The Creatures that We Are

Gray Bear bolted, feeling a chill coming from behind his back—in the literal sense. As soon as he took his second step, the mummy inside the coffin unleashed a ripple of translucent white energy that spread across the court.

It was familiar. It hit all of them immediately, numbing them and silencing their energy for a second.

Then they regained control over their bodies, backing away and raising their guard.

Inside the coffin, the black sigils covering the mummy morphed into countless black worms and crawled toward the mummy’s protruding belly, forming a black dot where the belly button should be. It looked like the worms had burrowed into the mummy's abdomen.

“Wah—”

A short eerie and chilling cry of an infant came from the mummy’s abdomen, the sound sweeping every single hair on their skin like flowing water, the strange tactile sensation triggering a deep fear.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The white bandages covering the mummy started falling off, the ones around the belly dropping especially quickly, fluttering outward like white seaweeds underwater.

A few seconds later, they all saw the pale body of a woman split at her abdomen. An unnatural viscous black liquid gushed out like a squid's ink.

“Wah.” There was another cry; the sound seemed to seize all of their hearts. Then splat! A dark red hand reached out through the gash on the body’s abdomen. Then another hand. The two hands clawed at the flesh on two sides and forced the belly open.

[Warning, you are under extremely great danger!]

[Luck acquisition rate increases to 8000 times!]

Whoosh. A visible translucent crimson force shot out from the sarcophagus, giving them no time to react before enveloping the entire court at the heart of the space.

Watch out! Gao Yang shouted to warn his teammates, but all he could hear was a gurgle that sounded like boiling water, which dampened all other sounds.

Then the world distorted around him.

The obelisk and the sarcophagus, the stone floor under his feet, the burning pattern on the altar, and his five companions—they all distorted, not objectively, but subjectively.

Everything seemed to have turned into floppy jelly. Gao Yang lifted his right hand, and indeed, his hand seemed distorted to him as well.

His energy struggled to move to his palm, stuttering like a badly transmitted signal. The inconsistency was stark.

Gao Yang was reminded of a game he had played before, Human Melt Flat[1].

They were just like the rubber men in the game, who walked like they were boneless.

The only ones who weren’t affected was the abomination crawling out of the dead life monster’s protruding belly.

It was a meter tall with a large head and slim limbs, its figure frail. Were it a human, it would be about three years old, but malformed due to serious malnutrition.

It didn’t have hair, nose, or ears, and its eyes were two empty sockets. Its mouth opened unnaturally wide like the maw of a wild beast.

Its body was slick, dripping with grease-like dark red liquid. Crimson bubbles burst every once in a while with a pop, like its body was boiling.

“Hah…hah…”

It panted as it crawled on the ground. Strange crimson force field undulated around it, the disorienting effect continuing without weakening.

Soon, it managed to prop itself up with two frail hands on the ground.

It stumbled and staggered in an attempt to walk forward, and after a few steps, it began to walk with steady footing. Then it ran toward Gray Bear.

Every step it took unleashed a greater ripple of crimson energy around it, disorienting everyone on the court repeatedly.

In beast form, Gray Bear tightened his fists in a defensive stance, but his body swayed weakly without any strength like he was drunk, while the red little abomination ran more and more quickly, having gotten used to the crimson force field. In a twisted yet consistent posture, it charged at Gray Bear.

In the blink of an eye, it had moved more than ten meters to reach Gray Bear.

“Piss off!”

Like a drunkard, Gray Bear swung his fist at the abomination’s head with difficulty. The abomination dodged the punch easily, its right hand quickly melting and taking the shape of a red stake, piercing into Gray Bear’s abdomen.

Crackle.

The crimson force field flowed into Gray Bear’s body like an electric current, wreaking havoc inside him. The melting power instantly grew five times stronger, making a mess of all his internal organs.

Gray Bear threw up a mouthful of blood, collapsing bonelessly.

Swoosh. A greenish purple slash came down on the little abomination from above. It didn’t even manage to turn around before its body was cut into two halves like firewood.

It was War Tiger.

As expected of a veteran fighter, with the help of Killing Expert, he was the first to get used to his condition and could now fight at half of his usual efficiency.

He had a fifty percent chance of saving Gray Bear, but he chose not to so that he could make a lethal strike at the little abomination for certain.

Gray Bear had taken Dr. Jia’s medicine anyway. As long as his heart and head weren’t seriously damaged, he would come back to life. And the little abomination was only a meter tall. Given Gray Bear was close to two and a half meters tall in beast state, the little abomination was unlikely to damage his heart and head.

War Tiger had thought through all that in two seconds.

Then he managed to cut the little abomination in half.

Without giving the little abomination any chance, War Tiger dropped down and whirled around as soon as he landed, making a backward swing to cut the little abomination horizontally, further splitting it into four pieces.

Splat. Thud.

The four pieces scattered, splattering slick red liquid. However, the little abomination was clearly inhuman, and it lived.

The four pieces rolled on the ground twice before converging like they were pulled by a powerful magnetic force, attempting to assemble anew.

“Fire!”

1. A reference to the game, Human: Fall Flat ☜

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