Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Chapter 997  Different Regions

Seeing that bizarrely shaped giant mushroom person, even Franca, a veteran gamer, felt a sense of morbid curiosity and horror.

My goodness, what kind of monstrosity is this?

As expected of something evolved from a great existence’s psychological trauma, who knows if it’s from Mr. Fool or the Celestial Worthy…

As similar thoughts flashed through her mind, Franca and Jenna tacitly split to the sides, one hiding in the shadows, the other concealing her form.

Luo Shan had never cooperated with them in Beyonder combat before, and this was her first time encountering a monster without barriers separating them. Moreover, this wasn’t the domain of her Shaman abilities, so she was momentarily at a loss.

She instinctively turned around, wanting to run back to the previous hall, moving so fast she left an afterimage in place.

However, although she chose the double doors behind her, she was shocked to find herself rapidly approaching the blood-red giant mushroom person with white patterns.

At the same time, Franca emerged from the shadows.

She felt the shadows she was hiding in strangely come alive, as if trying to control and erode her.

The next second, she and Luo Shan saw the giant mushroom person suddenly swell and grow larger, a giant lava sword burning with pale blue flames coalescing in its hand.

The giant mushroom person took a step closer, swinging down the great sword that seemed formed of red-hot lava.

Franca didn’t dodge backward, but instead shot forward, lowering her body. Before the lava sword could strike, she darted past the scorching heat waves to the mushroom person’s side.

Jenna’s body quickly outlined against the ceiling position, holding a brass-colored revolver aimed at the giant mushroom’s head.

Bang!

The giant mushroom person’s sword strike hit the inexperienced Luo Shan, shattering this Painter like a mirror.

The Mirror Substitution that Jenna and Franca had previously made for Luo Shan finally came in handy.

The lava sword didn’t stop after shattering Luo Shan, heavily striking the corridor floor and sending out pale blue sulfur fireballs.

Rumble!

Jenna had just pulled the trigger, firing a bright yellow bullet at the giant mushroom person’s head, when she was engulfed by the chain reaction of explosions.

Most of the corridor, including Franca and the giant mushroom person itself, was affected by the explosion created by over a dozen sulfur fireballs.

Franca and Jenna’s Mirror Substitutions were passively triggered, their bodies first thinning, then developing cracks, and finally shattering into pieces.

When the explosive wind in the narrow environment subsided, the figures of Franca, Jenna, and Luo Shan outlined at the giant mushroom person’s original position, at the end of this corridor, next to the other set of double doors.

They saw that half of the giant mushroom person’s head had collapsed, oozing dark red blood, white mycelium, and tiny spores. They saw its body similarly torn open by the explosion, revealing large wounds filled with both mycelium and flesh.

As the flesh writhed and the mycelium grew, the giant mushroom person’s wounds rapidly healed.

Seeing this, Franca’s scalp tingled. She turned around, pushed open the door, and rushed out of this corridor.

She felt that fighting in this narrow environment wasn’t advantageous for them, while the terrifying mushroom person with its exaggerated self-healing ability and explosive methods was clearly more in its element!

So, she had to escape from here, firstly to try to shake off the giant mushroom person, and secondly to find a scene more suitable for Demonesses and a Painter to fight.

Jenna didn’t hesitate, closely following Franca.

Luo Shan, who thought she would die, was surprised that the Mirror Substitution actually worked, and having gained experience, chose to imitate Franca and Jenna’s actions.

The trio quickly passed through the open door, entering a new dimly lit corridor.

Behind them, the two halves of the wooden door swayed several times before finally closing completely.

Franca moved forward while vigilantly observing whether the giant mushroom person was pursuing them, but found that behind the door was dead silence, with no further movement.

“Uh… does each type of psychological trauma only operate in a fixed area?” Franca slowed her pace, making a guess based on her experience and imagination.

Jenna nodded, looking around and said, “Now we need to be alert to the psychological trauma in this area?”

“What psychological trauma?” Luo Shan looked confused.

“Monsters similar to that mushroom person just now,” Franca explained simply.

Luo Shan’s eyes turned slightly, and she blurted out, “Monsters transformed from Zhou Mingrui’s psychological trauma?”

Very smart… Franca pondered for a moment and said, “It also includes the psychological trauma of evil forces.”

Luo Shan was silent for two seconds, about to say something more when she suddenly started coughing.

“Cough cough cough…” She paused and said, “Why do I feel like I’ve suddenly fallen ill?”

Disease? Can that mushroom person also create mystical pathogens? Jenna and I are both Demoness of Affliction with some resistance to Disease abilities. Brief contact won’t infect us, but Luo Shan can’t resist, showing symptoms? The symptoms appeared very quickly, this isn’t at the level of Sequence 7… After Zhou Mingrui was stimulated, did the power level of the dream city change, starting from the underground part of Mushu Hospital, with no corresponding manifestation in the outside world yet? Jenna vaguely understood the reason and took out a bottle of healing agent from her Traveler’s Bag.

She didn’t rush to provide treatment for Luo Shan, but pondered and asked, “Can you draw efficacious medicine for yourself?”

Even if the drawn medicine had a limited duration, it could truly cure diseases—as long as all the mystical pathogens were eliminated before the effect wore off, it would work!

At this time, Franca had also figured out the reason and muttered, “That mushroom person is too terrifying!

“What kind of monster is this exactly!”

Luo Shan already felt her forehead burning up. She shook her head and said,

“I don’t know exactly what this disease is, nor do I know what medicine to draw to cure it.”

“Then drink this.” Jenna handed the healing agent to Luo Shan.

She and Franca always maintained a state of having two bottles of healing agent on them, with previously consumed ones either coming from Lumian or being replenished by him.

After experiencing the substitute’s death, Luo Shan now fully trusted Franca and Jenna. She took the healing agent, immediately unscrewed the cap, and gulped it down.

In just about ten seconds, she blinked and said, “I think I’m fine now, the illness is gone…

“It’s really amazing!”

“Your ability to draw is also amazing,” Franca said humbly, pointing to the end of the current corridor, “Let’s continue forward, we need to find the elevator lobby quickly, otherwise who knows what we’ll encounter…”

She was still shaken by that giant mushroom person.

Jenna and Luo Shan felt the same, quickening their pace to follow behind Franca.

They had just taken two or three steps when the double doors at the end of the corridor suddenly swung open.

Franca and Jenna reflexively used Invisibility, then considered how to help Luo Shan hide.

Luo Shan had somewhat adapted to the current situation. Using a pencil, she quickly drew a simple, inconspicuous, childlike doodle of a door on the side wall in just two seconds.

This door had no markings and wouldn’t lead anywhere. Luo Shan placed her palm on the handle and yanked it backward sharply.

The door, just drawn on the wall, miraculously opened, revealing a dark area about the size of Room 2303’s bathroom.

Luo Shan hid inside, then carefully closed the paper-thin door.

The wall surface was left with only a few faint, barely noticeable pencil marks resembling a door outline.

By this time, the double doors at the end of the corridor had fully opened, and an orderly wearing light blue clothing and a white mask slowly entered the current area, pushing a transfer bed.

Franca held her breath and turned her gaze towards the orderly and the transfer bed.

She saw that the orderly’s eyes were both empty and wooden, yet seemed to hide deep malice. She saw that the surface of the transfer bed was covered with a thin blanket, but there was no patient or corpse sleeping on it.

What made the back of Franca’s neck go cold was that the thin blanket appeared to be in a bulging state, yet there was clearly nothing underneath it.

Covering an invisible object? Franca and Jenna pressed their backs tightly against the side wall, trying hard to increase the distance between themselves and the orderly and the transfer bed.

Amidst the sound of wheels rolling over floor cracks, the orderly maintained a slow, stiff posture, pushing the transfer bed past Franca and Jenna, towards the double doors leading to the corridor with the giant mushroom person.

Only when this transfer bed had pushed open the doors, slowly left the current area, and disappeared from their sight did Franca and Jenna end their Invisibility and return to the middle of the corridor.

Luo Shan also opened the door on the wall and nimbly leaped out.

She didn’t forget to casually “close the door”.

“How did you know it was safe to come out?” Jenna, who was about to knock on the door, asked.

Luo Shan raised the pencil in her hand and said with a smile, “I drew a peephole inside.”

“Mm, let’s continue looking for the elevator lobby.” Franca took the lead without hesitation.

Just as they reached the exit at the end of the corridor, that set of double doors suddenly swung open.

It had opened again, when Franca, Jenna, and Luo Shan were less than three meters away from it.

…

Mushu Hospital, Emergency Center.

Based on his experience from the last hospital visit, Zhou Mingrui described the symptoms of acute gastroenteritis and successfully obtained a lab test order from the doctor.

He took this order and turned into the right passageway, heading towards the emergency blood drawing area.

While waiting for his number to be called at the blood drawing area, he clutched his stomach, pretending he could no longer hold on, and quickly left the area, entering the first-floor lobby and walking towards the nearest public restroom.

During this process, he naturally looked around, seeing if he could find any odd details.

He hadn’t discovered anything in the emergency center before.

The nearest public restroom was adjacent to elevators 6 to 10. In the dim light, Zhou Mingrui quickly circled to the elevator lobby.

He pressed both “Up” and “Down” simultaneously, observing the elevators’ operation.

Soon, two elevators arrived on the first floor, their doors opening almost simultaneously.

Zhou Mingrui glanced left and right, finding nothing unusual about the upward elevator, but the downward one gave him a feeling of leading to hell, to the source of fear.

Is Mushu Hospital’s problem underground? Zhou Mingrui silently mused to himself.