Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

Despair never fades away; it merely lies dormant until it encounters someone who can bring hope...

From corrupted beings, deeply corrupted beings, to calamity-level, and then to demon king level, most corrupted creatures have to undergo a long process of evolution.

But for some beings with special qualities, perhaps... all it takes is a single day steeped in enough despair.

Such a day need not be filled with constant pain, because for most people... humanity has a resilience.

The tenacity of life enables them to always adjust in the face of adversity, the more dire the situation, the more they want to persevere, to see the moment when bitterness gives way to sweetness.

But what is truly feared is to see hope and then to have that hope shattered.

For Zhang Haoyun, that hope wasn't actually Zhou Baiyu.

All the beauty that could appear in one's life, all the luck one might experience, those were her hopes.

And the arrival of her father made Zhang Haoyun realize that she would never be able to escape such despair!

Once certain valves are opened, they are very hard to close again. Despair emerges like a tide.

Zhang Haoyun's hair grew wildly, moving without wind as if it were countless tentacles of some monster; her nails too grew longer than her fingers in an instant.

Demon king level.

Except in special circumstances, most corrupted beings, once they reached demon king level, would undergo significant physical transformations.

Her crimson eyes were as beautiful as blooming poppies, wherever they gazed, more poppies seemed to sprout into existence.

The crimson spread at a pace like some moss that had accelerated its growth by ten thousand times, wildly proliferating.

The crimson eyes covered the entire building; black tentacles squirming like earthworms emerging from the walls.

It seemed as if everything around had fused into one with Zhang Haoyun.

Before long, the entire building under the cover of night was enveloped by the putrid air of corruption.

Those who had not yet fallen asleep suddenly felt an unprecedented malice emerging, as if it wanted to destroy everything around!

Those who were already asleep lived twisted lifetimes in their dreams.

And this horrific spread didn't end there.

Zhang Haoyun seemed to possess even greater potential... Her crazily growing hair suddenly wrapped around her own body.

Those crimson gazes were all sealed off by the black tentacle-like hair.

Zhang Haoyun was surrounded by her hair like an insect in a cocoon.

In no time, with numerous black tentacles encircling it... the room seemed to contain a black egg.

A demon king level cocoon was thus born.

No one could predict what kind of monster would emerge the moment the cocoon of corruption hatched.

Life is always unpredictable.

If Zhang Haoyun had met Zhou Baiyu earlier, just a few days sooner, or even if she hadn't encountered this episode tonight and spent one more day with Zhou Baiyu... perhaps she would have had a different mindset.

And as long as she had hope, perhaps she could always suppress those evil spirits deep within her soul, never to have a day of hatching.

But life has no ifs.

All of Zhou Baiyu's plans were undoubtedly correct, and her preparations thorough. But no plan can account for every variable.

Not just Zhou Baiyu, but all of the Pioneers' plans, whether they be investigations, preparing weapons, clearing relationships, or covert tracking...

All their steps and preparations—

were completely disrupted on this day by the corrupted father.

...

...

The next day.

Linxian City was in an uproar.

An endless Black Mist shrouded the cheap rental district of the old city.

From a distance, the black fog enveloping part of the old city's houses formed a silhouette resembling a massive black lotus, poised to bloom.

The black mist churned, and from time to time, there came chilling, teeth-gritting screams and howls.

Countless people gazed at the gigantic lotus-shaped black fog, each pulling out their mobile phones to snap photos.

Some found it novel, but many more felt it was terrifying.

In this era, nothing could stop the spread of the internet.

Soon, people from all over the country saw the enormous black lotus. The shape of the fog, a black lotus, seemed to be spreading bit by bit, covering an ever-larger area.

Over the skies of Linxiang city, even helicopters appeared, circling at high altitudes but not daring to approach the Black Mist Zone.

For the onlooking crowd, this was undoubtedly a feast of topics.

There were those who shouted excitedly,

"This is mind-blowing, did you see that black lotus in the old city district of Linxiang? It's astonishing, the sight is too shocking, I used a telescope and saw flickering red lights inside, it's like hell on earth!"

Some analyzed it methodically,

"With the current level of special effects, indeed, creating such a scene wouldn't be difficult, but the thing is, many people in Linxiang say they've witnessed it with their own eyes, could this possibly be real?"

And then there were those who were fearless.

"Fam, it's 10:03 now! The scene has been sealed off, but today I'm going all in, if live streaming room's followers exceed 100,000, I'll live stream entering the Black Mist Zone! No joke! Start sending those gifts!"

Of course, there were also warnings,

"What we're hearing now is that no one who has gone in has come back out, and for the residents inside, the officials have already started to compile a list, they've tried contacting them via phone to no avail. When approaching the Black Mist Zone, with sound amplifiers, one can hear howls and... the sound of insects wriggling."

More and more information piled up, combined with the outrageous ads that had appeared around the world - "Version update imminent" - some speculated that this was the version update.

Among these various theories, some were utterly baseless, while others were a little more plausible.

But the truth was known only to the advance players.

A few hours before the topic exploded, in the early morning, all the advance players had already been informed.

"All advance players currently in the original world will be forcibly transferred to the transit station in five minutes."

The Wolf Smoke Flute activated again, and Tianxia Wuer kept a watchful eye on every move in Linxiang city.

About two hours after the anomaly occurred in the old city's low-rent district, his connections with the police began to take effect.

By the time Tianxia Wuer and Huan Liuyan arrived at the scene... the domain had already been formed.

Both furrowed their brows; as experienced advance players who had also earned a decent amount of fore-runner value, they naturally had access to more information. Both were very clear—

This area had already become a Demon King level area, and the degree of corruption had likely reached B+ level.

Even more so, it was moving toward A level.

Therefore, soon after entering the transit station, Tianxia Wuer used the Wolf Smoke Flute again to forcibly gather everyone in the transit station to discuss strategies.

Five minutes later, before the topic about the corrupted areas had exploded in the real world, in the Voice of Pioneers, many advance players were already trembling with fear.

"To put it simply, according to the experience of Chairman Huan Liuyan and myself, the corrupted strain that appeared in Linxiang city this time... is of the Demon King level."

"Moreover, the degree of area corruption is very likely B+ level, heading toward A level."

The advance players naturally believed Tianxia Wuer's words.

But the problem was, they had no idea how to deal with it. An advance player asked,

"I remember the toughest trial of version 1.01 was only C level corruption, a Demon King level entity, that's something from after version 1.20... what's going on here? Why is this happening?"

This question undoubtedly stumped all advance players.

To the advance players, since this was version 1.0, then shouldn't the monsters be weaker than those in version 1.01?

Yet why were they facing Demon King level from the start in version 1.0?

Inside the transit station, many advance players also questioned the intermediary, but the intermediary kept silent about it.

The only one who knew the truth was Zhou Baiyu.