Deity Investigation Report

Chapter 143 Burn Scars
This discovery greatly alarmed Han Su.

Reciting the fisherman's chant instantly activated his spiritual power, far exceeding his normal state. He could also easily control the Giant's Eye and the Cross Copper Hand, which had always been his trump card for dealing with various troubles.

But now, faced with the eerie pollution emanating from this painting, the drawbacks of the fishermen's chant have finally become apparent.

Or rather, it's their own weakness!
The fishermen's chant is so powerful that it allows one to accomplish many things that ordinary people cannot. However, this power is not without foundation; it is built upon one's own spiritual strength.

However, my spiritual strength is insufficient and is consumed too quickly, making it inadequate to completely expel the pollution. Instead, it gives the pollution a gap to penetrate deeper and pollute me.

As his mind raced, waves of drowsiness began to wash over him, and Han Su felt his mind becoming increasingly hazy.

He sensed his own panic and despair, saw the underground facilities growing increasingly old and deteriorating at a rate far exceeding initial estimates, and watched as the number of people around him dwindled and they became increasingly strange. He dared not hide any longer.

Knowing full well that the earth is now filled with radiation and residual solar flares, he still decided to go out. Instead of staying in the underground facility and waiting for a slow demise, he preferred to return to the earth and find a new path.

So he dispatched an exploration team, wearing a limited number of protective suits, to leave the underground facility and return to the surface, and the result, without a doubt, was death.

Their protective suits were simply unable to withstand the intense radiation; all the exploration team members died, and not a single piece of their blood or bones remained.

But in this desperate situation, a second team was quickly sent out, then a third. Later, many people volunteered to join, whether they genuinely wanted to serve or were simply too repressed and sought death.

But the earth is merciless. Once inside that intense radiation, death is inevitable. Under the gaze of the solar flare, everyone faces the inevitable annihilation of their flesh and blood.

An anomaly also appeared in these deaths; among the countless explorers who died on the ground, an anomaly emerged.

He died on the ground, his blood and bones also dissolved by radiation.

However, his consciousness was preserved under some abnormal condition. This consciousness returned to the underground containment facility and possessed a survivor inside the facility, using his mouth to tell him everything that happened outside.

He brought valuable information to the people underground.

Humans do not understand this existence that defies the logic of reality, nor do "themselves" understand it.

But they chose to believe and sent more people up there, including "themselves." Some of them used the valuable information to avoid the areas most affected by the disaster and radiation, but people continued to die up there, including themselves.

As a result, he also underwent changes. He felt himself drifting and losing his form, and he felt himself occasionally waking up, looking at the people in front of him, and conveying messages from above.

Humans began to accept such existences and even began to worship "them".

Humans began to select the most suitable individuals for them to possess, to become their vessels, and to obey their guidance...

……

……

'It's the person in this painting...'

After another moment of disorientation, Han Su suddenly awoke, his eyes filled with shock: 'No, they can no longer be considered human; they are a completely new species, one that I cannot comprehend in my current state.'

Because of his repeated flashes of light, he himself is a master of memory, and from these countless fragments that have polluted him, he has glimpsed a corner of history represented by this painting.

He saw the despair of the world in the past, and he also saw the emergence of new patterns of crowd gathering.

"These……"

Han Su felt an indescribable sense of oppression: "Are these all memories of our ancestors from the previous era?"

Or rather, it's not memory, but only partial radiation.

This painting is at most two thousand years old, but the history I'm seeing is much older, probably tens of thousands of years ago...

At that time, the vast majority of people were still remnants of the previous brilliant civilization, as if the era of the flares that brought disaster was not far off.

These ancestors were all alien consciousnesses born from the intense radiation of the previous era. They acquired an alternative way of existence through a method that modern people cannot understand.

This painting was created for them at some point in time.

By painting their images, I also absorbed their consciousness; the painting is not even the main body of their consciousness, but only a few remnants.

Even today, more than two thousand years later, the remnants on this painting still possess similar qualities to them, capable of invading and possessing any ordinary person who comes into contact with the painting, seizing their body.

Including myself right now.

But what shocked Han Su even more at this moment was the scene he saw in these residual mental radiations...

Solar flares strike, diseases rage, and genocide occurs. People hiding underground are plunged into despair, experiencing a sense of oppression from which no hope can be found.

That sense of despair transcends history. But what truly stirred within him from this oppressive atmosphere was a profoundly impactful question…

...Where do those special wills come from?

From the mass disappearance of people in the radiation to the emergence of mutated consciousness entities that gradually grew and gathered into survivor groups, what exactly was the most crucial change in all of this?
An answer was already forming in my mind: "The code of life?"

These four words seemed to contain immense impact. Han Su suddenly woke up and looked at himself, feeling as if he were riddled with holes.

I am no longer a person, but a collection of consciousnesses, with my body covered with all sorts of strange limbs such as arms, legs, and heads of other people.

Most importantly, neither the power of the copper in his left hand nor the giant's power in his right eye could effectively counter this situation. Even continuing to use the fishing chant would only exacerbate the invasion of this pollution into him.

The reason I can still hold on now is purely because my mental model is a maze with twenty wrong turns.

He realized that the fragments of memory he had just experienced might contain some mysterious information, but he couldn't care less about that now; getting rid of the painting's contamination was the most important thing.

The pollution of this painting strips away the illusory sense of omnipotence that the fishermen's chants bring, exposing their own shortcomings.

That is, having strong spiritual power, but being fragmented by a broken life, one can increase one's endurance by changing batteries in normal times, but changing batteries at critical moments gives the opponent an opportunity.

A broken life is both one's greatest strength and one's greatest weakness.

Another aspect is mental activity. A starting mental activity value of 30% is a clear advantage for newcomers, but if they take too big a step, it can become a disadvantage.

Perhaps if you had followed Miss Ai's assigned C-level missions step by step from the beginning, this advantage would have been very obvious. But if you had come into contact with these B-level missions right away, the difference would have become apparent.

At that moment, Miss Ai's reminder before the mission suddenly flashed through his mind: "Mysterious power is merely a weapon; mental vitality is the foundation."

The essence of life is an endless war; only by forging ahead can one break through the barriers!

【…】

Is Miss Ai using the pollution in this painting to explain the code of life, mental activity, and the concept of so-called forbidden zones to herself?

Han Su kept this question in mind for the time being. He knew that understanding these things through this mission was enough. The most important thing now was to solve the current problem.

The pollution before our eyes is certainly terrifying, but Miss Ai wouldn't assign herself a task that has no solution.

The contamination I'm currently experiencing belongs to the earliest and simplest type of "abnormality." Initially, these were just independent consciousnesses, ghosts, phantoms...

ghost?

Suddenly, through these things, Han Su thought of Princess Mononoke in the castle, and the candles that Princess Mononoke had lit herself...

This thought made him suddenly open his eyes and look down at his whole body. He then discovered that the "person" in the painting had invaded him from various places, but he had no right arm, right shoulder, or chest.

These places are all covered by the scars from that fire!

"Ok?"

A surprising thought flashed through Han Su's mind. He suddenly focused his attention, no longer relying on the fishermen's chant, but concentrating on sensing the scar.

As his attention focused on the scars, his mental energy also appeared in those areas. Just like the intense pain on the back of his left hand before, these scars, which had theoretically covered his body for ten years, suddenly began to burn.

It was as if the flames from ten years ago had burned him once again, making his skin sizzle.

The sense of realism was so intense that Han Su felt as if he had returned to the moment he had just escaped the castle, feeling the flames burning, dancing, and corroding his skin.

At that very moment, Han Su suddenly noticed a change in his body.

The burn scar has come back to life!

The scars left by the fire suddenly turned into flames, leaping and dancing on his right arm and shoulder.

As the burning pain became real, Han Su suddenly shifted his attention. With his will, the scar, or rather the flames burning on his body, began to flow again, spreading to other parts of his body.

In an instant, he heard piercing screams and terrified cries.

Those who desperately tried to penetrate their bodies, upon contact with the burn scars, experienced convulsions and tremors in their hands and feet, as if they were truly being burned. The parts of their bodies that had been invaded vanished instantly.

The parts exposed outside the body fell off piece by piece, turning back into radiation residue and returning to the painting.

However, the figures in the painting have become much more illusory, and there is a vague feeling of gnashing teeth.

(End of this chapter)