Chapter 148: Flesh Mountain? Bringing it back to Gensokyo?
"What did you have Youmu do?" Kaguya asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Yesterday at the hotel, I noticed a computer mall in the distance," Haruto explained, taking the bags from Youmu's hands. "So, I asked her to help us find some computer parts—graphics cards, that sort of thing. And some USB drives to bring back. I expect there are plenty of games from this world worth archiving."
He gave Youmu's head a casual, affectionate rub.
"You're very thoughtful," Kaguya praised, giving him a big thumbs-up in a show of high approval.
Nearby, the others—and not just Yotsuya Miko and Lin Xuelao—felt the corners of their mouths twitch. Even the members of the Ascending God Team couldn't suppress a wave of secondhand embarrassment.
This was a life-or-death survival instance. While every other player was scrambling, desperately trying to stay alive, who in their right mind would be thinking about scavenging for "local specialties" from another world? They stole a glance at their own captain, Ye Tian, only to find him staring intently at the massive Flesh Mountain in the distance, a look of eager anticipation on his face as if he couldn't wait to dive inside. The sight only deepened their sense of helplessness.
Their own boss was a battle maniac, and the wild expert they'd just met was a souvenir hunter. Was this the kind of "relaxation" exclusive to the overwhelmingly strong?
"Brother Haruto, what do you say? Shall we go in and take a look?" Ye Tian's eyes were burning with interest as he extended the invitation once more.
"Go in? Of course, we're going in." Haruto nodded. If it hadn't been for that sudden, unnerving glare from SCP-096, they probably would have entered long ago. They had already come this far; all that was left was the final stretch.
Counting from the moment they entered the instance, it was only the second day. They were still a long way off from the scheduled nuclear cleansing of the area.
With the leaders of both groups in agreement, the others could only trail along in silence. At this point, rather than hoping for a perfectly safe path, they put their faith in the belief that even if danger arose, their leaders would find a way to protect them.
The group marched toward the colossal Flesh Mountain.
The closer they got, the more staggering the sight became. It was spectacular enough from a distance, but the oppressive presence it exuded up close was on an entirely different level.
The mountain of flesh was slowly wriggling.
No, it wasn't so much wriggling as it was being pushed. Countless cockroach-like appendages at its base were desperately shoving the massive body forward. Each of these tentacles was as thick as a grown man's torso, yet they seemed insignificant against the sheer volume of the Flesh Mountain. However, with thousands of them working in concert, the grotesque mass was indeed moving, maintaining a speed roughly equivalent to a person's casual walk.
"Haruto, how about you…" Kaguya began, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Nope." Haruto crossed his arms in a firm 'X' and shot her down decisively. "I have an aesthetic sense, you know. Gensokyo might be short on fun things, but this... thing... setting aside whether I could even bring it back, even if I could, Lady Yukari would probably beat us both to death."
"Tch, what are you so scared of..." Kaguya pouted.
"If you're not scared, I'll just take a photo and send it to Eirin. I'll tell her you want to keep this thing in the Forest of Magic as a pet."
Kaguya visibly shuddered at the thought. Given how much Eirin spoiled her, she wouldn't resort to physical punishment, but she would very likely redirect her anger toward Kaguya's games and manga. Her precious, limited-edition collections would definitely not escape the ensuing disaster.
She would much rather Eirin scold her directly than lose her beloved treasures.
"Brother Haruto, hurry up. They've all gone in ahead of us," Yotsuya Miko urged, pointing to the openings on the Flesh Mountain that resembled gaping doorways.
At her reminder, Haruto led the others toward the nearest entrance.
However, just as they reached the precipice, a half-human, half-lizard creature scrambled out from the darkness within, lunging straight for Haruto.
Swoosh—
A flash of sword light sliced through the air. The crawling monster was split vertically down the middle in mid-flight. It fell to the ground with a wet thud, its internal organs and blood splashing across the fleshy ground.
"It was afraid just now," Lin Xuelao stated abruptly.
Yotsuya Miko nodded in agreement. Her Spirit Sight had allowed her to see the same thing.
Haruto raised an eyebrow at their remark. 'Afraid of Ye Tian, who went in first?' he wondered. With Ye Tian's strength, dealing with a monster of this level would indeed be trivial.
He didn't dwell on it and led the others into the entrance of the Flesh Mountain.
The interior was exceptionally spacious, like a grand, fleshy plaza. Ye Tian's group was already waiting in the center. He was gesturing toward the path directly in the middle, while his teammates were frantically trying to dissuade him.
Upon seeing Haruto and the others finally enter, Ye Tian's eyes lit up. "Brother Haruto, which way do you think we should go?" he asked immediately. "A true expert should forge straight ahead, right?"
"I think any way is fine," Haruto said with a shrug. "Is there a difference between these paths?"
"I think so too," Kaguya added, looking at the nearly identical, gaping orifices around them. None seemed any different from the others.
"It's not like that, please let me explain," the Female Secretary interjected, her voice laced with helplessness. "When we came in just now, we saw a monster rushing out of another opening from a distance..."
"If you mean a guy that looks like a skinless lizard, it just tried to run out of here and ran into us," Haruto interrupted. "It's already dead."
The Female Secretary was stunned, her eyes widening in surprise. It hadn't been long since that monster had fled, and they hadn't heard any sounds of a fight. This meant Haruto's group had likely dispatched it in a single, silent exchange.
Ye Tian, on the other hand, showed only a flicker of surprise before accepting it as a matter of course. His sharp intuition had long ago told him that Haruto's group was composed of experts among experts.
"So that monster ran out of another opening. What does that have to do with you not wanting to take this one right in front of us?" Haruto was still confused.
Just then, a low, guttural roar echoed from deep within the passage directly ahead.
"That's the sound," the Female Secretary explained, her expression turning solemn. "The monster we encountered earlier was about to step into this very passage. But as soon as it heard that roar, it became instantly terrified and turned to flee without a moment's hesitation."
"Oh? That powerful?" Haruto's interest was immediately piqued.
The moment he spoke, Yotsuya Miko and the others mentally braced themselves. Based on their understanding of him, as long as something seemed even remotely interesting, Brother Haruto would definitely go join the fun.
Hearing the change in Haruto's tone, the Female Secretary felt a familiar sense of dread well up in her heart. "You... surely you don't want to take this path, do you?" she asked tentatively.
"I want to go take a look."
Although the Female Secretary stared at him with eyes that screamed, 'Please say you don't want to,' she ultimately couldn't overcome Haruto's intense curiosity.
"You... you all..." She was momentarily speechless and could only sigh in resignation, screaming internally. Why are the leaders of both our teams so damn similar?!
Since both captains had made their decision, the team members had no choice but to comply. The group stepped into the opening directly ahead.
The walls of the passage were living flesh, not only a deep, bloody red but also pulsating with a slow, rhythmic beat. The path was long and winding. The expected big boss never appeared, but they did, unexpectedly, encounter some small fry along the way.
After walking for nearly five minutes, they rounded a corner and came upon a creature shaped like a child-sized imp. It was as if a human had been grotesquely mutated into an insect. Its spine was bent backward repeatedly at a bizarre angle until its torso curled into a tiny ball, while its forearms and shins were bent at sharp ninety-degree angles, used as limbs to crawl across the ground.
"Are these... humans?" a member of the Ascending God team asked, his voice trembling. Even after all the terrifying scenes they had witnessed, this eerie sight still made them feel nauseated.
"Yes, but not entirely," Yotsuya Miko answered in a low voice. "I see three species in them: human, insect, and ghost."
The Bug Ghost sensed the scent of living humans and immediately grew agitated. It lunged toward them, letting out whimpering roars that could be faintly understood.
"It's human... it's human! I want to eat!"
Ye Tian took a deep breath and stepped forward. The tip of the giant sword he dragged behind him ground a deep, blood-red trail into the fleshy floor.
Shing—
The greatsword swung. A thin line of blood appeared from head to toe on the lunging Bug Ghost. The next moment, it split cleanly into two halves and fell to the ground.
"They were probably players from the previous run," Ye Tian said, sheathing his sword. His tone was heavy, laced with a grim seriousness. "Since they've already turned into this half-human, half-ghost state, it's better to kill them and give them a final peace."
His words plunged the team into a brief, somber silence, but no one opposed him.
The passage ahead was filled with more Bug Ghosts, some large and some small, but all of them displayed an extreme, desperate craving for human flesh.
Five minutes... ten minutes... half an hour... a full two hours passed.
Just as exhaustion began to set in for everyone, the scene ahead suddenly changed.
They walked out of the fleshy passage and arrived in a very peculiar space.
There was no flesh or filth here. Instead, it looked like an ordinary farmhouse courtyard. A simple, large wooden house stood quietly in the center. In front of it, a small patch of green grass was enclosed by a rustic fence. A few cattle and sheep were leisurely grazing, and a group of chicks pecked for food in the grass.
Lush green leaves swayed gently in a nonexistent breeze, forming a stark, impossible contrast with the hellish scene they had just endured.
"What the hell is this? The whiplash is a bit much," Haruto couldn't help but mutter, his brow furrowed.
Just as everyone stood there, filled with doubt, the wooden door of the house opened with a soft creak.
A silver-haired old grandmother dressed in coarse cloth stepped out. She had a kind, weathered face and a gentle smile. Her gaze swept over the group as she asked softly, "Children, you've traveled a long way, haven't you? Would you like to come in and rest your feet?"
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