Nightmare Despair

Chapter 127 Black Hand
The dust and smoke kicked up by the collapsed building dissipated instantly in the torrential rain, finally revealing the figure that had ruined Zhou Kai's plans.

What came into view was a hand-shaped monster, almost the same size as Elizabeth.

Each finger was as thick as a bear's waist, with bluish-purple skin, making them extremely ugly. Looking further down to the fingertips, the nails gleamed with a purplish-black sheen, were long and sharp, and even slightly curled due to their excessive length.

Bang!Bang!
The black hand rolled endlessly in the ruins, its thick fingers on both sides slamming the ground like iron hammers, sending shards of stone flying everywhere, its entire body exuding a violent and ruthless aura.

After venting its frustrations in the ruins, Black Hand finally remembered its main target, which it had been chasing all the way from the black mist.

The black hand slammed its five fingers into the ground, then sprang high into the air. Its five massive fingers convulsed violently, suddenly opening into a claw-like grip, like a facehugger, and crashed down on Zhou Kai with a whistling gust of wind!
At the critical moment, Zhou Kai swiftly assumed a defensive stance. Just as the giant black claw was about to seize him...

boom!
A deafening explosion suddenly ripped through the sky.

Zhou Kai's arms bulged with veins as he forcefully swung the heavy Dragon-Slaying Greatsword up from below. The sword struck the black hand's palm, sending the giant monster flying backward.

Oh!

The rough, heavy blade, like a file, forcefully tore off several pieces of flesh from the black palm.

In an instant, a wisp of black smoke gushed out from the wound in the palm of the black hand, mixed with a foul stench, and continued to spread in the rain.

It turned out that the mist was actually the blood plasma and bodily fluids from the Black Hand's body.

buzzing...

The black hand had no vocal organs, but under the excruciating pain of its skin being torn off, it still emitted a low hiss.

"I can't beat a heavily armored knight, but a broken hand dares to jump out and provoke me?"

Zhou Kai snorted coldly and pressed his advantage with his sword.

After cleaving the black hand's sneak attack with a single sword stroke, Zhou Kai suddenly felt that the monster looked familiar.

He vaguely remembered that just a few days ago, during a small town exploration, he was almost dragged into the darkness by this bastard.

At the time, he was wondering why the black-handed monster hadn't shown itself again... Now it seems that this thing isn't a local at all.

He noticed that the mist swirling around the black hand was almost identical to the black mist he had encountered on the outskirts of the town, only slightly fainter. Zhou Kai immediately realized just how powerful this black hand was.

Sure enough, as expected, this thing was brought out by his own exploration.

"I didn't want to cause any more trouble... but since you insist on following me, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Zhou Kai pushed off with his feet, and his body shot out as if he had stepped on a spring.

The massive dragon-slaying sword, weighing over a hundred kilograms, tore through the rain once more, crashing down on the black hand with an even more powerful sonic boom than before.

Although it has no head.

The Black Hand was greatly surprised to detect Zhou Kai rapidly approaching through his senses.

You see, from the perspective of nightmare monsters like Black Hand, humans, who are as bright as lanterns, usually either flee in panic or are scared half to death on the spot.

But why is this guy not only not running away, but also daring to swing his sword and fight back?
The Black Hand's primitive consciousness, conjured from black mist and impurities, simply didn't allow it to think too much. After a brief moment of stunned silence, it erupted in fury!
Buzz!
The black hand waved its thick fingers, emitting a strange buzzing sound, as if in a show of defiance. Then, it spread its five fingers and viciously grabbed at Zhou Kai's waist again!

However, the Black Hand cannot sense inanimate objects and is unaware that a massive sword, as thick as a stone tablet, lies between it and Zhou Kai.

Bang!
Zhou Kai pressed down with both hands, and the Dragon Slayer Sword slashed fiercely down along the gap between the black middle and index fingers!

*Pfft! Crack!*
The sounds of flesh tearing and bones shattering echoed throughout the room.

Zhou Kai slammed the black hand into the ground, then cleaved it in two with a sword.

Thumping... Thumping...

The black hand that had been so arrogant just moments before instantly turned into two pieces of flesh writhing and struggling on the ground.

Zhou Kai glanced at the cross-section of the broken black hand; it was rough and jagged... It was more like it had been smashed apart than cut.

"You out-of-towner don't seem to have any sense of propriety."

Zhou Kai sheathed his sword and stood there, watching the black hand gradually die as the black mist dissipated.

In a short while, the black mist inside Black Hand's body dissipated.

Only two clumps of broken flesh and skin covered with white bone fragments remained on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, lines of bullet comments appeared before Zhou Kai's eyes:
[Easy victory, Scarred Chariot EXP +1]

You have killed 'Hand in the Mist' and gained 21 general experience points.

[Due to your occult skills, you unexpectedly gained: 5 Curled Claws]

The experience points awarded were decent, and there were some new gains as well...

Considering these benefits, Zhou Kai's pent-up frustration from having his exploration interrupted dissipated.

Ignoring the remains of the Black Hand for the time being, Zhou Kai slowly walked into the ruins and began searching for the strange piece of iron that had been knocked away and rolled away somewhere.

Fortunately, such valuable items are usually quite conspicuous in the environment.

Zhou Kai used the Dragon-Slaying Sword as a probe in one hand, rummaged through the ruins for a while, and quickly found the piece of sheet metal.

[Item: Fragment of a Strong Shield]

[Description: This is a fragment of a shield, which may be even more effective than the shield when it was intact.]

He held the sheet metal in his hand, and the words on its surface were finally clearly legible.

It was clearly an ancient Latin word.

The pronunciation is...

"guard."

The moment Zhou Kai softly began to recite, the words on the metal sheet suddenly glowed faintly.

At the same time, the fragment rapidly grew in his palm, expanding dozens or even hundreds of times in the blink of an eye, eventually becoming a huge fragment similar in size to a regular shield.

Zhou Kai reached out and tried to pry the edge of the fragment with all his might, but nothing changed.

This shows just how formidable this thing's defenses are.

I'd venture to guess that the material of this fragment might be far more robust than the heavy armored knight's living lance.

"Although it looks ugly, at least it can be carried around, and its defensive capabilities are not bad. I'll take it."

With a thought, Zhou Kai immediately shrank back to the size of his palm, grinned with satisfaction, and casually stuffed the fragment into his pocket.

Zhou Kai deduced that the fragment belonged to a nightmare item with special effects, and could also serve as an anchor point for others to reach the nightmare of Soraka Town.

He planned to carry the fragment with him—a shield that could freely change size—who knows when it might come in handy.

After doing all this, Zhou Kai suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and a terrifying sense of crisis arose spontaneously.

He suddenly bent down, scooped up the mangled corpse of the black-handed man with both hands, and ran wildly towards the shelter.

Sure enough, just four seconds after Zhou Kai left his spot—

A silver shadow flew in an arc from the direction of the manor and crashed down with a bang, completely leveling the already half-collapsed building.

Only after running out of the heavily armored knight's ranged attack range did Zhou Kai turn around and glance back expressionlessly.

Despite having fragments of a sturdy shield to supplement his defense, Zhou Kai still couldn't directly withstand the lances of heavily armored knights without expending resources.

The terrifying power contained in a lance will not disappear into thin air; there must be a corresponding force to counteract and neutralize it.

Even if Zhou Kai's shield blocked the lance, it didn't mean he could withstand the impact unscathed.

"But it will be soon..."

Zhou Kai snorted coldly, then his figure flashed back to the shelter, slamming the door shut.

……

Based on experience, the output of a nursery depends mainly on the variety of plants and has little to do with the type of fertilizer used.

Therefore, Zhou Kai abandoned the idea of ​​throwing the rare prey he was holding into Nursery No. 2. As for burning it in the fireplace... that wasn't worth it either.

If he doesn't possess the skill corresponding to that monster, throwing the corpse into the fireplace will only grant him a little longer fireplace burning time and a few points of general experience, which also fails to maximize its value.

Left with no other choice, Zhou Kai had to first throw the body into the pile of corpses in the basement, planning to make full use of it later when he found a better way.

The use of the curled claws is quite complex, somewhat similar to the mutated wolf hair brush we used before, but not entirely the same.

The boost from the mutated wolf hair is comprehensive and has a time limit.

Conversely, curled fingers act locally and have a permanent effect.

In other words... using the curled finger claws can permanently enhance the toughness and strength of Zhou Kai's fingers.

After carefully studying the prop's instructions and confirming this, Zhou Kai did not hesitate and decided to use it on the spot.

"Such a good thing, when else would we use it?"

Without further ado, Zhou Kai began loading his five claw-like appendages, each the size of a fruit pit, into his corresponding five fingers, just like loading bullets.

Ultimately, a claw was embedded in each of the five fingers of Zhou Kai's left hand, making it look bloody and eerie.

When all five claws were fully inserted, Zhou Kai's left hand suddenly began to twitch strangely and became completely uncontrollable.

Zhou Kai quickly stretched out his right hand and pressed his left hand down firmly, or rather, pressed it into the dense root system of the Moonlight Orchid in the nursery.

He was using the aura of the Moonlit Orchid to suppress the ominous power contained in his curled claws.

This method proved to be quite effective. As the claws merged into the left hand, the aura of Moonshine Orchid caused the black mist contained within the claws to continuously dissipate.

Surprisingly, it helped Zhou Kai eliminate the negative consequences of absorbing the claws to some extent.

[You absorbed 'Curled Claws x5', your 'Strong Hand' ability has received a targeted boost and undergone some changes...]

[Your Strong Hand trait has been augmented with the sub-affix: 'Black Hand (Left)']

Pulling his left hand out of the Moonshine Orchid's roots, Zhou Kai noticed that the skin on his left hand had darkened considerably, and wondered to himself, "Is this change similar to modern martial arts?"

"It shouldn't be, my erosion progress hasn't increased because of this."

As soon as Zhou Kai had a thought, the skin on his left hand immediately darkened several shades, and his skin became visibly tougher and rougher.

He tentatively pressed his left hand against the blade of the Dragon Slayer Sword. Even with less than half his strength applied, the sword didn't even scratch his skin.

It seems that Zhou Kai can now not only withstand firearms with the Shield of Battle and the Fragment of the Shield, but also actually catch bullets with his left hand.

With the current strength of this hand, even if a bullet from a regular small-caliber handgun is fired while held against the palm of the hand, it's like scraping a thorn.

After testing the enhancement effect of the "black hand" on his left hand, Zhou Kai pulled his right hand out of the gauntlet.

Once the Strong Hand trait is activated, a faint, shimmering white light will emanate from the right hand, like white clouds.

Zhou Kai looked at his hands, one black and one white, and couldn't help but laugh.

"White hand deals high damage, black hand deals high damage..."

"From now on, no one should accuse me of using underhanded tactics, because my hands are inherently black."

Ninety minutes until the next blood surge.

Having improved his skills, Zhou Kai didn't linger and quickly left the shelter again.

This time, he took a longer route, hunting down the remaining monsters in the inner zone while searching for the theoretically existing body of water leading to the manor's water dungeon.

……

Because he was constantly under attack from heavily armored knights with their lances, Zhou Kai's exploration efficiency in the inner area, which involved trying to cover both ends, was not high.

He had only killed two monsters in total and had advanced less than 300 meters along the lake shore. More than half of those ten minutes had already passed.

Moreover, if he continues to dawdle like this until the blood tide arrives, he probably won't be able to find the waterway leading to the water dungeon.

Being distracted by finding water also significantly reduced the hunting results. Trying to do both could ultimately lead to failing at both.

Instead of wasting the remaining forty minutes, it's better to make a decision in advance and focus on one direction.

Ultimately, Zhou Kai chose to focus all his efforts on finding the underwater passage into the manor.

Based on my memory, the underground area of ​​the manor was not small; the prison area alone was the size of at least two mansions.

Rather than risking being shot dead at any moment while hunting in the inner zone.

It would be better to just charge into the dungeon. Regardless of whether there are enough monsters there for Zhou Kai to kill to his heart's content, at least once he's underground, he won't have to worry about being targeted and bombarded by lances.

Zhou Kai immediately stopped searching for prey among the buildings and focused on looking along the lake shore for possible underwater entrances based on his memory of the dungeon's location.

About six minutes later, Zhou Kai bent over and squatted down in a spot near the lake shore.

"If nothing unexpected happens, we can reach the water prison in less than 30 meters by diving down from here."

"but……"

Looking at the dark, deep lake, Zhou Kai hesitated for a moment.

Although we haven't seen it yet, what if there really is some monster lurking in the lake? If he encounters danger on land, at least he can escape, but what if he gets entangled by some powerful sea monster while diving?

That would truly be a situation where one is utterly helpless, with no recourse but to wait for death.

So, should we go down or not?
"We've already come this far..."

As the saying goes, those with many lives have a lot of courage.

"Add some features to the Nightmare Goggles; I need them to be waterproof."

[You have spent two general experience points, and the Nightmare Goggles have gained a degree of water resistance.]

Zhou Kai took a deep breath and first stirred the lake water with his greatsword for a few moments. After a dozen or so breaths passed without any abnormality, his expression darkened, and he resolutely leaped into the lake, carrying the greatsword on his back.

Carrying a giant sword weighing over 100 kilograms, Zhou Kai sank down cleanly and quickly, his feet soon touching the muddy bottom of the lake.

He raised his hand and pressed the button on the eyepiece. After a few adjustments, Zhou Kai could barely see blurry objects in the dark lake water... Although there was only a rough outline, it was enough.

He quickly looked around, then breathed a sigh of relief.

Apart from some debris submerged in the water and undulating silt on the lakebed, there was nothing else around.

It seems that this place is not like some games, where they maliciously release terrifying monsters into the water to ambush people.

After identifying the direction, Zhou Kai slowly moved towards the location of the water prison he remembered.

They encountered no problems along the way.

Zhou Kai secretly rejoiced at this.

Zhou Kai walked forward step by step, and the footprints he left on the mud were quietly covered by something wriggling within two or three seconds.

As the time spent underwater increased, Zhou Kai's ability to hold his breath was being pushed to the limit.

Soon, ten minutes passed.

His exceptional physical abilities meant he needed to consume a significant amount of oxygen. Having not undergone any specific breath-holding training, Zhou Kai was nearing his limit.

Enduring the pain in his lungs, Zhou Kai decided to persevere for one last minute. If he still couldn't find it, he would go up to get some air.

But hard work pays off.

Just as he was about to swing his legs to float up, he vaguely glimpsed a slightly dim band of light about five or six meters away.

Zhou Kai's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but laugh, blowing a series of bubbles into the water.

He quickly disappeared into the shimmering, ribbon-like body of water.

(End of this chapter)