Nest

Almost instantly, Shen Yu was buried beneath countless slime-covered spiderlings and eggs. He could feel tiny legs crawling over every inch of his skin.

After an indeterminate stretch of time, that unsettling sensation finally stopped, but the darkness before Shen Yu's eyes remained.

He felt around his body and found a cylindrical object at his waist. When he pushed its switch, a beam of white light shot out, illuminating his surroundings.

Only then did Shen Yu realize he was inside a dim cave.

White spiderwebs filled the interior, obscuring his vision like mist. A blanket of silk covered the floor and walls, with the remains of unidentified prey faintly visible within it.

A sound like dripping water echoed around him. Slick fluid on the walls reflected the flashlight's beam; he couldn't tell whether it was venom or bloody water. The air reeked of rot and mold, making his stomach churn.

The Little Knight's gone again? Shen Yu frowned and looked around, but the reassuring white head was nowhere in sight.

The same thing had happened when he entered Old Lady's world. In the end, the Little Knight had forced a way inside.

Could it be that, because the Little Knight is a nearly emotionless Void creature, Abnormalities made of emotions naturally reject the Little Knight and expel the Little Knight from their worlds?

Shen Yu tried to sense their connection, but found nothing. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through his right knee.

"Hss..." Shen Yu lowered his head to inspect his knee. The black substance that had liquefied and hardened still covered it, and was continuing to spread. His flayed hands were still wrapped in bandages, too.

Tch. E.G.O. can give such a huge boost to physical performance, so why doesn't it come with a healing function?

Wait, a healing function? Shen Yu suddenly remembered that E.G.O. Sprouting allowed him to customize his E.G.O.'s appearance and template. Why not give it a try?

So, just as he had previously envisioned his weapon's appearance, Shen Yu began imagining a health-restoring ability for his armor.

However, the idea was rather abstract. After all, the reality Shen Yu had come from had no concept of restoring health like in a game, and his E.G.O. offered no existing reference either.

By the time sweat beaded on Shen Yu's forehead, a notification finally sounded in his mind:

E.G.O. Sprouting:

New attributes added to E.G.O. [Lonesome]:

[Sleepless Night]: Consume X% Sanity to restore (X−10)% Health. Cooldown: X minutes. Cost: The wielder suffers insomnia for X hours.

[Memory]: When Sanity exceeds Y%, consume 1% Sanity every six seconds to restore an equal amount of Health. Cost: While the effect is active, the wielder has a small chance of briefly falling into a daze.

Note: X and Y are both set by the wielder.

I guess that's what you'd expect from armor governed by the mind. Sure, I can customize its functions, but it just has to make life difficult for its wielder by automatically tacking on side effects.

The first one, [Sleepless Night]-charging interest is one thing, but spending 60% Sanity only restores 50% Health, and then I can't sleep for sixty hours?

The second one, [Memory], heals less and takes time, but at least nothing goes to waste, and the cost is lower.

Shen Yu set the second ability's Sanity threshold to 50%. Plenty of Abnormalities could contaminate the mind, after all, so it was best to keep some in reserve.

Once Shen Yu finished adjusting the settings, green motes of light appeared around his wounds, easing the pain.

Let's see if this world has any weak points first, Shen Yu thought, carefully entering the tunnel on his left.

As Shen Yu ventured deeper, silvery-white spider eggs appeared around him. He could vaguely make out spiders moving through the crevices, their scarlet eyes gleaming coldly in the dark.

Piles of pearly, silvery-white spider eggs filled the corners, pulsing steadily.

Strange. Shen Yu frowned as he surveyed his surroundings. In Library of Ruina, Abnormalities also had worlds within books, but they weren't this vast or complex.

This was closer to the Mirror Dungeons in Limbus Company, and both were entered through cracks in the world.

After an unknown amount of time and countless forks in the tunnels, Shen Yu reached a spacious cavern with thousands of spider cocoons hanging overhead.

The cocoons were coated in slime that reflected an eerie light in the darkness as they swayed gently.

"Don't tell me these are all full of people?" Shen Yu raised his flashlight, looking up at the cocoons, each just large enough to hold an adult.

Amid the deathly silence, Shen Yu suddenly heard faint gasps and cries for help. They sounded like human cries of anguish.

To the right? Shen Yu struggled to pull his shoes free of the silk and headed in that direction.

After some searching, Shen Yu quickly singled out three cocoons. Their slime and silk were fresher, and they swayed more vigorously than the others. The sobbing came from the leftmost one.

Just then, a weak, angry voice came from the rightmost cocoon:

"Quit your damn crying! I'm trying to sleep!"

At those words, another cocoon shuddered, and the crying stopped.

Shen Yu shook his head. Why sleep so much while you're alive, brother? You'll have all the time in the world once you're dead.

These must be the employees who got caught yesterday. The Cognitive Filter malfunctioned, the Manager went insane after seeing [Data Deleted], and the resulting scrambled orders sent them to perform Insight work on Spider Bud. Then they were swallowed into this place along with me just now.

A Manager with low Sanity really can make one hell of a mess.

Yeah, I absolutely can't end up like that. I need to become an excellent combat Manager.

With that thought, Shen Yu unwound the bandages around his hands, revealing newly grown skin. He flexed his right knee and found that it, too, had fully healed.

[Memory] really does pull its weight. I nearly tripped a few times on the way, but all my injuries have healed. All that effort I put into designing it wasn't wasted.

Shen Yu tightened his grip on the flashlight. After checking his direction, he took [Lonesome], which he had remodeled into a scythe, from his back. He leaped into the air and used the combat skill [Aerial Thrust], hurtling toward the cocoon on the left.

After severing the silk above it with a single strike, Shen Yu came to a stop on the middle cocoon.

Then he hooked his blade around the silk suspending the middle cocoon and used Dash again, cutting it apart as he shot toward the last one.

When the leftmost cocoon hit the ground, the person inside cried out in pain. Another reprimand came from the cocoon on the right:

"Can you fucking..." Before he could finish, he felt himself suddenly plummeting, then hit the ground with a thud.

Looking at the ground far below him, Shen Yu couldn't help mourning his freshly healed knee.

Yet when Shen Yu landed, although pain shot through his legs, he suffered no serious injury. Puzzled, he thought it over, then suddenly remembered why.

The jumping boost from [Shape of Hornet]!

Damn. Just reaching a 30% Attunement Rate with Hornet gave me introductory combat techniques this powerful. If I get it to 100%, then add EGO Resonance with the Godtuner's help...

The future's looking bright, Shen Yu thought cheerfully. He stepped forward, cut open the first cocoon to fall with Lonesome, and pulled out the crying person inside.

She had two auburn ponytails, flanked by fluffy dog-ear accessories. She was slender and tall, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

She wore white-based E.G.O. that resembled a combat uniform, her left hand pressed over her heart. The white claw gauntlet on her right hand trembled as she blinked her tearful eyes at Shen Yu, her lips quivering.

"Th-thank you. My name's Ayla. I'm from the Intelligence Department..."

"Mm." Shen Yu nodded, then turned and cut open the other two cocoons.

The middle cocoon held a middle-aged man wearing the same E.G.O. as him, [Lonesome].

As for the hot-tempered one, he had yellow hair. His yellowish-brown E.G.O. equipment had a gaping mouth on its abdomen, and his weapon was a matching gauntlet lined with sharp teeth-HE-class E.G.O., [Crying Baby].

"Damn it, what the hell is this place?" the man cursed after looking around.

"That goddamn Manager actually sent me to do Insight work on Spider Bud! Why does he get to stay in a safe office while we have to face those monsters?!"

"Look on the bright side. At least we're still alive," Ayla said, stepping forward to comfort him.

"Bright side, my ass! This is so fucking annoying! Why can't I even die in peace?!"

Frightened by his frenzy, Ayla backed away a few steps and gave the middle-aged man beside her a puzzled look.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man rubbed his chin. "Could be Enkephalin withdrawal. I remember this happening a lot in the Security Department."

Still cursing, the man kicked a stone away. It shot forward, ricocheted off the cave wall, and sent a small spider flying.

The red-eyed spider rolled several times after landing, then immediately got up and let out a strange, low cry.

Almost instantly, countless scarlet eyes lit up in the crevices.

Shen Yu stared at the countless eyes before him, pressed a hand to the man's shoulder, and asked:

"Any interest in joining a soccer team, sir?"