Utter madness

"Watch out!"

Seeing Zhou Ze frozen in place as the attack bore down on him, as though paralyzed by fear, Liu Xin instinctively made almost the same choice Zhou Ze had. He lunged forward and shoved Zhou Ze aside with all his strength.

Boom...

The giant snail slammed into the metal wall again, the tremendous impact shaking the entire containment chamber.

Unfortunately, Liu Xin was nowhere near Zhou Ze in either reaction speed or athletic ability.

Even though he had moved to dodge immediately, the giant snail's pseudopod still grazed his lower body as he evaded it, coating him in that horrific corrosive mucus.

In an instant, Liu Xin felt an excruciating burning sensation, as though countless red-hot knives were ravaging his body. The pain was so intense that he could not even scream. He could only open his mouth wide and convulse in silence.

When Zhou Ze came to his senses, he found himself lying facedown on the floor, searing pain coursing through one side of his body as though it had been scorched by flames.

As his awareness gradually returned, Liu Xin's figure, lying a short distance away, came into focus.

Pale-faced, Liu Xin turned to look at him and said weakly, "You saved your buddy once... now your buddy's saved you once..."

Zhou Ze's blank gaze slowly shifted downward, only to find that Liu Xin's lower body had vanished completely. In its place lay a dark slurry of mangled flesh, while blood and entrails spilled from his severed torso.

Noticing Zhou Ze's gaze, Liu Xin seemed to realize something. With great effort, he raised his head to look down at himself.

After seeing the horrifying state of his lower body, he fell heavily back to the floor, dizzy and faint.

"Heh..." He gave a bleak laugh and murmured, "Why do I have to die when it's my turn? Guess you're the lucky one..."

Zhou Ze's lips moved soundlessly. He struggled to his feet and staggered toward the young man lying nearby.

"Oh, Zhou Ze..."

Liu Xin suddenly parted his lips slightly, his hollow eyes staring at the dark red ceiling.

"If you make it out alive, remember... remember to visit my mom and dad for me..."

"Tell them... tell them I love them... that I'm sorry..."

"My home is... it's..."

His voice stopped abruptly.

The light of life faded from his eyes, leaving only deathly stillness.

Zhou Ze gazed at the young man at his feet, whose expression had frozen in death. Slowly, he crouched down and gently closed the young man's half-open eyes.

Only after a long while did he raise his head again. His icy gaze passed over the remains and wreckage to settle on the giant snail in the distance. Using its pseudopods, it was slowly pulling itself out of the enormous crater it had smashed into the wall.

If my good luck is paid for with other people's suffering...

Then...

"Now... has the price been paid?" Zhou Ze's voice was low and hoarse, with a barely perceptible tremor.

"It seems you've realized it... but it's still not enough..."

Old Yang's figure slowly materialized before Zhou Ze. His face was pale, yet his cheeks bore a sickly flush. Beneath the fabric covering his abdomen, a mass of hideously distorted human faces bulged outward, seemingly roaring in frenzy. The sight was chilling.

"If I could keep holding on...

You would trip over Liu Xin's corpse while dodging that snail's attack and survive in dramatic fashion. And the snail would be contained again just before its next attack touched you...

This experiment would provide Dai Yong'an with crucial evidence, allowing him to confirm the anomalous phenomena surrounding you..."

Old Yang's voice grew fainter. "Unfortunately... there are no ifs..."

"Why?"

Old Yang gave an ugly smile. "You haven't paid any price for Alice's gift, have you?

All this time, I've been feeding on nothing but portions of your cognition and your negative emotions. I'm already utterly weakened...

Sealed within you is that chaotic, disordered supreme divinity, formed from different thoughts and desires... In my current state, merely holding it at bay is my limit. How could I possibly withstand the influence of another divine entity on top of that..."

At that moment, the giant snail had fully extracted itself from the crater in the wall behind Old Yang. Its pseudopods swayed in the air a few times before it locked onto Zhou Ze's position again.

"I've deceived Them once, but clearly there won't be a second time...

Since you cannot pay the price, you yourself can naturally become the price...

Remember, powers of the mind are born of the mind, and they perish with it. Don't lose yourself..."

Before he finished speaking, the giant snail shot through Old Yang's body toward Zhou Ze at a speed almost too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Boom...

With a piercing blast, the entire containment chamber seemed to be torn apart by an invisible force.

Dust filled the air, and metal fragments scattered like a torrential downpour. Under that terrifying impact, the soccer-ball-sized giant snail hurtled backward like a cannonball and slammed into the ceiling. The sturdy alloy plate buckled instantly, spiderweb cracks spreading rapidly from the point of impact.

Several translucent, dark red tendrils suddenly emerged from the dust. Slender and supple, their surfaces covered in tiny, spiked suckers, the tentacles writhed as though alive. They swept aside the dust and smoke, revealing Zhou Ze, who barely looked human anymore.

His abdomen was covered in distorted faces, each screaming silently, their eyes filled with endless agony and madness. Translucent tentacles kept pouring from their mouths.

They extended at astonishing speed, weaving and coiling together until they wrapped Zhou Ze's entire body tightly, leaving only a head whose original features remained barely recognizable.

Zhou Ze's expression was now twisted to the extreme. Pain and frenzy intertwined, making his facial muscles twitch uncontrollably, sometimes hideous, sometimes blank. The veins beneath his skin stood out clearly, writhing like tiny snakes.

A thick black liquid continuously spilled from his slightly open mouth. It dripped down his chin, only to be absorbed the instant it touched the tentacles, vanishing without a trace.

Murmurs and whispers from the void echoed in his mind, like countless tiny insects gnawing at his sanity, dragging his long-suppressed rage and despair toward the abyss of madness.

Unable to restrain himself, Zhou Ze threw back his head and let out a beastlike roar, filled with pain, fury, and an indescribable frenzy.

Yet the giant snail on the ceiling seemed oblivious to the change in its prey. Its body contracted, then abruptly stretched out like a spring as it lunged at him again.

The next moment, the snail's body, far heavier than its size should have allowed, was suspended in midair.

The tentacles covering "Zhou Ze," who stood at the center of the containment chamber, had shot out with lightning speed and wrapped precisely around the lunging snail. Those translucent, dark red tentacles seemed forged from steel, binding the bizarre creature firmly.

The giant snail struggled frantically. Its barbed pseudopods lashed and tore at the tentacles as it sprayed copious amounts of viscous secretion.

The translucent mucus sizzled on the tentacles, sending up wisps of smoke, but every wound it corroded healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, one tentacle rose high into the air. The tiny suckers on its surface contracted and condensed into countless fine, sharp barbs. Like an enormous spear, it plunged toward the giant snail's exposed flesh.

With a wet squelch, the tentacle sank deep into the snail's body and kept churning inside it.

The giant snail convulsed violently and let out a shrill hiss. Mucus gushed from the wound, forming a lethal mist that spread throughout the containment chamber.

The mucus splattering onto the floor and walls immediately began eating through the sturdy alloy. The hiss of acid mingled with the sound of corroding metal, forming a chilling symphony.

The entire containment chamber began shaking violently, groaning under the strain as though it might collapse at any moment.

A shrill alarm cut through the chaos inside the containment chamber, echoing throughout the space.

"Warning! Severe structural damage detected in Biological Containment Zone 23! Site 108 will enter lockdown in five minutes..."