Long-term salvation

"Commander, Muji just said that everyone in a certain place seems to have entered a 'dream world' or 'spiritual world' or something like that. She sensed the approximate location."

"Then..." Rhode was about to say something when he saw the system interface unfold in front of him like a scroll, with a new task prompt appearing on it:

[Side Quest: Twelve Trials: Possessed by Evil Spirit]

Mission Description: Go to the Lighthouse Mental Hospital in Crimson City, resolve the otherworldly incident, and recover the STEM device prototype.

[Base Construction Side Quest: City of the Gods - Eye of Terra]

Mission Description: Obtain the core of the Otherworld Fluctuation Monitoring Device (Completed), obtain the prototype of the STEM device, the device's operating matrix, integrate the core and matrix, and operate the Otherworld Fluctuation Monitoring Device - Eye of Terra.

"Marianne, notify the girls to assemble, prepare weapons and attack helicopters, and then gather at the location I sent - it's time to teach those bastards in Mobius a lesson."

Chapter 136: Evil Spirit Possession: Device Activated

Dark clouds slowly rolled in from the distant horizon, and heavy rain poured down, shrouding the entire city in an ominous gloom. There were almost no pedestrians on the streets, only neon signs flickered weakly in the hazy rain. In contrast, the light radiating from the spotlights on the Lighthouse Mental Hospital remained as bright as ever.

The light pierces the darkness but cannot bring any sense of security to people. The light source looks more like a pair of malicious eyes, looking at the city surrounding it unscrupulously, as if it is selecting its favorite soul meal.

This is Crimson City, a peculiar city surrounded by water on three sides, but famous for the Lighthouse Mental Hospital in the city center.

A police car sped across the empty road, running over the accumulated water on the road, splashing onto the empty vehicles on the side of the road, leaving dirty water marks on the surfaces of the vehicles of different colors.

Detective Sebastian Castellanos was driving towards Beacon Mental Hospital with two of his subordinates and a fellow officer from the Crimson City Police Department. They had just received a tip-off:

"A multiple murder case is happening at Beacon Mental Hospital?" Joseph Oda frowned. He was Detective Sebastian's friend and partner. He wore glasses and looked gentle, but he was an experienced police officer. "Even though several groups of police officers arrived, they still called for backup... Is the enemy terrorists, or are the mentally ill people rioting?"

"There's been enough going on in the city lately, with the serial killer and the missing persons case, it really doesn't keep us busy at all."

Detective Sebastian opened the car window a crack, then lit a cigarette, letting the smoke carried by the cold wind lift up the unkempt hair on his forehead. He took a deep drag on the cigarette, exhaled the smoke, and spoke to the new detective in the back seat:

"Junior Detective Kidman, what are your thoughts on this?"

"Not yet," Julie Kidman said calmly. She was a new detective at the police station and a newcomer who had been transferred to this area not long ago. Because of this, Julie was assigned to work under Sebastian. When she heard her boss's question, she looked out the car window at the city under the heavy rain and said meaningfully, "Once we get there, we'll definitely understand the situation."

The police car fell into silence. Everyone had something on their mind, but the police officer driving the car seemed particularly talkative. He complained about the recent spate of cases in the city and the increasing overtime hours.

Just as Sebastian was feeling a little annoyed, the police officer slowed down the car, tilted his head slightly, looked up at the sky through the windshield, and said doubtfully:

"Did the police station call for helicopter support? No, no, no, does our police station have a helicopter?!"

"The Crimson City Police Department isn't that wealthy," Sebastian said, throwing his cigarette butt out the window and looking up at the sky like the police officer. "But... is that an attack helicopter? Military personnel? Wait, there seems to be more than one!"

But what does this have to do with us? My partners and I are just detectives, not even FBI agents, and we won't encounter any action movie-like scenes where we have to save the world.

Sebastian thought so and sat back, but he saw from the rearview mirror that Kidman's face showed some surprise and panic.

Looking at the woman's face, Sebastian, thinking of his missing wife, sighed inwardly, but still spoke out in comfort:

"Kidman, you don't have to worry too much. These helicopters may not be related to our case. Besides, how could armed helicopters be used in cases of multiple murders or to suppress mental patients..."

Before he finished speaking, everyone in the police car was startled by a shrill radio sound. The sound was extremely noisy, like metal rubbing against glass, and then being repeatedly compressed, with the pitch and volume increased, exploding in their ears!

Sebastian only felt that his brain was thrown into a blender and spun wildly. The sharp blades cut off the brain tissue and minced it into minced meat, and then poured it back into his head. He could clearly feel the pain brought by this whole process!

This was never going to be a fun experience, but thankfully the noise didn't last long, and the officer driving the vehicle quickly took control of it, preventing it from spinning out of control and crashing, killing the four officers on board.

"Damn it! What was that sound just now?!"

"Maybe the signal is being jammed... No, we can't contact the police station." After trying the radio several times, Sebastian put it down with a frown. He rubbed his temple and said helplessly, "Let's go to the mental hospital first. We're almost there anyway, so we can meet up with the others there."

Indeed, the Lighthouse Psychiatric Hospital was right in front of them—the hospital gate was open, and several police cars with flashing lights were parked on the circular road inside the hospital. The doors of the cars were also opened. It was obvious that the police officers who arrived earlier had already rushed into the hospital.

Sebastian got out of the car and looked up at the sky. The heavy rain had not stopped yet, and the helicopters he had seen earlier had long disappeared. The latter seemed to be just passing by without any special meaning.

No longer caring about the details, the decadent detective exchanged a glance with his partner, then walked to the main entrance of the hospital building and pushed it open. The moment the door opened, a nauseatingly thick stench of blood poured into the pouring rain outside.

Corpses! The entire main entrance hall of the hospital was filled with corpses! The corpses of patients, the corpses of nurses, their faces filled with despair and pain, as if they had seen some extremely terrifying monster or devil.

"It's like a massacre," Joseph said, drawing his pistol, alert for possible attacks. "This can't be described as multiple murders."

"Be careful, Joseph...Kidman, you stay outside as our backup."

Carefully stepping over the bloodstains and the gradually spreading blood, Sebastian looked around vigilantly, trying to find some clues. But less than half a minute later, he heard his good friend Joseph Oda shouting at him:

"There's a survivor here!"

Sebastian ran over and saw a middle-aged man in a white doctor's coat slumped against the wall in the monitoring room next to the hall. His face looked miserable and he kept muttering:

"How is it possible... Impossible... Ruvik has already..."

The voice gradually became lower, and the middle-aged doctor lowered his head and stopped talking.

Seeing this, Sebastian had no choice but to hand it over to his partner. He then walked over to the surveillance camera and began to check what had happened.

The screen showed the hospital corridor. Three police officers stumbled towards them, seemingly fleeing. They emerged from the other side of the corridor, paused, turned, and drew their pistols, firing non-stop. The next second, they were killed by a hooded man who suddenly appeared!

"What the hell?!"

Blood spurted out, and even the gray surveillance screen could see that the pool of blood was expanding, turning into a shadow woven by doubt and worry that enveloped Sebastian's heart.

However, at this moment, the hooded man in the surveillance video turned his head to look at the surveillance camera and disappeared from the screen in an instant!

"..." Sebastian was stunned, and then he felt someone's cold gaze staring at him. The intuition honed by hundreds of cases and arrests made him turn around suddenly -

A sharp scalpel was stabbing at him and was fixed in front of his eyes!

It was a hand covered in strange protective gear, grabbing the hooded man's arm, preventing him from stabbing with the scalpel!

Sebastian took a half step back and bumped into the monitoring console, where he saw the handsome young man, fully armed and wearing strange protective gear, staring fearlessly at the hooded man. A vague murderous intent, whose source was difficult to discern, was lingering in the not-so-spacious monitoring room.

"Ruvik," Rhodes said, looking into the burned face, into the eyes filled with hatred and madness, "Or should I call you Ruben Victoriano?"

"As you wish," Ruvik said casually. "I'm always very tolerant of the arrogant words of the dying."

"That's so arrogant, Ruvik, but I'm beginning to admire you."

Chapter 137 Slaughterhouse

"Someone in this world protects you, outsider... and you're so dazzling that it makes me sick."

Ruvik sneered and said this. He suddenly raised his arm, and the scalpel drew a mark like a crescent moon under the dim light, but it only cut through the filthy air filled with the smell of blood.

The azure eyes flickered like a thin thread, and a metallic light filled with murderous intent immediately appeared - the muzzle of the revolver was aimed at the hooded man, the bullet roared out but missed the target, and hit the wall of the monitoring room, bursting out bits of wall fragments.

Without any hesitation, Rhodes followed his instinct and turned around, aiming his gun at Sebastian. The bullet flew past the ear of the surprised and slightly panicked decadent detective, shattering the surveillance footage and Ruvik in the footage!

【This is far from the end, stranger.】

"Same here, perverted sister control."

With a cold snort, the world before Rhode's eyes was immediately enveloped by a blinding white light. The next second, a noisy sound rang out—

The laughter of children and girls, screams amidst the flames, the wails of those on the operating table, the roar of metal clashing, arguments, curses, rebukes, doubts—a violent turmoil of negative emotions stirred within. In that instant, knowledge from another supernatural dimension flowed in, propelling a mind filled with madness and cruelty, transforming it into a world where both illusion and reality coexisted.

With Lighthouse Mental Hospital as its center, the entire city of Crimson is gradually engraved in it and becomes a part of this world.

Rhode felt like he was looking down at the city from the sky. The next second, the ground and buildings quickly expanded before him, not even the walls or soil could block them! But as the darkness gradually dissipated, Rhode found himself lying in a slaughterhouse covered in blood and rust.

Blood dripping from rows of upside-down human bodies reminded Rhodes of his past memories on the cannibal train, but fortunately this time it had nothing to do with some indescribable ancient beings.

In the real world, this place is the research facility of Lighthouse Mental Hospital, but it has long been covered with a layer of bloody filth due to the deaths of a large number of experimental subjects. The torture suffered by the innocent people before their death and the fear of death have distorted this place, turning the originally clean and bright laboratory into a dark and bloody slaughterhouse.

Rhode climbed up from the ground and found that his stealth suit and other weapons and equipment were still on him. It seemed that they would not disappear due to the system. Of course, in this world, if the consciousness was strong enough, weapons could also be materialized... At least that's what the fragmented memories in his mind told him.

After a few attempts, Rhodes found that he could not visualize the power armor he wore during his dream rampage in Japan. In this world - a world built by STEM devices and Ruvik's brain - although it was also distorted and collapsed, it was much more stable than a simple dream, more like pieces of a puzzle that were roughly connected.

But... Rhode looked down at the weapon he had just thought of.

The Super Shotgun, from "Doom Eternal", is powerful and the meat hook installed on the front allows for fast movement. It is definitely the signature weapon of the rabbit-loving macho man!

Although he sincerely hoped that DOOM's worldview would not be related to the other world, Rhodes still couldn't help but want to try this exorcist weapon.

Humming the nursery rhyme "Looking for Friends", Rhodes twisted his neck, used his shotgun to push aside the corpses blocking his way, stepped over the dirty pools of blood, and walked deeper into the slaughterhouse.

As soon as he passed a row of hanging bodies, Rhode saw Detective Sebastian, who was hanging upside down and struggling to cut the ropes that bound his feet. The decadent detective opened his eyes slightly when he noticed Rhode's arrival. Just as he was about to say something, he heard the latter say with a smile:

"You look awfully disheveled right now, Detective."

“…Keep your voice down!”

"Are you worried about the guy over there?" Rhodes turned his head and looked at the butcher who was cutting up corpses in another room - the Sadist. This was a monster formed by the fusion of the consciousness of some murderers and Ruvik's madness. Intense anger and murderous intent dominated this burly body, making it the most powerful one among countless nightmares.

In some ways, it's also an extremely handy punching bag.

"Hey, Sun Thief!"

In Sebastian's horrified eyes, Rhodes happily greeted the monster opposite, just like greeting a neighbor who was mowing the lawn in the early morning.

The sadist paused, then put down the chopping knife and picked up the electric saw leaning against the tool bench, then turned and walked towards the two humans here.

Rhode pulled a slight smile from the corner of his mouth and said to the decadent detective who had already cut the rope as he walked forward:

"This guy is a collection of murderer's consciousness. It looks really scary, doesn't it?"

"You're fucking terrifying to be able to laugh in this situation."

"Tsk, that's a bit hurtful, Detective," Rhodes said, but his face was still eager to try. Amid the sudden roar of the chainsaw, he pulled the trigger, and the double-barreled super shotgun responded with an even harsher roar:

The tiny pellets from the shotgun bombarded the sadist's body, causing him to stagger. His dirty vest was torn into pieces, and the twisted flesh underneath also flew out, blooming like bloody flowers!

The dirty blood splashed on Rhodes' face, causing him to slightly restrain his smile... The power of the super shotgun is only slightly higher than that of ordinary weapons, and far inferior to the original version, but this is enough!

Eject the shell and reload two more shotgun shells.

Rhodes controlled the meat hook to hook the sadist who had just stood up, knocked him to the ground with one punch, stepped on the monster's chest, and shot him in the head again!

This monster was unexpectedly resistant to attacks. Even with a mask of rotten flesh and blood covering its hideous face filled with rage and murderous intent, it was still struggling to get up. It then directly grabbed the chainsaw that had fallen beside it and started waving it wildly.

Seeing this, Rhodes jumped back, loaded the gun with his fingers nimbly, and pulled the trigger at the sadist who stood up.

The shotgun shells that flew out of the barrel scatter into thousands of pellets, almost forming a steel curtain in the air - the noise of metal colliding with metal echoed for a long time in this intricate slaughterhouse - the sadist raised the chainsaw to block the shotgun pellets shot at his chest. This may be an unintentional act, but it obviously won him the right to live a little longer, or in other words, more time to be tortured.

For Detective Sebastian, the one who was tortured more was probably himself:

The strange and bloody dim slaughterhouse, the monster that could still crawl up after being hit by shotgun shells several times, and the handsome young man, or rather, the strangest person in the whole world... He used a hideous-looking shotgun and various other weapons that were taken out from nowhere, constantly testing the power of each weapon.

Finally, the young man pulled out a grenade and threw it at the monster, which was almost unable to stand up. The monster was instantly engulfed in flames and let out a wail unlike anything it had ever uttered before. It was as if at this moment, pain and fear once again returned to that resilient body, bringing it into the victims' despair before death!

Flame! Flame is more effective against them!

Detective Sebastian secretly kept this discovery in mind. He turned his head away, trying not to look at the hellish scene - his daughter died in the fire. This incident also caused a rift between him and his wife, and the latter eventually disappeared in the investigation of missing and fire cases.

Fortunately, this did not last long. The monster was soon completely engulfed by the flames and turned into an ugly ashes before disappearing.

After doing all this, Rhodes turned around, reached into his pocket and took out a cigarette. He took out a cigarette and handed it to Sebastian. The latter took it in a daze and put it in his mouth.

"Red Apple cigarettes... such an old brand."

"It's going to be a global phenomenon someday, Detective."

Rhodes lit a cigarette and took a few deep puffs, letting the smoke dispel the bloody stench that filled his nostrils. Then he looked at the decadent detective who was looking around with confusion on his face. In his broken memory - this man was extremely determined and tenacious, with full combat power and combat experience. He could come and go freely even in the hellish dream world.

Thinking of this, Rhodes smiled and asked:

"I'm planning to set up a secret agency to investigate otherworldly events. Do you want to work for me?"

"Eh?"

Chapter 138: Strange Safe House (3K)

“…I don’t think an invitation should be extended to people in this situation.”

Sebastian took a deep breath, feeling the pleasure of the nicotine killing his lung cells. It had to be said that this did ease his tension a little. After letting the milky white smoke escape from his nasal cavity, the decadent detective slowly spoke:

"You're suspicious enough, young man. You suddenly appeared here, you're very familiar with this place, and you have these... bizarre abilities. A normal human wouldn't pull out those kinds of weapons out of thin air."

"Nothing is impossible in this 'world', as you'll learn in the future. Besides, joining us will be good for you. After all, you don't want to see your wife and daughter get hurt, right, Detective?"

Rhode said with a smile, but he felt something was wrong as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He had to take advantage of the fact that Sebastian was stunned by the amount of information in the words and rushed over to grab his collar, and quickly added a few words: