True Apocalypse Game

Shen Feng felt a BUZZ in his head, as if all the blood in his body had suddenly rushed to his scalp. His protective suit was already stuffy, and now his back was instantly drenched in sweat.

He was a staunch materialist and atheist. Even after encountering beings like the Whisperer or the Master of the Void, he considered them nothing more than energy forms or creatures with extraordinary powers—things that could definitely be explained by Science.

But his current environment and that voice were simply too bizarre, making it difficult not to think of ghosts and gods.

He took a deep breath and cocked his ear, ready to listen carefully, but the voice was already gone.

It was as if it had never been there at all.

’What on earth was that sound?’

’Was it really my name?’

’If so, that’s just ridiculous!’

The Savior and the Salvation Army he founded didn’t exist in this world. The Shen Feng of this world might have died long ago, or perhaps he never existed at all.

Besides, this was Mexico City, where everyone spoke Spanish. Although the voice just now had been a bit off-key, it was clearly Mandarin!

’Why would his name, of all things, appear here?’

’Could it be Hypnosis?’

’Perhaps he had fallen into a hypnotic state the moment he entered the ruins of Spider Nest City?’

After all, in his original world, Spider Nest City might have been connected to the Whisperer and Cthulhu of the Purification Society...

Shen Feng then shook his head.

Even if his biological brain could be hypnotized, his Silicon-Based Brain absolutely could not be. The perceptions from his Silicon-Based Brain confirmed that his biological brain remained stable; there was nothing wrong.

The path ahead was still pitch-black. Shen Feng knew the only way to find answers was to go deeper into Spider Nest City. No longer hesitating, he gripped his powerful, unlit flashlight in one hand, rested his Shotgun on his other arm, and quickly moved forward.

Aztec cities were generally not massive, but the Spider Nest City he was in now was by no means small.

The ruins, hidden beneath Mexico City, stretched deep underground. He walked for nearly half an hour, and he was still surrounded by low-lying houses.

The city seemed to have been built underground from the start, which was why it hadn’t been buried over the long ages. Only a few places were covered by sand and rock that had fallen from collapses above.

As Shen Feng continued forward, he saw more and more skeletons, some of which were hair-raising.

All kinds of twisted remains appeared at the entrances of the ruined buildings he passed.

Judging by the way the limbs of the corpses were bound and the shattered state of their bones, they had clearly been murdered.

Or rather, tortured to death.

Some taller buildings even had corpses hanging at their entrances, strung up by ropes woven from a mixture of metal and plant roots.

The underground ruins had been in a near-static state for hundreds or thousands of years, so those skeletons hadn’t fallen.

The deeper he went, the more remains he encountered.

Eventually, decapitated corpses and skeletons with destroyed sternums became more common.

Farther in, the path was so covered with piles of white bones that there was barely room to step.

Shen Feng tried his best to step through the gaps between the dry bones, trying to avoid crushing them and making any noise that might attract something from the darkness.

However, ahead of him, the brittle bones on some parts of the path had already been crushed, leaving behind footprints.

Clearly, the zombies from before were responsible.

The underground ruins were so vast that Shen Feng had assumed the zombies would have scattered, making another encounter unlikely. It seemed that was not the case.

The zombies, as if they had a mind of their own, were all heading toward the center of Spider Nest City, drawn by some unseen force!

Recalling the excavation of the Spider Nest City ruins in his own world—the strange sound and vibrations from underground, and the hundreds of thousands of people who were collectively hypnotized—Shen Feng was now certain there was something in Spider Nest City that could affect the human mind.

’It must be in the center of these ancient city ruins!’

Finally, as Shen Feng walked out from between two rows of buildings, a vast, open square immediately appeared before him.

It was open only in the sense that the square itself was enormous.

In reality, it was stuffed full.

Skeletons. Tens of thousands of skeletons filled the square!

To the left of the square were countless headless skeletons.

To the right were densely packed skulls!

Even though Shen Feng had prepared himself and had seen his fair share of grand spectacles, his scalp still tingled.

’What the hell is this damn place?’

’What happened in this city?’

’A mass sacrifice?’

But there were at least hundreds of thousands of skeletons before him!

Although the Aztec Civilization at the time was a powerful empire formed from a tribal alliance, with a peak population of twenty million, a few hundred thousand people was nearly the entire population of the strongest tribe.

’Did an entire tribe sacrifice themselves?’

’But for what purpose?’

The sacrifices of the Aztecs were mostly to please the Divine Spirits and allow the living to live better, and there was also the underlying reason of culling the population to meet food demands. But death was never the ultimate goal.

The fundamental purpose of sacrificial death was still to live!

In the center of the massive square stood a pyramid-shaped Temple altar, similar in shape to an ancient astronomical observatory from Hua Country, but it was exceptionally large and towering.

His current location seemed to be inside the belly of a mountain.

The steps of the altar were also piled high with skeletons, and their corresponding skulls were impaled on sharp, spear-like racks to the side.

Although countless years had passed, as he looked out, Shen Feng could almost see the ancient priests of Spider Nest City carving out the hearts of sacrifices, burning them, and then throwing the bodies down from the high platform.

This was the site of a massive ritual sacrifice.

It seemed the entire population of Spider Nest City had sacrificed themselves.

Surrounded by piles of skeletons, Shen Feng, contrary to expectation, grew surprisingly calm.

He had seen all sorts of monsters; the skeletons of dead humans were, all things considered, not so bad.

From ahead, he could faintly hear the sound of skeletons falling from the altar, along with a faint, low growl.

Evidently, the zombies had already climbed the altar.

Something there was attracting them.

’And it was also where I have to go!’

Taking a few grenades from his backpack and clipping them to his body, Shen Feng no longer cared about making noise. He held his gun at the ready and crunched over the skeletons underfoot, advancing step by step.

As he walked, he carefully examined the skeletons and skulls at his feet, trying to determine their cause of death.

Just as he had thought, these people had all had their sternums cut open before being decapitated. There were clear chopping marks on their cervical vertebrae.

Soon, Shen Feng reached the front of the altar and began to climb the massive slope, stepping on the decayed skeletons.

On this side of the slope, many of the skeletons had already been crushed; the zombies that arrived first had cleared a path.

The entire altar was built from layers of stone. In the darkness, numerous patterns on the stones glowed faintly.

’They must be made of fluorite or some kind of radioactive mineral.’

The carvings on the first layer depicted a humanoid figure sitting on a grassy slope, apparently wearing a hood. Around him, a dense crowd of people listened reverently to the hooded figure’s teachings.