Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 70: [The River God’s Wife] - Nerio’s Part (19)

[If I remember correctly, Nerio had never even looked at Leonard before, not even a little...]

[That’s right, but now he’s talking so much with Leonard. Could this be the bond of sympathy between the downtrodden? lol]

[Am I the only one who thinks Nerio is too adorable? He cares about Leonard—so pure, so innocent.]

[My sweet, innocent Nerio must survive until the very end! Huhuhu, I’ll send a knife to the scriptwriter’s house if Nerio dies!]

[From my perspective, there’s no way Nerio is getting out of this dungeon...]

[Some people need to stop making wild guesses. I don’t understand how cruel you can be to such a beautiful child like Nerio!]

Pointless arguments flooded the screen non-stop. This is a fan war, Nerio thought to himself. But what lifted his mood was the realization that he seemed to be building a stable fanbase. As expected, having a good face always worked wonders no matter where you were.

"Aaa!"

Leonard’s sudden scream drew everyone’s attention. When they turned to look, they saw him clutching his body. The exposed parts of his skin were quickly covered in blistering burns, blood seeping out. His injuries were far worse than anyone else’s.

Leon was also suffering under the scorching sunlight, but upon seeing Leonard’s condition, he couldn’t help but sneer, "What a useless weakling!"

Leonard trembled from the pain, too overwhelmed to respond. The others paid him no attention either, gritting their teeth and rushing toward the western house as fast as possible.

Leonard staggered after them, leaving a trail of blood dripping from his burns with every step. He looked as if he could collapse and die at any moment.

Only Nerio kept staring at Leonard’s abdomen—the spot he was clutching so desperately as if that alone could ease his suffering.

Leonard shouldn’t have reacted so violently to the sunlight. After all, none of the others were suffering like he was. No matter how weak he was compared to the rest, a grown man like Leonard shouldn’t be worse off than Kely, a delicate young woman.

Silvanus speculated silently that his extreme reaction to the sunlight was likely related to the fact that he had consumed monster blood.

Meanwhile, the viewers’ comments kept rolling in.

[Look at the way Nerio is staring at Leonard. Am I the only one who thinks he knows something?]

[Nerio fans, can you stop deluding yourselves? You should hope he doesn’t die in the next round.]

[Now that you mention it, the real show is about to start. I vote that Nerio will be the first to get eliminated!]

Seeing a flood of comments anticipating his death wasn’t exactly pleasant. Silvanus’s face darkened slightly.

By this time, they had reached the house in the west—the designated shelter for those who had wandered into the village by mistake.

They all rushed inside almost frantically, unable to endure the scorching sunlight for another second.

The moment Leonard stepped into the room, he immediately felt a change in his body. The flesh the sunlight had relentlessly burned was now regenerating at an alarming speed!

Stop. Stop. Stop! Leonard nearly crushed those words in his mind. As expected, the regeneration ceased, but the terrifying wounds on his hands only filled him with more profound despair.

Nerio continued staring at Leonard, watching his confused and panicked expression with an unreadable face.

Matthew said, "Alright, let’s split up and search carefully. Even the smallest clue needs to be collected."

The others quickly responded and began searching. Leonard snapped out of his daze and hurried to join them. Only Nerio remained standing at the door, watching the others busy themselves. No one knew what he was thinking or paid him any attention.

"It looks like we’ve found something useful," Clow’s contemplative voice rang out, drawing everyone’s attention. The group immediately gathered around.

Clow was holding a thin notebook, old and worn, its cover layered with dust and tattered in several places as if it had aged for decades.

He gently brushed off the dust and flipped it open. Chaotic lines of text appeared before their eyes.

[XX/XX: We stumbled upon a strange village while on a deep forest expedition with our tour group. We separated from the others—only Belle and I ended up lost.]

[This village is bizarre. There isn’t a single woman here. Belle and I are terrified. They told us to wait here while they try to contact the outside world—but only after the village chief’s wedding is over. I decided to listen to them for now. The forest would be dangerous without a guide. But Belle was scared. She wanted to escape. So that night, despite my protests, she ran out of the village alone. I was afraid. I hesitated. But the following day, Belle came back—looking like she had just finished a race against fate.]

[Belle has gone mad.]

[She fears the villagers. She hates them. She keeps rambling about something I can’t understand. I hope everything will go as planned once the chief’s wedding ends. The wedding is getting closer, but Belle has disappeared again. I can’t find her. Maybe she ran away once more.]

[...]

[At last, the village chief’s wedding has arrived—a bizarre ceremony by the riverside. A pig cage was thrown down from the altar. I saw it. I saw it. Inside was the old phone Belle always carried around, treating it like a vintage accessory. I saw her trapped in the pig cage. I saw her become the bride. I saw it. I saw it. Ha ha ha ha. I saw it. Ha ha ha ha...]

The handwriting grew more erratic, the letters swelling, expanding—stretching outward like a vortex, pulling the reader’s gaze into its spiraling madness.

"Ha ha ha ha!" A maniacal, mocking laughter seemed to echo in all their ears.

"I saw it... I saw it..." Kelly and Elena began mumbling.

"Throw the notebook away!" Ace shouted, swiftly knocking it out of Clow’s hands. Staring directly at the pages, Clow finally snapped out of his daze.

But it was already too late.

The notebook’s influence had completely overtaken Kelly and Elena. Their mouths stretched into unnatural grins, tearing at the corners until the gashes reached their ears, fresh blood dripping down as their exposed teeth gleamed grotesquely.

The sounds they made were no longer human.

Their eyes bulged unnaturally wide, the whites rolling up as if they were about to spill out completely.

"I SAW IT! HA HA HA HA HA!"

Their shrill laughter rang through the room before they suddenly lunged—attacking Ace and the others!

"Kill them!" Ace clicked his tongue, and in an instant, massive vines erupted, wrapping tightly around Kelly and Elena. The sickening sound of bones cracking filled the air, blood seeping down from their crushed bodies.

Maya screamed, "Wait—!"

But before she could finish, BOOM! Ace’s vines exploded.

Kelly and Elena—no, the creatures they had become—dropped to all fours, their heads twisted backward at an impossible angle. Their broken, mangled bodies slithered forward in a grotesque, nightmarish motion, crawling toward the humans at terrifying speed!