The Witch's Taste

But there was a cold feeling between his brows, but it was Nicole who held a badge and stuck it to the center of his forehead.

"O ignorant child, in the cradle suddenly caught a glimpse of a corner of the real world, and drowned in fear, terror and restlessness." She said as if singing, "Please accept this cloak, and the shadow will protect you. You no longer lose yourself."

Chen Ziang's headache has receded like a tide, he tremblingly took the badge handed over by Nicole, and said hoarsely:

"Thank you. This is..."

"Shadow cloak." Nicole replied, "It can help you isolate the influence of the mist, so that you will not be tortured by knowledge to mutations, and it can also lock your spiritual vision, so that you will not fall into endless weirdness." under attack."

cloak?Chen Ziang looked at the badge carefully.

The insignia is a round, angular shape with... eh?

He was rather horrified to find that he seemed unable to recognize the shape of the badge and the pattern engraved on it.

It looks round at first glance, but it has countless sharp edges and corners when you look closely.The dharma seal on it is also in an unstable state between "clear" and "fuzzy". He can clearly see the thickness and direction of each line, but if he turns his attention to the whole, he can only get a blurry state. unknown pattern.

Chapter 10 Chaos Approved Warrior

If there were any words to describe the dream world, the best word Chen Ziang could come up with was "grotesque".

Yes, grotesque.

It's not the kind of grotesque that is artificially designed, but a kind of unspeakable weird style that has been distorted from the root.

For example, the horror movies, comics, and novels that Chen Ziang has read in the past are like make-up artists deliberately pretending to be ugly.And after following Nicole to the ancient city of Enrank, everything she saw and heard was like a born deformed animal—there was almost a world of difference.

The ancient city of Enrank is a medieval style city.

There are hardly any technological creations here. The ground is paved with cobblestones. The surrounding houses are mostly made of wood and stone. The base of the wall is covered with creeping moss.

Walking the streets are human inhabitants dressed in linen.Most of the women are wearing headscarves, looking haggard; most of the men have beards and messy hair, wandering or sitting on the doorstep in a daze.

Seeing Chen Ziang and Nicole coming side by side, they quickly walked into the house with gloomy faces, closed the door heavily and locked it, and then cast a secret peeping gaze from the window.

A huge shadow flew by in the air, but it was a nightmare of the same family as Neeko.They flew to high places in the house, and then crawled in through the attic windows.

"Peaceful coexistence, isn't it?" Nicole giggled, "These human beings all strayed into this world for various reasons, and were taken in by our hospitable clansman - everyone gave them room." Get out of your room to live in!"

"So, what's the price?" Chen Ziang asked calmly.

Of course he wouldn't believe any nonsense about "hospitality", not to mention judging from the gloomy expressions of those humans, life in Enrank has absolutely nothing to do with "happiness".

"The price is just a small rent." Nicole said lightly, "After all, we have nightmares, and we feed on the fear in dreams."

A simple sentence, but the hidden meaning behind it is chilling:

In other words, the human residents living here will inevitably have nightmares every time they sleep, for the owner to feast on the nightmares... No wonder everyone has a bad look, it's not bad if they stay here for a long time without being driven crazy.

Chen Ziang's expression was cloudy and uncertain, only to hear Nicole say again:

"If these human beings return to your world, they will decay and die immediately. They have stayed in the dream world for too long, and they have already been assimilated here."

"Even if you just leave Enrank, you will be preyed upon by other weirdnesses in the outside world. Being able to stay here and have nightmares is already the greatest blessing."

Chen Ziang didn't answer.

The two walked across the street and finally reached the town square.

The huge and towering temple is located in the center of the entire ancient city.The main entrance is like two tall screens, opening silently inwards, revealing the dark and mysterious palace inside.

In the center of the hall, there is a square pillar-shaped altar with a faint blue flame burning on it.

"Altar of Chaos." Nicole raised the staff in her hand and pointed at the blazing blue flames. "Pray in front of the altar and ask the God of Chaos for what you want - this is also the gift of the Lord of the Deep Sea. mean."

Chen Ziang showed a look of hesitation, and Nicole didn't rush him, but said lightly:

"I guess, you didn't just come to this world by accident just for sightseeing."

These words reminded him.Chen Ziang was silent for a moment, then came to the front of the flame altar.

The faint blue flame swayed and danced, but it didn't emit any heat, instead it brought a chilling chill.

Chen Ziang closed his eyes and thought to himself:

"I want to find a way to cure my sister's disease."

After a while, he opened his eyes in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Nicole asked from the side.

"He said..." Chen Ziang hesitated to speak, and reorganized the language, "He said that I can exchange powers with him."

"That's it." Nicole showed a satisfied look, "You have obtained His approval."

"From now on, Enrank recognizes your qualification to fight for the shadows, and all our war missions will be open to you."

Chen Ziang was silent for a long time, and asked:

"The powers He gave..."

"It's your current rank, all the abilities you can exchange for." Nicole's tone became more kind, and she explained patiently, "Do you still remember the shadow cloak I gave you just now?"

"No matter what plane or world you are in, as long as you wear it and kill any individual belonging to the fog camp or the flesh and blood camp, it will calculate the corresponding merit for you."

"After getting the meritorious service, you can exchange the meritorious service for the power you want at any chaotic altar within the shadow forces."

"Of course, you can also accumulate them to exchange for higher military ranks to unlock more power lists."

After hearing Nicole's explanation, Chen Ziang also secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

The feat that Nicole said was actually the kindling he obtained from hunting monsters before.

He turned his gaze to the altar again, and then a list appeared in front of him:

There are three powers on the list, namely [Touch of the Abyss], [Desecration of Witchcraft], and [Avatar with Thousand Faces].

"Touch of the Abyss" is to summon tentacles that can obey commands;

"Profane witchcraft" is a large number of unclean rituals related to curses;

"Thousand-faced incarnation" refers to the ability to change the appearance of the body.

The exchange price of the three powers is 50 points of fire, but none of them is related to "treatment".

Fortunately, Nicole said that as long as the military rank is raised, more powers can be unlocked, and Chen Ziang finally feels a little relieved.

The meritorious requirement for advancing to the next level of military rank is 100 points of fire, which may be tricky for ordinary people to convert into the number of hunting monsters, but he is not worried at all - after all, this is what he does in his job.

"If I leave, can I come back here?" He continued to confirm and asked.

"Of course." Nicole replied, "The shadow cloak I gave you already has Enrank's coordinates set inside."

"The next time you come to the dream world, you only need to meditate in your heart while wearing it, and you can be directly transported to the city."

The nightmare priest seemed to have guessed that Chen Ziang did not have any achievements to exchange for power at this time, so he just made a "please" gesture and said generously:

"Enrank welcomes your visit anytime."

Chen Ziang nodded, then turned and left the temple.

He stood still in the center of the town square, took a last look at the gorgeous lavender sky, and then activated the "dream walk" power.

Consciousness seemed to be falling rapidly, and Chen Ziang felt that he had traveled through many galaxies, passed through the subconscious layer and then the preconscious layer, and finally fell back into the body.

He opened his eyes suddenly on the bed, quickly raised his arms, and looked at the spiritual pressure meter on his wrist.

The number on the dashboard shows 0, indicating that he has returned to the real world far away from the mystery.

The sanity lozenge under his tongue had dissolved, and the Mandala sword was still held in his arms. Chen Ziang half sat up from the bed, and subconsciously looked at his chest again.

The medal called "Shadow Cloak" is still pinned to the front of the chest.

According to Nicole, even if her real vision has risen to 50 or even 100, as long as she wears it on her body, she can always lock her vision at the original 13 and avoid being attacked by deeper and dangerous monsters.

Of course, if it was removed, the spiritual vision would return to reality, and the security would no longer exist.

The reason why such a function is designed is undoubtedly to encourage him to dive into the dream world more often and fight bravely for the shadow forces without worrying about the danger brought by the rising of the spirit vision.

But as long as he frequently enters the abyss, the true vision will continue to rise after all, which means that his dependence on this shadow cloak will also increase.

Chen Ziang rubbed his eyebrows in distress, and suddenly the cell phone beside his pillow rang.

"Hey?"

"Senior!" Tsukimiya Suzuna's cheerful voice came from the opposite side of the phone, "I'm here to study with you! I'll be at your door soon!"

"Okay, I'll open the door for you." Chen Ziang hung up the phone, and subconsciously pulled the shadow cloak off his collar.

He wanted to hide it under the pillow, but he quickly reacted and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

...or take it with you.

Chapter 11 It's time to become stronger

Kill the monsters of the opposing faction to get merit points.

Use merit points to increase your military rank and unlock more powers.

In exchange for more powerful powers, more monsters can be killed.

This set of mechanisms looks a lot like a game, and in fact it is true—after all, only the game industry will think hard and design a series of exquisite and interlocking positive feedback mechanisms to keep players online for a long time, lingering and wanting to stop.

And the abyss race is much more evil than the game company.There may be a lot of delicate thoughts behind this meritorious mechanism, but it will definitely not contain any kindness.

In normal times, even if these powers are powerful and attractive, Chen Ziang will regard them as a sinister trap with sweet bait, and strictly implement the principle of turning a blind eye, avoiding mentioning it, and keeping a respectful distance.

But now, in order to save his sister, he has no other way out, and he has no choice but to go to the tiger mountain knowing that there are tigers in the mountain.

"Senior, what are you thinking?" Tsukimiya Suzuna suddenly asked.

"Nothing." Chen Ziang recovered from his thoughts and asked, "Where did we talk just now?"

"You must be careful about anything related to the abyss." Tsukimiya Suzuna said fluently.

"Uh, that's right, that's it." Chen Ziang was a little guilty, and introduced to Yuegong Suzuna:

"For example, in history, there was a case in the Salt Lake star area: an illegal sect sold a certain kind of fat to the society, claiming that it was a gift from the mermaid goddess. Applying it on the body can keep youth forever. As a result, more than 7000 customers were transformed. Became a deep-diving mermaid."

"Another example is another case in the deep Jupiter star area. An interstellar freight merchant spent a lot of money to ask for a statue of a certain alien god to enshrine at home, thinking that it would bring wealth to the family. Seven days later, security officers came to the door and found The whole family of seven turned into bloated yolk beetles."

"All in all, rash direct or indirect contact with anything related to the abyss may lead to the rise of spiritual vision, and the sharp rise of spiritual vision will cause the alienation of the body. If there are innocent and unaware Witnessing crowds, then this kind of mental pollution can become a chain reaction... very tricky, difficult to control, and must be dealt with immediately."

"I understand." Tsukimiya Suzuna lowered her head, taking notes seriously.

A small lock of hair playfully hung down from the forehead, and the curls at the end bounced a few times. Tsukimiya Suzuna used the top of the automatic pen to push it back behind the pinna, revealing the white and reddish, delicate hair. neck skin.

Chen Ziang looked away, feeling that his gaze was a bit impolite.

"It's like a biochemical virus." Suzuna Tsukimiya said thoughtfully, "Then how did we discover these mysterious hidden dangers and eliminate them in the bud?"

"Two methods." Chen Ziang replied, "One is the city's smart closed-circuit surveillance system, that is, security cameras distributed in every corner of Jibei City."

"If a picture that may be related to the mysterious side is captured, through AI intelligent identification and judgment, an alarm message will eventually be generated, and the class will be notified as soon as possible."

"The second one is the inspiration divination circle, which is currently maintained by the intelligence team in the class."

"They maintain round-the-clock divination and monitoring of the entire Gaotianyuan planet. If there is a change somewhere, but the city's closed-circuit surveillance does not capture it, it will be divined by the intelligence team."

"However, compared to closed-circuit monitoring, divination methods have a certain probability of error, and the monitoring timeliness rate is also very low, so every time a case is reported, it will almost become a serious case... Sorry, I will answer the phone first."

Chen Ziang picked up the phone that was ringing non-stop on the table, and glanced at the screen. It was an old classmate Lu Yunfeng calling.

"Hey."

"Old Chen, have you watched the work group?"

"no, what happened?"

"The source of the god's relic has been confirmed for the last Ginza change in the sky. It is related to a woman named 'Xichuan Meihui'...Old Chen, the intelligence team said that this woman is very likely to be a witch!"

"Oh." Chen Ziang replied calmly.

"You don't know what a witch is, do you?"

"Of course I know, Li Xu told me this morning." Chen Ziang said with a sigh, "The more painful, the more powerful a witch is, a ticking time bomb for modern civilization and human society, right?"

"That's right!" Lu Yunfeng complained, "Furthermore, it is said that witches who can connect with gods are basically suffering from the kind of pain that can destroy the mind and cause people to suffer from serious mental illness... In other words, witches are basically Crazies all over the world, or lunatics with nuke buttons."

"That statement is kind of scary...so what does it mean?"

"Pay attention to the highest level. All the focus of the next work, including the divination of the intelligence team, will all be carried out around this witch. We have been meeting all day today, saying that the leader attaches great importance to this witch. In the future, we will have six lessons. This must be added to the daily newspaper.”

"...What daily newspaper?"