Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 752 - 750 Reincarnation (4K)

This voice is...

The players present raised their weapons, eyeing the plant sphere, ready to unleash an attack and crush whatever was inside into powder.

"It's me."

The voice inside the plant sphere paused for a moment, seemingly recalling its identity. After a long time, it slowly said, "I am Omega."

Hmm?

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. He had indeed killed the old woman in red and heard the System notification. "How come you're not dead?" he asked.

"..."

The being that claimed to be Omega paused again and went on slowly, "On the fifth night the players entered the hotel, I received the note that read 'Don't Be Killed.' Then I was attacked by a monster that looked like a wooden wheel. It had the ability to greatly reduce physical, Energy, and soul attacks from the outside, effectively countering my abilities. I struggled greatly to barely kill it.

"While I was healing on the spot, the door to Room 0108 was opened from the outside. The old woman in red rushed in, killed me, and consumed me.

"The current me... is both Omega and not Omega."

?

Are you getting philosophical here?

Seemingly realizing the confusion and impatience of Li Ang and the others, the voice continued, "The Plague Doctor should know, right, Diogenes?"

At the mention of this name, the Plague Doctor's eyelids twitched, the pack mule squinted its eyes, and Bai Haozheng remained silent.

Li Ang kept his guard up against the vine sphere and asked with interest, "Who's that?"

"This Diogenes is not the ancient Greek philosopher from the 4th century BC, but rather... a very strange player."

The Plague Doctor hesitated for a moment, providing an uncertain answer. He looked at his companions and said, "You should know, the Demon Scientist Alliance is more of a loose hobby group than a guild.

"The guild master who established the alliance, Lord Side Truth, has never shown his face. The routine guild affairs, such as maintaining order, organizing team activities, reviewing membership applications, assessing whether applicants are qualified, and supervising the fairness of internal transactions, are all handled by several vice presidents and department heads. The members of the Demon Scientist Alliance all have their own special skills. Most have a defiant and solitary nature, determinedly independent, not seeking shelter under official organizations.

"There, technical exchange is always the priority.

"Theoretical knowledge books, engineering and architectural plans, Mechanical equipment blueprints, weapon design schematics, genetic sequence maps... All sorts of knowledge and technology can be clearly priced and sold through auction or barter.

"We even offer one-on-one tutorial sessions where, if you can afford it, a Lv1 newcomer can directly learn the high-throughput sequencing technology system of a single-cell functional genome from a Lv20 through memory infusion. They can learn how to remodel a mouse embryo into a goblin using primary Mage-level Magic Power in a medieval primitive environment, then transform the goblin into a Half-beast, and ultimately turn the Half-beast into a strong creature comparable to an Urban War God Soldier King.

"And that Diogenes..."

The Plague Doctor paused, choosing his words carefully, and slowly said, "He's not a vice president or department head of the guild, but it is said that he had joined when the Demon Scientist Alliance still existed as an online darknet forum.

"No one has ever seen his true face, nor does anyone know his true strength. Even the official organizations and civilian intelligence databases have no information about Diogenes's teams.

"Every time he logged on, he would hold a commission auction in the guild, selling unique technologies.

"These skills were completely different in type, with everything from Kinetic Armor construction blueprints to magic ship building instructions, and even a guide to the modification surgery of a living Saint...

"It was said that this type of surgery required plundering someone else's stigmata and transferring it to oneself. Once successful, one could quickly gain the power of a Saint Heir without any side effects—aside from the possibility of being hunted relentlessly by the Tribunal and the Temple Knights.

"Moreover, Diogenes did not accept Game Coin transactions. Before each auction, he would release part of the knowledge or technology and require interested parties to find him. They would barter with goods or exchange their own unique skill. If Diogenes was interested, the trade could be executed, and an exchange would take place. Sometimes, even some lower-level players could trade blueprints that were not very advanced but quite creative, and get their hands on precious knowledge."

"That's right."

The low voice from within the plant sphere said, "Before this mission, I had traded with Diogenes. Using the Spiritual Energy technology for creating virtual souls, I obtained a brain dissection blueprint from him. The blueprint described a unique biological modification technique called 'Eater's Rebirth'.

"Bound by the confidentiality contract that must be signed before every transaction with the Demon Scientist Alliance, I cannot disclose to you the specifics of the Eater's Rebirth technique. However, the general effect of this technology is to back up and store one's own brain state. This ranges from the brain's macro structures, such as the endbrain, interbrain, midbrain, pons, and medulla, to the micro level of brain neurons. It can be perfectly copied like burning a CD, copying all the information from the brain and storing everything into a part of the subject's stem cells.

"If the subject is consumed by something—like demons or cannibals—these stem cells 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. Initially, these organs will function normally and seem no different from before. But over time, these stem cells, which have recorded the original subject's brain information, will secretly absorb nutrients and reassemble a miniature brain near the stomach or intestinal organs. This miniature brain's macro and microstructures are identical to the subject's original brain, perfectly inheriting the original subject's memories, consciousness, personality, and emotions at the time of 'recording'.

"As time goes on, the miniature brain gradually takes over the function of the eater's spinal column and its reflexes. At the right time, it will overthrow the host, usurping control of the eater's body and isolating the eater's brain. This completes a comprehensive parasitic control—somewhat like a nematode."

Omega paused, then slowly said, "The original purpose of 'Eater's Rebirth' was to allow subjects with inherently limited life force to find a powerful shell for themselves and be reborn through a demon's body. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"My form of existence is different from ordinary people. I originally traded for this technology with Diogenes simply to enrich my database and backed up my own brain.

"Unexpectedly, in this mission, the old woman in red actually devoured my body and drank my brain.

"She knew I was proficient in soul technology and deliberately turned my soul into a mess. But what she didn't expect was that my miniature brain was slowly forming within her body. The newly formed brain, akin to a NAS network storage device, was able to firmly lock onto the Soul Fragments, preventing my soul from being completely infiltrated, saturated, and mixed by other entities. During the battle between Li Rising and the old woman in red, 'I' suddenly regained consciousness and caused some disruption to the old woman's actions with a soul shock.

"And now... Err, I am operating this rotten flesh's respiratory system to produce sound."

"..."

Li Ang recalled that during the previous battle, the old woman in red had frozen in her actions several times, taking several punches from Li Ang for no reason.

Omega seemed to be examining the condition of his current body. After a long silence, he slowly said, "The 'Eater's Rebirth' technology sounds very eerie and horrific, but in practice, it has a lot of restrictions.

"First of all, it is not simply a biological modification technology; it requires the combination of soul and Spiritual Energy techniques, which not everyone can learn.

"Secondly, the stem cells that have recorded brain information need to be constantly nourished by the God Soul. They cannot be too far away from the subject's soul, so they cannot be made into something like a lich's phylactery.

"Thirdly, the stem cells must accumulate into tumor-like growths. These growths have a horrific shape and are larger than an apple, much too big to be secretly fed to someone to take over their body, unless that person is foolish enough to dig up and eat fleshy fungi from the ground.

"Furthermore, a Host who has abandoned their own body must wait until the parasitism is completely finished and the body is taken over before they can release skills other than Spiritual Energy. During this process, they have no ability to resist. That is also why the old woman in red did not realize she had been parasitized by me, as her body was cursed and gradually rotting.

"Lastly, this ability actually cannot truly achieve reincarnation.

"The brain processes information, refines it into data, and stores data as memory. Memory generates consciousness, consciousness forms personality, personality carries the soul, the soul clings to the body, and the body is subject to the brain.

"The brain is the closed-loop endpoint that allows humans to become intelligent beings with independent consciousness. In this regard, the brain's priority is even higher than that of the soul.

"The current me... I certainly possess the brain structure of Omega, have inherited all of Omega's memories, and inherited Omega's personality.

"My abilities, temperament, personality, likes and dislikes, and values are all the same as Omega's.

"But Omega's original brain has been completely obliterated. The new brain is merely an extremely accurate replica, made of material completely unrelated to the original brain; it's essentially a brand-new version crafted in the likeness of the original.

"And my soul..."

The voice paused for a long time, then said hoarsely, "My soul... seems to have also been influenced by other Soul Fragments inside the old woman in red's body. I can recall memories of the Ghost of Hidden Eye, 13MARK, and some hotel guests. I feel the joys and sorrows within those memories, sometimes even confusing myself with them... I might be Omega, or I might just be some 'thing' that thinks it's Omega..."

As a technophile, Omega would not normally be so emotional and sentimental. He rarely got caught up in paradoxes like the Ship of Theseus or Heraclitus's river—most people don't have the leisure to ponder whether the self from ten minutes or ten years ago is still themselves.

But this time, both his brain and soul had been jumbled. With the brain growing from nothing and the soul intermingled with others, he simply could not remain undisturbed by it.

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

The game System is not one to lie. Currently, neither the game marketplace nor the civilian auction house has heard of anything like a name-change card.

Hmm...

If there were name-change cards, and if they were cheap, Li Ang had no doubt that a large number of players would purchase them to correct their flamboyant player nicknames, or perhaps make their nicknames sound even more chuunibyou.

[Lv17][Mind-Stealer Leader Omega]

A line of semi-transparent text appeared above the plant sphere.

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

Having identified Omega's true self, the next topic to discuss was how to dispose of him.

Unlike the Black Holy Son and Danfei, Omega had not betrayed anyone. During the previous battle, he had even taken the opportunity to control the old woman in red.

To kill him without discrimination seemed somewhat inappropriate.

Knowing that he was at the players' mercy, Omega very straightforwardly displayed his abilities, equipment, and Spiritual Energy information. He declared himself harmless and proactively suggested that Li Ang and the others use their abilities to restrict his movements. He also proposed that if the tall Bamboo Hat appeared at 3:30, they should kill him—to prevent Omega from being considered half-dead like Danfei.

The other players agreed to this request. Li Ang opened the plant sphere, revealing the rotten-flesh-like corpse of the old woman in red inside. He retrieved Omega's brain from the corpse and placed it into Liu Wu Dai's Glass Bottle. Next, Bai Haozheng stepped forward and used a conduit to remove all the Spiritual Energy from Omega.

Then, the players lowered the elevator car to the first floor. Everyone stayed in the elevator shaft, hanging on braces at different heights corresponding to their respective floors. At 3:29, everyone came out of the elevator shaft (Omega's Glass Bottle was placed in the first-floor corridor).

Perhaps Omega truly died on the fifth night. Or perhaps the hotel considered him a complete life form due to his use of Eater's Rebirth, possessing the old woman in red's corpse and Soul Fragments. In any case, the tall Bamboo Hat did not appear.

During the remaining time of the seventh night, everyone stayed on their respective floors. (Using the old woman in red as material, Li Ang crafted a makeshift body for Omega with built-in protective measures. Omega promised to transfer 1,500 Game Coins to Li Ang after leaving the scenario.) Each player used their own abilities to solve anomalies.

Since people were living or had died on every floor, the intensity of the anomaly attacks returned to the level of the first night, and no unusual figures were seen wandering in the corridors.

Even after 3:30 on the last night, Li Ang was still moving up and down the elevator shaft, helping other players resolve incidents. He also took the opportunity to lure and kill a corridor anomaly.

「The time was now... 07:02 in the early morning of the eighth day.」

Bai Haozheng stood in the corridor, looking at the clock at its end, and heaved a long sigh.

Two minutes earlier, the System's mission completion alert had sounded. After saying goodbye in the elevator shaft, the others had quickly been teleported away, leaving the Dolphin Hotel. Only Bai Haozheng remained behind.

He arrived in front of Room 0912, where he had arranged to meet Yuka Yuri.

CLICK.

He turned the doorknob.

It was not yet 07:07, the end of the curfew. As he pushed open the door, a note fluttered down from above the doorway. It read, "Please go to sleep."

He locked the door, lay down as instructed, and fell asleep. The scene before his eyes slowly rotated, and he found himself once again on the stone arch bridge.

He had something to do.

To save a girl who deserved salvation.