Chapter 246: The Final Missing Ingredient

The underground wind grew fiercer, and the knight cards summoned by Colton swayed precariously in the gale, deep gashes continuously appearing on the heavy plate armor and tower shields of the knights.

Colton said: "If you're going to act, do it now—my skill won't hold much longer. Check on Nameless's condition; if he's under mental control like Mo Ke, we'll have to abandon him."

Veronica nodded: "Understood."

Few who survived to level thirty in the Abyss Game are still fools; everyone knows when to save and when to cut losses.

If the situation is hopeless, no one will choose to sacrifice themselves.

Before moving, Veronica layered herself with a status effect, her entire body radiating a rainbow-hued aura like soap bubbles.

This was her defense skill—normally sufficient to block two attacks from players of the same level—but under the current wind, it might not last thirty seconds.

She then pulled out a palm-sized hollow wooden doll, a type that could nest inside larger ones, known in the real world as Matryoshka dolls; but Veronica's doll could not only nest within each other, but also encase people.

As long as Wu Chang hadn't been swallowed by the Nest and his mind wasn't fully confused, and as long as he didn't resist her rescue, she could use the item to extract him.

Veronica was about to move when she suddenly noticed the underground wind beginning to subside.

Colton said anxiously: "The wind seems to be weakening."

Veronica's face darkened as she sprinted toward the deep pit—wind weakening was not a good sign.

The underground wind within the Disqualified Domain didn't target them specifically; it affected everything indiscriminately. This state of violent wind occurred because Mo Ke's transformed Disqualified Monster hadn't yet fully mastered its power.

Now that the wind had lessened, there was only one possibility: Mo Ke had fully fused with the Nest and could now completely control his power.

A Disqualified Monster in this state became exponentially harder to fight; once targeted, escape would become extremely difficult.

Veronica reached the edge of the pit and looked down—she froze like stone.

Seeing Veronica standing motionless at the pit's edge, Booker and Colton panicked. They chose to save Wu Chang not because their bond was exceptionally strong, but because facing the Nest and the upcoming dungeon storyline, an extra person meant an extra advantage.

How could they fail to save Wu Chang—and now Veronica, the rescuer, had also been possessed? Was the Nest really this sinister?

Booker didn't believe it. He put on his cowboy hat and charged toward Veronica—the hat enhanced his willpower and granted him temporary immunity to certain abnormal states. Saving Wu Chang might be beyond reach, but pulling Veronica back was still possible.

Booker reached the pit's edge, grabbed Veronica, and was about to drag her away when his peripheral vision caught sight of the pit's depths—he froze in place.

Colton, far away, slapped his forehead, thinking: Damn it—how did everyone get affected?

At this point, he could only gamble everything. Acting now still offered a chance to rescue his teammates; if he fled, the entity causing this eerie scene would find him, and he wouldn't even know what happened—leaving him utterly defenseless.

Gathering his courage, he approached the pit's edge and looked down—only then did he understand why Veronica and Booker had frozen.

Below the pit, he saw the Nest fused with Mo Ke. The oppressive aura radiating from it was so suffocating that merely glancing at it felt like a mental assault.

Yet this immensely powerful Nest was now dead—completely, utterly dead.

Its massive body had been torn apart as if by brute force; its internal organs had been flipped outward, scattered everywhere, piled into mounds like small hills.

And Wu Chang, the one they'd come to find, was rummaging through the mound of organs, searching for something.

The Nest's body delivered a mental shock—but what Wu Chang was doing now? That was outright mental contamination.

Colton shook his head hard, confirming he wasn't under some insane illusion, then whispered: "Did he do this?"

Booker swallowed hard and said: "It can't be that the Nest exploded itself."

Without doubt, everything below the pit was Wu Chang's doing.

Because they saw Mo Ke's body—his face filled with horror and confusion, his lower torso fused with the Nest's internal organs, while the unfused parts appeared half-melted.

This didn't look like someone who had resisted.

A single question surfaced simultaneously in all three minds: Was the Wu Chang below still the Wu Chang they knew—or had he been replaced by something else?

Veronica, the first to witness this scene, now recovered from her shock and cautiously asked:

"Nameless, are you alright?"

Wu Chang turned to face them and called out: "If you're not just here to gawk, and actually want to help, I'd feel better."

The three exchanged glances. Veronica held a small doll in her hand, handed the large one to Colton, gave them a signal, then flipped over and jumped into the pit.

The pit was deep, but for players of their level, it posed no threat.

The energy bubbles surrounding Veronica's body provided slight gliding and cushioning as she descended, landing smoothly not far from Wu Chang.

Veronica looked at Wu Chang and asked: "What are you looking for?"

Wu Chang pointed to the dissected Nest: "I'm searching for its offspring—but judging from what I've seen so far, it didn't have an ectopic pregnancy or premature birth."

He stood atop a mass of organ tissue resembling intestines, pointing downward: "It's not here either."

Some bizarre literature claims male pregnancy occurs in the intestines—but the dungeon's rules haven't become that bizarre yet.

Confirming that everything inside the Nest had been removed, Wu Chang stopped wasting time: "Let's go up."

Unlike Veronica, who floated effortlessly upward, Wu Chang had yet to master flight—he could only leap with both feet, springing out of the pit in a single jump.

It lacked elegance, but it was fast—truly fast.

Back in the underground lab, the group stared at Wu Chang with strange expressions—the atmosphere was awkward.

Booker couldn't hold back: "Brother Nameless, what happened down there… was that you?"

Wu Chang nodded: "Fighting the Nest is like fighting Prime Armaments—once you break through that special energy, their physical strength isn't actually that high."

Booker rolled his eyes: I believe you, sure.

They stared at the Electromagnetic Controller on Wu Chang's arm—you're wearing a Prime Armament, not an Infinity Gauntlet. How could this tiny device defeat the Nest? If that were true, Mo Ke wouldn't have panicked so badly.

According to Mo Ke, the Nest's energy intensity was beyond even large-scale Prime Armaments.

Besides, given the Nest's size, even if its flesh were weak, how weak could it really be? Just by its sheer bulk, the Nest could easily overpower Booker and the other two.

Seeing Wu Chang had no intention of telling the truth, Colton cut straight to the point.

"Nameless, you should know the most vital element among teammates is mutual trust. Without that foundation, a team becomes a chain binding its members."

"With your strength, you wouldn't be unknown in the Wasteland Realm—who are you really?"

The words had gone this far, and with Lei Mengde's thread temporarily concluded, he no longer bothered to hide:

"I don't reveal my name because it's for your own good. My name outside is probably familiar to you—especially you three. You've likely heard it many times recently."

"Your organization just issued a statement declaring war on me."

Buck, Colton, and Veronica: "Huh?!"

Twelve hours remained before the press conference.

Hymn Tower, top floor, Chairman's office.

Schultz sat by the window, the third movement of Beethoven's Fifth playing on the phonograph, as he stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of his office, looking down over Wierdo City.

The place his gaze settled on was precisely the City Hall building.

A faint, ambiguous mockery floated at the corner of Schultz's mouth as he murmured to himself: "He thinks I don't know he's an undercover agent, thinks that with a little trick like that he can stop my plan."

"If I hadn't let you in, how would the Federation grow guilty and timid, how would they let me act as I please?" Ding.

A notification chime sounded from the desk, and Peggy's voice came through it.

"Chairman, Mr. Jeffrey wishes to see you."

"Send him in."

A few minutes later, a gaunt, sallow-faced middle-aged man wearing round-frame glasses and a white lab coat walked into the room.

Jeffrey, technical consultant of Hymn Company, Grade Nine partner—his hand was in the R&D of high-energy weapons and Primordial Matter armaments alike.

He and Hughes of the Psionic Excitation Department were both prodigies who rose to fame young; both likewise fell into the wrong path because of material things, sank deep into scandal, and in the end were ruined and never recovered; and both likewise received Schultz's help at the lowest point of their lives.

Except Jeffrey was even more of a genius than Hughes—one of the few in Hymn Company who could keep up with Schultz's thinking and know what Schultz was trying to do.

Precisely because of this, many things inconvenient for Mo Ke to do, Schultz handed off to Jeffrey.

Jeffrey's respect for Schultz came from the heart; he first bowed in greeting, then said:

"Mr. Schultz, everything is ready."

!

As Jeffrey spoke, he switched on the office's large screen, which played several clips of footage—the content being Lei Mengde and Wu Chang's group kidnapping Hymn Company executives, then injecting them with Degenerate-monster conversion serum, turning them into Degenerate monsters to destroy power stations and other public facilities.

Once this intelligence was released, public opinion would reverse completely.

The Hymn Hunters would no longer be civilian heroes fighting capital, but a band of crazed villains who possessed evil technology capable of turning humans into Degenerate monsters—and who used this technology to attack the whole world.

Hymn Company, meanwhile, would be reframed as the one that, in order to save the world from these lunatics, developed high-energy weapons and Primordial Matter armaments, only to earn their hatred as a result, and then suffered a string of assassinations against its management.

But none of that was the most important part. What mattered was that, so long as one could prove the Degenerate monsters that attacked the power company, communications company, and other places today were the work of the Hymn Hunters, then the Degenerate monsters set to appear next would naturally be their handiwork as well.

Hymn Company could then smoothly complete the cut.

Schultz gazed at the footage on the screen, well satisfied with both the content and the clarity—in Wierdo City, nothing escaped their eyes.

In Wierdo City, he was nearly omniscient.

If omniscience and omnipotence made one a god, then he would lead humanity to become gods.

Listening to the bright and cheerful fourth movement of the Fifth playing on the phonograph, Schultz squared his chest, adjusted his collar, turned his head, and said with a smile to Jeffrey:

"Be happy—we are about to welcome the victory that belongs to us."

The sallowness did not leave Jeffrey's face; he did not care about his own victory—to be able to bring Schultz victory was his victory.

Jeffrey lowered his head to look at Schultz's desk: the countdown that should have shown thirty-plus had somehow changed to 1.

Too many things these past days had accelerated it—Mo Ke's death, and the Hymn Hunters' uprising had directly pushed everything ahead to its climax.

He bowed once more and said: "I'll go gather everyone for the meeting right away."

After Jeffrey left, Schultz connected with Peggy and said: "Bring Xiao En up."

Ten minutes later, Wu Chang walked into Schultz's office, doing his best to control his expression and appear bewildered.

By then, the True Self side had already discovered that the thing the Mother Nest was carrying had been taken.

Mo Ke, as security consultant and a Grade Nine-and-a-half partner, had known nothing from start to finish about the thing inside the Mother Nest, from its appearance to its removal—who could pull off such a feat went without saying.

The arrangements on the Mother Nest side should have been a success for Schultz; combined with his earlier premonition that something big was coming, he couldn't shake the feeling that Schultz's invitation right now was like a Hongmen Banquet.

Schultz looked at Wu Chang's straightened back, a gratified smile appearing on his face, and said:

"I hear your Psionic Excitation ability is quite interesting—right after the experiment it threw the whole floor into chaos."

Wu Chang said, a touch embarrassed: "I didn't warn them in advance."

Schultz said: "Show me your ability."

At a wave of Wu Chang's hand, a man-sized Glutton Ant appeared before the two of them; though the Glutton Ant looked small in volume, it genuinely possessed a Degenerate Domain, and its killing power was in no way inferior.

If Schultz bore him ill intent, the Glutton Ant could serve as an unexpected hidden move.

Schultz examined the Glutton Ant projected from solidified void, his eyes glinting, his tone unusually stirred.

"Perfect, simply too perfect—worthy of Grade Nine."

Wu Chang asked, puzzled: "What Grade Nine?"

Schultz shook his head and did not explain; he said: "Put your ability away. Listen—your ability is special; unless necessary, from now on never reveal it lightly."

Wu Chang nodded, half understanding—what did Schultz mean by this? Had he called him here just to see his ability?

Schultz went to the bookshelf at the very back of the office, scanned his face to open a hidden door, behind which was a private elevator.

"Come with me."

Wu Chang sensed no danger from inside the elevator, so without hesitation he followed Schultz in.

There was only one floor button inside the elevator: Floor 100.

Above Hymn Company, there was actually a hidden floor.

Schultz brought Wu Chang into Floor 100 and said: "You sit here and wait for me; I have some things to handle, I'll be back soon."

Saying so, without waiting for Wu Chang's question, he left on his own.

Coming down from Floor 100, Schultz went straight to Floor 99, where over a thousand people had already gathered—all participants in the Hymn Project, many of them also shareholders of Hymn Company.

Among them were many familiar faces, such as Morez, Cohen, and Cavin, as well as the owners of the Orleans Estate.

They had all come here to witness the completion of the Hymn Project.

Seeing Schultz come in, the crowd broke into applause—warm and unflagging.

Among them, even a scientist sitting in a wheelchair who could only type with his fingers pressed the keys, producing a clack-clack-clack sound.

Why is there a separate key that makes a clack-clack-clack sound? The answer is that it was left over from use on Loli Island.

Schultz looked at the crowd and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, although the incident was sudden and may have felt a bit rushed, I believe none of you ever mind victory arriving uninvited."

The moment these words were spoken, it once again triggered applause from the crowd.

Schultz said, "Tonight, we are going to compose a hymn of praise belonging to humanity, forge a staircase by which man ascends to god, and open the chapter of the future!"

At this point, facing the expectant gazes of the crowd, Schultz suddenly shifted his tone.

"However, to complete the Hymn Plan, we are still missing one little ingredient, and we need everyone's help."

Morez asked, "Mr. Schultz, we've already come this far — whatever you need, just say the word."

A faint smile appeared on Schultz's face. He clapped his hands, and Jeffrey led people in rolling a massive transport crate into the conference room.

The transport crate was opened, revealing a transparent glass jar; suspended in the nutrient fluid filling the glass jar was a grotesque humanoid embryo.

"I need to borrow a tiny bit of sin from each of you."

(End of this chapter)