Chapter 1054: NO．177：People are almost forgetting that he

NO．177：People are almost forgetting that he's still streaming his typing.

Pollution is usually divided into physical and mental aspects.

Physical pollution is easy to understand—nothing more than bodily poisoning, cellular mutation, neural erosion, and the like.

Mental pollution is more abstract yet very easy to come into contact with—a change in cognition.

This is like the Old Ones—just beholding them makes the brain feel the information is too complex to process, imposing a heavy load on the CPU; even if you endure it, the vast amount of information gained itself will permanently alter the worldview of any sentient being that witnesses it.

Knowledge itself is also a kind of pollution—no matter the amount, it will directly change your way of life, your outlook on life, and your life's vision.

It shapes you into an existence utterly different from the past.

This has already risen to the realm of philosophy; setting philosophy aside, speaking purely of contamination in game concepts, it certainly refers to some debuffs that impose a sudden burden on body and mind.

According to Aomo's understanding of Rhodes Island's homeland, which is likewise called Terra, this world's contamination is broadly divided into three types.

Origin Stone—Ore Stone Disease.

Faction—Neurotoxin.

Evil Demons—Mental corruption and assimilation.

"First, rule out the Faction."

Gazing at the three-headed beast not far off that oppresses every life equally, watching those lives struggle valiantly like indomitable warriors, Aomo put away the folding telescope that would give him a caterpillar meme face.

"Normal Faction wouldn't venture this far inland, not even deep‑sea hunters," the black sheep atop his head said coldly, "and those endless, abruptly appearing things always give me a non‑human feeling."

"What if it's not normal?" Moreover, this game feel isn't very normal either… Aomo buried that objection‑like guess silently, raised his index finger, and said

"Like a corpse."

"The one I burned to death earlier gave off scent at an unbelievably fast rate—more like it had been pre‑oiled than fresh flesh."

"It's a shame they all look like regular troops, clad in full‑cover armor, so we can't tell what they actually look like."

"…What did you used to do?" the unable‑to‑stay‑silent Aomo sheep asked for the second time; Dolly, when creating him, apparently skipped the memory‑building persona route and directly imprinted a personality.

"Didn't I say? I'm just a student whose knowledge is a bit mixed."

"You call that a bit mixed?"

"It's just a bit mixed, and it's not important, right? As a life created by you, the old‑timer of this land, don't you have any memory etched into DNA?"

"Do you think I have DNA?" Aomo sheep said wistfully.

"I don't know—cut a sample later and have Suzi test it?"

"In a place like this you're actually being realistic…" Aomo sheep was somewhat speechless, then gazed again at the grim battlefield, then turned to look at the iron coffin propped up beside Aomo, which kept emitting a clanging sound.

"I think they're evil demons—they slip in through the fear in people's hearts, corrupting and assimilating their will. You've noticed, haven't you? When she swings her blade at you, her eyes look as if she's seeing someone else."

"Couldn't be more obvious." Aomo said, also glancing at the iron coffin beside him.

【Lappland. Saluzzo (Contamination)】

☆☆☆

"?"

You wouldn't expect to see entries, would you?

You wouldn't expect me to give people a concrete attribute summary, would you?

No matter who you've caught, let them go quickly!

We're a healthy R16 game!"

——

Who wrote this block of text, huh? Even R16 could be called a healthy game…? Aomo's hope of catching some embarrassing info on Lappland from here came to nothing, so he could only listen as Aomo sheep continued:

"So when you counterattack her, she repeatedly shows surprise, because the entity she's facing shouldn't be able to use this move."

"If she had normal reasoning, she should already be doubting that the person she sees isn't that person, so theoretically you could convince her."

"Hey? Can you hear me? Lappland, if you understand, knock three times on the coffin."

Bang bang bang bang bang!

"……"

"……"

"Why don't we first test whether this game has a normal respawn feature loaded?" Aomo asked, looking up.

"Or better yet, give her a slash to see what color her blood is."

"Indeed, I've heard that those assimilated by evil demons have black blood," Aomo thought, recalling the forum discussion he'd seen, finding it quite feasible—"but does the game go into that much detail?"

Previously, even the reaction when a person dies wasn't done in much detail—though now it occurs to me that maybe it's because people aren't alive to begin with.

Thinking of that, he couldn't help but pull out a tiny toolbox, extend a deformable monocular, place it before his eyes, and gaze at the NPCs being slaughtered by monsters.

"Looks like it really is black blood, although it could just be that corpse blood isn't very red to begin with."

"So we might as well stab her—there doesn't seem to be any other living thing around right now," Aomo sheep suggested.

Indeed.

At the mere thought, the iron coffin flung open and Lappland leapt out, while Aomo extended the razor‑sharp claws that had turned acute from his instant demonification—just then warm sunlight fell on him sitting on the bench, and he gazed at the screen on the distant building.

Ads for the Arima Memorial, Dream Cup, Osaka Cup, Cherry Blossom Prize, and Gaoyue Prize rolled on, and the horse girls displayed on them were full of vigor.

Meanwhile, not far off, the icy beauty with black hair and wolf ears and the cute girl with pink hair and red pupils were waving at him.

【Monsters are necessary: Little Snake! What's up with the photo Lappland posted!】

"——!"

Suddenly, a light curtain covering most of his field of vision, with a few large characters popping out, startled him into an involuntary lean back; the bitter smile rising from his lips also let that fragile daydream shatter in an instant.

"Looks like I don't need to speak up." The woman who always appears in his dreams chuckled, turned, and vanished from the shattered viewing.

And Aomo also saw the half‑blade desperately trying to jam itself into the cracked crystal embedded in his chest.

【Fine Brush into Painting retracted a message】

?

A palm strike hit the back of Lapulande's head, then, using a forearm with fewer barbs, propped them up to keep them from falling, then stuck the Eye Q card like a talisman onto her forehead, the Aomo, and still looked somewhat puzzled at the few new messages on this point.

While the Aomo sheep on his head watched the scene, it calmly asked, "Did you just enter a hallucination?"

"Yes." Aomo dragged the chat box, which appeared extraordinarily large due to being in the game.

"That looks like a demon, and," the Aomo sheep reminded, "that side also stopped respawning enemies; if you don't make them cease, Zhaluo will be beaten to death."

Aomo raised his head and saw that the exhausted giant wolf, which could no longer mistify and whose limbs were all scarred, was limping.

Then he raised his hand, and at the moment the three monsters dissipated into black mist, the three dim cards regained their brilliance.

After confirming that the culprit was a demon, he didn't necessarily have to choose to send them for revival; the reason lay in the card he had stuck on Lapulande's forehead.

Besides that, there was another card, which, while stirring restlessly in the card case, emitted a series of eerie chuckles.

That was Gelizha; His sudden activity was indeed a kind of message.

Inform Aomo that the current threat is absolutely not the fact of a single; rather, it would be better to say that He, who is usually quite calm, his current stirring undoubtedly announces an extraordinarily unusual fact.

"Black sheep, do you know where demons usually are?"

"I don't know."

"Can't you check the forum before answering? You're just an accessory."

"Can a normal accessory go online?"

"Are you a normal accessory?"

【Fine brush enters painting: Wasteland】

"??"

For a moment, both person and sheep stared at the huge screen characters, puzzled.

【Fine brush enters painting: You are trapped in the Wasteland, hurry to find a way out!!】