books44 Chapter 176 Late Night Snack
Chapter 176 Late Night Snack
who I am?
Within the cramped space, twisted and bizarre tentacle-like creatures wriggled their bodies, several scarlet maws filled with sharp teeth splitting open from various parts of their bodies, from which all sorts of sticky, incomprehensible murmurs drifted out.
I seem to be... an avatar of some great being.
The large mouth on the "abdomen" murmured softly, while the mouth on the "head" emitted an unbelievable shriek.
For some absurd reason, I was torn off from that great being by a fishing rod and became someone's... midnight snack?
What a disgrace!
The mouth on the "chest" was shouting loudly.
I am a part of that great being! I am a god! How could I possibly be mere food for humans!
That great being! That great being, that great being…who was it again?
The mouth that was growing on the "leg" sounded confused.
No, no, no!
He vigorously waved his tentacles, constantly slapping his surroundings, trying to escape from here.
His usual casual strikes could shatter space itself, but now, no matter how hard he tried, the things around him that imprisoned him remained unmoved, and even became stronger as he struggled.
Why do I have such a clear sense of self? Why can't I feel any connection with that great being anymore?
The waving of the tentacles gradually weakened.
A piercing scream came from the mouth behind the "back".
Shame... Why do I have such a low-level emotion?
What are emotions, anyway?
Something...something is influencing me, changing my perception, altering my very essence—no, it's assimilating me, reversing cause and effect, it's...correcting reality!
Wait, why did I use "correction"?
Its withered claws tore at its bluish-gray skin frantically, as if trying to break free from some invisible restraint, while mouths all over its body emitted painful howls at the same time.
Damn it, is it that human? Or the owner of that fishing rod? Or maybe that dark-skinned guy?
He had clearly erased all the mediums around him that could be used for transmission, yet that which could not be observed or perceived still sounded in His consciousness with a unique rhythm, as sharp and piercing as an air raid siren.
Familiar yet unfamiliar, complex yet simple.
It is irresistible and cannot be refused.
Defense is ineffective, struggle is futile.
Everything He is doing now is in vain. The originally chaotic and formless Him has now acquired a "definite" body. Even within His gradually whitening body, which He is unaware of, a personality with correct values is slowly being born.
Me! Me, I…
The sound from the large mouth in the "abdomen" grew fainter and fainter.
What was I thinking just now?
The mouth on the "head" hesitantly uttered syllables.
Who...who am I?
The mouth on the "chest" seems to be asking someone a question.
I am...I am...
The confusion in the voice on the "leg" gradually dissipated.
I remembered.
The mouth behind the "back" let out a joyful cheer.
Within His consciousness, a regular "hymn" resounded.
My name is... [Outer God Nyarlathotep].
His entire mouth stretched into a joyful arc, and they all spoke the same sentence in unison.
I am the messenger of [Order].
……
"So where did this come from?"
"Naicher" examined the [Outer God Nyarlathotep] card in his hand, a magic card that had appeared out of thin air in Xing Liang's hand when he woke up.
When Xing Liang first woke up, she could still sense the "restlessness" emanating from this magic card, but something seemed to have happened during her duel with Xing Liang. The magic card is now quite docile, even... obedient.
After confirming that there was no danger or abnormality, she returned the magic card to Xing Liang.
Xing Liang took the time and glanced at it. After the surgery and the duel, it was now midnight.
"Hmm, could this be considered a late-night snack that someone treated me to?"
Xing Liang's answer was somewhat irrelevant, because he really couldn't explain how he got the card. He remembered that before he woke up, he was holding a white piece of meat that he didn't know what it was, and this magic card must have been transformed from that piece of meat.
You can't exactly say it came from a dream, can you?
Do you want to eat now?
"It's not necessary."
Although the psychic power within Xing Liang's body was restless, constantly sending him thoughts like "eating" and "replenishing energy," wanting him to throw the card into his mouth, chew it, and swallow it, or simply hand the magic card over to the psychic power to do as it pleased.
Psychic power has no fixed form, is colorless and formless; its quality, properties, and shape all depend entirely on Xing Liang's will. If Xing Liang were to make the surrounding invisible psychic power observable at this moment, others would see that the [Outer God Nyarlathotep] in Xing Liang's hand was already surrounded by layers of psychic power. The eager psychic power was just waiting for Xing Liang's will to tear this magic card to pieces.
In truth, after being modified by telekinesis, Xing Liang could digest even raw iron blocks perfectly, but not yet fully aware of the extent of his transformation, he didn't want to experiment recklessly. He also didn't trust telekinesis with his own power; the card's name was related to the Cthulhu Mythos, and who knew what kind of clone it might be? If it possessed any corrupting or distorted abilities like those Cthulhu gods, and the telekinesis absorbed the card, causing him to hear some "unspeakable murmurs" or something similar, leading to mental distortion and sanity collapse, he'd be finished.
In the worst-case scenario, he might even be brainwashed or have his cognition altered, turning into a lackey of an evil god or a fanatic, becoming a puppet to be manipulated at will. Just thinking about it sends chills down his spine.
Moreover, looking at the bizarre and terrifying appearance of the [Outer God Nyarlathotep] card, and thinking about what he had been holding in his hand before, Xing Liang, who had originally planned to go out for a normal late-night snack, instantly lost his appetite.
"You probably haven't had dinner yet, right? How about we go grab a late-night snack together? Something normal."
"Uh, forget it."
(The main plot of the entire book is about how to fight against and eliminate the "Nine Calamities," but my current draft only contains six of them: [Gods], [Fate], [Poverty], [Oblivion], [Death], and [Suffering]. The executioners in the story are interconnected through the "Nine Calamities": the three True Ancestors have respectively solved [Fate], [Poverty], and [Gods]; Atum found a way to fight [Suffering] and told the Tenth Generation; the key part of the method is on the magic card that Xing Liang obtained; Xing Liang's duel with Zack will perfect the object that replaces [Death], leading to [Oblivion] in the next volume; and Xing Ya and another executioner will use what Xing Liang left behind to point out the path to fight against it... The remaining three calamities are in the works but not yet finalized. I've been writing and deleting, which means my draft cannot be released because these three calamities are not yet finalized: the plot needs to be interconnected, and the draft needs to lay the groundwork for the "calamities" that appear later in the story. So I have to wait until the three calamities are finalized and the draft is slightly revised before I can officially release it. This is why my updates are so slow.)