Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 144 Saigeia
Zheng Zha had his reasons for coming to the prison. As the situation worsened, Zheng Zha was seeing rumors about human mutations online... and when he searched through internal documents, he became even more certain of this.

The situation isn't this bad in the detention center, but it's alarming in this prison... The extent of the corruption is unparalleled in New York.

Now Zheng Zha dares to say that the spread of erosion is definitely not limited to reading books... People who commit heinous crimes due to severe erosion will definitely infect other normal people when they are thrown into prison!
The anomaly in this prison was ridiculously powerful; Zheng Zha estimated that this lump would require at least a thousand people to form. The one that filled the corridor earlier was just a small part of it.

It seems the higher-ups messed things up when researching countermeasures; these people didn't even understand the mechanisms of erosion, yet they dared to put a group of prisoners together. Although they observed individual mutations, transmission, and clustering processes, the researchers and the stationed troops were essentially all wiped out.

The previous person in charge is a case in point. He had actually been deeply corrupted, but he hadn't mutated directly because he was still useful... His handwriting when writing research reports became increasingly illegible and frantic over time; he had long since gone mad, but he was unaware of it. His role was to request more manpower from his superiors and become part of this collective.

This is quite similar to the agent and Linda in "The Hole of Terror," who have long been deeply corrupted but have not shown obvious symptoms because they still have to serve as pawns of Sutter Kane, or rather, the Great Old Ones, in the real world.

"So, the influence of the Old Ones is indeed getting stronger and stronger..." Zheng Zha didn't make any move, but a ball of red flame condensed out of thin air, instantly changing from crimson to almost black, and then disappeared with a whoosh, the next moment slamming into the monster.

The blazing red flames blasted through layers of tentacles, finally exploding inside the monster's body without diminishing their intensity.

Zheng Zha sighed. Although he had succeeded in his attack, this thing was just too big... He couldn't even describe what it was.

This thing resembled an octopus in shape, but its lower body opened up into a massive slit surrounded by fang-like appendages. Zheng Zha conservatively estimated that just that enormous, black hole-like mouth, if placed on an overpass, could swallow a whole car whole, let alone the narrow streets of Manhattan…

Upon seeing this octopus-like creature, Zheng Zha finally understood why the features of the previous mass of flesh were so indistinct. Rather than being composed of countless twisted human bodies, it was more like a monster from another world invading the real world, manifesting its form through the bodies of countless people.

Although Zheng Zha had never read any novels about infinite diversity, he had read some online novels. Combined with the thought simulation under the third-order gene lock state and the change process mentioned in the research report, he could barely understand the principle behind this thing in the real world.

“The blurring of fantasy and reality… I see. Because of confusion and fear, they turned themselves into monsters in their fantasies.” Zheng Zha pushed up his nose. “And as the infection and attacks spread, stronger monsters can materialize in the real world… The higher-ups on this project have gone mad. They’re pulling the Old Ones in a tug-of-war.”

After being injured by the red flames, the tentacles calmed down for a moment, and then with a muffled thud, a ball of red flames burst out from its flesh... expelling what Zheng Zha had injected.

As Zheng Zha watched the monster's actions, the red flames on his body grew even deeper.

The next moment, the octopus's head suddenly collapsed into the middle of its body. At first glance, it looked as if it had swallowed its own head whole. Although this description is bizarre, this was exactly what Zheng Zha saw.

Zheng Zha still didn't understand. Even after simulating Mu Xiang's thought process, he hadn't grasped the relevant knowledge... This was different from controlling a mobile phone. When Mu Xiang taught Gao Hongliang how to use a mobile phone, Zheng Zha had watched. After activating the third-tier gene lock, although he hadn't truly regained his memories, he could at least barely reproduce them. But when dealing with the Old Ones, his knowledge was completely insufficient. In fact, this bizarre scene was the manifestation of those higher beings. If an ordinary person were to see it, they would probably have their cognition collapse on the spot due to the overwhelming amount of illogical images and information. But Zheng Zha, having activated the third-tier gene lock, wouldn't be so overwhelmed, although he would still be confused for a moment.

The octopus's head disappeared into its own massive black maw, which then slowly spread, staining its entire flesh-colored body black. As its body darkened, the enormous maw, so deep that even Zheng Zha couldn't see through it, suddenly emitted light!

A gigantic green eye opened from its mouth, gazing indifferently at the tiny human before it. This was power from another world; this enormous eye, appearing out of nowhere, was its true form. The vanished octopus-like features and the tentacles now encircling the eye were merely appearances.

Zheng Zha only glanced at it, yet felt as if he had been struck a heavy blow to the head. Although the feeling was immediately suppressed, it made Zheng Zha's expression become more solemn. He didn't know that it was because his cultivation level was too high that he wouldn't be affected by it... If it were the other members of the Central Continent Team, they would fall into madness or even become distorted if they made eye contact with it.

The cold voice of the Supreme God echoed in Zheng Zha's mind: "Hidden side quest in 'The Trembling Black Hole': Defeat the Old One, Seigya, and stop the erosion outbreak. Reward: One B-rank side quest and 5000 points..."

Seigya, from "My Name is Darkness," is one of the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. However, Zheng Zha was unaware of this; he only knew he had more work to do.

Zheng Zha maintained the thought simulation of the third-order gene lock. To his surprise, the thought simulation, which should have dissipated due to prolonged overload, became active again as if in a final burst of energy after he saw Saigeya. What Zheng Zha felt in his mind was an extremely strong sense of excitement.

"No way..." Zheng Zha pushed up his nose, suddenly remembering the fanatical look Chu Xuan occasionally gave him, "Are all you wise men this crazy?"

Zheng Zha suddenly sensed a threat. He pushed off with his feet and instantly moved ten meters away. Where he had just stood, a section of the floor, constructed to prison standards, was missing. The floor wasn't shattered, nor did it leave any rounded or jagged gaps; a section was simply missing.

"It looks impressive, but if you could really kill anyone with your gaze, I would have been glared to death by now." Zheng Zha looked at the phenomenon on the ground that was incomprehensible to ordinary people, and suddenly had a realization. He pushed up his nose and said, "Then you are definitely much stronger than me, and you deserve more than just a B-level reward."

The next moment, a pair of black bat wings covered in dark red flames unfurled from Zheng Zha's back, beneath which shimmered dragon scales. The red flames took on various forms and swirled around him, two dark red flames condensed on his shoulders, and dark red energy swirled around his arms.

From a distance, it looked as if Zheng Zha had three heads and six arms.

Zheng Zha's body was also gradually changing within the crimson flames. The boundary between his body and the crimson flames blurred, and it was unclear whether the crimson flames were merging into his body or his body was merging into the crimson flames.

"Although I don't understand the mysteries of these forms, using you as a guinea pig will surely yield some results..." Zheng Zha grinned maliciously, then vanished instantly, leaving only a scorching stream of air. Next, he grabbed a cluster of dark tentacles, and with a swift movement of his hands, the tentacles severed cleanly!

(End of this chapter)