Chapter 116
Chapter 116: I'm Done Being Human!
In the dark corridor, only the faint glow of the Sovereign Lantern flickered.
Jiang Nan crouched down, looking at the dying ghost before him.
"Master...will there be any danger? This seems to be a ghost!"
Piano cowered behind Jiang Nan, poking out half her head.
A sticky note slapped onto her face.
【Shut up, I know.】
"Yes, Master! Of course, Master!"
Piano tore off the note and clamped her thighs together.
She closed her mouth.
Jiang Nan reached out and flipped the ghost over.
The face slid off to one side, revealing what lay beneath.
No facial features—only vast, sweeping burn scars.
Jiang Nan's pupils contracted slightly.
'Is that her?'
Those crimson pupils stared at the disfigured face.
A silhouette flashed through his mind—one wearing a bunny-girl outfit, dangling black-stockinged jade feet in front of him.
Back then she'd had no face.
But that audacious confidence she carried had left quite the impression.
And now...
"Uwaaah!"
Piano suddenly let out a sharp scream.
Jiang Nan's brow furrowed. With a backhand motion, another sticky note plastered itself onto her face.
【Do you want to go blind?】
Piano shook her head furiously, pointing at the face lying on the ground, her voice trembling.
"That's not it, Master! I didn't mean to!"
"Look at that face! It belongs to that blonde buxom woman!"
"Hm?"
Jiang Nan's gaze shifted downward, landing on the discarded face.
Though he had never personally seen Tiffany, he could still tell from Piano's descriptions.
Refined features, golden hair still attached to the scalp.
That was Tiffany's face—the Gambler, 7th Seat of the Arashin-kai.
Jiang Nan rubbed his chin.
'So that's how it is...'
He murmured to himself, his gaze returning to Charlotte.
This Head Nurse who harbored a secret infatuation with him had probably assumed he despised her looks.
After all, at the gambling table, he had swatted away her foot and complained it was a hoof.
So she had gone and attacked Tiffany, intending to steal a beautiful face.
'Or perhaps...someone used this to manipulate her.'
Jiang Nan instinctively sensed a mastermind lurking behind all this.
Someone had deliberately exploited her insecurity about her appearance and her obsession with him—luring her into ambushing the Gambler.
That was what had reduced her to this utterly spent and dying state.
In the end, she had won. And she was nearly dead.
'Who could it be? The Director's Faction? Or someone else entirely?'
Jiang Nan shook his head.
He picked up Tiffany's face, glanced at it, and tossed it aside without a second thought.
What use was a beautiful shell bought at the cost of one's soul?
"I'm sorry—I'm not someone who judges by appearances."
"No matter what you look like, I would never take advantage of your feelings."
"But your sincerity—I've received it."
Jiang Nan admired the courage it took to face death for the sake of a fixation.
In this world that devoured people, those who still fought desperately for a single conviction were rare indeed.
And most crucially—that conviction was tied to himself.
So...
'The main soul of this Sovereign Lantern belongs to no one but you.'
And at that very moment—
Hmm!
The Sovereign Lantern at his waist suddenly trembled!
The pitch-black Primordial Violet Aura roiled wildly!
From the moment he had stepped into this corridor, it had been restless.
Because the ghost before him was S-Grade.
Jiang Nan raised the Sovereign Lantern, his mind stirring.
"Imprisonment."
Boom!
The instant the word fell, the Sovereign Lantern erupted with a towering black divine radiance!
Countless chains that made one feel the urge to drop to their knees in reverence...
No—in prostration, shot out from the mouth of the lantern!
Clatter clatter clatter!
The chains instantly bound Charlotte tight, then gave a sharp yank!
"......"
Charlotte's body dissolved into a streak of flowing light and was pulled inside the Sovereign Lantern!
【Ding! S-Grade Cursed Object detected—Head Nurse (near-death state)!】
【Soul Imprisoned! Current Small World Prisoner Count: 1】
【Target's HP detected below 2% (near-death). Initiate restoration?】
【Option 1: Consume 3,000 Grand Love Points to restore to 32% (severely wounded, unconscious) and consume 15,000 Grand Love Points to upgrade the Sovereign Lantern.】
【Option 2: Consume 9,800 Grand Love Points to restore to 100% (fully awake).】
Jiang Nan glanced at the panel.
Current Grand Love Points: 18,000.
Upgrading to A-Grade required 15,000 points, plus the imprisoned soul of an S-Grade powerhouse.
One half of the conditions had now been fulfilled. If he just poured in those 15,000 points...
"Keep her alive for now."
Jiang Nan made his decision.
Letting this one wake up right now would certainly mean no peace.
Given the obsessive ferocity she had shown toward him, there was no telling what she might do.
There was no rush to restore her HP to full once things were settled.
And besides...
He needed those 15,000 points to upgrade the Sovereign Lantern.
So Jiang Nan chose Option 1.
Hmm!
Inside the Sovereign Lantern, violet light blazed brilliantly!
A warm, gentle energy surged into Charlotte's body.
The wounds on her began healing at a visible rate.
And to his surprise...
It wasn't just the wounds that recovered—even the skin ravaged and disfigured by burns...
Across Charlotte's faceless visage...
The features that had once belonged there began slowly emerging...
And immediately after—
The Sovereign Lantern began to undergo a violent transformation!
The color of the Primordial Violet Aura deepened from violet, fully transmuting into a sacred black!
The exterior of the lantern also looked considerably more refined than before!
【15,000 Grand Love Points consumed! Sovereign Lantern successfully upgraded from B-Grade to A-Grade!】
【Current Grand Love Points Balance: 0】
【New Function Unlocked: Grand Love Upon the Future!】
Jiang Nan closed his eyes, absorbing the information flooding into his mind.
【Grand Love Upon the Future】: You may consume Grand Love Points to slow the passage of time within the Sovereign Lantern's Small World!
The outside world is unaffected!
【Exchange Rate】: 10,000 Grand Love Points = 1 day inside the Small World = 1 minute in the outside world.
'Time...'
Jiang Nan narrowed his eyes.
This ability was practically tailor-made for him!
If he stayed inside the Small World for an entire day while only a minute passed outside—
Did that mean he could exploit a bug in the Word Spirit Check-In system?
The Word Spirit System refreshed at midnight every day, granting 1 character and 1 Check-In opportunity.
But if he could spend a full day inside the Small World—
Would that "one day" be calculated by Small World time, or by outside world time?
If it were calculated by Small World time...
'I'll only know by trying.'
Jiang Nan suppressed the excitement burning in his chest and turned to look at Piano behind him.
Whoosh.
A sticky note flew out and stuck to her face.
【We're moving. Going to hunt on other floors.】
Piano trembled from head to toe with excitement.
Another hunt?
She'd get to see Master's invincible figure again?
"Yes! Master!"
She clamped her thighs, puffed out her chest, and answered at full volume.
The two disappeared into the elevator on the 11th floor, heading down to the 10th floor...
And this time, there was no one foolish enough to stand in their way.
Seattle Mercy Hospital. 15th Floor.
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord lowered his hand and blew away the wisps of smoke curling from the muzzle of the dead-energy revolver.
Then he stepped forward, coming to stand before Tiffany's corpse.
He gazed down at that bloodied, mangled face—eyes wide open in death, staring at nothing.
"Before a true divine being, mortals will always be nothing more than mortals."
"A gambler is a gambler in the end—even if you rose to become the king of gamblers, the house itself."
"You cannot escape the fate of a life that gradually withers away."
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord held the gaze of Tiffany's vacant, sightless eyes.
"But you were clever, Tiffany."
"You, as a human, chose to join the Arashin-kai—selling your soul to become the slave of an evil god, in exchange for eternal life."
"But I'm different from you."
"I don't like...letting others control my fate."
With that, the Thousand-Face Demon Lord extended his right hand.
In the next moment, from the darkness, a Ghost Doctor stepped forward without a sound and respectfully presented a fire axe.
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord took the axe and raised it high.
"After becoming an evil god's slave, your soul will be completely imprisoned within this broken flesh—unable to be freed."
"Until roughly an hour from now, when the evil god senses your death."
"It will reclaim your soul as nutrients, or fashion you into a new marionette..."
"Or alternatively—when the flesh is entirely destroyed, the soul automatically returns to the evil god's embrace."
"What a ruthlessly exploitative arrangement. Still putting you to work even in death."
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord let out a scornful laugh, the madness in his eyes growing ever more intense.
"But don't worry..."
"I have a way to save you—and I also need you to join me."
Whoosh!
The fire axe descended with a rush of cutting wind!
"Splat!"
Tiffany was instantly separated from her body—head from torso!
Having done all this, the Thousand-Face Demon Lord casually discarded the axe.
Then he peeled off his upper garment.
On the shoulders at both sides of his neck were two smooth incisions—
As though slots left deliberately to graft something onto!
He crouched down and stared directly at Tiffany's severed head.
Then he reached into his breast pocket and produced a battered, worn parchment-bound book.
On its cover, in English, were the unmistakable words:
《Research on Whether Humans Can Be Refined Into Cursed Objects》
—Signed: Fit Albert.
"The great god of magic once said that while people are alive, it is entirely possible to refine them into Cursed Objects..."
"But the dead—cannot be."
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord murmured to himself.
"Through decades of research and exploration, I have finally uncovered the secret behind this..."
"The reason humans can be made into Cursed Objects while still alive is because they possess a 'soul.'"
"And the dead? Their souls return to heaven and earth—stripped of the most fundamental spiritual essence."
"The same principle applies to Ability users."
"Your Abilities have never existed because of your physical body—they are engraved deep within the soul itself!"
"The evil gods saw through this truth, which is precisely why they so aggressively purchase souls."
"To collect every Sequence-Type Ability in existence!"
"And through that, to control all Divine Chosen—to dominate the Three Realms and Six Domains, beginning with the Savage Realm!"
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord turned his head, looking at the rows of Ghost Doctors lined up behind him.
"But honestly..."
"Humans as a species truly do have their limits..."
"The more one schemes, the more those schemes risk collapsing under unexpected circumstances."
"So—to shatter this deadlock, one must become an existence that transcends humanity!"
He snatched a syringe from a tray offered by a nearby Ghost Doctor and plunged it into that Ghost Doctor's thigh!
He drew out a full tube of black blood!
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord turned back around and fixed his gaze on Tiffany's head.
"And so..."
"I'm done being human!! Tiffany!!!"
With a mad, frenzied scream, he drove the needle into Tiffany's severed head!
He pushed the entire syringe of black blood into it!
"Become a Cursed Object!"
"The evil gods' greed for souls—at this very moment—has become the perfect wedding garment they've sewn for my benefit!"
"I have waited for decades!"
"Countless nights spent in despair, questioning myself—wondering whether I'd simply die of old age just like this!"
"But now..."
"This heaven-chosen Ability body!"
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord struck the chest belonging to Ye Desheng.
"And you lot from the Arashin-kai—these heaven-chosen vessels—are about to bring me true rebirth!"
As the black blood was injected, the head lying on the ground began to transform!
Tiffany's facial expression started to distort into something ferocious!
She was irreversibly becoming a Cursed Object!
"This is it!"
Rather than alarm, the Thousand-Face Demon Lord was elated—he erupted into laughter.
He swiftly produced a strip of adhesive paper and pressed it against the severed cut at Tiffany's neck.
Then he pressed another strip against the smooth incision on his own left shoulder!
The next second, he grabbed Tiffany's head and pressed it against his left shoulder!
S-Grade Ability—【Fusion】!
This was the ability of the original owner of this body!
Ye Desheng's Ability!
Using the adhesive strips as a medium, any two things could be perfectly fused together!
"Urraaagh!"
The instant they made contact, the expression on Tiffany's head suddenly froze.
Because it had fully merged with Ye Desheng's body!
Her consciousness—just newly born as a Cursed Object—
Was instantly and ruthlessly stripped away by the Thousand-Face Demon Lord's overwhelming spiritual force!
This was his true trump card!
Sequence 099—【Thousand-Face Demon Lord】!
As the name itself implied—
It was not merely putting on a mask to control others!
It meant body seizure at the most direct, soul-level sense!
No matter how many faces or organs were grafted onto a form—
Because he seized the whole as a single entity, every ounce of power became his to wield!
"Yes! That's the feeling! This is magnificent!"
Feeling the power surging endlessly from the head on his left shoulder—
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord abandoned all prior composure and threw his head back in laughter.
"I love you lot of evil gods!"
"Thanks to your greed, my ultimate experiment could succeed so perfectly!"
He opened his eyes!
And Tiffany's eyes on his left shoulder lit up at the same moment!
"Mine now...Sequence 067—【Sovereign Rule】!"
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord raised his hand and issued the exact same decree Tiffany had used in life.
"In the name of the sovereign!"
"All who approach within 10 meters of me..."
"Shall suffer...the torture of ten thousand blades, slicing them apart!!!"
Hmm!
In the next moment, a terrifying storm of invisible flying blades erupted outward with him at its center!
A domain force under his absolute dominion!
In an instant, it shredded Tiffany's broken, headless corpse on the ground into a mist of blood and pulverized flesh!
"Hahaha! I've done it! I've finally done it!!"
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord laughed without restraint.
The surrounding Ghost Doctors instinctively shrank back, feeling a terror that rose from the very depths of their souls.
But after barely ten-odd seconds of wild laughter, his voice cut off abruptly.
The manic expression vanished from his face in an instant.
"Nearly forgot—my puzzle is only half-complete. It's not yet time to pop the champagne."
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord turned around, both heads simultaneously looking toward the Ghost Doctors behind him.
"Now..."
"Follow me immediately—we advance on the upper floors!"
Every Ghost Doctor instantly bowed in perfect unison and began moving toward the stairwell.
The Thousand-Face Demon Lord reached out and gently stroked Tiffany's face on his left shoulder.
"Because..."
"There is a delicious S-Grade Ability waiting for me up there..."