Pioneer Explorer and World Recycling Station

"Damn it..." Rosen watched as Sapper and Lynx King replaced their heads with identical human-faced snake heads. 

It was obvious now—Sapper and Lynx King had been compromised long ago. 

And despite this, they had still managed to enter the Old Camp without anyone detecting anything unusual. 

If those two had been taken over and no one noticed, and considering that Rosen had carefully selected his three guides separately yet still ended up with two of them being compromised, then it meant one of two things—either his luck was downright abysmal, or over two-thirds of the half-gods in the Old Camp were no longer themselves. 

Rosen would have preferred it to be bad luck. Otherwise, if thousands of half-gods had fallen under some unknown influence, it would be an earth-shattering disaster. 

Without hesitation, he activated his World Domain, giving himself the space to teleport. 

Although spatial movement was notoriously difficult in the Old Continent, his domain was an independent space. By using Void Blink at just the right moment, he successfully dodged the dark green venomous arrow that Lynx King spat at him. 

Rosen avoided it, but Ghost Shadow—who had greater agility and speed—was not so lucky. 

Lynx King's serpent eyes locked onto Ghost Shadow, momentarily stunning his divine awareness, causing a split-second delay in his reaction. That slight hesitation was enough—his automatic defense skills and extraordinary artifacts were torn through like paper as the poison arrow struck his left shoulder. 

A terrifying paralyzing venom immediately spread through both his body and divine essence, stripping him of all ability to resist. 

All he could do was watch helplessly as Lynx King drew his curved blade and severed his head. 

Lynx King then removed his own human-faced snake head and placed Ghost Shadow's head onto his own neck. 

Ghost Shadow's face twisted and contorted, struggling briefly before settling back into a calm expression. 

But at that moment, it was no longer the Beastmaster Hunter, Lynx King, who was in control of that body—it was now Phantom Assassin, Ghost Shadow. 

Rosen finally understood. 

These human-faced snake creatures had the ability to swap heads. 

By removing someone's head and placing it onto their own body, they could perfectly inherit the abilities of that head, fully controlling it. 

It was even possible that the consciousness within the head remained unaware of the change, unable to comprehend that its body was no longer its own. 

In a way, this ability was somewhat similar to Rosen's own methods. 

He could replace an entire body with his flesh avatar, while these creatures only swapped heads. 

But unlike his technique, which couldn't completely manipulate the divine essence of his targets, these creatures seemed capable of fully controlling even a head's divine essence. 

Rosen felt a twinge of interest. 

If he could obtain this ability, it would be incredibly useful. 

However, to steal their power, he first needed to capture one alive. 

Ghost Shadow instantly split into dozens of illusionary clones, attacking Rosen's World Domain from multiple angles. 

As soon as they neared the domain, each one expanded the suppressed domains around them and charged in. 

But the moment they stepped inside, they were met with an Assassin Golem. 

This Assassin Golem was a high-tier Sequence 1 construct. Though it lacked Ghost Shadow's intelligence or a divine territory, its sheer power was overwhelming—Ghost Shadow, as a Sequence 3, had no chance of overcoming an opponent two full sequences above him. 

The two assassins clashed for only a few moments before the Assassin Golem cleanly decapitated Ghost Shadow. 

His headless body instinctively attempted to replace its head with another, but before it could do so, Rosen flung out a prepared portrait. The painting distorted the surrounding space, sealing the body inside. 

Seeing the situation turn dire, Sapper attempted to flee—his burrowing ability was unaffected by the spatial restrictions of the Old Continent.

As long as he didn't run into hidden dangers underground, he could travel thousands of miles in a single move.

But he never had the chance.

Abyssal Shadowfiend appeared before him, casting Calamity Edict to unleash a devastating earthquake. At the same time, it placed a Calamity Curse Seal on him, concentrating all the seismic destruction onto his body.

In an instant, Sapper endured the full force of a catastrophic earthquake spanning thousands of miles. His body was crushed into pulp, and even his divine essence was shattered.

Yet, he still wasn't completely dead—just like Ghost Shadow, Rosen sealed him into a painting.

Rosen retreated to the Mysterious Study Room and began meticulously analyzing these unknown human-faced snake creatures.

He attempted Spiritual Parasitism, only to find it ineffective against beings that were just as adept at soul manipulation as he was.

With no better option, Rosen used Data Transmission to summon the Undead Empress.

Her parasitic abilities far surpassed his own. It didn't take long before she successfully infested Ghost Shadow's divine essence.

To be precise, Ghost Shadow's divine essence had already been destroyed.

The moment his head had been placed onto the neck of the human-faced snake creature, his divine essence had been devoured, leaving behind only his sea of consciousness and extraordinary source.

The only reason he still seemed alive, still seemed to wield the full power of the Phantom Assassin sequence, was because the human-faced snake creature had perfectly impersonated his divine essence.

So flawlessly, in fact, that even Ghost Shadow's extraordinary source was fooled into believing it was still connected to its original divine essence.

Rosen made an even more unsettling discovery—these terrifying human-faced snake creatures were, in fact, human.

They were genuine humans, and their sequence bore an eerie resemblance to the Actor Sequence.

To him, these beings seemed like a mutated form of the Actor Sequence.

Or, more accurately, they were actors who had strayed down a twisted, aberrant path.

A chilling possibility crossed Rosen's mind.

The earliest extraordinary sequences couldn't have been flawless at birth. Newly emerging extraordinary paths would naturally have flaws, deviations, and countless failed attempts.

The first transcendent explorers were like blind men feeling their way across a river.

Only a handful ever successfully made it to the other side—most were swallowed by the depths.

Could these human-faced snake creatures have once been pioneers of the Actor Sequence?

And if so, could the Old Continent be filled with other such beings—former explorers of lost, abandoned, or corrupted extraordinary sequences, whose very essence had mutated beyond recognition?

It was still just a theory, far from being confirmed.

From the memories of the human-faced snake creatures, Rosen extracted both good and bad news.

The good news: there weren't many of them—at most, around a hundred.

That meant the number of half-gods in the Old Camp who had been parasitized and replaced was no more than a hundred.

The bad news: these creatures had already set their sights on him.

Originally, Lynx King and Sapper had been untainted.

They had been parasitized and replaced only in the final preparation stage before their departure.

If Rosen had chosen different guides, it would have been those other half-gods who were taken instead.

Ghost Shadow had only escaped this fate because his concealment abilities were too exceptional, preventing the human-faced snake creatures from seizing an opportunity.

And the reason they had targeted Rosen?

They wanted the luck power of the true god level in him.

Now that their scheme had failed, those human-faced snake creatures would never let this go.

But that was a problem for later. Right now, Rosen's priority was finding the miracle artifact he needed.

He pulled out the Miracle Pouch and used its treasure-seeking ability to locate any nearby miracle artifacts.

Half an hour later, following its guidance, he arrived at a perfectly intact wooden cabin nestled within the mountains.

The entire Old Continent was littered with ruins—many of the archaeological sites studied by the Research Institute originated from here.

Ancient cities had all crumbled into ruins, yet this small wooden cabin, at least twenty thousand years old, remained completely unscathed.

What was even more absurd was that the cabin was made of ordinary wood—under normal circumstances, it would have rotted away within decades.

And yet, after tens of thousands of years, it stood untouched.

It didn't take a genius to see that something was wrong.

Rosen attempted to use the Godslayer's Evil Eye to peer inside, but as expected, it was impenetrable.

The cabin had no windows either.

Rosen casually painted a Rank 4 Holy Knight and had it approach.

Among the various branches of the Knight Sequence, Holy Knights had the strongest survivability—even a Rank 3 enemy would struggle to kill one.

Yet the moment the Holy Knight pushed open the door, it vanished without a trace—whether dead or alive, Rosen had no way of knowing.

The cabin door swung shut automatically.

From where he stood, Rosen had seen nothing but complete darkness inside when the door opened.

His experiment yielded results that matched exactly with historical records.

The Vanishing Cabin—a name given to it by the historians who studied it.

Other than being immune to decay, the cabin would actively avoid gods and true gods.

Wendy herself had once attempted to investigate it, and even the World Government had sent a true god to examine it, yet neither of them could perceive its existence at all.

If anyone above Rank 1 came near, the cabin would vanish without a trace.

And for those below divine rank, no method could damage it.

Years ago, a Rank 1 historian had assembled a five-man team to enter the cabin.

None of them ever returned.

Subsequent investigations yielded no further valuable information.

Eventually, The Vanishing Cabin was forgotten—no historian wanted to waste their time chasing a dead end.

If not for the Mysterious Study Room and the Main God Computer, Rosen wouldn't have dared to take this risk either.

Ordinary probing methods clearly wouldn't work.

He released a self-portrait avatar, reinforcing it with layers of defensive spells before cautiously approaching the cabin.

Meanwhile, his true self retreated into the Mysterious Study Room, synchronizing with the avatar to follow its every move.

The moment Rosen pushed open the wooden door, he vanished from the entrance.

He was instantly enveloped by an endless darkness that devoured all divine perception.

Then, just as suddenly, the darkness faded, revealing a world of madness, chaos, distortion, and grotesque mutations.

Everything in this world was alive—the soil, the rocks, the plants, even the flowing water.

Yet all of it was horribly malformed, devoid of any beauty, overflowing with grotesque deformities that made Rosen feel like gouging his own eyes out just from looking at them.

He surveyed his surroundings and quickly noticed a dilapidated History Museum in the distance.

But just like everything else in this world, the History Museum had come alive. Its exterior was covered in twitching tumors, rotting tentacles, grotesquely twisted maws, and an uncountable number of hideous mutations.

Rosen cautiously approached the museum, and the moment he got close, it attacked.

All its tentacles lashed toward him, its tumors burst open, releasing thick pink mist, and every maw extended needle-like tongues to seal off the surrounding space.

Even with the stealth enhancement from Wolf Totem, he found that these grotesque mutations were entirely immune to deception.

Realizing he couldn't enter peacefully, Rosen let out a silent dragon's roar.

The soundless yet deafening sonic wave swept through the museum's cracked structure, reverberating within its interior.

In an instant, he detected several mutated creatures lurking inside—one of them had a crystal embedded in its forehead.

The moment his spiritual energy touched the crystal through the sound wave, the crystal immediately detached itself and actively reached out to his spiritual senses.

As soon as they connected, Rosen received a transmission of information from within the crystal.

It was called Eternal Crystal, the only object in this world that remained uncorrupted by mutation.

It had been left behind by a Rank 1 Historian, Suad Pope, who had sealed his Eternal Tome within it.

The Eternal Crystal floated out through the crack in the museum's walls and landed in Rosen's hands.

The moment he touched it, he examined it with great caution.

As for the museum's grotesque attacks, the moment they got near him, they were frozen in time.

Rosen retrieved the Eternal Tome from within the crystal and eagerly flipped to the final pages.

It detailed what had happened to Suad and his team.

Back then, after stepping into the wooden cabin, they had arrived in this twisted, mutation-filled world.

With their combined strength—three Rank 1s and two Rank 2s—they had managed to survive here for a long time.

However, as time passed, they began to succumb to mutation, one by one.

They tried everything but found no way to escape. Their only choice was to keep searching for a way out within this world.

In the end, they all perished, never finding an exit.

Yet Suad's efforts had not been completely in vain.

First, he discovered that everything in this world had a counterpart in the Main World.

Second, he realized that mutation here was not inherently grotesque and terrifying.

There was an extremely low probability that a mutation would result in something that conformed to normal aesthetics.

However, aside from the Eternal Crystal, anything that mutated into something beautiful was inevitably destroyed by the hideous, twisted creatures.

Through his final decades of research, Suad came to a startling conclusion—this place might be the fabled World Recycle Bin.

Anyone who had used a computer knew about the Recycle Bin on their desktop.

Similarly, human societies had waste disposal sites.

And according to historians, the Main World must also have a World Recycle Bin.

Everything in existence, all lifeforms, followed trial and error. Some species succeeded in evolution, while others failed.

The successful ones became the myriad species that thrived in the Main World today.

But what about the failures? Where did they go?

If you asked an ordinary person, they might say, "Evolutionary failures simply went extinct over time."

That seemed like a logical answer—unsuccessful species dwindled, and eventually, they disappeared into history.

But if you asked a True God, the answer would be different:

They were sent to the World Recycle Bin.

Because failed evolution didn't just happen to ordinary creatures—it also happened to extraordinary beings.

And if a failed extraordinary lifeform didn't die out immediately, it would inevitably leave traces of its existence.

But True Gods had never encountered such failed evolutionary lifeforms. It was as if every species in existence had always followed the correct evolutionary path.

But that was impossible.

Thus, someone proposed the World Recycle Bin theory—suggesting that all evolutionary failures in the Main World were immediately disposed of the moment they were born, sent straight to this World Recycle Bin, which functioned as the Main World's waste disposal site.

To Suad, all these grotesquely mutated creatures in this world were the failed evolutionary products.

Rosen continued reading and discovered that, in Suad's final years, he had proposed another theory.

This world might also be a Species Laboratory.

By allowing countless lifeforms to mutate at random, it might be experimenting to create viable species. Whenever a successful species emerged, it would gradually appear in the Main World, while all failures remained here, forever trapped in the laboratory.

Was this place a World Recycle Bin or a Species Laboratory?

Suad had devised a way to test it.

He had once personally witnessed a lifeform that had emerged through random mutation in this world—a completely normal, non-mutated being. He had meticulously documented every detail about it.

If, in the coming years, the Main World produced an identical species, it would confirm that this place was a Species Laboratory.

While Rosen read through Suad's records on this lifeform, his main body used the Main God Computer to search for information online.

And soon, he found it.

The species had appeared—two thousand years ago, deep in the ocean.

They were called Weeping Sirens, a new branch of merfolk.

Suad's analysis had been correct.

This world was indeed a Species Laboratory.

However, that did not rule out the possibility that it was also a World Recycle Bin.

If successful lifeforms from this world entered the Main World… then perhaps, failed species from the Main World were discarded here in return.

Rosen had a gut feeling that this place concealed one of the deepest secrets of the Main World.

But at the same time, he sensed that if he stayed here any longer, he himself would begin to mutate.

He quickly searched through the Eternal Tome and found the location where Suad had hidden his team's relics.

Aside from the Eternal Crystal, miracle artifacts were also immune to mutation.

Thus, Suad had sealed them inside another Eternal Crystal.

Why hadn't he stored everything together?

Because he wasn't sure if the History Museum, after fully mutating, would remain in the same location.

If it had moved too far away, at least the second Eternal Crystal contained a backup of the Eternal Tome.

Rosen carefully searched the area and soon located the second Eternal Crystal inside the hollow of a mutated tree.

Finding it wasn't difficult as long as he looked carefully.

With the Eternal Crystal in hand, he immediately retreated into the Mysterious Study Room.

Meanwhile, the self-portrait clone waiting outside the wooden cabin used itself as an anchor to open the Mysterious Study Room.

Silent and seamless, the Mysterious Study Room vanished from the Species Laboratory and reappeared outside the wooden cabin.

Rosen unsealed the Eternal Crystal and retrieved three miracle artifacts from within.

The first was a Rank 2 artifact—Space Clay Pot, which could teleport between two paired pots.

This had been Suad's planned escape method when entering the cabin, but unfortunately, even the Space Clay Pot had failed to get them out of the Species Laboratory.

The second was a Rank 3 artifact—Secret Compass, which could detect and reveal nearby hidden spaces.

Both of these were valuable, especially since the Space Clay Pot could still be used to reach Suad's hidden base.

But Rosen hadn't come here for these.

He immediately picked up the lowest-ranked artifact—a Rank 8 miracle.

Secret Brass Tome – Miracle Artifact

Rank: 8

Miracle Property: The Secret Brass Tome can record and contain all secrets.

Miracle Traits: Key of Forbidden Knowledge, One and Only, Eternally Indestructible.

The Secret Brass Tome had once been a sacred relic of the History Sanctuary.

Countless forbidden historical records—so dangerous that merely spreading their knowledge could trigger catastrophe—had been sealed within this book.

And if Rosen fully integrated this book into his Miracle Sequence, it would be equivalent to gaining mastery over all the secrets recorded within it.