Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

The Landship lurched to a stop, its vast mechanical form ceasing its advance as the Autogenetic Aurora pulsed in the skies above. The ethereal light danced in slow, undulating waves, its chromatic shimmer casting eerie reflections against the Landship's reinforced hull.

I stood in the observation dome, watching as the aurora continued its slow descent, its radiant tendrils touching the earth with a deceptive gentleness. A force that could rewrite the very foundation of life itself, molding flesh and form with no regard for the original shape. A curse for most. But for us? An opportunity.

The Duolos, as always, obeyed without hesitation.

Through the neuromorphic network, I issued the command—thirty of them would disable their regenerative functions, allowing the mutation to take effect. The selection process was handled with absolute efficiency. Within moments, the designated vessels stepped forward, their bodies still, waiting for the aurora to reach them.

The rest of the Duolos observed in silent calculation. The bastioneers and my confidantes, meanwhile, remained within the Landship's interior, watching through live feeds and direct neural links. There was no need for unnecessary risks. If the Duolos could adapt, we would gain something invaluable. If they couldn't, they would regenerate, and the attempt would be deemed a failure.

Simple. Methodical. Efficient.

The light finally reached the designated Duolos.

Their bodies shimmered, reacting immediately.

A quiet hum pulsed through the neuromorphic network as the mutation process began. The very essence of the aurora seeped into them, rewriting their biology, reshaping them. There was no pain—only transformation.

The first vessel's body tensed, and then, in a silent burst of unseen force, the air around it rippled. The psychic field surrounding the area fluctuated wildly, as if space itself had momentarily recognized a new presence before rejecting it. The vessel's neural activity spiked erratically, indicating heightened sensitivity to psychic stimuli—but without control. Its connection to the unseen forces of Carcosa's ethereal plane was fragmented, making its perception unnervingly disjointed, as if experiencing multiple versions of reality at once.

When it moved, there was a lag, a delay in the way its form aligned with the present. A sensitivity too extreme, teetering on the edge of madness rather than enlightenment.

Another's form began to harden, its structure shifting as its cells compacted at an unnatural density. The change extended beyond itself—when it placed a hand against the ground, the very earth beneath it calcified, reinforcing with an unknown force. But moments later, its fingers froze, stiffening into something closer to petrified wood than reinforced flesh.

The mutation had overcorrected, robbing it of flexibility, making movement cumbersome and slow. A passive ability to fortify anything it touched—at the cost of locking itself into rigidity. The vessel stood there, struggling to bend its own joints, before the mutation was reversed. Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire

"Those look freaky," Lupina commented, with a repulsed expression.

"We'll get used to it," Verina replied, showing quite an intense focus at the subjected Duolos vessels.

One of them shuddered as the mutation took hold in its back, and in an instant, wings of flesh erupted from its spine. The air around it distorted as the color field bent to its will.

The wings pulsed, shifting between colors and altering the very pull of hue in a localized space.

But the field was erratic, uncontrolled. It fluctuated violently, one moment dragging everything toward the vessel, the next repelling objects with force great enough to dislodge steel plating from the ground. The vessel attempted to adjust, but its entire frame was being pulled apart—caught between forces it could not balance. Another failure.

Some of the mutations were immediately useful, but only at a minuscule scale. Others were volatile, unstable.

A fourth vessel convulsed, its body melting as its flesh turned into an amorphous, wax-like substance. The shift was grotesque, its form losing all recognizable structure, reducing it to a formless entity that sloshed and reformed in an endless, writhing loop. The neural readings suggested it was still aware, still conscious, but unable to communicate, unable to reform back into anything coherent. An existence without a form.

Another vessel's legs extended grotesquely, stretching past their normal proportions. With each step, they coiled and recoiled like springs, launching the vessel forward in erratic, uncontrollable bursts of speed. But the momentum lacked direction—it crashed into a wall, rebounded off the floor, then spiraled upward, unable to stop its own movement.

One vessel began to vibrate, its entire form shaking at such an extreme frequency that it phased in and out of reality. For a brief moment, it seemed like a successful mutation—until its body flickered too far, and a section of it simply didn't return. A severed limb remained gone, lost somewhere between existence and nonexistence. The experiment was immediately terminated, forcing the vessel to regenerate before more parts of it were erased.

A particularly violent mutation caused a vessel's arms to split—not into separate limbs, but into multiple thin strands, like organic wires of flesh and bone. The strands writhed, moving with a mind of their own, shifting unpredictably.

When it tried to retract them, they simply continued growing, spilling across the ground like a mass of tangled nerves, sprouting eyes, mouths, and unknown orifices along their lengths. Before it could escalate further, the mutation was forcibly purged.

Another vessel's entire torso hollowed out, the internal structure erased, leaving only a shell. The vessel remained standing, moving as if nothing had changed, yet its insides were gone, leaving nothing but an echoing void. The readings showed it was still functional, but the longer it existed in this state, the more it lost its connection to the neuromorphic network, like an empty husk slowly losing its sense of purpose.

The mutations varied in nature, but most were far from beneficial. Some were too destructive to control, others were impractical or outright detrimental.

A total of three hundred sixty transformations took place over the course of two hours.

And by the end of it—only nine were deemed worth keeping.

Through it all, the neuromorphic network cataloged every single result, analyzing the potential applications, recording failures, marking inconsistencies. The failed mutations were discarded, their subjects reverting back to their templated forms, their genetic structures cleansed of instability. The ones that succeeded, however…

And by the end of it—only nine were deemed worth keeping.

The first—the heightened psychic sensitivity, an enhancement to the mind that sharpened telekinetic abilities, allowing for direct interaction with intangible forces.

The second—a cellular hardening effect that could be extended beyond oneself, reinforcing any object or structure touched by the mutated vessel.

The third—plasma wings, capable of manipulating both magnetism and gravity, providing not only flight but control over the very forces that dictated movement.

The fourth—heat generation and resistance, allowing the user to withstand and create extreme temperatures with absolute immunity.

The fifth—the ability to slip through time, an ability so dangerous that it was immediately locked behind further research, but its potential remained undeniable.

The sixth—inertia control, the ability to generate and manipulate momentum, altering the force of movement itself.

The seventh—a fractured body structure, where limbs and body parts could separate yet remain connected through a psychic field, granting a form of disjointed yet controlled movement that defied conventional physics.

The eighth—the ability to transform hair into an exotic, incomprehensible liquid that flowed with unnatural properties, its composition still under analysis.

And the ninth—the ability to expel toxins from their pores, specifically modified into the same bluish blood matter that could convert others into Duolos, removing the previous requirement of direct blood contact for conversion.

Nine mutations.

Each one is unique and whole when it comes to their genetic environment. This makes each one incompatible with the others.

Once a Duolos vessel accepted a mutation, it could not take another. Their genetic structures rejected further alteration beyond their first transformation.

It was a limitation. But a fair trade.

And now, with these nine perfected strains stored within the Hive Mind's arsenal, the Duolos had been granted a new layer of adaptability.

From this moment forward, they could integrate these mutations into their chosen vessels. No longer bound to rigid uniformity, they now possessed selective evolution, an ability to modify their own numbers according to necessity.

The experiment had been an overwhelming success.

I watched as the modified Duolos vessels tested their newfound abilities, their movements more precise, their forms subtly changed. Some hovered with their plasma wings, testing the range of their control. Others capable of hardening their surroundings, reinforcing the muddy terrain beneath their feet.

The one with fractured limbs flexed its hand, watching as its fingers separated, floating freely in the air before snapping back into place.

And many more.

I allowed myself a small, satisfied smile.

This was worth it.

And with the final evaluations completed, the command was given.

The Landship resumed its advance.

The great mechanical structure roared to life once more, propelling forward with renewed momentum, the earth parting beneath its vast frame. The Duolos, their experiment complete, moved in seamless synchronization, either falling back into formation or continuing their modifications within the depths of the bastion's hold.

The aurora continued to shimmer behind us, left untouched now that its purpose had been fulfilled.