Nightmare Despair

Chapter 30 Amulet

Parasitic corpses are incredibly resilient, like cockroaches; even if they are disemboweled, they may not die completely.

Its wound was festering and the pink granulation tissue was writhing and intertwining like maggots. The hissing sound of healing was chilling, and it looked like it was about to be stitched up again.

But Zhou Kai never hesitates; finishing off opponents is a natural habit of his.

He drew a short-handled axe from behind his waist, the blade flashing coldly in the oil lamp light. Without bothering with words, he aimed at the still-wriggling head and chopped it down!
puff!

Zhou Kai remained expressionless, his wrist flicking as the axe flashed, turning the head into a bloody pulp.

Even after chopping off the head, he didn't stop. With a violent swing of his axe, he cleaved open the chest cavity and, sure enough, found a still slightly pulsating core deep within the tangled tentacles.

Zhou Kai reached in, pulled out the slippery thing, threw it on the ground without even looking at it, and crushed it with his foot.

You have killed 'Diavolo Parasite (Adult)' and gained 7 Universal Experience Points.

Inside the fleshy core were several egg-like objects, slippery and with an ominous texture.

Zhou Kai frowned, stomped down, intending to crush them into dust, but his foot sank in, and the egg cases were crushed into the cracks in the wood of the floor.

Hmm? It's so hard?

With a puzzled look, Zhou Kai took out a spare sample bag from his pocket, picked up the hard egg cases, and put them inside. This thing was strange; he would have to study it later.

Having accumulated nine experience points is quite a windfall.

If we drag this corpse back and burn it, we can probably squeeze out three or four experience points.

but……

"Can not go back!"

Zhou Kai stood at the entrance of the stairwell, his gaze lingering on the living carpet below, composed of countless black, shiny shells.

"Swish..."

The dense scraping sounds merged into one.

This black "tide" is rising at a visible rate.

We're being overwhelmed by this thing...

Just thinking about it made Zhou Kai feel a chill run down his spine.

"What the hell is this?"

Zhou Kai retreated to the side of the parasitic corpse, grabbed its arm, and dragged it toward the window in the distance.

The body left a wide, sticky trail of blood on the dusty corridor floor.

Just as they were dragging, with a thud, a small notebook covered in blood fell out of the parasitic corpse's pocket.

Zhou Kai leaned the body against the window and bent down to pick up the notebook.

"Crack...knock..."

The sound of wood being gnawed and cracking grew closer.

Zhou Kai had planned everything meticulously, but he never expected that this danger would emerge from underground!
He leaned against the window and, by the light of the lightning flashing outside, saw that the ground outside was also covered by a layer of writhing black insects.

They surged like a black flood towards the low-lying areas of the town.

Wanting to go back to 777 without coming into contact with these bugs is simply a pipe dream!
Those monsters could survive the swarm of insects unscathed; he didn't think his own flesh and blood could withstand it!

How to do?
When he was at his wit's end, he turned his attention back to the small notebook in his hand and brought it up to the light of the oil lamp.

Turning to the first page, a line of hastily written words comes into view.

[Once the Moonlit Orchid is harvested, it becomes less useful unless you use its flowers, which are at least effective against Blood Beetles. —Morning Star]

This is another of Morning Star's notes.

Zhou Kai quickly flipped through the notebook. There wasn't much written in it, and he finished it in less than two minutes.

Amidst the interweaving of conventional Old Latin and unfamiliar scripts, Zhou Kai extracted four key pieces of information.

One is about the effects of Moonlit Orchid.

The other three are...

[This is the third volume of my journal. Ultimately, I should have nine notebooks…maybe more, in Soraka. My next stop is the mansion high up in town, number thirteen. If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, then come on!]

[Everywhere you look, there are blessed special buildings that allow for a difficult survival... but please don't gamble with your life. Resurrection? Do you really think you're dead? I should provide some reliable conclusions about these special buildings in a later entry.]

[Blood Beetles... let's call them Blood Tides. This highly rhythmic disaster occurs every twelve hours, lasting from three to six hours. When a Blood Tide occurs, it's best to stay near Moonlit Orchids or other plants/areas/items with holy attributes.]

Zhou Kai no longer had the energy to think about the other two pieces of information in detail.

His gaze was fixed on the words "blood tide".

"Once every twelve hours."

Zhou Kai's heart sank to the bottom... The insect swarms occurred every twelve hours, and no matter how he tried to avoid them, he was bound to run into one at some point.

There's no way to avoid it, no way to escape it!
The only good news is that his forced nightmare time and blood tide time do not completely overlap.

He has a valuable window of opportunity to explore and prepare.

But... there's more bad news.

Now, the only place in the entire town that can shelter him is just seventy meters away!
But he simply couldn't get through!

Click click click...

The swarm of insects had already reached the second floor, and black waves covered the stairwell.

The rustling scraping sounds mingled with the sound of rain, so clear it sent chills down your spine.

The insect's body, layer upon layer, like a materialized darkness, enveloped Zhou Kai.

Click click click.

The sound of chewing came from behind Zhou Kai...

Several blood beetles actually climbed up the building's exterior wall and were gnawing at the glass and window frames with their mouthparts.

These bugs are so small and there are so many of them, how do I kill them?
A despair far deeper than that faced with chain-hammer armored warriors and dough-faced figures arose spontaneously.

Zhou Kai pulled the tender shoot of the Moonlit Orchid from inside his clothes, a bitter look on his face.

"This thing is far from being ready for the flowers... Taking it but being unable to use it is the most frustrating thing!"

The nearest beetle was less than two meters away from Zhou Kai.

But suddenly, Zhou Kai's eyes flickered.

"add a bit!"

The new shoots of the Moonlit Orchid have undergone a remarkable change...

[You have consumed 9 Universal Experience Points and obtained: Moonlit Orchid Amulet (Consumable)]

[Moonlight Orchid Amulet: When confronting misfortune, it consumes durability to release holy moonlight; as the misfortune departs, the tranquil moonlight will grant you a prolonged period of mental clarity.]

The moment the experience points were injected, the tender sprout seemed to be accelerated to maturity before the naked eye, growing and expanding rapidly!

The emerald green leaves turned yellow and withered, all their vitality squeezed out and concentrated into the dark blue flower bud in the center.

The stems and leaves twisted and coiled on their own, and a black rope appeared out of nowhere, passing through the knot of grass, and a simple amulet hung in Zhou Kai's palm.

Wow.

The next second, it lit up.

A burst of icy blue light suddenly exploded, like a drop of pure water falling into an inkwell, forcefully sweeping away all the surrounding filth.

Zhou Kai stared at the blue light, his breath catching in his throat.

At the same time, the insane scraping sounds all around suddenly stopped.

Dead silence, a deathly silence imbued with a sense of oppression.

After a few breaths of this deathly silence, the approaching blood beetles, as if branded with a hot iron, emitted sharp "squeaks" and retreated frantically, as if Zhou Kai carried some kind of deadly plague.

They quickly retreated to a distance of six meters.

squeak...

The insect seemed unwilling to give up, still struggling on the edge, tentatively approaching.

But as soon as you get a little closer, they emit white steam as if they are being burned, and then instinctively retreat.

In this silent confrontation, Zhou Kai noticed that the amulet's light dimmed slightly at a visible speed.

"Consumables?"

Zhou Kai's expression turned serious.

The insect swarm will last at least another three hours; this amulet will be lucky if it lasts for another ten minutes or so.

Moreover, the higher the insect density, the faster the amulet is consumed.

If he wants to clear the way to the first floor using this method...

The amulet will probably burn to ashes in the stairwell.

So what should he do?
Zhou Kai stared intently out the window, his gaze gradually hardening.

He bent down and dragged the cold body up.

Then, he took a deep breath, and the instant he exhaled, he charged forward!
wow-

Glass shards mixed with blood shattered outwards, and he leaped resolutely from the second floor like a cannonball!
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(End of this chapter)