Chapter 2: Shabu Nicholas’s Gift Festival

So, I’ve definitely died, huh? Is this warm ocean the world after death?

I’m floating in a ridiculously large red water mass—it feels so surreal. After a few days, I carefully examined my tiny hands and the body still connected to the umbilical cord. I finally confirmed that I must be an unborn baby. But why am I in such a vast pool of blood? Is this some new artificial human science?

So boring! These days, I’ve learned freestyle and breaststroke. By the way, how does butterfly stroke work again? Back when I didn’t know how to swim, I could barely float with breaststroke, but now I can swim three and a half laps around the pool. At this rate, am I going to be the first baby born already mastering all swimming strokes?

So boring! I feel like I’ve mastered both butterfly and backstroke—why did I ever think water was terrifying? I’m so good now that I’m even trying to improve the dog paddle! Someone pull me out of this experimental tank!

So boring! Lately, I’ve started checking out my neighbor in the other water tank. After exploring the edge of my tank, I found there’s another tank of a similar size next to mine, and inside it is a tall brother. What a sci-fi setup! Is medical technology in my country already this advanced?

So boring… wait, crisis! I’m under attack by that big brother next door! I always thought he looked suspicious, but today he actually tore down the membrane between us and bit my neck with an eating frenzy.

Ahhh, I’m gonna die! Just as I thought that, a sharp pain hit me, and then a strange voice echoed in my mind.

“Authority injection, infected by the white spider larva’s protector.”

“Infection complete, logic: infection of the white spider larva established.”

“Curse suppressed. Due to logical interference, chaos: the curse of the black sheep cub encountered an error during loading.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

By the time I regained my senses, the mechanical voice has echoed in my ears how many times, and half my body had already been bitten off by that brother next door. That fierce-looking dude let go of me, looking satisfied, and returned to his tank.

But I’m still alive! And thanks to that strange voice, aside from the initial sharp pain, I can’t even feel the pain of being bitten.

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

“Error elimination, failure.”

Seriously, will this ever stop? While this weird voice keeps echoing, my fragmented body is gradually being repaired by the blood, and I feel like I’ve grown quite a bit. Examining my arms and legs, I estimate I’m probably about the size of a three-year-old now. Has time passed so quickly, or is this an accelerated growth experiment tank?

Well, whatever. The most important thing is that the strange voice finally gave up on error elimination recently—evidence being—

“Abandoning error elimination, attempting to continue the loading of chaos: the curse of the black sheep cub.”

“Loading complete, curse partially effective.”

“The seventy-first Shabu Nicholas Gift Festival concludes, due to unknown errors, this festival exceeded the time by 1 solar hour.”

After that was said, my world returned to silence once again.

Then, right after, I was born! Turns out I wasn’t in an experimental tank all this time, but in the womb of a monster!

On the day of giving birth, I was thrown out onto the ground effortlessly like a bead dumped from a big pocket. Around me were a bunch of clumsy and ugly beings, looking exactly like fat undead from Warcraft. No, they are definitely ghouls! My mother was even bigger than those fat ones, looking at me with the same weird gaze as the other ghouls.

Then, the brother from the neighboring tank also popped out right after me. He looks quite a bit bigger than me—his body must’ve grown steadily while mine was being repaired.

To my left and right stood two men in bizarre clothing, completely ignoring the surrounding ghouls, wearing expressions of half anticipation and half impatience, watching the two of us. One, dressed in a long white robe like a magician, casually picked us both up.

“Male hybrid infant and female hybrid infant, twins? Is that why the gestation period took longer than other mothers?”

“What’s the status? This female looks a bit different from other newborn females,” inquired the other man in armor.

“That male over there was infused with spider protection, what a bonus! As for the female, same old, black sheep curse. Alright, hurry up and wrap this up.”

“Wait, don’t you find it strange? Normally, a female hybrid would go mad upon birth. This one is so quiet, as if she hasn’t been hit by the frenzy curse at all.”

“But she’s definitely cursed by the black sheep, why would I lie? Get rid of her and take the male back already.”

“Summon the Blood Witch.”

“Eh? No way, calling her now will get me in trouble later in the library.”

“Anyway, if I kill you, the seventh illusion will change people, right? I can kill you seven times; she’ll eventually rotate in.” The armored knight said as he drew his sword.

“Alright, alright, I got it. I’ll call her.”

The flippant white-robed man said this while putting me and my brother down, sinking into his own shadow like diving.

What are they talking about? I feel like I can hear every single word they say, but I can’t understand the meaning of the combined sentences. Moreover, I’m so hungry—almost too hungry to think. Are newborns really this hungry? Where exactly is this? What are the armored man and white-robed man discussing? It seems similar to that mechanical voice, but why can’t I comprehend it?

As if to respond to my wish to understand the language, mechanical voices began to resound in my mind again.

“Logical infection mechanism executing, integrating residual loading information and remaining error elimination mechanisms, skill self-identification integration complete.”

“Logical infection mechanism executing, integrating residual loading information and error elimination mechanisms, skill demonic language integration complete.”

“Logical infection mechanism interfered by the frenzy curse, temporarily entering dormant state.”

“Frenzy curse mechanism missing.”

Ahh, while the armored man stood silently, a strange voice appeared in my mind again. That mechanical voice seemed rather friendly, probably trying to help me understand the dialogue between the two. I felt like I could finally comprehend the combined sentences.

Then, it was unclear how much time passed after that voice ended. Suddenly, from the shadow of the white-robed man, a burly figure dressed in priestly garb burst forth.

“I’m here to relay a message from the Blood Witch: Only the fourth and fifth bodies have a deal with you. I have no obligation to assist you.”

“How cold-hearted is that Blood Witch? What do you think, Mr. Ghoul?” the armored man pointed at me, asking the burly priest.

“The curse of Shabu Nicholas is irreversible. My kin have never come back from the frenzy of ghouls, not once.” The burly priest sadly surveyed the grotesque monsters around him.

“Ah, sorry, so we’ll stick to the original plan: release the female, nurture the male, and head back.” The armored man said as he picked up my brother and left under the strange gazes of the surrounding beings.

“Ah, I almost forgot to mention, you ghouls can move now.” After leaving the circle of monsters, the armored man blurted that out, picked up the child, and then rode off on a horse along with the priest.

Ahh, I finally understood what they were saying! But wait! They took the male away and left the female behind! Recalling what the armored man said, I suddenly felt my stomach grumbling, hungry to the point of dizziness. No, I can’t think about my stomach right now! The other child born with me was taken away, and since I was left behind, does that mean I’m now the female? What kind of joke is this?!

Just when I was about to check my undercarriage, one particularly ugly ghoul from the horde directly took a bite out of my half-eaten body. It wanted to swallow me whole! Ahh, I’m so hungry too!

As I was being swallowed, excruciating pain surged through my body, like my brain was on fire, ripping my fragile consciousness to shreds, tearing my reason away from my body. What filled my vision was a boundless sea of blood, just like what birthed me.

Intense murderous instinct erupted from every pore in my body like magma. Angrily, I ripped apart the tongue of the ghoul biting me from the inside and burst through that monster’s eye, devouring its brain matter with glee.

So hungry! And the pain still lingers. This unprecedented agony and hunger drove me to lose my sanity—I want meat, I want warm, fresh blood! So hungry, so painful—let’s eat it all!