Chapter 376: Chapter 376: Hell Becomes "Hell"
The female player let out that strange cry just moments ago. She saw—
In the settings, the button to log out of the game was actually enveloped by the rainbow-colored Polluted Blood, gradually dissolving it.
!!
Her expression changed again! Panic surged through her! At the same time, she felt her heart racing as if it might burst, an overwhelming fear gripping her tightly.
She understood very well that the curse of Blood of Contamination was far more terrifying than the demigod priest had imagined!
The female player began to doubt whether she could survive and return to the Hall of Valor...
A curse that could affect the [Transcendence] system??
This was unheard of!
Her first instinct was… could it be the creation of the upper realms?? Even gods couldn't possibly exist in a way that would influence the game system!
The female player quickly concluded that given the terrifying capabilities exhibited by Blood of Contamination, her death was inevitable!
"No! No! I can't die!"
"I've worked so hard to reach the demigod level; I haven't spent all my Valor Contribution Points yet, and I still have several chances to enter special areas to comprehend the Law."
"No!"
"Wait! Over there… there's light; maybe it can save me!"
"Hmm?"
"Why am I flying? No, is this… is this my corpse??"
In her panic, the female player seemed to be led by some unseen force, her mind in disarray as she stumbled and dashed toward the light.
But halfway there, she found herself floating as if she were soaring into the sky, even though she hadn't used any flying abilities. It wasn't until she saw a headless corpse spraying nauseating rainbow blood that she realized the truth.
That corpse was all too familiar.
Wasn't it her own body?
Then—Bang!
The female player felt herself transform into a brilliant firework.
…
Meanwhile, the expressions of the player team were extremely grim as they quickly raced toward the direction of the teleportation portal the moment they broke free from the fungal mass.
Just moments ago, their team had experienced an incredibly horrifying scene.
The third strongest member of the team, a female player specializing in speed Law, who hadn't even been the most affected by the second wave of Blood of Contamination, suddenly went mad. She began to swell and charged toward the core of the team.
The remaining two demigods in the team, a priest and a swordsman, reacted swiftly. One of them managed to subdue the female player while the other executed her, and then the entire team scattered to avoid another eruption of Blood of Contamination.
However, although the players successfully dodged the danger, the rainbow-hued Polluted Blood remained on the ground and quickly sprouted strange tendrils. These tendrils appeared menacing and vibrant, ultimately forming a fruit.
The fruit emitted an enticing aroma that was incredibly alluring.
The players present felt an overwhelming urge to step forward and swallow the fruit, but they all maintained their composure, knowing that would be tantamount to seeking death.
After using their detection skills, they discovered that the fruit bore a name: [Vita Lurak], which was unmistakably the name of the demigod female player.
Now it had become the name of the fruit.
Everyone felt an intense shiver run down their spines!!
Without the need for the demigod priest to speak, everyone hastily made their way toward the teleportation portal back to the main world. As for that fruit, they dared not touch it; they would let it grow and perish on its own.
The players feared that they might be the next to suddenly drop dead.
Luckily, the third wave of Blood of Contamination seemed to be taking longer to manifest. They were close to the teleportation portal and spent less than ten seconds before arriving beneath a massive luminous gate.
However, the closer the player team got, the more something felt off.
Wasn't there an unusually large number of people gathered around the teleportation portal?
Using the portal should have been instantaneous, but everyone was stuck here. What was going on?
"Why can't we use it?"
"What's happening?"
"It's not that we can't use it; right now, using the teleportation portal is almost guaranteed death."
"Look over there—"
"It's all fallen corpses."
Murmurs began to spread among the crowd.
What was going on with the fallen bodies?
The already jumpy player team moved closer, and they quickly pieced together the full story without much effort. The rainbow Blood of Contamination had swept across the entire layer of hell.
Many people, after being infected by the Blood of Contamination, realized that there was no way to lift the curse. In a moment of desperation, they activated precious items to prepare for a return to the main world.
However, even those using teleportation items exchanged for Valor Contribution Points could only return to the corresponding teleportation point at the entrance of the Principality of Florence.
The portal here was indeed operational, but it was evident to the naked eye that the vibrant Blood of Contamination surged within it.
Several demigod players with exceptionally strong survival abilities, determined and reckless, charged in without hesitation.
As a result, during the teleportation process, players suddenly died, their bodies being expelled and giving rise to even more Blood of Contamination.
At that moment, the player team had gathered enough information and observed from a distance.
Many of those who fell out of the teleportation portal were still "alive," their chests heaving as if some kind of worms writhed inside them, looking in extreme agony.
Seeing this scene sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"Does that mean..."
"Are we trapped in this hell?"
"It's over, it's all over!"
The demigod priest in the player team took a few steps back and sat down on the ground in despair.
Where was the aura of a strong individual?
He had never lost his composure like this before.
The demigod priest understood that hell would soon become a place that truly deserved the name "hell."
The buff from Blood of Contamination was currently impossible to lift. The only way to survive was to kill someone of equal rank before being completely infected.
But even if they managed to survive, the speed of infection from Blood of Contamination would only increase, forcing them to kill even more frantically.
Not to mention that those infected by the cursed blood would cause extremely bizarre effects upon death!
Everyone was doomed!
It was just a matter of the order in which they would die!
Just then, someone suddenly shouted, "What about the gods? What do they say?"
This question pushed the already terrifying atmosphere to a new climax.
"The gods? All the gods have lost contact!"
"Those who communicated with them suddenly erupted with massive amounts of rainbow blood. The gods were even more severely contaminated; just communicating with them could infect the [Transcendence] panel, leading to immediate death!"
Huh??
As soon as these words were spoken, the room fell into silence!
Even the gods couldn't handle it and were infected??
What hope did mortals have of surviving?
…
If the players in the main world were like this, on the other side, the hell players and demons had a slightly better mindset.
"They can still hold it together?"
"They've even formed a strange order."
Sterl stood by the edge of the white-tiled corridor, watching the camp outside the palace—
After being infected by Blood of Contamination, the Swallowing Heaven players and demons were not much different than before, as they had always slaughtered their own kind without restraint.
So now, whenever someone's Blood of Contamination reached its peak, they would frantically attack another player, and the other players and demons didn't find it strange.
They didn't intervene and simply lazily stepped aside to avoid being caught in the bizarre effects that erupted after the infected died.
"For curses that the players from the main world can't accept, the Swallowing Heaven players don't care because they're already living on borrowed time," Sterl complained.
However, he also knew that the Swallowing Heaven players were still unaware of the horrors of the contamination. Even divine-level units couldn't avoid it, as no demon dared to communicate with divine-level beings; that would be a death sentence! Except for those directly under the Supreme.
Therefore, the ordinary Swallowing Heaven players and demons were not in a state of despair; they still seemed relatively normal.
However, once they realized that under the influence of Blood of Contamination, no one could survive, the madness that erupted from these individuals would far exceed that of the main world.
As for Sterl, he was in possession of an Iridescent-Level item in Licitris's hands—the Heavenly Palace.
This was a mobile palace that was extremely luxurious and offered various benefits, such as helping individuals concentrate their mind, remove debuffs, and enhance life force.
Although the Heavenly Palace was ineffective against Blood of Contamination, it could help the occupants maintain a better state, allowing them to endure the effects of Blood of Contamination a little longer.
Most importantly, it provided a means to separate from other infected individuals, avoiding the plague that erupted upon their deaths.
"Things are getting complicated!" Sterl sighed.
Just as some people in the main world had investigated, all five divine-level beings, along with Sterl, were infected with Blood of Contamination, and it was the purest form of Polluted Blood from the upper realms.
Naturally, those who had communicated with the three deities from the main world immediately dropped dead.
While the five divine-level units were incredibly powerful, they were also heavily affected and could only temporarily scatter, each going into seclusion to suppress the Blood of Contamination.
Moreover, the alliance between the deities of the main world and the temporary coalition of divine-level demons had completely collapsed.
This was because Blood of Contamination required the lives of similarly ranked units to delay its onset.
The three gods of the main world understood each other better; if they really had to kill a target, they certainly wouldn't choose a divine-level demon. Choosing a "peer" would be a more stable way to survive.
The two demons, likewise, were more familiar with each other, so they naturally kept their guard up and went their separate ways.
At this moment, Licitris was using the Heavenly Palace to suppress his Blood of Contamination, but whether he could succeed remained uncertain.
The reason Sterl stayed here was that the Heavenly Palace was relatively the safest option.
He had no way to leave this layer of hell; after being infected by Blood of Contamination, he couldn't log out. Even the disk wouldn't allow him to leave. Sterl could see a layer of colorful ripples covering the surrounding space and the soul passage.
The so-called soul passage was the route players took to enter Transcendence/Swallowing Heaven through the game login device.
Sterl could forcibly log out using the disk, but that would lead to his soul being directly corrupted by Blood of Contamination.
There would be no chance of survival!
Thus, Sterl simply switched to his main account via the disk, investigated some information in the main world for a while, and then switched back to Mephistopheles's account.