Chapter 105
Chapter 105
While John kept Fox Mask occupied over drinks, Xiaoshuai seized the opportunity to infiltrate the base. His Illuminati membership meant the guards did not scrutinize him too closely.
He took out a mask made of human skin.
[Fiendish Item: Familiar Face]
Its effect caused the wearer to take on the appearance of someone familiar to whoever looked at them. The side effect was that prolonged use made the wearer forget who they truly were.
“Hey, have you eaten yet?”
“You should get some rest. Look at those bags under your eyes.”
“Hey, someone’s looking for you!”
With the mask’s help, Xiaoshuai moved through the crowd like a fish through water, strolling deeper into the complex as though he owned the place.
He soon reached a laboratory.
A man in a white coat came out. The moment he saw Xiaoshuai, he shouted, “What took you so long? Hurry inside! We’re starting the experiment.”
“Oh!”
Xiaoshuai obediently followed him in and found countless culture tanks filled with grotesquely deformed human beings.
This facility was not researching Desire Potions themselves. Its purpose was to find a way to use Desire Potions flawlessly on the human body.
The wealthy people upstairs used the successful products.
The Numbered Ones were the failures.
“Test Subject 10177 has begun mutating. Discard.”
“Test Subject 68965 has begun mutating. Discard.”
“Test Subject 336 remains stable. Increase the dosage!”
Xiaoshuai immediately looked toward Test Subject 336. Inside was an exceptionally handsome young man-and a face that startled him.
“Kate Pierce?”
He was a world-famous actor and part of the reason Xiaoshuai had entered show business in the first place.
But Kate Pierce should have been over ninety years old. Here he stood in the body of a young man.
“So that’s what this is. What a tired old motive,” Xiaoshuai scoffed.
Immortality was the ultimate dream of countless people, and the wealthy were no exception. They already had money, resources, and everything else they could want. Naturally, the next thing they coveted was a longer life-more time to enjoy everything their wealth could buy.
What Xiaoshuai had not expected was for them to set their sights on Fiends.
When he thought about it, though, it made sense. Fiends were products of various accidents after a human being’s death. They did not age or die, and they possessed tremendous strength. They fit these people’s requirements perfectly.
Fox Mask appeared to be the manager here and a senior member of the Illuminati, though Xiaoshuai had never seen him before.
“Test Subject 336 has begun mutating. Discard!”
His idol had started mutating too. What a shame.
But Xiaoshuai soon noticed something strange.
He knew little about experimental science, but he still possessed basic common sense. These people did not appear to be conducting immortality research.
They were deliberately manufacturing Numbered Ones.
Before he could investigate further, a message from John arrived. It contained a single word.
“Run!”
Xiaoshuai took off without a moment’s hesitation.
The other researchers stared after him, baffled by his sudden flight.
Ten minutes earlier, the wealthy spectators outside had turned the screens back on, only to find the mountain buried under dense fog.
They were puzzled. Everyone had checked the forecast before coming, and no heavy fog had been predicted for the area.
Miss Zhang, however, was frantically warning John.
“Run! That fog is dangerous!”
John’s greatest virtue was his willingness to listen to good advice. The moment he heard Miss Zhang’s warning, he messaged Xiaoshuai and bolted for the exit without hesitation.
The screens ahead abruptly lost their signals.
“What’s happening? Host, what the hell are your people doing?”
“Kill him! Make him die!”
The wealthy spectators below flew into a frenzy, pink energy practically spilling from their bodies.
At that moment, a line of bloody text suddenly appeared on the screen.
“Welcome to the Fiendish World!”
Every person present instantly regained their senses.
Panels appeared before their eyes.
[Mission: Slaughter Game]
[Objective 1: Choose a faction.]
[Available Faction: Killers. Kill three Escapees to clear this mission.]
[Available Faction: Escapees. Reach the foot of the mountain to clear this mission. Escapees may not harm Killers.]
[Note: Your faction cannot be changed once selected.]
[Mission Rewards: Distributed upon completion of the mission.]
“What the hell is this? Why have we been dragged into the Fiendish World?” one wealthy man cried in despair.
The others began to panic as well. They knew about the Fiendish World; they simply had no desire to enter it themselves.
They possessed enough money to last several lifetimes and wonderful lives waiting to be enjoyed. Why would they ever want to join a game where they had to risk their lives?
Participating once would not be the end of it, either. From now on, they would be forced into another mission at regular intervals until the day they died.
What none of them understood was why they had been pulled in despite buying items that were supposed to exempt them from these games.
No one gave them an answer. Fortunately, this mission seemed relatively simple. Almost all of them chose to become Killers, because the Killers had the easiest clear condition: all they had to do was kill Escapees.
A tiny minority chose differently.
John and Xiaoshuai were among them.
The pair easily slipped past the guards and met at the entrance.
“What did you find?” John asked.
Xiaoshuai described everything he had seen and explained his suspicions.
John thought of Fox Mask. There was something profoundly unusual about the man. Being near him felt almost like standing in the presence of a Fiend.
And yet Miss Zhang had confirmed that Fox Mask was indeed human.
“This mission is unbelievably malicious,” Xiaoshuai said, speechless.
John nodded in agreement.
On the surface, becoming a Killer was clearly the best choice. A Killer only needed to kill three people, after all.
In the Fiendish World, that hardly counted as a challenge.
If killing a few people was all it took to clear the mission, John included, none of them would hesitate. That was why almost everyone would choose the Killer faction.
But therein lay the problem.
If everyone became a Killer, who would choose to be an Escapee? Under these conditions, almost no one would willingly do so.
And without Escapees, the mission would automatically fail.
The balance of power between the two factions was also far too uneven.
Escapees had almost no ability to resist Killers. The rules merely stated that an Escapee could not “harm” a Killer, and the boundaries of that word were extremely vague.
By any ordinary reasoning, virtually no one would choose to become an Escapee.
Which meant this mission was destined to fail!
Unless… the Escapees possessed some hidden advantage, and the Killers some hidden restriction.
The two of them made their decision at once.