Nightmare Despair

Chapter 99 Monster
Bristling claws tore through the walls, ripping reinforced concrete apart like cardboard.

A huge hole, large enough for him to pass through, suddenly appeared.

"It is indeed here."

Zhou Kai's nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of that familiar scent.

His cold, beastly eyes followed the scent to the spot illuminated by the oil lamp.

At a glance, Zhou Qing was found.

His gaze lingered on her briefly before Zhou Kai moved the beast's paw and stepped into the darkness.

He looked at the twisted monsters surrounding his sister and the familiar-looking policeman, and slowly grinned a bloodthirsty smile.

Those mutated monsters, which resembled walking corpses, seemed to sense the arrival of their natural enemy and instinctively began to retreat.

Tread...tread...

Under the horrified gaze of the survivors, Zhou Kai stepped completely into the realm of a real-life nightmare.

With each step he took forward, the terrifying nightmare aura emanating from him intensified, and the air seemed to solidify under his oppressive presence.

Just like an emperor inspecting the fiefdoms of his ministers.

The power emanating from a higher-level nightmare completely intimidated the scum in the area.

In order to conceal his identity and to utilize his greater power, Zhou Kai used his newly acquired "mutated wolf hair brush" before arriving.

This controllable nightmare power shaped his current form and strength.

His body was covered in black mane, and his face was a ferocious wolf head.

Standing over three meters tall, with arms as thick as his waist and reaching past his knees, his legs were lined with pleasing, muscular muscles, exuding immense tension. The two-handed sword, which would be shaped like a door panel to an ordinary person, was now hanging on his back, exquisitely crafted like a one-handed sword.

Although it hasn't been tested in actual combat yet, Zhou Kai has a feeling that at this moment, even among second-realm martial artists, he is definitely one of the few who can walk sideways.

As Zhou Kai approached, the survivors retreated step by step, their eyes filled with terror.

Ahead lay jackals, behind lay hungry tigers; as far as the eye could see, only a dead end lay ahead…

The exit from the nightmare was right in front of them, but a vicious wolf, ready to devour anyone, stood between them and the exit.

Li Xiangqian's trembling hand reached behind his back and pulled out a spare pistol, but as he raised it, he realized that he had already run out of bullets.

His face instantly turned ashen, devoid of any color.

If they can't even deal with those mindless zombies, how could they possibly deal with this armored, legendary "werewolf" in front of them?
But to their surprise, the werewolf monster didn't seem to see them as prey.

It ignored them completely and walked right past them.

"Let's go! Now's the time to get out of here!"

Li Xiangqian was jolted awake. Without even thinking about what had happened, he immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.

The remaining survivors snapped out of their daze, glancing fearfully at Zhou Kai again and again, before scrambling towards the torn hole... Through the opening, they were horrified to find themselves on the first floor without even realizing it.

A wall separates reality from nightmares.

Several survivors rushed out like madmen, and Li Xiangqian, carrying the unconscious Niu Ancheng, followed closely behind.

Zhou Qing was a beat slow; just before leaving, she subconsciously turned back to look at the darkness that swallowed the light.

She had a strange feeling... that this monster meant no harm. In fact, there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity about it.

Looking at the werewolf with an oil lamp hanging from its waist, blocking the path of all the monsters like a mountain, Zhou Qing took a deep breath.

It might be an illusion... but the fact remains that they were saved.

She silently thanked them in her heart, then quickly turned around and fled from this hellish place.

……

"Finally gone."

After the group left through the exit he had created, Zhou Kai turned around, extended his sharp claws, and took the Moonlit Orchid Amulet off the wall.

The moment the amulet was removed, the gap in the wall began to wriggle and close at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhou Kai ignored this.

For the traveler, Nightmare is both the hunting ground for monsters and his home turf.

He can return directly to the town of Soraka at any time via the shelter's anchor point.

As for his physical body in reality... Zhou Kai had a feeling that if he were to jump directly from the real world, his physical body would probably be completely inside the dream.

But once the physical body enters the dream, how to return is another problem.

His only connection to reality is his physical body; if even this anchor point is brought into the nightmare... the result is predictable.

Zhou Kai shook his head, hoping that day would never come.

Return your mind to the present moment.

"What a tiny nightmare, just one building? About the size of two Western-style mansions?"

Zhou Kai cracked his neck, producing a chilling snapping sound. From the outside, the scale of this nightmare was insignificant.

If you move it to the town of Soraka, it will just be an inconspicuous standalone building.

"If this nightmare is only this bad, then it's just a sheep pen."

With a slight exertion of force, Zhou Kai pressed the hard cement ground, creating spiderweb-like cracks.

scold!
Amidst the sharp scraping sound of claws against the ground, Zhou Kai's figure suddenly darted into the darkness, like a hungry wolf pouncing on a flock of sheep.

Using a sword was too troublesome, so he simply used his claws.

The enhanced hand strength brought by the level four Falcon Strike technique was greatly amplified after he became werewolf, making his arms as tough as steel.

To pounce, to scratch, to tear.

In no time, several bloated and decaying monsters were torn to pieces, causing damage that was not much less than that inflicted by swords and blades.

You have defeated 4 'Aberrant Pharmacists' and gained 12 Universal Experience Points.

With a flick of his claws, Zhou Kai understood what was happening.

Sure enough, these scraps didn't look very appetizing, and there was hardly any oil in them.

On average, each one contributes only three experience points, and two together are barely enough to make up for one parasitic corpse.

Nightmares come in different grades, and this time he experienced it firsthand.

However, even a mosquito's leg is still meat.

Without pausing, Zhou Kai resumed his hunt.

Lin Sheng's intelligence indicated that he had at most five or six minutes left. Once that time was up, the regular troops from the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs would enter the scene.

Perfect timing, let's have a good slaughter before those guys arrive.

After clearing away the two types of monsters wearing tattered protective suits, Zhou Kai found the slime-like monster that had already devoured eleven people.

Within that gelatinous body, several painfully distorted human faces vaguely emerged, seemingly originating from the creatures it had devoured.

Zhou Kai frowned, sensing a threat emanating from this disgusting thing.

He deduced that the core of this rudimentary nightmare, or rather, the strongest monster, was most likely this thing.

"It can still grow..."

This thing was most likely a mutation of some nightmare sufferer, but Zhou Kai felt no pity whatsoever.

No matter what they were before, once they completely become monsters, they will always be monsters.

Zhou Kai stepped forward, used his experience to repair the durability of the Moonlit Orchid Amulet, and then held it in his claws.

Raise your hand.

boom!
One punch after another, slamming down hard.

The strong acid, which could corrode flesh in just a few seconds, seemed to have met its nemesis under the amulet's faint glow, sizzling and dissipating into harmless blue smoke.

Zhou Kai could even hear a series of shrill screams coming from inside the gelatinous body.

Hearing the screech, Zhou Kai's smile grew even colder.

Feeling the presence of a bag of rice? Then...

Oh la oh la oh la oh la oh la!!
For a little over a minute, the slime monster was like a piece of rice cake that had been repeatedly pounded, eventually losing all its shape and turning into a pool of foul-smelling gravy mixed with bits of flesh.

A line of comments flashed before Zhou Kai's eyes.

[You have defeated the 'Slime Fungum' and gained 23 Universal Experience Points]

[Due to Mysticism level 3, you have additionally obtained: Slime mold species *1]

"So it was slime mold..."

After the slime mold was killed, the surrounding nightmare environment began to ripple like water.

With the death of the core, the speed at which the nightmares infiltrated reality slowed down significantly.

Zhou Kai recalled the materials at hand and observed the changes around him.

"The day the infected person of the Nightmare becomes a Walker is the beginning of the Nightmare's invasion of reality. When her cognition as a human completely dies, the Nightmare will descend in full force... This process is irreversible, and the event can only end when the entire area is dragged into the Nightmare World."

"But there is still something that can be done in the process."

"For example, finding the core of the nightmare and destroying it... can reduce the intensity of the nightmare while slowing down its process of devouring reality."

"Or, to be more straightforward, kill the patient before she becomes a Walker, stopping the nightmares at their source... That's what the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs does, isn't it?"

Zhou Kai slowly stood up, his wolf ears twitching slightly as he heard a commotion coming from afar.

The Special Operations Team of the Bureau of Extraordinary Events has arrived.

(End of this chapter)