On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Sudden.

A flame of hope rekindled in Irene's despairing eyes.

Because she almost forgot.

"heritage"

What's right beside you might just be the legendary "legacy" of that great emperor!

pat.

Irene chose to discard the dagger.

Then he looked at Liao Ji with an almost pleading gaze.

Liao Ji

Liao Ji, who hadn't spoken until now, finally opened his mouth at this moment.

"Do you think I would help someone who just held a dagger to my throat?"

Upon hearing this, Irene's eyes glazed over, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground.

But at this time...

"Unless you're willing to sign a contract with me."

The young man's voice rang in my ears again.

At this moment, Irene didn't even hear what Liao Ji was saying. She stared at the kobold waving a shovel and grinning, and all she knew was to nod frantically. No matter what conditions the other party proposed, Irene was willing to accept them.

"very good."

"However, there is one more step before that."

As Liao Ji spoke, he bent down and took out a crystal from the stone coffin, which in Irene's eyes exuded an ominous and eerie aura.

Then, before the female scavenger could react...

He simply grabbed the [Turbid Crystal (Small)] and...

It was thrust inside the other person's body!

Chapter 5 Doom

Turbid crystals.

In the game, it is usually referred to as "experience fodder" by Liao Ji.

It is the most commonly used tool by players to catalyze and cultivate their Evil Ones.

Based on the concentration of "turbidity" within the crystal, it is divided into four levels: small, medium, large, and super large, with the experience points provided to the afflicted increasing in stages.

One [Small Turbid Calamity Crystal] can raise the lowest-level "Normal" Calamity-Changer to level 10.

In the game, Liao Ji could simply click a few times with the mouse, but now that it's a live-action online version, Liao Ji isn't sure how to use the items, so he has to resort to the most direct method.

However it looks

It really worked.

The small turbid crystal that he had stabbed into her did not actually enter through physical means. Instead, the moment it came into contact with the female scavenger's body, it seemed to sink into her like water and began to merge with her.

pain

it hurts

Irene felt as if her blood was on fire, as if countless ants were crawling inside her, gnawing at her flesh.

In an instant, her vision was filled with blood red. Everything she saw began to be distorted, stretched, and became chaotic and bizarre, making her feel dizzy.

The murmured, delirious words that Irene had already experienced before, the pollution from the abyss, were now echoing in her mind again, and this time they were even more intense.

The frantic sounds grew increasingly sharp and piercing, filling her mind like waves, one after another, as if trying to devour and submerge her spirit.

"Ughhhhh!"

Irene's head was throbbing with pain, and she was drenched in sweat. The brownish-red lines that symbolized "turbidity and calamity" were faintly visible on her skin, shimmering with an eerie and dangerous light.

The sudden change on the female scavenger's side startled the kobolds in the secret room. In particular, when they sensed the ominous aura emanating from her, several kobolds who were close by immediately took several steps back in fear.

Of course, Irene herself was unaware of these things.

At this moment, she was using all her energy to fight against the "turbid calamity".

In Irene's mental world, blood-red chains, like those extending from hell, wrapped around her limbs, tightened around her neck, and dragged her forcefully toward the abyss.

Irene struggled desperately against the blood-red chains, because her instincts told her that once she was pulled over to "the other side," she would never be able to come back.

She still has her seriously ill mother in the settlement, and she absolutely cannot die here.

But willpower alone is clearly not enough.

Irene's resistance grew weaker and weaker, and the blood-red chain wrapped around her neck tightened continuously. The intense feeling of suffocation robbed her of her remaining strength, and Irene's vision continued to blur.

Is it over?

not at all.

Because in Irene's blurry vision, or perhaps it was a hallucination due to her unclear consciousness, she suddenly saw the figure of a black-haired youth appear in front of her.

In this spiritual world that was already filled with blood red and was on the verge of collapse, the young man seemed unaffected. On the contrary, the turbid evil that was rampaging here began to scatter and flee with the appearance of the black-haired youth.

And when the young man finally approached her, until finally touching her hand, which was bound by blood-red shackles.

that moment.

Click

Click!

First, there were small cracks, then at an extremely fast speed, they turned into fissures, spreading like a spider web across the entire chain wrapped around her neck.

finally

Bang!

The shackles that she couldn't break free of around her neck suddenly shattered on their own.

In an instant, the frenzied ravings quieted down, the crimson color faded from her mental world, and the force that had been dragging her into the abyss also disappeared.

However, the chains and shackles that were wrapped around her limbs were still there.

Apart from

The section that was broken at the neck.

Instead.

Unbeknownst to Irene herself, a complex and profound "contract" mark, like a tattoo, had quietly appeared on the lower back of the female scavenger's neck.

"Ha ho ho ha."

Once her consciousness returned to the real world, Irene, feeling as if she had just escaped death, greedily gasped for air.

Irene had no idea what that had just been.

But she knew who was responsible for all of this.

When the female scavenger looked at him, Liao Ji didn't offer much explanation, but instead pointed behind her.

Wait until Irene turns her head away again.

What came into view was a dog-headed face with a savage, rough look in its narrow eyes.

Hot white mist billowed from its wide nostrils, and the bloodstains from the battle still clung to the messy beard covering half its face, making it look even more ferocious.

The shovel, still covered in minced meat, was swung through the air by its thick arm, rapidly magnifying in Irene's field of vision.

As the "turbid and ominous" aura on the female scavenger disappeared, the retreating kobolds immediately surged forward again.

While Irene was catching her breath, these monsters weren't going to just stand by and watch; they took long strides and arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye.

The kobold at the very front raised its shovel high, just like it had when it smashed the scarred man's gang, preparing to do the same to Irene.

but

After a brief moment of panic, Irene quickly realized something was wrong.

Monster's movements

Why is it so slow?

At this moment, in Irene's eyes, the kobold's attack was as if it had been slowed down; she could easily capture the opponent's movement trajectory and dodge it.

With a slight turn of her body, Irene easily caused the kobold's shovel to miss its target.

The whistling sound of the shovel told Irene that it wasn't that the other person's movements had slowed down, but rather that her own senses had become unusually strong.

No, that's not right.

It wasn't just her sensory abilities; her entire body felt incredibly powerful.

"Roar!"

After failing to strike once, the kobold on the other side quickly raised its shovel again, ready to try again. Although these low-level mutated monsters had their physical attributes greatly enhanced, their intelligence remained extremely low.

This time, having realized that her body was "different," Irene no longer chose to hide.

She took a deep breath, seized the opportunity, and on the neck where Irene couldn't see, the brand symbolizing the "contract" gleamed with an eerie light, and the brownish-red lines flashed past her eyes.

Before the kobold's shovel could strike, Irene tensed her body, concentrated all her strength in her right leg, and lashed out with a powerful leg whip across the monster's broad chest.

brush!

A whooshing sound rang out, followed by a muffled "thump!"

The dog-headed man, weighing several hundred pounds, was kicked into the air by Irene like a ball, arcing through the air before unfortunately crashing into a sharp, protruding rock.

The kobold's body, which resembled a puddle of mud, twitched a few times before going completely still.

at the same time.

A corresponding notification sound also rang in Liao Ji's mind behind him.