Chapter 176: Flesh is Weak, Mechanical Ascension?

Blonde Defeated Dog: I'm freaking out! I already turned away, but she's still staring at me!

Blonde Defeated Dog: Can anyone understand what's happening?!

Big Sister is Supreme: ...

Big Sister is Supreme: Don't die.

Pain Magnet: "Don't die" is quite something… But Miss Eriri, please be extremely careful!

Spoilers Are Fun: I just finished my mission too. I'll head back to Chiba now to check the situation.

Blonde Defeated Dog: I'll start a video call. At least if I die, I'll leave some last words...

Eriri then started a group video call.

On the screen, Eriri's cute face appeared, but right now, the girl was sitting up straight, looking extremely tense, with a bit of cold sweat on her forehead.

Not far from her, at the seat beside her, the strange female classmate was still staring.

Eriri forced herself to look straight ahead at the blackboard.

She had never been this focused in class her entire life.

At that moment, the teacher at the front of the class also seemed to notice something was off. He stopped lecturing, frowned, and said,

"Some students, please pay attention to the lesson. What, does your seatmate have words written on their face or something?"

This was practically an explicit hint, just short of calling names.

It was a common tactic used by teachers.

Eriri's seatmate, after being passively called out, finally retracted her gaze and looked forward again.

Seeing this, the teacher nodded in satisfaction and resumed teaching.

Eriri let out a long sigh of relief.

In her heart, she silently praised this teacher.

'I will never call you "Passive-Aggressive Old Man" again!'

Eriri thought to herself.

But unexpectedly, at that moment, a note was suddenly tossed onto her desk.

The moment she had just relaxed, her nerves immediately tensed up again.

Blonde Defeated Dog: What do I do!? Should I just ignore it!?

Spoilers Are Fun: If you ignore it now, it'll just make you look guilty. Check what it says first.

Pain Magnet: Agreed! Besides, ignoring her completely might just provoke her. If something abnormal happens here, it'll be a disaster!

Hall Master of Wangsheng: Suu has a point. Assess the situation before making a decision.

After seeing the messages in the group chat, Eriri was convinced. She forced herself to stay calm and picked up the note from the desk.

Unfolding it, she saw five large words written inside:

"You saw it, right?"

Eriri: QAQ!

In that instant, Eriri almost wanted to cry.

What kind of development was this? A horror movie? Was she about to be silenced? Did she know too much?

In the end, Eriri simply wrote on the note:

"No, I didn't see anything."

Without even glancing sideways, she tossed the note back.

She thought that rejecting it outright would make her seatmate give up.

But unexpectedly, the note soon came back.

"No, you definitely saw it! But it's okay, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. We're friends, aren't we?"

Looking at the note, Eriri felt like crying even more.

Her seatmate… well, if she had to call her a friend, then technically, she was. This girl was usually very reclusive and didn't get along with anyone in class. Since they sat next to each other, Eriri would occasionally talk to her out of courtesy.

She had learned that this girl had a rather gloomy and unstable personality, the classic "landmine type".

Eriri had never thought much of it before. Since they were classmates and seatmates, outright ignoring her felt too harsh, so she had maintained a superficial friendship with her.

But now, because of that superficial friendship, she had been dragged into some weird situation.

If she had known this would happen, she would have transferred schools rather than keep up the fake friendliness!

But now that things had come to this, Eriri had no choice but to steel herself and write on the note:

"So… what exactly is going on with you?"

Honestly, Eriri really wanted to write: "We're not that close."

But obviously, writing that would only make things worse. Soon, the note was passed back again.

"I received divine revelation! I have evolved! I will soon transcend humanity! Under God's guidance, I will become His agent, an angel! Eriri, come with me! Let's ascend together beyond humanity!"

Reading the message, Eriri's hands trembled slightly.

"No thanks, I'm perfectly happy being human."

That was all she wrote before tossing the note back. Then, Eriri shrank into herself, preparing for the worst.

Evolution? Angels? Gods? She had zero interest in any of that.

Being human was the best, eating, drinking, and… being with Haruto…

If she transformed into some non-human entity, she'd lose her chances with Haruto forever.

At that point, she might as well just drop dead!

However, after waiting for a while, nothing terrible happened.

Curious, Eriri cautiously glanced at her seatmate.

But the girl was just sitting there, expressionless. The note had disappeared, and she was simply listening to the lecture again.

It seemed she had given up on dragging Eriri into her "evolution."

Seeing this, Eriri let out a long breath and collapsed onto her desk, relieved to have survived.

Blonde Defeated Dog: She seems to have given up. Surprisingly easy to talk down. I was scared to death, though!

Pain Magnet: Eriri is so brave…

Spoilers Are Fun: Eriri is so brave…

Hall Master of Wangsheng: But why do I feel like this isn't over yet?

Portal Daddy: She probably won't give up that easily. If only I could use the Time Stone to calculate the outcome…

Blonde Defeated Dog: Don't scare me!

At that moment, the school bell rang, this was the last class of the day.

Hearing the bell, the teacher packed up their materials and dismissed the class.

In Japan, club activities were an important part of school life.

Some club credits were almost as important as academic grades, so unless there were special circumstances, classes weren't extended, allowing students to go to their clubs.

Unfortunately, Eriri was part of the "Go-Home Club."

After all, this golden-haired defeated dog's hobby was drawing doujinshi.

Although the school had an art club, there was no way she could openly show her work there. And in the doujinshi world, she was pretty famous. Going home meant grinding out new illustrations.

But today, she deeply regretted not joining a club.

Grabbing her bag, she didn't even pack properly, she just bolted out the back door.

Once outside, she wanted to call a cab.

But after looking around, she didn't see a single taxi.

Even traffic was unusually sparse.

Soon, she realized that this was because the Foundation had intervened, evacuating the area.

Left with no choice, Eriri ran on foot.

While passing through a street, her Multiverse Chat Group panel popped up.

Big Sister is Supreme: The anomaly is still following you. Run to this location, and the Foundation will pick you up.

Big Sister is Supreme: [Pinned location: street map image]

Blonde Defeated Dog: !

Blonde Defeated Dog: Why?! I thought she gave up! Why is she still chasing me?! QAQ!

On the verge of tears, Eriri pulled up the map and followed the directions.

A few turns later, she arrived at an empty, abandoned area. There were several deserted warehouses nearby, overgrown with weeds, clearly a place no one visited often.

Panting heavily, Eriri stopped.

Just then, a 'click' echoed in the empty factory district.

Looking up, she saw that her classmate had caught up.

Unlike Eriri, she showed no signs of exertion.

Even though Eriri had pushed herself to the limit running, the other girl had followed as if she were just taking a leisurely stroll.

This made Eriri realize, this was no normal human.

"Eriri, let's embrace glorious evolution together! Let's become angels! Human beings, mere creatures of flesh and blood, are far too filthy. Abandon it!"

The female student stood not far from Eriri, raising both hands.

Despite speaking words that sounded like those of a cultist, there was no fanaticism in her expression. Her tone remained calm and even.

Even her voice…

Eriri felt that it lacked any human emotion, resembling a mechanical synthesis.

Just listening to it sent shivers down her spine.

Eriri was about to outright refuse when a message from the Multiversal Chat Group popped up.

Big Sister is Supreme: Foundation personnel are in position… If you're scared, you can head straight into the warehouse behind you.

Big Sister is Supreme: But the anomaly can communicate. If you can extract more information, the containment process will be less risky.

Blonde Defeated Dog: Got it, I'll give it a shot.

Big Sister is Supreme: Don't push yourself too hard.

Blonde Defeated Dog: Tch! Who do you think I am?!

Straightening her posture, Eriri suppressed the fear in her heart, looked at the female student, and after a brief pause, asked,

"You talk about evolving into angels, but aren't angels supposed to be beautiful women with white wings? And this god you speak of, who exactly is it? Jesus? Christ? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?"

Hearing this, the female student immediately shook her head.

"God is God! Jesus and Christ are mere fabrications. Only He is real! The angels you imagine are human lies. True angels abandon their fleshly shells and embrace eternal life! I worship the Machine God! Flesh is weak, but the machine ascends! Come, join the glorious evolution!"

As she spoke, her patience seemed to wear thin, and she began to approach Eriri step by step.

Now, with each step she took, a mechanical clicking sound emanated from her body.

It was as if beneath her fleshly exterior, countless gears were turning.

Eriri retreated step by step, eyes widening.

She saw that the woman closing in on her no longer had human eyes, her eye sockets were now entirely replaced by glowing red cameras.

Her eyeballs had disappeared, replaced by intricate mechanical structures.

The wound on her hand was also splitting apart from the inside, revealing large swathes of exposed metal, gleaming with an eerie sheen.

"Machine God? Look at yourself! See what you've become! Wake up already!"

Gathering the last of her courage, Eriri shouted, then pulled a small mirror from her backpack and threw it.

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound echoed.

The small mirror struck the female student but shattered upon impact, as if hitting solid metal.

Fragments of the mirror scattered across the ground.

The female student halted, lowering her gaze toward the ground.

In the broken mirror, she saw her reflection.

A monstrous, inhuman reflection.

The next moment, she let out a piercing screech, the sound resembling the distorted whine of a system error.

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T/N: 

I'm sorry for the late update, I was arguing with some stupid ass faggot.

Speaking of gods, check out chapter 44 in my Translator note of begone gey. Yall be the judge if I was right? Or if I was correct? 

Frankly, I'm getting tired of that shit.

Xiao~