Chapter 62: The Death of the Snail
By observing the circuitry of the red mechanism, Ray basically determined that the switch could unlock his restraints, but it did more than just that.
On either side of the seat were two spring mechanisms connected to two guillotine-like blades, each with a half-inch-long edge, their sharpness unimaginable.
Based on the circuitry, Ray deduced that turning the gear would cause these blades to spring back, severing his legs.
However, seeing the twelve sharp blades approaching from both sides of the chamber, he made a ruthless decision to avoid being cut to pieces.
If he could get out alive, he could always replace himself with a healthy body; to live, he had to fight.
With his bound right hand, Ray laboriously manipulated the red gear switch, the blades on the small gears cutting his fingers raw and bloody.
But at that moment, he had only one thought: to live!
As long as he lived, he would still be the master of his fate, able to take whatever body he wanted!
Being captured and forced into this game like a lab rat was his shame, a shame that had to be avenged!
Just as the twelve bladed gears were about to touch Ray, the red switch was finally turned to its limit.
Swoosh!
A sound like chopping bones rang out.
All the shackles on Ray's body snapped open, and the twelve bladed gears stopped turning the instant they sliced through Ray's skin.
But Ray's legs were severed by the rebounding sharp blades, blood gushing out and flowing onto the ground.
Ray knew that he couldn't delay any longer, or he would bleed to death.
He crawled on the ground towards a fist-sized hole in the corner of the closed iron door; he knew this was the only way out prepared for him.
Ray reached the cage at the entrance of the hole and stared into the eyes of the black snail that was eating lettuce.
He had tried to possess the smallest body before, a very cute kitten, but even that was twice the size of this snail. This was his first time trying to possess a snail.
Ray activated his possession ability, and ten seconds later, the scene before him changed.
Everything around him became much taller, and his field of vision became very limited, estimated to be less than eight inches according to the tunnel's proportions. Ray couldn't help but glance back with his eyestalks.
The model's body was lying in front of the cage. Because he was so close to the cage, he could clearly see the deathly pale face with wide-open eyes.
Ray retracted the eye on his eyestalk and laboriously used his slippery head to push against the latch on the cage.
After several attempts, he finally opened the cage door. Dragging the heavy snail shell, he crawled through the fist-sized opening into a glass tube about six feet long.
As Ray crawled, a layer of transparent mucus secreted by the snail's body was left on the ground.
It took Ray a full minute to crawl to the end of the short six-foot tube.
But the end wasn't a way out; instead, it was a pair of eyes—a pair of beautiful eyes.
Ray had seen countless human bodies in his long existence, but this was the first time he'd seen such perfect eyes, which were also staring at him curiously.
At this moment, Ray's snail-like vision could only see these eyes inside a steel helmet. He realized this was his path to survival.
The girl's facial muscles seemed to be moving, as if she were saying something, but Ray, being a snail, had no hearing and couldn't hear a thing.
Perhaps the girl was pleading for help, but her eyes didn't seem to, but Ray didn't care.
At this moment, he actually felt a slight sense of gratitude and anticipation, grateful that the owner of the containment room had provided him such a perfect body.
He planned to make the owner of the containment room pay after he escaped.
Marcus, in the monitoring room, saw that Ray had already followed his pre-planned route to the second step. At this point, Ray should be brimming with survival instinct.
In the original story, Ray instantly fell in love with Tomie's beautiful body upon seeing her.
He even stopped playing with the perverse pleasure of swapping bodies between humans and animals.
Instead, after encountering Tomie, he directly possessed her body, transferring Tomie's consciousness into the body of model Ray Bennett.
This was the only Tomie consciousness to escape the curse of Tomie's body.
However, even after possessing Tomie, Ray was still affected by Tomie's body, even though that body was now his.
He wasn't converted into Tomie's consciousness, but he was attracted to his own Tomie body, even becoming addicted like other men, ultimately unable to extricate himself and dismembering himself.
Because he loved his body too much.
After Ray dismembered himself, he was horrified to discover that his consciousness had also been split. The process of splitting his consciousness was incredibly painful; he could feel that if he split himself a few more times, he would go completely insane.
Therefore, it seems that only when Tomie's body and consciousness are combined can she be considered a true Tomie. Without consciousness, only the attraction and regenerative power of the body's instincts remain; without the seduction and command of consciousness, she is merely a living target to be endlessly dismembered.
Marcus watched Ray's actions expectantly. Although Ray easily replaced Tomie's consciousness in the original story, now it depended on the actual situation.
He was also closely observing, making sure Ray didn't actually die. If it didn't succeed, he would transfer Ray into a lab mouse's body and then consider other ways to make Ray act according to his will.
Inside the containment room, Ray stared into Tomie's eyes and hurriedly activated his possession ability. He had had enough of this snail's slippery, slow way of life.
Whether it was due to impatience or the snail's simple thinking, Ray only needed nine seconds for his vision to change.
The scene shifted, and Ray felt himself regain a body. He saw a snail whose escape route was blocked by a plug.
The girl must be panicking inside the snail's body now. Ray tried to move, but found his body immobilized.
He could see the iron helmet around his eye sockets.
Just as he was thinking about how to unlock it, his peripheral vision shifted downwards. In the gap between the helmet and his face, near his mouth, was a combination lock.
The lock had eight dials, each marked with the numbers 0-9.
The moment Ray saw these dials, he remembered his birthday—07041996 engraved on the red gear switch!
Ray hurriedly used his tongue to turn the lock.
The moment the eight digits were correct, a soft click came from his armor, and Ray felt his restrained body loosen.
The armor was removed, and Ray emerged from its cage.
The moment he emerged, he heard a hissing sound. Looking back, he saw a pile of white salt had fallen into the tube where the snail had been stored.
The snail had dissolved into a pool of liquid within the salt, then been dried by the intense heat.
(End of Chapter)
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