It's time to become an evil god.

Blood Demon's lips twitched slightly, and he said, "Oh, then it's nothing."

"Wait a minute, something seems a little off."

Suddenly, the Holy Lord clutched his neck, a look of pain on his face. "I feel like I can't breathe."

With a snap, his eyes instantly became vacant, his pupils began to dilate, the skin and muscles on his neck were torn apart, and his entire head, along with his spine, slowly rose up, like a human head balloon, and floated slowly toward the window.

Upon seeing this, all the players felt a jolt of fear, their faces showing expressions of dread. They took several steps back, moving away from the windows, terrified that they too would inexplicably become the next casualty.

Many players have experienced dangerous missions where they have a slim chance of survival, but this kind of bizarre world view filled with unknown and eerie colors and atmosphere is something they have never seen before.

Among all the players, only Bai Ge exclaimed in amazement, "It seems that this art exhibition in Tokyo is intended for the underworld."

Chapter 195 "Iron Sheep!"

Everyone gathered in the lobby, eager to leave this awful place, especially wanting to never see the hotel staff again. Although they looked perfectly normal and polite, their numb eyes held no warmth, as if their smiles were merely a facade, and the staff were just wind-up puppets, hiding something else entirely.

"Excuse me, have you seen my friend?"

One of the players was anxiously asking strangers around him, gesturing in a deliberate manner, "A gypsy woman, have you seen her?"

The others just shook their heads blankly, paying no further attention. They were all busy preparing to save their lives in what they couldn't tell was either an art museum or a funeral home.

This time the difficulty was so bad it shortened the players' lifespan.

Only Bai Ge grabbed the other person and asked seriously, "What happened?"

[Lucky Lancer] hesitated to speak after seeing Bai Ge. This ID was quite a prominent figure on the Evolution Forum game, and other players always described him as terrifying.

A hesitant expression appeared on his face.

"Tell me, maybe your missing friend has found some background clues about this world line."

Lucky Spearman took a deep breath and told everything.

"Here's the thing, my friend discovered something amiss through tarot card readings and went to check the food in the kitchen, but after that, she disappeared without a trace. I originally wanted to check what happened, but unexpectedly, all the hotel staff turned into monsters. And I checked her status in her friend list, she's still online and hasn't died."

"I'll go to the kitchen with you."

Bai Ge planned to follow this guy named "Lucky Lancer" to the kitchen to find out what was going on. The other astute players also knew the importance of understanding the world's background, as it could potentially affect the development of certain key plot points in the upcoming scenario missions. They were unwilling to take any risks but wanted to complete the game without taking any damage. Where could they find such a perfect solution?

At this moment, Lucky Gunner also mustered up his courage and walked towards the kitchen. He hadn't dared to act alone before, but now that a bunch of players were following him, the little monster was nothing to fear.

Passing through the empty restaurant, the group headed towards the kitchen. The kitchen door wasn't locked, but left ajar, from which strange rustling noises and an unbearable stench of decay emanated.

Everyone froze, seemingly realizing the seriousness of the situation, and immediately assumed a fighting stance. Only Bai Ge, at the very front, turned around and said, "It's too dark in there, can I have an A1 high-level flash, please?"

"I'll do it."

He conjured his staff, and a dazzling light instantly enveloped the entire dark kitchen. With the help of the holy light, everyone gasped at the scene in the kitchen.

The lucky gunner's lips twitched, and many players immediately covered their mouths, feeling a surge of nausea and vomiting.

This could no longer be called a kitchen; everywhere was a horrifying mess of blurry, gore-like flesh, thick layers of enormous blood vessels clinging to the ceiling and walls. The food on the counter, swarming with flies—no, it wasn't even seafood anymore—was deformed, twisted flesh that seemed almost alive, staring at the players outside with deathly, terrifying eyes. It couldn't be called fish or anything else; it looked like a monster captured from the depths of R'lyeh.

Those players who dined at the restaurant yesterday have started vomiting. What's the difference between this scene and green liquid flowing from a tap?

What's even more chilling is that it's covered with many grotesque, ritualistic tumor-like things. The translucent white membrane is filled with blood vessels and a pale green liquid, making it look like a biological petri dish. You can vaguely see black shadows inside.

Bai Ge strode forward, stepping over thick blood vessels and membranes to reach a container that seemed about to burst at any moment. He flipped his hand, took out the ancient relic, the Holy Spear, and used its sharp blade to pierce the seemingly thin but actually incredibly thick layer of the pupa. With a slow flick, he pierced a hole.

boom.

The cocoon made a dull sound, and a pale green, luminous liquid flowed continuously from inside.

However, before the brownish-yellow liquid inside had completely drained, a desiccated corpse rolled out and fell to the ground with a thud.

The skeleton was dressed in an astronaut-like suit, and was in human form. It was tightly clutching a black box in its arms, refusing to let go until its death.

Even though it was submerged in a container, the body looked as if it had died from dehydration; the dried-out corpse appeared particularly eerie.

Bai Ge directly used the Eye of Providence's power to examine the other cocoons in the kitchen one by one. He found that all the skeletons were different in shape. There were living people with all four limbs intact, creatures with half-human and half-snake bodies similar to the Naga race, and even mermaids with the upper body of fish and the lower body of humans, etc. However, without exception, all these strange things were corpses, making it look like a museum of corpses of gene-radiated monsters.

"No, this isn't a hotel kitchen, it's hell's kitchen!"

Lucky Gunner's legs were trembling, and he even regretted initiating the mission. He felt his sanity was on the verge of collapse; one slight push would send him utterly destroyed.

The people about to board the bus to the venue felt as heavy-hearted as if they were going to a funeral; this was the truth behind the glamorous hotel.

Unaware of the situation, a player leaned closer and sniffed the water stains on the ground, frowning and muttering to himself, "Why does this green liquid smell a bit strange? It smells so strongly of rust?"

He turned around and saw that the other players had pushed back more than ten meters, staring at him as if he were a plague.

"Hey, you still haven't told me why the water tastes rusty?"

With a heavy heart, Nishizawa Ryo said, "Perhaps someone added some deuterium to it?"

Bai Ge took the black box from the corpse's hand and was about to open it when a hoarse, low female voice suddenly came from deep inside the kitchen.

"help me……"

"Someone, please save me..."

Hearing cries for help, Bai Ge immediately shone her flashlight in the direction of the faint light. At the far end of the beam, in the center, stood a naked woman. She could barely be identified as a Gypsy from the tassels of her jewelry. Her limbs were pierced by countless fleshy tentacles with sharp barbs, binding her firmly to a bizarre tree trunk covered in human faces. Blood-stained hair mixed with sweat clung to her face, making her expression completely unreadable.

Her belly swelled up high, then quickly deflated, expanding and contracting like a rhythmically beating heart.

The woman raised her head, and the outline of her numb face began to emerge. As if grasping at a last straw, she shouted at Bai Ge.

"Help me, please help me!"

"It wants to replace me; it wants to become one with me."

The woman's voice grew increasingly shrill, but no one dared to take a step forward.

The player is not dead yet, but her current state is probably hundreds of times more painful than death.

If you become a parasite that is already half-integrated with the tree, you will never have the chance to be a human again.

The entwined fleshy tentacles transformed the woman on the tree trunk into a symbiote, ignoring any rejection reaction and merging directly into her.

If I had to describe it accurately, such a monster would probably only appear in works with Cthulhu themes.

As if startled by the light, the flesh tree's eyes, which had been slightly closed, suddenly opened its eyes and mouth. Wriggling tentacles with barbs emerged from deep within its throat and swiftly attacked Bai Ge, seemingly preparing to turn him into the next unfortunate souvenir.

pat.

The nuclear-powered flashlight in my hand finally failed at the most crucial moment, making it impossible to see the number of those barbed tentacles.

Just when things were at their most critical, a little girl suddenly rushed in from outside the door, raised her fists and started punching wildly at the vine tentacles that were rushing towards Bai Ge.

"Iron!"

Chapter 196 Program Art Director Shinji Mikami

With a deafening roar, the dense vines suddenly swelled up as if filled with liquid. The vines, already as thick as two people could hug, continued to swell until they finally exploded before everyone's eyes, splattering green blood everywhere. Even more bizarrely, after catching the little girl's punch, the human faces on the strange, giant tree trunk that had been coiled in the restaurant began to bleed, emitting painful screams. The entire scene sent chills down everyone's spines. The murky, incomprehensible murmurs of ancient gods and hellish sounds gradually became clearer, finally coalescing into a vicious curse that landed heavily on everyone's hearts.

"You idiot! You're dead!"

The group exchanged bewildered glances, sensing something was off about the tree. The witch remarked, "Is this tree some kind of vengeful spirit of a colonel who died and then transformed into a monster?"

The vines, along with the tree trunk, were blown apart, and sap emitting a ghostly green glow flowed continuously from the cracks. Meanwhile, the sac-like egg-like structures on the wall ruptured one after another, releasing the still-developing monstrosities inside, which lay motionless on the floor.

The Gypsy girl player, entangled in the tree trunk, had cloudy, white eyes and had lost all signs of life.

"You tell me."

At this moment, Bai Ge raised his hand and put forward a terrifying idea: "Could these be Japanese people affected by nuclear radiation?"

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression instantly changed. They recalled the body holding the black box from the beginning and all went over to see what had happened.

Inside the black box lay a small tape recorder, which remained undamaged due to its proper sealing.

"I come."

To prevent being corrupted by some kind of mood or from being trapped, the witch specially used a protective barrier around the tape recorder before turning it on.

This is the last message left by a player who previously completed a solo mission.

He has already explored the background worldview quite thoroughly through newspapers, online books, and surviving ancient texts. This timeline is not much different from reality. Eight years ago, the Fukushima nuclear power plant also experienced a serious leak accident. However, at that time, the government's inefficient operation led to radioactive wastewater being discharged directly into the Pacific Ocean without treatment.

Although government officials later bowed and apologized, claiming it was private in Masai, terrifying things gradually began to happen. The nuclear radiation leak and the discharge of nuclear wastewater led to the emergence of a mutation zone resembling Pripyat in Eastern Europe, containing bizarre spaces, phenomena, and terrifying, strange creatures that the scientific community could not explain.

For example, fishermen have witnessed bizarre events on the sea that are as large as small hills on more than one occasion, causing panic among the audience. The government has stepped in to refute the rumors, stating that after scientific research, it was just an ordinary sixth apostle, a fish angel, and not a Godzilla born from nuclear radiation.

Mysterious and bizarre murders have occurred around the world, while Japanese officials claim that these so-called mysterious and bizarre murders are merely unidentified life forms such as the Orphnochs and Gurongi, and not mutants caused by nuclear radiation altering their genes.

As for the luminous life forms they are, oh, the Japanese government has repeatedly emphasized that they are the ancient warriors, the Giants of Light. What, you ask why the Giants of Light emit a ghostly green light from nuclear radiation? Don't ask, the answer is that the end of Kamen Rider has come.

The mutation points caused by nuclear radiation even opened the gates to the abyss of the dead, leading to dozens of terrifying disappearances in Aomori Prefecture.

All these incidents were suppressed by the authorities, who even announced a major art exhibition celebration to improve the international image in two years.

The notebook also lists the directors and planners of the art exhibition program: Shinji Mikami, Junji Itō, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and Hideo Kojima.

The entire hotel had long been controlled by a mutant of the Tree of Desire. On the surface, it was a normal hotel, but in reality, all the staff were just mutants controlled by the strange tree in the kitchen. Moreover, he speculated that there was some kind of secret deal between this tree and the system mission.

This was indeed a startling discovery. At first, all the players thought that this world was just a world view generated by the system arbitrarily capturing, distorting, and modifying it. If there were NPCs with advanced connections between the things in this world view and the system.

Unfortunately, this NPC has now become a lifeless object.

The notes became increasingly messy and disorganized towards the end, suggesting that the trapped victim players didn't have much time left. In the end, they were not finished and the writing abruptly stopped. The remaining unexplained parts could only be attributed to nuclear radiation.

It also contains a strange prophetic poem that resembles a cryptic verse.

"I saw stars fall, and as the first act was unveiled, I heard the first indescribable thing say, 'Come.'"

There was a giant human head balloon that brought death to the crowd, causing people to kill each other.

As the second act of the script was unveiled, one of the indescribable things, with a voice like thunder, said, "Come."

I watched and saw a wooden puppet, its body bound with silk threads and its skin peeled off, and a crown was given to it. Then it went out and wherever it went, there were puppets everywhere.

When the third act began, I heard the third unspeakable Lord say, "Come."

I looked and saw unseen beings rising and falling. I heard a voice, seemingly coughing, calling out the name of the plague among the four indescribable things.

As the fourth act began, I heard a fourth indescribable thing say, "Come."

I looked and saw a pale green skeletal horse. Riding it was a dead man named Radiation. Death followed him.

He was given authority to kill a quarter of the earth with cesium, uranium, plutonium, and americium.