Dark Red Tentacles

What is the Despair Swamp?

How did this thing suddenly appear on the street?

Xiao Xiao was a little confused. No matter how strong his mind-explosion ability was, he couldn't conjure up an answer out of thin air. However, he quickly realized that he needed to go and take a look.

Although he was meeting this person named Little Four for the first time, Xiao Xiao had seen his ID card and could confirm his identity.

Moreover, the price of his three vicious dogs, after being strengthened by that tearing and biting in the alley, had actually dropped from one hundred points to thirty points. This made him eager to try...

Although he didn't yet understand the underlying logic of strengthening or what they would look like afterward, it wouldn't hurt to get one free strengthening, right?

And finally, Little Four seemed to have said, "We're rich"?

He definitely couldn't miss that!

He immediately nodded and said, "I'll go get some help."

In Little Four's eyes, Xiao Xiao was a different person altogether: "No wonder Sister Hard and Old Yang both said this newbie has good potential. This composure and calmness alone are rare."

"Back when Sister Hard was still a newbie, she wasn't so tough. She probably pissed her pants the first time she saw an Aberrant Creature, right?"

"..."

"..."

In the alley, Nuo Nuo didn't sense what was happening in the coffee shop across the street. However, a sudden palpitation made her suddenly react.

She hugged Haha's soft, warm neck, feeling a sense of redemption in her heart.

It wasn't until this wave of palpitations hit her that she suddenly woke up, staring blankly at Haha in her arms.

Indeed, she had longed countless times to be able to bring out these three dogs when she was being bullied, to scare those people shitless.

But she wasn't a child anymore, and she actually understood that she couldn't just take them out to scare people.

But if that was the case, how did they appear just now?

Thinking about this question, she suddenly noticed that none of the three dogs, including the one she was holding, were looking at her.

Their mouths were even stained with blood, making them look fierce and terrifying, but their personalities seemed unusually docile. They even wagged their tails and looked expectantly in the same direction in the air.

Just as she was feeling puzzled, she saw a figure gently jump down from a platform on the second floor next door.

It was at least three or four meters, but the man landed steadily, seemingly unaffected. He was wearing rough, heavy blue work clothes, but he had a handsome and pale face.

He smiled at her and then whistled.

"Woof..."

The big black dog and the big yellow dog immediately wagged their tails wildly and ran to his side with a whoosh, shaking their heads and tails excitedly.

Except for the husky she was holding, who was a bit goofy but a warm man, seemed to have noticed that she was still a little scared and was too embarrassed to break free.

"Xiao..."

Nuo Nuo looked at Xiao Xiao, who had landed in front of her, in disbelief: "Brother Xiao?"

She wasn't surprised to see Xiao Xiao here, because she had indeed seen him on the street just now, but she didn't want him to see her in such an embarrassing state, so she didn't dare to say hello.

But now, seeing Xiao Xiao appear in front of her, and seeing how affectionate the three dogs were towards him.

A question suddenly opened up in her mind.

It was him!

He helped her?

There were still many questions, such as how he could bring her family's three dogs to this alley to save her.

For example, when she met him just now, he clearly didn't have any dogs with him.

But naturally, she had a feeling that made her very sure that it was this neighbor's brother who had helped her.

"It's dangerous here. Go home quickly. Go in that direction."

While she was full of surprise and couldn't help but shed tears, Xiao Xiao had already spoken in a low voice, pointing her in the opposite direction from where the sense of crisis was coming from.

"I..."

Nuo Nuo had a lot to say, but before she could say it, Xiao Xiao remembered something again, opened his wallet, and took out a twenty-yuan bill.

"Take a taxi, and take another taxi after running two blocks."

"..."

Looking at Xiao Xiao's face, which seemed a little blurry in her tearful eyes, Nuo Nuo's words were suddenly blocked, and she just nodded subconsciously.

"Okay, go!"

Xiao Xiao nodded to her, then turned and walked out of the alley, the two hounds following him happily.

The black and white husky was also a little anxious, looking like it had been abandoned.

But Xiao Xiao also saw that the girl was still full of fear, so he didn't plan to take the husky she was holding away, leaving her with a little sense of security.

However, Nuo Nuo reacted quickly.

She stood up, subconsciously patted the dirt off her body, and before running towards the alley entrance, she suddenly thought of something and said to the husky:

"Go with him!"

"……"

Little Four seemed pleasantly surprised, and Xiao Xiao was also a bit taken aback.

This dog owner in the real world probably doesn't know that he bought her dogs. Why would she think of letting this husky follow him?

Could it be the city's will influencing things again?

Or is it the little girl's intuition?

He didn't have time to say much. He watched the little girl in the white dress wipe the dust off her face as she ran out of the alley. The three fierce dogs beside her had already entered battle mode, crouching at her feet, eyes gleaming menacingly.

"Sister Hard initially said you bought three dogs, and I found it a bit hard to understand, but seeing this, I get it now..."

Little Four's voice rang out from not far behind him.

He watched Xiao Xiao walk out of the alley, tall and upright, with a pale face, followed by three ferocious and imposing hunting dogs.

The shadows cast on their faces gave off a strange aura.

He just felt, "Cool..."

Little Four had always thought that those well-known figures in the circle who bought the goddesses they had pursued for seven or eight years before awakening but never got, or those who bought the people who had hated them for a long time and then tortured them relentlessly, or those who bought a small rich man and immediately recognized him as their own son, were more normal. But now, he suddenly realized that buying a few fierce dogs as helpers during the newbie stage, like Xiao Xiao, was the most calm and rational choice...

Is this the difference?

When I first awakened, I was just thinking about buying the cafeteria aunt in the courtyard so I could get a few extra pieces of meat every time I ate...

The two men and three dogs walked out of the alley and saw that the surrounding area was already in chaos.

People were screaming and running out of the coffee shop from time to time, and cars were crashing into each other haphazardly.

Faintly, they could see several figures roaring in the direction of the coffee shop, their limbs and bodies twisted in strange directions, uncontrollably grabbing at people passing by.

And inside the coffee shop, it was clear that a kind of dark red flesh-like tendrils were extending out like vines.

"Buzz..."

Xiao Xiao's head seemed to have a faint auditory hallucination, as if his ears were filled with water, distorting the sounds.

Those dark red tendrils, just by looking at them, seemed to be able to affect his brainwaves, causing his memories to flicker like a scrambled television signal.

"What exactly is this thing?"

He subconsciously raised his voice a little, asking Little Four.

"A Sequence Twenty-Nine Aberrant Creature: Despair Vine."

Little Four looked at the dark red substance, his eyes faintly glowing, and said, "It is an Aberrant Creature produced by the mental breakdown caused by repeated torment of overly painful memories."

"This vine can affect the mental world of the people around it, awaken their bad memories, and lead to mental breakdown."

"People who have a mental breakdown will continue to produce Despair Vine, affecting more people. Intertwined together, it can form a C-level disaster: Despair Swamp."

"What we're encountering now should just be Despair Vine. After all, it's only been a short time, and it hasn't had time to spread. However, the Pain Substance accumulated in the core Aberrant Creature's body is too intense. I can hardly imagine how long her previous pain has been brewing, and why it suddenly erupted. In short, it instantly possessed the characteristic of spreading outwards. Even if you call it Despair Swamp, it's actually about the same..."

"..."

Xiao Xiao pondered, "So, it's just a D-level event?"

"It's essentially D-level, but there are other factors influencing it."

Little Four glanced at the calm Xiao Xiao beside him, thinking, "So cool, it's only been a few days, and he doesn't even care about D-level events anymore?"

"That's right, he doesn't even care about C-level events..."

"..."

Shaking his head, he quickly explained, "For example, this Aberrant Creature's Pain Substance is too intense, clearly exceeding the standard."

"Also, this is in a busy downtown area. How many people are being threatened?"

"Solving this matter is a certain amount of points. Saving those who are being threatened is another amount of points. Eliminating the potential threat will also give us some points."

"All in all, it might be more than a small-scale C-level threat..."

"..."

"In other words, it's already at the same level as the Choking Nest?"

Xiao Xiao was both surprised and a little excited. He forced himself to calm down and asked, "What should we do?"

"First, seal off this block. Only allow people to leave, not to enter."

Little Four said, "This thing is expanding rapidly. Although the more it expands, the more Pain Substance we can harvest, we're already on the scene after all."

"If we let it spread, the city's will will lower its evaluation of us. We won't earn many points, but our malice will increase significantly."

"..."

"Seal off the block?"

Xiao Xiao looked at the chaotic street, "How do we do that?"

"Of course, we should let the Guard Hall handle it..."

"We can actually mobilize the power of the Guard Hall?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao was genuinely surprised. Were the Outsiders really this powerful in this world?

As he was thinking, he saw Little Four suddenly reach out and snatch a phone from someone who was hurrying away. He glared at the person, who didn't even dare to ask for it back and ran away quickly. Little Four then used the phone to call the Guard Hall. "Hello? Police officers? This is the Happiness Cafe on Time Street in the lower district. Please send people to block off the area immediately. There's a bomb here..."

"What? You're asking how I know there's a bomb?"

"I installed it myself, how could I not know?"

"I planted over a dozen of them. They'll detonate in ten minutes. Do what you need to do..."

"..."

Under Xiao Xiao's astonished gaze, Little Four hung up the phone and said, "Let's go. Now we have ten minutes to solve this problem."

PS: "I Invent at Hogwarts" author, Vera, codes every day.

When Voldemort broke free, Harry Potter took him down with a railgun.

"Rigg, this is much more useful than a wand!"