuckled softly.

"Flowers bloom from blood, it is only natural."

From that day on, she couldn't stop.

Failure, injection, then failure again.

She injected herself with modified cells again and again.

She began to hear the whispers of the flowers.
dreaming.

"Eat...eat them, and you won't be hungry anymore."

When she woke up, she discovered that under her skin...

Tiny roots have grown.

Pain, hunger, and fear combine to create a bizarre pleasure.

She understands.

That's not a disease, it's "evolution".

So she picked up the scalpel.

To cut open one's own skin with one's own hands,
Bury the flower roots inside the body.

The operating room was filled with the fragrance of flowers.

Blood dripped onto the ground along with flower petals.

Under the lights, her smile was brighter than a blade.

When it's all over
She is no longer human.

Her back split open.

Vines with petals sprouted;
Beneath the skin of both arms, blood flows along the roots.

It has a slightly sweet taste.

She looked in the mirror.

In the mirror, she was half human and half flower.

It's breathtakingly beautiful.

"Finally, I'm not hungry anymore."

The city at night.

She was wearing a white lab coat.
She remains elegant and gentle even during the day.
He is the genius doctor in everyone's eyes.

At night, she took off her gloves.

Hunting deep in the alley.

Screams, bloodstains, the scent of flowers.

With each meal, she felt the emptiness shrinking.

She forgot her brother's face, and she forgot the island.

Her memories were replaced by blood.

"Only by eating can one survive."

She became the city's nightmare.

Missing persons began to appear in the news.

Night patrol agents in the sewers
The body was found drained of its contents.

The Hunters organization began tracking her.

She burst out laughing with excitement.

When they stormed into her lab

What I saw was an overwhelming expanse of roses.

That night, she used flowers as a blade.
A feast of blood.

She danced in the firelight.
Each time the vines lashed out,
It is all the blooming of a blood flower.

till the end,
She was facing dozens of hunters.

His entire body was engulfed in flames.

At the moment of the explosion, her body was torn to pieces.
Blood and flower petals flew into the sky.

However, she still smiled.

"I can't die—I'm still hungry."

After a few hours,
The last hunter fell beside the ruins.

His body convulsed.

Numerous tiny red lines bulge under the skin.

Blood spilled from his mouth.
On his abdomen, a rose slowly bloomed.

A hand extends from the flower.

Miyoko climbed out of it,
He was covered in blood, but had a smile on his face.

"Again."

She stood up again.
Petals bloomed at her feet.

It covered the entire street.

That night,

The city will never see the sunrise again.

There was only a sea of ​​red flowers.

Swaying in the wind
It's like welcoming her new life.

After a long period of darkness,
She met that person.

Miranda.

By that day, the ruins of the world had cooled.

The scorched earth was covered with charred ashes and broken steel bars.
The air was filled with the glow of fungal spores.

The spores were suspended like dust particles.

It reflects an eerie silvery-white luster in the sunlight.

On that desolate ruin,
Miyoko lay amidst pools of blood and flowers.

Her body was torn to pieces.

The roots and flesh of the vines had long since become entangled together.

She vaguely remembered that she felt hungry again.

That kind of hunger wasn't for survival.
Rather, it is a deeper, more profound emptiness of the soul.

Just then, a woman's voice came from the fog.

"are you hungry?"

The voice was soft, like the wind, or like it came from a dream.

She looked up.

A woman emerged from the mist.
Clad in white as snow, their footsteps were silent.

With each step, new fungal flowers sprout from the ground.

The woman looked at her.
His gaze was as calm as if he were looking at a plant that needed pruning.

There was no pity in his eyes, only scrutiny.

Miranda.

The woman who was later known as the "Mother of Abnormalities".

She stretched out a hand.

“Come with me,” she smiled, “I will let you eat your way to the ends of the universe.”

At that moment, Miyoko smiled.

She laughed like a child.

She got up, covered in blood.

He knelt at Miranda's feet almost instinctively.

"I... am hungry."

Miranda leaned down and gently stroked her hair.

"Then eat. Eat it, and you'll live."

Her voice was deep and commanding.

It was at that moment that Miyoko first experienced what "belonging" meant.

From then on, she followed her.

Miranda gave her a new laboratory.

An underground world.

There is no sunlight there.

Only countless growing fungi and vines,
They intertwine to form a vast network of life.

Miyoko reconstructed the experiment.

She blended plants, mutations, blood, and fungi into one.

The deceased test subjects were revived.

Breathing again in the bottle.

She saw Miranda's distorted form for the first time.

That is a being that transcends humanity.

Fungi grew from her back.
Flowers bloom like a galaxy in the light.

That stench of corruption,
Yet it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Miyoko knelt down, her voice trembling.

"This is a miracle of evolution."

Miranda looked down at her.

“You understand very well, Miyoko.”

Flowers need to evolve, and so do people.

And we want the whole world to understand this.

Miyoko raised her head.

His eyes gleamed with a fanatical light.

Since then,

She called Miranda "Mother Goddess".

Time flows on.

Under the protection of the Mother Goddess, Miyoko established a new experimental system.

She created the "Gluttony Flower".
They developed "Kagune Reincarnation".

She became one of the "Four Disaster Leaders" of the Umbrella Corporation.

He was in charge of plant mutation research and hunting experiments.

When she stood on the battlefield,
Vines covered the earth, and petals blotted out the sun.
The enemy's screams became her symphony.

She smiled and said:
"Thank you, Mother Goddess, for making me feel hungry again."

But sometimes, in the dead of night...
She will still wake up.

Her hand unconsciously stroked her abdomen.
It was as if I could hear the sounds coming from inside.

That was the sound of hunger.

It is the sound of blood flowing, vines wriggling, and souls calling out.

She looked out the window at the fungal forest.
murmured to himself:

"It turns out that hunger can also be a kind of faith."

There was a gentle knock on the laboratory door.

"Boom-thump-"

A researcher from Umbrella Corporation pushed open the door and entered.

Wearing white protective suits,
He bowed his head respectfully before her.

"Master, Lady Miranda requests your presence."

Miyoko turned around.

Those blood-red pupils glowed faintly under the light.

"Does the Mother Goddess want to see me?"

"Yes."

"very nice."

She chuckled softly.

Like a young girl going to a banquet.

She straightened her blood-stained lab coat.

Wipe the blood off your hands.

The moment I stepped out of the laboratory,
The vines along the flower bed swayed gently.

A rose slowly blooms.

The petals opened under the light.

The smiling face in the center is revealed.

That smile was elegant and serene.
Like waiting for the next feast.

Flowers will eventually wither, but blood will never die; if God gives food to those who are hungry, then believers will give food as a gift.

—From *Zi Bu Yu* (The Master Did Not Discuss), Chapter on Blood and Spirit

(End of this chapter)