Chapter 1020 - 425: Netherworld and Losing Control

Chapter 1020: Chapter 425: Netherworld and Losing Control

Under the incomprehensible extraordinary power of Mercury, the surface dwellers could not refuse his demands and cooperated with him to complete the oath.

After the oath, the surface dwellers felt bound by an inexplicable force, compelled to obey Mercury.

Mercury appeared with a group of underground people, intending to lure the surface dwellers into a trap and capture them.

Having achieved his goal, he took the captured surface dwellers back to Collette City.

That night, Mercury did not harm the surface dwellers; instead, he distributed the baited materials entirely to the surface dwellers of Collette City.

Among the supplies were vast amounts of food and fresh water, all from Underground Shelter 87, superior in nutrition and taste compared to what the surface dwellers had.

That night, most of the surface dwellers experienced the most luxurious feast of their lives.

If not for the death of several leaders before their eyes, they would have thought the result of this hunt was a great victory.

However, for the surface dwellers, they were already accustomed to life and death; a leader dying during a hunt was not unusual.

Even though the leaders were dead, the needed supplies were obtained, which counted as a victory to them.

Victory.

In the scent of food, the surface dwellers quickly shed their sorrow.

Only a few were not deceived by the semblance of peace, dwelling in pain and unease.

Such as Hel.

She wanted to escape, but when she reached the edge of Collette City, her limbs felt bound as if by invisible ropes, refusing to respond to her commands, no matter how hard she tried, she could not leave the city.

Left with no choice, she returned home.

Hel did not sleep that night. The next morning, drawn by external noises, she left her home and discovered a pitch-black building suddenly appeared in a desolate, ruined square.

Mercury appeared before the people, declaring the black building as a miracle, a divine hall bestowed upon them by the gods.

He told the surface dwellers he would select qualified individuals to enter the divine hall.

As long as they successfully undergo training and trials, they would gain extraordinary power and become gods’ attendants.

Then the surface dwellers would not only regain their freedom but also receive daily supplies like those from last night.

Under threats and enticement, the surface dwellers completely surrendered, cooperating with Mercury in selecting surface dwellers with potential, sending them into the black building as experimental subjects.

Hel, being one of the top candidates due to her qualifications, received significant attention and became one of the first experimental subjects to enter the black building.

Hel’s life in the secret laboratory resembled Amber’s past life.

Their lives were difficult and harsh, requiring maximum physical development, learning various combat skills, and enhancing soul and will through rituals.

And most importantly, based on one’s talent, attempting to awaken the divine seed Mercury planted within the subjects.

The only difference from Amber’s secret laboratory was that in Hel’s laboratory, all the fictional divinity prototypes related to death.

In the underground shelter plane, due to sudden pollution and mutation outbreaks, millions perished.

Not only in the Desolate Realm, but even in the Realm of Reason, few planes experienced such catastrophic calamities.

In some regard, the underground shelter plane’s conditions were uniquely advantageous, with large amounts of death qi and plenty of souls, naturally nurturing death-related fictional divinity.

Because of this, Mercury called it the Divine Hall of Death.

He, along with two other Bright Society members, used rituals to channel death qi and souls from the entire planet to the secret laboratory to provide awakening conditions for the experimental subjects.

Under the strong supply of death qi, the experimental subjects grew rapidly, among whom Hel was the most notable.

Hel showed great talent in divinity fusion; her resonant fictional divine format was aligned with the Goddess of Death Hel at the main god level.

Additionally, due to her surface dweller origin, her physical talent surpassed ordinary humans, granting her greater adaptability, quickly making her the most outstanding among all experimental subjects.

Soon, the entire Death Temple Research Institute revolved around her.

Unfortunately, this was not beneficial for Hel.

To stimulate the divine essence of the Goddess of Death within her, researchers subjected her to various extreme and dangerous environments, just to allow her close encounters with death.

Every experiment would leave her tortured and near death, then at her dying moments, death qi from the plane would be infused into her, promoting the growth of fictional divinity.

Merely experiencing death wasn’t enough; she also needed to become accustomed to invoking death.

For this, every day she engaged in perpetual combat with different experimental subjects.

If creating fictional divinity in the secret laboratory was like cultivating Gu poison, then Hel was the Gu King. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

In Wu Chang’s perspective through Hel, each time she killed a fellow surface dweller experimental subject, she absorbed the fictional divinity fire seed from them, also absorbing their souls.

These souls were filled with resentment, but they resented not Hel but Bright Society for causing all of this.

The resentment of departed souls accumulated within Hel, amplifying her hatred towards Bright Society, particularly towards Mercury.

Yet she had already signed a contract with Mercury, unable to attack Mercury or even defy Mercury’s will.

If Mercury didn’t permit, she couldn’t even commit suicide.

Mercury was well aware of this, which made him unrestrained in modifying Hel, even enjoying her hatred towards him.