Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 391 Figure
Ye Jiu’s eyes were wide open, and his breathing was as heavy as an old ox that had just plowed the field. His remaining sanity kept telling him that all this was an illusion, and he must never put on “Killing”... As long as he could get through it, everything would return to normal, but once he put on “Killing”, there would be no going back.

However, his remaining sanity was being assaulted by the murderous intent that kept surging from his heart, just like the waves constantly washing over the sand castle on the beach; with every wave that came, the sand castle of sanity would be one step closer to collapse.

Ye Jiu took a few steps towards the living room with difficulty.

"No...Absolutely not..."

His lips were bleeding from being bitten by him. He had hoped to use the pain to stimulate his gradually blurry mind, but the reality was the opposite of what he had hoped for. The pain and the smell of blood made the illusion of being on the battlefield even more real. Ye Jiu could even hear the sound of horse hooves, shouts of killing, and the muffled sound of metal weapons piercing flesh echoing around him.

Things in the room had begun to distort, vaguely overlapping with the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Ye Jiu's mind.

"Pa!" Ye Jiu slapped himself hard again, but it had no effect.

He felt as if he was whipping someone else's face. The pain became extremely dull and unreal, as if there was a thick layer of leather between them.

"Ugh... bastard..." Ye Jiu used all his strength and threw himself heavily to the ground.

"Bah!"

There was a loud bang, and his body fell on the mattress on the ground. The empty beverage bottles and cassette boxes thrown next to the mattress were shaken and jumped up.

"I give up! I give up!" Ye Jiu shouted in his mind, "I don't want to kill anyone anymore! I won't resist anymore! Do whatever you want to me! I accept my fate! Kill me! Ah! Come on, kill me! Kill me and everything will be over! I'm tired, I don't want to play anymore!"

He roared as if to vent his anger, but in reality his throat could not utter a complete syllable. Only vague hoarse sounds came out, as if he was having an asthma attack.

But what surprised Ye Jiu was that the murderous intent and sense of crisis that had expanded to the extreme actually subsided a little as he "let things go". Human reason once again took control of the body, and the illusions and blood-red "filter" in his vision gradually faded away.

"Huh...huh..."

Ye Jiusi lay on the mattress with his arms and legs spread out, breathing heavily.

Does this mean... I've made it through?

But in the next second, another sound of footsteps in the room made the hairs on Ye Jiu's back stand up!
He was the only one living in this dormitory, and he had never told anyone else the combination of the door lock...Except for those people with the highest authority in the institute, no one else could enter his dormitory without his permission.

"Who? Who is it?!"

Ye Jiu jumped up from the mattress.

"Tick. Tick. Tick."

The sound of wooden clogs hitting the ground came from behind him. Ye Jiu turned around immediately and saw a woman wearing ancient robes and lacquered wooden clogs walking slowly towards him.

And the most horrifying thing is... this woman in ancient costume has no head.

The headless woman held a long sword in her hand. Every time she got closer to Ye Jiu, she would pull the blade out of the sheath a little.

"Weird creature?!"

Ye Jiu held his breath immediately.

His body rushed out almost as if it was a conditioned reflex. He first kicked the headless woman in the chest, then grabbed a kettle at hand and smashed it at her!
The headless woman staggered and took two steps back after being kicked, but the kettle did not hit her. Instead, it flew directly over her shoulder and smashed into pieces on the wall behind her.

Ye Jiu immediately stepped forward and snatched the sword from the opponent's hand!

With a "swish" sound, the long sword was unsheathed, and with a flash of sword light, the headless woman's body was immediately cut into several pieces!

Ye Jiu kept sheathing his sword and stood there for more than ten seconds... He suddenly realized that there was no headless woman at all. There was only the defective Diao Chan figurine that he had bought with the game cartridge, which had been cut into eight pieces and scattered on the ground.

And what he held in his hand was the Han Bafang Sword that he usually used for training... This sword was made of a high-molecular polymer material and had no blade. The jet-black blade did not look like it could reflect light at all.

"What just happened... was all an illusion?"

Ye Jiu carefully placed the training sword on the table beside him and bent down to pick up the broken pieces of the figure.

The cut edges of the fragments were smooth and flat, and it was obvious that they were cut with a very sharp blade... However, Ye Jiu had just confirmed that the training sword was not sharpened.

"What's going on?" Ye Jiu murmured, "Could it be that... things in the illusion can also interfere with reality? Or am I still in an illusion?"

A chill suddenly crawled from his tailbone to the back of his neck like a snake.

Ye Jiu couldn't help but shiver.

But it was this chill that suddenly made Ye Jiu's brain much clearer.

He immediately found a spare evidence bag and put all the broken pieces of the figurine into it. After thinking for a while, he picked up the training sword beside him.

When walking through the living room, Ye Jiu looked at the box on the table in the living room with great fear, but he was somewhat fortunate that the box did not release that terrifying attraction at this time.

After finding a pair of shoes to put on at the entrance, Ye Jiu hurriedly pushed the door and walked out.

……

Fifteen minutes later, in the Tianfu City Weird Things Research Institute, the Inspection Department.

"Hey? Isn't this Team Leader Ye? Oh, I thought the Section Chief had suddenly made a comeback!" The person on duty in the laboratory hurriedly turned off the beautiful girl love game on the computer. After seeing that the person who walked in was Ye Jiu, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He wiped his hands on his white coat, walked around from behind the workbench, and looked Ye Jiu up and down: "Why do you look so embarrassed? Is it raining outside?"

"No." Ye Jiu glanced at the rooms on both sides of the corridor, "I have something that needs to be tested. Do you have any spare equipment here?"

"Yes." The researcher on duty said, "Everyone in the department has been transferred to other places. Now even if strange things are found, they will be dealt with on the spot and will not be sent to the inspection department at all... If my professional ability is not so poor, the section chief will not let me stay here to fish. But I estimate that according to the current shortage of manpower, it won't be long before I will be transferred away, and this inspection department can be closed directly." "Let's talk about closing it later. Help me check something." Ye Jiu said, "Can you use those equipment?"

"What do you want to test?"

"This, and this." Ye Jiu took out the evidence bag containing the figurine fragments and the training sword.

"What is this? Is it an artifact-like strange object? Is there any risk of contamination? What about its known characteristics? Are you sure there won't be any problems just holding it in your hand?" The researcher was immediately startled by Ye Jiu's actions.

"I'm not sure if this thing is a strange object, so I need you to check it out." Ye Jiu said, "Please."

"Where was this found? Did you report it to the field department? Oh, no, you are from the field department." The researcher carefully took the evidence bag and the training sword. "You mean to test whether there are any weird meme residues in these things, right?"

"Yes, the sooner the better." Ye Jiu urged.

"Come with me." The researcher took Ye Jiu directly into the first room at the entrance of the corridor and put the evidence bag and training sword into two metal boxes of different sizes one by one.

Then he pushed the first metal box into an instrument similar to a CT machine.

Then came the second metal box.

Two minutes later, the researcher took out both metal boxes, opened the lids with a relaxed look, and returned the contents to Ye Jiu.

"We've checked them all. These things are not strange things at all." The researcher heaved a sigh of relief. "Huh, it was just a false alarm... I saw your anxious expression, Team Leader Ye, and I thought it was something incredible."

"It's not a weird creature? There's no meme residue?" Ye Jiu confirmed with the other party again.

"No, we didn't detect any weird memes." The researcher habitually wiped his hands on his white coat. "Team Leader Ye, why do you look a little nervous? Are you under too much pressure these days and haven't slept well?"

"I'm fine." Ye Jiu waved his hand.

"But then again, Team Leader Ye, if you really think there's something wrong with these things, I suggest you start investigating from the source... Just because the instruments are fine doesn't necessarily mean they have nothing to do with weird things." The researcher said, "Of course, I'm only saying this out of a more rigorous consideration. What you do specifically is up to your field department and has nothing to do with me... Oh, by the way, can I ask where this thing came from? If it's inconvenient to tell me, forget it."

"It's not very convenient." Ye Jiu shook his head.

He couldn't say that he was assassinated in the dormitory by the action figure he bought, right?
I'm afraid that in the eyes of this researcher, the problem is not the figurine, but himself.

If I were to get checked now... I'd probably be found to have a problem, right?
If there is a problem, what is waiting for me?
I haven't even touched "killing" yet, but I have already had such serious hallucinations and even very dangerous aggressive behavior... If this matter were to be made public, I would probably be imprisoned immediately, right?
If the situation is serious, it might even be “disposed of harmlessly”…

Nearly half of the previous qualified persons for "killing" were eventually "disposed of harmlessly".

They have become completely addicted to killing intent and have completely lost their human rationality - although their bodies have not been infected by any memes and have not undergone any mutations, their cognition has been completely distorted.

For them, continuing to live is the most severe torture in the world...Death, on the contrary, becomes a relief.

Ye Jiu doesn't want to die yet.

He drew out his training sword and tested the position of the blade with his thumb.

The unsharpened sword blade is round and smooth. If it is swung hard, it can still leave a deep mark on the wooden stake, but it will definitely not be able to cut the wooden stake in two directly like a sharp metal knife.

No matter how hard you try, the wooden stake will be "broken" instead of cut by this training sword.

This headless Diao Chan figurine...how did it get cut into these smooth pieces?
Ye Jiu stroked the sword blade, puzzled.

"Team Leader Ye..." The researcher suddenly lowered his voice, "Are there any fun games recently? It would be best if they can be run on PC. Please get some for me... While I still have a few days to play, I also want to experience the beauty of the ninth art... Otherwise, I'm almost bored to death sitting here facing these cold machines all day."

The researcher who stayed on duty in the laboratory department was named Huang. He was one of the first few people Ye Jiu became friends with after he came to Tianfu City... The reason was simple. This researcher Huang was also a senior ACG enthusiast, commonly known as Lao Er Ci Li, and his favorite field was the kind of games that had the same character as his surname.

"You've played with the few cartridges I have, there's nothing new there." Ye Jiu evaded the question casually, "When there's a chance, I'll take you to see the treasure house in Chunming City. All my good stuff is stored there."

"Is this true, Brother Ye?" Researcher Huang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he changed the way he addressed me. "I have been wandering for half my life, and I only regret that I have never met a wise master. If you don't abandon me, I am willing to be your adoptive father!"

"Come on, don't say something like 'A real man should not live under someone else's control for long' and then stab me."

"How could I do that? How could I do such a servile thing..." Researcher Huang said hurriedly, "To be honest, after the matter of Chimera No. 17 is over, I do want to apply to be transferred to Chunming City for further study for a period of time... Even if I can't learn anything, it's good to get some gold plating."

"Then do your best... By the way, there is something I want to ask you."

"Brother Ye, no, godfather, just ask whatever you want to ask. I will tell you everything I know!" said researcher Huang passionately.

"Do you know 'Sword Qi'?"

"Bitch wife?"

"No, no, no, I mean 'sword energy', which is the kind of sword energy that the big guys in martial arts novels can release with melee weapons, similar to long-range attacks." Ye Jiu said.

"Oh, you mean sword energy! Of course I know that! A true master, let alone close combat weapons, can release sword energy even if you give him a firewood stick or a branch picked up from the roadside." Researcher Huang waved his arms in a pretentious manner, "Just like this, with a swish, the enemy's head and body are immediately torn apart."

"Apart from novels, movies and games...are there people like this in real life?" Ye Jiu asked again, "Are there people with similar abilities among the monster hunters or the supernatural?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Researcher Huang suddenly looked at Ye Jiu with a strange look in his eyes and muttered, "Aren't you?"

"Me?" Ye Jiu was stunned.

"I've seen your battle video. When you're wearing your strange equipment, can't you release attacks similar to sword energy? And it even has attributes. One hand has ice attribute, and the other hand has fire attribute. When the two hands are combined, it's like ice and fire!"

(End of this chapter)