I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 555 Two-Level Reversal
Night, on the beachhead, deep within the church of the Mechanicus.

Unlike the hustle and bustle of the outside restoration work, a more muffled and unsettling sound echoed within this resurrection hall, constructed of cold rock and massive steam pipes… It was the slightly dry and weak roar of several core “sacred steam resurrection machines” in operation.

Several mechanical priest players, dressed in robes stained with oil, were gathered around the largest resurrection machine, scratching their heads and whispering among themselves.

"What to do?"

"Cold salad."

"We still have fuel, but we're out of meat. What are we going to do..."

To be honest, even the scarecrow, the church bishop, was scratching his head at this problem, finding it quite perplexing.

How much fish is left in storage?

"Enough for twenty full-body reshapings and one hundred partial body restorations."

"Not enough!"

The scarecrow sighed.

"What's the situation with the fishing team now?"

"They're still drifting on the sea in their lifeboats, but I don't think they'll catch much fish tonight... They've been fishing all day, with cannons going banging and banging. The bigger fish have all been scared away, and even if they manage to catch the small fish and shrimp, there won't be much meat on them."

At this moment, someone finally couldn't hold back any longer. He pointed outside the main hall and made the suggestion again.

“We’re almost out of the meat from the livestock we brought from Bagnia… but aren’t there still piles of meat outside, by the woods, and in front of the position?”

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was already quite clear.

The hall fell silent for a moment, with only the groaning of the resurrection machine. Several mechanical priests turned to look at the scarecrow.

At this point, the scarecrow had to seriously consider the proposal, and when the time came, he hesitated.

"But, wouldn't using demon flesh as a resurrection material cause problems..."

"We'll ask the resurrected individuals for their opinions before using it. If they have no objections, we'll use it; if they do, we won't. We'll just wait until we've gathered enough common materials before resurrecting them. That should work!"

The scarecrow bishop remained silent for a moment, then nodded vigorously.

"so be it."

……

Once the decision was made, the players of the Cult of Mechanism immediately sprang into action. They organized a makeshift corpse-collecting team and, under the cover of darkness and the light of the torches at their stronghold, cautiously made their way outside the defensive wall to begin collecting the relatively intact corpses, especially those of low-ranking demons.

Lesser demons and winged demons became the main targets because they had the most corpses. Lesser demons were everywhere when you looked up, while winged demons were scattered all over the beach because of the daytime air raid on the logistics base. Among these demon corpses, occasionally some limbs of berserker demons were also dragged back.

The small, hastily modified decomposition furnace in the corner of the main hall roared to life.

The demon's corpse was thrown into it, and after initial high-temperature steam washing and physical vibration, it finally produced a dark-colored, viscous, pasty biomass that emitted a strange smell of burnt and sulfur.

The first player to voluntarily try using the new resurrection material soon appeared.

That guy had the ID "Fearless Little Strong," and he was unfortunately killed in action during the afternoon's artillery cover retreat.

As his phantom soul coalesced in front of the resurrection machine, the mechanical priest directly informed him of his current situation and the available packages.

"What? Made of demon flesh? Holy crap, this is amazing! I'll use it... Hurry up, I still need to go out and slay demons!"

Xiao Qiang, who was not afraid of death, agreed almost without hesitation, his tone even carrying a hint of curiosity and excitement.

As the revival machine trembled and roared more violently than ever before, seemingly with a hint of pain, a plume of steam mixed with the smell of sulfur spewed out from the exhaust port.

The fearless cockroach's new body spewed out from the steam engine's switch and landed on the soft cloth cushion.

When he opened his eyes and stood up, he didn't seem to have changed much in appearance, except that his skin had a faint, unhealthy dark red tinge.

He stretched his arms and legs and grinned.

"I don't feel anything? I just feel... a little restless?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he suddenly and without warning slammed his fist into the stone wall beside him, making a dull thud.

"Uh... I seem to be a bit too strong? And... things look a little red?"

He shook his slightly stinging hand, a flash of violence he himself didn't realize crossed his eyes. Before the mechanical priests could ask him any questions, he yelled, "I'm going to kill demons!" and rushed out of the hall.

"This kid is so impatient, what kind of demon meat did you give him?"

"A demon that resembles a hybrid of a vulture and a human..."

“Flomo, then that’s not surprising.”

Immediately afterwards, the second and third players also chose to use Demon Flesh to resurrect.

The results began to show diversity.

One player, who primarily resurrected using the flesh and blood of lesser demons, became unusually excited and restless after resurrecting. He kept making meaningless hissing noises and wanted to pounce on and bite anything that moved. His teammates, both amused and exasperated, forcibly dragged him away to help him adapt to his new state.

Another player, who used the mixed berserker flesh and blood, seemed to have swelled up in size, with bulging muscles, but his emotions were extremely unstable. He would glare angrily and let out a low growl from his throat if he was provoked by the slightest provocation. He needed other players to constantly soothe him in order to barely maintain his rationality.

There was another unlucky guy who seemed to have used the flesh and blood of some unknown demon. After being resurrected, his eyes became glazed, he flirted with the air, and his speech became incoherent. His companions asked him to temporarily sit in a corner and reflect on his actions, citing that he "needed to calm down."

The most outrageous one was a player with the ID "Flying Dream," who insisted on using the collected Winged Demon flesh and blood to revive.

After being resurrected, a pair of shrunken, bat-like fleshy wings actually grew on his back. He excitedly tried to flap them, but could only barely lift himself half a meter off the ground and fell down after only a few seconds, almost knocking over the steam pipe next to him.

Nevertheless, he was still so excited that he danced around, believing that this was "the beginning of a hidden profession".

In no time, many players with strange behaviors and unique physical characteristics appeared on the beachhead. Some had increased strength but were irritable, some had increased speed but had difficulty controlling their direction, and some had become more sensitive but were accompanied by auditory and visual hallucinations... The entire position seemed to have become a large, chaotic observation field of mutated creatures.

When the Pirate King received the news and emerged from his tent to look at the group of strange-looking players whose fighting spirit seemed even higher, his lips twitched a few times before finally letting out a helpless sigh.

"Damn it... as long as I can kill demons, let them do whatever they want..."

The Scarecrow Bishop stood at the church entrance, looking at the players outside who had been "rejuvenated" by the demon's flesh and blood, his feelings complicated.

The result seems to be not bad... but it doesn't seem that great either.

If the elves of Mooncrown City were to see this scene, I wonder what they would think.

The Scarecrow Bishop's assessment that "the result was neither bad nor particularly good" clearly underestimated the players' enthusiasm for the new version of the body.

The players on the battlefield, who had just experienced the "resurrection of demonic flesh" and gained all sorts of strange enhancements, or rather, side effects, were anything but idle.

The frustration of their crushing defeat during the day, the unfamiliar restlessness brought on by their new bodies, and the curiosity and desire for more powerful materials all combined to make it impossible for them to stay comfortably in their relatively safe positions. Someone shouted first.

"Brothers, we're just killing time anyway, how about we sneak out into the woods in the dark and snag some high-quality stuff?"

This proposal immediately received a large response from many mutated players.

"Let's go together... I feel like I could tear a berserker demon apart with my bare hands right now!"

"I smell something even more fragrant in the woods!"

"Get some succubus stuff, make one for my brother too!"

"My wings need more Winged Demon Essence to evolve!"

So, on this very night, while the Shanghai Pirate King was busy preparing his military and the elves were focused on clearing the corrupt altars from the city, a night hunting party composed of dozens of mutated players, completely undisciplined, charged into the Crystal Song Forest under the cover of night like wild dogs that had broken free of their reins.

……

Grossat, a berserker demon under the command of Lord Grossat, was patrolling the edge of Crystal Songwood near the human camp with several lesser demons.

Its simple mind was filled with a craving for flesh and blood and a fondness for those annoying "locusts".

It enjoyed killing sprees during the day, although the final counterattacks of those humans were sometimes troublesome.

The woodland was exceptionally quiet at night, with only the faint rustling of decaying plants and the distant, faint rumble of magic coming from the direction of Mooncrown City.

Grossat loved the atmosphere; it made it feel like the master of this land, as if it had returned to its home in the abyss.

Just then, a very faint sound, unlike the flapping of birds' wings, came from overhead.

Grossat raised his head warily, his burning pupils scanning the night sky shrouded in fel energy clouds, but he saw nothing.

Perhaps it was some kind of corrupted nocturnal creature, it thought.

However, the next second...

"For even cooler wings!"

A strange cry rang out from the side and above.

Grossat turned his head sharply and saw a human with ridiculous fleshy wings on his back clumsily scrambling down from the branches of a twisted ancient tree. In his hand, instead of a common musket, he held a short spear that was clearly coated with snake venom and gleamed with an abnormal luster, which was thrust straight into his eye socket.

"Roar!"

Grossat was both surprised and furious, and swung his thick arm to block.

It recognized them—these were the Bagnia! How dare they launch a nighttime attack?
And this... can fly?
The short spear grazed its calloused skin, leaving a trail of sparks and a slight stinging sensation.

The toxins seem to work slowly, but are extremely insulting.

Before Grossat could launch a counterattack, the bushes on the side suddenly exploded, and a human with dark red skin and bloodshot eyes rushed out like a madman, without dodging or avoiding, and directly crashed into its waist and abdomen.

"boom!"

The dull thud made Grossat stumble.

Wow, that's some incredible strength! Something's wrong with this human!

After the human collided with it, it seemed a little dizzy, but it grinned, revealing bloodshot teeth, and let out a low growl that was hard to understand. It then pounced on it again, attacking it wildly with its fists, its headbutts, and even its teeth.

This is not normal fighting style at all!

"Hiss..."

"The meat is fresh!"

At the same time, several other figures emerged from the shadows and pounced on the lesser demons led by Grossat with astonishing speed.

One of them moved so fast it left afterimages as it bit into the throat of a small demon, while the other hissed excitedly and scrambled up the back of another small demon, scratching it frantically with its long, sharp nails.

Chaos, utter chaos!

Grossat swung its giant axe, trying to cut down the mad human who was clinging to it, but the opponent was exceptionally agile and strong, and occasionally, when it parried, the impact would make Grossat's arm go numb.

What annoyed it even more was that the flying human would occasionally swoop down from tricky angles and harass it with short spears or something else. Although it couldn't cause fatal injuries, it greatly interfered with its movements.

These Bagnians... what's going on with them?

They have changed a lot. Not only have their weapons and tactics changed, but they themselves have also exuded an evil aura. They seem like corrupted and depraved demons, yet they are completely different.

"Take down the big one before it calls for reinforcements!"

Humans were calling out in their language... Grossat couldn't understand them, but it could understand human emotions and thus realize what they were saying.

From this sentence, Grossat realized that he was surrounded, and that these enemies were far more troublesome than he had expected.

It tried to roar to summon the nearby patrol, but the madman charged at it again, grabbing its axe-wielding arm tightly. Meanwhile, another human took the opportunity to raise a plunger-like object and stab it in the thigh.

"boom……"

The violent explosion and shockwave knocked Grossat to the ground. It felt a tearing pain in its leg as its keratinous skin was torn open, and dark red demon blood gushed out.

Did Grossat really need to shout after such an explosion?

It struggled to get up, but saw the dark red-skinned madman approaching again, his eyes burning with a destructive desire purer than any demon, devoid of any rationality.

Meanwhile, the other humans had quickly dealt with the lesser demons and were dragging their corpses around, their eyes... as if they were appraising a pile of materials and goods that were about to be acquired.

Fear, a long-lost fear stemming from biological instinct, surged for the first time into Grossat's heart, which was filled with chaotic will.

These are not the humans it recognizes; they are... something else!
Finally, the heavy blow landed on its head, and in the last moment before its consciousness plunged into darkness, Grossat heard the excited howls of the humans, as if celebrating a bountiful harvest.

"Quickly, quickly, drag it away, drag it away!"

"Those muscles, that physique, he's definitely got top-notch physique!"

"We've struck it rich! Tonight's been worth it, we'll get a good price!"

In the night of Crystal Song Woods, the roles of hunter and prey are quietly being reversed.

Demons like Grossat could never comprehend, even in death, what kind of beings they were facing.

(End of this chapter)