Chapter 35: A-level Nightmare Beast (The timid baby made a mistake...
Zhu Yu stood in the dim supervisor's office. Outside the window was a gloomy sky, as if the whole world was shrouded in a depressing atmosphere.
She could faintly hear the sound of rapid breathing, as if her heartbeat was resonating with the oppressive environment.
She took a deep breath and walked to her supervisor's desk, the leave request in her hand trembling slightly.
"Boss, I want to take a few days off... My mom... She's very sick, and the doctor said she might..."
Zhu Yu's voice became smaller and smaller, and she choked with sobs when she spoke. However, before she could finish her words, she was interrupted impatiently by the person on the other end.
"Why do you want to take three days off? Don't you know that the company is very busy recently?"
The supervisor raised his head and looked at her coldly.
"But the round trip from here takes about a day..."
"Are you in such a hurry to go back? Do you think your mother's illness can be cured by going back?"
The supervisor continued to stare at her, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, forming a chilling smile.
"Boss, what are you talking about... I will complete all the work on the high-speed rail and will not delay the company's progress. I just want to go back and see my mother for the last time..."
Zhu Yu opened her mouth and wanted to refute something, but the supervisor seemed not to hear what she said and continued:
"If you leave now, who will be in charge of your work this quarter? The materials you have are not completed yet, right? If you leave, what will happen to the progress of other colleagues? You are not the only one in the world with parents!"
His voice grew louder and louder, and every word he spoke was like a cold hammer, hitting Zhu Yu's heart.
The colleagues outside looked up one by one, and Zhu Yu could feel their inquiring gazes through the glass window of the office.
The air seemed to become sticky and heavy, and Zhu Yu felt suffocated.
The supervisor's smile became more and more sarcastic, and the corners of his mouth stretched out exaggeratedly, as if twisted into a devil's mask.
"Your mother is dying anyway. It's going to be the same sooner or later. What's the harm in going back after the job is done?"
"That's enough, I said shut up! I just want to take a day off!!"
Zhu Yu could no longer suppress the anger and despair in his heart. He suddenly picked up the documents in his hand and threw them at him.
The documents passed through the supervisor's body as if passing through air and scattered on the ground.
She was stunned and looked up, and was horrified to find that the supervisor's head was gradually deforming. The original facial features disappeared, and were replaced by a huge clock. The numbers on the clock were dyed bright red, and the minute and second hands were spinning frantically, making a harsh "ticking" sound.
“Tick-tick, tick-tick…”
The sound of the clock became louder and louder in her ears, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
Zhu Yu retreated in panic, trying to escape from this strange scene.
When she rushed out of the office door, her colleagues standing outside turned their heads at the same time, their eyes empty and with strange smiles on their faces - the arc of everyone's smile was exactly the same, like a copy of a mask, cold and hypocritical.
"What's wrong, Zhu Yu? Where are you going? Have you completed your KPI this month?"
They asked in unison, their voices so uniform that it was creepy as if they came from the same person.
Zhu Yu looked around in horror, feeling like he was trapped in a cage with no way to escape.
Her fingers were trembling, and she suddenly caught sight of the fruit knife on the table. In desperation, she picked up the knife and stabbed a colleague who was blocking her way, trying to open a way to escape.
The next second, the colleague in front of her turned into her seriously ill mother, lying weakly on the hospital bed, with her eyes slightly closed, pale lips and weak breathing.
"mom……"
Zhu Yu froze, bright red blood dripping from the knife in her hand, staining her palm, hot and sticky.
She looked down at the shocking red, and her heart felt as if it was being torn apart.
"Zhu Yu, wake up! Zhu Yu!"
At this moment, a rapid mechanical voice suddenly sounded in her ears.
Zhu Yu suddenly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the bed with sweat soaking his forehead.
The illusory scene before her eyes disappeared, replaced by a sphere of System 996 emitting warm light, floating beside her bed.
"Host, I just detected that your mood swings are abnormal. Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?"
Zhu Yu was breathing heavily, his hands tightly clutching the quilt, cold sweat slowly dripping down his forehead, and the fear in his heart had not completely dissipated.
She took a deep breath, slowed down, nodded slightly, and said in a trembling voice: "Thank you, 996... It's just a nightmare."
After saying this, she came back to her senses, and pinched the light ball of System 996 in surprise and said:
"996, you finally woke up!"
Today is the 25th day, and five or six days have passed since the last time I fell into 996 hibernation.
"Host, has your sleep quality been affected recently? I feel like you're not in a very good condition."
"Really? Maybe it's because I've been having nightmares lately."
Zhu Yu took out a small mirror from the bedside table and held it in front of his eyes.
The face reflected in the mirror made her frown slightly.
His eyes, which used to be clear, now looked dull and lifeless, with a light blue shadow under his eyes, showing a hint of fatigue. His skin was also paler than usual, lacking some of the healthy luster, and there was even a faint haze of fatigue between his eyebrows.
She stared at herself in the mirror and her heart tightened - wait, why does this look so familiar?
Recently in the fortress, she seems to have encountered many players in poor mental state.
She thought that the copy was nearing its end and it was inevitable that everyone would relax.
But if you think about it carefully, the condition of those players is not just tired or relaxed.
Zhu Yu recalled their dull expressions and the dark shadows that appeared under their eyes. It was as if the whole person was dragged by an invisible force. They were in a trance and looked haggard, and they did not look relaxed at all.
What is going on?
Just as Zhu Yu was lost in thought, a new message suddenly popped up on her personal dashboard:
[Triggered: Side Quest - "Kill the A-Rank Nightmare Beast"]
[Task Description: This nightmare beast originated from a summoner player. This summoner player originally had a C-level summoned beast, but the summoned beast died unexpectedly not long ago. The player was grief-stricken and blamed himself for this. Unexpectedly, the contracted nightmare beast took advantage of the opportunity and absorbed his negative emotions, and its level quickly increased.]
[Task Reward: Danger Warning Card*3]
Zhu Yu stared at the words "A-level nightmare beast" and frowned even more tightly.
Nightmare beast?
Her mind couldn't help but think of the recent frequent nightmares and the abnormal players in the fortress.
Maybe all the strange phenomena recently were caused by that nightmare beast!
But the information he had was too little. Before deciding whether to take on the side quest, Zhu Yu asked, "996, how much do you know about creatures like nightmare beasts?"
System 996: "The Nightmare Beast's characteristic is to grow by creating nightmares and consuming negative emotions such as fear. When the negative emotions consumed by the Nightmare Beast reach a certain level, it can even directly crush the player's spirit and eventually cause brain death.
"Generally speaking, summoners usually don't choose to contract nightmare beasts unless they have no other choice. Because once the nightmare beast's level is higher than the summoner, it may backfire on the summoner and even completely control his will."
Zhu Yu's heart trembled. She had been with Jing Miao, a special summoner, for a long time and had some understanding of the summoner profession. The level of the summoner was closely related to the strength of the summoned beast.
The summoner mentioned in the side quest will inevitably drop in level after the death of the C-level summoned beast.
On the contrary, the Nightmare Beast increases its level by absorbing the negative emotions of the players. This level gap can easily cause the summoner to be backfired and controlled by the Nightmare Beast.
Combined with the increasingly abnormal mental state of the players in the fortress in recent times, Zhu Yu has completely confirmed that this is the result of the nightmare beast absorbing the players' fear emotions.
This A-level nightmare beast has apparently turned the entire fortress into a breeding ground for its growth.
"It seems that I have to take this side quest..." Zhu Yu whispered to himself.
She was not very interested in the reward for this mission, but the current situation seemed quite dangerous.
She thought about how Ouqi's condition had been wrong since she came back from the mission to learn spiders in the polar region, which meant that the nightmare beast's disorder had been going on for some time.
If she doesn't stop it in time, it is likely that a certain number of players will die inexplicably before the end of the copy.
But then again, these players are really good at exploiting loopholes in the rules.
Previously, Liang Maocai and Yin Hua used others to kill others, and now the Nightmare Beast is controlling the summoner to harm others.
If we look closely at the wording of the rules, these actions do not directly violate the rule that "players cannot maliciously attack each other."
Thinking of this, Zhu Yu, who was already depressed due to lack of sleep, became even more irritable.
No, she couldn't let herself get stuck in this state, she had to adjust her mindset and calm down before she could come up with a way to deal with the side quests.
After careful consideration, Zhu Yu decided to go to a hot pot restaurant first.
As soon as he arrived at the hot pot restaurant, Zhu Yu saw Xiaoju lying on the ground.
Xiaoju's fur is softer and shinier than before. His orange and white fur seems to be covered with a soft halo under the light, and is as fluffy as marshmallows.
A pair of round eyes are clear, bright and full of vitality.
Seeing Zhu Yu come in, Xiaoju immediately shook his body, stretched out his soft front paws and waved at her, revealing his pink pads, as if inviting her to come over and touch them.
This scene warmed Zhu Yu's heart, and his originally depressed mood seemed to dissipate a little.
She walked over, squatted down and gently scratched Xiaoju's chin.
Xiaoju narrowed his eyes and purred with satisfaction, and his tail gently brushed the back of Zhu Yu's hand, bringing a hint of warmth.
"Xiaoju, Xiaoju, when I first found you you were only the size of a palm, and now you've almost become the size of a semi-trailer truck."
Zhu Yu pinched Xiaoju's plump flesh and sighed, with a hint of helplessness and doting in his tone.
"Hahaha, the higher the level of Little Orange, the bigger its body will be. It was just promoted to B-level not long ago, and its size has grown a lot. Its ability to sense the favorability of surrounding creatures has also become stronger."
Jing Miao's voice came from the side. She also squatted down and poked Xiaoju's butt, with pride in her tone.
When Zhu Yu heard the words "favorability perception", his heart moved and he seemed to be thinking about something, and his hands slowly stopped moving.
"After the promotion, is Xiaoju's detection range and sensitivity to favorability more accurate than before?" Zhu Yu asked tentatively.
Jing Miao nodded seriously and said, "Yes, that's true. Its perception ability has improved a lot, especially its sensitivity to detecting hostility or malice. As long as it is within a certain range, Xiaoju can directly sense the other party's emotional fluctuations and will hardly make mistakes. And now its ability to attract players is much stronger. Many people can't help but come over to pet it when they see it."
Zhu Yu thought for a moment, then whispered, "By the way, there is something that may require your and Xiaoju's help."
She raised her eyes to look at Jing Miao and continued with a serious expression:
"Recently, an A-rank nightmare beast appeared in the fortress. This nightmare beast turned against the summoner, devouring the emotions of the players by creating nightmares, causing many people to become abnormal. And once the nightmare beast's ability gets out of control, it may cause irreversible damage to the surrounding players."
Hearing Zhu Yu's words, Jing Miao's face changed slightly, and his tone became serious:
"This matter really needs to be dealt with as soon as possible, so what plans do you have now, boss?"
Zhu Yu: "There are so many players in the fortress, we can't check them one by one in a short time, and it's not easy to find the summoner quickly. But I guess that even if the summoner is controlled by the nightmare beast, his living habits and behaviors should not change much. In order to hide himself, he will try to act normal to avoid being exposed. You also know that it takes a lot of resources to raise a high-level summoned beast. The original player only used a C-level summoned beast, so his savings must not be much. He must be very short of money recently."
What she lacks the least is money.
Zhu Yu paused, then continued, "So I plan to use my identity as 996 to post a high-paying monster-killing task in the task bar. The task requires that the players in the team must include summoners, priests, mages and other professions, and the reward is set at 20,000 gold coins."
"When the time comes, I need you to bring Xiaoju with me and use Xiaoju's ability to detect suspicious people."
"Okay, boss!" Jing Miao winked at Zhu Yu, his tone showing trust: "The high reward of 20,000 gold coins will definitely attract a lot of players. As long as they come, Xiaoju and I will do our best to help you investigate every suspicious player."
After that, she rubbed Xiaoju's head and whispered, "Xiaoju, it's up to you from now on, so don't be careless."
Xiaoju seemed to understand Jing Miao's words and meowed softly.
*
On the appointed day, Zhu Yu drank the disguise potion and took Jing Miao to the central hall.
As soon as she entered the hall, she immediately noticed that there were a lot of players today, almost catching up with the number of players they had last time they formed a team to challenge the Arctic Earth Spider.
Sure enough, the reputation of 996 and the high task rewards attracted a large number of players to flock to it.
She looked around and soon found several old acquaintances there.
When they saw her, they greeted her warmly.
Zhu Yu calmly dealt with his acquaintances while using his NPC authority to secretly check the personal panels of the players present.
After a thorough carpet search, she actually discovered several players whose whereabouts seemed suspicious.
After repeated comparisons and screenings, Zhu Yu finally set his sights on a thin summoner player.
The player was wrapped in a black windbreaker, his face was abnormally pale, and his sickly aura was particularly glaring.
And his personal panel was even more abnormal - in the "Physical Strength" column, it actually showed "Chaos".
Physical strength often reflects the player's mental state, and such an abnormality made Zhu Yu feel nervous.
She quickly signaled to Jing Miao to step back a few steps, and at the same time whispered to Xiao Ju to start detecting whether the player was hostile.
"Xiaoju!"
“Come back soon!!”
Unexpectedly, the next moment, Xiaoju suddenly broke free from Jing Miao's arms, as if he had been strongly stimulated by something. He growled and rushed towards the summoner desperately.
Jing Miao was so shocked by Xiaoju's sudden change that she was stunned for a few seconds. Before she could come to her senses, she saw the summoner slowly raise his head, a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.
Just as Xiaoju was about to pounce on the summoner with his cat claws, a huge snake beast suddenly appeared in front of him.
The snake beast is dark gray all over and covered with decay-like markings, giving people a feeling of decay and death.
Its pupil-less eyes were cold and blank, like an empty mirror, staring straight at the players around it, as if spying on the fear deep in their hearts.
The surrounding players were frightened by this sudden vision and retreated one after another, their faces filled with horror. The scene instantly fell into chaos.
Zhu Yu glanced at the summoned beast and quickly checked its information through his authority. The panel showed the mission objective - a nightmare beast that feeds on fear and grows into an A-level one.
After seeing Xiaoju's abnormal behavior, Zhu Yu's heart sank. It must be that Xiaoju was affected by some skill of the Nightmare Beast.
She didn't expect that with only one level difference, there could be such a strong level suppression between the summoned beasts.
However, before she could think about it, she saw Xiaoju being tightly wrapped by the Nightmare Beast's snake-scaled tail. He made a faint cry and struggled but was unable to break free.
Seeing Xiaoju falling into danger, Zhu Yu's eyes turned cold.
Without any hesitation, she went straight back through the panicked crowd and rushed towards the nightmare beast.
Seeing Zhu Yu's disregard for danger, Jing Miao was extremely anxious and blurted out:
"Boss, be careful!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
