Seeing that all the team members had evacuated the room, Liu Ying also began to retreat.
"Captain, I'm going to direct operations in the hallway."
As a mid-level combatant, she couldn't intervene in the fighting. She wouldn't presume to direct Pang Shuo in combat matters, trusting him one hundred percent.
Pang Shuo nodded, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the lizardman on the ceiling.
"I'll lead the charge. The rest of you watch for an opening."
With injuries and as the prime target of attacks, it would be too difficult for Lin Cang to provide support as a main force.
Qi Yuan also seemed to specialize in ranged attacks.
Although only Class C, Pang Shuo had volunteered to take on the more dangerous role.
Having spoken, he leapt upwards with a swing of his blade.
The lizardman could see everything clearly from the ceiling. It nimbly crawled across the surface.
The blade struck the ceiling, carving a slash and leaving a black, burnt mark where the flames had scorched.
Dust and debris fluttered down from the ceiling.
Having missed with his first strike, Pang Shuo drew back his blade and jumped back to the floor.
The lizardman's long tongue shot out, aimed straight for Pang Shuo. Pang Shuo had just steadied himself when he hurriedly dodged the attack.
The tongue struck the floor, leaving a fist-sized shallow crater, then withdrew at lightning speed.
Reacting quickly, Lin Cang summoned vines to wrap around the tongue.
He pulled with all his might, trying to yank the lizardman down.
Clinging fast with its suction pads, the lizardman held firm to the ceiling as both sides reached a stalemate.
Pang Shuo steadied himself again, enveloping his blade in flames. He swung his weapon, focusing his full strength into the hilt, aiming directly for the tongue.
The lizardman let out a long screech, forcing Pang Shuo to retreat.
At the same time, it freed a hand to shoot out spatial blades, severing the vines and retrieving its tongue.
Its attack wasn't over. It activated its abilities, vanishing from the ceiling in an instant.
Clang!
The blade vibrated with a humming noise as Pang Shuo's combat instincts from years of experience allowed him to raise his sword just in time to block the lizardman's vicious claws.
The claws glittered with a dangerous black-purple sheen.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The lizardman unleashed continuous attacks, all parried by Pang Shuo.
Pang Shuo let out an enraged roar. The flames along his blade extended as he swung the longsword to bisect the lizardman at the waist.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, just as the flames were about to strike the lizardman, it abruptly vanished.
Rustling sounds came again from the ceiling.
In the brief exchange between the two men and one monster over several rounds, Qi Yuan, who had shrunk back to the junction between the hallway and room, was left dizzy from watching.
The lizardman's bulging pupils shifted, looking over the two still in the room.
"The opportunity has already been missed. Should I attack? What if that wood controller has a mutual destruction technique..."
"Let's try again. As long as he can't act, we can pick off the gold-eyed one, breaking through them one by one."
The thoughts were fleeting, almost too quick for Qi Yuan to capture.
A long screech broke the stalemate between the two sides as the lizardman struck first.
Its superior monster physique endowed it with the ability to react swiftly to any attack, but the confined space limited its actions.
Having successfully captured its thoughts, Qi Yuan dodged while warning the enforcement team, "Get away from the walls!"
No sooner had he spoken than the slender tail smashed against the already damaged wall opened up by the enforcement team.
The already unstable wall collapsed, sending fragments of stone and bricks flying outward.
Reacting quickly to the warning, the enforcement team members had limited space to evade in the narrow hallway.
They each displayed their abilities, using their powers to watch out for each other and dodge this wide-range attack.
Having moved faster than the others, Qi Yuan had nearly been caught in the AOE. He really wanted to say,
"I shouldn't be here..."
Espers and monsters didn't waste time talking, immediately getting down to business. He had no opportunity whatsoever to participate.
Stuck in the middle, he was neither able to leave nor join the fight.
Finding a crack in the floor to squeeze into would better protect his pathetic life.
At Lin Cang's feet, little sprouts burst from the ground, instantly growing into trees two men thick that wrapped Lin Cang in their branches, shielding him from the flying rubble and the lizardman's sneak attack during the chaos.
"You're not getting away!"
The branches quickly extended under Lin Cang's control, intent on impaling the lizardman and nailing it to the floor.
The lizardman once again activated its spatial leap, vanishing into the void.
Having fought it twice already, Lin Cang was all too familiar with its spatial leap. Countless branches shot forth, covering the area several meters around where the lizardman had disappeared.
With the lizardman's level, its spatial leap could only jump a limited distance without gathering power. A short-distance leap it triggered instantly could only traverse a few meters.
Sure enough, the lizardman reappeared within range of Lin Cang's branch attacks.
The corners of Lin Cang's lips quirked up as he controlled his abilities to sharpen the branches to an incredible degree.
Looking down on his abilities just because he had fallen and lost, it would suffer a huge loss.
He had pulled the rug out from under it; this time, with him not having moved, there was no way he would fall again.
Suddenly, the unexpected happened.
A grating scraping sound rang out. Space rippled around the lizardman, concentric circles emerging in the void with it at the center...
The tree branches within the ripples twisted along with the distortion.
After a brief one second spatial distortion, the warped space reverted to normal. The distorted tree branches broke into segments, falling to the ground.
Pang Shuo touched the long blade in his hand with a look of shock, feeling chilled all over.
If he had charged at the lizardman just now, one hit from it would have finished him off already.
Qi Yuan's eyes were also wide with astonishment, but his shock differed from Pang Shuo's. He had read its thoughts.
"That was close... too close... If I hadn't kept a few tricks up my sleeve, I would've died."
"I was saving this move for the human gold-eyes, but it looks like I'll have to expend another card here..."
"I'm taking a loss here..."
Qi Yuan, a human gold-eye: It's trying to kill me...
Lin Cang's expression was also solemn as he loudly strategized with Pang Shuo, "Don't go near it. Keep your distance and attack with your abilities. Use your power to shield yourself."
Abilities could mutually restrain each other. Using one's power as a shield could reduce the damage dealt by other abilities.
This was also why telepaths were useless against espers.
Ordinary telepath espers didn't have the chance to level up enough to break through other espers' ability shields.
"Got it."
Pang Shuo surrounded himself in flames, enveloping himself in the fire.
Now that its cards had been seen, the lizardman no longer hid anything either. It imbued its spatial ripples into its claws.
With one swipe, it pierced through the wooden defenses around Lin Cang.
If Lin Cang hadn't reacted quickly to shield himself with his abilities, his body would have been gouged through as well.
The two abilities collided with a tremendous force that blasted Lin Cang backwards.
He slammed heavily into the wall, the shock and impact damaging his internal organs. As he opened his mouth, fresh blood gushed from this throat.
"Old Lin, you okay?"
"Cough cough... Spatial abilities...really hard to deal with..."
Lin Cang wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Damn it, we're fighting for our lives here while they're still dragging their feet over there."
Pang Shuo spat in disdain, cursing the delayed support.
Taking cover behind the rubble, Qi Yuan shrank back, feeling implicated even though he truly couldn't provide any backup.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
