Twitter's new honcho beamed into the B20 business conference in Indonesia Monday ... and was engulfed in darkness and surrounded by burning candles.

Musk was asked about his $44 billion purchase of Twitter and how he's managing it all with Tesla and his other companies.

The world's richest man was shockingly transparent ... "I have too much work on my plate -- that is for sure. I am really working the absolute most amount that I can work from morning 'til night, 7 days a week ... this is not something I recommend, frankly."

Then things really got weird. During a long pause, Musk began looking around and smiling, seemingly baffled. "I don't know what else to say ... but it is um ... and I just look at this video and it's so bizarre."

Musk began laughing hysterically, ending with ... "I'm sitting in the dark surrounded by candles ... it's so bizarre."

As we reported ... Musk has been trying to get his bearings at Twitter ever since he acquired the company in late October. He fired thousands of employees to offset major losses caused by a downturn in ad sales, or so he says. Musk has also seen a flood of fake accounts appear on the social media platform -- which was exactly what he was attempting to stop.

Even more worrisome, President Biden has said Musk's foreign business ties should be investigated to make sure everything is on the up and up.