Night Parade of a Hundred Demons

One-Ear had supported his unlucky roommate all the way to the cemetery exit.

People could change quickly, but often not that quickly. At least, One-Ear still did not want to give up on this roommate of his.

He had made the wrong choice at the wrong time, but when One-Ear had been shot, he had also been the first friend to come help bandage him up.

And whenever they ate at the cafeteria, he always got extra meat dishes, then claimed he could not finish them himself and let One-Ear take care of them.

The unspoken understanding between men had made One-Ear accept his help with gratitude. And now, as long as the guy did not get water in his brain and try anything stupid again, One-Ear would not abandon him easily.

Since Cheng Tian had cleared the way ahead of them, and zombies did not spawn in empty graveyards, the two of them only had to deal with the Red-Eyed Crows. Phone Bro was unarmed and covered in Blood Scab, but One-Ear had a weapon. As long as they were careful enough, a Hand Axe was more than sufficient to drive off fewer than ten crows.

Phone Bro had naturally Awakened a talent of his own as well, but it had nothing to do with combat and was not useful in any other situation either. That was also the main reason Green Skin had not supported him.

In truth, this was the norm for ordinary Chosen Players. The greatest significance of Chosen Space was to give those with mediocre talents a chance to defy fate.

Of course, the wishes of the selected players themselves were not all that important.

As for Cheng Tian... One-Ear and the others had watched his battle with the Red Demon from afar the entire time, and very wisely chose not to interfere.

It was not a decision made after weighing the pros and cons. They simply had a feeling that if they screwed around and caused trouble, Cheng Tian might very well take them out too.

If Green Skin had been there, his jaw probably would have dropped. Cheng Tian's flawless battle against the Elite Red Demon had already displayed qualities that many veteran players lacked—

He had absolutely no fear of fighting dungeon monsters to the death. In fact, he even seemed to enjoy it a little.

Yeah, he had truly enjoyed that fight with the Red Demon.

The flawless victory was real, though it had been due to many factors—some on his side, some on the Red Demon's, and luck had also played a major role. But none of that stopped him from enjoying the process.

Now that he had enjoyed the process, it was time to reap the rewards.

Once the Red Demon's pointy head had become a flattened one, Cheng Tian simultaneously completed this dungeon's Side Quest, Kill the Red Demon, and received the full Side Quest reward on the spot.

Four Free Attribute Points, along with a random Skill Stone that, in theory, could be dropped by a "Red Demon."

The Skill Stone's form was rather interesting. It was actually the Red Demon's heart. After its death, its body had completely and permanently petrified, and the chest area peeled away like flaking wall paint. Then, the ruby-like heart popped directly out of the remains and landed in Cheng Tian's hand.

[Red Demon Heart: Blue Excellent, Skill Stone, consumable. Method of use: crush it. Formed from the heart of an Elite Red Demon, it contains everything the Red Demon possessed in life.

After use, you will randomly obtain one skill originating from a "Red Demon." Skill rarity is unspecified, and the skill level will be Lv1.]

[Additional Note: Before use, you must ensure that you have a Blank Skill Slot.]

Cheng Tian, who had been ready to crush the stone, paused slightly when he saw the additional note. Then his five fingers loosened.

As an old Daoslin player, he had played plenty of random skill draft modes, so he valued skill selection even more. A completely random skill set would simply ruin both his own and his teammates' gaming experience.

With the mindset of might as well since he was here, and because he currently had no proper innate skills apart from his talent and the recognition of Pink Strawberry Stud, random skills were not really a problem. If it was truly trash, he could just choose not to use it.

But this additional note had clearly revealed a crucial piece of information.

The player's skill slots probably had a quantity limit, just like the inventory.

And that immediately raised more questions. How many skill slots did players have? Would learning a new skill overwrite an old one? Was there a cost to forgetting skills? Could the number of skill slots be increased? And so on.

...Why the fuck am I worrying about all this?!

After a brief period of thought and silence, Cheng Tian suddenly crushed the crystal-like Red Demon heart into pieces!

Saving skill-related Attribute Points for later allocation? Waiting until he found a good skill before learning one? That was all meaningless to him right now!

I want to get out of Demon World Village alive, damn it!

The heart felt like wet sand in his hand. The shattered fragments of the Red Demon Heart began swirling around Cheng Tian before all flooding into his body. In his skill slots, a pointy-headed icon that looked almost exactly like the Red Demon itself appeared.

But when Cheng Tian opened his panel and finished reading the description of his new skill, his expression gradually turned strange.

This skill from the Red Demon had indeed exceeded his expectations.

[Night Parade of a Hundred Demons: B-rank skill/Lv1, Active Skill. An exclusive skill unique to the "Red Demon King," who stands at the pinnacle of the entire Red Demon Clan. It possesses the strange ability to reveal a target's true form.

You may actively cast this on a monster unit with a "Normal," "Leader," or "Elite" template whose HP is in the single digits or below 10% of its maximum. A dual check of Spirit Attribute and Charm Attribute will then be performed, with a base chance of 50%. For every 1 point your Spirit or Charm exceeds the target's, the chance increases by 1%. For every 1 point your Spirit or Charm is below the target's, the chance decreases by 1%.

If the check succeeds, the target's race will be forcibly changed into a "demon" or "yokai" unit possessing traits from its original form, and it will become your temporary summon within the current dungeon, temporarily obeying your commands.

If the check fails, you will suffer a certain degree of backlash. You will randomly transform into a "demon" or "yokai," while generating a large amount of Aggro toward the target. This backlash form will last until you kill the target that failed the check, or for 60 minutes.

If you can still kill the target after the check fails, the target's corpse will also become the corresponding "demon" or "yokai," and its item drop pool will expand to include those of its death form.

You may command only 1 "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" unit at a time.

Activating this skill requires 50 MP. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the skill will enter a 1-hour cooldown.]

[Additional Evaluation: The Red Demon's "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons," Athena's "Primal Beast Form," and Demitri Maximov's "Dark Joy" are all famous meme Easter egg generators in the 2D fighting game world.]