Waking up from a chaotic dream, the first thing Carl Iris saw was a chitinous ceiling that looked like an insect shell.

Then, his gaze gradually moved downwards, and he saw the hibernation chambers and the bud-shaped pool in the center of the circular room.

There were other people sleeping in the hibernation chamber, distributed at equal distances along the walls of the room.

'Where is this? Shouldn't I be on my way back to the academy?'

Carl's last memory before he fell into a coma was that he had just negotiated an order for magic props in the Kingdom of Breland and was preparing to return to the magic academy.

But his memory stopped here, and when he opened his eyes again, he was lying here.

After trying to struggle, I found that the hibernation chamber, which was also made of chitin, was unexpectedly strong.

Even if Carl used all his strength, he couldn't lift it open.

Just as Carl was trying to break free, a burly female orc opened her eyes in a hibernation chamber directly opposite the door.

"Don't waste your energy. This is a transformation chamber built by the Mind Flayer. Even a level 3 warrior like me can't break free. You, a spellcaster, have even less power to use."

"Mind Flayer?"

Carl repeated the word subconsciously, and the records about the Mind Flayer in the magic academy textbook began to emerge in his mind.

Mind flayers, also known as mind flayers, have octopus-like heads and are good at using psionic powers.

This race mostly acts as a tribe, but occasionally some mind flayers break away from the mother nest consciousness and set up their own tribe.

They are hermaphrodites, and can only expand their population by using some kind of parasite to transform other intelligent life forms into mind flayers.

Inexplicably, Carl felt that the scene before him was strangely familiar.

But just as he was searching the memories in his mind, the door of the room suddenly opened, and a mind flayer that used psionic power to float in mid-air floated in from outside.

"Very good! You are the most qualified among this group!"

The voice was mixed with the strange sound of mucus stirring. The mind flayer first praised the physique of Carl and the orcs, and then floated towards the pool in the middle of the room.

As he approached, the cover above the pool opened little by little like petals.

There were dozens of tadpole-like creatures swimming in the pool that was glowing with golden light. The Mind Flayer reached out his hand and scooped one out of the pool.

It was a strange-looking worm with tentacles similar to those of a mind flayer.

When it opens its mouth, the mouthparts with three circles of sharp teeth growing around it are chilling.

"I'm really looking forward to what you'll look like after your transformation..."

Pulling the worm, the Mind Flayer floated towards the female Orc warrior who had just spoken.

The other party seemed to know what was going to happen next and suddenly began to struggle violently.

At this moment, a psychic wave emanated from around the mind flayer's brain, and the struggling female orc warrior froze immediately.

With another meaningless laugh, the mind flayer picked up the worm and placed it on the orc's face.

This ferocious little creature seemed to be familiar with the place. As soon as it stood firm, it crawled towards the orc's wide-open eyes.

It proudly used its mouthparts to let out a shrill cry at the orc, then it pushed open the orc's eyelids and drilled straight in along the eyelids.

"ah--!"

As the orcs roared miserably, Carl felt the hairs on his back stand up.

Apparently, everyone in this room has to go through something similar.

Carl swallowed with some difficulty and tried to reduce his presence as much as possible, hoping that the Mind Flayer would not notice him.

But at this moment, the Mind Flayer turned around and looked at Carl with a smile.

Just like that, Carl watched the worm crawl into his eye.

'It hurts! It hurts so much!'

At this moment, only this thought emerged in Karl's mind.

Legend has it that the mind flayer larvae will parasitize near the brain stem and gradually absorb the host's brain, replacing it with its own.

When this is over, the life forms it parasitizes will become new mind flayers.

Although the memories of the original host will have a certain impact on the newly born mind flayer, the existence of psionic energy greatly weakens the influence of the original body, so few people can retain their past personality after becoming a mind flayer.

Looking at the orcs and Carl with satisfaction, the Mind Flayer purred and then turned and left the transformation room.

The distance from the eyes to the brain stem is not that long.

But for Carl and the other orc, the short few centimeters that the mind flayer larva crawled seemed like a century of torture to them.

The intense pain stimulated the memory in Carl's brain to the greatest extent, and he suddenly remembered where his previous sense of familiarity came from.

Before he was born, he once followed the trend and played a game with DND background called "Baldur's Gate 3".

The game's preview animation is at least 80% similar to his current experience.

"That's not right! The world I traveled to is not Faerun, and there is no Sword Coast or Baldur's Gate. Although the profession and race are almost the same, there is no Artificer in the game where I work..."

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Carl's brain was forced into a coma out of self-protection because of the pain.

Although Karl was unconscious, the mind flayer worm in his brain was still working.

Even because Carl fell into a coma, it automatically crawled towards the direction where Carl's brain was most active at the moment.

However, as it began to attach itself to the area and began to suck and read Carl's memories, the body of the Mind Flayer Worm suddenly stiffened.

The Mind Flayers are extradimensional beings from the Realm of Madness. In their original world, cities made of fleshy tumors, oceans of protoplasm, purple shadows, and chitinous coasts are "normal".

The memories of Carl's past life come from a world without magic, where the basic rules are very different from the current reality.

These memories are like garbled codes with incompatible formats to them, and they require a lot of energy to decipher.

Just like that, the memories from the information age of the other world bombarded the poor mind flayer larva with a round of information, and it suddenly went into a dormant state because it could not handle too much information from the other world.

…

At the same time, outside the canyon where the Mind Flayer base was located, an Ogre Warlord leaned over and asked a human: "Is this where the traitor is hiding?"

This is a canyon in the Black Hat Mountains within the Kingdom of Breland, but due to geographical reasons, it is also the preferred place for outlaws and criminals from all over the continent to hide.

Legend has it that there used to be a crack leading to the abyss under the ground here, but more than ten years ago, various countries paid to seal it.

"Yes, Lord Commander, the Mind Flayer who attempted to overthrow Greywall City is hiding deeper underground. A few days ago, he captured a group of people from outside. It seems that he wants to convert them to increase his manpower!"

With a flattering smile on his face, the local desperado with yellow teeth looked at the ogre warlord expectantly.

The ogre glanced to the side and saw a mind flayer who was wearing clothes similar to the ogre's nodded, proving that the guy was not lying.

"Give him the money!"

The ogre waved at the gnolls and troll mercenaries behind him, stood up, and pointed the mace in his hand forward.

"That traitor from Greywall City is at his weakest right now. Follow me, boys! Kill him! The city lord will reward you handsomely!"

Following the ogre commander's promise, the soldiers behind him immediately raised their heads and roared.

(End of this chapter)