That voice is...

The players present raised their weapons, staring at the plant sphere, ready to crush whatever was inside into powder.

"It's me,"

The voice inside the plant sphere paused, as if recalling its own identity,

before slowly saying, "I am Ω."

Huh?

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. He had indeed killed the woman in red and heard the system notification, "How are you not dead?"

"..."

The being calling itself Ω paused for a moment, then slowly said, "On the fifth night after the players entered the hotel, I received a note that said, 'Don't get killed.'

Then I was attacked by a wooden wheel-shaped monster.

It was able to greatly reduce external physical, energy, and soul attacks,

which happened to counter my abilities.

I spent a lot of effort to barely kill it.

While I was healing in place, the door to room 0108 was opened from the outside,

and the woman in red rushed in, killed me, and ate me.

The me that exists now... is both Ω and not Ω."

?

Are you trying to philosophize here?

Seeming to sense Li Ang and the others' doubts and impatience,

the voice continued, "The plague doctor should know about Diogenes."

Hearing this name, the plague doctor's eyelids twitched, Mule narrowed his eyes, and Bai Haozheng remained silent.

Li Ang remained vigilant against the vine sphere and asked with interest, "Who is that?"

"This Diogenes is not the ancient Greek philosopher of the fourth century BC, but a... very strange player."

The plague doctor hesitated for a moment before giving an uncertain answer.

He glanced at his other companions and said, "You should know that the Demon Scientists Alliance is more like a loose association than a guild.

The president who established the guild, Truth's Side, has never shown his face.

Usually, guild affairs, such as maintaining guild order,

organizing team activities,

reviewing membership applications, assessing whether applicants are qualified,

and supervising the fairness of internal guild transactions, are handled by several vice presidents and ministers. The members of the Demon Scientists Alliance each have their own skills, and most of them are unruly, eccentric, and unwilling to join official organizations for protection.

In that place, the exchange of technology is always the top priority.

Theoretical knowledge books, engineering construction, machinery, equipment, facility blueprints, weapon and tool design blueprints, gene sequence maps....

All knowledge and technology can be priced openly,

and sold through auctions or bartering.

We even have one-on-one professional tutoring courses.

As long as you can afford the price, a Lv1 newbie can learn high-throughput sequencing technology of single-cell functional genomics directly from a Lv20 expert through memory infusion,

and learn how to transform a mouse embryo into a goblin in a simple medieval environment, using magic at the level of a primary mage, then transform the goblin into an orc, and finally transform the orc into a powerful orc comparable to a city war god.

And that Diogenes..."

The plague doctor paused, choosing his words carefully, and slowly said, "He is not a vice president or a minister of the guild,

but I heard that he had already joined when the Demon Scientists Alliance still existed as an online dark web forum.

No one has seen his true face, and no one knows his true strength.

Even official organizations and private intelligence databases do not have any team information about Diogenes.

Every time he goes online, he conducts commissioned auctions in the guild, selling unique technologies.

The categories of those skills are completely different, including动力装甲 (dongli zhuangjia - power armor) construction drawings, magic ship construction manuals, and even a guide to the living saint transformation surgery...

It is said that this kind of surgery requires plundering other people's stigmata and transferring them to oneself.

Once successful, one can quickly gain the power of a godchild level, without any side effects—except that the subject may be endlessly pursued by the Inquisition and the Knights Templar.

In addition, this Diogenes does not accept game currency transactions. Before each auction, he releases a portion of the knowledge and technology, requiring those who are interested to find him themselves,

barter, or exchange their own unique skills.

If Diogenes is interested in this, the transaction can be reached, and the two parties exchange—sometimes some low-level players can also exchange valuable knowledge for technical drawings that are not advanced but quite creative."

"That's right."

The voice in the plant sphere said in a low voice, "Before this mission, I traded with Diogenes, using灵能 (lingneng - psionic) technology to create virtual souls,

and obtained a brain anatomy drawing from him.

The drawing records a unique biological modification technology called [Devourer Reincarnation].

Limited by the confidentiality agreement that the Demon Scientists Alliance must sign before each transaction,

I cannot reveal the specific steps of the Devourer Reincarnation technology to you,

but the general effect of this technology is to back up and store the subject's own brain state.

From the macroscopic cerebrum, diencephalon, midbrain, pons, medulla oblongata...

to the microscopic brain neurons,

can be perfectly copied like recording a CD,

storing all the information of the brain in a portion of the subject's stem cells.

If the subject is eaten by something—such as demons or cannibals,

these stem cells will automatically activate.

They can deceive the eater's immune system and gradually replace one of the eater's organs, such as the stomach, intestines, or lungs.

At first, these organs will function normally, just like before.

However, as time goes on, these stem cells, which record the original subject's brain information,

will secretly absorb nutrients and reconstruct a miniature brain near the stomach and intestinal organs.

The macroscopic and microscopic structure of this miniature brain is consistent with the subject's original brain,

perfectly inheriting the memory, consciousness, personality, and emotions of the original subject at the time of recording.

As time goes on, the miniature brain will gradually take over the function of the eater's spine, take over the spinal cord reflex,

and at the appropriate time, turn the tables, strip the eater of control of the body,

isolate the eater's brain,

to achieve the effect of complete parasitism and manipulation—to some extent, it is like a horsehair worm."

Ω paused for a moment and slowly said, "The original purpose of [Devourer Reincarnation]

is to allow subjects with limited life essence to find a powerful body for themselves and be reborn with the help of a demon body.

My form of life is different from ordinary people.

At the beginning, I just wanted to enrich the database, and I exchanged this technology with Diogenes,

and backed up my own brain once.

I didn't expect that in this mission, the woman in red actually ate my body and drank my brains.

She knew that I was good at soul technology, so she deliberately stirred up my soul,

but what she didn't expect was that my miniature brain was slowly generated in her body.

The newborn brain is equivalent to an NAS network storage device, which can firmly lock soul fragments, so that my soul will not be completely penetrated, infected, or mixed by other things.

Before Li Risheng fought the woman in red, 'I' suddenly regained consciousness and used a soul shock to cause some interference with the woman in red's actions.

And now...

Uh, I'm controlling this pile of烂肉 (lan rou - rotten flesh)'s respiratory system to make sounds."

"..."

Li Ang remembered that during the battle, the woman in red had suddenly stiffened and paused several times, taking several punches from Li Ang for nothing.

Ω seemed to be examining the current state of his body.

After a long silence, he slowly said, "[Devourer Reincarnation] technology sounds very strange and terrifying, but in actual operation, there are many restrictions.

First of all, it is not a simple biological modification technology, it needs to be combined with soul and灵能 (lingneng - psionic) skills, not everyone can learn it.

Secondly, the stem cells that record brain information need to be nourished by the soul at all times, and cannot be too far away from the subject's soul,

therefore, it is impossible to make a lich phylactery-like existence.

Third, stem cells must gather into tumor-like growths.

The shape of the growth is terrifying, and the volume is medium, several circles larger than an apple.

It is impossible to secretly feed others like poisoning and seize other people's bodies,

unless that person is a fool who would dig out and eat a肉灵芝 (rou lingzhi - meat fungus) when they see it in the ground.

Moreover, the parasite who abandons his own body must wait until the parasitism is completely completed and the body is controlled,

before he can release other skills besides灵能 (lingneng - psionic).

There is no resistance during this process.

It is because the woman in red's body was cursed by me and gradually rotted that she was unaware that she had been parasitized.

Finally, this skill cannot actually achieve reincarnation.

The brain receives information, refines the information into data, and stores the data as memory.

Memory generates consciousness, consciousness constitutes personality, personality carries the soul, the soul is attached to the body, and the body is subject to the brain.

The brain is the closed-loop end point for humans to become intelligent beings with independent consciousness.

In this respect, the brain's priority is even higher than the soul.

The current me certainly has the brain structure of Ω, inherits all the memories of Ω, and inherits the personality of Ω.

My abilities, temperament, personality, likes and dislikes, and values

are all the same as Ω.

But, Ω's original brain has completely disappeared.

The newborn brain is just a high-precision replica. The materials used have absolutely nothing to do with the original brain. It is equivalent to making a new one, imitating the appearance of the original brain.

And my soul..."

The voice paused for a long time and said hoarsely, "It seems to be affected by other soul fragments in the body of the woman in red.

I can recall the memories of 目隐之鬼 (Mu Yin Zhi Gui) , 13mArk, and some hotel guests,

feel the joys, sorrows, and other emotions in the memory, and sometimes even confuse myself with them...

I may be Ω,

or I may be some kind of 'thing' that thinks I am Ω..."

As a technology supporter, Ω is generally not so emotional and sentimental.

He rarely falls into the paradox of the Ship of Theseus or the River of Heraclitus—ordinary people don't have the leisure to worry about whether they are themselves ten minutes or ten years ago.

It's just that his brain and soul were messed up this time.

The brain grew from scratch, and the soul was mixed with others.

It's really impossible for him to be calm.

Li Ang nodded, "So, what about your player information?"

The system of the killing game will not lie. Now, whether it is the game mall or the folk auction house, I have never heard of such a thing as a name change card.

WeChat allows you to change your name, but this broken game doesn't, which is unreasonable.

Um...

If there is a name change card, and the name change card is very cheap,

Li Ang has no doubt that a large number of players will buy it,

to correct their殺马特 (sha ma te - low-end, trashy) style player nicknames,

or to make their nicknames more 二 (er - stupid, childish).

Chapter 54 The Devourer Rebirth

[Lv17] [Mind-Snatching Mastermind · Ω]

A line of translucent words appeared above the plant sphere.

The players present breathed a sigh of relief, but still did not put down their weapons.

Now that Ω's identity has been verified, the next thing to discuss is how to deal with him.

Unlike Black Saint and Dan Fei,

Ω has not harmed other people,

and before the battle, Ω also took the opportunity to control the woman in red.

Killing him indiscriminately like this seems a little bad.

As the knife and cutting board, and I am the fish, Ω, who is clear about the current situation, simply showed the skills, equipment, and灵能 (lingneng - psionic) information on his body,

indicating that he is safe and harmless,

and took the initiative to propose that Li Ang and others use skills to restrict his actions.

Wait until 3:30. If the tall, thin bamboo hat appears, kill him—to prevent Ω from being counted as half-dead like Dan Fei.

The other players agreed to this request.

Li Ang untied the plant sphere, revealing the rotten flesh-like body of the woman in red inside, found Omega's brain from the body, and put it into Liu Wudai's glass bottle.

Then Bai Haozheng took action, using a catheter to draw out all the灵能 (lingneng - psionic) from Ω's body.

Then the players lowered the elevator car to the first floor.

Everyone stayed in the elevator shaft, hanging on brackets of different heights corresponding to their respective floors.

Waiting until 3:29, everyone walked out of the elevator shaft (Ω's glass bottle was placed in the corridor on the first floor).

Perhaps Ω really died on the fifth night,

perhaps Ω, who used the woman in red's corpse and soul fragments with the help of [Devourer Reincarnation], was considered a complete life by the hotel.

In short, the tall, thin bamboo hat did not appear.

For the remaining time on the seventh night, everyone stayed on their respective floors (Li Ang used the woman in red as material to help Ω捏 (nie - mold) a temporary body for凑活着 (cou huo zhe - getting by), with built-in precautions. Ω promised to transfer 1,500 game coins to Li Ang after leaving the script).

Each of them used their own abilities to solve the anomalies.

Since each floor was inhabited or had dead people,

the attack intensity of the anomalies returned to the level of the first night, and no异类 (yilei - monsters) could be seen wandering in the corridor.

Li Ang still traveled up and down the elevator shaft after 3:30 on the last night, helping other players solve incidents, and also took the opportunity to lure and kill a corridor 异类 (yilei - monster).

————

The time is now... 07:02 on the eighth day.

Bai Haozheng stood in the corridor, looking at the clock at the end of the corridor, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Two minutes ago, the system's task completion prompt sounded. The others said goodbye in the elevator shaft, and soon they were all teleported away, leaving the Dolphin Hotel.

Only Bai Haozheng was still here.

He came to room 0912, which he had agreed with Kido Yukari to meet at,

Click.

Twisting the doorknob.

The curfew end time of 07:07 has not yet arrived.

As he pushed open the door, a note fell from above the room.

It said [Please sleep].

He locked the door and lay down to sleep as instructed.

The scene in front of him slowly rotated, and he came to the stone arch bridge again.

He has something to do.

To save a girl who deserves redemption.