The world has turned into Hell's Game, why should I stay human?!

A pure white spider slowly descended along its thread, holding a stack of clothes with two of its front limbs.

It landed in front of Liu Zheng, its eight eyes staring into his four eyes.

...

...

The spider impatiently threw the clothes on the ground and quickly scurried away.

"Hey, that's a pretty bad attitude."

Liu Zheng waved his tentacles, nearly hitting the spider's butt.

"The logistics folks always have bad attitudes, but you, kid, seem to have a temper growing."

Niu Ma said.

"Can't help it, I've got anger management issues now."

He shrugged.

"I advise you to rein it in; the dining area's different from the outside."

"I'll try."

Liu Zheng nodded.

He picked up the new uniform and put it on.

The new uniform was a cloak with openings on both sides, allowing him to stretch out his tentacles.

It was quite spacious, perfectly concealing his form.

"You really look like one of the Harmony Sect from the old city district."

Niu Ma commented.

"Really? I think it's quite nice."

He sat down cross-legged on the ground, placed the notebook on a stool, and began practicing his calligraphy.

Liu Zheng's face was stern, like a deep-sea fish reacting to stress.

His slender tentacle tips wrapped around the pen shaft, looping continuously, as if strangling prey.

"Heaven."

He wrote the first character in the notebook.

Not surprisingly, it was crooked and twisted; fountain pens were never made for octopuses or jellyfish.

"Earth."

Liu Zheng wrote the second character.

This time the lines were straighter, but every curve had turned into a rounded corner.

"Possessing integrity, inadvertently shaping forms. Below as rivers and mountains, above as sun and stars..."

Ignoring the oddly shaped characters, he continued writing one after another until he had finished the entire article.

"Isn't it strange for a faceless monster to recite the 'Ode to Integrity'?"

Liu Zheng asked himself.

"Though I don't know what the 'Ode to Integrity' is, anything you write now looks weird."

Niu Ma looked up and added.

"Good point."

As he looked at Niu Ma's large face, he suddenly asked,

"Boss, have you ever eaten human?"

"Kid, just because you're not human anymore, you think you're tough, wanting to arm wrestle with me?"

Niu Ma sneered and stood up.

Its muscles gradually bulged, and the fur covering them shimmered with a metallic luster.

"Let me tell you, even the head chef and the chief supervisor don't dare raise their voices against me. I've eaten people—men, women, old, young—I've eaten them all; what about it?"

Niu Ma stamped his foot, and a shallow pit immediately appeared on the ground.

The flying debris cut Liu Zheng's tentacle; before a drop of fresh blood could seep out, the wound had already healed.

Niu Ma humphed, the Immortal nothing more than a tough punching bag to him.

"That fur of yours must be tough to maintain, huh?"

"Tell me about it—I spend a third of my salary on care products every month."

Niu Ma stroked its fur, a look of pain on its face.

"Then you certainly wouldn't want to get smoked by this thing, would you?"

Liu Zheng took out the Feces Sea Mad Maggot Fossil.

"Humph, I'll just have to bathe more often."

Niu Ma's pupils constricted, still stubbornly talking tough.

"Then how about I take this out, how would you deal with it?"

He took out a lighter.

"Shit!"

Niu Ma visibly shuddered.

Although an explosion might not kill it, it would definitely burn off all its fur.

"Have you gone crazy? What have I ever done to you that you're playing with my life?"

Niu Ma asked, half in shock and half in anger.

"Because I'm sick."

"You sure are sick."

Niu Ma nodded.

"I am really sick, with anger management issues."

Liu Zheng said seriously.

"I just want to survive, but right after coming here, you beat me half to death. There are monsters everywhere that can eat people. One wrong word can lead to a death flag, delivering food forces me to eat inedible stuff, hearing bizarre gospels, and finally, I turned into a non-human monster myself. The most ridiculous part is..."

"I worked so hard and still didn't get my paycheck in the end."

"Niu Ma, don't you think I have the right to be angry?"

He asked, staring at the tuft of hair on Niu Ma's head.

"Isn't the paycheck supposed to be issued at the end of the month?"

Niu Ma asked, puzzled.

"What did you say?"

A spark suddenly flickered to life.

"Get angry, you have to get angry. Anyone who doesn't get angry is a loser,"

Niu Ma immediately said.

"Good. Now, lean your head over here."

"For what?"

Niu Ma put on a wary face.

"What are you afraid of? It's not like you can be blown up anyway."

Liu Zheng said.

"Hmph, I'd like to see what trick you're trying to pull."

Niu Ma made up its mind that if Liu Zheng tried anything funny, it would kill him at the risk of going completely bald.

Niu Ma's large head leaned towards Liu Zheng while he fumbled in his pocket.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"Care for a smoke, boss?"

He asked with a grin.

"???"

Niu Ma looked utterly bemused.

"Smoke it."

It opened its mouth.

Liu Zheng stuffed three cigarettes into Niu Ma's mouth, and lit one for himself.

The smoke swirled around, quickly filling the lounge with a sickly sweet smell.

"Sweethearts 1916, where did you get these?"

Niu Ma blew two smoke rings from its nostrils.

"Same as the lighter, snatched off a security guard at First-Class Villa."

Liu Zheng inhaled deeply, savoring the spicy sensation in his throat.

If it had been before, his lungs would have almost coughed out by now.

Flesh Deformation hadn't cured his illness but had reconstructed his deteriorated respiratory muscles.

"Hmph."

Niu Ma proudly lifted its chin a bit.

Liu Zheng ignored it.

Niu Ma felt bored and flicked its tail forcefully.

"It's a dog-eat-dog world. I've even eaten beef and horse before."

It took a deep drag of the cigarette.

"But I've never actively eaten a person, those delivery guys who died weren't my fault either."

"Just keep smoking."

Liu Zheng said indifferently.

The man and the horse didn't speak anymore and quietly finished the entire pack of cigarettes.

"Besides the Ascension Mao Tai, what else can you get to drink?"

He flung the empty cigarette pack into the air and then snapped it out of the air with a flick.

"You want to trade with that tree?"

"You know it?"

"Duh, how many days have you been here?"

Niu Ma said disdainfully.

"Very impressive, boss."

Liu Zheng offered a compliment that was neither too light nor too heavy.

"No, getting compliments from you now makes me itch all over, always feels like you're scheming to kill me."

Niu Ma waved its hooves dismissively.

"I can indeed get good stuff, at least enough to trade for half of that tree's worth."

It thought for a moment.

"However, our agreed condition was Ascension Mao Tai; to change that, we'll have to see if the complete game reward is worth it."

"Fine,"

Liu Zheng nodded and took out his phone.

He held the phone between his knees, the four tentacles poised and ready.

"Start."

He pressed to continue the game.

The speed of the snake increased once again at level twenty-one, and there were a lot more obstacles.

But Liu Zheng found it easier to play.

Not to mention his four eyes and hands, just the attributes added by "Flesh Deformation" had almost doubled his dynamic vision and reaction speed.

Soon, Liu Zheng reached level 25, the final level.

"How did the previous person reach level 24?"

He breathed slightly harder.

The difficulty of the subsequent levels increased exponentially; if he hadn't transformed, he could have only reached level 22 at most.

"I didn't say it was a human that did it."

Niu Ma shrugged its shoulders.

"Heh."

Liu Zheng rolled his eyes at it.

Niu Ma chose to ignore him.

"Saving."

He took out the copper finger.

It gradually disappeared, and the "next level" button on the screen turned gold.

"Phew."

Liu Zheng let out a long breath and pressed the confirm button.