Becoming a God Starts with Acting

The fifth floor was completely deserted. It seemed that at this hour, those strange creatures were no longer wandering the hallways of any floor.

Three others followed behind John, but no matter how carefully they observed their surroundings, Lotus Park appeared no different at night.

"Go to Room 601," John ordered as he took the lead and moved forward.

However, the moment they stepped into the emergency stairwell, a bizarre crimson light carrying an ominous chill instantly engulfed them all.

John and the others froze in place as a distant sobbing echoed through the air. Now, the only place they could see clearly was the spot where they stood. The stairs leading upward and downward had transformed into a blood-red darkness, a sea of murky blackness that obscured everything from view.

The crying was clearly coming from above the sixth floor. It grew louder and louder, as if its owner were steadily drawing closer to them.

The door behind them had also vanished. At this point, it seemed they had no choice but to pick one of the two paths before them.

Even after surviving three dungeons, the sight still made the others’ legs tremble uncontrollably.

"W-We should go back to the fourth floor!"

One of them suggested.

But judging from the current situation, neither path looked like a true escape.

If they went up, they would be like fish willingly swimming into a net. If they went down, they would be doing exactly what the thing threatening them wanted.

"Life span... health... give them back..."

The crying from the sixth floor was now much closer, accompanied by mournful voices filled with agony. Moreover, it did not sound as though a single person was speaking. Instead, it resembled a crowd talking in unison, their voices rising and falling out of sync.

"Go down!"

At that moment, John could only make a choice. He kicked the person beside him, sending him down the stairs first.

"Y-You..."

The other two could hardly believe what had happened. But before they could do anything else, a powerful shove struck them from behind, sending them tumbling forward as well.

The instant their bodies disappeared, they were swallowed by the black mist. After that, John could no longer hear any movement from them.

Just then, the wind suddenly let out a shrill howl, as though a razor-sharp blade had sliced through the air at an unimaginable speed, its target none other than John’s throat.

Clang!

In that instant, the sound of metal colliding rang out. Elle’s head suddenly twisted one hundred and eighty degrees. She opened her mouth wide and bit down on whatever had lashed out at them.

John seized the opportunity and immediately threw himself downward.

At the same time, through Elle’s eyes, he caught sight of the thing that had attacked them.

It had a grotesquely swollen abdomen split wide open, with its internal organs hanging loosely from the gash. The thing that had slashed at him was unmistakably one of the creature’s ribs.

Only now, those ribs had stretched to an unnatural length, spreading outward like the legs of a giant spider.

"Ptoo! It’s so hard! My teeth are about to crack!"

Elle shouted in annoyance.

"Shut up!" John barked.

Behind them, the piercing whistle of the wind continued unabated, followed by the sound of countless limbs skittering frantically across the floor at incredible speed.

Cold sweat trickled down John’s forehead. He suddenly wondered how a single staircase could take so long to escape.

But just as the thought crossed his mind, he felt as though he had passed through a mass of soft flesh. The next instant, his body returned to free fall.

John’s pupils contracted. Twisting once in midair, he landed in a crouch, one knee hitting the ground.

The moment he looked up, the scene before him came into full view.

A brilliant crimson light flooded his vision, staining everything with a twisted, blood-red hue.

Standing before him was a small shrine. There was no telling what it had been made of, only that its frame was as black as ink. At its center stood a statue of a deity, completely shrouded in silk cloth. The wind kept the fabric fluttering endlessly, yet no matter how it billowed, it never revealed the statue’s true appearance.

The instant John’s gaze fell upon the statue, his other leg moved as though under someone else’s control, slowly bending until he, too, was kneeling.

"Damn—"

Before John could even finish cursing, an overwhelming force slammed down on his head. In the blink of an eye, his entire body was forced forward. Both his head and Elle’s were crushed against the floor with a thunderous impact.

Blood seeped from their foreheads, quickly spreading across the stone beneath them in a widening crimson stain.

The thick stench of fresh blood, combined with the relentless pounding inside his skull, nearly drove John unconscious. Beside him, Elle’s incessant cries only made it worse. Even more distinct were the desperate screams of the three companions from moments ago.

"Lifespan... give it to me... give it to me..."

Behind them, a monstrous creature with countless arms and heads emerged.

Its bloated abdomen faced the ground, while its protruding ribs had elongated into flexible, spider-like limbs.

Its back was now covered with five heads, one of them the largest, growing directly above the other four.

Radiating from that cluster of heads were ten arms of varying lengths, writhing ceaselessly as they drained every last drop of blood from the three corpses they held tightly.

The blood cascaded over the tower of heads like champagne poured into a champagne fountain. In an instant, the entire room was filled with the wet, sickening sounds of flowing blood, accompanied by an endless chorus of bitter lamentations.

The three stepping stones were dead.

There was no longer any doubt.

John would be the next prey.

John’s mind was almost completely blank. An invisible force pinned his body down so tightly that he couldn’t move even a single muscle.

All he could do was listen as those wet, squelching sounds drew closer...

Closer than ever before.