Cyber ​​God: Abyss Walker

Without further conversation with the guard of Pit 13, whom he barely knew, Wang Yu removed his protective suit, returned it to the mine, and walked out of the mine alone.

He owned almost nothing of his own. The Firefly Scanner, which he had saved up to buy from a middleman, was broken. Now, his only possession was the watch on his wrist that stored the points he had accumulated in the mine.

However, poverty was no longer his main concern at the moment. If he couldn't survive, then he wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.

"Number 318, come here."

Almost as soon as Wang Yu stepped out of the metal gate connecting the underground and above-ground parts of the No. 13 pit, he heard shouts directed at him from afar. Number 318—this was the designation he was given, and also the number corresponding to the remote-controlled explosive collar buried around his neck. These people had no interest in knowing his name.

Wang Yu's current status is that of an unregistered illegal resident of the Waste City, but this is not a special case at all. Half of the residents of the Waste City are so-called "illegal" residents, and the laws that the Waste City follows are practically non-existent.

While laws do exist for the purpose of maintaining order, organizations similar to the gang that implanted the explosive collar in Wang Yu have ways to circumvent these restrictions, and unregistered residents like him are highly sought-after targets.

Silent and head bowed, Wang Yu obediently walked in that direction. Around the owner of the voice stood a dozen or so miners similar to him. Judging from the scars and ring-shaped protrusions on their necks, it was almost certain that these people, like him, were all candidate gang members hunted down from various areas of the abandoned city by this gang called "Tide".

Gangs are an important part of the abandoned city's ecosystem. Large and small gangs are scattered throughout this colorful and bustling city, which is made colorful by technological advancements. They control the shops, workshops, and residences in their own territories, either by collecting fees or by directly sending gang members to control them, in order to seize the money that flows to the gang's higher-ups.

"Put it on him."

The middle-aged man, referred to as "Uncle" by the gang members, stood among a group of gang guards who had undergone standard hand prosthetic modifications and were wielding high-energy suppression launchers. He raised his hand and pointed at Wang Yu, who was walking towards him, and issued an order indifferently.

"Crunch..."

The guard stepped forward, pressed down and restrained Wang Yu's shoulders, and put a metal mask on his face. The internal mechanical device slid and engaged, completely covering his mouth, ears, and eyes, leaving only his nasal cavity for breathing.

Deprived of his hearing, sight, and speech, Wang Yu felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against his lower back, violently ordering him to move forward. Without making any futile resistance, Wang Yu obeyed the other party's wishes and walked towards the vehicle used to transport them, the "gang members."

"Bang!"

A powerful kick from behind sent him sprawling to the ground. He lost his balance and tumbled into the cargo compartment of a heavily modified all-terrain vehicle, now fitted with multiple layers of armor and shielding coatings, where he collided with the bodies of the other people who had also been loaded into the vehicle.

"Bang!"

The heavy metal door slammed shut and locked. The transport vehicle carried them out of the mine and headed towards the headquarters of the Tide Gang. The metal masks given to Wang Yu and his group were to prevent those who were not yet "qualified" from knowing the specific information about the gang's headquarters.

"Uncle, are there slightly more people this time than before? The amount of potions purchased from the black market for the ritual should not be more than before, right?"

A member of the Hai Chao Gang, sitting in the back seat of the transport vehicle, leaned out and asked his uncle, who was looking at a message from headquarters on his personal terminal, to confirm the details of the "joining the gang" process.

Uncle stored his personal terminal into the prosthetic arm of his right arm, turned his head, and the internal structure of his eyes, which had become electronic devices, glowed slightly. Combined with his indifferent and cold temperament, this brought a rather astonishing sense of oppression.

Wu Ziming swallowed hard. His father was one of the upper-middle-level members of the Haichao Gang. This time, he was sent to his uncle, who was in charge of things in areas he couldn't quite understand, for training. He had heard about his uncle's methods and actions before, but after actually seeing him in person, he realized that his uncle and his cruel and tyrannical father were not the same kind of people at all.

Compared to his father's visible unpredictability and danger, he preferred to face his uncle's cold and unknown nature, whose true face was completely unfathomable.

"I don't really like people asking me questions. Since I'm in charge of this part of the gang's affairs, everyone else just needs to follow my orders. If I don't initiate conversations or instruction, don't talk to me, understand?"

Uncle's voice remained indifferent, but Wu Ziming was already covered in cold sweat. He felt something invisible, slippery, and cold brush against his face, which was then quickly replaced by a sharp sensation—sharp fangs from who-knows-where…

"Yes."

A submissive, timid answer—is this what those associated with the "abnormal" possess, this unknown fear...?

When threatened, Wu Ziming's normal reaction would be to immediately draw the heavy pistol from his waist and press it against the other person's forehead, angrily questioning whether the other person wanted to fight him to the death. But now, he couldn't muster that courage at all.

"Given your father's personality and way of doing things, he probably wouldn't remind you of my personal habits. I won't hold it against you, but you must remember this in the future."

The sharp teeth that had been pressing against Wu Ziming's neck disappeared. Uncle turned his head and looked out the car window at the colorful scenery of the ruined city, a mix of old and new lights and GG signs, while continuing to speak.

"Blessing? Curse? Or mark? Who knows? They all mean the same thing. What the gang needs is to increase the value of these 'prospective members.' They are just expendable resources. We can't do this to the residents of the ruined city who have registered identities, but these unidentified beings are not protected by any laws, and the court can't interfere with their control."

"The purpose of those materials purchased from the black market is to allow these 'prospective members' to contact and communicate with those magnificent and unfathomable beings. Whether they will grant power, annihilate us at will, or offer no response at all is not something we should concern ourselves with."

"What those materials guarantee is whether the person performing the ritual will be noticed by something else after communicating with it. However, if the ritual is successful, those great beings will naturally provide protection. If it fails, worthless beings have no reason to live."

Uncle gave a brief explanation, allowing Wu Ziming to understand the general process. During this process, the transport vehicle arrived at its destination, a group of abandoned buildings in the suburbs of a ruined city. The dilapidated and collapsed buildings even had some tenacious plants climbing on them, even though the environment here was completely insufficient to support their continued growth.

The transport vehicle drove directly into the ruins, passing through the rubble until it entered a building whose overall structure was still intact but whose door had been lost. It stopped, and the uncle walked to one of the walls, while the guards quickly began to escort the people out of the vehicle.

Uncle's electronic eye was aimed at a certain spot on the wall. After it calibrated with the identification device hidden inside, the door leading to the underground opened. Wu Ziming silently followed the other party into the room, with the guards escorting the group of "prospective members" behind him.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

Wang Yu's breathing was heavy. As he was escorted by the gang's guards and moved forward with the others, he clearly understood what he was about to face: coming into contact with the chaotic shadows lurking beneath the world's order, and then either dying or gaining some kind of unstable power. The probability of dying was terrifyingly high.

"I hope my abilities will be effective."

Muttering to himself, Wang Yu fiddled with the hundred-sided die located in the void, slowly dispelling the fear of death and the arrival of the unknown.

His forward movement stopped at a certain moment. His head was used to block out his hearing, and the mask that protected his vision was removed. Wang Yu was finally able to see his surroundings, and the presence of something almost immediately caught his attention.

Wang Yu and his group of "prospective members" were in a completely enclosed room. The armed gang guards removed their masks and left through the only exit, leaving these unfortunate souls inside.

Like Wang Yu, these people's gazes were drawn to the thing located on one side of the room, which was incomprehensible, twisted, and repulsive, making people feel physically uncomfortable just by looking at it.

A mass of flesh and blood was plastered on the wall, with something writhing and churning inside. The growing, spreading organic flesh and blood pierced into the wall like roots, drawing nutrients from who-knows-where. Of course, this was merely disgusting and incomprehensible; what truly inspired fear was the existence atop this bed of flesh and blood.

Was that a woman? No, it couldn't be called human at all; it was just a humanoid lump of flesh. On top of this mass of flesh was a proliferating substance that had an outer shell similar to that of a human woman, but all the distinctive human features had been blurred and replaced by the flesh.

At the location of the other party's head, there was a huge, semi-circular fleshy organ that completely covered the area of ​​its face from the eyes upwards. If Wang Yu was not mistaken, there were numerous gaps and holes on that huge fleshy organ, through which worm-like creatures were crawling in and out.

Seemingly finally noticing the people who had entered its room, the woman, made of flesh and blood, threw the human she was holding to the ground and opened her arms to Wang Yu and the others, as if gesturing for them to come over and enter her embrace.

The corpse he threw landed on the ground, its skullcap missing, brain matter and blood spilling everywhere, a gruesome sight beyond description.

Wang Yu had just witnessed the corpse's skull explode, and a worm scurried out and crawled into the huge, proliferating organ inside the fleshy woman's head.

"Damn it, what is this thing?"

Wang Yu hunched over, ready to flee at any moment. His instincts told him that the nauseating polymer of flesh and blood before him was extremely dangerous.

"Let me out!"

One of the "prospective members" who witnessed the scene just now completely broke down. He roared and rushed towards the exit of the room, pounding on the door desperately in an attempt to escape, but of course, it was all in vain.

Most of the men brought here were prepared to die, but if they were to die in such a horrific state, it would be normal for them to suffer a mental breakdown.

"Don't try to escape. The reason the corpse you just saw died was because it betrayed the gang. It's no different from the explosive collars around your necks. It's just to ensure that you won't betray the gang after the ritual is successful."

Uncle's voice rang out from inside the room. At that moment, he was looking through the one-way glass at the scene inside the room, along with Wu Ziming, who was getting goosebumps.

"Don't waste any time, just walk over there, and the Queen will implant her offspring into you."

My uncle spoke calmly, without using any threats, merely stating the facts.

As Uncle finished speaking, the guy who had been mentally broken and frantically banging on the exit door in an attempt to escape suddenly stopped what he was doing. Under the watchful eyes of Wang Yu and the others, he turned around and slowly walked towards the location of the Insect Mother.

The other person's face was completely blank, his eyes rolled back, and some white foam was coming out of his mouth. Clearly, this guy had lost consciousness.

"Psychological interference?"

Wang Yu looked at the insect mother with her arms outstretched and understood something. This must be what the people outside meant by not needing to escape.

The one who tried to escape walked to the insect queen while unconscious, and was picked up by her with both hands, with a strange tenderness, as if she were really a mother embracing her baby.

From the organs that proliferated from the insect mother's head, a worm climbed up the insect mother's body to the guy's head, and then followed the insect mother's guidance to burrow into the ear canal. Soon, the unconscious body suddenly twitched, the veins in the arms and neck bulged, and then fell silent again.

"Clatter".

Gently placing the man, whose fate was unknown, alongside the corpse with its head exploded, the Insect Queen once again opened her arms to Wang Yu and the others, gesturing for them to come over.

"If the parasite implanted in our minds serves the same purpose as the explosive collar, then its aim is simply to control us, not to kill us. And even if I were to fight back against the mental interference, I would probably just be killed by the guards outside. There's no point in resisting."

Wang Yu's face was pale. Even knowing he wouldn't die, the thought of an insect burrowing into his brain was absolutely unacceptable. But despite the fear and resistance, his mind was clear: this was something he had to accept…

"Hehehe, let me do it, let me do it!"

Wang Yu, who was just about to die early and go straight up, was interrupted by the shouts of another "prospective member" next to him. Only then did he have time to pay attention to the person next to him and realized that he knew this excited guy.

His body was covered in scars, his face was bruised and swollen, his hair was almost completely torn off, and he walked with a limp. His shouts were quite frantic, as if having a parasite inserted into his brain was something to be happy about.

This is the madman from Mine No. 13, an extremely strange guy. Pain and wounds are an indescribable pleasure to him. He often provokes other miners inside and outside the mine, trying to make them angry and beat him up.

This guy seems to believe in some kind of "suffering" and takes pleasure in pain. And there does seem to be something different about him. Even when his teeth are knocked out, his bones are broken, and his blood is splattered everywhere, he always manages to survive and provoke other miners again after a while.

Even though they knew the guy's provocation was intentional and that beating him would be a waste of time, the miners still couldn't suppress their nameless rage and beat him up uncontrollably. Wang Yu was lucky; he only knew of the guy's existence but had never actually encountered him.

Watching the madman lose consciousness after being implanted with a parasite by the Insect Mother, Wang Yu took a deep breath and walked towards the Insect Mother, who was opening her arms to him. He hated the waiting process more than facing it directly.

As the insect mother gently lifted him up, Wang Yu could even sense her "maternal love" through her ability to interfere with his mind. The touch of her arm was indeed warm and soft, like a mother's embrace.

Wang Yu felt disgusted. This thing's "maternal love" was actually only directed at the worms that crawled out of the other's head and organs. The humans who let the worms burrow into their brains were merely "nursery beds".

Clenching his teeth and fighting his body's instincts, he could feel something wet and slippery burrowing deeper into his ears. Disgust and fear surged within Wang Yu's emotions. This counterintuitive behavior of not blinking at a needle piercing his eyeball almost exhausted his strength.

"Dog shit...!"

Suppressing his urge to resist with nameless rage, Wang Yu knew, with a piercing pain at the edge of his eardrum, that the worm had successfully entered his brain.

After the worm entered his brain, Wang Yu could no longer sense it. The human brain, an organ protected by the skull, does not actually have a sensitive sense of touch. However, soon, colorful and psychedelic images began to appear before his eyes, and his senses of sight, touch, taste, and other sensory organs also became ineffective.

The worms wriggling and crawling inside his brain were searching for a suitable entry point, dissolving the flesh and blood on the outer layer of the brain, then connecting the dense filaments on the surface of their mouthparts with Wang Yu's nerves, and finally stuffing their bodies into the gaps in the brain's layered structure.

At the final moment of the parasitism, Wang Yu's disordered senses also completely went out of control. With a loud explosion in his mind, his struggling consciousness completely fell into endless darkness. His body jerked violently without his knowledge, and a stream of blood flowed from inside his nasal cavity.

After being unconscious for an unknown period of time, when Wang Yu regained consciousness and struggled to open his eyes, a hand pried open his mouth before he could react and poured a bottle of foul-smelling, viscous liquid with a strong, pungent odor down his throat.

"vomit!"

Wang Yu instinctively covered his neck, trying to gag, but found that the liquid had completely disappeared. Looking around, he realized that the ritual had begun.