Chapter 452 - 433: Help... Help Me...
Lu Ping stood before the stone bed, staring at the "egg" that looked very, very wrong.
’What part of this thing gives off the feeling of new life? Miss Su said this would let me experience the weight of life... She’s got some serious issues.’
A few wisps of smoke drifted out from several holes in the corner of the wall.
This was an extra precaution Lin Qingfeng had put in place to prevent the players from messing with his precious Alien Egg.
After all, players were the type of creature that, if you gave them an egg, you’d be lucky if they only boiled and ate it on the spot. To ensure the incubation could be completed safely and without any waste, Lin Qingfeng had specially used a type of Spiritual Energy poison gas. It could block nerve signals while keeping a person fully conscious.
As for things like pain, players didn’t need it anyway, so Lin Qingfeng hadn’t bothered with it at all. ’Maybe some people with Stockholm syndrome would enjoy phantom pain,’ he thought. ’They could even savor the experience during this mission. That way, they get the full experience without any actual physical harm to their real bodies.’
’What a considerate senior brother I am, heh heh heh heh heh!’
The first to fall for the trap was an undercover agent in the next room.
After Wang entered the secret chamber, the more he looked at the fleshy tumor, the more his skin crawled.
The liquid dripping from it onto the stone platform made his scalp tingle with dread.
’This isn’t hatching an egg...’
Wang swallowed. Just as he was about to get closer to examine the egg’s structure, his knees suddenly went weak.
The sensation was bizarre. It was as if he could no longer feel his thighs or torso. His legs completely refused to obey him.
THUMP!
Wang collapsed, followed by a sharp crack.
’Ouch...’
He subconsciously tried to curse, but when he opened his mouth, he found his tongue was also going numb.
Then, the feeling of powerlessness crept up his spine—to his arms, fingers, neck... In the blink of an eye, his entire body went limp like a pile of mud, slumping beside the stone bed.
The worst part was that his face was pointed directly at the giant, faintly pulsating egg. He was so close he could even smell it.
Wang’s eyes darted around frantically. He tried to move even a single finger, but his body was no longer his own; the connection to his brain had been completely severed.
’What... What’s happening? Am I poisoned? When?’
He roared internally as terror grew wildly in his chest.
’Guixi Sect! You goddamn bastards! What happened to the hatching mission? You’re using us as fertilizer, aren’t you! I knew it! I knew nothing good could be this easy! Love and life? It’s all bullshit! This is a trap! A trap to chop us up and feed us to this monster!’
He internally cursed Su Ling’er and eighteen generations of the Guixi Sect’s ancestors, but his body remained obediently sprawled on the floor.
And this scene of despair was playing out simultaneously in every secret chamber.
Likewise, Lu Ping wasn’t faring much better.
His body slid down uncontrollably.
’Hm?’
Lu Ping frowned slightly and subconsciously tried to circulate his *Great Dream Leisure Scripture*.
This Cultivation Technique was incredibly profound and could usually dispel many negative status effects. But this time, the moment he tried to mobilize his Spiritual Power, he found his Dantian was empty. No matter how he tried to command it, the Spiritual Power wouldn’t budge.
Moreover, it wasn’t just a blockage of Spiritual Power, but a direct paralysis at the neurological level.
He tried to lift his hand, but his wrist drooped limply. He fell backward, his head hitting the stone bed with a dull THUD.
’Hiss... That was a nasty bump.’
Lu Ping sighed to himself.
’Looks like I’ve fallen for it. Makes sense. It’d be a real surprise if a demonic sect mission like this didn’t have a catch. I just hope it’s not fatal.’
He lay on the ground, his gaze falling on the bottom of the giant egg.
’If I can’t move, I can’t move. I’ve been exhausted lately anyway. This is a good chance to rest.’
With that thought, he gave up struggling.
’If you can’t fight it, might as well find a comfortable position and lie flat. As long as I’m not dead, there’s still a chance to turn things around.’
’Still, the Guixi Sect’s hospitality is pretty crude. Could they at least provide a pillow next time they decide to poison someone? This stone floor is too hard. It’s really uncomfortable.’
Just as everyone was forced to "lie flat," with only the sound of their heavy breathing and the slow build-up of their body heat filling the secret chambers, the giant egg finally reacted.
It was alive.
And it was exceptionally sensitive to heat sources.
As the body heat from the living people continued to build up in the cramped chambers, the purplish-blue veins on the giant egg’s surface suddenly twitched violently.
SQUELCH...
A wet, sticky sound echoed in the silent chamber.
Sprawled on the floor, Wang watched with wide eyes as the fleshy, tightly sealed petals at the top of the giant egg were pushed open from within and peeled outward.
As the petals opened, a cloud of steam mixed with a sour stench spewed out, instantly enveloping Wang’s nose and mouth.
’Gag...’
Wang wanted to vomit, but the muscles in his stomach wouldn’t obey. He could only let the nauseating smell assault his senses, so potent it brought tears to his eyes.
But that wasn’t the most terrifying part.
Through the hazy steam, under the dim light of the Everlasting Lamp in the secret chamber, Wang finally saw what was inside the egg.
It was a nightmare curled into a ball.
Its form resembled a giant spider, or perhaps a mutated scorpion.
It had no head and no eyes, only a cluster of long, jointed legs clutching its own body. A long tail was coiled beneath it, and its entire form was coated in a translucent slime.
As the eggshell opened completely, the thing awoke from its slumber. Its limbs twitched slightly, emitting a faint, grating sound of bone scraping against bone.
’What... what the hell is that thing?!’
Wang’s pupils contracted violently.
He had been in the Cultivation Realm for many years and had seen his fair share of demon beasts. Even the most bizarrely shaped demonic creatures at least resembled some kind of living organism.
’But this thing... I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.’
’Could it be a new type of alien beast? Or the young of some alien species?’
Wang screamed internally. If looks could kill, the egg would have been sliced into a thousand pieces by his gaze.
Meanwhile, in another chamber, the moment a certain smartass undercover agent saw the creature, the last thread of his sanity nearly snapped.
’This... this is new life? This... this design is truly unique! A lifeform worthy of the Guixi Sect!’
’Look at this slime, so... luscious! This must be an ancient, exotic species. It might look a little rough around the edges, but one shouldn’t judge a beast by its appearance!’
He desperately tried to convince himself, attempting to suppress the chill in his heart.
’When Miss Su said to warm it, she definitely didn’t mean physical warmth, but spiritual warmth!’
’As long as my heart is filled with goodwill, even if it’s a demonic creature, it will feel my kindness! It... it moved! Is it coming out to acknowledge me as its master?!’
Just as his self-delusion reached its peak, the facehugger lurking inside suddenly leaped!
WHOOSH!
A blur was all that remained in the air. In one of the chambers, Wang, who was closest to the egg, saw only a flash before his eyes. He had no time to react as the facehugger, a mess of bone and jointed legs, descended upon him.
SLAP!
The facehugger landed squarely on Wang’s face!
Its eight legs tightened abruptly, clamping down on his head, each limb digging into his flesh.
"MMMPH—!!!"
Wang wanted to scream, but the sound was stuck in his throat.
The sensation was simply indescribable.
The creature’s abdomen pressed tightly against his face, blocking out all light and air in an instant.
Next, its long tail wrapped around his neck and began to tighten, squeezing until his cervical vertebrae creaked.
An intense feeling of suffocation washed over him. Wang’s eyes flew wide open. Though the facehugger blocked his vision, his chest heaved violently from the lack of oxygen, forcing his mouth agape.
’Help... help me...’
He cried out in despair in his mind, but the only response was the chilling cold from the facehugger’s body.
’This isn’t hatching an egg! The egg is hatching *us*!’
’Su Ling’er! You call this "love"?! You call this "being moved by the weight of life"?! This is murder! Cold-blooded murder!’
As for the smartass undercover agent, he didn’t escape his fate in his own chamber either.
’This... this isn’t right! Isn’t it supposed to acknowledge me as its master? Why is it on my face?! And... and why is its tail wrapped around my neck?! Did the Guixi Sect bring us here just for this? It doesn’t make sense! Then why did they let those hundreds of people run away? If this was the goal, their previous actions are completely illogical!’
"COUGH... UGH..."
He was choked until his eyes rolled back in his head, and that smug sense of superiority, of being the only sober one in a crowd of drunks, vanished without a trace.
’This is a goddamn trap! A huge trap designed to lure people in and kill them! Dao heart, tempering... it’s all bullshit to fool idiots! I don’t understand the Guixi Sect’s logic, but right now, they’re clearly just trying to turn us into feed!’
However, the nightmare had only just begun.
Just as everyone thought they were about to be strangled or suffocated to death, the facehugger suddenly split open.
A tubular organ then brutally pried open their jaws.
"MMMPH! MMMPH!!"
They tried to clamp their teeth shut in terror, but the paralyzing effect of the gas made it impossible to even bite their own tongues to commit suicide. They could only let the tube invade, pushing past their tongues and deep into their throats.
The feeling of a foreign object invading their bodies was enough to drive them mad!
The tube squirmed down their esophagi, all the way to their stomachs.
"GACK—!"
An intense urge to vomit made their bodies convulse. Tears and snot streamed down their faces, but their bodies remained immobile, forced to accept the violation.
A warm liquid was injected into their bodies through the tube.
At that moment, they all felt they had become mere vessels for gestating that horrifying thing. Perhaps they would die because of it.
This dual collapse, both physiological and psychological, shattered their defenses.
’Please... save me... Is anyone there? Save me...’
Countless people wailed silently in their minds as their consciousness began to fade from a lack of oxygen and extreme fear.
And in another secret chamber, Lu Ping watched the facehugger lunging toward him with resignation in his eyes.
He wanted to dodge, but his body was utterly useless. It was an effort just to speak, let alone evade such a swift attack.
’Well, I’m done for this time.’
Thinking this, he simply closed his eyes and met the same fate.
’Since I’m here, I’ll just have to accept it... A mission like this won’t force me to go slaughter a village or wipe out a town, right? At least it seems I don’t have to do anything heinous.’
As the unknown liquid was injected into his body, a thought flashed through his mind.
’Miss Su, isn’t your way of teaching everyone how to love... a bit too oppressive?’
After everyone had been paralyzed and implanted, the secret chambers fell silent once more.
And in the possession of the undercover agents, the mission progress bar on their jade slips began to rise at a visible rate as the implantation process continued.
[Current Progress: 10%... 20%...]
Meanwhile, in a distant, luxurious cave residence, Lin Qingfeng watched the data flickering on his panel and took a satisfied sip of tea.
"It seems this mission is quite popular. Giving it an artistic touch was the right move. So many people want to experience the weight of life. Not long after I posted it, several people have already accepted it."
He set down his teacup, a benevolent smile on his face, quietly taking credit for his work.