World Occult User Guide

Mel Ashley looked at the virtual image speaking on the screen in surprise, her mind going blank.

This is a basic, bald bust with no "personality". It can only be barely recognized as a human being based on the facial features.

However, when it is completely composed of green luminous lines twisted into codes, and is magnified countless times, an indescribable feeling of shock comes over the face, like looking up at some kind of giant life form, which makes people feel uncontrollably frightened.

Not only that, the hairless features of the virtual characters also reminded Mel Ashley of the images of engineers in the science fiction movie "Prometheus."

Compared with it, the [Forest Guard] of World Tree looks more illusory, uncaptured, and seems to be younger.

As the virtual humanoid began to speak, the code that made up the face moved up and down and swayed left and right in a dizzying manner. Fortunately, it showed a friendly and perfect smile while speaking, which somewhat alleviated everyone's fear.

"Dear applicants, first of all, congratulations on completing these personality test questions."

The speakers surrounding the room emitted a rhythmic electronic synthesized sound, with a neutral tone, and no male or female could be distinguished.

The same sentence was played once by the virtual humanoid in more than a dozen languages.

"Wait, I haven't..."

A few voices sounded like they were waking up from a dream. Some people hesitated, but the avatar on the screen did not answer. They could only close their lips tremblingly, not daring to say anything.

The child soldier Kantubi Kang Nehru rolled his eyes and immediately realized that the time spent on completing the questions was also an invisible scoring criterion of the test.

Those who did not complete the test in time may be eliminated.

Obviously they are not very familiar with and do not have the ability to quickly get started with the World Tree system, or they are hesitant in answering the questions and have some hesitation about what their "character" is.

"Secondly, after evaluation by technical staff, you have all passed the preliminary screening of World Tree. I hope to work side by side with you in the near future." The electronic synthesized voice continued, "Now please activate the temporary employee account in front of you."

The green data was shattered and reorganized in front of everyone's eyes. Regardless of whether they had completed the previous test questions or not, they fell apart in an instant.

Instead, there is a small seed, which seems to contain some kind of life inside, flickering.

Carefully, Kofi Serge, a Sapor man, looked at both sides. Both Mel and Cantubi stretched out their hands, as if groping for something in the air, their expressions changing unpredictablely, sometimes surprised, sometimes confused, and sometimes suddenly realized.

After about half a minute, he pressed a double-headed snake-like pattern with his fingers and moved to the seed.

Green buds full of tenacious vitality poked out their heads, rhizomes elongated, and two plump leaves stretched out.

The plant pattern faded and was replaced by two directories in the language he had previously chosen, "My Home" and "Library."

With a thought, Kofi Serge went directly to "My Home Page" and saw that the data was reorganized and the text listed short information.

【Name】: Kofi Saisay Serge

[Department]: Temporary

[Authority Level]: Ai Lu

This, this is - me?

Although Coffey dressed up elegantly, he had never actually been to school for a day. He scratched his head at these professional words until the avatar on the ceiling waited for about three minutes and spoke again.

"There are still nine days until the end of the job fair. Please go back home and wait for contact. During this period, you can learn about the composition of the [World Tree], the employee handbook, and information about the mysterious power through the 'database'."

"When the job fair ends on February 25, 2039, please pay attention to your homepage and read the notice updated at 0:00 the next day."

"Thank you for choosing Yggdrasil. May your fountain of knowledge be clear."

…………

The group of people was taken out of the Capitol through another door by World Tree employees. Looking at the sun hanging high in the sky and the familiar, rolling heat wave, many people couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The experience they had experienced in less than an hour really overturned their perceptions since they were young.

The silence lasted for less than a few minutes, and the crowd naturally divided into small groups of twos and threes, chatting tentatively, each person speaking in a flash, and pretending to be cheerful on the surface.

"Those questions are so weird."

Cantubi grabbed two acquaintances who didn't want to get involved and were just about to leave, and he shared the information he had obtained in a carefree manner.

"I think it's something that tests our character. For example, most of the options I filled in were 'don't forgive', 'kill', and 'solve the problem'! What about you?"

"That's it, it's true." Mel Ashley twirled his fingers in his hair, "Those questions shouldn't have exact answers. They exist to label people differently, just like a psychological test."

"Shhhhhh, let's go first, first go first."

Kofi, who was from Sapor, stretched out his arms and pushed the two of them towards the green belt of a square. The footsteps followed them like a shadow. Only then did they realize that the few words they just said attracted the attention of others.

However, Kofi took them through a few streets at random, and only one of the people following them disappeared.

"Except for rats, cockroaches and centipedes, I should know this city best." He took off his hat to the two of them. "Miss Ashley, if you don't mind, I would like to ask you about the definition of some... nouns."

"Of course! Please type your question on the translator." Mel handed over the phone with a smile.

"You said nouns, right?" Kantubi scratched his head, "I couldn't read the words, so I swiped the snake casually and heard something like 'homepage', my name, and 'temporary' and ' Permission', 'Qingbai'? Help me ask what is Qingbai?"

"A pale green that's almost pure white," Mel answered him.

Coffey, who acted as translator, was lost in thought.

Kantubi is bluish white?

Strange, my permissions column says "Ai Lu". Does it mean that everyone has different permissions?

Maybe that’s the purpose of the test questions…

"Are you guys back from the World Tree Job Fair?"

A voice abruptly interrupted the conversation between the three of them. They looked towards the exit, where stood a young man wearing thick clothes, a military helmet and a leather belt.

warlord!

Kantubi almost jumped three feet high. Just as he was about to turn around and run away, Kofi held his shoulder down.

"He has a gun." He pointed at the soldier's waist, "Be careful, don't turn your back to him."

Mel had almost never experienced this kind of thing. She looked pale and looked around. The people passing by had clearly seen the scene here, but their eyes were numb and indifferent.

"Are you guys back from the World Tree Job Fair?" The soldier raised his head and showed an enthusiastic smile, "Can you tell me the specific location?"

Kofi exhaled, calmed down, and said gracefully: "Yes, sir, we know where the Association's job fair is. Please go straight along this road, and then turn..."

He gave the soldier directions in detail, and the soldier nodded with an unusually bright expression.

"Thank you very much, I'll just pass--pass--"

Suddenly, his voice seemed to be stuck, and he could never utter the last syllable. As he repeated it, his pitch gradually rose in just a few seconds, until it became an extremely sharp, high-frequency sound that the human ear could even hear. Uncatchable noise.

"Ga, ga, gu ga - poof."

While the three of them were stunned, the soldier blew out a mouthful of green gas, and the rotten and moist smell immediately hit their nostrils. Mel coughed violently and quickly covered his mouth with both hands.

"Is this... a fungus?"

Her eyes widened. It turned out that the green gas was filled with tiny, irregularly shaped plant spores like seaweed or neurons.

"I'm going to take his gun!"

Kantubi rushed forward resolutely, wanting to take advantage of his illness to kill him cleanly. However, the next moment, the young soldier stopped in place and his pupils suddenly shrank to the smallest size.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."

A group of maggots crawled out of the soldier's mouth, eyes and ears, covering his entire face in an instant. At the same time, umbrella-shaped mushrooms, red and blue, no more than one millimeter in size, emerged from his pores. The number is terrifying.

"ah!"

The noise in the street stopped for a second, and then there were screams one after another.

"Monster—monster!"

Even the Bantu people who were not surprised by killings on the street suddenly saw such a strange scene, which really broke through their bottom line of acceptance.

"Everyone, run away!"

Before Kofi could shout, Kantubi turned somersault backwards, rolled the first circle, and ran away in the opposite direction.

Only Mel couldn't move due to fear, her calves were shaking, and she sat down on the ground, staring blankly at the black bugs and colorful mushrooms multiplying at an alarming rate.

They spread from the neck to the lower limbs, densely wrapping the soldier.

"Kachi kachi, kachi kachi..."

The small sound of chewing sounded, getting louder and denser.

The proliferating insects gnawed through the soldier's thick clothes. He may have lost his internal organs and flesh and blood, and turned into a paradise for insect eggs.

This monster, composed of countless flies and maggots, stood in front of Mel in the posture of a soldier a few seconds ago, but now she could only barely make out its former human form through its squirming outline.

"Uh, ahhhhh!!!"

Several screams with different pitches came out of her throat. Her fingers kept grabbing the mud on the ground, trying to support her body to stand up, but she failed due to menstrual cramps.

The only good thing was that the "soldiers" didn't attack her.

After the group of insects devoured the nearby mushrooms, they formed a white egg on their own. As the cocoons broke, they flapped their transparent wings and flew into the sky. out.

Nothing was left in place, not even the bones of the soldiers were eaten away.

"What's going on here?!"

After an unknown amount of time, a shadow enveloped the sluggish Mel. She raised her head stiffly, and the black raptor Mvias blocked the blazing sunlight.

The only source of heat disappeared, and Mel slowly hugged his shoulders with both hands. In the nearly forty-degree weather, he shivered violently like a person about to freeze. (End of chapter)