Nightmare Despair

Chapter 42 'I Don't Want to Give Up the Resistance'

Clang!
The axe struck the neck armor once more, sending sparks flying.

The dull thud was suppressed to a minimum by the boundless rain.

After what seemed like the umpteenth attack, Zhou Kai finally heard the crisp sound of bones breaking.

The swordsman's neck was smashed off, and the helmet, along with the head inside, spun and flew two or three meters away before splashing into the puddle.

The swordsman's tall body suddenly leaned back, losing his balance for the first time, and crashed to the ground.

Zhou Kai was surrounded by darkness, but he did not let his guard down.

Upon hearing the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, he immediately withdrew his axe to protect himself, and at the same time quickly retreated to create a safe distance.

Three seconds later, a bolt of lightning tore through the clouds, illuminating the backyard with a ghastly white light.

Only then did Zhou Kai realize the glorious result of his attack.

The headless swordsman was still struggling in the mud, trying to get up.

Losing its head didn't kill it immediately, but it greatly weakened its fighting ability.

"It's over!"

The swordsman was completely powerless to fight back, and victory belonged entirely to Zhou Kai.

He hung the axe on his back and bent down to pick up the two-handed greatsword that the swordsman had dropped.

This sword is wider and heavier than the one he broke in the last battle.

The sword felt heavy in his hand, and the cold touch of the hilt gave him an incredibly reassuring feeling.

Zhou Kai gripped the sword hilt with both hands and raised the greatsword high.

Then...

laugh!
Stab down suddenly.

The greatsword pierced through the swordsman's breastplate and plunged deep into his already decaying chest.

A fountain-like viscous liquid gushed out from the blood groove on the sword, mixing with rainwater and carrying an indescribable stench.

The swordsman's vitality was stronger than expected.

Even so, it was still struggling, even reaching out its hands to try to grab the sword blade that had pierced its chest.

"Humph!"

Zhou Kai snorted coldly, stepped on the swordsman's arm, and put all his weight on the greatsword.

With a sharp, piercing scraping sound, the sword tip plunged further into its chest. Zhou Kai twisted the hilt left and right, completely shredding the swordsman's internal organs into a bloody pulp.

After repeating this for more than a dozen breaths, the swordsman's body finally stopped convulsing completely.

The subtitles that Zhou Kai had been eagerly anticipating finally appeared before his eyes.

[Defeat the 'Rotten Swordsman' to gain 12 Universal Experience Points]

[Thanks to the Occult skill Lv2, unexpected gains: a somewhat valuable memory *1, a strange skin *1]

"Upgraded mysticism, and the battle rewards have indeed increased..."

Memory and skin?
Both are somewhat interesting.

But now is not the time to take stock of the spoils.

Zhou Kai focused intently, listening carefully to the sounds around him. There were no signs of other monsters appearing in the rain.

He bent down and hoisted the heavy body of the decaying swordsman onto his back, carrying the greatsword in one hand and pulling on the arm of the armor while using the other hand to pry open the helmet and lift the head.

These are all his spoils of war.

Whether it's a fireplace or a nursery, to gain extra harvest, you must put in a whole corpse.

The armored arm he had cut off earlier was useless except for prolonging the burning time of the fireplace, because it was incomplete.

"Not a single bit... can be wasted."

Zhou Kai took a deep breath and walked towards Shelter No. 777.

The swordsman was fully armored and weighed well over 100 kilograms, but Zhou Kai carried the corpse on his back with a steady gait, as if nailed to the ground, without the slightest stumble.

His power is rapidly advancing towards a realm beyond that of ordinary people.

……

The flames crackled in the fireplace, and the decaying bones of the swordsman popped like bamboo in the flames.

Zhou Kai had already stripped off his tattered armor. He silently raised his eyes and glanced at the speech bubble that had appeared on the fireplace.

[Fuel combustion time: 11 hours]

A complete, decaying swordsman's corpse extended the fuel's lifespan to 11 hours.

This greatly increased Zhou Kai's sense of security. "Eleven hours... It seems that even if I cower like a coward for the next six days, I can still get through the night of forced conscription..."

Zhou Kai grinned, then shook his head.

Just thinking about it, he's not the type to run away from things.

Moreover, it wasn't just the fireplace that saved his life.

Find plants, cultivate nurseries, hunt monsters, gain experience, upgrade skills, and fortify your shelter.

There's still so much to do to survive a nightmare.

Thinking of this, Zhou Kai glanced at his panel.

[Character: Zhou Kai]

[Status: Erosion, Clear Mind]

【技能：综合格斗lv3（0/50），轻盈步伐lv3（10/50），索拉卡剑术lv2（6/25），神秘学lv2（0/25），隼击术Lv1（8/15）】

[Items: Residence Permit, Bloodstained Axe, Morning Star Notebook (Part 3, Part 2), Moonshine Orchid Seed (Full), Exquisite Moonshine Orchid Amulet, A Memory of Some Value, Strange Skin]

[General Experience Points: 14]

The last two items in the inventory were shimmering faintly.

This is the reward for improving one's occult skills.

Now that we're back in the shelter, we're absolutely safe.

It's time to see what these two things actually are.

First, there's that piece of skin.

Zhou Kai had a sudden thought and took it out of his inventory.

"That's fucking disgusting."

Upon seeing this piece of skin for the first time, Zhou Kai felt a wave of nausea.

The skin edges were dry and curled, with yellowish fatty tissue. The skin surface was covered with numerous large pores, emitting a sour, rotten odor.

If this skin is human skin... then it must have been torn off from the back of the neck.

"So... what's the use of this thing?"

Zhou Kai subconsciously felt that something that could be identified as a "prop" by the system couldn't possibly be pure trash.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure it out. In the end, he decided to pin his hopes on that memory.

"Since they fell together, they might be related."

"Use memory."

The thought had barely formed when several wisps of thick black mist appeared out of thin air, as if they possessed life, and entered Zhou Kai's nasal cavity, exploding deep within his brain.

'The nightmare is coming, and I have no choice... I don't want to give up.'

'As a member of the Soraka family guard, you know the responsibility you bear! The test is coming; prepare to show your loyalty to the Great Lord!'

'You are the incarnation of the Word, you are Nirvana... Hear me, who will remove sin from mortals...'

A series of frantic and incoherent babbling echoed in his mind, and Zhou Kai felt dizzy.

After a long time, the dizziness gradually subsided.

The person in the viewpoint raised their head.

Before me stood a towering, dark church, its Gothic spires jagged and bony, piercing the leaden sky.

"Come on, Soraka."

A priest shrouded in black robes led the owner of the memories, along with a dozen or so equally silent men, around the church.

They walked toward the mausoleum behind the church.

Zhou Kai watched all of this numbly, like an inescapable bystander.

Deep within the mausoleum, a priest in black robes blessed the men and then led them, one by one, to the prepared tombs.

From Zhou Kai's perspective, he seemed to be waiting for judgment, yet also seemed to be anticipating something; this complex emotion resonated with Zhou Kai.

A few minutes later, it was finally Zhou Kai's turn.

"Come on, don't be afraid... stride forward."

"The spirits of the fallen stand watch over their graves."

The man in black robes reached out and touched Zhou Kai's head. Only then did Zhou Kai realize that the protagonist in the story wasn't very tall, probably only about 1.6 meters.

As Zhou Kai followed the man in black through the tomb, his gaze swept over the tombstones, but the inscriptions that should have been clear were unbelievably blurry.

(End of this chapter)