E.G.O. Manifestation

"Um, are you really not an Abnormality?" the middle-aged man asked quietly as he supported Shen Yu.

"If you really think I am, should I beat all of you up to live up to your expectations?"

"No, no, I was just asking." The middle-aged man gave an awkward smile, studied Shen Yu, and swallowed.

He was a young man just a moment ago. How did he suddenly get this old?

"Slow down. My back." Shen Yu hissed, then sat down against the wall and began coughing violently.

Shen Yu pressed his right hand against a stone. After struggling to catch his breath, he canceled his E.G.O. manifestation.

The yellowed book writhed, turning back into the original scythe. His severely aged body gradually recovered, returning to its original appearance.

But the E.G.O. he wore did not change back. Everything before him remained pitch-black, and then a message rang out in his mind:

Cost of E.G.O. manifestation: loss of both eyes.

Of course there was a damned catch. Shen Yu smiled bitterly, then suddenly heard an accusing voice ahead.

"What the hell are you?" The blond man approached from the side, pointing his gauntlet, with its enormous maw, at Shen Yu.

"Hey, hey, calm down." The middle-aged man hurried forward and pushed the other man's hand down. "He saved us."

"Didn't you see what happened? Could a normal person do that? Aren't you wearing the same E.G.O. as him? Can you do that too?" the man shouted.

"Well..." The middle-aged man glanced at his own combat suit, then at Shen Yu's old man's clothes. He frowned in thought.

Right, we're both wearing EGO Solitude. Why can he do all that? Maybe he really is an Abnormality in disguise.

"Have you heard of E.G.O. manifestation?" Shen Yu asked casually, leaning against the stone wall.

"E.G.O. manifestation?" The middle-aged man scratched his head, feeling as though he had heard the term somewhere before. Behind him, the blond man's expression suddenly sharpened.

But Shen Yu could not see that at the moment. He simply continued:

"E.G.O. is created from an Abnormality's core. Its power grows with its wielder's 'heart.' The moment we touch it, we already understand how to use it. I imagine you've experienced that yourselves."

"That's right, but how does that explain what you just did?" the blond man demanded, though his hands unconsciously relaxed a little.

"Of course there's an explanation." Shen Yu chuckled.

"When ordinary people use E.G.O., they're only putting on someone else's shell. They can only draw on a small fraction of its power."

"All I did was manifest E.G.O.'s true form and bring out a little of its potential."

Bring out its potential!

The middle-aged man and the blond man suddenly felt their hearts clench. Their bodies trembled involuntarily as they recalled the legend an old employee had told them about-the one who had truly unleashed E.G.O.'s potential, the head of the Disciplinary Department, the former-

Red Mist.

"That's..." The middle-aged man gaped blankly, looking at the blond man beside him, whose breathing had grown rapid.

"Besides, if I really wanted to hurt you, why would I have gone to all that trouble to save you?" Shen Yu snorted dismissively and cut himself with the scythe to restore his sanity.

"S-sorry, I... I just..." The blond man bit his lip and lowered his gauntlets, unconsciously tugging at his collar. Then he suddenly noticed Shen Yu's hollow eyes.

He felt his chest constrict, and a powerful wave of guilt washed over him.

Damn it, he risked his life to save me, and I actually... actually... I deserve to die!

Suddenly, the man raised his right hand and slapped himself hard. A handprint quickly swelled on his face, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

At the same time, he had found an outlet for his manic emotions.

He bent forward, raised his right hand, and slapped himself viciously in the face. He kept going until his face was badly swollen and teeth flew out with his blood.

"What's that loud noise? A percussion instrument?" Shen Yu wondered. Green motes of light appeared in his eye sockets, and his withered eyeballs regained their vitality. He could sense light again.

When Shen Yu's vision returned, the first thing he saw was the blond man cursing furiously and desperately slapping himself.

"What's he..." Shen Yu looked at the middle-aged man and pointed at him.

"Oh, him? Probably Enkephalin withdrawal. They get really agitated at times like this. In a little while, he'll..."

Halfway through his explanation, the middle-aged man suddenly turned his head and pointed at Shen Yu's eyes in confusion.

"How did your eyes recover? There's no Regeneration Reactor here."

"Oh, that." Shen Yu pointed at his eyes. "Didn't I say I could manifest E.G.O.? I just added a little healing capability while I was at it."

"I see. So that's how..." The middle-aged man smiled awkwardly, glanced at his own E.G.O., then at the countless spider corpses ahead. He felt dazed.

How could the difference between people be so enormous?

"Huh? Yuh awrigh'?" The blond man stopped slapping himself when he heard that and hurriedly turned toward Shen Yu. He struggled to pull his grotesquely swollen mouth into a smile, exposing his missing teeth, and giggled foolishly.

What the hell. Shen Yu frowned at the sight. I have to deal with the Enkephalin abuse problem once I get back.

At some point, Ayla had also woken up. She looked at the blond man's swollen face in confusion.

"By the way, how much sanity damage did you take just now?" Shen Yu asked them.

Even now, he could not muster any strength after using E.G.O. manifestation. He needed to confirm how powerful it was.

The middle-aged man looked at his wristwatch and reported:

"About 25 points."

Twenty-five points. Shen Yu's mouth twitched. So I traded both eyes and all my stamina for one basic attack from the Athlete's Foot Star.

No. I absolutely have to get a set of ALEPH-Class E.G.O. someday.

Afterward, the four of them sat together and discussed how to get out.

Shen Yu also learned who the three of them were. The middle-aged man was Jonah, and both he and Ayla belonged to the Intelligence Department. The other man, the blond one, was Sam from the Security Department.

"Um, do you know what this place is?" Jonah asked Shen Yu first.

"An Abnormality's mental space," Shen Yu replied.

"What?"

"Put simply, we've entered an Abnormality's dream."

"Then how do we get out? Kill ourselves?"

"Probably not." Shen Yu shook his head and glanced at the spotlight in his hand. Since objects from reality could be brought into this world, death probably carried over too.

"Then... are we trapped here?" Ayla gazed at the distant spider silk, then lowered her head and stroked her clawed gauntlets.

"No, no, no." Shen Yu wagged a finger. "Do you remember the Mother Spider in [Spider Nest]?"

"Yes."

"Cripple her, or just kill her outright."

"The Mother Spider? Are you kidding?!" Jonah's face instantly turned deathly pale. His pupils contracted sharply in terror, and his hands involuntarily clenched into fists.

"This isn't a game! Just looking at her makes people mentally collapse! How could we possibly fight her?"

"There's another way, right? There has to be..." Ayla hugged her slender arms, trembling uncontrollably. She bit her lip and looked at Shen Yu with tear-filled eyes, hoping to hear another solution.

Behind them, the blond Sam froze like a statue, then suddenly burst into laughter. It echoed through the empty cavern before stopping abruptly. A trace of a twisted smile remained on his face, his eyes confused and unfocused.

"The Mother Spider? Kill the Mother Spider? Haha... What a joke... I might as well take a few more pills and die quietly..."

Uh, is that thing really so terrifying? Shen Yu looked at the three people before him, all on the verge of collapse. Is this the kind of terror an instant-kill mechanic inspires?

Wait, my [Hornet's Protection] can even resist mental corruption at this level!

Damn. Maybe I should find some time to see what [Data Deleted] actually is?

"All right." Shen Yu spread his hands, brushed the dust off himself, and picked up the E.G.O. from the ground. "I'll go deal with the Mother Spider first. Wait here for a bit."

With that, he turned and headed out through the tunnel, leaving the three of them staring at his back.

Jonah's eyes widened and his mouth hung slightly open. His face was filled with disbelief as he watched Shen Yu walk away.

Ayla covered her mouth with both hands, tears welling in her eyes. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she watched Shen Yu leave, her gaze full of pity and distress.

The blond Sam stood frozen in place, the twisted smile still lingering on his face. He stared blankly at Shen Yu, his eyes confused and dazed.

Although the three reacted differently, their thoughts were much the same: this man was doomed.

By then, Shen Yu had already walked some distance away and was considering his options.

When he had been trapped in [Old Lady]'s mental space before, Little Knight had only found him after he repeatedly attacked her.

Perhaps attacking the main entity would destabilize this mental space, allowing Little Knight to find an opening to invade.

As things stood, even if Little Knight could not arrive, defeating the Abnormality was his only way out. Tch, but this is a mental space, after all. Maybe disrupting its mind is the right approach.

Wait, disrupting its mind?

Shen Yu returned to the chamber of hanging spider cocoons and approached a newly hatched spider. He stared into its tiny eyes, then kicked it away and began bouncing on the spider silk.

The webs overhead creaked and swayed, while the white mist covering the ground began to churn. The spider silk wound tighter and tighter around Shen Yu's legs, binding them firmly until he could barely move at all.

An enormous, indistinct black shape approached from afar and revealed itself fully before Shen Yu. It was a gigantic spider!

Coarse black bristles covered her entire body. Her eight thick, long legs moved slowly, making heavy scraping sounds against the ground.

Most terrifying of all were the countless blood-red, ruby-like eyes covering her face, densely packed together-over a hundred of them.

The spider approached step by slow, heavy step. Her countless blood-red eyes fixed on Shen Yu, gleaming with cold malice. She opened her enormous maw, her sharp fangs glinting in the darkness as she gave off the stench of rotting flesh.

At the sight, the E.G.O. in Shen Yu's hand writhed and transformed into a cylindrical object. He aimed it at those hundreds of crimson eyes.

E.G.O. [Lonesome] (sanity)

Template: Cannon

Attack power: 1-2, attack speed: extremely slow, range: long (15)

Description: Super EX Spotlight. Deals next to no damage, but can inflict additional sanity damage on beings that dwell in a world of darkness.

Shen Yu chuckled, silently closed his eyes, and pushed the switch.

The dark cavern instantly became as bright as day.

Mother Spider: screamed indescribably.