"Ah!" Xu Shuangyao screamed and lost her balance. She was saved from being swept away by the surging sewage only because Pei Du held her arm tightly.

"Hold on tight!" Pei Du growled, his feet nailed to the slippery mud at the bottom of the pipe like cast iron, his muscles tensing as he resisted the sudden, terrifying vibration. His heartbeat was like a drum, and an unprecedented premonition of impending disaster gripped him.

The shock is just the beginning!

“Hiss…rustle…”

A numbing, subtle sound, like billions of insects gnawing simultaneously, echoed from all directions, from every crack in the pipe wall, from every corner of the sewage! Everywhere one looked, the faintly phosphorescent bacterial plaques, once merely clinging to the pipe wall, seemed to be infused with a frenzied vitality, multiplying and spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Dark green, silver-gray, even with ominous dark red veins, networks of hyphae, like living, viscous blood vessels, frantically emerged from cracks in the rust, from beneath moss, and from the foam of sewage, twisting and weaving! They greedily devoured the rust, covered the moss, and merged with each other, forming layers of ever-thickening, ever-squirming living fungal carpet, emitting a strong, sweet, and fishy smell! The pipe walls were rapidly "alive"! The light was rapidly fading, swallowed by the madly proliferating fungal carpet!

The concentration of spores in the air instantly soared! What had originally been a faint, sweet, fishy smell mixed with the odor of rust and engine oil now became incredibly thick, like rotten honey, sticky and sticky between the mouth and nose. Every breath felt like inhaling scalding, corrosive dust, burning the trachea and lungs!

"Cough... cough... cough..." Xu Shuangyao coughed violently, her lungs aching. Her vision blurred rapidly from the spores and the fading light. The dark red glow of the Crown of Thorns seemed even fainter and more ominous against the backdrop of the rapidly proliferating fungal mat.

That’s not all!

Deep in my consciousness, the scarlet countdown numbers, like a light sign with poor contact, suddenly flickered, twisted, and jumped wildly! No longer a steady decrease, but a chaotic, garbled jump:

？ ？ ： ？ ？ ： ？ ？ … 00:00:03… 00:00:02… 00:00:01… 00:00:00!!!

The moment of zeroing!

“Ugh—!!!”

It didn't come from the outside world, but rather exploded directly in the deepest recesses of their brains, at the very core of their souls! It wasn't a sound, but a pure, ultimate destructive storm, a culmination of billions of spiritual screams! Indescribable, irresistible! It was as if the malice of the entire universe, the desperate wails of billions of dying souls, compressed into a red-hot steel drill, piercing their skulls and violently stirring them!

"ah--!!!"

Pei Du and Xu Shuangyao simultaneously let out heart-wrenching, inhuman screams! They could no longer stand, the excruciating pain instantly destroying all sense of balance and willpower! As if struck by an invisible hammer, they fell backwards, slamming heavily into the cold, churning sewage!

The cold, stinking sewage instantly poured into their mouths and noses, the suffocating feeling compounded by the excruciating pain of their souls being torn apart, dragging them into the darkest abyss! Like fish out of water, they struggled and twitched violently in the sewage, their hands clutching their heads tightly, their nails digging deep into their scalps, as if to dig out the screaming pain embedded in their brains! Their bodies spasmed uncontrollably, every inch of muscle throbbing wildly under the excruciating current! Vision, hearing, smell... all senses were instantly destroyed by this pure mental storm, leaving only boundless, soul-crushing pain!

On the brink of his consciousness being completely shattered and sinking into the abyss of endless pain, Pei Du felt his spirit being forcibly dragged by an irresistible, terrifying suction force originating from the fusion crown above his head, sinking down... sinking...

Sinking into a cold, sticky, absolute darkness without light or sound...

Then, a faint blue light, like a ghostly fire, lit up faintly in the core of his consciousness.

The light gradually became clearer, outlining a huge, cold outline.

A cylindrical incubator. The thick, reinforced glass walls were filled with a slowly flowing, soft, blue-glowing life-support fluid. Countless thin tubes, like monster tentacles, extended from the ceiling and floor, connecting to the figure suspended within.

A naked "person".

He was tall and well-proportioned, his skin a bloodless, jade-white pallor. His short black hair floated faintly in the life-support fluid like seaweed. His eyes were closed, his expression... eerily serene.

That face...

A sharp jaw, thin lips, a high nose bridge, and deep brow bones...

Every line, every detail...

It was—himself!

Pei Du!!!

boom--!!!

It was like the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe, exploding in Pei Du's core of consciousness! All the excruciating pain, all the struggle, all the senses were instantly crushed by this absolutely absurd, absolutely terrifying scene! An extremely cold and sharp question, like a poisoned ice cone, fiercely penetrated all his cognition:

"who I am?"

He was Pei Du. What was that "thing" floating in the incubator, with a face exactly like his?

Is he real? Or... just a poor copy... of a more "perfect" being? A... flawed experiment?

The cornerstone of identity, at this moment, completely collapsed! Turned into cold, suffocating powder!

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