Moon

The Stomach gradually closed, and the surroundings slowly sank into total darkness.

Only a few scattered glimmers from phone screens and lighting equipment flickered in the dark, reflecting faces full of despair.

“Mayday! This is Containment Unit B7. We have experienced a containment failure due to an intruder. A large number of personnel are trapped in the Stomach. Requesting emergency backup!”

“Repeat! Requesting emergency backup! Is anyone there?”

“What about the people up top? Open the isolation valves!”

Only the static of electronic interference crackled from the communicators. Occasionally, the sounds of chaotic firefights and alarms from other sectors echoed through, but there was no response to their pleas for help.

“Why? I’ve done so much for the lab! I’ve handled so many troublesome experimental subjects for the managers...” a scarred security guard muttered in disbelief, his eyes glazed over.

“Stop shouting, it’s useless,” another older researcher said with a bitter smile, his face numb with resignation.

“Don't you know how the laboratory operates by now? In the eyes of the higher-ups, we are no different from this ‘waste.’ Once the risk of a contamination leak outweighs our value, we are just expendable consumables to be sacrificed.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a sudden mutation occurred.

On the rust-red fleshy walls surrounding them, countless nauseating tentacles sprouted like a forest after rain!

They varied in thickness, covered in slimy secretions and lined with hideous barbs, tumors, suckers, and gnashing fangs that constantly snapped open and shut!

The purpose of these tentacles seemed to be only one: to accelerate digestion!

Under the terrified gaze of the survivors, the corpses of those who had died from the fall and the living who were too injured to resist were the first to meet their end.

The tentacles coiled around their targets, barbs sinking deep into flesh while fangs gnawed on bone. Blood and shredded meat splattered, staining the already filthy ground a deeper crimson.

Even more hair-raising was that the tips of some exceptionally thick tentacles would slowly bloom like flowers made of fleshy petals.

However, the inner walls of these flowers were lined with dense, serrated teeth and glands that constantly secreted acid!

These terrifying man-eating flowers accurately clamped onto the necks of the corpses, wriggling as the sharp teeth inside the cavities ground through bone and residual tissue with a sickening squelching sound.

Finally, in a bizarre display, the flowers swallowed the corpses whole before lazily retracting.

This scene completely shattered the mental defenses of some survivors.

“Monsters! They’re all monsters!!”

“Let me out! Aaaah!”

Humans weren't the only ones trapped here.

The muscular monsters that had fallen with them had long since lost their minds, indiscriminately attacking everything around them, including the tentacles.

Meanwhile, some supernatural creatures with a modicum of instinctive intelligence sensed the lethal danger of the environment. They began attacking the incoming tentacles and smaller blood-red meat-whiskers, trying to tear open a path to survival.

For a moment, flashes of blades and powers lit the dark. A large number of tentacles and meat-whiskers were severed, plopping onto the viscous floor.

“It’s working! These things aren't that strong!” Someone saw hope and found the courage to join the fight.

Unfortunately, that hope was as fleeting as a bubble.

The severed tentacles and meat-whiskers that fell to the ground were immediately covered, decomposed, and absorbed by the acid on the floor.

Then, before everyone's eyes, new tentacles grew from the original stumps, even thicker and more hideous than before.

Someone watched in horror as the man-eating flower tentacle that had swallowed a corpse was cut down, only to regrow in the same spot. It then acted as if nothing had happened, finding the half-digested remains on the ground to continue its meal.

The survivors instinctively huddled together, back to back, seeking a final shred of security.

But even then, death never stopped.

More people were dragged away by tentacles in the chaos, shredded and digested amidst screams of agony.

Some used their knives and guns to hack frantically at the fleshy walls where tentacles hadn't grown yet, hoping to carve a way out.

But the blades sank into the elastic flesh, leaving only shallow marks that healed almost instantly.

The fleshy walls seemed to possess infinite depth and regenerative power; they were simply not something that could be destroyed by human strength.

As the Stomach continued to devour and digest the fallen nutrients, the internal ecology deteriorated rapidly.

Barb-covered meat-whiskers proliferated wildly like reeds, forming a blood-colored prairie covering dozens of square meters.

If someone accidentally tripped into it, they would immediately be submerged by the surging “waves of grass.” The barbs acted like countless miniature scrapers, flaying the flesh off their bodies layer by layer.

In just a dozen seconds, a living person would be reduced to a pale skeleton draped in bloody threads!

Meanwhile, the tentacles had grown from their initial one-meter length to over three meters, their bases as thick as a grown man's waist.

They began actively attacking the clustered survivors, easily swatting several people away and coiling around them.

The acid secreted by the floor increased, leaving almost no place to stand.

Corpses in direct contact with the ground had their faces melted away, revealing hideous skulls. Viscous eyeballs rolled onto the floor with a faint popping sound.

The collapse began.

Some people, fearing the pain, chose to end their own lives.

Others incoherently chanted the names of various gods and buddhas, praying for a salvation that did not exist.

More and more lighting devices flickered out.

Wails, weeping, curses, and prayers... all the sounds of hell harmonized here.

Then, another mutation occurred on the stomach walls as clusters of tube-like fleshy organs protruded.

Puff.

Plumes of pale yellow gas with a pungent, fishy stench violently erupted from the tubes.

Many people were engulfed by the gas.

In the next second, an even more horrific scene unfolded.

Those enveloped by the gas let out agonizing shrieks. Their skin and flesh rapidly dissolved and dripped away. Their faces melted, and they watched with their own eyes as their limbs turned into bare bone.

Those who inhaled even a small amount of the pale yellow gas found their internal organs decomposing from the inside.

They painfully tore at their clothes, only to reveal torsos that were dissolving from both sides. Their sternums and ribs became transparent cages, revealing half-melted, twitching organs.

The process of death was prolonged, and the pain was amplified to the extreme.

No one could save them.

“You! You have a way, don’t you? Please save us! Save us!”

A mentally broken researcher, seeing that Yue Shi was unharmed, crawled over and actually begged the intruder for help.

Yue Shi slowly turned his head, his eyes flickering with malice in the darkness. He spoke to the survivors who cast hopeful glances his way, one word at a time:

“Even if I had a way out, I absolutely wouldn't save you.”

“Hahahaha...”

His laughter rang out particularly harsh and arrogant in this purgatory.

In truth, Yue Shi wasn't completely unscathed; his barrier was being continuously consumed.

The teddy bear possessed by Ghost had been dissolved shortly after they fell in.

At this moment, Ghost’s true form was hovering tightly beside Yue Shi. The supernatural objects he had been carrying had already been retrieved by Yue Shi in time.

“Why did you stop me from flying up earlier?” Yue Shi asked.

Ghost said, “That guy up there seems immune to all physical and non-physical attacks. Flying up to tangle with him would have been a waste of time and energy, and it would have been easy to get surrounded if it dragged on. It was better to just come down and pretend we were finished to make them lower their guard. We’ll find an opportunity to catch them off guard later.”

“I only thought that because I have absolute confidence in your strength.”

“But I didn't expect this hellhole below to be so dangerous and sinister. You aren't out of options, are you?” Ghost’s voice carried a hint of teasing; he felt certain Yue Shi still had a trump card.

The corners of Yue Shi’s mouth curled upward. He wasn't the type to blindly follow someone else's advice.

The reason he had gone along with Ghost’s suggestion and hadn't forced his way up was because, at the moment of the fall, he had felt a tremor from the depths of his soul—an indescribable craving.

A powerful desire to “devour” something!

The Insight vision at his brow flickered wildly, ignoring all interference to capture the core information of this place.

【The Stomach of the God of Food】.

【Has one and only ability, ‘Even Gods Can Be Eaten’: An organ originating from a certain unspeakable existence, possessing the characteristic of digesting, decomposing, and absorbing the essence of all things. Theoretically, given enough time, even formless and weightless existences such as deities, concepts, rules, and information can be digested by it. Currently in an incomplete activated state; digestion efficiency is limited.】

Yue Shi’s heart skipped a beat.

This was the second time he had seen an annotation related to a “God.”

The last one was the Sea God's Scion.

Currently, he still wasn't sure what kind of existences the “Gods” of this world were.

However, when that so-called “Sea God” had descended, causing the boundless ocean to submerge Chijing City, Yue Shi had felt this same soul-deep, almost instinctive hunger to devour.

He wanted to eat Him!

And now, facing this Stomach of the God of Food, that craving emerged once more.

The Stomach of the God of Food didn't feel as dangerous as the Sea God, but it was clearer and more within reach.

Ever since unlocking his new ability in Chijing City, Yue Shi could clearly feel that the “progress bar” representing his spatial path had slowed down significantly.

He had stormed through Lab 0, slaughtering left and right, yet the progress bar hadn't moved much. Perhaps the upgrade required more “experience,” or perhaps he had reached a special threshold where low-level essence could no longer satisfy the requirement.

He was still about halfway from lighting the next notch.

But right now, he had a strong premonition: if he could swallow this Stomach of the God of Food, he might achieve an exaggerated breakthrough in one go!

This feeling was somewhat similar to when he dealt with the Crucible of Life; in fact, the two felt alike in some ways.

The Crucible of Life could forcibly fuse anything, while the Stomach of the God of Food could digest anything.

Ghost urged Yue Shi, “The digestion and decomposition here seem to be a high-level rule. An information lifeform won't last long in this environment. Find a way out, fast!”

Yue Shi nodded and took out a mooncake, tossing it to Ghost. “This thing has the ‘indestructible’ characteristic. It shouldn't be easily digested. You can possess it.”

Ghost immediately dove into the mooncake. As soon as he possessed it, he felt something was odd, but the mooncake did indeed ignore the digestion of the Stomach, remaining completely unharmed.

Then, Yue Shi did something that horrified Ghost.

He didn't try to kill the Stomach first and then extract its source. Instead, following his instincts, he actively withdrew all his defenses and reached out with his right hand, pressing it directly against the acid-covered, rust-red fleshy wall!

Sizzle!

A piercing sound rang out.

The skin on Yue Shi’s palm was instantly corroded and dissolved, revealing the white bone beneath, and the corrosion began spreading rapidly up his arm.

Yet he acted as if he couldn't feel the pain, his gaze becoming increasingly fervent and focused.

“Are you crazy?!” Ghost screamed from inside the mooncake.

Yue Shi acted as if he hadn't heard, the intensifying desire to devour dominating his actions.

Ghost wanted to say more, but in the next instant, he saw Yue Shi’s entire body begin to emit a faint, silvery-white radiance.

Behind him, a massive, ancient, and illusory gate silently emerged.

It was covered in incomprehensible, mysterious patterns that constantly flowed and shifted as it slowly opened inward.

The gap in the door grew wider and wider, revealing a deep, boundless, and absolute darkness behind it.

In the deepest part of that darkness, a moon slowly rose.

The moon was so dim, yet it radiated an endless, pure malice.

With just one look, Ghost felt a soul-deep terror and trembling!

His information structure was nearly contaminated by the moon’s eerie and sinister nature.

At this moment, Yue Shi had fallen into a wondrous state.

He resonated with the moon behind him, his body becoming a conduit.

The Stomach of the God of Food sensed a lethal threat and let out a silent shriek.

The entire space spasmed and contracted violently. All the tentacles, meat-whiskers, and fleshy tubes surged frantically toward Yue Shi, trying to digest him completely before he could finish some kind of ritual!

But as they drew near and were touched by the moonlight, they immediately lost their vitality.

The light from the Evil Moon behind Yue Shi spread out like a living thing, gently enveloping the entire internal space of the Stomach.

The rust-red fleshy walls, the dancing tentacles, the churning acid, and the permeating pale yellow gas all died the moment they touched the moonlight.

As if their essence were being forcibly drawn out by an invisible giant hand, the Stomach turned into torrents of murky fluid, wailing as they were dragged into the illusory gate and merged into that moon.

Devour!

This was a naked devouring of a lower level by a higher one!

The process was swift. The Stomach space vibrated violently, the fleshy walls gradually becoming withered and unable to resist any longer.

Ghost, hiding inside the mooncake and shielded by its ‘indestructible’ characteristic, felt an utterly absurd thought emerge amidst his boundless fear.

Did this world... originally have a moon?

Why did his memories of the moon suddenly feel so jarring?

Could it be that the ‘indestructible’ characteristic of the Five-Metal Mooncake was quietly warping his cognition?

No, no, no... was this warping, or was it a correction!

Was that luminous celestial body in the night sky... truly the moon?

Also, the name ‘Yue Shi’ was truly strange. How had he never noticed it before?