[You possessed the shell of the Ascended Scytheblade!]

[The inherited memories within the shell gradually revived…]

[…]

[Once, under the Desire Wet Nurse’s care, the children lived in comfort and abundance.]

[The children built great cities, sang and danced on prosperous streets, slept in luxurious mansions, and offered praises in magnificent churches…]

[Everyone enjoyed the deep love bestowed by the Desire Wet Nurse, their faces brimming with satisfied smiles.]

[Every child firmly believed that such beauty would last forever.]

[Until one day, the once-peaceful divine kingdom was struck by an unknown meteor…]

[The source of all sin, the progenitor of all demons, the Primordial Firefly, was thus born.]

[The evil deity led the demon legions it had created, igniting war upon the once-beautiful land.]

[An unprecedented war turned the prosperous land into scorched earth, the glorious cities of yesterday into ruins, until they were engulfed by endless flames of war…]

[How could the innocent children, with frail mortal bodies, resist the demons’ hideous limbs?]

[As the war retreated step by step, the once-happy smiles slowly vanished. Beautiful families were torn apart one after another, demons rampaged across the world, and hell was filled with innocent children…]

[The merciless war destroyed the land on which the children depended. The divine kingdom’s soil was saturated with demonic miasma and no longer fit for life.]

[Even if their hearts were filled with reluctance, the children could only cut off their attachment to their homeland and cede it to those greedy demons, seeking a new home.]

[The Desire Wet Nurse led the children to establish a new divine kingdom in the dark, oppressive depths underground.]

[They thought that by giving up the surface and living below where no sun shone, the war would cease. But how could those naive children understand that this was a ruthless war of extermination?]

[The demons would not spare a single living child!]

[The demons descended into the depths, and the flames of war followed…]

[The Desire Wet Nurse endured again and again, until the fury could no longer be suppressed. Unable to bear watching the children massacred, the Desire Wet Nurse abandoned the mercy once upheld.]

[The Desire Wet Nurse exhausted all divine power, split the authority of the demonic deity, and bestowed upon the children the ability to ascend into angels.]

[When fragile mortal bodies gained the power of Ascension, the horn of counterattack finally sounded!]

[You were also one of the children granted Ascension by the Desire Wet Nurse.]

[Can you still endure the inhuman slaughter? Can you still endure the cruel reality that even if you eke out a living underground, the demons will not let you go?]

[If you cannot endure it, then use the Ascension granted by the Desire Wet Nurse and march to the front line of war.]

[You fight for yourself, you fight for every inch of land of the divine kingdom, you fight for the great Desire Wet Nurse who exhausted divine power and wished only that you possess the ability to resist!]

[Kill every demon you see, even if it costs the last drop of your blood!]

[An honorable death in battle is better than continuing to scrape by.]

[Your body will become nourishment to moisten the land of the divine kingdom, your soul will return to the Desire Wet Nurse’s embrace, and your great merits will be remembered by posterity and engraved upon the immortal stone stele.]

[Death does not mean the end. Under the Desire Wet Nurse’s nurturing you will be reborn to begin the next cycle of life, until all demons are annihilated and you leave the dark, oppressive depths to live again under brilliant sunlight!]

[…]

[The fragmented memories ended abruptly here!]

A long stretch of memory was a description of this world’s background.

After reading it, Lin Xun finally understood why this chapter was full of half-human, half-insect monsters.

“So if you can’t beat them, you join them?”

He opened the Shell Panel to see what secret the maggot-person shell was hiding.

[Shell – Ascended Scytheblade]

[True Name: Bone-Shatter]

[Compatibility: 86% (+55%)]

[Shell Quality: Fine]

[Shell Level: 67 (+37)]

[Shell Equipment: None]

[Shell Skill: Scythe Slash (Fine-grade skill): …]

[Shell Skill: Return to the Nest (special skill): As a product of mutation, you are a special maggot-person closest to the original state. Possessing the initial form, you will receive an additional favor.]

[With this skill, you will be guided by unseen will to a place deep underground to receive a favor left by the Desire Wet Nurse.]

[Shell Skill: Molting (special skill): As a product of mutation, you cannot truly obtain Ascension power. Even if Ascension succeeds, it is only a false shell. You can only ever be a maggot-person.]

[Use this skill to shed the current Scytheblade carapace and return to maggot-person state.]

Lin Xun frowned at the skill descriptions.

“Hellish game, you call this an unprecedented success in mutation?”

He was speechless. It was bad enough that the shell’s combat power was almost nonexistent, but of the two mutation skills obtained, one was a rare ‘get weaker’ skill.

As for the special skill named Return to the Nest, he already knew the exact location of the hidden underground Abandoned Ancient Nest, so the skill seemed somewhat redundant.

“Wait.”

Lin Xun looked closely at the skill description: [You will be guided by unseen will… to receive a favor left by the Desire Wet Nurse.]

Could it be that he had to use this shell to receive the Desire Wet Nurse’s leftover favor?

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. “No wonder the maggot-person told me the coordinates so openly without fearing I would snatch its favor. Turns out it had confidence to rely on.”

Having figured it out, Lin Xun prepared to leave and head to the hidden map Abandoned Ancient Nest to investigate.

Suddenly his gaze fell on the so-called trash skill Molting, and a thought flashed through his mind.

By his reckoning, the missionary Kim should be about to return to the Firefly Spirit Temple.

He decisively used the Molting skill.

[A wave of all-encompassing agony suddenly assailed you. A crack appeared on your gray-white carapace, and the cracks spread like a spiderweb…]

[You could not help letting out a scream of pain and fell to the ground curled up.]

[The hard carapace sloughed off, and the unique skin of the maggot-person appeared once more.]

[The compound eyes transformed back into clearly black-and-white pupils, and the chewing mouthparts reverted to lips…]

[You stood up and stared at your five-fingered hand. You felt the powerful Ascension force gradually ebb away, and you became once more an extremely frail Ascended Maggot-person.]

Other shells, if they had anything, had powerful evolution skills. Only this maggot-person shell worked in reverse, possessing a weakling’s degeneration skill. Truly eye-opening.

Using the successfully degenerated maggot-person shell, Lin Xun summoned the Courier Mole Cricket and headed to the Firefly Spirit Temple.

Upon returning to the temple, sure enough, the missionary Kim had not come back yet.

Lin Xun originally wanted to go straight into role-play, but the Hellish game did not seem inclined to let him.

[…]

[The idol of the Primordial Firefly was only half a person tall. The firefly in flight had a gem embedded at the tail that glimmered with a faint yet never-dying firefly light.]

[You could discern that the fluorescent gem’s material was somewhat similar to Kim’s Firefly Stone he had given you, though it seemed somewhat special.]

[Do you want to pry off the gem?]

Lin Xun had used the tiger-luring-the-mountain stratagem to draw Kim away, then rescued the maggot-person.

He had planned to return to the temple in a maggot-person body to create the illusion that the maggot-person was still here, then find a chance to slip away.

That way Kim would not suspect he had rescued the maggot-person, and he could maintain good relations with a story character.

But the gem reward in front of him disrupted his plan.

He hesitated briefly, then still pressed ‘Yes.’

[You strode forward and used a blade to pry off the gem.]

[You obtained the Firefly Gem Coalesced with Divinity (Epic-grade item)!]

[Firefly Gem Coalesced with Divinity (Epic-grade item): The firefly idol had endured countless years of worship. The believers’ devout faith condensed into substance, staining the firefly gem with a trace of divinity.]

[Use this item to gain 1 point of Divinity!]

“A Divine item!”

Delight lit Lin Xun’s brows. He had not encountered a Divine item for a long time.

His compatibility boosts were somewhat lacking at the moment, and he just happened to need a Divine item to enhance a soul talent.

However, since this Divine item was Epic-grade, he would need to accrue several similar items to upgrade a talent.

[You are gazed upon by an unknown existence. Your connection with the Primordial Firefly deepens!]

A prompt popped up from the Hellish game, then no further messages appeared.

Lin Xun curled his lip. “Even a great Firefly Favored Servant cannot work for free. What is wrong with taking some wages?”

“I have not forgotten my mission. I worked hard to take down so many Ascended ones. Collecting a little interest is perfectly reasonable, right?”

Having proactively collected his wages, he lay down on the long bench, had the Valkyrie tie him up with rope, and began the role-play, no, the scapegoat-dumping plan.

The thing was stolen by the Ascended Maggot-person, not by the Desire-Bearing Greedy Wolf Star Lord.

To the Primordial Firefly, he was collecting wages. To Kim… Kim had cut down so many of his crops ready to be harvested, so making up some of his losses was not excessive.

The missionary Kim returned even later than he had expected, a full half hour late.

[…]

[You lay on the long bench with eyes tightly shut…]

[You suddenly felt faint vibrations from the ground in the distance. Before long, the temple door was pushed open, and footsteps approached.]

[The missionary Kim’s muttering sounded at your side…]

[How strange. That maggot-person looked thin and weak. How did it defeat the Dragon Knight?]

[And if it had the ability to take down a Dragon Knight, why ask it for help? Truly baffling!]

[Huh? Could it be that maggot-person saw through its special ability and deliberately left a Dragon Knight’s corpse to let it use its specialty?]

[If so, that maggot-person is truly kindhearted, only a little short of kindhearted Kim.]

[What a pity that the Dragon Knight’s body was just too large. If it had been a bit smaller, perhaps it could have…]

[Mid-sentence, the missionary Kim patted your forehead and sighed that a kind bug would not have such bad luck. Its luck recently had indeed been rather good. Not only had it met that strong, grateful maggot-person, it had also encountered you, a fellow kind.]

[Hey, how would those brainless heretic fools understand that your mutation looked like a failure, but was actually a success, and you obtained the same ability as it, Kim.]

[It is just that this ability requires long years to awaken… hmm, there seems to be a way to trigger it ahead of time.]

[Forget it. The Despicable Ones’ brainwashing of you is very thorough. It will take a long time to correct your false faith anyway…]

[Kim’s voice stuck in its throat mid-sentence, and a thunderous roar suddenly sounded beside you!]

[Who is it?! Who desecrated the Lord’s idol and stole the Firefly Gem?!]

[Damn it, it must be you! Still pretending to sleep?!]

[A stab of pain hit your face, and you involuntarily opened your eyes…]

[You saw the missionary Kim standing before you in a fury, the gaze beneath the mask as if to devour you alive.]

[It loudly questioned whether you had stolen the Firefly Gem.]

[Will you admit it?]

[You gave a cold laugh and nodded, loudly declaring that the deity the demons worship is also a demon. If your hands and feet were not tied, you would not only pry off the gem but also destroy the idol.]

[Kim’s eyes blazed with anger. Suppressing the fury, it demanded to know where you hid the Firefly Gem.]

[With a mocking smile, you answered that you had eaten the Firefly Gem…]

[Before you finished speaking, Kim struck. You saw a flash of cold light before your eyes and then felt icy cold between chest and belly, followed by tearing pain.]

[Kim tore open your belly and reached in to search…]

[As blood poured out, your vision grew darker…]

[…]

[You died!]

[…]

[The powerful wandering soul was reborn in the dark confessional…]

In the original game flow, you were probably meant to choose only one of the two routes, Kim or the maggot-person.

Rescuing the maggot-person would earn Kim’s ill will.

Even if you gained one hidden location and two regular maps, subsequent stage locations could no longer be obtained from Kim, and perhaps Kim’s side quests would break off.

Taking Kim’s route would mean you could not get the hidden map, and the special aspect of the maggot-person’s successful mutation would have nothing to do with Lin Xun.

After going in such a big circle, he finally achieved the ‘I want it all’ route that ate from both sides.

“Uh… the scapegoat was dumped, but how do I get to the divine kingdom now?”

Lin Xun was a little dumbfounded.

Because he had not encountered a Resting Page in the divine kingdom, after resurrecting he returned directly to the birthplace.

He could only leave the monastery and once again ride his sword to fly toward the Sea of Corruption.

Fortunately, taking wages did not anger the Primordial Firefly. Not long after he infiltrated the Sea of Corruption, he once again encountered the free means of transportation, the Ancient Broad-Winged Horseshoe Crab.

After a long roundabout, Lin Xun finally returned to the Desire Wet Nurse’s divine kingdom.

He was very curious. The Desire Wet Nurse’s divine kingdom was underground, so where was the Primordial Firefly’s base camp?

If it was on the surface, aside from the Ancient Broad-Winged Horseshoe Crab, he had not seen a single monster with the Aberration prefix.

“Could it be in the sea?”

“Perhaps by building good rapport with Kim, a hidden map in the Sea of Corruption could be unlocked…”

Lin Xun pondered for a long while and arrived at a reasonable conclusion.

But there was no rush to raise favorability. The current priority was to head to the hidden map, the Abandoned Ancient Nest.

From what Kim had revealed earlier, after successful mutation the maggot-person had obtained a special ability the same as Kim’s.

As for what that special ability was, most likely he would have to explore the hidden map to find the answer.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep