Cyber ​​God: Abyss Walker

The room Wang Yu was in was no longer the one where the parasite had been implanted, but another, more spacious space with an unusually empty interior.

Meanwhile, on the floor, a rather complex pattern was drawn with the blood of some unknown creature. On this blood pattern, which seemed to be embedded in the ground, lay the unfortunate souls who had been captured along with Wang Yu, lying in a crooked and disordered manner.

His head still ached terribly. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he could feel something wriggling inside his brain, which sent a chill down his spine. Surprisingly, the implanted parasite did not affect his thinking, and his consciousness remained clear.

The thing that pried open his mouth just now wasn't a living person, but a somewhat outdated bionic machine, an AI without true consciousness, but with the support of a chip far beyond the technology of the 21st century, it was capable of performing quite complex tasks for its master.

Wang Yu didn't have much time to think about the problem. The strange liquid that the android in front of him had just poured into him had begun to take effect. A thin layer of mist appeared in Wang Yu's field of vision and surrounded him from all directions.

Without even thinking, Wang Yu knew that this was definitely not real fog; it could only be that something was wrong with his consciousness. It was probably the same situation as the hallucinogen the doctor had given him to relieve pain. In short, he had gone too far.

His consciousness gradually lost control of his body, and the numbness spread from his fingertips to every corner of his torso. Was his soul leaving his body? This was the state Wang Yu was experiencing. He had just woken up, and it seemed that his mind was about to go to some dark place after he fell into a coma.

Before his consciousness dissipated once again, Wang Yu seized the opportunity to touch the dice located in the void, flipping over the remaining hundred-sided die and triggering the most unstable judgment, which was also the one he used the least.

"Life and death are predestined, wealth and honor are determined by fate. I hope I can be lucky."

Wang Yu didn't know if this ability would be effective, but since he couldn't do anything anyway, he might as well face the fear of the unknown and death with a more open mind.

The dice in the void roll a number, and of course there is absolutely no possibility of failure. Luck check passed.

"Snap..."

Wang Yu, who had just straightened his back, slammed weakly onto the metal floor inscribed with the array diagram once again.

An inexplicable and eerie aura gradually filled the room with the unconscious bodies lying haphazardly. Although nothing had happened yet, the dangerous atmosphere was enough to instill fear in anyone who observed them.

"Not bad, you've suppressed your urge to ask questions. I know what you want to know, and I'll teach you all of that. Now, come with me. I can't fully predict what changes this ritual will bring, or what kind of power they will gain."

Outside the one-way glass of the room, Uncle was speaking as he led Wu Ziming, whose eyes were filled with fear, away from the room where the ceremony was taking place. Changes had already appeared; the android who had been moving freely just moments before was now suddenly acting strangely.

A damp, salty liquid appeared on the surface of the artificial skin, just like seawater. The joints, which were made of metal, were quickly invaded and corroded by this seawater that appeared out of nowhere. Some algae and shrimp had crawled onto its dull and expressionless face.

"Splat!"

Suddenly falling from a standing position to the ground, the android's body cracked open upon impact, but what burst out from inside was not mechanical parts or engine oil, but clumps of seemingly normal human internal organs and blood.

The eyeball, which should have been an inorganic object, dragged its nerves out of its socket and bounced on the ground before meeting the gaze of Wu Ziming, who had been drawn to the sound and turned his attention there.

"Damn it..."

Wu Ziming was in a panic. He could clearly feel something watching him. This fear was completely different from the feeling of tension and excitement he had when leading his team in a firefight with other gangs, with bullets flying past him, his adrenaline surging, and death looming.

"Just as you thought, that's the effect of the mechanical sea. The androids have been transformed into living beings. If you feel like something is watching you, then stop turning your head to look. Being noticed by those beings won't do you any good."

Uncle seemed to know exactly what Wu Ziming was thinking, and calmly explained, then used his prosthetic eye to lower the gate of the passage behind him, separating the room where the ceremony was taking place from them in the outside world.

"Huff...huff..."

Wu Ziming was panting heavily. What his uncle said was indeed the question in his mind. The mechanical sea was clearly still far away from here, so why would the effects of the seawater suddenly act on the android's body?

"The nature of the Mechanical Sea must have originated from some great being. Now that we are conducting a ritual to communicate with them, it is quite normal for them to come."

The uncle spoke to Wu Ziming, just as he had said before, that he would teach the boy.

"I'll answer your other question now: why do I allow these experimental subjects, um, prospective members, to receive power from those great beings, without fear that they might use that power to betray us?"

Under the somewhat surprised gaze of the other party, Uncle continued his statement as if he had perfectly anticipated Wu Ziming's thoughts.

"The self-destruct collars may not work on them, but the parasites from the queen will not. No matter what power they gain, these parasites implanted in their brains will bind them, because from the moment the parasitism is complete, the parasites have become part of their individuality."

"As long as they use the Queen, the gang can control their lives. It's impossible to use the power of a great being to expel the parasites, because they are part of their bodies, like the brain, heart, spine..."

"Yes, that's right. This ability of mine, which looks like mind reading, also comes from something I don't know and will never investigate."

Uncle nodded as he answered Wu Ziming, who was staring at him in astonishment, and then removed one of his prosthetic eyeballs.

Wu Ziming then realized that the prosthetic eyeball did not provide the other party with a field of vision at all. Inside the empty eye socket behind the prosthetic eyeball was a wriggling mass of dark, soft tentacles.

……

"ah!?"

Wang Yu unconsciously shouted out in a voice tinged with surprise. Looking around, the surrounding environment felt unusually familiar to him, but some things were like a thin veil, difficult to make out and remember. He seemed to have forgotten some things.

Describing his state just now as unconscious is not entirely accurate. His consciousness did not break down; as his eyes closed limply, a jumble of images began to appear randomly in his mind.

An ocean piled high with countless pieces of obsolete machinery, blood raining from the sky, a plain beneath his feet covered with countless corpses, mountains composed entirely of some kind of black living substance that he couldn't comprehend, and a dazzling, terrifying sky that made it difficult for him to even think...

These images, filled with things that the fragile human mind could not comprehend, were frantically flooding into Wang Yu's mind. To be honest, just a moment ago, Wang Yu thought his consciousness was about to be swallowed up and disappear, and he almost completely lost his ability to think logically. But in the end, he seemed to have survived.

He didn't know why he managed to get through it; he could only attribute it to luck and the way of thinking he had always maintained.

"What exactly are those things? Are they real scenes or so-called 'mental pollution'? If that's the case, my sanity level should be quite low by now."

Wang Yu looked at his hands and muttered to himself. There was no physical damage. The things that flashed by just now were probably hallucinations. But what about now?

The ground beneath my feet, the dilapidated walls on both sides, the flickering streetlights, the gloomy sky above, and the vibrant, colorful cyber city at the edge of my vision—all of this felt incredibly real and strangely familiar.

This must be the place where he first arrived in this world. Yes, he doesn't belong to this world, nor should he say that. Who knows if the place where the ruined city is located is the future Earth, just in a different era? In any case, Wang Yu is not a local.

His memories before transmigrating were vague. He only vaguely knew that he hadn't done anything strange or picked up anything special. If he were to trace back from the ability he gained after transmigrating, the only thing worth noting was that he had played tabletop role-playing games before transmigrating. Although he hadn't finished the game, he had already completed the character cards.

"Dice"—this is the ability he discovered he possessed after arriving in this rather cyberpunk world, which also seemed to have an evil god similar to "Cthulhu." Like in role-playing games, he could roll dice to judge what was happening and influence the outcome.

There are no major failures, no failures, no difficult successes, no extremely difficult successes, and no great successes. The result of the dice is always success. And the number of times the dice can be rolled each day is only two. Once the dice are used up, this ability can no longer be used.

Simply put, Wang Yu's ability is to give himself two chances a day to make things "better." Another noteworthy aspect comes from his physique, but he has no time to analyze his unique abilities. What he needs to figure out right now is what this overly realistic scene means.

"Clatter".

With a thud, Wang Yu frowned and began to walk out of the dead end, heading towards the dazzling cyber city outside. That was the abandoned city where he had lived for nearly two months. He needed to confirm the time; logically, he should still be in the ritual at this moment…

After turning the first corner, I stopped and saw a corpse leaning against the wall. The person's legs had been torn off somehow, revealing a mixture of flesh and machinery. There was also a large hole in the forehead. The auxiliary chip that almost everyone in the ruined city had implanted had been removed. This was the real cause of death.

"It's exactly the same as the first time I saw it. It's impossible that the cleaners couldn't have gotten rid of this guy in more than two months. So, is the current time really when I first arrived?"

After a moment's thought, Wang Yu continued walking forward. His impression of this corpse couldn't be more profound; it had startled him back then, and now that it had reappeared before his eyes, he had no idea.

"The Tide Gang's ritual is giving me a second chance? Why would they be so kind as to give me a chance to make up for my past regrets? What's the point? Wait, right, make up for regrets. What regrets did I want to make up for?"

Tapping his chin, Wang Yu felt an increasingly strange sensation after seeing the corpse. He felt there was something he had to remember, but unfortunately, it was the memory that had been veiled when he suddenly appeared here.

Wang Yu strode towards the second corner. Beyond that corner lay the ruined city. Having lived in this city for two months, he was confident that this time the outcome would be even better.

"No, a better outcome. What was my original terrible outcome? The exploding collar, the parasites, the ritual, dog shit. It all started because of that. Even the chance to start over that I got because of the ritual is also due to that incident."

The moment he turned the corner, Wang Yu suddenly realized something. His logic instantly became clear, and a deep-seated obsession broke through the obscuring barrier and returned with a bang. His memory of becoming a "prospective member" of the Tide Gang became clear.

His eyes were wide open in fury, his gaze almost bursting. It was here, it was at that time, that he was still completely bewildered by the situation. When he walked past the second corner, the members of the Tide Gang who had disposed of the body inside found him, pinned him to the ground, and after confirming that he was an unregistered illegal resident, they immediately drugged him with an anesthetic and took him back to the gang, implanting a self-destruct collar in him, completely depriving him of his freedom.

"If only I had known earlier, if only I had been able to detect these unexpected dangers."

The thought unconsciously surfaced in Wang Yu's mind. Even if he knew in advance, even if he used the dice, he would have no way to resist those gang members who were specifically responsible for dealing with cyborgs. But he just wanted to know, to detect the danger before he "couldn't react in time".

Perhaps "doing it all over again" would be a better choice, but the restraint inherent in Wang Yu's personality made him simply want to "know sooner."

At the very moment that the memory returned and the obsession erupted simultaneously, time around him suddenly slowed down. Wang Yu's thoughts were not slowed down, and he could see the gang members who had noticed him first rushing towards him, the electric shock modules implanted in his hands bursting out flashing arcs of electricity.

This time, thanks to the slowed-down time, he managed to react. He had a brief moment to process what he had just received before being pinned to the ground in utter confusion, and that was enough.

"Whoosh!"

As the dice flew up and he ducked, Wang Yu dodged the first hand that was about to press down on his head. Amidst the surprise that welled up in his heart, and under the gaze of the gang members who looked puzzled as if they had known the attack had been dodged, the overly realistic scenery around Wang Yu suddenly shattered into fragments and exploded, revealing the real things beneath the collapsed scene.

It was endless darkness, and the only thing that existed in this darkness was a huge cross that was flashing with static. This thing, which looked like a program error, rushed toward Wang Yu at an extremely fast speed. He was momentarily confused because of the scene collapsing, and crashed into his arms, which he raised to block out of instinct.

……

By this time, about half an hour had passed, and strange and chaotic changes had begun to occur in the room that the uncle had used for the ceremony.

While unconscious, someone suddenly exploded as if crushed by something, their body bursting into a spray of blood. Only blood, nothing but blood; all the internal organs and bones vanished.

Some people began to vomit uncontrollably in their sleep, spewing out a bunch of writhing octopus tentacles from their mouths, their bodies becoming increasingly shriveled, until finally only a human skin and the frantically bouncing, wet tentacles on the ground remained.

The madman whom Wang Yu previously considered quite special, who was obsessed with suffering, didn't seem to have a good ending either. His bones twisted and pierced through his body, breaking through his skin, muscles, and internal organs, making a cracking sound. In the end, the madman completely turned into a bizarre sphere filled with rotten flesh and blood, with a complete skeleton.

It seems that in the eyes of those great beings, the so-called specialness of ordinary people is utterly meaningless; whether one is a madman or a rational person, whether one has faith or not, makes no difference.

"Ugh..."

With a flick of his fingers, Wang Yu's consciousness regained control of his body, and he quickly got up from the ground. He didn't care that he was covered in a bunch of unknown liquid; the level of chaos in the room was beyond his imagination.

After crawling quickly a few times, Wang Yu slid to the corner of the wall and crouched down, cautiously observing the other "prospective members" in the center who were undergoing successive transformations.

"I didn't die, so the ritual should have succeeded. So what did I get?"

To himself, Wang Yu confirmed that he had not died, so the ritual was successful. But what exactly did he gain from this ritual with an extremely high mortality rate?

"That is...?"

Through deliberate searching, Wang Yu quickly noticed a change in himself. To be precise, it wasn't a change in his body, but a change related to it. In the middle of the house, a semi-transparent phantom appeared, looking exactly like him, maintaining the same position he had been lying on the ground.

Wang Yu frowned, not understanding what that thing was, but the phantom didn't care what Wang Yu thought. It suddenly "woke up from its slumber," glanced at the chaotic scene of demons dancing around it, and quickly retreated to the wall.

"Is it repeating what I did a few seconds ago?"

With a slight raise of his eyebrows, Wang Yu realized what the semi-transparent figure was doing. It was repeating its actions from a few seconds earlier, exactly the same, about nine seconds ago.

Just as Wang Yu was observing what he had gained through his consciousness, the semi-transparent figure suddenly sped up its movements, mimicking Wang Yu's previous actions at lightning speed as if in fast forward, and approached him. During this process, the time of everything around seemed to be slowed down, becoming extremely slow.

"What's going on!"

Wang Yu didn't know why this sudden change happened, but the clearer memories in his mind allowed him to barely understand some things in this slow-motion time where only his own thoughts could not be slowed down.

Within sight, something was moving among the "preparatory members" whose rituals were still in progress—that was the attack aimed at Wang Yu.

In the fast-forward, the semi-transparent figure suddenly overlapped with Wang Yu's own figure. The two merged into one, and the semi-transparent figure disappeared. Wang Yu then did his best to roll forward.

"Whoosh! Snap!"

A flying blade made of bloodstained bones grazed past Wang Yu's head, piercing through the metal wall with immense force and embedding itself within it. Had Wang Yu not dodged, he would have been dead without a doubt. Before the semi-transparent figure began to accelerate, and time slowed down for everything around him, including Wang Yu's own body, he was completely unaware of it...