Thinking of something interesting, Yang Yi and Tomie went straight to Japan.
They arrived inside a long-abandoned prefectural hospital.
The air was thick with the smell of decaying dust.
Large chunks of plaster peeled from the corridor walls, revealing dark red bricks underneath that looked like dried blood.
Yang Yi pushed open the door to a ward, the hinges letting out a piercing screech.
Tomie followed closely behind, curiously taking in her surroundings.
Their target was in the deepest part of this ward.
It was a massive sphere formed by countless intertwined mental tentacles.
It occupied the entire corner of the room, still pulsing faintly like a heart in the mental realm.
Countless translucent tentacles extended from the surface of the fleshy mass, their tips connected to several long-shriveled corpses on the hospital beds.
A wave of pure mental corruption, like an invisible force field, shrouded the entire space.
This was the bizarre entity from the manga *Group Ward* that could forcibly connect everyone's minds and bodies, then gradually assimilate them.
Facing this monster that was enough to cause any normal person's mind to instantly collapse, the expression on Tomie's face changed.
A look of sheer greed, as if she were staring at top-tier ingredients, emerged on her face.
"What a... wonderful scent."
She let out a satisfied sigh of admiration and walked toward the squirming mass of flesh.
The fleshy mass seemed to sense her intentions. One of the thickest tentacles suddenly shot out, piercing toward Tomie's forehead.
However, Tomie didn't dodge. She even slightly raised her chin, allowing the cold, slippery tentacle to connect to her mental world.
The next second, the expected scene of Tomie being assimilated and absorbed did not occur.
Instead, the mental tentacle connected to her began to tremble violently.
It was as if what it had connected to wasn't a human consciousness, but an abyss filled with endless malice.
"My turn."
The corners of Tomie's mouth curled up.
A massive mental force surged along the tentacle, eroding it in reverse.
"Ahhh—!!!"
A shrill, inhuman shriek erupted from the massive lump of flesh.
It began to twitch and shrink frantically. The flesh and blood tissues that made up its body were being absorbed and devoured by Tomie at a visible rate.
A moment later, peace returned to the ward.
That terrifying monster had completely vanished, leaving only Tomie standing quietly in place.
She closed her eyes, seemingly digesting the new ability she had just acquired.
"Mental connection... assimilation..."
"So this is what it feels like."
When she opened her eyes again, her entire aura was completely different.
Immediately after, she grabbed a Tomie who hadn't been assimilated by her, threw her down in front of her, and then pulled out a chainsaw.
The weak Tomie lying on the ground looked at her in terror.
"Stop, what are you doing? Don't do this to me! We're both Tomie!"
The next second, she was directly chopped into pieces by Tomie, and then the pieces began to continuously regenerate.
A few minutes later, hundreds of identical Tomies crammed the entire ward.
Just as they were about to rebel against the strongest Tomie in front of them, the Tomie who had just absorbed the mental connection sprouted a massive number of tentacles directly from her mouth, connecting to the minds of all the Tomies.
Subsequently, a powerful mental corruption surged along the tentacles toward these newborn Tomies, directly corrupting them into her own shape.
A few minutes later, the movements of most of the Tomies became uniform, as if controlled by a single, unified will.
They had become a single entity.
A hive mind named "Tomie."
"Well then, let the game begin."
Hundreds of Tomies spoke simultaneously, their voices overlapping to form an eerie harmony.
The next moment, they turned their gazes toward the few Tomies who hadn't been assimilated. A new round of proliferation began.
More and more newborn Tomies joined the hive mind. These 'clones' controlled by the strongest Tomie launched a purge against the other Tomies.
Strongest Tomie: *I will subjugate all Tomies in the world!*
...
In the ruins of a certain city, an independent Tomie was trying to seduce a squad of surviving soldiers.
Suddenly, her movements stiffened, and a look of extreme terror appeared on her face.
An irresistible, massive will violently crashed into her mind.
"No... I am me! I am not you!"
She let out a final cry of despair, then her body went limp. The struggle and independent consciousness in her eyes quickly dissipated, replaced by the same emptiness and uniformity as the hive mind.
The exact same scene played out in every corner of Japan.
All independent Tomie individuals, facing the overwhelming power and endless numbers of the "Tomie Hive," had no power to resist. They were corrupted and assimilated one by one, becoming part of the massive collective.
When the last wild Tomie was incorporated into the hive network, Tomie controlled these clones to begin a new round of division.
They exploded, splattering across the mountain ranges.
The soil and rocks of the mountains began to squirm, and exquisite, beautiful faces of young girls emerged from within.
Subsequently, massive numbers of Tomies "grew" out of the mountainsides.
In the city ruins, countless Tomies burst forth from the concrete ground, building walls, and even the scattered corpses of wild dogs.
In the countryside of Tokyo, what grew in the fields were no longer crops, but black-haired girls.
One day later.
The entire Japanese archipelago had completely changed its appearance.
Looking down from space, the surface of the island was covered by a continuously squirming layer of black-haired girls.
Hundreds of billions of Tomies appeared here. Fortunately, they were all controlled by the strongest Tomie; otherwise, the sound of their bickering alone would drive anyone insane.
Today's Tomie was no longer a species, but a geological phenomenon.
In the center of this black land composed of Tomies, Yang Yi snapped his fingers.
"Hum—!"
The Transmutation Table radiated brilliantly.
An endless stream of the twelve zodiac Talismans frantically gushed out from the table, turning into streaks of light that flew toward every single Tomie.
An immortal, indestructible, mentally unified "Tomie Army" numbering in the hundreds of billions, with every member fully equipped with divine artifacts, was officially born.
The next second, all the Tomies raised their heads simultaneously, casting their gazes toward the pitch-black night sky.
The Hellstar had finally arrived.