48: The supreme black light will!

After the nuclear bombs proved ineffective,

only half a day passed.

Manhattan… had fallen.

Everything was devoured.

All that remained was a black and red land composed of endless, writhing tentacles.

Humans, animals, buildings—

all vanished.

The erosion continued to spread, in all directions.

Land, sea, and even the sky were dyed black and red by the dense Blacklight Virus.

“How much longer?!”

“I can’t even tell if my eyes are open right now!”

“Can’t you hurry up?!”

“I know I was wrong, okay?!”

“Next time, I won’t be so greedy!”

Joa grumbled incessantly within the increasingly large flesh cocoon.

And as his thoughts arose,

small flesh cocoons gradually bulged on the eroded land.

They formed in moments.

Endless monsters burst from the cocoons.

They rushed towards the uninfected cities on Earth at a speed far exceeding the spread of the eroded land.

Humanity’s disaster…

had arrived…

The monsters that emerged from the cocoons were formless and shapeless, merely massive masses of flesh and blood tissue.

They possessed independent consciousness and intelligence, and could transform into mutated forms of any species the Mother Hive had previously absorbed.

At the same time, they also possessed terrifying contagiousness, or perhaps “contamination” would be a more fitting term now?

Each of them was a source of contamination that could make all life feel fear and despair.

And their extremely bizarre appearance—just looking at them would cause extreme discomfort.

Combined with their contaminating properties, they could instantly cause one’s sanity to plummet, leading to a mental breakdown and transformation into a monster.

One day, ten days, a hundred days.

After a hundred days, other than Blacklight Life, there were no longer any plants or animals on the Planet, nor any buildings.

The once vibrant, flourishing, colorful land and oceans were now only the purest black and red.

The sky was also a crimson expanse.

Looking down from space, the entire Planet’s atmosphere was a blood-like crimson, beneath which one could vaguely glimpse the black eroded land.

The red and black Planet was slowly emitting an ominous aura into the Universe.

If one were closer, observing from a microscopic perspective,

one would discover that

the ominous aura was precisely the Blacklight Virus breaking through the atmosphere,

constantly exploring the Universe.

……

Inside the flesh cocoon.

“What’s going on? Why do I suddenly feel like my body has gotten so big?”

“And… what’s that glowing fireball in front of me?”

“Why does it feel so much like the Sun from a sci-fi movie?”

“Am I… bored out of my mind?”

“Starting to visualize the Sun to cultivate immortality?”

“Heh, I wonder if there are any Golden Crows inside that big fireball.”

“If there are no Golden Crows, having Ōtsutsuki Kaguya pop out would be fine too.”

“Uh… wait, Kaguya was sealed inside the Moon.”

Having been in the pitch-black environment for an unknown period, Joa finally saw something different and seemed somewhat excited.

But after a while,

“Sigh, although the scene in front of me changing is indeed a happy thing,”

“when will I finally complete my evolution?!”

“I want to get out! I don’t want to be wrapped in tentacles anymore!”

As soon as this thought arose, Joa felt his consciousness plummeting as if falling into a bottomless abyss.

Until a certain moment,

the falling sensation vanished, and darkness returned to his vision.

“No! At least let me…”

Before he could finish, a series of tearing sounds of flesh and blood rang out.

The flesh cocoon bloomed like a flower.

Joa once again saw Manhat… tan?

“What the…?”

“Where did this take me?”

“Where’s Manhattan?”

“Where’s that huge city? Where’s Alex Mercer? Where’s Elizabeth?”

“Where did they all go?”

“And this pitch-black ground, this crimson sky.”

“Is this still the Prototype World?”

“Did I transmigrate again?”

“Did it throw me onto some Loki’s home Planet?”

Completely bewildered and unaware of what had happened, Joa came back to his senses and hastily shouted,

“System! System!”

“Wasn’t I supposed to be evolving?”

“Why did I transmigrate to this hellhole again?”

“What are those black slimes down there?”

“And this… sticky fleshy lobe I’m standing on…”

As he spoke, Joa froze.

“Don’t tell me!”

“I did all of this?”

“The host has devoured the Prototype World, all matter on Earth. Evolution is complete, energy has been absorbed, and contamination is spreading into the Universe.”

“Estimated…”

Seeing the system’s reply in his mind, that it would contaminate the entire Universe after an unknown number of years (a 1 followed by many zeros),

Joa was dumbfounded.

“Woke up from a dying illness, only to find out the Loki was me?”

“So, the Sun I saw just now… was the real Sun? And the Universe was the real Universe?”

“Then those black slimes down there… I created them too?”

“Meaning, the entire Planet has now been absorbed by me and become my body?”

With wide eyes, Joa verified his guesses one by one.

His consciousness switched back and forth between human form and… Planet form.

He issued commands to the black slimes to transform into dogs, lions, tigers, octopuses, and various plants,

as well as fighter jets, tanks, nuclear bombs, and everything else he could think of.

Watching the black slimes complete each command,

Joa was completely numb.

Grotesque black and red glowing mutated animals.

Mutated plants.

Mutated fighter jets.

Or rather, should they be called biological fighter jets?

“Oh my goodness, I only swallowed six G-Virus samples, how did things turn out like this?”

While directing the Blacklight fighter jets to launch contamination bombs made of flesh and blood virus, Joa muttered to himself with a numb expression.

“If I go back to the Marvel Universe, won’t I be blasted out?”

“The Ancient One would treat me like Dormammu.”

“And the Time Variance Authority, I don’t know if Kang the Conqueror or Loki is in charge now.”

“Loki is fine, but if it’s Kang the Conqueror…”

“I’ll be thrown into the time ruins when I go back.”

Scratching his head, Joa couldn’t be bothered to dwell on it.

Who cares who is in charge of the Multiverse now.

As long as the Blacklight Star isn’t destroyed, he will never die.

And the Prototype World isn’t in the Marvel Universe.

This means that people from the Marvel Universe can never kill him, only expel him.

What does he have to be afraid of?

“From now on! I’m the boss!”

“I can do whatever I want!”

Although he inexplicably became a Loki in the eyes of others,

wasn’t this exactly what he himself had hoped for?

‘Loki sounds a bit harsh… Supreme black light will sounds good.’

“Hmph! Can’t be arrogant, can’t be arrogant.”

“I’m still very weak right now.”

“There are countless people stronger than me in the myriad Worlds.”

“It’s not too late to be proud and arrogant when I finally reach the peak of the myriad Worlds and trample all existences underfoot.”

Because the Blacklight Star was the product of Joa devouring the entire Earth, it contained too much life energy.

Joa’s body could not bear such a vast amount of energy.

So he couldn’t take the Blacklight Star with him, unable to store the Blacklight Star within his body.

But it didn’t matter; his human form still possessed all the abilities of his Planet form, though the power would be somewhat reduced.

After all, the size difference between human form and Planet form was more than just a little.

His consciousness focused on his human form.

Joa felt very relaxed.

His Planet form couldn’t even move, which was stifling.

With that thought, Joa’s mind stirred.

Just as he was about to return to the Resident Evil World,

the flesh cocoon beneath his feet, which had bloomed like a flower, suddenly stirred.