Cheat Awakening

"Damn it, what a big idiot I am! How could I forget about the Ethereal Phase skill? I should've used it the moment I got here. I wasted so much time for nothing!" Myne slapped himself and quickly activated his ghost form. Although he called it his ghost form, there wasn't any real change in his body except that it became slightly illusory and very light, like a feather. He could now pass through all normal physical objects and fly at low heights.

After confirming that the skill was working fine, Myne didn't hesitate and headed directly toward the meat wall, easily passing through it. However, the experience was anything but pleasant. The sensation of passing through rotten meat and seeing the horrifying inner parts of the body could only be described in one word: horrific. If possible, Myne would never want to experience it again.

The meat wall was much thicker than he had expected—he had to cross around 30 meters before he finally emerged on the other side, relieved to have a fresh "breath." Although, in his ghost form, all senses except his vision were completely dulled, so he couldn't actually breathe or smell anything; it was purely a psychological relief. The fog on the other side of the meat wall was much denser than he had anticipated, so dense he could barely see his own hands, let alone anything else.

Unable to assess his surroundings, Myne didn't dare to exit his ghost state and continued to float in the same spot while formulating a plan. However, when he happened to look down at his feet, he was taken aback. The ground was covered with a dense network of thin, blood vessel-like organic structures, interlocking with each other and spreading everywhere.

"If I follow these, I should be able to reach the centre, right?" Myne muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to head toward the centre and take a look. Anyway, he was in ghost form, so it wouldn't be easy to harm him, and if anything happened, he could always escape.

Due to the thick fog, Myne could only take a general direction by observing the path of the blood vessels and floating along it. The surroundings were extremely quiet, and along with the eerie visuals and atmosphere, it gave a very creepy feeling. If he were the old Myne, he would have run away in fear long ago. Although he still had some symptoms of phasmophobia, thankfully, after his encounter with the demon Albn—where he played hide and seek with zombies—and his meeting with his would-be father-in-law, Mr. Ghost, his heart had long ago strengthened enough to handle these kinds of minor scares. Of course, his own strength and confidence in his life-saving skills were also major factors.

Myne continued wandering through the fog for at least 20 minutes at a slow pace before something caught his eye and made his eyes light up.

In front of him, probably around a hundred meters away, a red sphere about the size of a volleyball was floating two meters above the ground, emitting a faint red light. The light was so powerful that even through the dense fog, where visibility was nearly zero, it could still be seen from a hundred meters away.

"Did Lady Luck finally bless me this time, and I stumble upon some kind of legendary treasure, the one mentioned in stories? If yes, then I am willing to complete hundreds of more of this kind of tasks for Garnet."

Myne had heard countless stories of people finding rare treasures during their adventures or explorations of ruins or other haunted places since childhood. Many of those stories were true, fueling his dreams of becoming one of those lucky few who obtained overnight success and spent the rest of their lives surrounded by wealth, power, and beauty.

Now, seeing something unusual in the middle of this extremely dangerous place—a mysterious object that seemed anything but ordinary—how could his heart not be moved? Greedy thoughts flooded his mind. Although he didn't lack money now, his strength was still limited. After spending time with super-powerful beings who could raze mountains with a single move and wandering in other worlds where even random creatures were as large as a hill, people can randomly blow up entire buildings in the middle of the city causally because of a little dispute, Myne's standards for power had skyrocketed. Despite being able to overpower most humes in his world with a wave of his hand, he subconsciously still felt weak and in urgent need of more strength.

So, after spotting this strange object, which looked like a rare treasure—a gift from fate—he quickly discarded his caution and floated toward the bloody sphere for a closer look.

However, as he reached the bloody sphere, his expression turned sour. Someone was already a step ahead of him and now was sitting in front of it, seeming to be making a move to claim "his" treasure.

"What the hell is going on here…? What has this guy gone through to become… to become... F*ck, what should I call it? Is this the result of gaining power overnight from the legendary treasures? Isn't this a bit too much?"

At first, Myne intended to sneak up on this man, who was attempting to steal "his" treasure. However, as Myne drew closer and got a clear view of his body, every hair on his body stood up, and a chill ran down his spine.

Once a normal hume man, now had pale skin with a faint greenish tint. Calling him "hume" was probably an insult, as apart from his facial features, which still retained some hume resemblance, the rest of his body had transformed into something Myne could hardly describe.

His lower body, from the waist down, had merged with the fleshy ground around him as if it were spreading out from his own flesh. His arms had become long, thin, red tentacles that coiled around a sphere. Due to the thick fog and the eerie glow emanating from the sphere, Myne hadn't been able to make it out clearly before.

On the man's back was a grotesque, tumour-like mass, swollen like a balloon as if on the verge of bursting. Surprisingly, it pulsed like a beating heart, occasionally oozing green liquid from small pores, making it look all the more disgusting.

At first glance, the man's front appeared somewhat normal. However, when Myne moved closer to inspect him, dozens of large eyeballs suddenly popped out across his body, started looking around vigilantly, as if sensing someone spying on them. Thankfully, these eyes looked relatively normal and didn't possess any disturbing mutations, or Myne was sure he'd have nightmares for nights to come.

Thanks to the stealth effect of the Ethereal Phase skill—a basic effect used by most ghost users to turn invisible and create jump scares—the strange creature's eyes didn't see him. After scanning the area and finding nothing, the creature's eyes retracted back into his body. Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

Due to the unique restriction of the Ethereal Phase, Myne couldn't use any other skills in his ghost form. This prevented him from using his appraisal skill to identify the creature or the ominous sphere he was absorbing. At the very least, he understood that this was no situation for a novice like him to meddle in. Were it not for the sphere which was too tempting to let go, Myne would have already turned back, wanting nothing to do with this strange creature or any risky confrontation.

"Hmm, let's test the waters with a clone. If there's any chance to steal that bloody sphere, I'll give it a shot, then deal with the creature slowly. If not, just throw this mess on Big Sis, I believe she would be more than happy to come out from the home to stretch her muscles. With her strength, taking down this ugly thing shouldn't be a problem," With this plan in mind, Myne hurriedly returned the way he came. Realizing he was completely safe in his ghost form, he didn't bother being cautious and, within a few minutes, emerged from the meat wall.

First, he checked on his team's situation, which looked promising. Everyone's levels were steadily increasing. Thanks to Myne's earlier motivation, even June and Amy—the team's weakest members—were giving their all. They'd both shown impressive progress, levelling up like they were riding a rocket.

Although it had only been an hour, June's level had shot up from 5 to 26, and Amy's from 43 to 79. Amy, who possesses an immense amount of mana compared to a normal hume, combined with her mana-recovery skill and her perverted skill like Unique Magic, has literally transformed into another person. With her ten gigantic vine tentacles, she crushed wave after wave of monsters, which showed no sign of slowing down.

[ Name: June

LV: 26

Race: Hume

Gender: Female

Age: 15 years old

Occupation: Waitress

Title: None

Status: Excited, Horny, Grateful

[Skill]

Cooking

Cleaning

Magic・Wind ( Wind Gun ( Small ) ]

[ Name: Amilia Eyllissithek ( Amy )

LV: 79

Race: High Elf

Gender: Female

Age: 135 y/o

Occupation: Eyllissithek Clan Head's Only Daughter

Title: None

Status: Excited, Happy, Grateful

[Skill]

Unique Magic: Tree

Magic・Recovery

Alchemy

[Divine Protection of World Tree]Blessings of the World Tree. ]