Nightmare Despair

Chapter 86 Puppetry
"Kid, don't think you're the only one with a weapon!"

With a roar, Wei Bao unleashed a chilling killing intent. His palms flashed with cold light, revealing two sharp, spiky metal knuckle dusters.

The Tiger Fist, at its peak of power, accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder, hurtled straight at Zhou Kai.

The latter smiled coldly, neither dodging nor avoiding, and swung his two-handed sword.

Upon seeing this, Wei Bao's lips curled into a grin. He could almost see Zhou Kai's greatsword being sent flying by his punch, tracing a powerless arc in the air, followed by the boy's horrified expression as if he had seen a ghost.

To fight a long weapon with a short weapon, or a light weapon against a heavy weapon, is, in theory, suicide.

But in his view, Zhou Kai was at best a newcomer who had just begun to grasp the basics.

As for himself, he had already stepped into the Qi Refining Realm with one foot in.

This is absolute suppression of power; this is a victory.

Add to that his own honed Tiger Fist skills, and it's a win-win situation...

"I have a win-win situation in my hands. You're just a greenhorn, you're only relying on your position as weapons commander..."

"Get the hell out of my way! Let Chen Ping wash his neck clean and come to meet his death!"

The roar hadn't even faded.

Wei Bao's tiger fist collided violently with the sword's edge.

boom!
A deafening clang of metal clashing exploded, but at the moment of impact, Wei Bao's confident face turned deathly pale.

Buzz!
A high-frequency shriek came from the brass knuckles, instantly numbing his entire arm.

He didn't even need to look down to know that the bones in his fingers were shattered, the skin was torn open, and blood was everywhere.

What he found even more unbearable than the excruciating pain in his hands was the force emanating from the sword's edge. It wasn't human power; it was a mountain collapsing, a tsunami!
"How could this be... You... More than just True Strength?"

Before he could finish speaking, Wei Bao's right fist and brass knuckles shattered together, and then his forearm snapped with a crack.

That once proud face was now filled with pure terror.

The tough alloy knuckle duster saved him from being cleaved in two by the sword, but the exaggerated greatsword, like a derailed locomotive, swept up his bent arm and slammed into his abdomen.

A moment of true power, a single move to kill!

Wei Bao's body was thrown out like a tattered sack, its momentum undiminished, crashing into a row of desks.

Luo Tong, who rushed up right behind him, was stunned. Zhou Kai casually raised his foot and kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him flying far away like a football.

If Zhou Kai hadn't deliberately held back, Luo Tong's heart would have exploded on the spot with just that one kick.

"Looking for Chen Ping? You can't even beat me, what makes you think you can find Chen Ping?"

Of course, Zhou Kai is now stronger than Chen Ping.

Level 4 Falcon Strike!

Those nearly fifty points were well spent!
A cruel smile spread across Zhou Kai's face. He glanced at the two people convulsing on the ground, then turned and walked towards Hu Yuan in the corner. He grabbed the large executive chair and dragged Hu Yuan and the chair out of the shadows.

Hu Yuan slumped in the chair, his obese body already making movement difficult, and now he was too frightened to move an inch.

He could only force a smile and offer repeated compliments.

"Awesome, Zhou Kai is awesome!"

"You've been hiding this for too long... How about joining our hotel? Let me tell you, our platform has great benefits and lots of tasks, all you have to do is nod your head..."

Mr. Hu's Adam's apple bobbed, his small eyes darted around, and his mind raced as he calculated what he could use to persuade Zhou Kai.

But when he inadvertently met Zhou Kai's eyes, which were devoid of emotion and filled with cold-blooded murderous intent, his heart skipped a beat, he sighed, and completely abandoned this unrealistic idea.

"I've been hunting geese all year round, but today a goose pecked my eye."

"Wang Yuanzheng died early yesterday morning. It seems that I will follow in his footsteps early this morning."

He finally understood that Zhou Kai's information was a joke from beginning to end... This man was hiding a huge secret.

Going from zero to the peak of True Strength in just two weeks? That's simply a fantasy!
The only explanation is that he had already reached the True Strength realm, or even a higher realm, but was just pretending to be a newbie to fry fish.

It's very likely that they were trying to disguise their identity to do something nefarious.

Wang Yuanzheng and his group, including himself, were just unlucky people who accidentally stumbled upon this situation.

Thinking about it this way, Hu Yuan realized that perhaps his death was not unjust.

Luo Tong, however, was already lying flat on the ground, his Dao heart shattered, only able to breathe but not exhale, blood foam mixed with fragments of internal organs constantly gushing from his mouth, and a clear footprint was sunken in his side abdomen.

Wei Bao was able to barely stand up by supporting himself against the wall, but his condition wasn't much better.

He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth and roared angrily, "Damn it, if I don't spend a fortune on treatment now, my path to Qi cultivation is completely cut off!"

At this point, he simply plopped down on the ground, dejectedly saying, "Kill me or torture me as you please, but if I can't cultivate my qi, I might as well die quickly."

That's what he said, but as Zhou Kai dragged Hu Yuan closer, his other intact hand stealthily reached for his lower back, pulled out a fang-like dagger, and with a flash of crazed excitement in his eyes, slashed fiercely at Zhou Kai's neck. "Kill you first, then it's not too late for me to die!"

roll!
His little tricks couldn't escape Zhou Kai's notice.

Zhou Kai snorted coldly, not even bothering to look at him. He simply stepped out and precisely stomped on Wei Bao's left arm, breaking the only intact arm.

Despite the excruciating pain, Wei Bao remained silent, clenching his teeth tightly until they shattered.

"Why don't you kill us? What exactly do you want?"

Hu Yuan suddenly spoke, his voice trembling.

He realized that Zhou Kai had too many opportunities to kill them like crushing ants, but he never did.

He instinctively felt that this was definitely not a good thing... there must be something more terrifying than death waiting for them.

"An experiment."

Zhou Kai dragged the three mangled bodies together and looked down at them.

A cold smile slowly spread across his face.

"From a certain day onwards, I have been living a very passive life... passively trying to survive, passively becoming stronger."

"Passively dealing with you, or someone else, the constant threats of killing... even if the cause is just a trivial dispute."

"This kind of life is not suitable for me."

Zhou Kai plunged his greatsword into the floor with a clang, then flipped his right hand to reveal a dusty glass bottle with a black cork tightly sealing the opening.

Hu Yuan stared intently at the bottle, and it seemed as if some living thing was slowly rotating inside, emanating an ominous aura.

His expression shifted from surprise to horror in an instant: "Nightmare artifact? Holy crap, you're a Walker?!"

"What are you going to do? Don't... don't bring that kind of thing near me!"

"Don't come over here!"

Hu Yuan's voice suddenly rose, emitting a piercing scream that echoed throughout the entire floor.

Zhou Kai seemed not to hear him, only laughing strangely: "So, I think it's time for a change... and the opportunity for this change will start with your Xishan Hotel."

Luo Tong seemed to understand something, and asked in a hoarse voice, "You want... us to do things for you?"

Zhou Kai shook his head: "Let me put it another way."

“I need to ‘use’ you… As for ‘help’? I can’t build trust with people like you…”

Luo Tong was completely confused: "Then... what exactly do you want to do?"

Zhou Kai was too lazy to repeat what he had already said once.

What he was going to do was conduct an experiment.

……

[Add a touch of bottled scent to increase duration, but I don't need the original, powerful effect... Give me the optimal solution!]

[You have consumed 9 Universal Experience Points; your Bottled Aura has undergone some changes.]

[Item: Bottled Scent (Optimized Version)]

[Effect: Manipulating the mind is much simpler than controlling the body]

Zhou Kai looked at the prop with its bottle completely renewed. This thing came from the [Silent Puppet Master]. That monster's bizarre control ability was simply impossible to defend against.

When they first met, even with the shelter's protection, Zhou Kai was almost forcibly taken control of and nearly opened the shelter's window.

The second time they met, if it weren't for the Moonlit Orchid Amulet, the gift from Fu'er, and his greatly enhanced physique and willpower, he probably would have become that thing's puppet long ago.

Clearly, this bottle contains the controlling aura of the Silent Puppet Master.

As expected, as long as Zhou Kai uses this aura on someone, that person will become his puppet.

However, the original control effect of this thing is too bizarre and domineering. Coupled with the upper limit of control power and control time, it is quite useless to use.

The universally applicable experience value has the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary... Thus, Zhou Kai obtained the optimization solution that best suited his needs.

Their abilities were reduced to nothing more than brainwashing, but the duration was extended to a full month.

"A month is enough for me to make tremendous progress."

Amid Hu Yuan's desperate screams, Zhou Kai pulled out the cork.

The hazy, foul-smelling mist inside the bottle seemed to come alive, rushing towards the three people on the ground.

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(End of this chapter)