Nightmare Despair

Chapter 132 Facing the Unspeakable
Intermittent footsteps echoed throughout the circular dungeon, traveling from the sparsely lit braziers to the depths of the empty, dark corridors.

In a gloomy tunnel, you can see six or seven burly figures with bare upper bodies at first glance.

They moved with extraordinary agility, their muscles were strangely developed, and the back muscles covered with scratches and stitches were vaguely twisted into a hideous demon face, which was chilling.

These monsters dragged long metal claws, grinding them into the ground and creating blinding sparks.

In terms of overall strength, they seem to be a notch stronger than the chain-hammer armored warriors and decaying swordsmen who roam around the town.

But just how strong it actually is... we'll have to wait for Zhou Kai to personally measure it out.

……

Bang!
A dull thud echoed through the dungeon, instantly drawing the attention of all the guards.

Snap... Snap...

The long hook rubbed against the round shield, producing a piercing sound.

The five shield-hook guards immediately formed a battle formation and advanced toward the corner from which the strange noise was coming.

The chaotic footsteps quickly became synchronized, as if they were forming some kind of eerie rhythm.

With this rhythm, the auras of the five guards gradually merged into one.

A powerful, majestic aura converged, forming an invisible wall that pressed forward alongside them.

In the blink of an eye, the guards advanced several dozen meters and arrived at the edge of the lake where the ripples were gradually subsiding.

However, apart from the gently rippling water, there was nothing in front of him.

There was no trace of the intruder, nor was there any sign of the heavy object that had fallen earlier.

All that could be seen were a few wet drag marks on the ground, but they had been there for several hours.

After standing motionless by the lake for a moment, having found nothing, the guards turned around and returned to the corridor to continue their patrol.

Just as they turned around, a dark-skinned hand silently emerged from the dark lake water and quietly gripped the stone bricks on the shore.

next moment.

Wow!
A massive amount of lake water suddenly surged up, transforming into a giant wave that crashed down on the shield-hook guards!
The guards keenly sensed the unusual movement and quickly turned around, only to see a deep curtain of water pouring down from above.

The turbulent wall of water obscured all vision, and behind the water curtain, a dark shadow was approaching at a terrifying speed.

However, by the time they realized the danger, it was too late!

"cut!"

With a loud shout, Zhou Kai's figure suddenly leaped out from behind the water curtain.

He suddenly spun around in mid-air, channeling all his brute force into the Dragon Slayer Sword in his hand.

The giant sword, which had been stationary, suddenly burst into terrifying speed in the blink of an eye!

boom!
The deafening roar shook the entire dungeon, and the towering waves stirred up by Zhou Kai were cleaved in two by the Dragon Slayer Sword.

The guards were caught off guard by this series of attacks, and they only had time to stare wide-eyed as a thick, dark piece of steel hurtled straight toward them.

When speed and weight reach their limits, even the wind they generate can be enough to injure someone.

The first shield-hook guard had half his body caught in the sword's momentum, and was blasted away like a kite with a broken string.

The other four guards were also in trouble, as the blunt and piercing power of the Dragon Slayer Sword raged invisibly amidst the chaotic sword wind.

Chi Chi Chi!
The terrifying sound of flesh being torn apart filled the air.

The four guards that were not instantly defeated by Zhou Kai's sword all had bloody wounds burst open on their bodies.

"Not bad!" Zhou Kai grinned wildly and praised in a gruff voice, "Keep going!"

He roared, his fighting spirit surging.

Zhou Kai then dragged his blood-stained greatsword and stared intently at the four remaining shield-hook guards.

In Akuso's memory, these powerful warriors were once beings he had to look up to.

But now... let's see who's stronger?

He suddenly planted his feet in a horse stance, assuming a posture of gathering strength. His muscles instantly heated up and swelled, and the lake water covering his body hissed into white mist from his scorching body temperature.

In the hazy mist, Zhou Kai's muscular body looked no less imposing than these monsters with ghostly faces.

Wow!
The Dragon-Slaying Sword was swung out once more.

The heavy sword, which had been gathering momentum in place, suddenly transformed into a black shadow and slashed towards the enemy group almost instantly, with the speed of the blade tip instantly soaring to two hundred kilometers per hour.

Zhou Kaiqiang's strength today lies not only in his ability to wield a 400-kilogram iron sword at such an absurd speed, but also in his ability to stop at any speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

The sword strike came with great force, giving the guards time to react.

But when the difference in strength becomes too great to be true, it's too late to react.

Several guards who swung their long hooks in retaliation were instantly swept away by the greatsword, flying backward like leaves in autumn wind.

Only the one who raised his shield to block Zhou Kai's sword could barely manage to stop it.

puff!
The guard holding the shield suddenly opened his mouth beneath his solemn, iron-faced expression and spat out a thick stream of dark red blood.

The terrifying impact penetrated his body, shattering all the bones in his arms, turning his muscles into a pulp, and tearing his internal organs apart.

Victory charge!

With a single sword strike gaining the upper hand, Zhou Kai seized the opportunity and roared, unleashing his ultimate attack.

Teng Teng Teng!
He took several steps in quick succession, each step of his legs, imbued with immense power, stomping on the ground, causing the thick stone slabs to crack and shatter beneath his feet.

In an instant, all his strength was completely integrated through the chariot's engravings. With the phantom attached to him, Zhou Kai transformed into an unstoppable, thick steel spear, charging forward with all his might.

Bang!
The shield hook and the dragon-slaying sword collided head-on.

Zhou Kai went from walking slowly to walking quickly, each step unstoppable, pushing forward, continuing to push forward, and finally he started running wildly.

The reinforcements arriving from the rear were momentarily stunned by what they saw.

If they still possessed human sanity, witnessing this hellish scene, they would surely wonder whether Zhou Kai or themselves were the monsters being devoured by the nightmare.

More reinforcements continued to gather, but in a short while, seven more monsters appeared around them.

They regrouped and, relying on their numbers and formation, pressed forward relentlessly.

As Zhou Kai's victorious charge slowed, the guards were about to launch a counterattack, however...

A glimmer of life!

Surrounded by monsters in this confined space, Zhou Kai summoned the oil lamp without any hesitation.

Hey!
After a crisp sound, a candle flame, brighter, hotter, and more wondrous than the brazier, burst forth from the oil lamp with dazzling light.

The strength drained by the chariot's scratches returned in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Kai's eyes were already blurred and bloodshot from the monster's bodily fluids, but this did not hinder his hunt.

There was only one path in this dungeon, and all the monsters were blocking his way.

He just kept charging forward.

The Dragon Slayer Sword was swung wildly, and the bodies of the guards who had been crushed by the charge were instantly torn to pieces.

Before the new enemy could even surround and kill Zhou Kai, they saw him grinning maliciously as he gathered his strength once again.

The seamless second charge erupted with a thunderous roar!

Zhou Kai moved through the monsters like a cannonball, unstoppable.

It charged wildly, accompanied by a series of loud explosions along the way.

Boom boom boom!
The long hook snapped, and the giant shield shattered!
Limbs and shattered torsos flew everywhere, overturning braziers and embedding themselves in walls...

Fifteen minutes later.

Zhou Kai, leaning on his Dragon-Slaying Sword, sat atop a mountain of corpses, panting heavily.

In less than half a minute, his heavy breathing, caused by exhaustion, gradually stabilized under the effect of the life-giving effect of Gastrodia elata... However, mental exhaustion is not so easy to recover from.

Even if his body recovers completely when he is mentally exhausted, Zhou Kai's fighting ability is less than 70% of what it is usually.

In those fifteen minutes, he continuously invested the general experience points he gained in battle into repairing the Gastrodia elata lamp wick to maintain the continuous burning of the Vitality Candle. With his almost limitless endurance, he launched a total of thirteen victorious charges in one go.

Thirteen times.

This is precisely the upper limit of Zhou Kai's current ability to sustain a victorious charge.

Once he used it for the thirteenth time, he felt weak all over and his spirits were low.

If you force yourself to exceed this number of times, you will most likely faint on the spot.

However, the results he achieved made Zhou Kai feel that he hadn't lost out at all.

Tonight's results... the entire dungeon, including all the shield-hook guards who were later reinforced from the ground, have been wiped out in one fell swoop.

[General Experience Points: 424]

I glanced at the panel.

The experience points contributed by the Shield Hook Guards were actually less than those of the Chainhammer Warriors, indicating that these monsters were also slightly weaker in actual strength.

Zhou Kai could easily tell from the battle just now that the strength of these new enemies lay in their agility and ability to coordinate their battle formations.

They might be considered a formidable force on the plains battlefield, but the battle with Zhou Kai took place in a narrow dungeon passage, where they couldn't fully utilize their skills.

Even when they formed a battle formation, they couldn't withstand Zhou Kai's repeated sweeping attacks.

'A total of 27 shield-hook guards were killed. The experience gain from the chariot engravings was greater than that from killing 27 monsters. It seems that achievements such as the first-time defeat of the enemy formation and the complete annihilation of the guards are counted separately in the victory rewards.'

He pulled up the panel log and carefully read through it, his mood improving more and more.

A moment later, Zhou Kai stood up.

After the hunt was over, the troublesome problem became how to transport the prey back.

Because the return journey would require traveling by water, dragging the bodies back one by one would take too long, so Zhou Kai didn't even consider it.

In the past, he might have had to grit his teeth and give up most of the spoils, only taking a few with him.

But now the situation is different... The existence of the Ark Ritual means that Zhou Kai no longer has to waste the remains of his prey due to limited carrying capacity.

“Valar Morghulis…”

It was still a recitation that Zhou Kai could pronounce using the ancient Latin pronunciation but could not understand at all.

Zhou Kai recited the mantra as he walked through the entire dark corridor...

The fire pits were all overturned and extinguished during the battle, and now it was pitch black all around.

He tried to move the brazier back to its original position but still couldn't relight it.

Perhaps the engine stalled due to issues like displacement or deformation of the radiator; in any case, it wouldn't start no matter what I tried.

The candlelight behind Zhou Kai flickered, and began to distort and change color eerily as he chanted...

However, he was staring at the crystal cores that were gradually emerging from the slime on the ground, feeling both excited and greedy, and was completely unaware of the abnormality behind him.

His voice grew louder and louder, and his head was raised higher and higher until his cervical spine was bent to its limit, as if he were trying to look at something through the thick ceiling above his head.

呲!
Just as the Moonlit Orchid in his arms was about to snap at his neck, it suddenly burst into flames with a hiss, sparks flying everywhere, like a brilliant firework exploding on his chest. But as Zhou Kai watched this beautiful burst of light up close, his heart instantly sank to the bottom.

He froze as if struck by lightning.

"Fuck..."

The back of his head, which was almost touching his back, slowly recovered under Zhou Kai's difficult control, and he tried to move it back to a normal angle.

During this process, he witnessed a strange object appearing behind him from an inverted perspective.

The candlelight burned behind Zhou Kai, so his shadow should have been cast in front of him.

But at that moment, a shadow appeared on each of his left, right, front, and back.

The one on the left is hunched over, the one on the right is deformed and strange, the one in front is gray and indistinct, only the one behind is a dark and frightening shadow.

Even though it was directly illuminated by the candlelight, it remained as black as ink, as if even light could not penetrate it.

[The erosion level is soaring... Ah, that feels so good! Shake hands, one strike and a burst of burning lightning!]

[Look directly at *&*#……You've gained mystical knowledge, Jiang Yanzhi - 27]

Zhou Kai stood frozen in place like a puppet, unable to move.

All I could do was stare wide-eyed as the text that appeared before me instantly turned into a string of gibberish, constantly refreshing.

The shadow behind him grew larger and larger, beginning to devour everything around him... but strangely, it bypassed Zhou Kai himself.

……

I don't know how much time passed, but the surrounding darkness finally dissipated.

The flickering candlelight brought warmth back to Zhou Kai's body, and he regained his mobility at that moment.

"What...what is that?" Zhou Kai's whole body stiffened. Holding his almost broken neck, he used his mind to access the panel log to check.

"Experience points +27? Not Jiang Yanzhi -27?!"

He stared at the logbook, completely bewildered.

It turns out the panel wasn't malfunctioning, nor was it interfered with by that unknown monster.

The problem lies with him; he experienced a brief moment of cognitive confusion.

"Luckily, nothing happened in the end... Damn it, this ceremony was definitely a trap! What exactly happened..."

Zhou Kai's brows were furrowed, his mood was terrible, and his overall condition was extremely poor.

He took a few deep breaths and continued to browse the panel logs.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on one of the lines of text, and his face turned deathly pale.

【梦魇侵蚀度极速飙升至7/9，务必高度注意，当进度达9/9时你将会死亡……#￥错**误-404%Not Found】

[Information being implanted; status updated]

[Status: Erosion has been updated! Current status: ...Blessed]

[Your favorability has soared to 7/9. Congratulations! When you reach 9/9, you will transform into a follower of an unknown entity...]

The font of the fourth line is clearly different from the panel's usual style... What the heck is this?

Looking at the line of distorted, dark characters with eerily undulating edges, Zhou Kai's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints, his hair stood on end, and he was instantly drenched in cold sweat. The chill that ran down his back made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

Tonight, he dared not, and could not, stay in the nightmare any longer.

Zhou Kai, his face ashen, hurriedly picked up the scattered light gray crystal cores on the ground, dragged the Dragon Slayer Sword, and plunged into the lake, swimming towards the outside world.

The number of crystal cores was clearly incorrect, only about one-third of the original number, but Zhou Kai didn't have time to investigate further.

All he wanted to do now was get back quickly, upgrade the fireplace, and lower his...favorability level as soon as possible.

After climbing ashore from the lake, Zhou Kai didn't dare look back for a moment. He staggered all the way back to the shelter and quickly sat down in front of the fireplace.

But... even though his entire face was almost pressed against the furnace, he still couldn't feel a trace of warmth.

Zhou Kai stared blankly at the orange-yellow firelight.

"It's so cold..."

The bone-chilling cold that he couldn't shake off reminded Zhou Kai of the day he received his residence permit not long ago, when he ran all the way in the cold rain, his limbs stiff and numb...

But the cold then was nothing compared to the biting chill now.

Further back, he thought of the time when he was seven or eight years old, he fell into the water in December, had a high fever and fell into a coma, and was carried home by his sister... but he still felt colder than this time.

He desperately rushed back to the shelter, enduring nearly 80% of the transformation of his favor. If it weren't for a sliver of willpower holding him up, he would probably have already fallen into a trance-like sleep, never to wake up again...

"Upgrade...upgrade the fireplace!"

The custom upgrade plan, which originally cost 188 general experience points, is no longer effective at this point.

Just as he was about to start the upgrade, his mind was in a state of confusion, but through sheer willpower, he made the fireplace pop up with three optional upgrade paths.

【①: Steel boiler...】

【②: A noble fireplace…】

【③: Large Crematorium (Upgrade requirement: 203 Universal Experience Points)】

[Effect: Increased incineration output; flames rising from corpses will have a better warming effect...]

Without any hesitation, Zhou Kai squeezed out a sentence, his lips trembling.

"I choose direction three!"

Upgrading to the large incinerator only required 15 more experience points than he had originally estimated for upgrading the flame alone.

For Zhou Kai now, an extra expenditure of just over ten experience points is enough to acquire a more powerful advanced building.

Of course, there was another reason why Zhou Kai was so decisive: he simply couldn't stand the cold anymore.

The fact that he could feel no heat even though the flames were right in front of him, along with the slight distortion that the favor had caused to Zhou Kai's mind, was driving his will to the brink of madness.

The fact that he can still think and weigh the pros and cons is all thanks to the Moonlight Orchid not far away that diligently spreads its moonlight.

"One day, a pale yellow flame ignited on His back... They said it was the purification fire of His corpse..."

A wondrous flame is burning brightly in your hearth; the fire never freezes the one who adds the firewood!

203 general experience points were deducted in an instant. The fireplace in front of Zhou Kai grew taller and taller at a speed visible to the naked eye.

So powerful was the sudden gust of air that even Zhou Kai, who was sitting cross-legged nearby, was thrown off balance.

The once exquisite brick and stone structure has been transformed into a rough and barbaric pile of cement... The fireplace is now far more sturdy than before.

The flames in the furnace suddenly began to spin, accompanied by hissing sounds as they were compressed and exploded, then compressed again...

It eventually coalesced into a clear flame, not much larger than an apple.

The pale yellow flames had a hint of blue in them, and occasionally flashes of red light as they flickered, making them look absolutely beautiful.

Crack... crackle...

On the ashes in the furnace, the embers of the corpse flickered and burned. Though the flames were pale in color, the temperature was extremely high.

The moment the warm firelight enveloped Zhou Kai, he exhaled a long breath of white air, relaxed completely, and collapsed to the ground.

"Liberated..."

Zhou Kai lay on his back, and under the influence of the Corpse-Born Purification Fire, the bone-chilling cold was forced out of his body through his pores in the form of eerie sweat that was visible to the naked eye.

Along with the chill, the so-called "favorability" was also driven out of the body.

Soon, Zhou Kai's face turned rosy, looking as if he had just had a top-notch sauna.

He stared intently at the panel, only to see the favorability rating plummeting just as rapidly as it had surged earlier.

In about five breaths, it dropped from 7 to 6; a minute later, it dropped to 5.

At this moment, Zhou Kai felt refreshed and invigorated.

He rolled over and got up, stretching his limbs a few times beside the upgraded crematorium.

About eleven minutes later, the favorability rating returned to 4.

Zhou Kai went downstairs to the basement, dragged up the body of a wanderer, and threw it into the furnace, whereupon the fire burned even brighter.

It wasn't until Zhou Kai decided to escape the nightmare and return to the real world that night, about five hours later, that the favorability rating finally dropped to 3, perhaps close to 2.

It seems that unless any new problems arise, the favorability rating will eventually drop to zero...

During those five-plus hours, Zhou Kai did almost nothing.

It's simply about sitting by the fire to warm yourself, closing your eyes to rest, and occasionally tending to the flowers and plants around you.

Normally, this would be seen as a waste of precious time in a nightmare, but for him today, it was a necessary and appropriate action.

After all, it was during these five hours of rest that Zhou Kai's depleted energy gradually returned to normal.

It's only a little bit.

At this moment, the strange fourth line of notification that had previously appeared in the status bar had disappeared from Zhou Kai's eyes.

When my gaze occasionally sweeps over an object, I no longer have that absurd illusion that it might extend tentacles.

However, Zhou Kai's heart and mind were still quite uneasy.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get rid of this discomfort.

When anxiety and panic surged up again, Zhou Kai even considered using the remaining two hundred or so experience points to randomly allocate points to any skill, hoping it might alleviate his unease.

Fortunately, at the last moment, Zhou Kai's rationality suppressed this impulse.

"Maybe... I just need to get a good night's sleep."

"These two hundred-plus experience points are worth planning and utilizing carefully; we can't just add them up randomly."

After confirming the plan, Zhou Kai hurriedly patrolled the shelter again and finally found the place where the Diablo parasite had turned to ashes.

After confirming that no other abnormalities were found, he breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "Get out."

In an instant, Zhou Kai's consciousness was abruptly pulled out of the nightmare world.

In the hazy light, it seemed as if some being sensed his departure and reached out to try to stop him, but just as it was about to touch him, it slowly withdrew its hand for some unknown reason.

……

Back in the real world, Zhou Kai's face was unusually pale.

"sleep."

Zhou Kai swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He knew he still had many things he needed to calm down and think about, but he simply couldn't hold on any longer.

I need to get a good night's sleep.

He quickly washed his face, checked the report from Hu Yuan and the intelligence shared by Lin Sheng, and after confirming that there was no emergency, he collapsed onto the mattress like a zombie.

The moment his body bounced back into the air, Zhou Kai had already fallen into a deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)